[n3ko]

You know, I never really thought about newegg... funny too, because I checked out microcenter and compusa before deciding to go with Crucial - habit I suppose. Thing is, not only is the money already spent, but I've also contacted them and sent back the memory. it's already been processed as an exchange RMA. I suppose it doesn't hurt to call and ask if they could change it though...

Reflect may be kinda the motivation I need to boot my butt into making a Bart's PE though. I can also ask for Acronis for Christmas. There's a few people in my family that would be more than happy to fund software as a gift.

So much right now is decided on money in my life, at the moment. In all honesty I wonder if I can afford to have disaster strike and not be able to afford the full license at that moment. I've got the "just had a disaster" jitters or something. I hope you're not offended if I stick with Macrum for now.

I like what I'm reading about Acronis, and I like that it will load defragmented. I will have to get it as soon as I can. And oh look - NewEgg has it for $30!

Edited by n3ko, 18 September 2009 - 06:56 PM.

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You know, I never really thought about newegg... funny too, because I checked out microcenter and compusa before deciding to go with Crucial - habit I suppose. Thing is, not only is the money already spent, but I've also contacted them and sent back the memory. it's already been processed as an exchange RMA. I suppose it doesn't hurt to call and ask if they could change it though...

Nothing wrong with Crucial... they're right up there with corsair, ocz, and others. You might have just gotten a bad batch. I used to only run Corsair, but comparatively, they're a little higher priced than the rest, so I'm trying out OCZ on my desktop. So far, so good, no problems. Quite a bit cheaper too! Try OCZ if you ever need ram somewhere.

I hope you're not offended if I stick with Macrum for now.

Now why would I feel that way? You have to go with what you have, although, you could also just download the free version of Acronis, make an image and just keep it somewhere. If you ever decide to buy it, at least you'll have the image to use. I don't know if the free version will allow you to make a boot cd, but be sure to check it out to see if it will.

[makai]

You know, I never really thought about newegg... funny too, because I checked out microcenter and compusa before deciding to go with Crucial - habit I suppose. Thing is, not only is the money already spent, but I've also contacted them and sent back the memory. it's already been processed as an exchange RMA. I suppose it doesn't hurt to call and ask if they could change it though...

Nothing wrong with Crucial... they're right up there with corsair, ocz, and others. You might have just gotten a bad batch. I used to only run Corsair, but comparatively, they're a little higher priced than the rest, so I'm trying out OCZ on my desktop. So far, so good, no problems. Quite a bit cheaper too! Try OCZ if you ever need ram somewhere.

I hope you're not offended if I stick with Macrum for now.

Now why would I feel that way? You have to go with what you have, although, you could also just download the free version of Acronis, make an image and just keep it somewhere. If you ever decide to buy it, at least you'll have the image to use. I don't know if the free version will allow you to make a boot cd, but be sure to check it out to see if it will.

[n3ko]

I've heard very good things about OCZ, I'm hoping in the next year to buy a copy of XP Pro 64 Bit and upgrading my geekbox. I was thinking of OCZ for that. HP Laptops are notoriously picky about RAM, though. It was another consideration when making a brand choice.

I'm sure it was just a bad batch. it happens, just hasn't happened to me before.

Now why would I feel that way? You have to go with what you have, although, you could also just download the free version of Acronis, make an image and just keep it somewhere. If you ever decide to buy it, at least you'll have the image to use. I don't know if the free version will allow you to make a boot cd, but be sure to check it out to see if it will.

I don't know, just checking. I'm silly.

But, that's exactly what I'm afraid of - having only an acronis backup, suddenly needing it, and not being able to use it because I can't afford to buy the license yet. I'll need to plan for it. So, I'll deal with this for now.

Now if only I can get PE to burn to a disk. grrr... too wiped tonight to figure this out. lol

[Alan_B]

Sorry for the difficulty.

WOE AND DISASTER only applies to a very recent installation etc., perhaps 0.1% of the registry. The other 99.9% is fully recovered, which is a perfect success for people accustomed to Windows and BSOD's. My standards are a little higher after more than 30 years designing real-time computer hardware and software to protect nuclear submarine bases from intruders etc on a 24/7/365 basis with no BSDO's or reboots.

An example to illustrate :-

I use the "standard" ERUNT start-up facility which tests whether it has created a backup for the day, and if it has not done so it will immediately create one.

If I install a new application package it could add a few thousand keys to the registry, and may well require a reboot to finalise the installation.

Upon reboot ERUNT will find the backup of the old registry exists and will not make another. If I anticipate pending disaster I can manually launch a new ERUNT backup and I am fully covered.

If disaster strikes the "standard" backup made at start of day will fully restore capability of the entire system with the EXCEPTION of the new application package. Additionally, if the new application was actually an update to an old application there would be an unholy union of updated program files and folders trying to use the previous version of registry keys.
If I anticipated disaster and manually launched an ERUNT backup after installation and reboot, I can fully recover everything by using that mid-day backup.

Typically I only do a manual ERUNT backup before a heavy meddle with RegEdit.

