In loving memory of Kenis D. Keathley 6/4/81 - 3/27/22 Loving father, husband, brother, friend and firewood hoarder Rest in peace, Dexterday

Computer Memory?

Discussion in 'The DIY Room' started by wildwest, Sep 12, 2019.

  1. Oldhippie

    Oldhippie

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    When I worked for Digital Equipment Corp. I was a field service tech for PDP 11/70s and VAX machines. These were their flagship timeshare 32 bit machines. To add 256K.. might be a 6 month wait for an order to get completed and shipped for more memory. Then:

    First we'd have an environmental specialist check for enough computer room power and air conditioning BTUs. Then We would go in on a Saturday, the Computer Ops guys would come in and shut down the machine. We would all be on time and a half. ( :cool:) We'd roll in and bolt up a new metal frame cabinet onto the 5 or 6 frames already full. Then we'ld install the power distribution module at the base, then we'd have to run all sorts of ribbon cable and install and entire box with a backplane and fans and all of that.. maybe a couple hundred pounds and at a cost of upwards of $10K at 1980 dollars. Then we'd spend a couple hours running diagnostics. Then the Comp Ops guys would bring the machine back on line.

    If we got in at 8 in the morning, we might be finished by 5PM. Buy a couple 6 packs on the way home.

    16G for a Windows 10 machine to make it "snappy".

    Things have changed a lot! :faint: Man I'm ancient!
     
    Last edited: Nov 14, 2019
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  2. wildwest

    wildwest Moderator

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    Thanks guess I'll have too. This crap is for the birds! Got t it in my head I caught a virus I guess. I have it rebooting again til get back from the bus. Then I can get on again hopefully to wipe it.
     
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  3. Chaz

    Chaz

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    No reason to hold off on RAM install, virus or not.

    Seems like the comp wants to utilize swap space on HD (disk C: )
    Although RAM utilization is @ 59%

    :loco: :crazy:
     
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  4. wildwest

    wildwest Moderator

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    Ram is in. Bypassed error 1962. Now in safe mode running spybot. If not I'll wipe drive. I have an external backup drive if I do wipe, but no idea how to files back from it :rolleyes:
     
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  5. Chaz

    Chaz

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    Did you use M$ backup/restore?
    Or just copy important files over?

    I've not been in support for years, so may not be the best adviser.

    One thing I always did when built my computers was to partition the drive so that C: only contained the OS

    All programs and data were installed/stored on other partitions. D:, E:, etc.

    I could wipe c: and reinstall OS with no loss of data.

    I hate monolithic installs.
    :mad::mad:
     
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  6. wildwest

    wildwest Moderator

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    Thanks Chaz! I have a Western digital mybook, external via USB. I wish I knew about partition, under the impression os is protected but not data.
     
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  7. Chaz

    Chaz

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    I wish I knew an easy way to explain it via text...

    Imagine the hard drive as a pie.

    You cut the pie into 4 pieces (partitions)

    You install the Operating System (Windows) on one slice, other programs on another slice, photos and other personal files on yet another slice.

    If you get a virus, it generally will infect OS files/programs. They can infect other programs, but it is much less frequent.

    If you get a virus, you format the OS section and do a fresh OS (Windows) install.

    Now, this was also when one had a physical medium (discs) to install Windows.. That is seldom the case these days and I'm not entirely sure how one goes about a reinstall.
    :doh:
     
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  8. Grizzly Adam

    Grizzly Adam null

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    With modern usb hard disks, there is no real reason to split a drive anymore. Plug in the usb drive, copy anything you want to save, and then have it.
     
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  9. wildwest

    wildwest Moderator

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    I suck at smart phones, they do not recognize my swollen fingers :headbang:

    I did a "fresh install" of windows, no help. Last night I wiped it and finished it this morning, no dice again, cannot call explorer up and guess my Ms email was wrong. Just full blast cpu light on and many minutes to get anywhere. Wiping again. Hopefully I can confirm my Ms password via Google chrome here.
     
  10. Grizzly Adam

    Grizzly Adam null

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    Are you wiping the hard drive or just installing over the top? And your computer has a cpu light? Are you sure it's not a harddrive light?
     
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  11. wildwest

    wildwest Moderator

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    Thank you very much Adam?! I'll get a new ssd ordered :). !
     
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  12. Kimberly

    Kimberly

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    4 gigs on Windows 10; did they take care of the heavy resource hog of Windows? Wipe it and install Linux Mint.
     
  13. wildwest

    wildwest Moderator

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    I AM UP AND RUNNING ON NEW SSD WITH THE ADDITIONAL 4GB RAM! (8gb ram total now)

    I'll reinstall MSOffice in next day or so, hopefully it will run and not stall, I have a feeling it will run MSOffice well!!
     
  14. wildwest

    wildwest Moderator

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    Error, ID10T

    It appears the last time I took something off my external HDD backup was Dec 2017 and apparently I changed something so it quit backing up (it's 3TB and, I have 500GB on there). Light has been on the last two years, but it was not saving anything. So I lost everything 12/2017 through 11/2019 :doh:

    Luckily I can rebuild most of my legal file via emails, most of the important things have been either received or sent from email, just a PITA to go through and download all again. Also many pictures, special ones anyway have been emailed too. And I have something on my smartphone called "Google Pics" with all the pics I took or were texted to me during that time :yes:. Only bummer is Yahoo Mail I have to save every picture/file/attachment individually :confused:

    I need to add though, it's refreshing to see a clear screen and not have to wade through not very important items to find the important ones.
     
  15. Grizzly Adam

    Grizzly Adam null

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    So... is it faster?
     
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  16. wildwest

    wildwest Moderator

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    :salute:

    :dex:
    :dancer:

    YES :)
     
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  17. Kimberly

    Kimberly

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    I moved away from Windows and I am glad I did. You should install virtual box and install Linux Mint in a VM so you can try it out and see. There is no way I would ever run the spyware known as Windows 10. Did you read the EULA?
     
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  18. Grizzly Adam

    Grizzly Adam null

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    You don't even need to do that. If you make an usb install stick for most flavours, such as the Linux Mint I recommend, you can boot from the usb stick and actually try the OS before installation.
     
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  19. ReelFaster

    ReelFaster

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    That's pretty much just about everything these days, always tracking stuff.....
     
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  20. Grizzly Adam

    Grizzly Adam null

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    I saw a thing on TV the other day someone claiming that every website is tracking you. This is BS, a big paranoia dream. Every one thinks cookies are evil-- do you know what they do? The ones at FHC, for instance, make it so the website recognizes you so you don't have to log in every page load. That's what these so-called experts call tracking.
     
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