Tag: backups

Windows 8 Installation Issues

On By Michel McDonaldIn ComputerLeave a comment

Do you ever feel like your stick in a situation you can’t get yourself out of when you try to install a new operating system that doesn’t want to work properly?  Yeah, me too.

My first computer in 1989 was an Apple //e.  It didn’t have a tower with a hard drive, it did but my friend asked my brother-in-law to put a sound board in there that would make the computer talk when you typed and when he tried taking it back, it fried the motherboard.  All he was left with was the clunky keyboard, 2 floppy drives and the monitor.  He sold it to me in 1989 for $750.  It didn’t have a mouse or any icons, it was all dos.

My second computer was an IBM, but it had a tower with a motherboard and a hard drive, but it didn’t have windows on it.  I only had that for a couple of weeks in 1997 before I bought my very first Windows-based computer which had Windows 95 on it.  When 98 came out, I upgraded and when ME came out I upgraded to that too.  When XP came out, I had already built my first computer and put that on it and gave the one with ME on it to Darrin when we moved to Bakersfield.  Over the last 12 years, I have rebuilt my computer and given Darrin my old hand me downs and I am now on my 4th XP based computer.

I never upgraded to Vista when that came out because I heard nothing but horrible things about it from friends that I played EverQuest with.  When Windows 7 came out I wanted to buy the upgrade, but the upgrade adviser told me that my hardware wasn’t compatible (that was before my latest upgrades).

I tried looking for the Windows 8 upgrade adviser, but they didn’t have one.  All I could do was download the preview from the Microsoft website and try to run that to see if it gave me any clues about my hardware.  Before I did anything, I backed everything up on my backup hard drive in my computer.  I spent hours doing that because I knew something bad was going to happen if I didn’t and I was so right.

When my backups were all done, I bit the bullet and said just do it and I let Windows 8 preview install.  It took 2 hours to install before rebooting.  When I saw the new Windows logo, I got chills because I knew it had worked, but then that went away and all I had was a blank black screen.  I figured it was probably still installing, so I will give it awhile.  I gave it 2 more hours before deciding nothing was going to happen.  I rebooted it and got the Windows logo again, but this time the blank black screen was replaced with a blank blue screen.  I was overjoyed, until that blankness never got filled with words or logos, then I knew I was screwed.

I decided to run the installation again which meant going into the BIOS and making the DVD drive the first drive that runs so it runs directly from the disc, and it did.  It asked me for the code again and I thought SHIT, it’s on the desktop…  I didn’t write it down.  But, luckily it was on the website still.  WHEW!  I entered the code and thought everything would be OK  but it wasn’t.  It found my 2 hard drives and asked me which one to install it to and I chose the one that had my previous Windows installation, but it wouldn’t install.  I figured it didn’t have enough free space, so I had it format it, but it still wouldn’t install.

My only option was to put the Windows XP cd back in and install that, and I did and all was good until I installed the Router software, and then I couldn’t get my internet working.  I spent 3 hours trying to get my internet working to no avail.  I thought it was the router, but it wasn’t because I had the cable modem plugged directly into my desktop.  You don’t need a password, it’s instant on with a cable modem.  It’s like when you plug the cable into a TV, it’s instant on.  Right then I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I was more screwed than a hooker who worked for free.

I didn’t know what else to do.  For some reason I thought there was something wrong with my computer, so I reformatted and reinstalled Windows XP again and it still wouldn’t connect.  I called our cable company and they transferred me over to Road Runner support and walked me through it.  He reset our connection from there, but had me unplug the power and then the coaxial cable from the box for 30 seconds and then it worked.  VICTORY!

Well, I was feeling victorious until Internet Explorer wouldn’t stay on for more than 2 seconds without crashing.  I was finally able to get it to stay on when I went into the start menu and clicked Windows Update.  Then my heart sank when Windows Update wouldn’t give me any updates.  I was able to download and install Google Chrome and the updated Linksys EasyLink Advisor to get our wi-fi back on.

I think I read somewhere that Microsoft isn’t giving any more updates to people who have Windows XP, so my only option is to find a way to get Windows 8 to install properly.  Now I am forced to upgrade which probably means a bigger hard drive.  If I am forced to upgrade, then I better get on that bigger hard drive as fast as possible, because that $40 upgrade deal expires in January 2013.

This sucks for me big time!  I hope Microsoft releases an upgrade adviser program for me to install to tell me what hardware will work by scanning my computer just like Windows 7 had.  If they had that, I wouldn’t have had to go through all this crap.  I will have to see what I can do and what I can afford to get this done.

Update: Good news, Windows Updates are downloading and installing, so I’m thankful for that.

If it isn’t one thing, it’s another…

My Newly Reformatted Computer

On By Michel McDonaldIn Computer, TechLeave a comment

I reformatted my computer yesterday and it went better than I thought it would.

