Recent Posts

4326

Living Room / Re: Does anyone understand the differences in the Western Digital drives?

« Last post by 4wd on February 17, 2011, 05:53 PM »

Possibly a couple of other things to mention, (or maybe not if no-one's bothered ), that differentiates Consumer from Enterprise:

Enterprise drives usually have higher IOPS^w, (as you would hope if they're in a server environment), and a shorter error recovery time, (TLER).

Here's a WD document, (PDF), to explain the last bit: TLER

JavaJones: do you have any sensible information on the "dual cpu" thing that some WD drives have? I've seen it mentioned a few places, but haven't found anything on it, except it being used as fluffy marketing snake-oil.

-f0dder (February 17, 2011, 05:00 PM)

This might help: Dual-Processor Hard Drives – All Good Or All Hype?

4327

General Software Discussion / Re: how to make every app portable?

« Last post by 4wd on February 17, 2011, 05:25 PM »

Threads here which may be of interest:
Cameyo
JauntePE and others

I'd give Cameyo a try since JauntePE is no longer developed.  EDIT: My mistake, I really should keep up with these things.

Note, these are application virtualisation - if you want a completely portable application they have to be coded that way from the start AFAIK.

By the way, this has no right being a word:

Portablization

-timns (February 17, 2011, 03:02 PM)

Damn straight!  It's Portablification.

 

4328

Living Room / Re: CPU Question: More Mhz per core or more cores?

« Last post by 4wd on February 17, 2011, 04:58 PM »

For disk imaging, I use Paragon's Virtualization Manager 2010 - it was cheap, and even handles converting between virtual machine disk images and The Real Deal, it can be v2p OS fixups, it can defragment disk images, partition resizing et cetera. Really nice piece of software

-f0dder (February 17, 2011, 01:34 PM)

Plus if Deo's handiwork dies she'll be able to run her system in a VM on a more reliable machine.

4329

Living Room / Re: 3Tb Drives are Here! That's 500,000 songs. Enough yet?

« Last post by 4wd on February 17, 2011, 04:51 PM »

I've yet to see any of them do a successful restore...

-Stoic Joker (February 17, 2011, 11:32 AM)

I've done one sir!</Puts hand up>

...but it was when I used DVD-RAM for backups...nowadays it's to HDDs.

If they could design an optical equivalent to DVD-RAM, (ie. very reliable), with a much larger capacity then I might be tempted to use it again.

4330

Living Room / Re: CPU Question: More Mhz per core or more cores?

« Last post by 4wd on February 17, 2011, 05:30 AM »

IF it helps any, the Rosewill PSU appears to be a rebranded SeaSonic PSU, ....

-steeladept (February 17, 2011, 04:50 AM)

Here's a couple of rebranding lists, first from 2007, second updated to 2009:

PSU Rebranding Guide
Who made your power supply
How to Discover Your Power Supply Real Manufacturer

Whatever you do, don't get a Hairong, (if they even sell them there).

EDIT: My CoolerMaster iGreen 600W is really a Acbel PolyTech RS-620-ASAA-A1...who'd a thunk it

4331

General Software Discussion / Re: Why am I having a frozen screen trying to install Windows 7?

« Last post by 4wd on February 17, 2011, 02:55 AM »

FYI I just installed Win7 64-bit on a new PC while the OS drive was connected in AHCI mode and it took only perhaps 30 minutes to install.

-Deozaan (February 16, 2011, 11:29 PM)

I think it comes down to what drivers are already available on the Win7 installation DVD.  I know there aren't any for my ATI chipset, there most likely won't be any for the "G-SATA" ports on Gigabyte boards.

Intel chipsets are generally better supported, (I've found), through the default Windows installation DVD.

It also may depend whether or not the computer is connected to the internet at the time and you've allowed it to download updated install files.  I do all installs ex-net, just one less thing to worry about screwing it up.

4332

Living Room / Re: CPU Question: More Mhz per core or more cores?

« Last post by 4wd on February 17, 2011, 02:48 AM »

What are some good tips for extending the life of the SSD? Should I disable the Windows Swapfile/Pagefile? Or move them to the HDD?

-Deozaan (February 16, 2011, 11:57 PM)

Disable the pagefile, you don't need it with 8GB, (unless you do some *really* heavy Photoshopping, etc), I run 8GB Win7x64 and never had a pagefile.  I've run out of memory exactly once over the past year and that was a beta build of Firefox suddenly deciding to gobble up the free memory, don't know why, hasn't happened since.

