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  • #16
    Originally posted by The Melody Maker View Post
    I think there was a discussion about virtual machines in the Windows 10 Technical Preview thread that I started a while back. To sum up and reiterate what I say there, I think virtual machines are wonderful things.
    Yeah, we used them when we had major software upgrades to give us a chance to see how they impacted other stuff we were doing. And you can try "dumb stuff" without worrying you're going to mess something up really bad. We once did an upgrade of Macola Accounting Software that, interestingly enough, killed all our printer connections. Fortunately, we did that upgrade in a "sandbox", and were able to do all our diagnosis and testing there, then let Macola roll out a patch.

    WONDERFULNESS!
    The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

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    • #17
      Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
      Yeah, we used them when we had major software upgrades to give us a chance to see how they impacted other stuff we were doing. And you can try "dumb stuff" without worrying you're going to mess something up really bad. We once did an upgrade of Macola Accounting Software that, interestingly enough, killed all our printer connections. Fortunately, we did that upgrade in a "sandbox", and were able to do all our diagnosis and testing there, then let Macola roll out a patch.

      WONDERFULNESS!
      Good for testing, but not for your everyday use. VMs usually run slower than your regular OS. Plus, if you do use it regularly and install all of your stuff on a VM, eventually you have the same problem as NOT having a VM, if things go wrong, you could lose them and have to start all over again.

      I use VMs to play with at home. Other OS's, or testing software, etc.

      But if I am upgrading my computer, what I usually do is a full backup to an external drive (I use Acronis) and then go ahead and updgrade. If things go wonky, I just have to restore the backup. after everything is working good, I will keep incremental backups as I go along.

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      • #18
        Originally posted by Sparko View Post
        Good for testing, but not for your everyday use. VMs usually run slower than your regular OS. Plus, if you do use it regularly and install all of your stuff on a VM, eventually you have the same problem as NOT having a VM, if things go wrong, you could lose them and have to start all over again.

        I use VMs to play with at home. Other OS's, or testing software, etc.

        But if I am upgrading my computer, what I usually do is a full backup to an external drive (I use Acronis) and then go ahead and updgrade. If things go wonky, I just have to restore the backup. after everything is working good, I will keep incremental backups as I go along.
        Yeah!

        I generally set up my laptop (currently still using a quite capable Dell D830) with the OS and Office suite, configure outlook, and whatever other programs I normally use, then image that setup to a NAS drive. Sometimes, like after about 6 months, I'll get a new hard drive (they're cheap) and restore the saved image, rather than try to transfer everything, and I'm back to "like new".

        I LOVED the way we could, in the old says of DOS, just delete a program by deleting its directory and data directory and it was GONE! Windows programs have so many hooks and drivers and DLLs, and registry entries --- "uninstall" doesn't always remove them "cleanly".

        IF I fee like my computer is humming along when I want to put a new hard drive in, I'll do the incremental backup like you mention, THEN "start over".
        The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

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        • #19
          Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
          Yeah!

          I generally set up my laptop (currently still using a quite capable Dell D830) with the OS and Office suite, configure outlook, and whatever other programs I normally use, then image that setup to a NAS drive. Sometimes, like after about 6 months, I'll get a new hard drive (they're cheap) and restore the saved image, rather than try to transfer everything, and I'm back to "like new".

          I LOVED the way we could, in the old says of DOS, just delete a program by deleting its directory and data directory and it was GONE! Windows programs have so many hooks and drivers and DLLs, and registry entries --- "uninstall" doesn't always remove them "cleanly".

          IF I fee like my computer is humming along when I want to put a new hard drive in, I'll do the incremental backup like you mention, THEN "start over".
          And I usually keep my important documents, pictures, and data on a separate drive that way if I lose my C: drive, I don't lose my personal data - just the programs that I can always reinstall. In my case I have stuff in several locations: Another computer (my file server) and dropbox, google drive, and even Microsoft Skydrive. If it is something that contains information I don't want out (like tax returns with ss numbers, or bank account info) I make sure that it is in encrypted pdf files or locked in an encrypted winRAR archive before putting it in "the cloud"

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          • #20
            Originally posted by Sparko View Post
            And I usually keep my important documents, pictures, and data on a separate drive that way if I lose my C: drive, I don't lose my personal data - just the programs that I can always reinstall. In my case I have stuff in several locations: Another computer (my file server) and dropbox, google drive, and even Microsoft Skydrive. If it is something that contains information I don't want out (like tax returns with ss numbers, or bank account info) I make sure that it is in encrypted pdf files or locked in an encrypted winRAR archive before putting it in "the cloud"
            Yeah, that's something I started "WAY back when" - always had a separate drive (or partition) and kept all my data on a different drive (or partition) than my OS and programs. Even had "my documents" folder point to the D: drive (or whatever). When a program tried to use one of its own subdirectories for data, I would change that to a folder on the "data drive". Even made my "downloads" default to the Data Drive.
            The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

            Comment


            • #21
              Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
              Yeah, that's something I started "WAY back when" - always had a separate drive (or partition) and kept all my data on a different drive (or partition) than my OS and programs. Even had "my documents" folder point to the D: drive (or whatever). When a program tried to use one of its own subdirectories for data, I would change that to a folder on the "data drive". Even made my "downloads" default to the Data Drive.
              Great minds....

