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3976

General Software Discussion / Re: ReImage: online Windows repair!

« Last post by 4wd on February 09, 2012, 11:29 PM »

EDIT: SJ added the FixIt link while I was typing this, well DUH! on me, I completely forgot about that even though I have a flash drive with the portable version on

-4wd (February 09, 2012, 07:20 PM)

Actually that was PhilB66 ... I didn't think of it either.

-Stoic Joker (February 09, 2012, 10:19 PM)

Stupid me....apologies PhilB66 

3977

General Software Discussion / Re: ReImage: online Windows repair!

« Last post by 4wd on February 09, 2012, 07:20 PM »

Isn't this what System Restore is supposed to do?

-4wd (February 09, 2012, 04:27 AM)

Quite a lot of "you" guys have said that System Restore cannot be trusted.
And as the thumbnail picture shows, my second most often crashed program is: System Restore!

-Curt (February 09, 2012, 08:07 AM)

Sorry, skipped over the bit where you were specifically wanting something to repair your PC  

FWIW, I agree with Innuendo and SJ above - a reinstall is the only real way to fix your problems.  Your system is already unstable, installing anything could possibly make it more unstable especially something that actively plays with the registry.

I know you don't have installation or recovery media but you do have a valid license for the OS.  In that situation I'd have no problems with obtaining just the media from anywhere, (something I have had to do with XP).

I postulate that you may find all the information you require to reconstruct a suitable installation media from the following links (all at MyDigitalLife):
Checksum values (Alternate link AnandTech)
OEM Certificates
Vista ISO  (Originally from MSDN)
How to combine the two  NOTE: You need a valid OS license key.
Save Vista Activation data (eHow link)

And of course, a complete OS image before you start playing around.

Mods, if you think this sails a little too close the the ACTA/SOPA/PIPA/MAFIAA wind, feel free to delete the post.

EDIT: SJ added the FixIt link while I was typing this, well DUH! on me, I completely forgot about that even though I have a flash drive with the portable version on  

3978

General Software Discussion / Re: ReImage: online Windows repair!

« Last post by 4wd on February 09, 2012, 04:27 AM »

An advertisement in Windows Secret newsletter made me aware of Reimage.com: >>Reimage restores your Windows OS to its original potential, reversing corrupted files without harming personal data. Scanning your hardware and software, providing a full diagnosis, Reimage can then repair any damage, replace missing system files with the new ones from our database and restore compromised settings & registry values to their original default.

-Curt (February 09, 2012, 02:25 AM)

Isn't this what System Restore is supposed to do?

For 'original potential' I read that as 'working condition'.

3979

General Software Discussion / Re: Dopus 10 : Some question about it.

« Last post by 4wd on February 09, 2012, 04:06 AM »

also the icon in the Tray icon is really bothering , i.e., when i want Dopus to exit the icon sits in the Tray icon, please see the picture.

-hulkbuster (February 09, 2012, 02:31 AM)

3980

Living Room / Re: Just like the MPAA didn't learn from the RIAA, the games industry is next

« Last post by 4wd on February 08, 2012, 06:14 AM »

Also make voting compulsory - with a large fine if you don't without a very good reason.

-Carol Haynes (February 08, 2012, 02:59 AM)

Living in a country where voting is compulsory, (along with the attendant fine if you don't), I'd have to say it won't change much of anything.

You only have to look at our current crop of idiots to see that.

The equal campaign funding for all does have merit but I can never see that as happening simply because the people that would have to make it law are the same idiots in charge.

3981

Living Room / Re: Chilling Effects - BTjunkie Closes

« Last post by 4wd on February 07, 2012, 06:54 AM »

What you see in results is not common for others, .....

-mahesh2k (February 07, 2012, 04:20 AM)

I knew that but usually filtering was applied on a region wide basis and usually due to Google complying with regional government restrictions.  Normally my search results are only skewed by having Australian sites nearer the top due to IP address, (and that doesn't seem to work most of the time).

I too don't see TPB, Rapidshare on google results anymore.

I guess the UK, USA and Australia governments haven't got around to being the complete censoring b@st@rds I thought they were.........yet.

3982

Living Room / Re: Chilling Effects - BTjunkie Closes

« Last post by 4wd on February 07, 2012, 03:55 AM »

BTjunkie is also one of the search terms censored by Google because it’s piracy related, alongside The Pirate Bay, RapidShare, uTorrent and others.

Did I fall asleep at some point?

Using Google to search through TPB appears to work just fine.

3983

Living Room / Re: Another Internet Cafe Death

« Last post by 4wd on February 06, 2012, 11:15 PM »

Every so often it hits the news:

-Renegade (February 06, 2012, 10:21 PM)

Do you mean this is such a common occurrence in Taiwan that it's too mundane to report?

Personally, I'd like to know what game he was playing.....I know a few people I'd like to send it to 

3984

Living Room / Re: Main hard drive in my PC died today suddenly

« Last post by 4wd on February 06, 2012, 08:36 PM »

I might actually purchase some separately to see if that helps, but I just wondered if anyone had any experience with this.

