I have one of the external hard drives that I have not installed yet. I got it to ease the task of backups. Right now I'm up to four CD's.

How does the xxcopy program or the ghost program simplify the task of backing up data? I'm not thinking of backing up the entire machine on the external drive, but, would you think this is preferable?

It's getting about time to reload all the software, anyway. So, I'll be more than happy to have all my documents protected. However, I'm sure that they fail at the most inopportune times.

I was in Redmond, WA on busness.

I was a stone's throw from Bill Gates, I wish I had a stone

Yes drives have a knack for failing at the worst time. You should see the look on people’s faces when you have to tell them that 40 people can’t work for a day while a server is rebuilt. It’s the look of about $12,000 in labor cost flying out the window, not counting my time.

I always recommend backing up everything. Drive space is cheap, data gets scattered, and backing up everything is the only way to ever be sure you get….everything. I use xxcopy in conjunction with the system scheduler. The scheduler has existed since Windows 95 in one form or another. Xxcopy will copy everything you tell it to. The first time it copies everything, and after that it will check the source against the destination and only copy stuff that’s changed. So it only takes minutes.

Here’s a typical command line

c:\xxcopy\xxcopy X:\source Y:\destination /s/v/e/c/i/h/r/k/yy/d/WV0/X*\*.IE5\ /x\temp\ /q3>c:\batch\hydra_ddrive.log

here’s an explanation of the flags


/S Copies directories and subdirectories except empty ones.
/E Copies directories and subdirectories, including empty ones.
/V Verifies each new file.
/C Continues copying even if errors occur (skips the error causing files).
/I If destination does not exist and copying more than one file,
assumes that destination must be a directory.
/H Copies hidden and system files also.
/R Overwrites read-only files.
/K Copies attributes. Normal d:\xxcopy\xxcopy will reset read-only attributes.
/yy Suppresses prompting to confirm you want to overwrite an
existing destination file.
/X*\*.IE5\ /x\temp\ excludes directory or file. NOTE last "\" implies directory
/q3>c:\batch\hydra_ddrive.log a log file stored in c:\batch, called hydra_ddrive.log – name it as you wish. Note that /q3 is summary info, /q0 is everything.
/WV0 (as in zero and not oh) tells xxcopy to not barf due to relationships bettween the xxcopy version and various windows updates. Withou this xxcopy will stop working after a while, but you'll never know as you've automated the process.

__________________
...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

I'd bet you couldn't get close enough to use some pretty powerful eh, rocks. Back to Gates, the xcopy program has been a part of DOS since DOS 3.2 if I remember correctly. Starting with NT4 and continuing to this day it fails in some increasingly unpredictable ways. Not an unfamiliar pattern on the larger scope. Or is it scale?

Anyway, xxcopy came along to enhance the xcopy program. At least it works reliably.

__________________
...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

Microsoft warns of critical flaws
BBC

Windows is used in most of the world's home computers

Windows users are being urged to download the latest security updates from Microsoft to fix critical flaws.

The software giant has warned that three loopholes affecting Windows and Internet Explorer allow an attacker to take control of a personal computer.

Seven other updates have also been released to address less serious problems in its software.

Microsoft has been trying to improve the security of its software, releasing regular monthly security bulletins.

Bumper pack

Microsoft first alerted the millions of Windows users that it was planning a bumper pack of patches last week.

VULNERABLE SOFTWARE

Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP, Server 2003

Internet Explorer

Windows Web Client Service

Exchange Server

Outlook Express

Windows Interactive Training

Microsoft Agent

Windows Telnet Client

Microsoft ISA Server 2000

"For all consumers we recommend that they have Automatic Updates enabled," said Stephen Toulouse from Microsoft's Security Response Center.

This is a feature in Windows that downloads the software patches automatically. Computer users can also get the fixes manually from Microsoft security website.

The most serious flaws affect Windows and Internet Explorer and could be exploited by a malicious hacker to take over a computer system.

The other patches affect Windows, the Exchange server system, services for the Unix operating system, Microsoft's Interactive Training software for Windows, and ISA server, a network firewall program.

Security trials

Last month, Microsoft announced plans to offer its own anti-virus and security updates for home computers, called Windows OneCare.

The service would be on a yearly subscription basis, just like other anti-virus protection services.

It is being tested by the Microsoft employees before a trial release for the rest of the world later this year.

Although Microsoft already offers security features in its software for free, it recently bought anti-virus technology to help beef up security.

