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Pastimes : Dream Machine ( Build your own PC ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: CatLady who wrote (4496)	12/29/1998 11:22:00 PM
From: Zeuspaul	Respond to of 14778

So that's what KOT means. <g> For myself, I keep a spare, KOT, computer, loaded with my "can't live without it" software. And I still have my old DOS floppies for the few times I need to boot DOS. What did you think..a new purebred? (Long term thread readers may want to click NEXT) My goal is to operate and maintain my machine from the keyboard. Ultimately this means linking work and home machines and keeping everything "on line". Also the ability to restore my computer configurations as quickly as possible. I find my KOT machine(second computer) essential. It gives me instant access to the Net..when the primary computer dies. I still would not want to operate without my second bootable harddrive. I do not want to just get by..I want full painless recovery. I am still suffering from my last system failure. I used to backup important files..financial records..and not worry about the software and OS. The software is sitting on the shelf (well two shelves) in the closet..so what's the big deal?..just reinstall. It turns out the big deal is time. It seems to take forever to get the machine back the way it was. And then all those configurations..ISP's, home network...latest drivers... My original KOT concept was to have a working clone of the computer ready to boot and "Keep On Truck'n". Over time the concept has evolved with the help of the thread and personal experiences. Clarence has followed the concept and seems to have come up with a better solution. The second drive keeps the machine alive from the keyboard. The KOT boot will give one access to all the hardware. One would have the "can't live without software" available on the alternate boot. Then one could access the Net for info and make repairs to the primary OS installation. If OS repairs are not the best solution then a restore would be in order. The easiest restore IMO is with a Power Quest Drive Image file kept on the KOT drive. To restore from the KOT one would simply enter the bios and change the boot to the KOT. One would then execute Drive Image from the KOT drive and restore the Image file to the Primary drive. One can install a KOT drive on an existing computer without much trouble. The only requirement is the ability to select an alternate boot drive in the bios. Most new motherboards with AMI or Award bios have this option. Many of the proprietary machines (Compaq and others) will not give you this option. I believe the Big Box makers try to limit options to save on customer support. I just looked in a bunch of new DELL machines and did not see adequate bios support for the KOT concept. DELL uses Intel motherboards. Intel motherboard manuals indicate bios boot selection options. When the Intel motherboards are installed on the DELL machines many of these options seem to disappear. I can see some benefit to a restrictive computer configurations in a corporate environment. For my own computers I have a different view. I want open architecture and flexible configurations... NOTE: The KOT concept does not replace the need for a removable media backup strategy. Enough rambling on... Zeuspaul