If the registry is trashed I will know whether or not the ERUNT backup is adequate for perfection,
and if not I will restore yesterday's C:\ partition image to ensure 100% consistencey between registry keys and files/folders,
and then repeat the latest installation updates etc.

Regardless of the availability of a fully up to date ERUNT backup, if something goes wrong after a Patch Tuesday I will restore the C:\ image taken before the update, and before unleashing patch updates again I will search the forums to see which patch(s) should be omitted.

Alan

[n3ko]

Ah, I see. That make perfect sense, Thanks Adam.

Of course the backup wouldn't restore anything it hadn't already backed up - aka. new applications installed after the most recent backup. And yes, I can definitely see how that could get very messy. But then, that's why best practices always says to make a backup of everything both before and after installing something new. I used to rely on system restore points and that's what got me into this mess. No more.

Well, I now have my Bart PE disk with Reflect on it. It took me hours to create two new good images of the current system, though.

First I defragged (amazing how fragmented things were already), cleaned up with ATF (LOTs of files! Wow) backed up the registry with Erunt and even got up the courage to run NTREGOPT. Dumped the windows restore points then made a restore point (not w/ the windows utility).

My C drive is still just a bit over 14 Gigs. 14.6 Gigs to be exact. So, I went through all of my blank dvds trying to get a good enough compression to get the image onto 2 disks. Did eventually do it, but I don't have any more disks, am going to have to get more when I go shopping today.

I think I may see now where the superiority of Acronis may lie. Will definitely be getting it as soon as I can afford it. Am very glad I made the PE disk though.

So, I think I'm finally about ready to get the files I need on my c drive back on there. I'll be working on this today between chores and errands. Definitely let me know what else you think I can to though.

LOL, just noticed this reply:

Many people get adware via scare popups, and click on the popup to close it. Sometimes that's all it takes to launch the adware.

I get it now. And oh yes! I never click on those things on the rare occasion I get them (usually at work since I have to use explorer there, never when I'm on my computers with firefox) and I always advise people to not click them. Taskmanager + End Task = Happy.

Edited by n3ko, 19 September 2009 - 10:32 AM.

[makai]

You might also think about getting an external usb drive or putting one together. So much easier to house images than burn dvds. Also, you wouldn't have to use any compression in your images which is a better way to image. I know... it'll take more mula!! But something to consider if you plan to back up regularly or create images every so often.

[n3ko]

Money is both a terrible and wonderful thing...

I have one actually. But, it's almost full at the moment... Lots of project files from my video editing. It's also where I back up all our files for our computers, and why I didn't really lose anything with this meltdown.

I cleaned it up recently, but it's still pretty full. I'm not thrilled at the prospect of using up much of the space that's left with an image. But, I've been working towards buying a new one since we need it anyway, and this is a perfect excuse. LOL

I was wondering about that this morning actually. Can you access a USB drive from a recovery mode disk like PE, so you could recover an image if windows and safe mode won't boot? I'd been lead to believe you can't, but then I've wondered the same about recovering from a CD image when booting from your disk drive in the same situation.

Speaking of, when this is done I plan on repeating all of this (sans re-format and re-install ) on our other computers. Both have two hard drives, and both have plenty of room for the image back-ups on the slaves. Assuming a similar situation where the computer will not boot and a recovery disk must be booted from the CD/DVD drive, can the image be accessed and restored from a slaved hard drive? Just, I've never attempted such a thing, and so don't really know if it's viable...

[Edit:]
New Question:
I've finished restoring everything I want to be back on my laptop onto it. Didn't put everything back - no point for some of these files I won't be using for a while... So nice not to have that ugly generic default wallpaper.

Anyway, am doing some cleanup and was wondering... We talked earlier about the SWSetup folder that my lappy drivers extracted to as I installed them. Can I safely delete the whole thing now?

Also, C Drive now has a folder named PEBuilder from my compiling a Bart PE disk. It's only 466 MB, but since I already have the bootable (2 copies) and also have the .exe to make a new one should I need to, can I just delete this folder? Bart PE read me says Add/Remove programs will just delete the .exe or you can do that yourself... I think the folder is just all the files compiled to make the iso, but am not 100% sure on that.

I can't thank you enough for all your help makai! Oh, and i think you asked for another HJT file once I was almost done. Here it is.

Attached Files

•  hijackthis.txt   4.03KB   194 downloads

Edited by n3ko, 19 September 2009 - 08:27 PM.

[makai]

Speaking of, when this is done I plan on repeating all of this (sans re-format and re-install laughing.gif) on our other computers. Both have two hard drives, and both have plenty of room for the image back-ups on the slaves. Assuming a similar situation where the computer will not boot and a recovery disk must be booted from the CD/DVD drive, can the image be accessed and restored from a slaved hard drive? Just, I've never attempted such a thing, and so don't really know if it's viable...

If you're talking about Acronis, then the answer is absolutely. Acronis will read an image from practically anywhere.

