Derek891

And your desktop's too big to take on the train every morning.

. . . compared to these people: http://www.quickmeme.com/news/?p=3295

And we now return you to our regular programming, the fast-paced and exciting new show coming to you live from driveways, parking lots, and junkyards all over the world. Ladies and gentlemen, please join us and spend the next hour "Watching Cars Rust".

I came across this today and thought I would share it: http://laughingsquid.com/a-map-of-the-most-common-cause-of-death-by-u-s-state-that-keeps-getting-covered-up/

September's patch Tuesday is just around the corner. Keep your fingers crossed and hope we don't get a another stinker. https://technet.microsoft.com/library/security/ms14-sep

Hello StanicEnemy - Look at the small panel at the top showing your drives. If D is an internal drive, it should appear there, directly beneath C drive. All you have to do is click on it to highlight it, then you can defragment it just as you would C drive. If D is an external drive, like a USB hard drive, you may have to go to Settings>Options>General, then check the box marked "Show removable drives" in order to make it appear in the upper panel.

Thanks for that one. I've got a couple of 4GB USB flash drives that are questionable. In the past, I've copied good .iso files onto them and find the files are corrupted when I copy them back to hdd. Now I won't feel bad about throwing them out if they fail.

Are you referring to me or Mark Zuckerberg?

I wouldn't join Facebook if you paid me to. And I wouldn't trust Mark Zuckerberg as far as I could throw him. Hmmmm....wait a minute. I could probably throw him at least 15 feet. That's too far!

"And so it was that the unknown prophet Winapp2.ini foretold of the great Android Apocalypse."

Hello hazelnut - Thank you for pointing this out. I checked the cord on my HP Envy DV7, and it's marked LS-18. Given the fact that I'm notoriously unlucky, it's almost like winning the lottery! Yippee!

Hey Hav0c, I can solve that problem for you. Just give me a minute to go out to the garage and find my 16 lb. sledge. Just kidding. That's why I have a TracFone. It costs me an average of about $8 a month because I rarely use it. About the only feature it has is text messaging (how 90's!), and I never even activated that. Someone can hack it until they turn purple and pass out, and all they'll end up with is my phonebook. And Nergal is absolutely right. They're not doing this as a prank or as a joke. It's strictly business, and business is good.

I'm taking the same approach. I think I'll wait for the smoke to clear, otherwise I might end up shooting myself in the foot. An update: No more BSODs since my last post. But Internet Explorer can be a bit of a mope sometimes. I can't be sure if it's I.E. or my ISP. Or maybe the fact that all the kids in the neighborhood are starting school next week and until that blessed day arrives, they are laying waste to all the available bandwidth in order to make everyone else's life as miserable as their's.

A follow-up: Before I restored my image from 6/26/2014, I made a list of all the Windows updates that were installed on my machine on 8/12/2014. There were 13 in all, not counting the update for Windows Defender or the Malicious Software Removal Tool. After restoring the image, I opened Windows update and compared my previous list to the current list of available updates. I noted that there were three that were available on 8/12 that are not available now. Microsoft must have pulled these three updates. They are as follows: KB2982791 - on hazelnut's list KB2975719 - on hazelnut's list KB2918614 - a new one I've had my machine running for about an hour since then and all appears well. I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope that is the end of BSODs for this machine. Edit: Thanks Alan. I'm keeping my backup image from 6/26 in case I have to do another restoration. If I do, I'll try what you have suggested.

I didn't want to do anything last night for two reasons. 1.) I needed to get online and do things like check my emails, look up some motorcycle parts and get prices, and then check the forums. I didn't have the time to play around fixing Windows. 2.) I wanted to think about exactly what I was going to do instead of just diving in. I've done that in the past and usually regretted taking that approach. I think I'm going to go with Andavari's suggestion. I have a backup image that I made in the first week of July. Before restoring it, I'll take note of all the 8/12/2014 Windows updates and make sure not to install them to the restored image. Then I'll just sit back and wait for the September updates, hoping that Microsoft resolves the issue by then.

The other day I uninstalled KB2982791 and had no problems for the rest of the day. I used the machine several more times over the following few days without any further problems, so I thought that alone fixed the issue. Then this evening I experienced another BSOD with the same message "IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL", followed by an automatic reboot. Shortly after that, I experienced a new problem. My mouse pointer froze up and would not respond at all. After hitting Ctrl+Alt+Delete I was able to log out and then log back in, and the pointer responded normally. Then I shut the machine down, put it away, and fired up my trusty Lenovo T400 in order to do some Google searches then post here. It seems the message "IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" is related to either a device driver or a kernel driver trying to access a memory address it's not supposed to. In light of the fact I haven't installed any new devices along with their necessary drivers, or updated any of my existing drivers, I can only assume that it's a kernel driver that's responsible for the problem. I guess I'll be using the Lenovo until Microsoft gets their thumb out and fixes the problem. Otherwise I just might take my HP laptop outside and see how far it can fly.

It's all about the pixels folks. More pixels = better image quality. For example, years ago I bought a Sony Cybershot DSC-71 digital camera that has a 3.2 megapixel CCD. At that time, it was considered an above average camera, since most of the others on the market had 2 - 2.4 megapixel CCDs. Nowadays, entry level "point and shoot" digital cameras are 10 - 12 megapixels. The high end DSLRs are 24 - 36 megapixels.

