Recent Posts

276

General Software Discussion / Re: What online services do you pay for?

« Last post by dr_andus on September 11, 2015, 03:57 AM »

Fortunately there are at least 2 services I know of that will actually just ship you a large hard drive (2TB+ - the one I got most recently was 5TB!).

-JavaJones (September 10, 2015, 10:50 PM)

Wow, things have moved on since I last looked into it! That would make it a lot easier (presuming this is also available in the UK). Thanks for the heads up!

277

General Software Discussion / Re: HELP! AMD Catalyst update broke my PC - How best to reinstall Windows 7?

« Last post by dr_andus on September 11, 2015, 03:55 AM »

be sure to create a Windows 'System Repair Disc' (if your system can create it - you can also use one created on another machine AFAIK)

-tomos (September 11, 2015, 03:25 AM)

Thanks for the tip, will do. Control Panel is inaccessible on this PC, but fortunately I have another Win7 PC in the household.

278

General Software Discussion / Re: What online services do you pay for?

« Last post by dr_andus on September 10, 2015, 06:51 PM »

For subscriptions, you pay less, and can cancel at any time if you decide not to use it.

-wraith808 (September 10, 2015, 06:36 PM)

Well, you say that, but there is a certain lock-in and inertia. I have all these gigabytes on Mozy, and I'm not even that crazy about their service, but just can't bear the thought of having to re-upload all that data to another service (I know some can seed it via DVDs, but even making those and mailing them etc. takes time). It's just I prefer to use my free time for something else. So they got me...

279

General Software Discussion / Re: What online services do you pay for?

« Last post by dr_andus on September 10, 2015, 06:42 PM »

How did you get a lifetime sub to ginkgo?

-wraith808 (September 10, 2015, 06:36 PM)

It was a one-off promotion for the first 500 users: http://www.outliners...messages/viewm/19196

280

General Software Discussion / Re: What online services do you pay for?

« Last post by dr_andus on September 10, 2015, 05:39 PM »

I only pay for:

• WorkFlowy Pro - hierarchical todo lists, note-taking, outlining
• Mozy - file backup

I would also pay for Gingko if I didn't already have a lifetime license. And I'm contemplating moving all my files to Dropbox Pro, to make working across multiple devices and locations easier.

I might have to pay for Google Drive one day, as I like to use it with my Chromebook, but I'm only using 4% of my 115GB allowance (I think I got 100GB for 2 years free when I bought the Cbk), and I'll be just all too happy to buy a nice and shiny new Chromebook and renew that deal when it expires.

But otherwise there is a limit as to how many subscriptions I'm willing to have. That's the problem with the subscription-based model. It's an ongoing expenditure, so that makes me not to want to shop. With the traditional one-off payment model, I was happy to try and buy new software.

281

General Software Discussion / Re: HELP! AMD Catalyst update broke my PC - How best to reinstall Windows 7?

« Last post by dr_andus on September 10, 2015, 05:23 PM »

did you try Aomei via their bootable disc?

-tomos (September 10, 2015, 02:55 PM)

Not quite sure what you're referring to. Do you mean "Create Bootable Media: Make a bootable rescue media such as a CD/DVD or USB drive", which is under Utilities in AOMEI Backupper Standard? I will try that next.

As for the backup, AOMEI is telling me that "the image is valid and integrated. The operation has been completed successfully." So tomorrow I can start with the Windows re-installation.

282

General Software Discussion / Re: HELP! AMD Catalyst update broke my PC - How best to reinstall Windows 7?

« Last post by dr_andus on September 10, 2015, 03:31 PM »

Miles, Tom - thanks for the suggestions. I don't know if it's because my PC is 5 yrs old, but all operations take many long hours. I spent the whole afternoon, evening and night yesterday just running chkdsk (it must have been about 6+ hrs), and right now I'm in the 3rd hour of my very first AOMEI backup. Although the VSS didn't work, AOMEI did finish the backup (took about 2hrs for 284GB), and now it's 47% through checking backup integrity.

283

General Software Discussion / Re: HELP! AMD Catalyst update broke my PC - How best to reinstall Windows 7?

« Last post by dr_andus on September 10, 2015, 12:07 PM »

I may still very well have to do that (in fact I won't have another option if my in-place upgrade doesn't work).