I don't think you can specify where the Hibernate file ends up, so that'll probably be on the SSD - which shouldn't be a problem since it's not a never-ending write operation like the pagefile.

Other than that, Win7 will disable the background defrag on the SSD and do other things to prolong it's life AFAIK.

As for partitioning, think about this: What is the backup strategy going to be, (file/folder/partition/drive level), and where/what type of medium are backups going to performed to/on?

4333

Living Room / Re: CPU Question: More Mhz per core or more cores?

« Last post by 4wd on February 16, 2011, 06:28 PM »

Okay, so I finally got some specs to compare to. I ended up building my sister a better machine for about $300 less than what the other person was trying to sell her.

-Deozaan (February 15, 2011, 11:29 PM)

You do realise you've now lumbered yourself with the maintenance contract?

re: PSUs

I've never had a problem with CoolerMaster, (using two of them in the machines here, both >4 y.o.), ThermalTake or Antec.

4334

Living Room / Re: The White House Asks: What's Blocking Innovation in America? Answer: IP Laws

« Last post by 4wd on February 16, 2011, 06:17 PM »

It's a broken system, but it won't change. There are very powerful vested interests that will make sure it stays broken.

There is no hope...

-Renegade (February 14, 2011, 08:08 AM)

That is so negative.

Of course it will change, patent protection times will get longer and longer at the behest of patent lawyers and big corporations....oh...wait....

4335

Living Room / Re: Show us the View Outside Your Window

« Last post by 4wd on February 16, 2011, 02:51 AM »

Christ, 4wd, how'd that happen?

-f0dder (February 16, 2011, 02:41 AM)

He was towing it up his driveway but the rope broke and it rolled back and tipped over the edge.  He was lucky, it's resting on the roof of his shed and didn't go through it.  The roofrack on the Landcruiser also stopped it from completely flipping and continuing down the slope.

After I'd dragged it upright with my Landcruiser, small dent in rear quarter panel the only damage - they build these tough



Hand winched it sideways a couple of feet and then pulled it backwards to level ground.

4336

Living Room / Re: Show us the View Outside Your Window

« Last post by 4wd on February 15, 2011, 11:26 PM »

OK, something you don't see much outside my window - the neighbours attempt at rooftop parking.



I was planning to have a leisurely day of nothing but spent 5 hours helping put it rubber-side down and getting it level again.

4337

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Organize files into folders based on flename wildcard parsing

« Last post by 4wd on February 13, 2011, 05:53 PM »

Thanks, magician32!   

-skwire (February 13, 2011, 03:05 PM)

It obviously took it's toll on him

4338

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Block/Unblock all network traffic button (one-click)

« Last post by 4wd on February 12, 2011, 08:23 PM »

i just tried the file listed above, and it works functionally, but it gives the following error dialog when toggling it on or off: (see attachment in previous post)
So I get that error when toggling the button on and off,

-superboyac (February 12, 2011, 05:59 PM)

OK, that's a result of me not getting the syntax of DevCon correct - it's (en|dis)abling all matching interfaces instead of just the selected one.  I don't have a machine with two NICs with the same ID but different instances.  Plus not closing the STDIO handle after running DevCon.

The attached should fix that.

and sometimes the save nic dialog pops up again.

Are you sure you're not hitting the RMB, (that will bring up the interface selection window), on the icon instead of the LMB ?

LMB - Toggle
RMB - Config

There's only three ways to call the NIC Selector routine:
1) First run of the program will call it when it doesn't find NICToggle.ini in the same directory as the executable.
2) If you run the program and the previously saved NIC hardware ID instance, (has to match exactly), doesn't exist it will open the selector to pick another one, (eg. you're running it from a flash drive and plugged it into a new machine).
3) You click the right mouse button on the icon.

Next time it happens can you try and recreate and/or note the steps taken, state of NIC before/after, etc?

NOTES: There's an arbitrary limit of 10 physical NICs, (PCI or USB), I'm sure there's a reason to have more, I just couldn't think of it.

v0.2

• Fixed - DevCon parameters NQR, was acting on all matching ID strings.
• Fixed - Forgot to close STDIO after each DevCon execution.  
• Added - Rescans available NICs when the config is called, (in case a USB NIC is plugged in).
  

