My PC has 256 GB SSD (programs) and 1 TB hard drive (data). The SSD
is now very full and I see I could realistically obtain a 1 TB SSD.

Before I investigate this in detail, could someone tell me whether
this upgrade is a straightforward job that I could do or should I be
be getting the computer shop to do it for me? Can I place an image of
my existing drive on to a new one or should I go for a new W10
install? If I go for an install, will I lose all my programs or can I
extract them individually from the present SSD.

Scott <newsgroups@gefion.myzen.co.uk> wrote:
> My PC has 256 GB SSD (programs) and 1 TB hard drive (data). The SSD
> is now very full and I see I could realistically obtain a 1 TB SSD.
>
> Before I investigate this in detail, could someone tell me whether
> this upgrade is a straightforward job that I could do or should I be
> be getting the computer shop to do it for me? Can I place an image of
> my existing drive on to a new one or should I go for a new W10
> install? If I go for an install, will I lose all my programs or can I
> extract them individually from the present SSD.
>

I’ve used Samsung SSDs. They provide downloadable cloning software. The
cloning I’ve done is from mechanical drive to SSD, but I see no reason why
it should not work from a source SSD. It handles resizing form one drive
size to another without difficulty. Just make sure you’ve got a backup of
your important stuff before you start. If you have Bitlocker drive
encryption turn it off before you start.

On Fri, 09 Jul 2021 16:57:30 +0100, Scott <newsgroups@gefion.myzen.co.uk> wrote:

>My PC has 256 GB SSD (programs) and 1 TB hard drive (data). The SSD
>is now very full and I see I could realistically obtain a 1 TB SSD.
>
>Before I investigate this in detail, could someone tell me whether
>this upgrade is a straightforward job that I could do or should I be
>be getting the computer shop to do it for me? Can I place an image of
>my existing drive on to a new one or should I go for a new W10
>install? If I go for an install, will I lose all my programs or can I
>extract them individually from the present SSD.

There are multiple ways to achieve this.

It does a PC no harm at all to be reinstalled from scratch from time to time. In
fact it does them a power of good. So, if you have a licence key, you could just
reinstall Windows onto the replacement SSD. As your data is on a separate
physical drive that's safe - especially as you'll back everything up first. I
use Veeam Windows Agent and back up to a NAS or external drive.

Of course you'll also need to reinstall everything.

Another approach is to perform that backup, swap the SSDs over, then use bare
metal restore to copy everything back to the new drive.

But I'm wondering what crap has built up on your existing SSD? Have you run
Treesize to see just where the space has gone?

On Fri, 09 Jul 2021 16:57:30 +0100, Scott
<newsgroups@gefion.myzen.co.uk> wrote:

>My PC has 256 GB SSD (programs) and 1 TB hard drive (data). The SSD
>is now very full and I see I could realistically obtain a 1 TB SSD.
>
>Before I investigate this in detail, could someone tell me whether
>this upgrade is a straightforward job that I could do or should I be
>be getting the computer shop to do it for me? Can I place an image of
>my existing drive on to a new one or should I go for a new W10
>install? If I go for an install, will I lose all my programs or can I
>extract them individually from the present SSD.
You can clone the old drive to the new one.There is free software out
there, and the leaflet in the new drive's box will give you the URL of
one the manufacturer recommends. The only other thing you should need
is the right cable to plug the new drive into a USB port, and perhaps
a bracket to fit the new drive into the old slot, although I didn't
bother - it's a desktop which never gets moved.

I've done this to two PCs - a Lenovo desktop and a Dell laptop.

The replacement drives (Samsung on the desktop and Crucial on the
laptop) were marginally smaller than the originals, but that didn't
worry me because all my data is stored on RAID drives attached to my
router.

