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Computer Technical Assistance Request ^(n-1)
12-15-2011, 03:33 AM
Some of you may now I have a Dell Optiplex 360... if you don't, you do now.
It came with a single SATA 250GB hard drive, and Window 7 Pro 32 bit. (Love Dell for not supplying the 64bit version) Needless to say it got a little... crampted. So I put a second hard disk on it. 500GB disk... That gave me a little room to 'live'.
However, my computer is getting a little full, so I went an bought a 2TB hard disk. Yes, I managed to find one despite the recent flooding in Thailand.
Back up everything to a external hard disk... check.
Any tips or suggestions before I go yanking my computer innards? - General files... dump everything to external hard disk
- Thunderbird backup... use MozBackup
- Steam... ?
- CoX... dump to external hard disk
- Other games... dump to hard disk
- Other apps ... disk
- Word ... disk
- Anything else
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don't wipe your old disk?
What's your game plan here? Are you looking to do a new installation onto the 2tb?
If so, that's just what I'd do. Remove the 250 and the 500, install the 2tb, install Windows. Then mount (if money allows, I recommend an external cradle or adapter) the 500, copy it bare, pull it, set it aside, mount the 250, copy it over, set it aside..
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
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Don't be afraid to purge things.
I know you're thinking of saving things. But half the files and programs on my current system are only there because I thought I might need them some time in the future.... some of them haven't even been accessed since I copied them back over onto this system after my last reinstall.
And some from the reinstall before that.
And some dating all the way back to the day I got my first laptop.
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Or use something like Acronis and use that to migrate your 250gb boot to the 2tb, and then transfer stuff from the 500gb to the 2tb. Hey if you want to do it the approved 'Microsoft way' Win 7's Windows Easy Transfer can do a surprising amount of heavy file lifting, it just takes awhile. I've seen 3 hrs for 20GB over USB.
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I may or may not have computers from places I have not worked in over a decade still archived on the fileserver 'just in case'.
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
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http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies
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Game plan was copy everything from both disks onto the 2T external hard disk, wipe the 500GB disk, yank out the 250GB disk, install the new 2TB, and reinstall window 7 from the installation cd.
Then when Windows was installed, I'd start copying things back across.
I've had unpleasant memories of Microsoft's Easy File transfer losing things and forgetting files when trying to copy my primary drive once to a backup over USB.
I've run out of SATA slots, or I'd keep the original drive.
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Have you considered network-attached storage (NAS) instead of upgrading the drive in your computer? If you upgrade your current PC, you'll have to copy everything over when you get a new PC. If you have a NAS, all you need to do is let the new PC (or your laptop, if you have one) mount the drive and you're ready to roll...
If this was me doing the upgrade, I'd leave the 250GB drive in the PC as the "system" drive, holding the O/S and any key software. Everything else would get moved over to the NAS, where all my computers (present and future) can find it.
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NAS... *hides geek card* I had heard of Network Attached Storage... but I honestly have no clue what it involves.
Does it involve more hardware?
Edit to add:
Can you play games over a NAS? Such as CoX, various strategy and single player games, and Steam games.
Privacy? There are 5+ users on our network... I don't want my files shared with them.
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It does involve more hardware, yes. That hardware is relatively inexpensive. (I'd point you at what I have, but it looks like they don't make it any more.) It also involves a free port on your router, to plug the NAS into your network. PC Magazine has a page for their NAS reviews.
Games, etc.: You can do anything with a NAS that you can do with an internal hard drive, as long as the network is turned on.
Privacy: Any decent NAS will let you set up virtual drives with password protection.
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Rob Kelk
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Hmmm.....
So basically putting the surplus drives we have around the place into something like this: ( Click meh) and plugging it into the network.
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Basically, yes.
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Rob Kelk
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And I've two NAS's on my network a HP one that they didn't market heavily or for too long and Apple's infamous Time Capsule. Both do what I want and transmitting GB of data between them & linked 'puters is quicker than trying to do the same over USB. My wired network's all gigabit. Still doesn't mean that I'm not looking for a better box to add/replace/consolidate them - I am - yet I've never seen a NAS box of the type I'm looking for: rackmounted & less than 19" deep aka would fit in a communication rack cabinet.
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The second-to-last time I had to do this, I used this handy-dandy guide:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/13 ... puter.html
It worked with no hitches for me, and the online activation didn't so much as hiccup.
Unfortunately, the most-recent time I had to move HDs it was due to a massive series of bad sectors on the source disk, so the Backup and Restore option in that thread wasn't, er, an option. But with how easy it was (using SysPrep) the first time, I have no doubt that if the drive had been salvageable it would have worked.
--sofaspud
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Thanks for all the advice.
A NAS system is going on the wish list, and I'm going to be doing computer surgery sometime in the next 48 hours.
