maddmaxx ★ Posted July 3, 2020 Share #1 Posted July 3, 2020 I've been having a bit of a problem the last couple of days since the newest, greatest, most wonderful update from Microsoft landed. Of course they replaced many of my choices and locked me into an attempt to use their browser instead of google and chrome. Fixed all of that but this morning when I turned on my windows 10 machine (before turning on the rest in the lab) my hard drive began that soon to be dead symptom of a noisy drive struggling to obtain track alignment with the head oscillating rapidly. I don't have this computer backed up and of course all my music and pictures are on this drive (reference Ralph's thread on lazy). First attempted cure, reboot, produced bad results. Second attempt at a full power down reboot (IT experience at work here) came up with the drive operating normally. Yes, the biting of terras back up drive is on order. Here's hoping the impending doom holds off till it gets here. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerrySTL ★ Posted July 3, 2020 Share #2 Posted July 3, 2020 I highly recommend a SSD (solid state drive) for the replacement drive and a USB external drive for backups. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maddmaxx ★ Posted July 3, 2020 Author Share #3 Posted July 3, 2020 9 minutes ago, JerrySTL said: I highly recommend a SSD (solid state drive) for the replacement drive and a USB external drive for backups. The USB external will be here on Wednesday at the latest. We'll see if the budget allows for a 1 Tbite ssd later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razors Edge ★ Posted July 3, 2020 Share #4 Posted July 3, 2020 SSD and Firefox!!!! Anything else is just asking for problems Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maddmaxx ★ Posted July 3, 2020 Author Share #5 Posted July 3, 2020 17 minutes ago, Razors Edge said: SSD and Firefox!!!! Anything else is just asking for problems Burning foxes leaves me cold. It's probably years of working with vendors who's security systems required that buyers use microsoft and IE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MickinMD ★ Posted July 3, 2020 Share #6 Posted July 3, 2020 7 hours ago, maddmaxx said: I've been having a bit of a problem the last couple of days since the newest, greatest, most wonderful update from Microsoft landed. Of course they replaced many of my choices and locked me into an attempt to use their browser instead of google and chrome. Fixed all of that but this morning when I turned on my windows 10 machine (before turning on the rest in the lab) my hard drive began that soon to be dead symptom of a noisy drive struggling to obtain track alignment with the head oscillating rapidly. I don't have this computer backed up and of course all my music and pictures are on this drive (reference Ralph's thread on lazy). First attempted cure, reboot, produced bad results. Second attempt at a full power down reboot (IT experience at work here) came up with the drive operating normally. Yes, the biting of terras back up drive is on order. Here's hoping the impending doom holds off till it gets here. I've been using this backup 2016 laptop and catching it up to date before trying to reset my frozen 2020 laptop. I've got almost all the software and music, video, etc. files up to date, but It's been slowly installing Windows and the accompanying HP updates one after another - one taking 3 hours to self-install. Now the Update page says "The Windows 10 May 2020 Update is on its way. Once it’s ready for your device, you’ll see the update available on this page." I fear for the adjusted speed of software loading, etc. of my computer every time one of these updates is installed - and there's no heads-up whether it will take 30 minutes or 3 hours and, if you need to reboot your laptop because something's crashed, there's no option to not install the updates that are ready until you're not going to need the computer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
groupw Posted July 3, 2020 Share #7 Posted July 3, 2020 12 minutes ago, MickinMD said: I've been using this backup 2016 laptop and catching it up to date before trying to reset my frozen 2020 laptop. I've got almost all the software and music, video, etc. files up to date, but It's been slowly installing Windows and the accompanying HP updates one after another - one taking 3 hours to self-install. Now the Update page says "The Windows 10 May 2020 Update is on its way. Once it’s ready for your device, you’ll see the update available on this page." I fear for the adjusted speed of software loading, etc. of my computer every time one of these updates is installed - and there's no heads-up whether it will take 30 minutes or 3 hours and, if you need to reboot your laptop because something's crashed, there's no option to not install the updates that are ready until you're not going to need the computer. The May 2020 update is actually pretty good. It has fixed several ill-behaving PCs and, if anything, they are running quicker.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razors Edge ★ Posted July 3, 2020 Share #8 Posted July 3, 2020 1 hour ago, groupw said: The May 2020 update is actually pretty good. It has fixed several ill-behaving PCs and, if anything, they are running quicker.. What's interesting to me is the phased in approach they are following. Too many times pushing something out half-baked? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