This serves the point I was making. Because IE is so tightly wound into the OS, even if you don’t use IE your computer is at risk if you don’t install the security fixes. Microsoft's arrogance is boundless.

__________________
...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

Frankly I think the problem with windows lies more int the end user than the manufacturer.

I am not saying that the manufacturer is not responsible for some or most problems, but I myself have never had any of the kinds of issues I have read about or seen personally.

I leave my system on 24/7 and have only had a hard drive fail on me once, in over 15 years.

I have 400 gb of space, and am using at least 2/3 of it. backing up for me is no big deal. I backup my most important data.

I reformat once a year simply to keep things fresh and clean out the junk.

My system before I reformatted it last, was running fine for 2 years, even after moving the drive to a whole new system and having all the hardware redetected and reinstalled due to the changes in the new system.

I reboot my computer maybe once every 2 weeks at the most just to flush the ram out.

90% of the problems I see on computers is due to user error, either installing soemthing wrong, not keeping their system clean with antivirus protection, hard drive scans, spyware scans, and defragmenting.

I run spyware scans daily. I run full virus scans every week. I run a defragment every week, and I do a hard drive scan every 2 weeks. I also keep my bios updated and all my hardware drivers are constantly being checked for updates and new updates installed as they are available.

I keep my system running good by using preventative maintenance, just like most of us do on our cars. with regular maintenance, you will find that you will have less problems with the computer. Try driving your car with the same fluids in it without ever changing them or cleaning them out and replacing them, I am willing to bet that car wont last as long as it could have if you had done the proper preventative maintenance.

Even when I used windows 95, 98, 98se, and me, I rarely had any problems, and if i did they were not major and were easy to fix.

In my opinion, computer hardware is quite reliable. I have a few older machines, one being my laptop that a client gave me because it was having problems, and all I did to it was format it and install a new os, the client didnt want to and just bought a new laptop, and gave it to me, and I have been using the laptop for the last 2 years without so much as a hiccup. I only have a few things on it, gps software, os, ms office, and my normal utilities.

The problem is that too many people blindly download and install stuff, and or spend lots of time downloading this or that software, etc from unreliable sources and end up giving access to things that will cause problems. And I am not saying I dont do the same from time to time, but I am careful about what I download and install in my machines.

I do agree that we need to stop outsourcing our tech support call centers to india or anywhere else, Frankly the lack of being able to understand someone on the other end of the line makes a support call 10 times worse than it has to be. I am not saying that the issue is with ability, but rather with the ability to understand the accent of the person who you are speaking to.

I have worked for my father, who has foreigners from all over calling his office allt he time because of the nature of his business, and I am pretty good at understanding many forein accents, but sometimes it is almost impossible to decipher what you are being told.

Another problem is that when you call some of these call centers, they may not have authority to make certain decisions, which I find is a big problem.

Thats my opinion.

Frankly whether or not you use a mac or a pc, both are not 100% reliable.

Alon

__________________
'92 300CE - Sold
2004 C240 - 744 - C7 Wheels - Android Radio
2002 C320 - 816 - Sport Wagon

Years ago, before ol' Ma Bell was broken up, they came out with an ad campaign slogan which idle malcontents cruelly twisted for their own nefarious ends and put it on bumperstickers. It could work for Microsoft as well:

We're Microsoft. We don't care. We don't have to.

The original slogan was the same only in the affirmative starting with: We're the phone company....

__________________
Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

And what's worse, they fly up out of nowhere and obscure your windshield while you're driving.

__________________
Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Interesting stuff which I needed to hear. If I could pick your brain briefly...

I've got a Gateway laptop with the Pentium M 1.5 GHz processor. While I understand they run cooler than previous models, it's not a good idea to leave one of these on 24/7 is it? I get the impression that with desktops it's less wear and tear to just leave them on.

Sometimes, I boot up and shut down 2 or 3 times a day. Is this ultimate folly or pragamatic prudence? You mention that this sort of thing likely as not will not affect the lifespan of the hard drive but I imagine there would be a limit to that.

Should I just get an external hard drive and back it up once every week or two? My previous laptop, a dell with the dreaded Me, died, or the hard drive did after about 4 years of use, and I would like to avoid that scenario this time around.

Say, did you ever go to the old "Last Exit on Brooklyn" coffee shop/cafe, over in the U district? It shut down in '92. The end of an era...

__________________
Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Does anyone here use FreeBSD? I'm thinking about giving it a shot.

