My primary PC is again operational . . . barely. Windows is reinstalled. Enough "essential" non-gaming software is reinstalled so I can browse the web here rather than on the secondary PC. I've still a long way to go before things return to normal, but can relax and take my time with the rest of it.

Rather than a long, drawn out narrative, I'll just say that the tiny hidden partition Windows stores its boot data in somehow corrupted. Due to SNAFU after SNAFU, it took me the better part of two weeks to get back up and running again, to the limited extent I'm up and running. I almost gave up hope of ever getting the darn thing to install Windows with network accessibility until night before last, when I stumbled upon a quick fix by sheer happenstance.

What scared me most (so far) was not finding my MS Money user data files, where all my financial transaction for the past 30+ years are contained. Thankfully, just a few hours ago I unearthed a recent backup of that file on my now nonfunctional saved copy of C-drive. I'm guessing my TurboTax yearly returns are stored there too. <crossesfingers> Maybe finding those will be tonight's project.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Nov 24 2023, 01:40 PM

Yikes! Glad you're up and (sort of) running again.

Found my TurboTax return copies, housed in a document subdirectory within G:\ partition, the first partition on the second of my primary PC's two M2.NVME drives. Thank goodness. Searching the entirety of my "old" C:\ partition's Windows directory unearthed nothing useful.

My primary computer boots into Windows ultra-fast now, as expected. By the time I add back all the programs and utilities I intend to, it'll likely slow down again. A slow boot doesn't bother me, so long as the computer runs acceptably fast once booted.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Nov 24 2023, 02:18 PM

I've seen another of his vids touching on this issue, but not your link. Well worth watching.

I think he makes some good points.

Btw, did you try a Youtube Shorts blocker?

That I did, the one you recommend. It works as advertised on my recommendations page. I doesn't seem to do much of anything when I do a search. There, Shorts still appear. Still, I'm better off than I was, Shorts wise.

You know, I never noticed that Shorts still appear when I do a search. I most often just refresh the home page. Maybe you can combine with another blocker?

I still don't know what y'all are talking about. Maybe it's good that I don't! Shorts sound annoying.

Not a computer issue per se, I am trying to be proactive, so I can prevent a computer issue. My gaming computer is almost 10 years old. The CD/DVD drive fried maybe 4 years ago, but that's it. Never had any problems with it. I think maybe it's because I don't push it too hard, I don't force it to do things that are stressing its components, right?

But I want to be proactive. What should I be looking at, to prevent any typical failures?

Motherboard: MS-7826 (Kaili)
Processor: Intel Core i7 4770
Memory: 16 GB DDR3
Storage: 128 GB SSD + 2 TB HDD
Video graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760, and Intel HD Graphics 4600 integrated graphics

MAKE BACKUPS!!!!!

This. Cannot be overstated or overrated.


Be a good marine; always backup your files

Over a 30-year period I’ve a few failures; the HDD (twice, one was the Cdrive), the power supply (twice), the CMOS wafer battery on the motherboard (once), and a video card (once).

Other than the hard drives, they were all easily fixed just by swapping in a new one. The HDDs spent weeks recovering data, luckily successful each time.

As a computer room supervisor for 15-years and plus 5-years on the disaster recovery team, one would think that I would know the value of backups. On the job is one thing, operating at home is well… But being the dummy that I am, do as I say not as I do.

You can get a 2TB USB external SSD drive large enough to backup your entire system for around $100-$150. 1TB drives $20 or more less. Get one or better yet get two, backup everything, make a backup copy, and update them on a regular schedule.



Shorts are difficult to explain.
This is a short Solaire never misses #darksouls #eldenring - YouTube. Notice the vertical format and that it repeats like a meme. Scroll down and you’ll see and almost endless string of Shorts. Some good, some bad, and many leave you feeling that there is more to the story.

Now compare the short to the actual full content
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blSXTZ3Nihs]Solaire the Sun Bro - Git Gud - YouTube[/url].

And not just when you hear about your friend's computer going up in smoke... Not that I would personally do that, of course...

(I promise - tomorrow's backups day!)

This is what I've been doing for a long time albeit with flashdrives. Three to be exact, and I store them in safes in three different locations. This makes it a bit harder to update them all at the same time regularly but then again, it's mostly savegames and pics so nothing too important. And I do update the flashdrive I have at home quite frequently and then at intervalls I bring the other two up to date.

I also copy everything over to my backup Win7 computer whenever I start it up which I do from time to time. Speaking of which, think I should do it this evening.

Almost cra**ed myself when I couldn't log into my bank just now. Reason was the screen got semi-greyish and I couldn't click on anything. I could still see what I needed to see but like I said, I couldn't do anything. Turned out to be the adblocker cause as soon as I turned it off it all worked again. But the realisation didn't come before I tore up heaven and earth; I called my local computer tech guy, then my internet bank support and was put on hold, and I was THIS close to mailing my personal bankwoman.


Sigh. I'm starting to really hate everything computer related

I know what ya mean. Almost nothing has gone as expected since finally getting Win10 to reinstall itself with net access. Just about every app I've reinstalled since then has some hiccup that didn't exist on my prior Win10 installation. Some I've found solutions for (that weren't needed before). Some not. At least I've got MS Money Sunset up and running (with a minor glitch I can easily live with), and found last year's Turbotax returns. Other stuff too, but no games except Train Simulator. Even there I've a glitch, with an "essential" third-party add-on. The bloody thing won't load. Says it can't find a needed requirement, despite me installing all requirements its manual specifies, several times. On the other hand, I'm fairly well along getting both Firefox and Brave up to speed with most of the same bookmarks and new-page icons and extensions as before. It's a real shame the De-Mainstream YouTube extension is no longer available for Firefox, but I can live without it. (My secondary PC's Firefox has it, installed in the ever-dimmer past.)

I GOT LOCKED OUT OF PS4!!!!!

Phew... sorry about that. Ready to breathe fire here.

So, start again. I got locked out of ALL PS4 games!!! It tells me that I've got to buy the license because the license owner is... me. Umm...

And I am not alone in this misery! I already tried the work-arounds suggested in that article, and no joy. So then, the solution is... turn it off and go do something else.

So I came to post this here.

That's just bull. How can that even happen?

Apparently it's been happening to various people since the summer. Sony usually fixes it in a few days... That's just great, innit?

I am now downloading The Witcher 3 onto my computer from GOG. I bought it on sale last year but it's so big (50GB) that I never downloaded it. It is a bit too heavy for my PC too... but I'm hoping I'll be able to run it on some low-ish graphical settings. According to the spec, the PC should just about scrape by. But at least I won't be locked out of that one! Also, I can then install a mod that would allow Geralt to actually sit down. Can you believe the game doesn't let him do that? Poor Geralt, he can't sit down, he can't lie down, he can't even kneel to meditate - it's done with a "wait" menu screen and I had expected better since they could do it already in Witcher 2. But not anymore. He's got to stay on his feet 24/7...

Anyway, since I can't play I did a backup. Also needed to make room on the hard drive - 50GB to download the zips, plus 50GB to install the game, then you can delete the first 50GB. So you need 150GB in total. You know that's exactly how it works.