groupw Posted July 3, 2020 Share #9 Posted July 3, 2020 It's weird. I have 1 client PC that really needs it and I can't get it to run the update. Just says get ready for it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralphie ★ Posted July 3, 2020 Share #10 Posted July 3, 2020 8 hours ago, maddmaxx said: Burning foxes leaves me cold. It's probably years of working with vendors who's security systems required that buyers use microsoft and IE. IE is on its way oot. At work some things only work with chrome and others only with IE, and NOTHING works with Edge. What a mess! At home Firefox seems fine with everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdc2000 Posted July 3, 2020 Share #11 Posted July 3, 2020 Microsoft's latest update may inclide their new Chrome-engine version of Edge. There is a blocker toolkit / Registry entry to block installation. It can hijack your other browser's favorites and change your settings if you allow it to install. SSDs are fast, but unlike magnetic hard drives, they are unlikely to give you any warning signs before they fail, so you MUST have current backups if you are using one. When they fail, your OS and/or files are gone and you are not getting them back. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralphie ★ Posted July 3, 2020 Share #12 Posted July 3, 2020 7 minutes ago, jdc2000 said: SSDs are fast, but unlike magnetic hard drives, they are unlikely to give you any warning signs before they fail, so you MUST have current backups if you are using one. When they fail, your OS and/or files are gone and you are not getting them back. Magnetic hard drives don’t always give THAT much notice of failure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdc2000 Posted July 3, 2020 Share #13 Posted July 3, 2020 Not always, but with SSDs, you generally get no notice at all - they are just dead. You can check the S.M.A.R.T. stats on a magnetic drive periodically also, not that anyone ever does until they start hearing strange noises. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maddmaxx ★ Posted July 3, 2020 Author Share #14 Posted July 3, 2020 14 minutes ago, jdc2000 said: Microsoft's latest update may inclide their new Chrome-engine version of Edge. There is a blocker toolkit / Registry entry to block installation. It can hijack your other browser's favorites and change your settings if you allow it to install. SSDs are fast, but unlike magnetic hard drives, they are unlikely to give you any warning signs before they fail, so you MUST have current backups if you are using one. When they fail, your OS and/or files are gone and you are not getting them back. The update that hit me over the last couple of days did in fact change my startup page, lock me into a "what's new" page. My computer was very slow at times when it seems to have been hijacked to down load an update that I didn't know was coming. It took several power off reboots to get the startup to run correctly. I'm a Chrome browser user and I don't think Microsoft likes me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdc2000 Posted July 3, 2020 Share #15 Posted July 3, 2020 I have seen reports that you cannot uninstall the new Edge once it is installed also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maddmaxx ★ Posted July 3, 2020 Author Share #16 Posted July 3, 2020 8 minutes ago, RalphWaldoMooseworth said: Magnetic hard drives don’t always give THAT much notice of failure. You probably didn't work with computers back when we had things like 80 mb platter drives. When one of those flying heads crashed there was noise, smoke and even vacuum cleaner use to get all the crap into the trash bag. Then usually it was necessary to change all 11 heads due to contamination. The flying clearances were so small that a particle of cigarette smoke would crash a head. The computer room had to be cleaned at all times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralphie ★ Posted July 3, 2020 Share #17 Posted July 3, 2020 2 minutes ago, maddmaxx said: I'm a Chrome browser user and I don't think Microsoft likes me I am really starting to think Apple is worth the higher cost, or better yet, Linux. This Microsoft update crap just wears you down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralphie ★ Posted July 3, 2020 Share #18 Posted July 3, 2020 1 minute ago, maddmaxx said: You probably didn't work with computers back when we had things like 80 mb platter drives. When one of those flying heads crashed there was noise, smoke and even vacuum cleaner use to get all the crap into the trash bag. Then usually it was necessary to change all 11 heads due to contamination. The flying clearances were so small that a particle of cigarette smoke would crash a head. The computer room had to be cleaned at all times. I worked with old computers in the early 80s but never experienced any of these storied head crashes. I did however suffer through constant failures of early solid state memory that replaced drum memory. The drum stories from old timers were even worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maddmaxx ★ Posted July 3, 2020 Author Share #19 Posted July 3, 2020 4 minutes ago, RalphWaldoMooseworth said: I worked with old computers in the early 80s but never experienced any of these storied head crashes. I did however suffer through constant failures of early solid state memory that replaced drum memory. The drum stories from old timers were even worse. When got to Pratt and Whitney's test cells, we were still required to shock test the core memory modules during routine maintenance. It was done with one of those auto punch devices that machinists use to mark a piece of sheet metal or what people recommend you use to break out of an automobile window. We caused far more failures then we fixed. We stopped doing that after a while. These were Cyber 17 computers with 32K of core memory. and they were about the size of two dining room tables. We used carbon tet in bug sprayers to clean teletypes. I'm sometimes surprised that I'm still alive. