O.T. - Connection Problem:

I've been thinking,.....

The present HD on the 8500 is
suspect and the spare HD still
has the connection issue.

Why don't we just start fresh?
and buy a new 2TB HD and install
Win 7 in it? Then we can really
customize it!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148834

Then once I get it up and running
with A/V, bookmarks, My Documents
etc,.. Do an Mrimg and bring both
the spare HD and the present HD
which would be another spare or
external) up to speck.

What do you think?

Robert

Mark Twain wrote:
I used Verbatim DVD's , no I
have never used verify.

It's possible I clicked finish
but I had your instruction's
up on the 780 and I was following
it step by step.

I'm not understanding what you mean
by park the computer and deal with
cabling and equipment then start up
again?

When you say I need to do the math,
your talking to someone who is terrible
at math. I have a real difficulty with
it.

Hmmmmmm I also have a Microsoft ergonomic
keyboard but it shouldn't matter as you
say because I've had these ever since I
purchased the 8500 and never had a problem
till now and I use the skinny no-name
keyboard that came with the 780


It seems no matter what the problems just
keep getting worst and nothing seems to
work and still have programs that I can't
uninstall,..

It would have been so much easier if Dell
had included installation disks instead of
putting all this on the user.

Robert

Some CD burning tools have a verify tick box.
The disk is burned, and that might take
six minutes. Then, the disk is read back,
and that might take three minutes. If the
checksum is the same, then the burning
software knows there are no (visible) errors.

Optical discs can have a lot of errors on them,
and because of Reed Solomon error correction codes,
they can correct all the errors. The correction
method uses three dimensions, and these help
handle large defects in the CD. This is why if you
make a radial scratch on a CD, you may still be able
to read it back.

I do verify on optical media now, not because
the optical media is bad. I do it, so later if
a disc won't boot, I can say "well, at least
I verified it and it was correct in the burner".
It eliminates a possible defect from the picture.

The single most dangerous part of the process
you carried out, was the download step. And the
networking protocols are reasonably good at
transporting data. The part that is broken occasionally,
is the download is "truncated". I had a couple
DVDs downloaded from Microsoft, that were corrupted,
and one was missing a whole gigabyte of data. And
yet the browser said it downloaded OK.

*******

You already know, that when you shut down the
computer, that is the equivalent of Safely Remove
for the USB hard drive. And I was agreeing with that,
as I use that many times here, just for the ability
to treat the hard drive properly. (My enclosure
turns off the LED, if I do a shutdown, and then
I know the disk isn't spinning and stuff.)

I don't have a problem with Safely Remove for
flash sticks, but for my USB hard drive, I generally shut
down for that one. Some of the OSes here, don't
tell the disk to spin down at the right time,
and shutdown covers that case for me.

*******

Learning math, it's a layer thing. If you miss
some fundamentals when you're younger, that can
create a real problem later in life.

For me, it was "times tables". My parents really
coached the hell out of me when I was young. So
I had to rote learn all this stuff. But it did pay
off, because I can do estimates of things in my
head without a calculator. My sisters on the other
hand, weren't hounded like I was, and their later
experiences with math suffered.

When you get into advanced maths, what happens is,
you never understand the current course you're taking,
but the current course you are taking, puts the
previous course in perspective for you. And you
then begin to understand the high level picture
of the previous course better. You haven't a hope
of using the materials you are being taught in
the current course :-)

*******

You should really be testing the 8500 with the
original keyboard.

I cannot believe the 8500 doesn't work with *all*
keyboards. So this kind of testing should not be
necessary. If you do this test, there's a chance
you'll have a working F2 key, or a working F12 key.

If you get the pop-up boot menu working, you'll
be able to use the USB flash key to boot and install!

*******

I agree on the media. They should include a set
of pressed discs with the factory restore on it.

Now test the original keyboard, and see if you can
get into the BIOS!

Paul

Mark Twain wrote:
I've been thinking,.....

The present HD on the 8500 is
suspect and the spare HD still
has the connection issue.

Why don't we just start fresh?
and buy a new 2TB HD and install
Win 7 in it? Then we can really
customize it!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148834

Then once I get it up and running
with A/V, bookmarks, My Documents
etc,.. Do an Mrimg and bring both
the spare HD and the present HD
which would be another spare or
external) up to speck.

What do you think?

Robert


I like to buy new hard drives all the time too.
It becomes an obsession after a while :-)

What hardware symptoms make you conclude a
new hard drive is needed ? It is things
other than the hard drive, conspiring against
you.

