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SubscribeCalling All Linux Users!
monkeyboy
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Registered: 10-Apr-2005
male usa
oh your one of them. lol. always makes us laugh where i work

i've been told i have over kill on HD space, i say NEVER! lol, i'm running a 120g (main hard disk), 160g (mp3s), 160g (Personal files), 250 (gaming data). no more disks in my main pc. unless i get another IDE controller

but yea, the imageing is very nice. just waste that initial 3-7 hour install, then image the hard disk, anytime u have to again, its like 5-20 minutes dependin on how many disks it is.

Fish tanks are an expensive addiction
Post InfoPosted 26-Jan-2006 11:33Profile PM Edit Report 
Racso
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Mega Fish
Some Assembly Required
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Registered: 19-Feb-2002
male usa us-ohio
*continues argument*

FORD!!
CHEVY!!
FORD!!
CHEVY!!
FORD!!
CHEVY


oops, wrong one.... i meant:

PEPSI!!
COKE!!
PEPSI!!

..... oops..... wrong one again

WINDOWS!!!
LINUX!!!
WINDOWS!!!
LINUX!!!
MAC!!

Post InfoPosted 26-Jan-2006 11:33Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
Fallout
 
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what's your setup tiny?
Post InfoPosted 26-Jan-2006 11:33Profile Homepage ICQ AIM MSN Yahoo PM Edit Delete Report 
Dr. Bonke
 
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male finland
heh... some of the posts here sound very familiar. At home we have two PCs, one for me and one for my wife, I maintain both of them. Both PCs are very similar in setup, run winXP pro, yet I end up reinstalling my PC about every 2-3 months or so, while my wife's pc has been up and running for more than a year (it's usually running about 16 hours a day). The difference lies in the fact that she just uses the programs that I have installed on them and never adds anything new, that keeps the OS pretty much as stable as it can be and I don't think she has had a critical failure even once in the last year.

On my own PC I'm continuously trying to keep up with new drivers and tend to install small programs that I need once or twice. Generally that means that after about 2 - 3 months the OS has become a bit sluggish, some programs might not quite work anymore due to conflicting driver issues and I end up reinstalling the OS. I reinstall because in general it takes a lot less time than trying to trouble shoot. Just last week I had downloaded a small program which also added some spyware to the PC. I spent half a day trying to get rid of that stuff, but in the end was unsuccessful, it had planted itself in all the system folders, registry and god knows where. Every time I did a scan with a spyware remover it would find and delete the same things over and over again, just to have it right back right after a reboot. In the end I had enough and did a full reinstall, which took about 3-4 hours or so. Now everything runs great again - for a month or two
Post InfoPosted 26-Jan-2006 11:33Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
tiny_clanger
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female uk
what's your setup tiny?


Athlon XP2500+ - not overclocked - stock heatsink
1g Corsair RAM
DFI Lan Party mobo
Radeon 9800pro (been through the mill a bit tho)
Audigy 2
80g/160g internal IDE HD
160g external
550w PSU
DVDR/CDRW
graphire3 tablet instead of mouse
Saitek USB kb and Saitek joysticks

Air cooled with 2 ins, 1 out and a heat extractor below the gfx card

Win XP SP2 but non-updateable due to microsoft's anti piracy

It's the WIn Xp disks that get me, every time. When I have some money, I'll sort that out, but not yet!

(But I dont think the random 2nd hand bits of hardware, the lack of cooling, the highly fragmented drives with permenant low disk space conditions which make defrags nigh on impossbile, the quirky MAC spoofing set up so I can get on the net, etc, etc, help any!)




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I like to think that whoever designed marine life was thinking of it as basically an entertainment medium. That would explain some of the things down there, some of the unearthly biological contraptions
Post InfoPosted 26-Jan-2006 11:33Profile MSN PM Edit Delete Report 
tiny_clanger
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It's a workhorse where XP is almost like a fluffy sofa.


I disagree. XP Home, definitely and winME, yes, but behind the "fluffy" GUI of 2k and XPpro is a very powerful OS. Take networking for example, 2k and Xp make networking fantastically easy - as you say, it'd take a moron not to be able to get a basic setup working. But, the tools are there for much more complex networking that many flavours of Linux just can't do. My house network in 2003 was a great example, the guy using linux was using a flavour with DHCP active and which couldnt be disabled. So the router and his PC DHCP bombed until the network fell down. This happened again and again on my uni corporate lan last year, where a novice Linux user, or a person using a poor flavour, was unable to disable DHCP and bombed the network, causing major connectivity issues for many people.

Just because you may never go beyond the fluffy GUI, dont assume that it's all Windows has. Another example - the found new hardware wizard. People complain about it, but it is an example of an extremely powerful feature - I have seen Linux users forced to recompile the kernal every time they wished to update drivers - a routine procedure in Windows.

