General Computer Thread

[Amaris]

Freeware: http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/

Will completely image a drive.

I'll try it, though it seems to be Free Trial rather than freeware.

 

[Marc]

True. I guess I'm stuck in a rut, because my hardware was so old that an image backup took many hours, and none of the software I had offered incremental backups until I got SyncBack. Of course, SyncBack doesn't image, it just lets you preserve all of your files in a hierarchy tree on another drive (so you can essentially just drag and drop it into the new installation). For me that has worked, but if there's a better solution (it has to be either free or very cheap as I don't have any more money), I'm all ears.

Yest Syncback is a nice little program - I've used it for years.

Another free image backup program is Paragon which I also use and it works pretty good and unless they've changed it has totally free version.

The thing I've found that affects the speed of the image backup is the destination media. I've backup my system using Paragon and it's taken maybe 45 mins to an external USB 3.0 drive. Same program, same external drive on mother-in-law's HP Laptop (running the same model SSD as my desktop) takes a lot lot longer because it's limited to USB2.

 

[Santaman]

I'll try it, though it seems to be Free Trial rather than freeware.

True, you do have to download it again after it expires, I think that is a small hinderance for what it does.

 

[Amaris]

Yest Syncback is a nice little program - I've used it for years.

Another free image backup program is Paragon which I also use and it works pretty good and unless they've changed it has totally free version.

The thing I've found that affects the speed of the image backup is the destination media. I've backup my system using Paragon and it's taken maybe 45 mins to an external USB 3.0 drive. Same program, same external drive on mother-in-law's HP Laptop (running the same model SSD as my desktop) takes a lot lot longer because it's limited to USB2.

Do you know if it does incremental backups? That's what really interests me, because I like to backup my drive every week.

True, you do have to download it again after it expires, I think that is a small hinderance for what it does.

Ah, I see. Okay.

 

[Marc]

Do you know if it does incremental backups? That's what really interests me, because I like to backup my drive every week.

yes it has an incremental backup option.

 

[Amaris]

yes it has an incremental backup option.

That sounds good! I'll check it out, too!

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

The Samsung came with its own software but no one I know bothers to use the stuff they give you in the box. I have been using Macrium Reflect and that works flawlessly.

When I got my new drive at the beginning of May I used Reflect to clone my C: drive to the SSD and even though the C: drive was bigger Reflect was smart enough to know this and copied everything it needed over and adjusted everything to the new drive. Regardless I did a full backup and have that on my B drive which is a 2 terabyte mechanical drive. The same size as my old C: drive..

I'm seriously considering another 850 Evo of the same size to replace my B drive and I'll keep the old B drive too as that's got my system backup on it. I have learnt the hard way that backups are an essential thing after I had a crash a few years back and lost all my photo shoots and all my documents.

 

[SPCTRE]

Congrats on the new rig, @Coloratura - make sure you get in some of that sweet SSD action when a deal presents itself

 

[Santaman]

I am really looking forward to AMD's new stuff, not that I need an upgrade, I'm just curious to where they're at.

 

[Amaris]

Congrats on the new rig, @Coloratura - make sure you get in some of that sweet SSD action when a deal presents itself

I might start small, and get a smaller drive, and if everything looks good, I'll upgrade later. Of course, that's well down the road, but I'll keep it in mind!

 

[Amaris]

Oh, and something else I've discovered: new computers are fast. I keep forgetting my computer is new, and not the old one I've had for nearly a decade. I was looking for a word processing program today, because I write a lot of songs and stories. I have LibreOffice installed, but I remembered how heavy it was and how long it too to load just a simple text document (about 30-45 seconds). So I figured use the app that came with Windows, but I needed something beyond Wordpad because I also take note of word counts and other features I need that it doesn't have. So I tried a couple of tiny lightweight programs and didn't like them for one reason or another.

Out of frustration, I said out loud "I can't use LibreOffice because..." <double click LibreOffice Write icon> "...it takes way too..." <LibreOffice splash screen> "...long to..." <LibreOffice Word loads> "... oh."

Seriously, in the few seconds it took to say that sentence, LibreOffice loaded into memory, and then opened ready to go. I had never seen the program load that damned fast, and I was impressed. I guess I have what I need after all. Hooray, modern computers!

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I still have and use OpenOffice 4 for my writing needs. On the SSD it opens in under 2 seconds.... I timed it

Just under 3 seconds to load in documents

 

[SPCTRE]

I might start small, and get a smaller drive, and if everything looks good, I'll upgrade later. Of course, that's well down the road, but I'll keep it in mind!

you'll never look back once you've had your OS boot from an SSD

 

[Marc]

you'll never look back once you've had your OS boot from an SSD

The system I keep at my in-laws place is currently booting of a a very old seagate 130GB SATA-150 drive and it's painful. NewEgg had a Mushkin Eco 120GB on sale for $CA49.99 so I've ordered on and it will hopefully make a big improve (the system is running a 2nd gen Core i3 that was my wife's until her parents gave her a laptop for Xmas a couple of years back).

I occasionally have to go out and do a restage for a series of retail outlets and wish their systems had SSDs - it would make thing so much quicker then again so might moving away from the old core2 systems.

 

[Amaris]

you'll never look back once you've had your OS boot from an SSD

Pfft. You say that now, but I won't believe until later after it actually happens.

 

[Santaman]

There is quite an improvement when you start using an SSD, wished they would make drives out of Static RAM, that is the same stuff as the level 1 cache of a CPU, years ago I saw a 4GB drive made out of the stuff and I think it cost about 40.000 Euro..

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

There is quite an improvement when you start using an SSD, wished they would make drives out of Static RAM, that is the same stuff as the level 1 cache of a CPU, years ago I saw a 4GB drive made out of the stuff and I think it cost about 40.000 Euro..

