Another mysterious crash. We run for three weeks or so continuously, no power off, then suddenly it dies. This time I thought to start from system rescue disk and try memory checks. This did seem to produce reporducible dying. After three crashes in a row I decided to bit the bullet and replace the innards. Yes, it would be possible just to replace the memory and see if that helped, but its productive time being lost at every iteration of this problem.
The result is surprising. Now I have 16G memory in two sticks, and an i5 processor in an Asus itx board. It is a lot quieter and a lot cooler than the previous rig. In fact you can just about hear it. Started from the old hard drive with no problem and everything runs perfectly though rather faster.
So, if you are looking for a compact and fast configuration, get the Silverstone mini itx case with the big fan on the front, put an i5 in it, and its perfect for a compact desktop. Recommended. I liked it with an i3, but this is superb.
Al
On 28/02/13 17:28, Peter Alcibiades wrote:
{} After three crashes in a row I decided to bit the bullet and replace the innards. Yes, it would be possible just to replace the memory and see if that helped, but its productive time being lost at every iteration of this problem.
The result is surprising. Now I have 16G memory in two sticks, and an i5 processor in an Asus itx board. It is a lot quieter and a lot cooler than the previous rig. In fact you can just about hear it. Started from the old hard drive with no problem and everything runs perfectly though rather faster.
I may need to update a machine's innards, so I'd like to know - did you basically just put the old hard drive on the new motherboard & case etc and it booted, just like that, without having to reinstall anything?
So, if you are looking for a compact and fast configuration, get the Silverstone mini itx case with the big fan on the front, put an i5 in it, and its perfect for a compact desktop. Recommended. I liked it with an i3, but this is superb.
Would you mind going into a bit more detail on the spec's of your kit and where you got it from? Previously I've just cobbled together old kit, but it may be about time to buy some new kit, but it depends on the price etc!
TIA
Steve
On 28 February 2013 21:58, steve-ALUG@hst.me.uk wrote:
I may need to update a machine's innards, so I'd like to know - did you basically just put the old hard drive on the new motherboard & case etc and it booted, just like that, without having to reinstall anything?
I can't comment on what Peter did, but generally speaking I've always found that a disk from a Linux PC will transfer to new hardware without issue. The biggest potential problem that I can think of would be a change to graphics hardware, but even then unless you have a customer X config it should just work itself out.
This is in stark contrast to almost never being able to move a Windows HDD between systems and expect it to even boot....
Of-course there are two good reasons for this. First, Linux generally has the drivers for everything built in, so changing hardware means using different drives that it already has, rather than (as with Windows) needing new drivers to be installed, and frequently needing the drivers installing before you can get to the point of installing them... Secondly, Windows licencing is built around it not being moved between hardware so it actively looks for changes and treats them as hostile.
On Fri, Mar 01, 2013 at 06:04:54PM +0000, Mark Rogers wrote:
On 28 February 2013 21:58, steve-ALUG@hst.me.uk wrote:
I may need to update a machine's innards, so I'd like to know - did you basically just put the old hard drive on the new motherboard & case etc and it booted, just like that, without having to reinstall anything?
I can't comment on what Peter did, but generally speaking I've always found that a disk from a Linux PC will transfer to new hardware without issue. The biggest potential problem that I can think of would be a change to graphics hardware, but even then unless you have a customer X config it should just work itself out.
Yes, this has generally been my experience too. It always comes as a bit of a surprise when it works though!
Yes, my experience too. In fact when changing out entire machines I've done it by making a clone with Clonezilla including boot sectors and then copying the clone back onto the new machine. Had one problem a couple of years ago, as Mark says, with xorg, but the way I handled that was the quick and dirty method of starting from a live CD, copying the config files onto the new hard drive, and bingo, everything worked.
If you have untechnical users and you do this a few times, they get totally spoiled. They get used to just buying a completely new machine, and having the desktop and everything work identically a couple of hours later. Isn't that how it ought to work? What's so special about that?
The thing that has been more disruptive than anything else lately is Gnome 3. I've had to move to xfce to keep the desktop as it was, but arrange to have it work with the familiar gnome file manager, and I still don't have the desktop fonts in white as they used to be. Must be some confguration file someplace where you can set this. Simply cannot imagine what the Gnome people thought they were doing. I tried LXDE too, but XFCE turned out to be more acceptable.
Peter
On Friday 01 March 2013 18:04:54 Mark Rogers wrote:
On 28 February 2013 21:58, steve-ALUG@hst.me.uk wrote:
I may need to update a machine's innards, so I'd like to know - did you basically just put the old hard drive on the new motherboard & case etc and it booted, just like that, without having to reinstall anything?