But I have so many various software installed for which I may not even have the original installers (yes, I've been sloppy with that, I've learnt my lesson now) that it could take me a couple of weeks to reinstall them all (if I can even get copies of them). This would mean putting all my other urgent work on hold for which I need my machine and software.

I'll just try the in-place upgrade solution to see if by any chance I might get away with not having to reinstall everything manually.

I did a disk check yesterday and it seems to have been fine, so fingers crossed it's not a hard drive problem.

Anyway, VSS still doesn't work, but upon restart AOMEI has been able to get started, so I'm moving ahead (for now).

284

General Software Discussion / Re: HELP! AMD Catalyst update broke my PC - How best to reinstall Windows 7?

« Last post by dr_andus on September 10, 2015, 11:03 AM »

Well, looks like my PC is well and truly messed up. I just tried to do my first AOMEI Backupper backup, and if I choose in the settings VSS (Microsoft's backup technique), I get this error message:

Failed to enable VSS. It may be caused because VSS service is disabled or there is no VSS service. Please check and try again.
Information Code:4140
The backup driver works improperly, you could restart the computer to solve the problem.

and if I choose AOMEI's built-in technique instead, I get:

Information Code:4140
The backup driver works improperly, you could restart the computer to solve the problem.

I guess I'll try to restart the system, and if that doesn't work, I'll uninstall the AMD driver and AVG manually (as suggested by some of you above) and try again. I thought I could unistall those two after the backup, but maybe it has to be other way round?

285

PBOL / Re: Latest Progress Bars of Life - Version 2.03 - May 16, 2014

« Last post by dr_andus on September 10, 2015, 07:02 AM »

Try putting 2 of em like &&.  I think that can fix it if I understand what you want.

-hamradio (September 09, 2015, 05:09 PM)

I can only assume it's a feature of PBOL, not a bug, as this is fully supported by the Borland C++ runtime (for the 'Classic' Win32 API) that PBOL is running on.

-Ath (September 10, 2015, 01:25 AM)

Thank you. Indeed, that did the trick. Sorry, know next to nothing (OK, nothing) about Borland C++.

286

PBOL / Re: Latest Progress Bars of Life - Version 2.03 - May 16, 2014

« Last post by dr_andus on September 09, 2015, 06:03 AM »

I spotted a minor bug (or feature?) in the latest version. Ampersand doesn't get rendered in an item name. Instead, the next character gets underlined, when displayed as a bar title.

287

Official Announcements / Re: Forum Upgraded August 30, 2015 - Report issues here

« Last post by dr_andus on September 08, 2015, 05:06 PM »

Yes, it does look better, I could zoom out now, thanks!

288

Official Announcements / Re: Forum Upgraded August 30, 2015 - Report issues here

« Last post by dr_andus on September 08, 2015, 04:29 PM »

Sorry, I should have specified that I'm talking about the link font such as the posts/threads displayed in the Info Center box when looking at the main page (and not referring to the font inside the posts).

289

Official Announcements / Re: Forum Upgraded August 30, 2015 - Report issues here

« Last post by dr_andus on September 08, 2015, 04:27 PM »

"Zoom in" is a bit of a strange thing. Because your browser "mostly" remembers those, and then you forget you ever even did it "whenever back then".

So I'm on the fence and don't know what to say.

-TaoPhoenix (September 08, 2015, 04:09 PM)

You might be right about this. I vaguely remember that I zoomed in some months ago and then stayed that way, so perhaps that's part of the effect of what I'm experiencing.

Having said that, now even after zooming in the fonts look skinny to me...

290

Official Announcements / Re: Forum Upgraded August 30, 2015 - Report issues here

« Last post by dr_andus on September 08, 2015, 02:59 PM »

I sort of got used to the bold after a while, though I found it a bit disruptive at first. But now I find the non-bold version too small and hard to read. Maybe the problem is not so much that it is not bold but that the font is of a too skiny variety. I had to zoom in on the page to make it more readable.

291

General Software Discussion / Re: HELP! AMD Catalyst update broke my PC - How best to reinstall Windows 7?

« Last post by dr_andus on September 08, 2015, 06:40 AM »

4wd, thank you very much for all your advice, it's really very helpful.

