Ready for new hard drive complications??

Over the years we have faced a lot of different issues when it comes to hard drive compatibility.  In the early DOS days we had to make sure the cylinders, heads, and other specifications were inputted into the BIOS correctly.  Then we have had file system issues where older FAT would not address more than 32GBs.  When SATAII was released we had issues with some older SATAI motherboards not liking the newer drives so there was a compatibility jumper.

Now in order to help keep hard drive capacities moving the manufacturers have to change the sector size on new drives.  It appears that at least WD is putting a big highlighted note on these drives so you know what you need to do.  As with many of the latest advancements in the past several years, XP is not compatible with this Advanced Format.  Macs and newer Windows versions are compatible with this change and you do not need to do anything special when using one of these drives with the newer OSes.  There are software tools and jumpers that you can use and change on the drives to get them to work with XP and I guess that is fine.  However those additional worries do bother me a little, I do not like complications or want to be guessing when dealing with a customers computer.  However it will probably be obvious and at least we all have good information about this.

Now there is a bigger problem with this though.  According to reports I have read, NONE of the current hard drive cloning software available are compatible with this Advanced Format.  This bothers me a little but I just hope and trust new versions of software will be released soon and before these new drives start to find their way onto my work bench.  I love Acronis and ran across a great price on it earlier this month but am now glad that I did not have the extra cash to buy a few copies to sell on Burrows Solutions!  I don’t know if you would call that Integrity or what, but I honestly do not like to sell old, inferior, or items that have a “catch” (such as an external HDD with only a 1 yr. warranty).

So my biggest concern with this new standard is software.  If any of you deal with city, county, or other government agencies you know the software challenges we see.  I guess I need to talk with more software vendors to understand this problem better?  I just do not understand why these government applications see such slow development and compatibility?  Most applications we deal with do not suffer this problem and I don’t think we will have to deal with problem for long.  I just wonder what software vendor will be the first to react?  The only thing that I do worry about is the fact that Acronis 2010 was just released a few months ago so I don’t know if they will break their yearly schedule?  Will we be waiting 9 months for a compatible release from Acronis?  I wonder if it would be fair to possibly switch to another software title just because they are the first to release a version that has this compatibility added?  I am going to try and keep an eye on this and report more when some of the software vendors talk about this.  The more I think about it though, I think it may be a nice gesture for Acronis to maybe release a free patch/upgrade within the next few months?  I doubt that will happen but that would be some awesome support.  Let’s see is Easus, Norton, Paragon, O&O, or someone else can be the first to release compatible software.  What are your thoughts on this?

Here is a link for a white paper from Western Digital:
Advanced Format White Paper

Oh yeah and finally…..Happy New Year!!!  I plan on posting something tomorrow also but it really depends on my stomach flu issues.  I dealt with the pain to at least get this posted, time for a nap!

Stomach flu & Super AntiSpyware special

Well I haven’t made any of the posts I have wanted to so far this week.  Tomorrow is probably my last day to really think of possible New Year’s resolutions?  The worse part is going to be next week when I get my pay check.  Oh well.

This has seriously been some of the worse pain I’ve been in for a while and it is driving me nuts.  Had me a bit scared too because I really worried that something else was wrong.  I’m finally going to just take a full day off work tomorrow instead of trying to work through the pain.  Hopefully I feel ok enough to get some posts done here and get some other UBCD4Win work done.  The pain breaks my concentration though so I may just lay on the couch and watch TV?

Finally though I do have some special pricing going on for Super AntiSpyware.  This offer will only be valid until 1/4 so if you would like a copy, please order soon.  A single lifetime license is going for as little as $19.95.  If you are interested, please visit my Burrows Solutions site.

That was a long week!

How many of us really pay attention to the details and are really ready for an upgrade?? Ok really, most of the time I am. With most software you check the documentation and have read about the software so you have an idea of what you need. I think the fault lies in my assumptions sometimes? I really didn’t expect a x.9 version of “cloud” software to have show stopping requirements. Well it wasn’t show stopping, but it did stop me from making new posts and approving new comments. This new version of WordPress requires a newer version of mySQL and I did not realize I had an older version. So every time I had to log into the Admin area here I would be greeted with an upgrade message followed by a failed message. My hosting company promptly upgraded the DB for me and now I’ve found time to talk about it. It drove me a little nuts though because I honestly put it off for a few days and then it took a few days for the upgrade to be performed. Drove me nuts because there were a few things I really wanted to talk about last week.