On Fri, 9 Jul 2021 17:34:38 -0000 (UTC), Tweed
<usenet.tweed@gmail.com> wrote:

>Scott <newsgroups@gefion.myzen.co.uk> wrote:
>> My PC has 256 GB SSD (programs) and 1 TB hard drive (data). The SSD
>> is now very full and I see I could realistically obtain a 1 TB SSD.
>>
>> Before I investigate this in detail, could someone tell me whether
>> this upgrade is a straightforward job that I could do or should I be
>> be getting the computer shop to do it for me? Can I place an image of
>> my existing drive on to a new one or should I go for a new W10
>> install? If I go for an install, will I lose all my programs or can I
>> extract them individually from the present SSD.
>>
>I’ve used Samsung SSDs. They provide downloadable cloning software. The
>cloning I’ve done is from mechanical drive to SSD, but I see no reason why
>it should not work from a source SSD. It handles resizing form one drive
>size to another without difficulty. Just make sure you’ve got a backup of
>your important stuff before you start. If you have Bitlocker drive
>encryption turn it off before you start.

Conveniently, my present SSD is Samsung. This could make it easier.

On Fri, 09 Jul 2021 18:40:02 +0100, Trolleybus
<unknown@birchanger.com> wrote:

>On Fri, 09 Jul 2021 16:57:30 +0100, Scott <newsgroups@gefion.myzen.co.uk> wrote:
>
>>My PC has 256 GB SSD (programs) and 1 TB hard drive (data). The SSD
>>is now very full and I see I could realistically obtain a 1 TB SSD.
>>
>>Before I investigate this in detail, could someone tell me whether
>>this upgrade is a straightforward job that I could do or should I be
>>be getting the computer shop to do it for me? Can I place an image of
>>my existing drive on to a new one or should I go for a new W10
>>install? If I go for an install, will I lose all my programs or can I
>>extract them individually from the present SSD.
>
>There are multiple ways to achieve this.
>
>It does a PC no harm at all to be reinstalled from scratch from time to time. In
>fact it does them a power of good. So, if you have a licence key, you could just
>reinstall Windows onto the replacement SSD. As your data is on a separate
>physical drive that's safe - especially as you'll back everything up first. I
>use Veeam Windows Agent and back up to a NAS or external drive.
>
I am a bit nervous about losing programs, in case I have to pay again
or the program is discontinued.

>Of course you'll also need to reinstall everything.

Would it be possible to clone first (as others have suggested) then
reinstall Windows to the new drive or would this have the same effect
(in terms of purging programs)?
>
>Another approach is to perform that backup, swap the SSDs over, then use bare
>metal restore to copy everything back to the new drive.
>
>But I'm wondering what crap has built up on your existing SSD? Have you run
>Treesize to see just where the space has gone?

I'll try that tomorrow. I have tried to inspect it myself and it
seems most of the stuff is Office and other program files. All the
main data is on the D drive (which I always use for saving)..

In message <sbehegd17adopu8pc7dnrhk5etuj4e97ik@4ax.com>, at 22:06:56 on
Fri, 9 Jul 2021, Scott <newsgroups@gefion.myzen.co.uk> remarked:

>>It does a PC no harm at all to be reinstalled from scratch from time to time. In
>>fact it does them a power of good. So, if you have a licence key, you could just
>>reinstall Windows onto the replacement SSD. As your data is on a separate
>>physical drive that's safe - especially as you'll back everything up first. I
>>use Veeam Windows Agent and back up to a NAS or external drive.
>>
>I am a bit nervous about losing programs, in case I have to pay again
>or the program is discontinued.

That's a legitimate concern. I've yet to find software (other than pure
disc cloning) that reliably transfers all the application software from
one setup to a new one. It's really hard work to remember to keep all
the licence keys and source files [especially now most are downloaded
rather than supplied on CD], and even then what if the supplier no
longer supports the application and won't re-authenticate it?

It's the same on Smartphones, where the standard transfer utility on
Android (maybe someone can comment on iphones) doesn't actually shift
the app, but insists on re-downloading it from the store. And what if
it's no longer *in* the store?

The other thing is all the various configuration data (including basic
stuff like browser favourites, "recent" file info, pinning on start
menus, etc) which can be a pain to transfer.
--
Roland Perry