292

General Software Discussion / Re: HELP! AMD Catalyst update broke my PC - How best to reinstall Windows 7?

« Last post by dr_andus on September 08, 2015, 06:17 AM »

Thanks for the advice, 4wd. Though the irony of my situation is that I will be creating an image of a corrupted Windows installation--still, at least my machine is working currently, even if some features are unusable.

I do have recovery media I created when I bought the machine, but then I wouldn't want to restore it to that state, as that would mean losing all my settings and software I installed since then. I guess that is my last option, if everything else fails.

OK, I'm about to get started on this. According to some of the comments on the www.winhelp.us website this can take several days...

293

General Software Discussion / Re: HELP! AMD Catalyst update broke my PC - How best to reinstall Windows 7?

« Last post by dr_andus on September 07, 2015, 08:39 AM »

Miles, 4wd, many thanks for the suggestions, will give them a try.

Though at the moment I do have a fairly recent AMD driver installed (v. 15.200.1046.0), and my 3 monitors are working as they're supposed to, so that's not the issue. The problem is that the rest of Windows is acting up (probably due to the failed System Restore operation). E.g. I can't launch the Control Panel and Programs and Features, which suggests to me that I need to reinstall Windows, right?

I also just checked the Event Viewer and it's full of error reports, since the date of the AMD installation and System Restore failure. E.g. one of the error messages says:

The file system structure on the disk is corrupt and unusable. Please run the chkdsk utility on the volume Acer.

I tried to run the chkdsk utility, and it seems to have identified some errors, but then it itself just disappeared, so I couldn't record the results.

Also, just noticed that if I call up System Information, it says

Can't Collect Information
Cannot access the Windows Management Instrumentation software. Windows Management files may be moved or missing.

294

General Software Discussion / Re: HELP! AMD Catalyst update broke my PC - How best to reinstall Windows 7?

« Last post by dr_andus on September 07, 2015, 05:42 AM »

4wd, thank you very much for that, will give it a try.

BTW, I have another PC where I also have had trouble updating the AMD drivers, and the only way the installation was willing to go ahead was when I caved in eventually and selected "AMD Gaming Evolved App"--which I didn't want to do and for which I have no use whatsoever. I might be becoming paranoid but it felt like an underhanded way to force me to install the Evolved App, which did not endear AMD to me any further...

295

General Software Discussion / Re: HELP! AMD Catalyst update broke my PC - How best to reinstall Windows 7?

« Last post by dr_andus on September 07, 2015, 04:12 AM »

Thank you very much for all the suggestions!

• If you can boot into Safe Mode see if you can remove the AMD Catalyst drivers and your AV program, (to stop it interfering in any other operation - the AV will cease to function after an In Place Upgrade anyway.)  This might allow the system to boot normally and you'd only need to reinstall any necessary drivers and your AV.

-4wd (September 06, 2015, 11:26 PM)

and as a rule I just install the video drivers instead of the entire catalyst suite

-Target (September 06, 2015, 11:59 PM)

Please bear with me, as I know next to nothing concerning OS installations and drivers. A couple of things I don't understand...

1) If I uninstall the AMD driver (if I can even find it where it is, as most of the Windows utilities and system tools are not functioning), how will I be able to use my computer? The last time the driver failed during installation (though afterwards I somehow managed to install it, at the cost of wrecking my system), there was only a hugely pixelated display on a single monitor (normally I use 3 monitors), so it was barely useable that way.

2) I did try to look for the AMD driver without the Catalyst Center installation, but I couldn't find it anywhere. It was my impression that it was not possible to install the driver without Catalyst?

Thanks again.

296

General Software Discussion / Re: Mind mapping software

« Last post by dr_andus on September 06, 2015, 05:18 PM »

I am not officially underway on my thesis in my Master of Science in Information Assurance course, with the ultimate goal being a Doctorate of Science in Information Systems to follow. As such, I am looking for a way to keep all of these random ideas and thoughts that populate in the tangled mess I call my brain somewhat organized.

-Josh (September 03, 2015, 09:54 PM)

Especially if you want to do a PhD (which would involve taking a substantial amount of reading notes, recording your own thoughts, not only for the doctoral project, but possibly beyond, for the rest of your research or academic career), I would suggest that what you are describing is not so much a mind mapping problem but a problem of developing and maintaining an ever-growing notes database that needs to function as a "secondary brain".

