Computer crash
BlueFox
Posts: 15,251
I retired in April 2019, and haven’t had to mess with computer technology since then. Until today. Somehow I managed to crash my Dell laptop, and after wasting 1-2 hours trying to fix it I decided to reinstall Windows. Interestingly, one option was to install it from the crashed laptop. Okay, I’ll try that, and after about four hours it installed. The interesting part was the shortcut icons were still on the screen after the new install, and after some minor messing around it is now back to the way it was before the crash. Not sure if that was from Microsoft or Dell, but it sure saved a lot of work.
Lumin X1 file player, Westminster Labs interconnect cable
Sony XA-5400ES SACD; Pass XP-22 pre; X600.5 amps
Magico S5 MKII Mcast Rose speakers; SPOD spikes
Shunyata Triton v3/Typhon QR on source, Denali 2000 (2) on amps
Shunyata Sigma XLR analog ICs, Sigma speaker cables
Shunyata Sigma HC (2), Sigma Analog, Sigma Digital, Z Anaconda (3) power cables
Mapleshade Samson V.3 four shelf solid maple rack, Micropoint brass footers
Three 20 amp circuits.
Sony XA-5400ES SACD; Pass XP-22 pre; X600.5 amps
Magico S5 MKII Mcast Rose speakers; SPOD spikes
Shunyata Triton v3/Typhon QR on source, Denali 2000 (2) on amps
Shunyata Sigma XLR analog ICs, Sigma speaker cables
Shunyata Sigma HC (2), Sigma Analog, Sigma Digital, Z Anaconda (3) power cables
Mapleshade Samson V.3 four shelf solid maple rack, Micropoint brass footers
Three 20 amp circuits.
Comments
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Amazing technology, we have.
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You got lucky. Buy a big enough thumb drive and back up
Anything important. Sooner or later, they all die.
I'm paranoid. I have a backup hard drive and a thumb drive.
"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." --Thomas Jefferson -
Yes. I backup all my digital music files on three hard drives, not counting the one I actually use for music. Basically that’s all I use the computer for, downloading music and Zoom meetings.Lumin X1 file player, Westminster Labs interconnect cable
Sony XA-5400ES SACD; Pass XP-22 pre; X600.5 amps
Magico S5 MKII Mcast Rose speakers; SPOD spikes
Shunyata Triton v3/Typhon QR on source, Denali 2000 (2) on amps
Shunyata Sigma XLR analog ICs, Sigma speaker cables
Shunyata Sigma HC (2), Sigma Analog, Sigma Digital, Z Anaconda (3) power cables
Mapleshade Samson V.3 four shelf solid maple rack, Micropoint brass footers
Three 20 amp circuits. -
Well that, and ****.
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Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows, and an external for whole machine backups, with bare metal recovery.
For file level backups, check out the 2BrightSparks products, like SyncBackPro.I disabled signatures. -
Many Windows computers have a dedicated partition to reinstall Windows without losing your data. Sometimes it works. Sometimes, not so much.
Reinstalling a Mac from scratch is flawless, so I just use iCloud for backup. Simplest thing ever, and if my house were to burn down, I’d still have absolutely everything. Bought a new Mac mini for myself when the M1 first came out, and a new MacBook Pro for one of the kids when M1 Max first came out. It’s a flawless backup solution that shares everything across iPhones & iPads as well.Alea jacta est! -
But what happens when the cloud burns down?Gustard X26 Pro DAC
Belles 21A Pre modded with Mundorf Supreme caps
B&K M200 Sonata monoblocks refreshed and upgraded
Polk SDA 1C's modded / 1000Va Dreadnaught
Wireworld Silver Eclipse IC's and speaker cables
Harman Kardon T65C w/Grado Gold. (Don't laugh. It sounds great!)
There is about a 5% genetic difference between apes and men …but that difference is the difference between throwing your own poo when you are annoyed …and Einstein, Shakespeare and Miss January. by Dr. Sardonicus -
Has that ever happened? Is it a realistic concern? 🤷♂️
Some stuff is also backed up locally in Time Machine, but I haven’t used those backups in a decade. When upgrading to a new Mac, it is still faster to plug in a local hard drive connected with Thunderbolt (faster than USB-C, which would also work fine) and create a backup to install from that, but otherwise, local backups have been completely redundant.Alea jacta est! -
I retired in April 2019, and haven’t had to mess with computer technology since then. Until today. Somehow I managed to crash my Dell laptop, and after wasting 1-2 hours trying to fix it I decided to reinstall Windows. Interestingly, one option was to install it from the crashed laptop. Okay, I’ll try that, and after about four hours it installed. The interesting part was the shortcut icons were still on the screen after the new install, and after some minor messing around it is now back to the way it was before the crash. Not sure if that was from Microsoft or Dell, but it sure saved a lot of work.
