h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What do you mean by "the latest"? I've been running Safari 4 for nearly two months now - is there something newer?

I think I must have had a virus:

Windows detected a bad sector, nothing else did.

OpenSuse install fails with bad grub loader.

Backup made by Paragon fails.

Backup to DVD's failed made by drivexml, despite working on a previous backup.

That's not just bad luck.

It is the first time I've seen Safari 4 which they say is beta, the only reason I got it was because I couldn't restore an image.

"I think I must have had a virus:

Windows detected a bad sector, nothing else did.

OpenSuse install fails with bad grub loader."

Damn clever virus, jumping from Windows to Linux like that...

It didn't have to jump to Linux, it maybe resided in the first boot sector.

I actually started this re-install properly, first partitioning the disk and from advice I've read installed XP in the first partition.

I left about 50GB unused but can't raise the courage to try again.

Conficker is such a clever virus, I read one expert thought it was really intended for macs; because they are used in offices but employees run windows at home and on notebooks.

I've re-installed Paragon to get at the support page and found another reason why it failed to work:

DOS rules state that you only may use one extended partition and if you do then only 3 primary partitions.

Is Linux swap a primary partition, because if it is then I would have partitioned out of specification.

I have written to Paragon about their recovery backup feature, if I don't get an offer of my money back I'm going to review the software in Amazon.

Got my email back I put the right numbers in the wronge boxes.

So back up and running in record time, 0400hrs Monday to 0000hrs Today or is that yesterday. I even went to bed sometimes.

I can't believe the prices in skype, 1.2p pm to BT landline 1.2p pm to USA landline and 14.4p pm to a british mobile.

This is the final versions of my harddrives before I try to install openSUSE.

http://downloads.arismetique.com/Drive.jpg

I read that the replacement backup application is also crap, but one said it works well for cloning.

So I've tried to clone my C drive, the only problem is I can't make both drives exactly the same size, but close.

It's driving me mad now, Windows keeps trying to write to it, is this system stupid doesn't it know the difference between Q and C.

Why has windows taken over my external hardrive, it puts it right next to the C: drive in disc manager and won't let me shut it down.

If I just disconnect it says writing to Q interupted by hardware failure.

You've probably got disk indexing turned on by default - right click it, select "Properties" and uncheck it. (Near the bottom of the first "pane".)

I've downloaded Maxtor MaxBlast free from Seagate; it is a complicated load of s**t but if I get used to the ads to buy Acronis True Image might be ok.

It has an image checking feature that uses a virtual drive to see if everything works ok, is this safe?

I need a bit more info before I answer that. What sort of image, and what is it checking it for...?

I just tried it on a reformatted external, it said validation success and it looks like you can explore the files, I saw the general structure but clicking one caused a runtime error in virtual D:

http://www.seagate.com/support/maxblast/mb_ug.en.pdf

I think it's fantastic; it inspires confidence when you can mount drives and use them as if they were ordinary drives.

I know that my Adobe reader works in virtual drive J for instance.

Don't know how it's done though, this is a tad complicated and it's only 40MB in size.

It works

http://downloads.arismetique.com/Drive.jpg

But now I need a load of stuff;

nVidia physX drivers
DirectX9.0c equivalent to make the graphics card work.
Monitor driver
Hauwai driver
cpu driver
keyboard/mouse/webcam/sound drivers
tv card driver

control yoke driver for games


Installing these in openSUSE won't affect windows will it?

Nope, shouldn't be a problem.

What do you mean by a "cpu driver"?

My cpu has a windows driver to utilise X3 cores, otherwise it just acts like one I think. Well it is painfully slow in BIOS and running live CD and openSUSE now it's installed.

Is gcc already compiled and if not how do I get it. Same for make.

How do you use Yast.

My monitor SM2032BW is unrecognised and I cannot be changed manually, it reverts to some obscure make and runs at 16bit 77Hz which is quite dangerous.

My nVidia is unrecognised and it's using some obscure sound system.

It's a bit like starting windows for the first time where simple things defeat you and explanations fail to take into account how unfamiliar it is.

I can remember the embarrassment of being unable to work out how to use a mouse, never having used one before but so easy to those born with a mouse they fail to see or even think it needs explanation.

So sh is a compiler command and gcc is the compiler.

Even something like moving a file is difficult.

"My cpu has a windows driver to utilise X3 cores, otherwise it just acts like one I think."

That's because of a Windows bug - it doesn't understand having a number of processors/cores that isn't either one or a multiple of two.