I typed out my check list in Open Office and printed it out so that I could check things off as I went which was a very good idea because I think I would’ve been lost without it. My checklist was files/folders to back up, drivers, programs and my browser extensions to install etc.

I had a few video DVD’s that I had to burn to get off my computer first before I could burn all the backups. The backups were about 4 dvd’s worth which were my home movie files that were still in mpg format, all my documents, pictures, mp3′s… you know, the basics.

One of the things that was very important to me was my Microsoft Money file. I did a backup in my Documents folder and put that on a dvd but after I reformatted the computer and installed MS Money and restored the file, it came up with nothing. I did it wrong. I’ve done it before in the past when I had to reformat and never had that problem so I don’t know what went wrong.

But that’s ok because when have I really ever needed to use that old information? Never that’s when. So, I can start fresh from my current balance and continue from there. The only reason I use it is so I always know my balance so I don’t overdraft.

One of the reasons I wanted to reformat was because my computer was so slow to load so I just left it running 24/7 to avoid having to wait to read my email. Also, when I load TweetDeck it can take up to 20-25 minutes for the columns to load. Now it’s instantaneous like it should be.

One thing that I wasn’t expecting was the Georgia font to be missing from my browser. For some reason, whenever I load my blog admin area, it forces me to type using the Georgia font. I don’t know why, it won’t allow me to change it, or at least I can’t figure out how to change it so I just had to deal with it. That’s why I liked Windows Live Writer, it used a default font like Arial which is easy to read. Georgia is very difficult to read, especially when you have eye problems like I do. You get used to it after a while but still. I just checked and Georgia is installed but I’m seeing something else, it’s not Arial but it’s easier to read than Georgia.

I have only installed half of my programs that I wanted to install so I still have work to do today but I’m sure it won’t take too much longer to get it all done and over with. I’m pretty sure all the Windows updates are complete. It’s been a few hours since it did any updates so I think it’s done for now.

I have a love/hate relationship with reformatting. I love how fast my computer is when I reformat but I hate all the work that goes into it and the risk of losing certain information. But you know what? When your computer is as slow as mine was, it’s worth the headache. I’m glad it’s finally done and over with.

WordPress Update

On By Michel McDonaldIn BlogLeave a comment

If anyone tried visiting my blog today they may have noticed that it wasn’t accessible.  I was trying yet again to update my WordPress blog to the next version which is supposed to be better.  I really don’t care about the new features, what I care about is getting that stupid notice at the top of the screen off.  Also one of my plugins is telling me that it won’t work until I update WP to 2.8.

One of the things that I was told to do before updating is to deactivate all my plugins before attempting to update and for some strange reason that keeps slipping my mind.  I don’t know why but I’ve deactivated EVERYTHING so that I may proceed.  If it doesn’t work again then screw it, I will just deal with my plugins not working and with that warning at the top of my control panel.

UPDATE: Ok, I finally got it all working again and the upgrade is installed.  Here is what happened.  I am a hard headed idiot who cannot follow directions that’s what happened.

The first time I tried doing the upgrade I read the full instructions and at the very beginning it said clear as day “deactivate all your plugins first” so what do I do?  I don’t deactivate all my plugins, I just proceed with the upgrade.  Then I had to delete it all and reupload my backup then I tried upgrading again WITHOUT deactivating my plugins then again it didn’t work so I had to delete it all and reupload my backups.

So today I did the same exact thing lol.  Finally after I made the above post I did it again lol.  Then after I reuploaded everything AGAIN I decided to deactivate all my plugins and did the upgrade and it worked.  However, as I was reactivating plugins things started going south again so I was luckily able to click back and deactivate them.  So I went and reactivated them one at a time while looking at the blog site in another tab, I kept hitting the refresh button to make sure it was all working.  There were a few plugins that I lost that were not compatible with WordPress 2.8 but I don’t mind.

Those plugins are:

  1. Global Translator which I can find another one that will work for those who read my blog but do not speak english.
  2. Custom Smilies… what?  I can’t smile in my posts anymore?  Well I’m gonna have to find some new ones then aren’t I?
  3. Flickr – This actually didn’t cause any issues but I just never use it so I got rid of it.
  4. WordPress Greet Box – This is something that would greet my visitors from any website they came from like for example if you came here from Google it would say hi google person or whatever it would say lol.  Yeah, I don’t need that.

So that’s it.  I’m going to try to get number 1 and 2 back soon.

Down Time

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

Sorry about that.  Today I went to blog something and noticed at the top of my WordPress dashboard there was a notice saying there was a new version available and I tried to have it update itself but it wouldn’t, it said that the file was too big even though it was only a couple of megabytes.

I did a backup of my blog then started doing the manual upgrade and it didn’t work too good so I had to delete everything and try to put the backup back in.  Unfortunately, I kept getting errors so it wouldn’t allow me to return my backups.

I’ve been working all day trying to get it all back in.  Hopefully it will all be back soon.  Thank you for your patience.