To do:

• Add back 'All interfaces' option, (should easy - FLW).
  
• Add comments to source, (CYM).
  

UPDATED: See here.

4339

Site/Forum Features / Re: Site improvements for https connections

« Last post by 4wd on February 12, 2011, 04:57 PM »

There is no reason that people should have to connect to donationcoder.com using https, ....

-mouser (February 12, 2011, 12:23 PM)

Maybe not have to but I had to while it was on the old server just so I could attach things to forum posts.

Something that seems to have been fixed in the migration to the new server but I still use https wherever possible.

4340

General Software Discussion / Re: In search of ... Disk Doctor equivalent & image analyzer/verifier ...

« Last post by 4wd on February 12, 2011, 12:39 AM »

Ah, I see, more a prophylactic measure then

Forgot to mention the most obvious tools:
1) UBCD4Win
2) UBCD - seems to have a much better array than UBCD4Win
3) the various tools available on the HDD manufacturers sites, (pretty much all of which are on UBCD)

4341

Living Room / Re: USB 3.0 stick - anyone taken the plunge?

« Last post by 4wd on February 11, 2011, 07:22 PM »

btw where are you seeing these USB 2.0 60+ MB/s reads? Do you have USB on an addon card?

-MilesAhead (February 11, 2011, 02:07 PM)

As I said above, the only time I have seen this kind of speed from any USB device is a 2.5" USB HDD connected to both my old nForce2 Ultra400 EPoX motherboard and a friends el-cheapo nForce2 Ultra400 motherboard.

They consistantly transferred at ~50-55MB/s using the onboard USB ports - I have not seen any USB device since perform as fast.

It almost made me want to swap my, (then), AM2+ machine for the nForce2 U400, (I gave it to the parents)........almost

I've got a ASUS PCIe x4 USB3/SATA6 card plugged into the PC, just plugged my 2.5" USB2 HDD into it - still only managed ~31MB/s, (same drive that was giving me 50MB/s on the nForce2), another 2.5" USB HDD gave ~34MB/s.

Not a really good improvement considering the increased bandwidth of USB3, even though the HDD are USB2 I would have expected something better.

I really wish they had developed IEEE1394, (Firewire), as the standard for external storage, (50-60MB/s consistantly no matter what motherboard), and kept USB for mice, keyboards, fans, EL lights, missile launchers, etc.

4342

General Software Discussion / Re: In search of ... Disk Doctor equivalent & image analyzer/verifier ...

« Last post by 4wd on February 11, 2011, 06:38 PM »

But I'm still having trouble with the corruption part.  I know of three (3) different [software/activity] causes for that - likely there are more -

• there's activity from other software while files are being written which could be from any number of TSRs/services that I wot not of
• there's OS activity while files are being written maybe preventable, maybe not

-barney (February 11, 2011, 05:57 PM)

If it's consistant, (ie. you can reliably recreate the problem), then running the system in Safe Mode should enable you to prove it into third party software or the OS by preventing almost all third party stuff from running - especially stuff that uses a driver.

• there're memory/cpu issues while files are being written - hardware related, but not HD related
  (and could include cables & transfer speeds).

You can use memtest86+ to check for RAM problems, and 'burn in' software to highlight possible CPU faults, (SiSoft Sandra, etc).

But if I was having this many problems, I'd go:
1) check the Event Log for Delayed Write Fail and similar problems;
2) power down and check all cable connections, (IMO, SATA connectors are one of the worst designed around), power, SATA, etc, (I'd replace any SATA cables also at this point);
3) reseat RAM by removing/replacing;
4) clean out the interior using a vacuum, (hold any fan blades so they don't spin), just in case it's an airflow problem;
5) check the fans are spinning freely, (power it up, don't happily spin them by hand), you should be able to spot any problem ones.

The above should take about 30 minutes or less and is a lot easier to start with than trying to isolate software related problems.

(There's also the possibility of brown power or power fluctuations, but that/those can be filtered with a decent UPS.)

Hopefully any decent UPS would record power flucuations, since most have a USB connection these days the software might allow for such things.

Granted, I'm probably being overly picky in the latter respect, but there seems to be cause:  three (3) different, widely - and successfully - used software packages seemed to fail me.  Under other circumstances, I'd be inclined to suspect hardware, but pending further investigation, other circumstance has pretty well obviated that element.