One of these days, we have to talk about partitioning drives. Its a lengthy subject. I partition every drive I set up, and because of partitioning, I also set up the computer so that the OS partition image never goes above 5gbs. Huh??? This is because NO user data is ever stored on the OS partition. Its a philosophy of how I do things. This is also why my images are so small. As you've probably realized by now, with all your data now on your drive, an image of it will be quite large. To create that image will require quite a few DVDs, high compression, or lots of spare disc space on a separate drive. I just helped someone with partitioning... you can read about it HERE. I guess we should have discussed it earlier, but I think your topic wasn't really focused on a reinstall right away but more so in repairing an error. By the time you decided to reinstall, I didn't think about it.

Anyway, am doing some cleanup and was wondering... We talked earlier about the SWSetup folder that my lappy drivers extracted to as I installed them. Can I safely delete the whole thing now?

Yah, you probably could, but if it's not hurting anything, just leave it.

Also, C Drive now has a folder named PEBuilder from my compiling a Bart PE disk. It's only 466 MB, but since I already have the bootable (2 copies) and also have the .exe to make a new one should I need to, can I just delete this folder? Bart PE read me says Add/Remove programs will just delete the .exe or you can do that yourself... I think the folder is just all the files compiled to make the iso, but am not 100% sure on that.

Did you uninstall the PE builder application yet?. I would do that first before deleting this folder. Truthfully, I haven't used BartPE for so long, I forgot about what to do! I'm sure that you can delete it since you already got your CD. I rarely use BartPE nowadays since any computer I repair normally is so messed up by the time I get it, nothing but a reinstall will fix it. I used to spend 15 hours troubleshooting stuff... now, if I can't clean/repair it in less than 4 hours, it's history!

Your HJT looks fine.

[n3ko]

If you're talking about Acronis, then the answer is absolutely. Acronis will read an image from practically anywhere.

Another reason to hurry up and buy it already then.
Getting on that soon. Have it budgeted in for next month now.

One of these days, we have to talk about partitioning drives. Its a lengthy subject. I partition every drive I set up, and because of partitioning, I also set up the computer so that the OS partition image never goes above 5gbs... <snip> ... I think your topic wasn't really focused on a reinstall right away but more so in repairing an error. By the time you decided to reinstall, I didn't think about it.

Hey, no worries. I was hoping to repair so I didn't have to reinstall some of the more troublesome of the programs (like carrying my 17" laptop all the way into work then back home just to get Office installed in it again). But when I realized that the repair wiped those, that became moot. It became more an issue of whether there was any lasting damage to the devices and what caused the failure to begin with so it wouldn't happen again - and we solved all of those quite well. Thanks so much!

As to dual partitions, yeah it is definitely a big and kind of intimidating subject. I'm not very good at it, though I admit I have only done it once. It actually would come in handly on the lappy, I'm very sure, but I was kind of thinking of getting a second hard drive for it and putting all the user data and files on that... 'cuz I'm lazy.

Would be a terrific waste of the main hard drive space though.

Our general desktop has 2 hard drives, and I've never bothered to do more than backup files to it. It still has a bootable XP on it too, never got around to removing it (and that's actually come in handy more than once). I keep meaning to get it more organized, wipe the slave drive, etc but I just never get around to it, there's always something important I need to do instead.

I need to get it done. It'll make my life much easier in the long run. Thanks so much for the link, I'll read up on this. Would definitely like to talk about partitioning more - here's probably not the place though...

Yah, you probably could, but if it's not hurting anything, just leave it.

OK. Thanks.

Did you uninstall the PE builder application yet?. I would do that first before deleting this folder. Truthfully, I haven't used BartPE for so long, I forgot about what to do! I'm sure that you can delete it since you already got your CD. I rarely use BartPE nowadays since any computer I repair normally is so messed up by the time I get it, nothing but a reinstall will fix it. I used to spend 15 hours troubleshooting stuff... now, if I can't clean/repair it in less than 4 hours, it's history!

Excellent philosophy.

All the uninstall does is delete the exe. The read me says you can also do that yourself. It's just the compiler/builder program for the iso disk. I was thinking maybe I didn't want to delete the exe, but now I'm asking myself why the heck I want it. LOL, if I need it again, I can just DL it. Thank you again.

It may be that I won't need PE either, but then I'm often repairing and cleaning computers for friends and family and I like to collect tools - even when I don't use them often.

Time to head home. Thank you again makai!

[makai]

Ok, n3ko, I think we can put this thread to sleep now. We've covered quite a bit so if you have any more issues,(hopefully not!), just create another topic. Take care... it was fun working with you!

makai

[n3ko]

Awesome!

Yes, we sure did. I hope not to have issues again too, but may be posting here in other boards more, now that I'm a member finally.

Thanks once more for all your help and all the fantastic links to information. Much appreciated!
Have a great fall (or is it spring in Hawaii?) makai! Hope to see you around.

Topic can be closed, if any moderator's around who would like to do so.

[makai]

Have a great fall (or is it spring in Hawaii?) makai! Hope to see you around.

I'm originally from Hawaii, but live in Ca now. I'm sure I'll see you around... been noticing more posts from you helping people. Keep it up, we always need help!

You take care too!

Topic closed.

makai