full system back ups are a wonderful safety net.
I didn't think I would be replying to you for a year or two. I am a "trailing edge" follower of technology normally, I only change my PC about once a decade. My Compaq 486 Presario did a great job for 10 years and I upgraded free from dumpsters. Memory, CD-ROM everything. Very useful tool.
So then I bought this fancy smancy AMD thunderbird system, and I see it is already WAY out of date. The software, Win 2K and and XP have also taken some taming. Finally now though, I have become the master and the PC the servent.
Because of my preference for trailing edge technology, I never got a "blue screen of death" crash until today. I never upgraded to win 95 till about 1999 for example. Today I got a fully fledged win XP blue screen crash with...
STOP: OX0000000A (0X0004845E, OXOOOOOOO2, OXOOOOOOO1, 0X804DE9E8)
my oh my...
SYSTEM CRASH EXTRA-ORDINAIRE
I was putting some final touches to configurations settings to a statistical software package at the time.
sooooooooo, I hadn't tried image restore from Norton Ghost 2003 yet on the belief that if it ain't broke, don't try and fix it principle.
I let XP try and recover its self which it did attempt. The screen came up with about 8 colors and it reported in to Microsoft with crash info. The message came back I needed update "service pack 1A".
Well, as us anarchists say...
"well f**k that for a game of soldiers" and I did a image restore from Ghost. (for those who might not know, an "image restore" is better then a simple "backup restore", not that I really know squat about PC's and stuff, just armed and very dangerous with a little knowledge)
Man oh man, it restored at a GByte per minute beautifully. It was sweet to watch. I used a hard drive copy as it was more slightly up to date. Sure enough, when checking the "add and remove software" panel on XP recovery, the service pack 1A was already there as I thought it was with loads of other updates. On checking with microsoft website though, I was short on 22 other updates and I just down loaded those.
Kept that image file though. I putting it onto CD's and building a shrine for them. Just to thank god for saving me from the system crash software demons.
Take a look at this little upgrade doozy for example...
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Q817287: Critical Update (Catalog Database Corruption in Microsoft Windows XP)Download size: 235 KB, < 1 minute
This update resolves issues associated with the catalog database Windows uses to ensure the integrity of installed binaries. Update 817287 allows the database to repair itself if corruption occurs. This update also improves performance of the catalog database and anything using Microsoft Cryptographic Services NT Service (CryptSvc.dll), including Microsoft Windows Media Player, and Microsoft Media. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer. Once you have installed this item, it cannot be removed.
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Yep, that reads...
Once you have installed this item, it cannot be removed.
I am sooooooo glad I have image file backups. I can use the XP system restore points as intermediate save points during XP upgrades.
Another cool feature with Norton Ghost 2003 as I can restore even a single file using the explorer utility.
The real important information is that I cleaned the kitchen, made breakfast, cleaned up, and finnished a wood work project all while this crapola was going on. This crash did not cost me in personal time hardly at all.
I slayed some moderate sized software dragons today.
about time,
pb. |