This is what the so-called Zettelkasten method is meant to solve, which uses the metaphor of interrelated index cards in a slip box. Here are some suggested tools: Tools • Zettelkasten Method (I use ConnectedText for this). Manfred Kuehn's thoughts concering the philosophy behind it are well worth reading: Some Idiosyncratic Reflections on Note-Taking in General and ConnectedText in Particular

297

General Software Discussion / HELP! AMD Catalyst update broke my PC - How best to reinstall Windows 7?

« Last post by dr_andus on September 06, 2015, 05:05 PM »

I'd like to ask the community for advice on how best to fix my Win7 installation. I'd like to do a Non-destructive reinstall of Windows 7 (as detailed at this link--i.e. an in-place upgrade of Win7 from the original media), so I can keep my existing settings and data. I have never done this before. Is this my best option? Any risks?

Here is what happened. I have a roughly 5-yr old ACER Aspire M7811 PC, with Intel core i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80GHz, 8GB RAM, with AMD Radeon HD 5770 (1024MB) and Win7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1.

The other day I was stupid enough to fall for an AMD Catalyst Software Suite update (even though it failed on me a few months ago, but I was able to recover using system restore then. And even before that, ATI Catalyst Control Center was suspected of messing with my system). The installation this time failed halfway through, leaving me with a failed driver, so I just had one monitor working at some terrible, unusable resolution.

I tried to do system restore, but halfway through the restore failed, telling me that probably my antivirus software (AVG Free 2015) is stopping it, and it left me with a crippled installation of Windows 7.

One thing that was strange that in the process my system restore points seems to have disappeared, as the next available restore point was in 2012. I'm pretty sure I had some more recent ones even from the past couple of months.

There are too many things to list that went wrong after this incident, but basically a whole bunch of drivers stopped working (the sound card is not working, I can't run Dragon Naturallyspeaking, the printer is not working, I can't connect the scanner or cameras), I can't access system tools such as the Control Panel, Programs, Reliability Monitor, Windows Update etc. MS Office apps load very slowly. Some software would refuse to update (e.g. PDF Xchange Editor), saying the installer was damaged. Directly downloaded .docx files wouldn't open (though they do if I copy them over via a USB drive), and all kinds of other unpredictable, strange behaviour. I'm still only just discovering the various things that don't work.

Here is a pictorial version of the story, of what I managed to grab. (The first one is not of the actual version, but it looked like this one.)

















So, my assessment is that my Windows 7 installation must be damaged and many of my drivers got wiped out. Has anyone tried this in-place installation of Win 7 from the original media? This appeals to me because I would hate to have to reinstall all my software and other data.

Any advice or suggestion would be most welcome.

298

Living Room / Re: Online Bookmarks with Browser-Plugin/Bookmarklet - What's the best provider?

« Last post by dr_andus on September 05, 2015, 03:18 PM »

It looks like my bookmarklet has a slightly different code. I can't remember where I got it from, it's been a while. But it works across all my devices:

Code: Javascript [Select]

1. javascript:(function(){var a=window,b=document,c=encodeURIComponent,d=a.open("https://www.google.com/bookmarks/mark?op=edit&output=popup&bkmk="+c(b.location)+"&title="+c(b.title),"bkmk_popup","left="+((a.screenX||a.screenLeft)+10)+",top="+((a.screenY||a.screenTop)+10)+",height=510px,width=550px,resizable=1,alwaysRaised=1");a.setTimeout(function(){d.focus()},300)})();

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Living Room / Re: Online Bookmarks with Browser-Plugin/Bookmarklet - What's the best provider?

« Last post by dr_andus on September 05, 2015, 08:40 AM »

I wouldn't claim it's the best but it's free and there is a bookmarklet you can add to your browsers' toolbars: https://www.google.com/bookmarks/

300

General Software Discussion / Re: Readon HD 7310 Blurred text with overall faded look

« Last post by dr_andus on September 04, 2015, 07:51 AM »

I took the easy way out and restored the Macrium image.

-MilesAhead (September 04, 2015, 07:46 AM)

It sounds like I have to learn how to do that to avoid these kinds of disasters in the future...