I bought my sign set up from a company that went out of business now after owning it for about 2 months the computed took a dump. I am running LXi Master I have all paper work, keys, dongle etc... am I able to buy a new computer and just reload the software and start over. Hate this idea being I will loose all the images the previous owner had on there. The computer boots up the windows xp screen than just sits there.
-
I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...
Computer crashed have questions
- Thread starter F250inMN
- Start date
WildWestDesigns
Active Member
This right here. Unless it's just a total catastrophic failure, things can usually be salvaged.
I'm a huge fan of this. Unfortunately, it doesn't make one feel all warm and fuzzy after the fact, but starting from now on forward, I would look into this as well.
Keep pressing f8 when you first turn your computer on. It should ask you how you want to boot.... Click safe mode. See if that loads.
It's likely a software issue, not a hardware issue... So you don't need a new computer, you just need to fix windows xp. Safe ndoe is the first step to doing that.
WildWestDesigns
Active Member
This is just an aside, but you gotta love how MS pulled safe mode out of Win 8 and Win 10. Have to add it in yourself. F8 on it's own doesn't do it.
Gotta love it.
Bly
New Member
Starting Windows 10 in safe mode.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/12376/windows-10-start-your-pc-in-safe-mode
https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/12376/windows-10-start-your-pc-in-safe-mode
WildWestDesigns
Active Member
I already got it setup to where it shows up automatically at the startup each time on my dad's computer (I won't touch Win 10 unless it's absolutely necessary, which I'm setting it all up to where I don't have to; ironically the Linux version that I use for the most part looks like Win 10) before it finishes the startup. Both safe mode w/o and w/ networking.
This allows safe mode to be picked before a complete reboot has to be done. Which is no bueno if there is a problem with booting into Win 10 in the first place in order to do a reboot in order to boot into Safe Mode. That's what I had meant when they took it out. To me, they castrated the usefulness of safe mode with having to boot completely into Windows and then go through all that rubbish to boot into Safe Mode.
Thanks for all the help I was able to boot in safe mode I now have everything backed up on a flash drive. I am having a hard enough time learning everything with no background or training in graphics what so ever so I defiantly did not need a failure. Are their any training seminars a person can attend to shorten the learning curve? Thanks again for the help.
brycesteiner
New Member
I think he has XP from the post above. I would keep XP since it's a dedicated machine.
WildWestDesigns
Active Member
VMs. Even if you were to go with Win 10, install VirtualBox and then install Win 7 (or XP) within that and you'll be able to use your legacy programs (or you could use VMWare as well, that's another good solution).
Of course, you want to have a computer built for that type of use as it is more demanding then everything everything directly installed, but when "run in compatibility mode" doesn't cut it, run in VMs.
Pretty much what I do except I use Linux as the host and I run everything from Win 98 to Win 8.1 in VMs. I'll sometimes have 4 OSs running at one time (1 host and 3 guests).
There are a lot of legacy programs no longer out there that still do some things better then current programs.
I usually boot into a Live CD instead of safe mode. I hate windows 10 though... it's nice in some ways, but the lack of control you get over it is a pain in the ass.
I made the mistake of trying it on my home server... It restarts almost everyday. I went through all the "Tweaks" to turn that off, and while for the most part it doesn't do it anymore... it still does it on occasion. It's sad when theres no options, and you have to manually change the registry and disable services to tell your own computer not to shut off randomly.
Thats just one of the many quirks. I'd go back to windows 7 if I could. Sadly my situation is unique/crappy, and in order to use a new operating system I'd have to transfer 60+ TB to different hard drives, and that takes a week... Not worth it. I bet within a month I break down and do the reinstall / transfer though!
What are you trying to learn? Graphics, or how to use a computer?
Online Courses - Learn Anything, On Your Schedule | Udemy Has courses on pretty much anything. Never pay the full price though... You can usually get them for $10-15 a course... which isn't too bad. They have stuff on photoshop, computers 101... etc. You can find most of the information for free online, but if you're in a rush and want source material to go back to, Udemy is pretty good.
I took the course on photoshop / Illustrator when I first started out... it teaches you the basics, and "Best practices", It's good for beginning... but you won't learn everything, most of it comes from experience as you go. It's a great place to start, if you're feeling helpless though.
WildWestDesigns
Active Member
Almost everything has to be done through the registry nowadays. It's a shame that it has to be done that way, but I bet MS is banking on the fact that the majority of their users aren't going to go through all that trouble.
I had to do several things on dad's Win 10 that just really shouldn't be the case. He has been having problems with update deployment since Day 1 and he doesn't run esoteric, niche software at all.