I replace hard drives when:

1) SMART reports there is serious trouble.
2) Using HDTune 2.55, I notice a "flat spot" in the
performance curve.
3) I hear clicking sounds coming from the drive,
indicating the drive is "lost" and is doing
"seek to zero".
4) I hear an actual squeaking sound coming
from the motor.

So those are some reasons to act.

*******

You can also customize your 1TB drive.
Consider the following method.

1) Back up the 1TB drive to your 2TB drive.
2) Erase the entire 1TB drive.
3) Install Windows 7 on the 1TB drive.
4) If at any time you are unhappy with the
results, restore from backup.

And before you answer, we would need to find
a *new* solution for step (1).

And I have a suggestion for (1). You can set
Macrium to use "Exact Copy".

http://s14.postimg.org/xkce77amp/Macrium_Exact_Copy.gif

Now, there's a reason I never addressed this
method in the past. It's a *lot* slower than
your current method. It could end up being
10x slower for example.

So let's review your partition setup.

+-----+--------------+----------------+------------------------+-------------------+
| MBR | Dell (small) | Factory (26GB) | ~400GB Old_Windows C: | ~400GB WIN7NEW D: |
+-----+--------------+----------------+------------------------+-------------------+

Now, since it is a 1TB drive, the backup would normally
take 1TB, because it is an *exact* copy.

The compression setting in the picture, of "high", helps
a bit. Maybe the backup file drops to 500GB instead of
1TB.

But you can do better. You can make the partition roughly
as small as a regular backup. But there is a time-consuming
trick to doing it.

Your C: partition, if we zoomed in, consists of files and white space.

+---------------------------------------+
| 100GB files + 300GB empty_white_space |
+---------------------------------------+

The sectors with the white space, contain random byte values.
Portions of old deleted files are there. With the exact copy
method, those random bytes are read, and fed into the
compressor. The compressor has a hard time compressing
random data. And as a result, the output file from Macrium
is quite large.

But, if you write all zeros to those white space areas,
then that area of the disk compresses very well.

So what we need for this to work, is a white space cleaner
for C: and D: in the picture.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/...ernals/sdelete

sdelete -z C:
sdelete -z D:

I'm going to be testing this now, and I'll get back to
you with the test results comparing "Smart Copy, High Compression"
(which has your missing file problem) versus "Exact Copy, High COmpression".
And if it works out, we can give that a try as your backup method.

It will take:

1) A long time to run sdelete.
2) A long time to read the entire disk drive in Exact Copy mode.
3) The end result, is 10x-20x slower backups.
Only if the source disk drive was chock full, would
the backup times converge to the same value. But when
the disk is nearly empty, the "Exact Copy" method is
extremely slow.

But since the fast Macrium method is not trustworthy,
there is a second option.

Another thing I will be testing, is whether the saved
backup can be "mounted" as a regular disk or not. So
you can verify the files are present.

Now, I have work to do.

HTH,
Paul

I understand basic math,....
and some concepts but in
practice I find it difficult.

I more artistically inclined
Yet, my niece is truly gifted
and math is her forte,.. I
wish I had the gift. Yet people
say the same of artist's.


I don't have the original keyboard,.
I gave it to a neighbor who has since
moved away.

I'll try the keyboard from the 780

Robert

Mark Twain wrote:
Yes, the first picture came up right after
Avast install and I don't understand it
either? I didn't buy premium this time
but decided to try their free version for
awhile before buying it again (just to get
a month free).

I did see your link you provided but it
seemed all it required was my email address
and all was fine until I opted for the free
premium version. I'm not sure if it still
needs my email or not?

Since I uninstalled and reinstalled Avast
perhaps it does need to be registered again.


http://i65.tinypic.com/rk6c6c.jpg - ipconfig

then when I tried using postimage


http://i68.tinypic.com/2url3co.jpg - postimage

So I had to use Tinypic

No, I don't think I have Wi-fi turned on but
you can see how things keep snowballing on the
8500 with one problem after another.


Robert

I noticed a problem with PostImage today.
It looks like an https certificate problem.

What you can try, is if the old URL was

https://www.post ....

you can try

http://www.post ....

and temporarily switch to HTTP protocol.
I was able to upload an image that way.

Paul

Mark Twain wrote:
The Windows 7 DVD I created during
the Dell Data Safe where it gave me
an option for doing so. No, it isn't
a hologram DVD.

This sounds like allot of work just
to create a USB flash key and who knows
if it will even boot?

I checked the downloads and I don't see
anything,.. remember the Dell Data Safe
wiped the computer clean e.g. no System
restore points.