-wraith808 (February 06, 2012, 08:21 PM)

If the SATA cable/connections are dodgy I usually get 'Delayed Write Fail' errors or an EventID of 51, 'An error was detected on device xxxxx during a paging operation.' in the Windows System Eventlog.

3985

Living Room / Re: Main hard drive in my PC died today suddenly

« Last post by 4wd on February 06, 2012, 05:33 PM »

SATA connectors have to be one of the worst designed connectors within a computer, IMO.

A fragile friction fit connector for a critical component that's subjected to temperature cycling and vibration - just who were these brilliant engineers?

Get some decent quality cables, (FWIW, I've never had a problem with the ones that come with Gigabyte motherboards), that have the metal latching tabs.

As Ath said, throw away the old ones.

3986

Living Room / Re: Would you buy me a $0.99 track on Amazon?

« Last post by 4wd on February 06, 2012, 01:45 AM »

I'll burn $1.98 and get TWO copies, then send you one. That ought to be close enough!

-TaoPhoenix (February 05, 2012, 06:44 PM)

Already obtained the track for tranglos from Amazon. 

3987

Living Room / No more Samsung HDDs

« Last post by 4wd on February 05, 2012, 06:31 PM »

Something that slipped quietly under the radar, (well, for me anyway):

Seagate Completes Acquisition of Samsung’s Hard Disk Drive Business

CUPERTINO, Calif. - December 19, 2011 - Seagate Technology plc (NASDAQ: STX), a world leader in hard disk drives and storage solutions, today announced the closing of the transaction to acquire the hard disk drive (HDD) business of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a world leader in digital consumer electronics and information technology.

This transaction was announced in April 2011 along with a series of other agreements between Seagate and Samsung. Seagate is supplying disk drives to Samsung for PCs, notebooks and consumer electronics devices. Samsung is supplying its market-leading semiconductor products for use in Seagate's enterprise solid state drives (SSDs), solid-state hybrid drives and other products. The companies have also extended and enhanced their existing patent cross-license agreement and have expanded cooperation to co-develop enterprise storage solutions.

Full story here.

3988

Living Room / Re: Main hard drive in my PC died today suddenly

« Last post by 4wd on February 04, 2012, 06:14 PM »

Regarding full system backup: I ceased to make any more since on my two PCs the motherboard died. The full system was of obviously of no use. Backing up just the data is much easier (using Dropbox at the moment).

-yksyks (February 04, 2012, 11:37 AM)

Swap the motherboard, boot into Safe Mode, uninstall old motherboard drivers, install new motherboard drivers - no different from just replacing the motherboard of a working system.  I've done this a few times, usually up and running within the hour.

The only thing you need to remember is to put the SATA interfaces into IDE mode before doing anything.

A full OS image also gives you the option to run it in a VM if necessary.

3989

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Hard Disk Sentinel PRO - Mini-Review

« Last post by 4wd on February 04, 2012, 06:02 PM »

OIC, sorry, I did not realise that.

-IainB (February 04, 2012, 06:56 AM)

My fault, should have made it clearer.

I still find it interesting that there is no correlation between Reallocation Event Count and Reallocated Sector Count, the former should be equal to or greater than the latter.

3990

Living Room / Re: Would you buy me a $0.99 track on Amazon?

« Last post by 4wd on February 03, 2012, 07:49 PM »

For future reference if anyone's interested:

VPN + Address + Gifted = Job Done!

 

3991

Living Room / Re: Would you buy me a $0.99 track on Amazon?

« Last post by 4wd on February 03, 2012, 06:34 PM »

"How do I deliver it to you ... without making a copy?"  

-TaoPhoenix (February 03, 2012, 05:15 PM)

Going theoretical, if:
a) You purchase it and download to a directory only you and tranglos have full access to, (by the magic of ftp, etc);
b) tranglos logs in and encrypts it into a multipart archive, wiping the original;
c) then downloads it to his machine and decrypts the archive.

There is only one digital playable copy at any one time and thus no law has been broken.

@tranglos: Is Amazon complaining because:
1) Your IP appears from outside the USA?
2) Your account shows that you live outside the USA?
3) Your means of purchase, (ie. credit card), shows you're outside the USA, (which really shouldn't matter)?

Something to try next time.
1a) Use a free VPN, (eg. TunnelBear).
2a) Change your home/delivery address, (FakeNameGenerator).  Address doesn't matter for digital download.
3a) Purchase a Gift Card and then change your home/delivery address.

3992

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Hard Disk Sentinel PRO - Mini-Review

« Last post by 4wd on February 03, 2012, 05:19 AM »

No, sorry, I meant the Hard Disk Sentinel log for that drive. That will be displayed for that drive on the Log tab - the fifth one in from the left in your screenshot.

-IainB (February 03, 2012, 04:46 AM)

There is no log, the first time I ran HDS is after you wrote about it

3993

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Hard Disk Sentinel PRO - Mini-Review

« Last post by 4wd on February 03, 2012, 03:49 AM »

That's interesting. Could you post the log of that disk? I'd like to see how it progressed from when the deterioration set in up to that 9% point.