If it were my machine, I'd definitely be suspecting a hardware fault but one thing: are you only having problems to the one HDD?

If so, plug it into another SATA/IDE interface using a different interface cable and see what happens.

4343

Living Room / Re: My New DVD is ALL Regions =D YAY~!

« Last post by 4wd on February 10, 2011, 11:27 PM »

(Very not happy at my Star Wars DVDs not being playable...)

-Renegade (February 10, 2011, 10:31 PM)

 
Wait...you're in Australia aren't you?  One of the few countries where it's legal, (or I should probably say: 'not illegal'), to have/sell region free DVD players and you've got a region locked player?

4344

General Software Discussion / Re: In search of ... Disk Doctor equivalent & image analyzer/verifier ...

« Last post by 4wd on February 10, 2011, 09:52 PM »

As for the images, I've not found - prolly just me   - anything not vendor-specific.  If I get some mounting software, the MD5 thing sounds good, but a bit labour intensive?  I really don't know, as that one never occurred to me .

-barney (February 10, 2011, 07:42 PM)

AFAICT, mounting the images using the vendors own software shouldn't be a problem since you're mainly interested in the file integrity within the image.

It should be relatively easy to create a script to recurse the directories in the mounted image providing a list of files with MD5 values, (there's probably a program that will do it already), let it run overnight.  Then take the same list of files, change the drive letter, (directory structure should be the same), and generate MD5 values for those.

An alternative is just mount the image and use Beyond Compare or WinMerge to do live comparison - which will take just as long but skips the intermediate creating MD5 hash step.

There is no quick way to do it unfortunately.

See?  It's all your fault   .

I'll expect your MD5 comparison script shortly then

4345

General Software Discussion / Re: In search of ... Disk Doctor equivalent & image analyzer/verifier ...

« Last post by 4wd on February 10, 2011, 06:56 PM »

You haven't mentioned which ones you have tried, so:

HDDScan - Windows executable, reports S.M.A.R.T. and can do surface tests and S.M.A.R.T. tests.
MHDD - DOS, bootable images on site.
Victoria - Russian website, DOS version on site, Windows version available from MajorGeeks.  As well as normal surface tests in can start S.M.A.R.T. tests.
DiskTool - DOS, need to put on bootable media (from Bart, creator of PEbuilder).

For backup images, couldn't you mount them and then run a Windows based tester on them?
Or, generate a list of files with MD5 hashes and compare to live system file hashes?

4346

Living Room / Re: CPU Question: More Mhz per core or more cores?

« Last post by 4wd on February 10, 2011, 04:55 PM »

Smart move on your part. When in doubt - punt!

-40hz (February 10, 2011, 04:19 PM)

+1 - Don't forget to mention that all repairs/service/software faults of the system will be handled by the manufacturer of the system.

 

4347

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is my computer hiccuping every few seconds?

« Last post by 4wd on February 10, 2011, 04:30 AM »

Look for places.last_vacuum

-Bamse (February 10, 2011, 03:21 AM)

That is present - but is it related to the session state?

-f0dder (February 10, 2011, 03:25 AM)

Now see, that's what happens when you don't follow instructions:

Open up about:config and use a vacuum filter, (make sure it's HEPA^w rated - wouldn't want any nasty bugs getting into Firefox):

-4wd (February 09, 2011, 06:12 PM)

4348

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is my computer hiccuping every few seconds?

« Last post by 4wd on February 10, 2011, 03:04 AM »

4wd: there's no storage.vacuum settings in my 3.6.

-f0dder (February 10, 2011, 01:41 AM)

Then you need a bigger closet.  

It kind of invalidates Bamse' claim that they incorporated it in 3.5/3.6 - not that I set out to do that, just it seemed an easy way of checking whether it was enabled or not.

EDIT: I think my spell checker must be borked, it's letting some simple things through.

4349

Living Room / Re: All Hail...!

« Last post by 4wd on February 10, 2011, 03:02 AM »

Baron f0dder the Unready: Excrutiating Kephalonomancer of the Nether Regions!

-f0dder (February 10, 2011, 01:46 AM)

But quite fitting, since the second half is contradictory it makes the first half valid

4350

Living Room / Re: All Hail...!

« Last post by 4wd on February 10, 2011, 12:44 AM »

 



What I want to know is how did it know I was wicked, I only found out yesterday....