If I'm to do this then I have to buy
more Patriot Keys. I don't usually have extra
flash keys, CD's or DVD's laying around because
I don't use them much.

Robert

You have three flash keys.

Are any of them large enough (8GB) for this method ?

The keys I have here, range from 1GB (older)
to 128GB, with several 32GB ones. The 1GB one
was specifically purchased, for some software
that doesn't actually *like* the big ones :-)
So the 1GB one is for special purposes too.

To hold a DVD, a 4GB one might be big enough,
and I generally aim for at least an 8GB stick
to be sure. Some of the Win10 ISOs I have, are
a bit over 4GB now.

If you lost the ISO file, you can download
another one.

*******

Take your Win7 DVD and insert it into the computer.
The disc may have a "label". My retail disc is:

GSP1RMCPRXFREO_EN_DVD 3,320,903,680 bytes

Win7SP1 Pro x64 (X17-58517)

If you look at the Properties of your Win7 DVD,
there's a chance the "label" field is still intact.
And I can try to figure out which file is exactly
like it.

If you downloaded it via a browser, the browser
Downloads dialog may still have a record of it.
Since when Microsoft makes the URL for these,
the folder on the server is temporary, I would
not expect the file to still be there. But you
can look in the Downloads dialog of the browser
anyway, and see if it is still listed. The
properties of an entry there, should have a
"copy link" function. But that might be the
only other evidence on your computer, of the
download process.

Paul

Yes, all are large enough,..

the Sandisk's are 32GB; this
one only has one folder on it
but I have no idea what it is?

If I can safely delete it then
we can use this one.

http://i68.tinypic.com/29qi1ah.jpg - folder

http://i64.tinypic.com/264j72g.jpg - contents

http://i63.tinypic.com/f9i0qc.jpg - retail disc

http://i68.tinypic.com/2ev52bp.jpg - properties general

http://i68.tinypic.com/3142w0k.jpg - hardware

http://i64.tinypic.com/347d6bc.jpg - sharing

http://i65.tinypic.com/2d11zqc.jpg - customize

http://i68.tinypic.com/23wp89u.jpg - recording


Robert

Mark Twain wrote:
Yes, all are large enough,..

the Sandisk's are 32GB; this
one only has one folder on it
but I have no idea what it is?

If I can safely delete it then
we can use this one.

http://i68.tinypic.com/29qi1ah.jpg - folder

http://i64.tinypic.com/264j72g.jpg - contents

http://i63.tinypic.com/f9i0qc.jpg - retail disc

http://i68.tinypic.com/2ev52bp.jpg - properties general

http://i68.tinypic.com/3142w0k.jpg - hardware

http://i64.tinypic.com/347d6bc.jpg - sharing

http://i65.tinypic.com/2d11zqc.jpg - customize

http://i68.tinypic.com/23wp89u.jpg - recording


Robert

OK, the thing in the first picture is a Firefox profile
folder, intended to transport Firefox from one machine to another.
It doesn't include the EXE of the program, just the databases,
the prefs.js and so on.

OK, the third picture, your disc differs in one character.

GSP1RMCPRXFREO_EN_DVD --- mine (Canada) X17-58517
GSP1RMCPRXFRER_EN_DVD --- yours (USA) X17-59186

I can't really be sure this is the right one. I don't
want you getting the Canadian one by accident. Because
that can cause geolocation misery during activation.

This was generated by a URL generator, but the interface
doesn't allow verifying the SKU. My suspicion is, it
could be Canadian. You can use this download if you want.
(It would really be better to find your original ISO download.)

https://software-download.microsoft....0c 974e408be5

Expires 10/28/2016 10:27:46 AM UTC

*******

Your size parameter is different than mine.

3,320,903,680 mine X17-58517
3,320,905,728 yours X17-59186

So the Canadian and USA version differ by one CD sector of 2048 bytes.

I would say there's a good chance your DVD image is complete
and not truncated.

I won't know until mine finished downloading (using a different
URL than the one above), whether that's the Canadian one. But
we'll see.

The URL generator is here if you want to generate your own URL.
Click Windows 7. When the screen shows a Microsoft web page content
(with download dialog), select the version, and eventually you'll
see 32 bit and 64 bit download buttons. Don't click them. Look
to the right for the Copy to Clipboard button. Copy the 64 bit
URL to the clipboard. Open your favorite browser (Firefox),
then paste the contents of the clipboard into the URL bar.
A link similar in format to the above one should be pasted.
When you hit enter, a ~3GB download will begin. So you can
generate your own URL if you want.

https://www.heidoc.net/php/Windows%2...r%20Legacy.exe

I scanned both the .NET 4.6.1 and the .NET 3.5.1 versions
on Virustotal and they were clean.

