Tag Archives: Windows

The best backup software YOU’VE never heard of

http://www.macrium.com

Nope this isn’t some kinda lame click bait sponsored shit post. Ive spend most of the day trying to get Windows 10 to backup (normally it just works) but today its so slow its just terrible.

When i was googling for a better software package last year i came across a program that was free packed with features and was simple to use.

Normally i would try and use Paragon or Norton Ghost but they didnt seem to have Windows 10 versions when i looked.

Macrium Reflect:
When you backup a drive you can then browse the drive in windows like an ISO disk image.

Not only that you can schedule when it runs etc and boot into the drive image you made.

Fast:
Its fast too, it backed up my windows 10 image in 40 mins compared to Windows 10 backup.

Windows 10 wiped all my hard drives without warning

With the recent news that the latest Windows 10 update build (1809) deleted users downloads;

Microsoft:
We have paused the rollout of the Windows 10 October 2018 Update (version 1809) for all users as we investigate isolated reports of users missing some files after updating.
(via engadget.com)

i thought id post this story which ive been too lazy to post about for months.  If anything it shows that Windows 10 is not all its cracked up to be.

Over the years ive installed every Microsoft Windows OS;

  • Win 95
  • Win 98
  • Win Vista
  • Win 7
  • Win 8
  • Win 10

Windows 10 is the only one of those Operation Systems that wiped four hard drives without even a confirmation prompt to say you were “going to wipe out 5 hard drives”.

So what did you do?
It was almost new years eve and well my Windows 10 install was getting more broken after each update and the October 2017 update gave constant blue screens when using bluetooth headphones.  So i thought dam im going to have to reinstall windows 10 and all the dam updates.   At this point i really didnt want to do this with college work and programming source code scattered all over the shop.

F*ck it!
I had made a point of always backing up my PC since a horrable incindet back in 2003 where i lost the source code to two applications i was working on (fucking Maxtor Hard drives).  So yes i had a back up which was on another physical drive other than the SSD drive that Win 10  was installed.

Fed up of blue screens and problems since the October 2017 update i decided i had to reinstall Windows 10.  So i seen in Windows 10 there was a “Reset this PC” feature;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was hoping this was one of “Ronseal” moments where it does “exactly what it says on the tin”,  it didnt.

What could go wrong
I had a back up and was ready to go, so i pressed the “Get Started” button and thought great, it will all be fine.  Now this is the part that is kinda fuzzy ill admit, i cant remember what it said but i was sure that “nothing” would go wrong when i presses the enter button to “reset this PC” that as i pressed it i walked out of the room to get a cuppa Tea.

The horror:
I was away from the PC for a while and thought to myself “sure might as well let it do its thing” and ill watch some TV.

I had expected than when i would return to the PC that Windows 10 would be installed and ready to go.  An hour later i came back to the PC to see that it hadnt booted into any Windows 10/Any kinda interface, nothing.  Black screen and a DOS prompt saying the dreaded message;

“No system drive found”

Windows had mangled or rahter me the menu which Windows used to find the system drive to boot from. After using the BIOS to boot of the correct drive Windows 10 booted.

Not only had the the main Windows drive been wiped but all other internal hard drives were wiped with exception to the External USB 3.0 drive.

External USB Drive to the rescue:
For some reason Windows 10 didnt wipe this drive if it had it would have been an utter fucking nightmare.  I had my programming and college work from over the tears on this drive and somewhere in the “cloud” with Goggle Drive.

Theres hope:
I knew that when you delete a file its not really deleted rather the location where it was is marked as a place for new files to be written.  So i had not make sure that i didnt save or write anything to all the hard drives in question.

Recovery Software:
I had used recovery software before and i knew that

  • it can recovery a lot of files
  • it takes a very long time depeneding on the hard drive in question

So i needed to find the best recovery software available and hope that it would work.

Recommended software:
Figuring out which recovery software was the best was difficult but after a few days of trial and error i found that EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard was the best due to its simeple to use approach via a wizard which walks you through the steps of what drive to recover etc.

It was easy to use and recovery almost everything that was deleted.  Some files cannot be recovered but it managed to recover ALL of my Music collection which was nothing short of a miracle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes:

This is not a  Paid advert but just a personal opinion from a Windows 10 nightmare.

Battlefield 4 & Battlefield 1 Bluetooth Headsets gives no sound

Edit1:
Seems this is a problem with bluetooth in general.  I found the following article from the steam forums about bluetooth headset problems in GTA V.  It might be worth a read to shed light on any problems your having.