I will make the time to talk about a few things this week so stay tuned. I really want to touch on this new hard drive change and I’ve been thinking about New Years resolutions. I’ve never really made up New Years resolutions before but think it may be time to do it? With some of my issues earlier this month I really think I may need some this year. A few other things are going on also. So please check out this site for some interesting and informative information this week.

Desktop LCD repair

Boy this guy has some balls, has a mental breakdown yesterday and then wants to talk about repairing our computers??  Does the idiot really think we would let him fix our stuff?

Yeah, I have a few screws loose on occasion.  Normally I keep myself under control but sometimes I feel I am entitled to express my true feelings and opinions?  After 5 1/2 years, I can have an occasional breakdown right?  Thanks again for all the kind comments left, I addressed a few questions there also so check it out if you wish.

The whole point to the post though is to talk more about the desktop LCD repair that I do.  I want to talk about it more and mention some recent success stories but need to pass on some slightly bad news also.  I recently found that my estimates for shipping was off a bit and as a result of that I need to increase the price for the repair.  So now I ask $49.95 for the repair.  The last couple of weeks have been pretty good for these types of repairs.  I honestly didn’t make much money because 2 of the repairs were at work but at least our customers know that we can repair them.  I had a TV LCD sent to me a couple of days ago and happily repaired that one.  Pretty good deal considering a replacement would have probably cost at least $300.  So I am really happy with the success rate and it is a great service.  I am also glad that I was inspired to check out these types of repairs.  Originally I had the same attitude that most other have, we are stuck in this “throw away society” and we need to be more careful.  Sometimes these repairs can be affordable and we should check into repair options.  If you have a LCD monitor that died, please consider sending it to me for repair.
For more information click here.

It’s sad and honestly discouraging

I want to touch on a few different things with this post and really hope a lot of people read this and really think about it.  First of all, my backups are not perfect.  I think I painted a too perfect picture with my post the other day.  There were a few things I hadn’t recently backed up but they were not mission critical so I would have been ok with out them.  Luckily though we have kick ass software out there that helps us when we are in need.  TestDisk to the rescue!!!  This will be the THIRD time I have personally needed this awesome software to save the day.  The other times were my fault but it pulled through for me.  I have discussed those mistakes in the past, playing with MBR software when I shouldn’t have been and accidentally Ghosting a blank hard drive to my hard drive full of data.  Anyways, this was the first time I needed it for a real problem and I am happy to say it saved the day again.  I don’t like to brag about or even mention when I donate to other freeware tools out there.  I don’t want the recognition however I feel I HAVE to talk about it because there are too many users out there that are just downright selfish and don’t care.  TestDisk has helped save me 3 times now and I have happily donated close to $100 to them over the past few years because their software saved the day.  I don’t want credit for the donations, I just want you to understand that it should be your obligation to do so when freeware helps you.

I’ve been talking to several freeware authors out there and it is just getting discouraging.  I will actually publicly admit that UBCD4Win development has slowed to a crawl because of this.  Close to 6 years ago I had a rough idea of what I thought it would be like to run a freeware tool.  It has been a long frustrating roller coaster ride and I honestly can’t explain it all.  I can blame some of the problems on this “recession” that we are in but that is a bunch of crap.  I understand things are tough but when a tool “saves the day” or allows your business to make more money or make money easier, you HAVE to give back.  Or you are just ruthless business people that don’t care and just want to fill your pockets???  I know of a few people who have tools that greatly benefit their employer, do they get a bigger salary?  Do they get an occasional donation from them??  No of course not, their boss is too busy buying a new camera or boat.  We put ourselves up to this though, really.  We were naive and stupid enough to think that helping people was the right thing to do.  Instead everyone fills their pockets with more money from our hard work while we suffer in poverty.  Then of course the normal users don’t get it either.  Everyone wants us to do all the work…..build your CD and then clean up the system for you.  Send us a bootable disc, we don’t care if Microsoft sues you and you have to live in your van!!  Your time is too precious to spend reading our documentation.  Sure the documentation on the website is not perfect and searching the forum can be difficult but do you really have to get nasty with us?  So we hold your hand and walk you through it.  In your frustration you call our software Dog Shit and get mad at us for expecting you to do a little reading.  There are still occasion build errors or problems but no one seems to care about the hundreds of errors and problems we have fixed over the last 6 years??  We have made our software a lot easier and friendlier to use!  I just don’t get it?  Makes us wonder if we do want to do anymore freeware tools in the future???

In conclusion, Merry Fucking Christmas!  Maybe next year will be better?  Hopefully 3.60 can get released sometime next year?  Please post your thoughts and even “let me have it”!!  I’m probably just being a cry baby anyways?