@Bluefox, I retired at age 55 in 1999 from Coca-Cola Corporate. I started my computer career with time sharing FORTRAN at General Electric Medium Transformer Manufacturing Plant in 1968. My first mainframe experience came on the first IBM 360/65 ever, located at Lockheed GA in Assembly Language and COBOL in 1970. Then onto every imaginable platform in development, networks, consulting, management, etc. with a consulting company for many years before Coca-Cola.
Two years ago, I stopped using my Dell Desktop to rip and download my music. I returned to CDs and LPs. Because of my age, I found I had to relearn (short term memory) a lot of technical details each time I encountered a problem. Takes less time now and I have more time for just music and other things.
Returning to Daylight Saving Time today reminded me Father Time eventually wins every encounter.
I am glad you were successful and listening to music again."Sometimes you have to look to the past to understand where you are going in the future"Anger is just anger. It isn’t good. It isn’t bad. It just is. What you do with it is what matters.
You can use it to build or to destroy. You just have to make the choice. Jim Butcher
Harry / Marietta GA -
I just picked up a beater PC for $30 from a PC shop going out of business.
Hp g7 laptop with 6g ram and a 500g ssd. 17" screen for easy viewing.
I had a spare ram stick,so now it's 8g ram. Win 10 too. The only issue is
25 minute battery life. I don't know if I'm going to spring the money for a new battery
Or not. Nothing like having a fallback machine. I really don't need a fast laptop
anymore. I used to work at Digitall Equipment Corp. Remember the pdp-11?
I also dealt with IBM cluster controllers back in the day.
I need to get rid of a bunch of stuff. I still have a bunch of test equipment in
the attic. I did toss my token ring test stuff away a couple of years ago.
But that little voice in back of my head keeps telling me I might need the
Stuff some day. Yeah, right. I did have an old co-worker call with some questions
A couple of days ago. Welcome to retirement."The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." --Thomas Jefferson -
Token ring! Haven't heard that for a while.
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For $30, how could you complain?! 😛
Best thing for that would be to install Linux IMO. Far faster than Windows 10 will ever be, and you won’t have any security issues.Alea jacta est! -
It's plenty fast enough as is. Not gaming fast. But with the ssd it
Loads quick too. And the mouse pad has real buttons.
My big issue is the cheap build on new ones. My wife's year old
Machine has that stupid set up with no separate mouse buttons.
It makes for twitchy use. She started using an external mouse
A couple of days ago.
I remember the mini Dells with 12" screens at work.
Someone thought they were great and ordered a bunch of
refurbs during covid. Worthless. The power buttons would flake out
pretty quickly. Some didn't even have a physical network port.
Not everywhere had wireless. When they handed me one,
I handed it back. The real Dell I was using was faster, easier to see,
dockable, and I had admin rights."The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." --Thomas Jefferson -
My GF has gone through 3 Dell laptops in 2 years. Their warrantee department covered replacement well enough but the first or second one (I don't remember which) fried the hard drive and she lost like a zillion irreplaceable family pictures and documents. Thumb drives are ideal for backups IMHO. Just drag and drop once a month or something. I've had great success with Toshiba laptops. I have never had to replace one due to failure. Just got too slow.Gustard X26 Pro DAC
Belles 21A Pre modded with Mundorf Supreme caps
B&K M200 Sonata monoblocks refreshed and upgraded
Polk SDA 1C's modded / 1000Va Dreadnaught
Wireworld Silver Eclipse IC's and speaker cables
Harman Kardon T65C w/Grado Gold. (Don't laugh. It sounds great!)
There is about a 5% genetic difference between apes and men …but that difference is the difference between throwing your own poo when you are annoyed …and Einstein, Shakespeare and Miss January. by Dr. Sardonicus -
Best value I know for quality backup software is Backup4all Professional. Full featured including open files, block backup, incremental, smart target device capacity/versioning, and a nice interface for only $50.Expect that there will be bumps in the road. Choose to not let them rattle you.
Polk - Monitor 10As, SDA 2Bs, LSi9s, White RTi4s, S4s, M3s, various centers.
Boston - CR7, CR6s, CR4s.
Subs - M&K V4, M&K VX-7B, JBL SUB150P, Jamo Sub 250, and others.
Thompson Adventures, Inc.