Indeed. You can do quite a bit if you know how to write the code to perform efficiently. Question: What can you possibly do with a system that has a 2 MHz processor, 32KB of RAM, and 576KB of ROM storage for applications? Answer: Fly to the moon, land there, and fly back to earth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer

Hello hazelnut - Thank you for finding this. I did experience a BSOD on my HP laptop about an hour after applying the last round of updates. Something to do with "IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL". Since it was the very first BSOD I have had with this machine, I had a feeling that the updates had something to do with it. I did do several Google searches trying to figure what happened, but I guess it was too soon to find any results. The next time I boot that machine, I'll uninstall update KB2982791. Thanks again - Derek.

Hello saurabhdua - Now I understand your situation in regard to your internet service. There are times I have to remind myself that not everyone has the same broadband connection that I have. I guess you'll have to find some way of getting a DVD version of Ubuntu 14.04 instead of downloading it. I took a look at the latest screenshot you have provided. Regardless of any messages you might have seen when you did the installation, Ubuntu 10.10 was not installed on your hard drive. If it had succeeded, there would be two new partitions displayed in Windows Disk Management, one for the root partition of Ubuntu, and one for the swap partition. Both would be described as "RAW" format, since Windows does not recognize Linux formats like ext2/ext3/ext4 or Linux swap. For now, if you wish to reclaim the 60GB of unallocated space and make it part of Windows C: again, it's just a matter of right clicking the Windows C: partition, then selecting "Extend", and using the amount that is listed. This will restore the C: partition back to it's original size. I would suggest not to try installing Ubuntu 10.10 again. It's not compatible with EFI boot, and the Ubuntu repository no longer supports system updates.

Hello saurabhdua - I can see two places where you have gone wrong. But first, I'd like to ask you to post a screenshot of Windows Disk Management showing what your hard drive currently looks like. I'd like a clear picture of this before offering any advice how to fix things and get you back on the right track. Number 1 thing you did wrong: Why did you insist on using Ubuntu 10.10 when I previously advised you not to? Go back to post #31 and re-read what I said in the edit at very the end. Version 10.10 is no longer supported and you cannot update it from the repository. Also, be aware that only versions 12.04.2 and up support EFI boot, which is what your system uses to boot. Please download the latest version of Ubuntu, 14.04 "Trusty Tahr", before attemting another installation. Number 2 thing you did wrong: You chose to install the bootloader to dev/sda when I advised you to install it to dev/sda2, the existing EFI boot partition. I mentioned this twice, all the way back in post #3, then again in post #31. In light of the fact that Ubuntu 10.10 does not support EFI boot, it is a moot point, but you do not want to repeat this mistake when installing Ubuntu 14.04. I've been offering you this advice for one simple reason: I have made similar mistakes myself in the past and am trying to help you avoid making the same mistakes. But if you do not follow my advice, guess what happens? You repeat the same mistakes!

Hello saurabhdua - I'm going to share a bit of my personal philosophy with you. A forum like this exists for one thing above all else: Knowledge. Those who understand how to do things share this knowledge with those who are willing to learn. It's that simple.

Hello Alan_B - I'm glad to see you found something that works for your situation. I tried out Eraser on my Windows 8.1 system by creating a small 20GB partition, loading 50 files onto it, doing a wipe, deleting all but one of the files, then doing a second wipe. Using Recuva, I could not find any of the files afterwards, so I can only assume it works. Which leads me to these questions: How do you go about examining the MFT directly? Is there some software utility that allows you to do this? If there is, does it display the information using a table or graphic of some sort that's easy to understand? Or does it spit out a bunch of hexadecimal gobbledygook that's beyond my understanding? I'm just curious about this, that's all.

Hello saurabhdua - In response to your first question, shrinking your Windows C: partition will create "unallocated" space on your hard drive. The term "free space" applies to the unused areas on a formatted partition. In light of the fact your system has 2GB of installed memory, and the fact that Windows C: is just under 450GB in size, why not try this: shrink Windows C: by 61440MB, or 60GB. This will allow you to have an Ubuntu root partition of 58GB(59392MB) and a swap partition of 2GB(2048MB). Considering the fact that Ubuntu installs using about 4.5-5GB of the root partition, you will have plenty of room to install applications and save data files. A side note: I downloaded the Ubuntu 14.04 .iso the other day and installed it to a USB flash drive, then ran it live on my machine. I haven't used Ubuntu since version 12.10, and noticed a significant change when running the installer. It no longer detects that Windows is already installed on the hard drive and no longer offers you the option to install Ubuntu alongside Windows. (I noticed a similar situation occurred between Linux Mint 15 and 16, which I am more familiar with.) This means that you will have to choose the "Something Else" option when installing or you will risk overwriting your Windows 8 installation. The link I provided to the tutorial describes how the "Something Else" option is used for installation. Please read it first, just to familiarize yourself with the process, the screenshots, and what to expect. Going at this blindly is asking for trouble, trust me when I say this. If you have any further questions about installing Ubuntu, or any other Ubuntu-based version of Linux, please ask me first.

I'll admit I was asleep at the switch on this one. Zorin OS 9 Final was released this past Tuesday and I just realized it today. This is a LTS version in the same vein as Ubuntu 14.04 and Linux Mint 17, and will be supported until 2019. The release announcement can be found here: http://zoringroup.com/blog/2014/07/15/zorin-os-9-core-and-ultimate-are-released/ And downloads are available here: http://zorin-os.com/free.html Even though I prefer to use Linux Mint 17 myself, I still feel that Zorin OS is the way to go for people making the transition from Windows XP to Linux. The desktop looks very familiar to a Windows user, and Wine comes pre-installed so you can run Windows based applications.