I can't comment on what Peter did, but generally speaking I've always found that a disk from a Linux PC will transfer to new hardware without issue. The biggest potential problem that I can think of would be a change to graphics hardware, but even then unless you have a customer X config it should just work itself out.
On 01/03/13 18:04, Mark Rogers wrote:
This is in stark contrast to almost never being able to move a Windows HDD between systems and expect it to even boot....
Actually that is a lot less true now than it used to be...particularly if you do it properly and boot the image on the original hardware and run sysprep with the right options before moving it
The only real gotcha would be if your mass storage setup is wildly different (ATA vs AHCI, or single disk vs hardware raid that sort of thing) and even then there are ways and means of sorting it fairly quickly.
On 02/03/13 18:41, Wayne Stallwood wrote:
On 01/03/13 18:04, Mark Rogers wrote:
This is in stark contrast to almost never being able to move a Windows HDD between systems and expect it to even boot....
Actually that is a lot less true now than it used to be...particularly if you do it properly and boot the image on the original hardware and run sysprep with the right options before moving it
The only real gotcha would be if your mass storage setup is wildly different (ATA vs AHCI, or single disk vs hardware raid that sort of thing) and even then there are ways and means of sorting it fairly quickly.
Thanks for the comments guys - I'm quite reassured that when I take the plunge it may work! :-)
Incidentally, I have in the past had success with moving boot HDDs with Windows. I found it worked best with Windows XP, as that seemed to have everything installed, but a) that was when I stopped using Windows and b) I didn't install any of that Windows Genuine Advantage stuff, or any of it's successors, which, rather than be a genuine advantage, was the stuff that checked that you hadn't changed your PC and phoned home to M$ (allegedly).
Previously, with Win 95, 98, 98 SE, I found that I could move the disk, then re-install Windows "over the top" of the existing installation, reboot, download all the updates, reboot, and then it would usually work without having to re-install all the my user programs (word etc) - still I did have the advantage of having MSDN Windows install disks, which would do updates or fresh installs.
Cheers Steve
On 2 March 2013 18:41, Wayne Stallwood ALUGlist@digimatic.co.uk wrote:
Actually that is a lot less true now than it used to be...particularly if you do it properly and boot the image on the original hardware and run sysprep with the right options before moving it
Which is fine when the original hardware still works...
But I agree, it can be done. However this is one area where with Linux it generally "just works" and with Windows it doesn't without planning. This, I am sure, is closely related to the fact that I can boot a Linux CD and everything will just work, where with a fresh Windows install a lot doesn't work (either at all or at least not properly) until you work your way through driver disks. Particularly annoying when you don't have them, and the network card needs drivers to get you online. Also, tools like lspci help you to work out what hardware you have, where with Windows even that can be a chore. Windows is built to be installed by an OEM not an end user, Linux is built for after-market installs, and it shows. On the other hand, on the rare occassions when Linux doesn't "just work", finding drivers is far, far more difficult...
On 03/03/13 16:09, Mark Rogers wrote:
On 2 March 2013 18:41, Wayne Stallwood ALUGlist@digimatic.co.uk wrote:
Actually that is a lot less true now than it used to be...particularly if you do it properly and boot the image on the original hardware and run sysprep with the right options before moving it
Which is fine when the original hardware still works...
But I agree, it can be done. However this is one area where with Linux it generally "just works" and with Windows it doesn't without planning. This, I am sure, is closely related to the fact that I can boot a Linux CD and everything will just work, where with a fresh Windows install a lot doesn't work (either at all or at least not properly) until you work your way through driver disks. Particularly annoying when you don't have them, and the network card needs drivers to get you online. Also, tools like lspci help you to work out what hardware you have, where with Windows even that can be a chore.
Bel-something-or-other (Belarc?) Advisor is the answer there - tells you all your hardware, makes, models etc, capacities, configuration of box, your software, versions of it, oh, and lots more.
All I use Windows for now is Irfanview and occasionally Photoshop and Paintshop Pro.
Windows is built to be installed by an OEM not an end user, Linux is built for after-market installs, and it shows. On the other hand, on the rare occassions when Linux doesn't "just work", finding drivers is far, far more difficult...
Even Vodafone internet dongles 'just work' now in Mint. Even the Vodafone Tech Team weren't able to sort out one for the Asus Eee.
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Anthony Anson -
Chris Green -
Mark Rogers -
Peter Alcibiades -
steve-ALUG＠hst.me.uk -
Wayne Stallwood