The Legacy link one is supposed to use .NET 3.5.1 when
it runs. This isn't all that important, but I selected the
Legacy one in case you didn't have the gazillion versions
of .NET installed. I'm trying to avoid problems...

Paul

Paul wrote:
Mark Twain wrote:
Yes, all are large enough,..

the Sandisk's are 32GB; this one only has one folder on it
but I have no idea what it is?

If I can safely delete it then we can use this one.

http://i68.tinypic.com/29qi1ah.jpg - folder

http://i64.tinypic.com/264j72g.jpg - contents

http://i63.tinypic.com/f9i0qc.jpg - retail disc

http://i68.tinypic.com/2ev52bp.jpg - properties general

http://i68.tinypic.com/3142w0k.jpg - hardware

http://i64.tinypic.com/347d6bc.jpg - sharing

http://i65.tinypic.com/2d11zqc.jpg - customize

http://i68.tinypic.com/23wp89u.jpg - recording


Robert



https://software-download.microsoft....0c 974e408be5

Expires 10/28/2016 10:27:46 AM UTC

Just to confirm, that link is X17-59186 USA version.

3,320,903,680 bytes

I matched the checksum of the downloaded file, with this page.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...0-e7950e057143

I checked the "disc label" on the downloaded ISO
with the disktype freeware program, and it is

GSP1RMCPRXFRER_EN_DVD

same as yours. So that download link above, valid for
only 24 hours, is the same as your DVD.

Now, why is your DVD one sector (2048 bytes) longer
than it should be ? That's the remaining mystery.
You'd have to rip the DVD, make an ISO file and
compare. But I haven't been emphasizing that method,
instead choosing to download a fresh DVD image.

The SHA1 sum of the download is:

SHA1 Hash value: 0bcfc54019ea175b1ee51f6d2b207a3d14dd2b58

To compute a checksum, you can use the Microsoft tool.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/down....aspx?id=11533

Unpack it, then in a command prompt window you'd place both
the ISO and fciv.exe in the same place. In this example,
I'm assuming they're in your downloads folder in your
home directory.

cd /d %userprofile%
cd Downloads
fciv -both Win7_Pro_SP1_English_x64.iso

and it should show SHA1 of 0bcfc54019ea175b1ee51f6d2b207a3d14dd2b58
if your download is good.

Using that ISO9660 file, you can load up a 32GB USB flash
key and make a bootable Win7 installer.

Once you get the 780 keyboard working on the Dell,
maybe we can get a popup boot menu, to get the USB
stick actually booting...

Paul

I forgot to tell you that the 780 keyboard
didn't work as far as the F2, F12 options.
It's just a no-name generic keyboard.


Your links are both exe (save) files,....
are you suggesting I create a new Win 7
disc? From what you say we don't know if
it's Canadian or USA.? Yet,... maybe we
should wait till your finished downloading
and see?

I don't understand what you mean when you
say if I want to generate my own URL? The
link you gave is for me to download something?

I don't know how to copy the URL to clipboard
and the procedure sounds above average but
for what purpose would I generate my own URL?
I don't understand?

Also understand you scanned both versions,..
I don't know what Legacy is but it seems because
I don't have allot of .Net it's a better way to go
as you say to avoid problems.


Robert

If I understand you correctly, your saying
the DVD I created and the one in the link
is only good for 24 hours once created?

As far as SHA1 and checksum and computing
use that after the download to very it?

Am I downloading this file to the 8500 then the
flash key? Do I just copy/paste it over?

As I said, the 780 is a generic keyboard :

http://i65.tinypic.com/2ewjjmf.jpg

In passing I tried using postimage again:

http://i66.tinypic.com/2hpqhr8.jpg

So back to Tinypic but oddly no pop-up warnings
from Avast as before?

Robert

If I understand you correctly, your saying
the DVD I created and the one in the link
is only good for 24 hours once created?

As far as SHA1 and checksum and computing
use that after the download to very it?

Am I downloading this file to the 8500 then the
flash key? Do I just copy/paste it over?

As I said, the 780 is a generic keyboard :

http://i65.tinypic.com/2ewjjmf.jpg

In passing I tried using postimage again:

http://postimage.org/

So back to Tinypic but oddly no pop-up warnings
from Avast as before?

Robert

Mark Twain wrote:
If I understand you correctly, your saying
the DVD I created and the one in the link
is only good for 24 hours once created?