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I like to think that whoever designed marine life was thinking of it as basically an entertainment medium. That would explain some of the things down there, some of the unearthly biological contraptions
Post InfoPosted 26-Jan-2006 11:33Profile MSN PM Edit Delete Report 
Fallout
 
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hmm.. dfi... what model is it?

how about the ram?

Post InfoPosted 26-Jan-2006 11:33Profile Homepage ICQ AIM MSN Yahoo PM Edit Delete Report 
poisonwaffle
 
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male usa
I agree with Tiny...reformatting is a lot easier than dealing with stupid windows errors

I try to reformat every 2-3 months...I rather need to reformat now, but I can't find my new WinXP Pro SP2 CD
Post InfoPosted 26-Jan-2006 11:33Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
monkeyboy
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male usa
oh yea. lol external, i have an 80g external i use for my mp3s when i'm at work


Fish tanks are an expensive addiction
Post InfoPosted 26-Jan-2006 11:33Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
tiny_clanger
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female uk
ooh - I'd love that much space!

I run 160g - data
160g ext - anime and backups
80g - os, apps and a small amount of data


I want to replace the 160 and the 80 with 250's IDE, can't afford it tho. HD space - I remember when 1g was huuggee and you never thought you'd ever have that much data!

And I'd love to image, but by the time I've spent >12 hours getting a working install, I always forget. I really dislike the fact that windows never takes on the first install, at least not for me!

Last edited by tiny_clanger at 09-Oct-2005 14:22

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I like to think that whoever designed marine life was thinking of it as basically an entertainment medium. That would explain some of the things down there, some of the unearthly biological contraptions
Post InfoPosted 26-Jan-2006 11:33Profile MSN PM Edit Delete Report 
Fallout
 
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Are you rigourous in maintaining your system with no low disk space,

I maintain my system, antivirus and firewall are running 24/7, antivirus updated and sweep usually once a week, cleanup to get rid of temp files, cached files, cookies (cept for a few select ones, i hate logging in), MRU's internet temp etc etc usually once a week or so, anti-spyware updated every week and ran, eventhough all it picks up are the cookies i didn't delete, but it doesn't hurt to run, and norton's windoctor once a week. I run speed disk too, but only once every month or two as it doesn't do all that much anyway. Disk space was somewhat of an issue with my old computer, usually tetering around the 15%-20% free mark, sometimes dipping lower to the point where there was only a few hundred megs free. It was a 20gb (hey, it was built 5 years ago, it was big then) and my new computer has two SATA HDD's, a 76 and 100gb.


what about driver updates,etc?

I check for updated drivers and BIOS usually once a month, and update as final versions come out, i try and stay away from beta if i can for important things. You don't really NEED to update drivers if your hardware is working properly, but i like to stay current in case i want to do something in the future that one of the driver updates has resolved.

Do you use a registry cleaner or do you manually clean the registry?

I manually clean the registry every so often, probably once every 6 months. The norton windoctor does a decent job keeping tabs on it, but it does miss some stuff.

Do you use very good quality hardware,

I try and get quality hardware, usually not top of the line stuff but reputable enough. I do my research before snaggin' up hardware to make sure it'll work and won't conflict with anything. My last computer had a no name PSU and it showed, nasty power leaks ran throughout the case and made my speakers buzz so bad i couldn't have them on most of the time with my new sound card. Cheap crap... so i got a better one for this computer and it shows.

run a ninja system without thrashing it, keep it cool, etc?

I do a lot of stuff with my computer- game, do 3d renderings and animation with Lightwave, sound and video editing since i got my All In Wonder video card, watch/record some TV, rip/burn/convert mp3's, cda's etc like everyone else, build some simple webpages, nothing OUTRAGEOUS, but i have no doubt that my computer could handle it. I play with overclocking too, so cooling is a priority, but i don't go overboard. I've got a nice coolermaster copper heatsink/fan combo on my CPU, an 80mm fan in the front pulling cool air in (need another one to balance out the two fans pulling air out) and a 120mm pulling air out of the case, plus the stock fan in the PSU. I use rounded cables for my IDE/Floppy channels, make sure extra power cables are tucked up out of the way of critical airflow pathways, run the front USB/1934 cables along the edge of the case out of the way, run the internal USB for my combo 3.5 card reader out of the way power cables for devices out of the way, etc etc, and sata is small enough on it's own. What's left is a clean, logical install that looks nice and is conducive to good airflow/cooling. I also use canend air to get the excess dust out of cooling fins and unused ports/slots, and standing dust off the physical board usually once every few months to keep humidity/static electricity at bay.