Now the only decision is what size to make the partitions. Currently I have C: at 125GB and the rest at 50GB, most of which are ... getting fullish.
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Then they're obviously too small. Bump them up by whatever percentage you think is a good idea... then double the resulting number, because something's going to come along in the next couple of years to fill those larger drives.
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Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
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Personally?
Partition 1: Bootable, System, 100%.
I don't fark around with splitting physical disks amongst multiple partitions. I'm more likely to go split logical access methods (shares or partitions, depending on context) across multiple physical disks..
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
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I'm with Wiredgeek on this one. Unless you have some application-based need for multiple partitions*, it seems like it just opens you up for more problems without any real advantage.
*The only such need I can think of is Linux. Well, or dual booting in general maybe. But Linux often wants you to have multiple partitions just for it.
-Morgan.
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One occasionally runs into a need for multiple smaller partitions when running z/OS, especially with the Tivoli software suite. But if you're running z/OS, you have a mainframe and you already know all of this...
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I've found that partitions can be quite a nice way to do the inevitable Windows reinstall without losing your files. Of course, a nicer way would be a second hard drive, but if you're working on the cheap...
Aside from that, I only use them for multi-boot. One drive, four partitions.
(XP, 7, Ubuntu, and Ubuntu swap, if you're curious.)
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Its been 8 months since I last tried to 'upgrade' my old POS box... which means that the data I'd gathered then probobly is moot now. So, after a morning of browsing through frys, I've sort of compiled this as a replacement system. The general goals were to balance price vs system lifespan with an inital starting requirement of being able to handle City of X in Ultra mode.
Motherboard: MSI Z68A-G43 S1155
FRYS.com #6826976 UPC: 816909090314 Price: $125
CPU:Intel i5 2400 (2nd Gen, Sandy Bridge)
FRYS.com #6487372 UPC: 735858217378 Price: $200
Case: Cooler Master HAF 912
FRYS.com #6348461 UPC: 884102009877 Price: $ 55
PSU: THERMALTAKE TR-600
FRYS.com #6740065 UPC: 841163042670 Price: $ 60
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64 bit Operating System
(OEM/System Builder Version)
FRYS.com #6587503 UPC: 885370258813 Price: $140
Video: Diamond Radeon HD5750 1GB Model: 5750PE51G
FRYS.com #6074158 UPC: 757448008937 Price: $130
Sound: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Internal Model: 70sb104000000
FRYS.com #5445819 UPC: 054651146143 Price: $ 60
Memory: WINTEC DDR3 2GB PC1333MHz SINGLE MODULE ($10x4) (8gb)
FRYS.com #6800506 UPC: 800953172621 PRice: $ 40
Monitor: SAMSUNG B2430H 24" Widescreen LCD
FRYS.com #6285970 UPC: 729507811475 Price: $220
Hard Drive: Samsung 1TB SATA 3.0 Model: HE103UJ
FRYS.com #6335791 UPC: 602956006565 PRice: $ 65
DVD 1: LG 10X BLURAY COMBO Model: CH10LS20
FRYS.com #6208430 UPC: 058231294774 PRice: $ 43
DVD 2: LG 24X SATA DVDRW Model: GH24NS50
FRYS.com #6207540 UPC: 058231297102 Price: $ 23
Enermax Intel/AMD CPU Cooler Model: ETS-T40-TB
FRYS.com #6826996 UPC: 816163005086 Price: $ 30
Total: $1191
Suggestions/changes/important bits I've forgotten? (at the moment I've decided to reuse the keyboard, mice, speakers..)
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I'll bring up something you may already have handled: backup
do you have a backup system in place?
If not, it may be easiest to toss in another hard drive and setup mirroring/raid/other backup solution across the two.
-Terry
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sweno Wrote:I'll bring up something you may already have handled: backup
do you have a backup system in place?
If not, it may be easiest to toss in another hard drive and setup mirroring/raid/other backup solution across the two.
I refer you to the discussion up-thread about a NAS. That's a better backup solution than an internal drive, IMHO - if the PC's power supply blows and takes down the entire PC, you've still got the NAS.
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is a NAS better? yes
more expensive and complicated? also yes
I have yet to deal with a nas/raid box that I would recommend to friends that didn't end up costing more than $300 once it was it filled up.
that is significantly more expensive than $50 for a second hard drive.
but it does have the benefit of being able to act as a central backup store to an entire network.
(and I have yet to lose computer parts due to power supply failure)
-Terry
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"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
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And I have yet to have my home burn down... but I still have fire insurance.
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them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
CattyNebulart
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It comes down on how much you feel your data is worth. Imagine that the computer is utterly destroyed somehow, could you live without your data or would you lose decades worth of work? If it more towards the former you might not need backups, if it is the later you'll need more than just a NAS.
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