A colleague of mine has a Dell laptop that she uses for her other job as a security manager. On trying it one day recently it started the Windows XP loading screen and then went straight to the blue screen of death with an "Unmountable_Boot_Manager" Message. Nothing was working not even safe mode.
To double the stress, none of the important files had been backed up either. In an attempt to recover files before trying any kind of troubleshooting I plugged in a USB Hard Disk and searched my Linux Library to see if I had any suitable tools....Thus I saw Knoppix....and it was good.........
Knoppix, for those not familiar, is a Live Linux distribution that runs entirely from CD (or DVD) and comes chock full of Applications and tools and most importantly is FREE. I was expecting to have to use a little known tool (included in Knoppix) called PhotoRec that recovers files from damaged drives by piecing them back together at byte level (and from previous experience, works incredibly well).
However, on attempting to mount the dodgy drive the Linux system flashed up a message that the drive was damaged and then attempted to mount the "dirty" drive (Knoppix's words....). Konqueror then popped up displaying all the files on the disk and I was able to copy and paste them to the USB Hard Disk.
If you have an internet connection just go to www.knoppix.org and download a copy, it really is an essential tool. I know I could probably have used other distributions (Ultimate Boot CD, System Rescue CD, MEPIS, Ubuntu) but Knoppix seems to do it all.
Thursday, 13 September 2007
Sunday, 9 September 2007
Macbook Wireless issue resolved
Having tried several workarounds, it transpired that the main problem was my router. About a day after the problems mentioned in the previous post, both my laptop and desktop windows machines refused to connect. I borrowed a Linksys router and this seemed to solve the problem (My original one was a 2Wire).
I had noticed the Windows machines were taking ages to authenticate prior to the Macbook arriving but thought this was just the Wireless PCMCIA card failing and the distance to my desktop.
A lesson well learnt.
I had noticed the Windows machines were taking ages to authenticate prior to the Macbook arriving but thought this was just the Wireless PCMCIA card failing and the distance to my desktop.
A lesson well learnt.
Wednesday, 5 September 2007
1st MAC problem
After working without issue for 3 days, I went to use the Macbook on Monday night and there was no wireless. Both my PC's were working fine with my router. The Mac just wouldn't connect, I tried rebooting the router, the Macbook, reinstalling MAC OS - after reading about the issues with update 2007-004 - nothing. Tried a different router, tried removing encryption on my router, still nothing. Came home last night armed with some troubleshooting techniques ready to go and et voila it worked straight away.
Really, Really strange.
I hate it when problems resolve themselves before you find out what's wrong. Seems from forum posts that Airport Wireless has it's issues although I only read two that were similar to mine where it wouldn't even connect when the router was unencrypted. It could see Wireless networks fine, but absolutely refused to connect, almost like it wasn't passing the WPA key. I'm hoping this is a one off as so far the Macbook has been excellent.
Really, Really strange.
I hate it when problems resolve themselves before you find out what's wrong. Seems from forum posts that Airport Wireless has it's issues although I only read two that were similar to mine where it wouldn't even connect when the router was unencrypted. It could see Wireless networks fine, but absolutely refused to connect, almost like it wasn't passing the WPA key. I'm hoping this is a one off as so far the Macbook has been excellent.
Sunday, 2 September 2007
Windows v MAC OS (Part 1)
Well, it arrived. I'm still in the honeymoon period at the moment so I will write a Part 2 when I have used it regularly day to day, but I have to say that first impressons are amazing!
The interface remnds me a lot of Ubuntu or more specifically the Gnome desktop environment. However it is incredibly polished. If Vista Looks better than XP, this makes Vista look and behave like like a poor imitator the dashboard and single clcik make navigating the desktop effortless.
However this is secondry to the initial set up. as with the physical hardware, the set up has been so well thought through it is phenomenal, for current windows users it works so much better, looks so much better and doesn't expect you to know anything about your setup to work. I let my wife do this bit (and she knows quite a bit about windows after being married to me) and she was amazed at how effortless it was, in fact the ease of setting up our wireless literally illicited a revered "wow". Now my wife is not easy to please (is any woman!) so this is quite something.
I took over at this point and started navigating around the system. Everything is incredibly easy to find and use, every application seems designed to "just work" no fiddling or extra updates (.NET anyone) required to run it is ingenious.
I'm reserving my final verdict until I have used it day to day for work. But for a home user, especially if your not technologically savvy, this is the one to get, forget PC's this has everything you want and it's easier than Windows. I'm convinced at the moment that If the world used Mac's, 90% of IT Support issues people have day to day would dissapear, my user training would also be easier, due in part to the more logical and predictable outcome of choosing options. I miss right clicking, but I also recognise that without it, it makes things a bit easier too....once you get used to it.
"Once you go MAC you never go back" might be true after all.
The interface remnds me a lot of Ubuntu or more specifically the Gnome desktop environment. However it is incredibly polished. If Vista Looks better than XP, this makes Vista look and behave like like a poor imitator the dashboard and single clcik make navigating the desktop effortless.
However this is secondry to the initial set up. as with the physical hardware, the set up has been so well thought through it is phenomenal, for current windows users it works so much better, looks so much better and doesn't expect you to know anything about your setup to work. I let my wife do this bit (and she knows quite a bit about windows after being married to me) and she was amazed at how effortless it was, in fact the ease of setting up our wireless literally illicited a revered "wow". Now my wife is not easy to please (is any woman!) so this is quite something.
I took over at this point and started navigating around the system. Everything is incredibly easy to find and use, every application seems designed to "just work" no fiddling or extra updates (.NET anyone) required to run it is ingenious.
I'm reserving my final verdict until I have used it day to day for work. But for a home user, especially if your not technologically savvy, this is the one to get, forget PC's this has everything you want and it's easier than Windows. I'm convinced at the moment that If the world used Mac's, 90% of IT Support issues people have day to day would dissapear, my user training would also be easier, due in part to the more logical and predictable outcome of choosing options. I miss right clicking, but I also recognise that without it, it makes things a bit easier too....once you get used to it.
"Once you go MAC you never go back" might be true after all.
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