I’m not begging for donations just please at least donate to the tools that have saved your ass like TestDisk, EzPCFix, MozBackup, and whatever other tools.  Also consider buying a license of the Pro versions of a few tools instead of just “using” the free ones for tools such as Super AntiSpyware, Avira AV, and others.

Disaster avoided

Ever since I installed the Seagate 250GB 7200RPM in my laptop almost 1 1/2 years ago I’ve been a bit uneasy.  It is strange and I can not explain it?  I can sometimes sense or notice that there are problems.  The drive did not seem fast enough and it has almost always run pretty hot.  I guess there may have been a few other little things I’ve noticed that just bothered me.

It finally went down and went down HARD on Saturday night.  Since then I’ve been scrambling to find my backups and see if there is anything I can do for the drive.  It has not been fun but at least I have my backups!!  The only reason I post about this is to basically warn all of you of the impending data lose that can occur.  So please be prepared.  Have your external hard drives, flash drives, and software (I recommend Acronis) in place so it will be easier if when something bad happens.  It may sound a bit crazy but it’s true, have backups of your backups.  It can be expensive but you really need to do that.  I have 2 backup hard drives in my desktop, a backup hard drive in my laptop, and then 3 external drives for archives and backups.  Well actually I will have 4 externals now because I am taking one from Burrows Solutions to do some more backups.  I mention backups for the backups because a customer just recently had serious problems.  She went to backup some data to her external but found it wasn’t working.  So I think she put it off for a few weeks but then disaster hit, her laptop went down!!  Luckily we were able to recover all the data back for her, well in the case of the laptop.  However the external is out The Clone Store for recovery.  It has important business files on it so she has to go to that expense.  I highly recommend them if you are ever in need, Doug is a good guy!

So please take my advice and prepare yourself.  Disaster will strike, just please be ready for it!

Sale is over, but great prices remain

Well my “Wild Wednesday” idea was a dud, oh well.  Many of the items are still available and still should be the lowest price you would find anywhere else.  I continue to try and add new items also.  So if you need something or a last minute gift for a “geek” friend, click on over to Burrows Solutions.  As always, if there is something you need and I do not have it, email me.  I will see if I can track down a lower price for you.

I’ve been at a loss on what to post about lately.  I’ve had some sad news lately but there really doesn’t seem to be anything too big going on right now in the Computer World.  There were some “Black Screen of Death” rumors going around but it appears to not be a Microsoft issue this time?  The war on Malware still seems to be a losing battle and we still have not been able to get our new version of UBCD4Win released.  We will keep plugging away and hopefully have a new version for you soon.  Have a good weekend!!

“Wild Wednesday” is on!

I can’t follow the crowd.  I do not want to run any Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals.  To be honest with you, I really didn’t see many good deals on Cyber Monday anyways!

So bring on the new “Wild Wednesday” sale!  I don’t have much but I have some awesome deals going on only today over at Burrows Solutions.  Hook yourself up with a new big external USB hard drive for only $75, USB flash drive for only $13 or $26, 2GB DDR2 memory for only $36, or any of the other great deals going on now.

I’ve added a few items such as USB and Cat 5 cables.  So please stop over to Burrows Solutions and see the great deals I have going on today.

I don’t want any more cats

I was prepared to lose the first one about a week ago, but not our 1yr old cat this weekend.

Our oldest cat “Vicious” was a grumpy old cat.  I really think he picked that up from me because I am usually an old grump at home.  I’m pretty sure he was 8 years old.  We got him from a flea infested house with several dogs running around.  He was so small and malnourished he was almost small enough to fit in one hand.  At one point in his life he was over 25lbs!  He was a big tough tomcat, not fat just thick.  A little over a year ago he was having problems so we took him to the Vet.  They claimed he had feline HIV and it did not look good.  We let him suffer for a while but knew we would have to have him put to sleep soon.  I was honestly surprised he made it over a year if his diagnosis was correct.  So the previous Saturday we decided it was time and put him to sleep.

A few days ago our 1yr old cat “Toulouse” went missing.  I was really enjoying the fact that he was growing into a big tomcat like Vicious.  He was only a year old and weighed 13lbs.  The kids have been scared for the past few days because he hasn’t been home.  We made comments that he was looking for Vicious.  Today Amy called the Humane Society and was told a “big” cat was brought in a few days ago after being hit and killed up the street from us.  I came home early from work to put the finishing touches up for my “Wild Wednesday” sale at Burrows Solutions tomorrow, but it looks like I’ll be dealing with the children instead?

We still have a few other cats but of course the wife wants another.  I just hope we don’t have to deal with this again anytime soon.  At least we had a year to deal with losing Vicious, but there are no goodbyes for Toulouse.