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On Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 3:36 PM, Dale <rdalek1967@×××××.com> wrote: |
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> Alan McKinnon wrote: |
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>> |
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>> Apparently, though unproven, at 00:01 on Tuesday 16 November 2010, Dale |
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>> did |
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>> opine thusly: |
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>> |
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>> |
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>>> |
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>>> OK. I took a nap and it seems everyone on the list wanted to chime in. |
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>>> lol This is one reason I posted here. I knew I would get at least a |
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>>> few replies. Just picking one to reply to so not pointing at Alan here. |
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>>> |
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>>> First, the drive is not full. It has about 30% or so left. I think the |
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>>> virus broke something and I don't have the OS media to reinstall. If I |
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>>> had my way, that puter would have Linux and a root password that only I |
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>>> know. |
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>>> |
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>>> Second, it has not been kept up to date for sure. They are little kids, |
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>>> oldest is getting about old enough to understand how to maintain things |
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>>> tho. |
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>>> |
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>>> Third, I'm not going to go to to much trouble with this thing and trying |
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>>> to get it back to shiny new. If it doesn't work to their liking, I'll |
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>>> tell them to get a CD/DVD with the install on it or I can put Linux on |
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>>> it for free. Let them decide. |
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>>> |
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>>> One post mentioned that this needs to be reinstalled, I AGREE. |
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>>> |
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>> |
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>> Same here. I find this approach workable: |
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>> |
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>> Tell them the machine needs an OS re-install. They can pick |
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>> |
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>> Windows - which they will pay for |
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>> Linux - it's free |
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>> |
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>> Either way they will lose their data. Give them that choice and let them |
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>> decide for themselves. |
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>> |
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>> |
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>> |
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> |
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> I'm just adding one option. Hope it works as is. They are kids. Even if |
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> windoze won't boot, I'll put the drive in my system and copy anything |
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> important over, pictures or something. Then they are left with the options |
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> you gave. Because it is kids, they don't want to buy the OS. They will |
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> break it anyway. lol Then again, if I reinstall it, they will still break |
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> it. :/ They are kids and it is still windoze. |
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> |
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> I'm going to mention putting Linux on it tho. I can install Mandriva on it |
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> pretty quick and just not give the kids the root password. They check |
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> email, play those games on facebook and that is about it. The oldest one is |
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> getting close to the age where she can start learning to upgrade too. |
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> |
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> This is like dating, time will tell. ;-) |
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> |
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> Dale |
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> |
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> :-) :-) |
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> |
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> |
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Dale, |
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I spent my day working on my big Gentoo box that has a 980x |
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processor with 6 cores/12 threads. I only mention this because I was |
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running 3 copies of Windows (2 XP and 1 Win 7) all day long in VMWare |
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Player. If your kids just want to run a basic Windows then consider |
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going that direction. I ran a numerical program all day long crunching |
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numbers in a VMWare instance with 4 threads (Win XP), traded live in |
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the market using TradeStation on a 2 thread machine (Win XP) and ran |
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NetFlix Instant Watch in a 3rd machine (Win 7) with a single thread. |
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Not a hiccup anywhere. |
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|
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And remember, even though Windows breaks, AND IT DOES, I have |
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backups of the 20GB VMWare disks so I can rollback 1 week in a matter |
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of a few minutes if things go bad with Windows. The whole Windows |
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installation is just a bunch of files. Restore that one directory and |
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you're back in business. |
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|
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I play games in VMWare on Gentoo once in awhile. It's OK for me, |
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probably not for my son looking for lots of 3D performance, etc. |
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|
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Also, I own and use SpinRite. If you want or need info get in touch |
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off list. I like the program but it does have issues and it's not all |
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that actively updated anymore. (From what I can tell...) |
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|
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Cheers, |
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Mark |
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I didn't have time to dig into my copy of SpinRite to reacquaint |
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myself with that tool, but I've found it helpful. The problem is that |
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for large modern drives its pretty slow as its testing features |