The download link is only available for 24 hours.
The user is expected to finish the download
in a 24 hour period. Which would be impossible
if you were on dialup.


As far as SHA1 and checksum and computing
use that after the download to very it?

Yes. The SHA1 is like a "fingerprint". That
tiny string of digits is the signature for
the file, and helps us determine authenticity.
Especially if Microsoft prints the correct
values on a web page (TechNet used to be one source,
but only account holders can go there now).


Am I downloading this file to the 8500 then the
flash key? Do I just copy/paste it over?

You download to any working machine.

You use that "Win7" USB key program I pointed
you at, to "move" the ISO to the USB key. That
program takes care of the details (what to do
about boot materials needed for a USB key).

Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool


As I said, the 780 is a generic keyboard :

http://i65.tinypic.com/2ewjjmf.jpg

In passing I tried using postimage again:

http://i66.tinypic.com/2hpqhr8.jpg

So back to Tinypic but oddly no pop-up warnings
from Avast as before?

Robert

The keyboard in the first picture, is one of these.

http://accessories.dell.com/sna/prod...sku=3 32-1571

*******

That second picture is priceless :-)

They pulled 1.8 Petabytes through a $200 a month account ?

"Somebody is not watching the store."

Raw bandwidth is between $0.03 and $0.08 per gigabyte.
Gigabytes,Terabytes,Petabytes. I work that out to be
more than $12000. The price of bandwidth is constantly
dropping, and the figure I got was from an article
several years old.

I wasn't aware PostImage was a shoe-string operation.
I would never have guessed you could do that.

And I guess that means I lose all that "uploaded artwork".
Again.

Paul

Mark Twain wrote:
I forgot to tell you that the 780 keyboard
didn't work as far as the F2, F12 options.
It's just a no-name generic keyboard.


Your links are both exe (save) files,....
are you suggesting I create a new Win 7
disc? From what you say we don't know if
it's Canadian or USA.? Yet,... maybe we
should wait till your finished downloading
and see?

I don't understand what you mean when you
say if I want to generate my own URL? The
link you gave is for me to download something?

I don't know how to copy the URL to clipboard
and the procedure sounds above average but
for what purpose would I generate my own URL?
I don't understand?

Also understand you scanned both versions,..
I don't know what Legacy is but it seems because
I don't have allot of .Net it's a better way to go
as you say to avoid problems.


Robert



You should have started this by now.

https://software-download.microsoft....0c 974e408be5

Expires 10/28/2016 10:27:46 AM UTC

It's the USA version. And should be exactly
the same as your DVD. We're doing this,
to cover the possibility something is wrong
with the DVD (not a burn error, a download
problem).

There's no need to get the Heidoc tool, if you
can finish the above download. I did it here and
it took an hour, but I used a "similar" link
and did not use your download link above. That
one is for you.

Paul

Mark Twain wrote:
I forgot to tell you that the 780 keyboard
didn't work as far as the F2, F12 options.
It's just a no-name generic keyboard.


Your links are both exe (save) files,....
are you suggesting I create a new Win 7
disc? From what you say we don't know if
it's Canadian or USA.? Yet,... maybe we
should wait till your finished downloading
and see?

I don't understand what you mean when you
say if I want to generate my own URL? The
link you gave is for me to download something?

I don't know how to copy the URL to clipboard
and the procedure sounds above average but
for what purpose would I generate my own URL?
I don't understand?

Also understand you scanned both versions,..
I don't know what Legacy is but it seems because
I don't have allot of .Net it's a better way to go
as you say to avoid problems.


Robert

One other thing.

The backup experiments are extremely slow.
I'm still working on some other solution.

What's interesting is:

1) An attempt to use Exact mode in Acronis, results
in a backup that only takes 30 minutes. The backup
cannot possibly be Exact. They lied.
2) Macrium makes an Exact mode backup in 5.5 hours.
An Exact mode backup made with the CD is 100GB.
An Exact mode backup made with the OS version is 900GB.
I have no idea what I did wrong there... :-)
The correct result, with any sort of compression
algorithm, should be closer to 100GB. The Acronis
"lite" compressor made a 125GB file in 30 minutes.
3) It took around 12 hours to clean the white space
on the drive. The Sdelete program does *2* passes
when the command line says *1* pass. The execution
time is doubled for no good reason.

Anyway, I gotta find something else. Backups will
always take a long time. But I want to see program
behavior I can trust. Since I cannot reproduce your
"old files" problem here, I cannot verify whether
anything I do is immune to the problem.

HTH,
Paul