Doesn't Static RAM need constant refreshing to keep the data "alive?"

Nand gates keep the data hence why they are favoured in SSD drives and don't require constant power or refresh cycles..

 

[Santaman]

No, it only will start to lose data after a while, its not like DRAM which needs to be refreshed constantly, this is why it is so fast, but its data density is low and it is expensive to make.

 

[Amaris]

I got my RAM today, now I'm waiting on my video card. The RAM showed an immediate performance boost (I use PCMark 8), which was awesome. Now, though, the big enchilada needs to be tested, but I can't until DHL shows up with it, and I don't like them because their "Friday by 5 PM" usually becomes "Monday by 5 PM" or more likely "Tuesday by 5 PM".

Anyway, I wanted to post this. I actually sat down for half an hour here, and did my damndest to recall all of my computers I've had. I put them in a list, and they bring back SO many memories. I did leave out computers I had rented to own (I had several like that, but I never had them for more than a month or two) or computers I built from scrap parts and gave away, so these are all personally owned computers. I tried to be specific as possible but, as you can imagine, remembering a computer I haven't seen in 20 years might be hard to recall completely. At least, it's that way for me.

So here they are:

1993
Commodore 64c
1.023 Mhz w/ integrated VIC II (video) and SID (sound) 6510 Co-processor
64KB RAM
VIC II Graphics Co-processor (16 color)
SD Television (RGB 320x200)
20 KB ROM (No HDD)
720 KB 5.25" Floppy Disk Drive (1541 C)
Cassette Drive
SID Audio Co-processor
Commodore BASIC (No OS)


1994
Zenith DataSystems 286
12 Mhz Intel 286 Processor
1 MB RAM
Oak Technologies EGA Card
Zenith 14" EGA Monitor (640x350)
300 MB HDD
1.44 MB 3.5" Floppy Diskette Drive
720 KB 5.25" Floppy Disk Drive
PC Speaker (Bleep Bloop Bleep)
DOS 5.0, Windows 3.1


1996
Laser Personal Computer
33Mhz Intel 386DX Processor
6 MB RAM
Oak Technologies 256 KB EGA Card
Sabre 15" EGA Monitor (640x350)
600 MB HDD
1.44 MB 3.5" Floppy Diskette Drive
720 KB 5.25" Floppy Disk Drive
Single Speed CD-ROM (Caddy)
9600 Baud Practical Peripherals Modem (upgraded to 14.4Kbps PPM)
Soundblaster Pro Sound Card
DOS 6.22, Windows 3.11


1999
HP Pavilion 6635
533Mhz Celeron Processor
64 MB PC-100 RAM
32 MB Onboard Video Memory
HP 15" SVGA Monitor (800x600)
10 GB HDD
1.44 MB 3.5" Floppy Diskette Drive
12X DVD ROM Drive
56K Modem/NIC Card
Soundblaster Compatible Onboard Audio / Polk Audio Speakers
DOS 7, Windows 98 SE (downgraded to WinME, then upgraded to 98 SE again)


2003
Compaq Presario
350Mhz AMD K6-2
128 MB PC-100 RAM
32 MB Onboard Video Graphics (SVGA)
15" AOC SVGA Monitor (1024x768)
20 GB HDD
1.44 MB 3.5" Floppy Diskette Drive
52X CD-ReWritable
28.8K Lasat External Modem (upgraded to internal U.S. Robotics 56K Modem)/NIC Card
Avance Logic Sound Card
DOS 7, Windows 98 SE (Upgraded to WinXP Home)


2004
Gateway 2000 P5-60
60 Mhz Intel Pentium Processor
64 MB RAM
8 MB Onboard Video Graphics (SVGA)
17" Gateway CRT Monitor (1024x768)
10 GB HDD
1.44 MB 3.5" Floppy Diskette Drive
8X CD-ROM Drive
56K Modem
Soundblaster Compatible Onboard Audio
DOS 7, Windows 98


2005
Custom Built System
1.6Ghz AMD Athlon XP 2800+
2 GB PC-333 RAM
Nvidia (XFX) GeForce FX 5200 8x AGP 128 MB Graphics Card
17" Sceptre LCD Flat Panel Monitor (1650x1020)
40 GB HDD
1.44 MB 3.5" Floppy Diskette Drive
12X DVD/CD ReWritable (DVD, CD)
56K Modem/NIC Card
Soundblaster Compatible Onboard Audio
Windows XP Home Edition


2009
HP Pavilion a6803w
2.5Ghz AMD Athlon 64 X2 Processor (Dual Core)
3 GB RAM
ATI Radeon HD4670 16x PCI-E 2 GB Graphics Card
19" HP 2009m LCD Flat Panel Monitor (1600x900)
500 GB HDD, 1 TB Secondary HDD
12X LightScribe SuperMulti-Drive (DVD, CD)
56K Modem/NIC Card
Soundblaster Compatible Onboard Audio
Windows Vista (upgraded to Windows 7) (Upgraded to Windows 10)


2016 (Current)
HP Pavilion 550-153wb
3.7Ghz Intel i3 Dual Core Processor
16 GB Mushkin DDR3 PC3L-12800 RAM
Nvidia GeForce 740 16x PCI-E 1 GB Graphics Card
23" HP LED Flat Panel Monitor (1920x1080)
1 TB HDD, 1 TB Secondary HDD
24x SuperMulti-Drive (DVD, CD)
B&O (Bang & Olufsen) Premium Onboard Audio
Windows 10 Home

 

[publiusr]

On the horizon--faster speeds for quantum systems:
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1507.05848.pdf
http://nextbigfuture.com/2016/06/infinite-number-of-quantum-mechanics.html