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralphie ★ Posted July 3, 2020 Share #20 Posted July 3, 2020 7 minutes ago, maddmaxx said: We used carbon tet in bug sprayers to clean teletypes. I'm sometimes surprised that I'm still alive There used to be a teletype that was a system monitor. It constantly typed out error-time blah blah blah, so one of the guys programmed it to say miller-time instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bikeguy Posted July 3, 2020 Share #21 Posted July 3, 2020 9 hours ago, JerrySTL said: I highly recommend a SSD (solid state drive) for the replacement drive and a USB external drive for backups. This ^^ is what I did. I used a 1 TB SSD and a 3 TB external drive. I dock my laptop just about every night so Windows does it's backup. I also have another program that backs up my files, just in case the Windows backup didn't work. AND I have Norton back my financial files to a 32 GB SD card, just in case the other 2 backups didn't work. 42 minutes ago, jdc2000 said: SSDs are fast, but unlike magnetic hard drives, they are unlikely to give you any warning signs before they fail, so you MUST have current backups if you are using one. When they fail, your OS and/or files are gone and you are not getting them back. And that's why I created a Windows 10 bootable USB recovery drive for both of my computers. Even the one with a old hard drive. 4 hours ago, MickinMD said: I fear for the adjusted speed of software loading, etc. of my computer every time one of these updates is installed - and there's no heads-up whether it will take 30 minutes or 3 hours and, if you need to reboot your laptop because something's crashed, there's no option to not install the updates that are ready until you're not going to need the computer. If I recall... the update to Windows 10 (2004) lasted a WHILE. Probably closer to 3 hours than 30 minutes. Mick... you may want to postpone this update until you get your new computer to work again. I guess I'm just very conservative, but I always leave one computer alone and update the other. If the first computer works OK for a while, then I'll update the second computer. I also create a restore point for the computer manually tell the backup software to complete a backup. Then I'll do the Windows update. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerrySTL ★ Posted July 3, 2020 Share #22 Posted July 3, 2020 4 minutes ago, Bikeguy said: This ^^ is what I did. I used a 1 TB SSD and a 3 TB external drive. I dock my laptop just about every night so Windows does it's backup. I also have another program that backs up my files, just in case the Windows backup didn't work. AND I have Norton back my financial files to a 32 GB SD card, just in case the other 2 backups didn't work. I off-site an external drive to my daughter's house. She backs her computers to it also. If our homes would get destroyed or the computers stolen, we'd at least have about a month old backup. I have an old-school xcopy batch file that also copies certain files incase Windows doesn't backup right like you mention. Backups are like seat belts. You don't need them until you need them. Then you really NEED them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdc2000 Posted July 3, 2020 Share #23 Posted July 3, 2020 With Windows 10, I usually like to do a full image backup before installing any large updates, even when I have the updates set to delay for 30 days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bikeguy Posted July 4, 2020 Share #24 Posted July 4, 2020 16 minutes ago, jdc2000 said: With Windows 10, I usually like to do a full image backup before installing any large updates, My external 3TB USB drive is too full for a full image. I need to buy another, just for drive images. A drive image saved me once when I used Windows 7. I used to do a drive image every 2 weeks. 57 minutes ago, JerrySTL said: I off-site an external drive I should do this. ^^ I just trust 'the cloud' with my data. And I don't want to pay for the extra space I'd need in the cloud for my data. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bikeguy Posted July 4, 2020 Share #25 Posted July 4, 2020 1 hour ago, JerrySTL said: I have an old-school xcopy batch file that also copies certain files incase Windows doesn't backup right like you mention. OMG... I did that too. I quit a few years ago. Many years ago... batch files were nice to use for lots of things, but you needed to be careful with come of the commands. I remember loading upper memory on a windows x386 machine with programs that would run in the background. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scrapr ★ Posted July 4, 2020 Share #26 Posted July 4, 2020 3 hours ago, RalphWaldoMooseworth said: I am really starting to think Apple is worth the higher cost, or better yet, Linux. This Microsoft update crap just wears you down. psst...Chromebook I have been Chromebook for personal for about 3 or 4 years. Unfortunately the business has to be Winders because Quickbooks. So always have Carbonite at the ready for backup. We also backup Quickbooks to a flash drive after our large billing at the end of the week 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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