Standard maintainence, really. Just do what monkeyboy and just about everyone else has said, and you shouldn't have any problems. Common sense goes a long way
Post InfoPosted 26-Jan-2006 11:33Profile Homepage ICQ AIM MSN Yahoo PM Edit Delete Report 
Callatya
 
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The girl's got crabs!
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female australia au-newsouthwales
I am the type that tech support hate.

I fiddle. I tinker. I adjust. not big things, just little things.

I like small useful proggies. I'll use beta releases. I'll even use stuff off magazine disks! *gasp*

I don't do anything stupid, but I have so much oddbod stuff on here, incompatibilities crop up.

I run spyware progs, virus progs, defrag on a regular basis, I do all the required maintenance.
I even wait before installing those update things in case they have nasty side effects.

I do have some games on here (Q3, Battlefront, ET, UT2004) and they seem to make the whole system more moody than its previous incarnations, but after a reboot, it forgets it was upset.

Hardware-wise, its fairly stock-standard in there, cept for and extra 40g HD and the videocard (9600) but even that isn't sparkly new.
I count 3 fans and a whopping heatsink, and the house is A/C, and it gets a dustout every time its opened. I think watercooling would be overkill to be honest, but i'm not saying no to an extra vent and fan or just better fans... preferably glow-in-the-dark-blue, but you can't have everything
I don't want to upgrade hardware too much, as within 12 months i'm hoping to upgrade to an AMD Shuttle dealie, which I plan to keep for a while, making this machine into either a server or a glorified CD player.

I will do the image dealie, have had 3 recommendations for that so far


Last edited by Callatya at 09-Oct-2005 10:06

Last edited by Callatya at 09-Oct-2005 10:07

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Post InfoPosted 26-Jan-2006 11:33Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
monkeyboy
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male usa
as far as disk space, these days with prices cheap on harddrives, its time to upgrade to something alot larger. i just got a 250g for only $99. drivers? unless your gaming, you dont have to update the drivers every month. even then, their not updated as often as alot of people think. best thing, is let them run and check now and then for an update. as for a registry cleaner, you only need something like this, if your constatly adding and removing programs.


if you want to save time on installation process, find online for a program called Ghost, believe its from Norton. it comes with easy to follow instructions. Basicly what goes on here, is you install your system, all the base programs and anything else you want, then boot to this programs disk and basicly writes an image file of your
entire harddisk to a cd or dvd, and anytime you want to "start fresh", you just follow the restore process. I use this on my servers and other pc's i build for people.


my pc last year was high end, now its out dated (p4 2.5g 1g ram) and i'm a extreme gamer, with alot of high end audio/video rendering software and hardware and running windows 2k and in the 18 months i've had this box up. never had any problems with sofware or hardware.

best way to avoid alot of user problems is follow the folling advise.

1. stay away from untrusting sites.
2. dont install things you dont know what it is or who its from
3. firewall big time, i use zone alarm and love it, norton is also good.
4. HIGHLY advise to help avoid problems on any computer with any os, anti-virus updated frequently.
5. system updates.

do this and you wont have problems. oh also dont play around in things you dont know about, like the system registry.

and only advice i can offer for hardware, that should extend the life of things, is cooling, mutliple fans in the pc or if your up to the test, water cooling. but take note, you may need a larger power supply for the fans and all the system resources. i myself have 3 fans in my server and 5 in my gaming box. and any pc i build i always put at least 2.

if you can afford a lovely multiple redundant RAID array

for this, i dont run raid, i run my primary hard disk and gaming drive off of one IDE controller, 1 cd and dvd rom off the secondary IDE, and also have another IDE controller card running the other (now 2) hard disk and dvd burners. i've been told to run raid, but i live life by the rule, "if it aint broke, dont break it" and ide works for me

other wise, myself, and others who fix them will keep making money on other people not following the free advice and then by them coming to us to fix it.


all in all, its just free advice from us all.

Last edited by monkeyboy at 09-Oct-2005 07:47

Fish tanks are an expensive addiction
Post InfoPosted 26-Jan-2006 11:33Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
tiny_clanger
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Honestly Fallout - I'm interested. I know a lot of highly qualified, expert computer people and none of them can maintain a stable windows install for more than about 3 months.

What do you do to keep it stable? Are you rigourous in maintaining your system with no low disk space, what about driver updates,etc? Do you use a registry cleaner or do you manually clean the registry? Do you use very good quality hardware, run a ninja system without thrashing it, keep it cool, etc?

I would love to reinstall less often, and you must be the first person who sounds as though they have a genuinely good quality stable install. (a system full of spyware which needs reinstalling but doesnt get it because the user does not know how, doesnt count)

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I like to think that whoever designed marine life was thinking of it as basically an entertainment medium. That would explain some of the things down there, some of the unearthly biological contraptions
Post InfoPosted 26-Jan-2006 11:33Profile MSN PM Edit Delete Report 
Fallout
 
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Well, some people can run computers, others can't.

