New Computer

Comment from jeff weir
Time: Thursday, July 9, 2009, 5:21 am

“…After the files have been recovered, we’ll see if something easy like a new fan will revive the box”

wait a minute…I’m a new fan. Please post to 247 Rintoul Street, Berhampore, Wellington, NZ.

Ta.

Comment from Dennis Wallentin
Time: Thursday, July 9, 2009, 5:32 am

Jon,

If the new computer will be Your dev computer then I strongly suggest to install Windows 2008 x64 as the main system and strip it so it runs with a limited number of services. There is a SP-2 for it but I’m not sure when it will be out.

Ask the vendor what the price is to upgrade to 8 GB RAM.

Personally I prefer to use VMWare rather then Virtual PC. With the x64 version You can test Hyper V as well.

Upgrading hardware and softwares takes time from what I really want to do; developing software solutions!

Kind regards,
Dennis

Comment from Hui…
Time: Thursday, July 9, 2009, 9:06 am

Why hasn’t some smart person solved the million Passwords issue yet ?

Comment from Bob
Time: Thursday, July 9, 2009, 11:51 am

I recently had to recover my home pc from a protected partition to re-instll XP.
All the garbage-ware was the most painful part of the activity…

Do you have a backup for your little notebook?

Cheers,

Bob

Comment from Mike Alexander
Time: Thursday, July 9, 2009, 5:20 pm

Jon:

Do you still use an external hard drive for backups? Or have you moved to a hosted service? Like Carbonite?

I’m still doing the external hard drive thing, but it’s really a pain to maintain.

I’m thinking about using an on-line service. I wanted to get a few thoughts and opinions from the readers.

Comment from AdamV
Time: Thursday, July 9, 2009, 5:38 pm

I’m running the 64 bit version of Windows 7 RC very smoothly. Almost no issues so far with drivers etc., much better than what I heard of people on Vista 64 (especially at this point of the product cycle).

Of course, Excel 2007 is still running in 32 bit mode on WOW. I think WOW must really stand for “Why oh why” would Microsoft’s flagship desktop application suite not be available in a 64 bit version when they keep trying to tell people that’s the way to go?

As to running older software, there is a Virtual PC add-on (if that’s the right word) called XP Mode to enable people to run applications in a true XP environment in Windows 7.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/features/windows-xp-mode

What’s more, it includes a licence for the embedded XP machine, which you would have to own separately to do the same in the past (eg on Vista). Upgrading an OEM licence to a newer version does not give you the necessary downgrade rights to continue running the old OS. XP mode makes this possible _and_ legal.

If I understand correctly, it has some clever features like being able to drag a shortcut to an app from inside the VM to the host desktop, and then later run this app without it appearing like it is inside a VM desktop. Parallels ( http://www.parallels.com ) does a similar trick to run Windows app on Mac OS, I am told.

Good luck with the repair / rebuild!

Comment from Tim Wilson
Time: Thursday, July 9, 2009, 6:48 pm

Inspired by the “tried propping it up on blocks” comment early in your post: If the new fan doesn’t do the trick, and you determine the laptop really has reached the end of its useful live, I think it’d be nifty for you to take it out to your front yard, “prop it up on blocks” (what you were already using…or go all out and get a couple cinder blocks), let weeds grow up around it, and see how long it takes for the neighbors to complain…

Comment from Mozy Fan
Time: Friday, July 10, 2009, 12:59 am

At least your data is safe with Mozy ;).

Comment from Dennis Wallentin
Time: Friday, July 10, 2009, 8:44 am

Jon,
While reading throw the comments and that You backup several computer it strikes me that You should also use NAS unit for the backups.

I’ve been using a NAS (2 x 500 GB) for all backups on my local network together with Windows Scheduler.

Personally I have difficulties to trust a third-party for my backups, especially for XL-Dennis.

Kind regards,
Dennis

Comment from Colin Banfield
Time: Friday, July 10, 2009, 9:22 am

“I’m thinking about using an on-line service. I wanted to get a few thoughts and opinions from the readers.”

Mike, because all of the major ISPs in my area charge for usage, online backup isn’t an option for me – but even if it was, it would be impractical to ever do a full backup of a 1.5TB drive at Internet speeds. I’m leaning towards a NAS option. A DLink DNS-323 two-drive NAS box with Gigabit Ethernet isn’t expensive. Stuff two 1.5TB drives (also not that expensive) in a mirror configuration and you should be good to go. If you also want to plan for potential fire damage, then you’ll have to find a fireproof housing designed for computer equipment, or go with an option such as provided by ioSafe.

Comment from Doug Glancy
Time: Saturday, July 11, 2009, 4:50 pm

Two comments on those thinking of using Server 2008 as their laptop operating system:
1. I tried to use Hyper-V the virtual pc program available under Server 2008, but it didn’t support the 1440*900 resolution of my laptop, so I couldn’t ever maximize the virtual machine. Also, installing Hyper-V disables the ability to put the laptop on standby/sleep.
2. My antivirus program, NOD32, wouldn’t install unless I purchased the server edition, which is only available in 5-license packs. There is a similar issue with other antivirus programs.
Now I’m running Windows 7 64-bit and the 64-bit version of Nod32, as well as the somewhat updated Windows Virtual PC program. I think VPC has somewhat improved networking settings, and it now supports USB drives.

Comment from David Walter
Time: Wednesday, July 15, 2009, 2:41 am

Jon:

Is it impolite to ask of the whereabouts or status of Damon Langworth? As it came time for the conference in June, I believe it was, that there were comments that Damon would not be presenting, maybe not even attending that conference. Now going over some older emails from the developer’s list and doing a search on his name, I see that his last posting was March 1, 2009.

Didn’t necessarily want to ask this question on the list.

David