Update Rant

[fortkentdad]

I gotta learn not to click OK when Windows wants to update - spent the better part of the day getting my system back after a botched upgrade. Starts out OK, then error code #XXXXX, try this, ... then this, then ... by the time I finished I'd repaired my system, rebuilt it and ended up with a bunch of other issues.

I do have one problem that seems to keep coming back, my system does not remember my USB drivers. I notice that some devices are not detected, there is that orange ! on my PC symbol in Devices. Troubleshoot finds that there are missing drivers, repairs them, and all is well, till next time. Is there a way to ensure the drivers stay put?

[ZZLEE]

Start with a band new drive and reload from scratch.

How old the oldest install on the system if over about 2 years them buy some new drives put your old drives in an enclosure and only go to them when you need to.

Better yet have NAS and use it as storage drive.

Called corrupted OS

[fortkentdad]

Well it took a while but my Win7 is back up and running. Ended up using the reload from the OS disk. Is there a limit on the number of times you can do this?

I ask because I did have a MS Office 2003 disk I was using and then I got an error code saying something to the effect that the number of installs had been exceeded. I only used it to get Outlook which is not included in the less expensive MS Office Suites anymore and I needed Outlook to sync with my Blackberry from work and then I have my schedule from work and home in one place. I only have one life, I can't have multiple schedulers, and I only keep one list of contacts which over the years has exceeded 1000 entries. (on the other hand I never delete any). Anyway I ended up finding a redundant 2007 Professional MS Office Disk not being used so use MS Outlook from that one.

I did manage to reload some but not all of the backed up programs. next time though I will follow ZZLEE's advice and format the drive and start from scratch completely. I do have this file called "windows.old" which I relegated to an old storage hd I have. Not sure if there is any value in keeping it now. I assume I can safely delete what I was able to move. There were a few mb of files that windows did not want to move. I went through the files that I now have on my SSD for Win7 and while I'm sure some of them can safely be removed there are no single program that takes up a lot of SSD real estate. If and when space gets scarce on my drive I'll go back and start deleting things that I never use, MS games, a thing called MS Journal, etc. but they are all small files. But for now there is still plenty of space left so I worry about that later (Windows and Adobe Elements & Premier and one game loaded so far (Warbirds) are taking up about 60 of my 160GM SSD.

I'll have to reload most of the games as I play them, one by one. I might try loading one or two onto the SSD and playing them from there rather than play them off of the 2T SATA drive even though it is a newer SATA III. I wonder how much of a performance difference I'd get running the game from the same SSD as the OS vs running it off of this 2T SATA III drive?

Found that my old recovery disks were no use, still made a new one after I had installed windows and the drivers, just the basic set up before programs.
I suppose I should make another after I get the programs loaded that I want.

[fortkentdad]

Originally Posted by ZZLEE

Start with a band new drive and reload from scratch.

How old the oldest install on the system if over about 2 years them buy some new drives put your old drives in an enclosure and only go to them when you need to.

Better yet have NAS and use it as storage drive.

Called corrupted OS

I'm not sure what you mean by a NAS?



My case has room for four drives in removable section at the bottom of this picture, I have two SSD's (one 120 with Win8 and one 160 with Win7) plus and older 750 GB drive for back up purposes and the newer SATA3 2T drive which is my primary data drive. I also have another eSata 750 external and 250 USB connected directly to my router which someday I hope to make into a FTP accessible device. There are more empty bays directly above the hard drive enclosure (there are two optical drives and a card reader but they are near the top of the case) I'm sure I could get another drive in there if I wanted too. Never thought I'd see the day where the 2T drive was getting full but if you have a 2T for data you need another 2T to back it up. Right now I'm selectively backing up photos onto both 750 drives and not bothering to back up programs. I have ONE Sata connection open on the motherboard, it came with seven. I think there are ways around that but have not looked into it.

[fortkentdad]

Looked up NAS and found this at Memory Express where I do most of my IT shopping.

Synology 2-bay NAS Server for Small Office and Home Use w/ 2 x 3TB Red SATA III Hard Drive Bundle at Memory Express

$500

[AkG]

Ive posted this in other threads but here goes:

When you build a new rig do these steps

1) load the OS, authorize it
2) use acronis TI to make a backup. call this 'bare metal backup'
3) install video drivers and programs you use. authorize them as needed.
4) use acronis TI to make a backup. call this 'FULL backup'
5) DL and use "Token Restore" AND "Advanced Token Manager" to backup tokens for the OS and Office
6) store all the stuff you made .tibs/tokens/etc on a separate hard drive. A NAS is good. Store it ALSO on another HHD that sits in bubble wrap somewhere safe....or simply unplugged inside the PC chassis. ;)

Once a month make a new full backup...and copy to the backup locations.

This way when things go south...you can restore your rig fairly quickly.

Token manager will come in handy if the OS decides that 'nope your not legit anymore' as it will tell it to piss off and MAKE it legit again. Run the token programs after any major parts changes. Run BOTH to make sure you have the tokens backuped. Same goes for office. Technically you get a couple auto authorizations and then have to phone and ask. This way you dont waste the easy authorizations. ;)

A NAS can be as simple as an old rig connected to your router. No need for a fancy NAS...anything will do. Load FreeNAS if you want something fancy...or windows XP if you dont.

[frontier204]

Yep I used to do something similar too - I'd do a fresh install with Windows and Office already "activated", and use that as my "fresh install" image rather than just the OS. One note though is that Office 2013 finally allows you to control the activations from a web interface, which I played with quite a bit for the customer preview version.
My "NAS" is what used to be my gaming rig with Ubuntu Server installed on it, running Folding@Home of course :)