One of my kids (#1) has a Mac notebook computer that automatically seeks networks and gives you the opportunity to log on to anything it detects. Kid #2 has a Windows XP laptop (Dell) that does not have that capacity. Is there anything I can buy for #2 that will give her computer something like #1?

I have a wire-based ethernet network in my house but this wireless thing I just haven't kept up with because I didn't intend to go that way. What can I do that will allow me to keep my network but give it wireless capability?

Technology is like a tasteless, odorless gas that will infiltrate life, no matter the barriers.

Nice to see you posting Alon!

Were I to limit my comments to the 9 computers running in my office now I still wouldn’t agree. Were I to open it to the hundreds of computers I care for, have done so for a long time, I'd say it’s not at all true. The users add to the issues but are not the core cause. Nothing a user can do should effect the OS. From this perspective, Windows 95 was far more reliable than is XP.

This week I've pronounced a 1.5 year old, E machine with a dead system board and failing hard drive, fixed a video problem stemming from windows update, replaced a network card that failed after ~ 5 years of 24x7 use, troubleshot and restarted 2 Exchange email servers which failed due to inability to handle some virus laden email (even with 2 separate virus scans and 2 separate spam filters processing the mail ahead of the mail server), replaced a faulty USB cable on an external hard drive, and fixed a screwed up but brand new machine because of operator error. Their previous machine died after 5 years, and even though they’d never used an XP machine, the business owner decided to save some $ and set it up themselves rather than call. In doing so they changed a 20 minute job into a 2 hour job. There’s also a problem that’s cropped up on a web server and I haven’t had the time to track it down, nor will I as the computer’s going to be retrofitted to win 2003 web server version. And I haven’t been working but 20% of my normal work load because of my back damage.

10 years ago, it used to be the case that upwards of 75% of all hardware had problems out of the box, and virtually all software needed some modification to be usable. I stopped selling computers for this reason. Now a days its about 20% for hardware, and about the same for software, exclusive of outside influences (spyware/viruses/3rd party drivers). Still not worth selling computer stuff, if you supply a warranty.

__________________
...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

I'm not sure what their response level is. I've had several cases over the years that earned me tech documents created by MS. Every one of the tech documents conveniently omitted crucial details necessary to diagnose and resolve the stated problem. This is still their pattern.

A short story: several years ago a Dell server would spontaneously reboot while running a backup used with NT4’s ntbackup program. I first worked with Dell, and replaced every component in the server, then did a ground up rebuild of the OS, and the problem persisted. I turned to Microsoft and spent about 30 hours with them. No solution. And I stopped using the $2,300 backup drive. A year later I was talking with another MS support tech about it while on another topic. They did some research and suggested looking for a file with a pipe character in the file name “|” I found such a file and renamed it. The tape backup worked reliably ever after. Now there is NO WAY a backup program should ever interpret a file name as anything but a name, but for reasons never explained, and never resolved through the NT4 product cycle, it remained a problem. Sounds hauntingly familiar to the xcopy issue mentioned above. Thanks MS!

__________________
...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

Laptops are very subject to wear and tear due to heat cycling. And even if not due to that, the transformer, or maybe it’s an inverter (I don’t know the specific component name) supplying power to the video fails after 2-3 years. I don’t think power cycling will make a difference. One of my pat suggestions is to remove items not used such as batteries floppy or CD drives, even the covers under the computer and use fans to blow air into the box from all angles. Also there are laptop coolers devices which push air against the bottom. In some cases folks even remove the keyboard and use an external one to permit greater cooling. The objective is to remove excess heat, which over time causes components to fail. Z had a similar case recently. Never did hear the outcome. I have 4 laptops sitting on a shelf that all failed in one or more ways. I now replace them ever 3 years or at the first hiccup.

The ultimate pattern failure here is with the Dell Optiplex line. Folks love these due to the small form factor. Problem is I've seen up to I think it was 15 of them, which were bought in a batch fail with in a week of each other. I've seen lots more fail but this was the biggest group shrug. They were all out of warranty by a couple of months. Dell wouldn’t budge on good will. The company who bought this had bought about 300 Dell computers over the years. As recently as 2 months ago another 3 Optiplex failed within 3 days. All due to heat related problems.


yes every day if you use it daily.See the xxcopy reference above.

Oh yeah, i went there several times, most notably was with some friends on my first hallucinogenic drug "experiment." But I think it was on Broadway. haven't been there since '78. Great cheese cake and expresso!

__________________
...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"