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Windows sucks #5415493425

2000-11-30 17:24:42+00 by Dan Lyke 11 comments

So I have a Windows machine that needs more disk space. I have a drive that's way bigger than I need. I think that I'll replace the little drive in the Windows box with the big drive, and use the little drive in a Linux box somewhere. No problem, right? I'll simply partition the drive, format and sys it, then copy the files across, swap drives, and I'm done. Not! From now on any time anyone talks about Unix being hard to configure I'm just going to laugh myself silly and ridicule them for their self-delusion.

[ related topics: Free Software Microsoft ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:30:39+00 by: ziffle

  1. put both drives in the windows machine
  2. 'mirror' the drives with NT diskmanager.
  3. make sure you make the floppy disks it wants.
  4. pull the small disk out.
  5. extend the partiton on the new larger windows disk... And you should be using Duplidisk anyway for any machine which has important data - like code...

#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:30:39+00 by: ebradway

It might not have been a Windows NT box and I doubt Dan keeps important data on any Windows box. He was just assuming that migrating to a new hard drive was at least as easy as it is in Unix.

#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:30:39+00 by: ziffle

I find it interesting you presume to speak for Dan.

#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:30:39+00 by: ebradway

I thought I was stating the obvious... My apologies...

#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:30:39+00 by: ebradway

I thought I was stating the obvious... My apologies...

#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:30:39+00 by: Dan Lyke

Well, he is right, I wouldn't put anything important on a Windows box, the possibility that I'll run into the 5 most horrifying words in the English language, "Windows has detected new hardware", and will thereafter only be able to run the machine for seconds at a time as I try to copy data off in spurts before the USB driver kicks in and hoses the machine is just too damned high. The other problem is that it's a '98 machine, which means there's a really bad gross hybridization of DOS and Windows.

#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:30:39+00 by: kansei

Simple! For this you need a PC with two IDE controllers (primary and secondary), a DOS disk (or disk format a: /s with Win 95), and Ghost from Symantec ($70 or so). You can also buy a different product that sector copies disks, probably for less at your local store. 1. Connect the hard disks one to primary, one to secondary IDE controller. You also have the option of making one of the IDE drives a slave, and connecting to a single IDE controller, but this is tricky. 2. Boot from dos disk. 3. Run Ghost. Make sure to copy from the disk that has data to the disk that doesn't, otherwise you are overwriting your data with blank space. 4. Voila! http://www.symantec.com/sabu/ghost/ghost_personal/

#Comment made: 2000-11-30 21:29:15+00 by: TC [edit history]

Actually we have Drive Image from Power Quest in the office but I'm not telling him about it, cuz watching him thrash with Windoze is one of those rare pleasures in life....<giggle>

#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:30:39+00 by: Dan Lyke

Yep. I could also put both these drives in a Unix box, make sure that the two primary partitions are exactly the same size, and use "dd" to transfer one to the other. But I've also probably got enough copied over that if I try to reinstall from the CD Windows will detect it as an upgrade and I'll get a reasonable facsimile, so I'll try that later this afternoon. Right now I'm deep in the horrors of Flash, trying to create constrained stretchable objects without flicker. GUIs suck.

#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:30:41+00 by: baylink

<chuckle> My observation about Ghost is that they still think you're going to pay $70 for *every machine you use it on*, don't they? Why in hell would they think I'd buy it if I was only going to be able to use it on one computer. That's like selling me a new power drill for every woodworking project.

#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:30:41+00 by: kansei

baylink writes: "My observation about Ghost is that they still think you're going to pay $70 for *every machine you use it on*, don't they?" That's just Symantec trying to make corporate buyers get the site license of Ghost. I don't think they have a way of preventing you from using Ghost on any number of PCs.