-IainB (February 03, 2012, 02:13 AM)

There is no log, well not AFAIK, the HDD, (a Samsung HD753LJ SpinPoint F1), is over 2 years old and is currently used as transient storage.  Although, the features of the drive says Error Logging is supported, GSmartControl shows that no errors have been logged.

TBH, I'm not that concerned about the remap figure reported mainly for the reason you've picked up, there is no time reference.

I don't know whether the remaps occurred:
a) evenly spaced at 1 every 11 hours or so;
b) all at once within the first month;
c) all at Christmas because I was inebriated and did something stupid;
d) they just appeared through the magic of quantum physics because I observed them.

Putting it into perspective, it's ~819kB out of 750GB.  Naturally, Murphy's Law will dictate that it only happens to a significant area of the HDD.

I'd be more concerned if it had reported it that the HDD was unable to remap the sectors.

Interestingly, the Reallocation Event Count shows zero events, it should show the number of successful and unsuccessful sector remaps.




BTW, I'm running WD (640GB & 750GB), Seagate (1.5TB) and Samsung (2x1TB & 750GB) HDDs in my machine, of them all the WD HDDs have the best statistics.....they're also the oldest HDDs in the machine.

3994

Living Room / Re: The Pirate Bay - Domain Updates & Prison

« Last post by 4wd on February 02, 2012, 11:35 PM »

The Pirate Bay has switched domains from http://thepiratebay.org/ to http://thepiratebay.se/ in order to keep the site domain out of the reach of Washington's claws.

-Renegade (February 02, 2012, 07:26 PM)

And it's also now: The galaxy's most resilient BitTorrent site!

A step up, (or two), from the previous title

3995

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Hard Disk Sentinel PRO - Mini-Review

« Last post by 4wd on February 02, 2012, 11:20 PM »

I think I win

3996

Living Room / Re: Who needs SOPA? Website accused of defamation is closed by judge

« Last post by 4wd on February 02, 2012, 05:54 PM »

What I don't get is why they're "suddenly" afraid of the Internet in 2012, ....

-TaoPhoenix (February 02, 2012, 04:58 PM)

Well, since the world ends on December 21 this year they've got to do what almost every politician seeks to do, feather their nest.  The best way to do this is kowtowing to corporations who also have no agenda other than to collect as much of the worlds assets as possible.

It's really just an extension of: Who dies with the most toys wins.

Disclaimer: I'm not cynical, I passed that stage 20 years ago.

3997

General Software Discussion / Re: A Siri challenger emerges. Meet Evi.

« Last post by 4wd on February 01, 2012, 06:34 PM »

Maybe we should ask ourselves about this new kind of monstors!   

-techidave (February 01, 2012, 11:22 AM)

No need, we can ask Evi.

3998

General Software Discussion / Re: How to force "Register DLL"?

« Last post by 4wd on January 26, 2012, 09:09 PM »

Perhaps try changing the Owner of the install file before running it elevated?

-4wd (January 26, 2012, 05:47 PM)

That's not going to change anything, just running it elevated forcibly should solve it. This issue also exists for installers on Server 2008, that are not UAC/Vista+ aware, or recognized by the OS as being an installer. The last situation is most likely the case here.

-Ath (January 26, 2012, 05:54 PM)

I'm sure I've had trouble previously running programs, (whether elevated or not), until I specifically 'owned' the executable.  But then again, my memory may be alcohol distorted

But not being able to repair my ageing 32-bits Vista Home Premium, ....

-Curt (January 26, 2012, 01:55 PM)

Just going back to the OP, why can't you do a Repair Install Curt?

3999

Living Room / Re: Looking for password "scheme" suggestions

« Last post by 4wd on January 26, 2012, 08:57 PM »

Passphrase: Does cam low profile alter valve train component acceleration?

-4wd (January 26, 2012, 06:20 PM)

I'd have to go with yes.

-Stoic Joker (January 26, 2012, 06:49 PM)

 

Back OT, like I said, it's just one of a number of phrases/questions/etc that just stuck in my head over the last 30-40 years.  Another good source is taglines, god knows having spent a considerable number of hours on Usenet over the years there's tons floating around in my head 

Keyboards at the KGB have no 'Escape' key...

4000

Living Room / Re: Looking for password "scheme" suggestions

« Last post by 4wd on January 26, 2012, 06:20 PM »

For anything that can be >20 characters I use easily remembered sentences complete with punctuation/capitalisation/etc.

eg. Not one I use but a question I was asked that has stuck in my head for >30 years

Passphrase: Does cam low profile alter valve train component acceleration?

For anything <20 characters, I use Password Card as mentioned here, kudos to joby_toss btw.
I have a pair of these laminated back to back, after using a password, (selected off them), a few times, I no longer need the card to look it up but it is there if I need it.

If I need something ridiculously complex, (ie. hard to remember), I'll take something easy to remember and ROT13 or ROT47 it, (or ROTxx).