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              • #22
                although I did have one problem. I had ripped all of my favorite movies from DVD and Bluray to a drive on my file server. I had a lot of movies, and they were really too big to backup anywhere else. Then the drive failed on me and I lost all of the movies. ARRRGH. At least I still have the DVDs and Bluerays, but it took a long time to rip them all. I haven't started doing it again yet.

                Comment


                • #23
                  Originally posted by Sparko View Post
                  although I did have one problem. I had ripped all of my favorite movies from DVD and Bluray to a drive on my file server. I had a lot of movies, and they were really too big to backup anywhere else. Then the drive failed on me and I lost all of the movies. ARRRGH. At least I still have the DVDs and Bluerays, but it took a long time to rip them all. I haven't started doing it again yet.
                  Yeah, I have a 2T Buffalo NAS drive, and I have Carbonite keeping it backed up, so I haven't (knock on wood) lost ANY data.

                  In the 10 years I was consulting for (and, or employed with) the gas compression company, we never lost a single bit of data. We started off with the Barracuda / Iron Mountain offsite backup, then did a co-location at a nearby data center, then created our own SAN. I had redundant redundancy redundantly.
                  The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

                  Comment


                  • #24
                    Originally posted by Sparko View Post
                    Good for testing, but not for your everyday use. VMs usually run slower than your regular OS. Plus, if you do use it regularly and install all of your stuff on a VM, eventually you have the same problem as NOT having a VM, if things go wrong, you could lose them and have to start all over again.

                    I use VMs to play with at home. Other OS's, or testing software, etc.

                    But if I am upgrading my computer, what I usually do is a full backup to an external drive (I use Acronis) and then go ahead and updgrade. If things go wonky, I just have to restore the backup. after everything is working good, I will keep incremental backups as I go along.
                    Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
                    Yeah!

                    I generally set up my laptop (currently still using a quite capable Dell D830) with the OS and Office suite, configure outlook, and whatever other programs I normally use, then image that setup to a NAS drive. Sometimes, like after about 6 months, I'll get a new hard drive (they're cheap) and restore the saved image, rather than try to transfer everything, and I'm back to "like new".

                    I LOVED the way we could, in the old says of DOS, just delete a program by deleting its directory and data directory and it was GONE! Windows programs have so many hooks and drivers and DLLs, and registry entries --- "uninstall" doesn't always remove them "cleanly".

                    IF I fee like my computer is humming along when I want to put a new hard drive in, I'll do the incremental backup like you mention, THEN "start over".
                    I use Windows 7 64-bit on my desktop, which supports and runs the many 32-bit applications that I use -- but it won't natively run my few 16-bit applications and games. For a lot of them which require MS-DOS or Windows 3.1, I use DOSBox. For those that don't run in that or for which I'd like to be able to copy and paste text from easily, I use Windows XP in VirtualBox.

                    For the most part, that's all I use my virtual machines for -- but occasionally I do use them for testing, both for serious purposes and for mere curiosity. For instance, that's how I figured out that TWeb won't even load via Internet Explorer 2 in Windows 95. My guess is TWeb doesn't recognize HTML 2 requests.

                    Maybe we need a new thread all about virtual machines, now that I think about it...
                    Last edited by The Melody Maker; 02-24-2015, 11:47 AM.
                    ~ Russell ("MelMak")

                    "[Sing] and [make] melody in your heart to the Lord." -- Ephesians 5:19b

                    Fight spam!

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                    • #25
                      How do you get OS's for the VM? It'd be nice if Microsoft would sell it's out of date OS's for a few bucks for VM's.
                      If it weren't for the Resurrection of Jesus, we'd all be in DEEP TROUBLE!

                      Comment


                      • #26
                        Originally posted by Christianbookworm View Post
                        How do you get OS's for the VM? It'd be nice if Microsoft would sell it's out of date OS's for a few bucks for VM's.
                        I have been using windows so long that I just have the old discs laying around. from Windows 95 through Windows 7.

                        Comment


                        • #27
                          Originally posted by Sparko View Post
                          I have been using windows so long that I just have the old discs laying around. from Windows 95 through Windows 7.
                          I have windows 3.1!

                          And all DOS versions through 6.
                          The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

                          Comment


                          • #28
                            Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
                            I have windows 3.1!

                            And all DOS versions through 6.
                            I think I might have windows 3.1 too somewhere. It's probably on floppy disks and no telling if they are still even readable.

                            Comment


                            • #29
                              Originally posted by Sparko View Post
                              I think I might have windows 3.1 too somewhere. It's probably on floppy disks and no telling if they are still even readable.
                              Yeah, I have Windows 3.1, 3.11, and Windows for Workgroups
                              The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

                              Comment


                              • #30
                                Originally posted by Christianbookworm View Post
                                How do you get OS's for the VM? It'd be nice if Microsoft would sell it's out of date OS's for a few bucks for VM's.
                                I used to get them from my work Microsoft BizSpark account
                                http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/
                                Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
                                1 Corinthians 16:13

                                "...he [Doherty] is no historian and he is not even conversant with the historical discussions of the very matters he wants to pontificate on."
                                -Ben Witherington III

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