Ironically, my host OSs on the various desktops that I use all look like Win 10. I've always visually liked the aesthetic of Windows (although I prefer the old 9x classic look the most), I just don't like the direction that they are going on. And in some ways it's a direction that software vendors are going in as well and for production rigs, it's just not good.
Thankfully, I can get away with running Guests using legacy OSs and software and not be adversely affected. I'm doing my best to consciously avoid Win 10.
Setup a NAS, that way it won't matter. Using something like FreeNAS that way you'll have software based RAID instead of hardware based RAID (although we do have both here). That way when ever have to change out OSs, your just dealing with applications and the OS itself.[/QUOTE]
[/QUOTE]
I run too much stuff that's windows dependant to use a dedicated nas. I used to have one... But now I'm up to 23 drives, and while I could turn the server into a freenas machine, I need windows on it. And while I suppose I could vm freenas... This way has never been a problem before.
I usually use Windows and pool everything together. The raid card I bought to replace an aging one doesn't seem to let me just plug and play says hds though. It can set them up as jbod / single drives... But it won't let windows see them unless I initialize them, which of course erases them.
Even if I turn the PC on with one unolugged that's been initialized before, the next time I turn it on. It'll try to make me initialize it again.
I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, the card can't have that stupid of a design. But I lost 8tb of data trying different settings, and nothing seemed to work... So I couldn't be bothered. I just copied everything from a sat Port on the Mobo to the raid, put the empty drive in the raid and initialized it. Works good so long as I don't have to switch computers again.. kind of a crutch, but my last server was going 8 years before I upgraded, so I doubt I'll need to change it again!
It worked fine on windows 7 also, so I think it's an issue with windows 10. I'm using an older adapted raid card... $1200 when they came out, like $80 on eBay now! Can't beat $80 for a 16 port sas raid card. If it comes to it, I'll just go back to windows 7. I'm close to doing it anyways... I have a lot of stuff that needs to be running 24/7. I run my smarthome through the server. So Everytime there's an update and it restarts itself, I have to manually unlock my front door when I get home.. first world problems, huh!? I just turned require password off, now if it reboots it'll auto login and isn't that big of a problem... Trade security for convenience, that's smart of.microsoft.
WildWestDesigns
Active Member
Can you clarify that? A NAS can be as OS agnostic as you want it to be.
While I don't allow for Windows OSs to be seen by my NAS from the get-go (my VMs have access by using Shared Folders with the GNU/Linux host, no network is allowed to the VMs period), Windows machines can have direct access to it.
Now, if you are trying to run a desktop OS for a server, that may present some of the challenges that you are talking about. Hot plugging and setting is not an issue with my system.
OSs designed for servers give different priorities compared to those used as desktops. Everything to giving background tasks more priority compared to desktops and as to what tasks that they are able to perform. To the type and amount of resources used etc.
You can create a VM of Windows in FreeNAS (that's actually what I would do, especially if running desktop Windows).
I was curious so I just googled it and It looks like Freenas doesn't work with my card 
So my options are limited. $50 for a 16 port SAS card, that has 3 Gb/s bandwidth per channel can't be beat though. Most 16 port cards I found online were in the upper hundreds.
Once all the ports are filled up it's not a problem though. The lack of Windows 10 support sucks... But it worked 100% on windows 7. I may eventually switch back to 7, but I'm trying to force myself into Windows 10... Just like I have to force myself into windows 7 from XP. I hate change / new operating systems.
And while I could go the Linux route and use virtual box's... I'd be in a virtual box 99% of the time, so I don't see a point. And even though I know the basics of linux, all my dedicated box's are in Ubuntu (I know.. kind of the fake linux) and CentOS, The thought of using it 24/7 for everyday stuff gives me a headache. I can do most of the basic stuff, but I still find myself googling for an hour on occasion trying to figure certain things out.
So my options are limited. $50 for a 16 port SAS card, that has 3 Gb/s bandwidth per channel can't be beat though. Most 16 port cards I found online were in the upper hundreds. Once all the ports are filled up it's not a problem though. The lack of Windows 10 support sucks... But it worked 100% on windows 7. I may eventually switch back to 7, but I'm trying to force myself into Windows 10... Just like I have to force myself into windows 7 from XP. I hate change / new operating systems.
And while I could go the Linux route and use virtual box's... I'd be in a virtual box 99% of the time, so I don't see a point. And even though I know the basics of linux, all my dedicated box's are in Ubuntu (I know.. kind of the fake linux) and CentOS, The thought of using it 24/7 for everyday stuff gives me a headache. I can do most of the basic stuff, but I still find myself googling for an hour on occasion trying to figure certain things out.