Edit 2:
If you start Battlefield 4 on windows 10 and havnt disabled “handsfree telephony as below” all your sound will cut out.
17-sep-2019

https://www.howtogeek.com/354321/why-bluetooth-headsets-are-terrible-on-windows-pcs/

There’s a problem with Battlefield 4 and Battlefield 1 where you get no sound if your playing with a bluetooth headset.  After a bit of googling and research i found the solution;

1. Goto; control panel->Hardware and Sound->Devices and Printers

2016-09-18-9

2. Select Properties on your Bluetooth headset and go to the services section.

3. Uncheck “Handsfree Telephony”.

2016-09-18-8

Note this works on Windows 10 cant say if it work on Windows 7 or 8.

Windows 7/8/10 Install Error (0x80300024)

When installing windows on a multidrive/boot system you can sometimes get this rather cryptic error message. It relates to how Windows setup sees your Drive partitions. There are two was to solve it;

1) Disconnect all drives from your PC except the one you are installing Windows on.
2) Enter your BIOS and set the hard drive you are installing Windows on to be the top-priority drive.

Either of those should fix the error message.

Whats the Best Anti-Virus / Firewall? Both Paid and Free?

Ive been using Avast 4.8 as my Anti-Virus program for about 4-5 years now and its been quite good however it does seem to have the strange habbit of reporting false postives once in a while which can be very annoying which left me wondering is there a better Anti-Virus out there thats Free.

Ive been using Comodo Firewall for about the same time too and its very good but it can be annoying to set up which again leads to the question is there a good All in One solution thats not “Norton” which i detest and slows your PC Down way too much.

Free Anti-Virus:

Avast:
After Avast failed me and let in a nasty virus on a USB Stick i use at college and let some bastard hack my world of warcraft account it was time to change Anti-Virus and Firewall Software. So i changed from Windows Vista 64 bit to Windows 7 64 Bit and started using ESET Smart Security and as soon as i plugged in my USB stick ESET Smart Security detected and deleted the Virus. It gave great detail on the virus on what accounts it does etc and it soom became clear that this was the bugger that let my World of Warcraft (inactive) Account get hacked.

Avast 5:
Avast have updated there anti-virus and now you can both a firewall and anti-virus. The Anti-Virus solution is free while you will need to pay for the AV and Firewall. It seems a lot better than it use to be the user-interface is a lot clearer and you can find all the settings you need to change.

AVG:
Ive never tried AVG but its the one people always reccommend when i ask whats the best free Anti-Virus software out there.

Microsoft Security Essentials:
As recommended by a commentor is also Free, ive never heard of it but it seems to be excellent.

Microsoft Security Essentials provides real-time protection for your home PC that guards against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.

Microsoft Security Essentials is a free* download from Microsoft that is simple to install, easy to use, and always kept up to date so you can be assured your PC is protected by the latest technology. It’s easy to tell if your PC is secure — when you’re green, you’re good. It’s that simple.

Microsoft Security Essentials runs quietly and efficiently in the background so that you are free to use your Windows-based PC the way you want—without interruptions or long computer wait times.

Paid Anti-Virus:

ESET Smart Security:
This is one of those All-in-one prodcuts that has a firewall and Anti-Virus it Seems a very good product but its not free buy you can get a 30 day trial and if your a student you can get at a student rate.

Id recommend it as you hardly know its there and it deletes any viruses it finds and the firewall is very non-intrusive . Ive bought this software at the student rate and its well worth the money. You can get it cheap if your a student which is great.


How to: Create a batch file to open websites

tech-tip-iconWhile at college or work its a real pain when you login to have to open up 3 different websites and maybe 2 more applications.

Well with a simple “batch” file you can do it all. Simply open notepad and paste the following code into it and save it as “.bat” file then double click it to run it and hey presto no more annoying websites to have to type in, feel free to change the website address to what ever you want.

start http://www.gmail.com
start http://www.google.ie
start https://www.irishbloke.net

Windows 7 – is it worth it?

500x_win-7-guide-headLifehacker’s Complete Guide to Windows 7:
This is a dam awesome guide on just about everything you wanted to know about Windows 7 its a must read.

Src: lifehacker.com

windows 7 vs Vista and CP – Gaming Benchmarks:
Heres another article that shows benchmarks between the 2 Windows Os’s and basically says that windows 7 is better than Vista. The benchmarks show a tiny difference but i using Windows 7 myself it sure does seem a little faster;

src: gamespot.com

Windows 7 on multicore: How much faster?
Is Windows 7 better with multicore Processors well not quite but a little seems to be the answer.

src: infoworld.com