Apparently this debate is like AMD vs Intel and ATI vs nVidia, no matter what you say you're never right.

You guys just keep on doin' what you're doin, i'll shut up now.
Post InfoPosted 26-Jan-2006 11:33Profile Homepage ICQ AIM MSN Yahoo PM Edit Delete Report 
trystianity
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female canada
I'm definatly keeping XP, but for general surfing, office and email, I want something less cumbersome and less forgetful.
And something that GIMP won't crash.


Linux is great for all of those things. Definitely less cumbersome, runs faster and like I said with fewer hiccups. Any OS will fail if you abuse it, people. I would like to know what you're all doing to your poor linux boxes to make them die so spectacularly? I never had a problem with it, FAR FAR fewer than I've had with XP and I was running RH9 which is pretty dodgy as far as Linux goes IMO.

Again what I like about Linux is that it just does what it's meant to without a lot of fussy bells and whistles for consumer appeal. It's a workhorse where XP is almost like a fluffy sofa. Looks nice, comfy most of the time, you'd have to be a complete moron to not be able to use it, etc. That's the impression I got from it anyway. For gaming and software compatability I'll take XP, everything else (most of what I use my PC for) I prefer Linux. I don't have a great up-to-the-minute PC, Linux made the most of it where XP just got sticky.

I like being able to run my PC for over a month (had an uptime of 40-something days at one point before I had to boot into xp to play some game - and yes, I used the comp every day) without a single reboot. Could XP do the same? Mine never has. I could be doing something wrong but honestly I'm a pretty average nerdy computer user who makes typical operating errors. So kill me. All I'm saying is that for the average user, Linux is probably a whole lot more stable and streamlined than XP could ever claim to be.

I am running GIMP on XP, works ok for me with the occasional error. I does run a lot better on Linux, however.

Anyway, what is the big deal here? So she wants to expand her horizons and try something new, not worth this much argument.
Post InfoPosted 26-Jan-2006 11:33Profile Homepage ICQ AIM MSN Yahoo PM Edit Delete Report 
tiny_clanger
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Also, tbh, I have never had to reformat cos of a fatal crash (except when I overclocked my RAM lol)

I reformat because - windows makes random noises which annoy me; windows gets slow which annoys me; windows loses USB devices; I install graphics drivers which mess with system; I am going to a lan; I've come back from a lan; I'm at a lan and been gaming for 24 hours straight, processor has been running at 67C for hours and windows has had enough.

I reformat and reinstall cos I think it's easier than troubleshooting Windows. I dont put up with problems other people do, I dont put up with a messed up registry, I dont do system restore. If I had Calla's system, I would reformat and reinstall and leave Linux. If the problem reoccured over fresh installs of windows, it would indicate some kind of problem somewhere which is either down to additional software used or a pervasive hardware fault that may well cause more damage in linux than windows.

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I like to think that whoever designed marine life was thinking of it as basically an entertainment medium. That would explain some of the things down there, some of the unearthly biological contraptions
Post InfoPosted 26-Jan-2006 11:33Profile MSN PM Edit Delete Report 
moondog
 
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male usa
apparently fallout is the most amazing computer guru in the history of the world that he can keep every possible combination of windows up and running without maintenance tim, you should write a book based on your windows expertise since you've got it all figured out



"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman
Post InfoPosted 26-Jan-2006 11:33Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
Racso
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male usa us-ohio
maybe if you don't game


umm, I game... on a LAPTOP even. So not the best hardware. I don't get the best graphics, but I still game.

Now, I've seen comps crash when people run 3 games at once... but why the heck they are running three games at once, i don't know. A guy I knew in HS was one of those crazy gamers (he built a refrigerant system around his computer and was also looking into the nitrogen cooling things for the processor) would crash the pc all the time. I asked him why, and he said he would play four games at once (when he came to a certain point in one game, he would switch over to another). I asked him why, and he said he would get bored with one game and switch to another, but he didn't want to waste gaming time shutting one down and loading another....
Post InfoPosted 26-Jan-2006 11:33Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
tiny_clanger
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grr can't edit - got an error

best thing is mutliple hard disks


if you can afford a lovely multiple redundant RAID array then yeah - I can't! But to avoid losing data to software failure or virus, multipartitioning is the best answer for users with limited resources. I mean, I have 3 HDs, but I cant replicate data across them, what a waste of expensive space!

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I like to think that whoever designed marine life was thinking of it as basically an entertainment medium. That would explain some of the things down there, some of the unearthly biological contraptions
Post InfoPosted 26-Jan-2006 11:33Profile MSN PM Edit Delete Report 
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