Roland Perry <roland@perry.co.uk> wrote:
> In message <sbehegd17adopu8pc7dnrhk5etuj4e97ik@4ax.com>, at 22:06:56 on
> Fri, 9 Jul 2021, Scott <newsgroups@gefion.myzen.co.uk> remarked:
>
>>> It does a PC no harm at all to be reinstalled from scratch from time to time. In
>>> fact it does them a power of good. So, if you have a licence key, you could just
>>> reinstall Windows onto the replacement SSD. As your data is on a separate
>>> physical drive that's safe - especially as you'll back everything up first. I
>>> use Veeam Windows Agent and back up to a NAS or external drive.
>>>
>> I am a bit nervous about losing programs, in case I have to pay again
>> or the program is discontinued.
>
> That's a legitimate concern. I've yet to find software (other than pure
> disc cloning) that reliably transfers all the application software from
> one setup to a new one. It's really hard work to remember to keep all
> the licence keys and source files [especially now most are downloaded
> rather than supplied on CD], and even then what if the supplier no
> longer supports the application and won't re-authenticate it?
>
> It's the same on Smartphones, where the standard transfer utility on
> Android (maybe someone can comment on iphones) doesn't actually shift
> the app, but insists on re-downloading it from the store. And what if
> it's no longer *in* the store?
>
> The other thing is all the various configuration data (including basic
> stuff like browser favourites, "recent" file info, pinning on start
> menus, etc) which can be a pain to transfer.

*if* all your user data is on the D: drive it is quite unusual to get up to
256Gb of program and OS data.

When cloning you can keep your old drive as an emergency backup whilst you
attempt to de-cruft your new drive.

To answer Roland’s question about transferring to a new device - yes iOS
does download the apps from the App Store. The thing is, apps rarely
disappear from the Apple App Store. I’ve moved between devices several
times, both with iPhones and iPads. iOS has moved from being 32 bit to
32/64 bit and now only supporting 64 bit applications. Some very minor apps
failed to get updated to 64 but, and in my own experience, these are the
only ones that failed to migrate. But you’d suffer this issue even if you
upgraded your OS on the same device.

The bigger issue is that of apps failing to continue to work on old devices
that only support the old 32 bit OS. BBC apps are the worst for this. The
app remains on the device but the BBC refuse to let it connect to their
services so it becomes useless. IPlayer radio became BBC Sounds. The latter
doesn’t work on old devices and the former will no longer connect to the
streams.

Once you’ve got past the 64 bit only hump in the road, migration between
devices seems to be very smooth.

In message <scbdc1$eaj$1@dont-email.me>, at 06:05:53 on Sat, 10 Jul
2021, Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> remarked:
>Roland Perry <roland@perry.co.uk> wrote:
>> In message <sbehegd17adopu8pc7dnrhk5etuj4e97ik@4ax.com>, at 22:06:56 on
>> Fri, 9 Jul 2021, Scott <newsgroups@gefion.myzen.co.uk> remarked:
>>
>>>> It does a PC no harm at all to be reinstalled from scratch from
>>>>time to time. In
>>>> fact it does them a power of good. So, if you have a licence key,
>>>>you could just
>>>> reinstall Windows onto the replacement SSD. As your data is on a separate
>>>> physical drive that's safe - especially as you'll back everything
>>>>up first. I
>>>> use Veeam Windows Agent and back up to a NAS or external drive.
>>>>
>>> I am a bit nervous about losing programs, in case I have to pay again
>>> or the program is discontinued.
>>
>> That's a legitimate concern. I've yet to find software (other than pure
>> disc cloning) that reliably transfers all the application software from
>> one setup to a new one. It's really hard work to remember to keep all
>> the licence keys and source files [especially now most are downloaded
>> rather than supplied on CD], and even then what if the supplier no
>> longer supports the application and won't re-authenticate it?
>>
>> It's the same on Smartphones, where the standard transfer utility on
>> Android (maybe someone can comment on iphones) doesn't actually shift
>> the app, but insists on re-downloading it from the store. And what if
>> it's no longer *in* the store?
>>
>> The other thing is all the various configuration data (including basic
>> stuff like browser favourites, "recent" file info, pinning on start
>> menus, etc) which can be a pain to transfer.
>
>*if* all your user data is on the D: drive it is quite unusual to get up to
>256Gb of program and OS data.
>
>When cloning you can keep your old drive as an emergency backup whilst you
>attempt to de-cruft your new drive.
>
>To answer Roland’s question about transferring to a new device - yes iOS
>does download the apps from the App Store. The thing is, apps rarely
>disappear from the Apple App Store.

I know I'm not a typical user, but many of the apps I download are
somewhat bleeding edge travel/mapping related ones, and they do suffer
from rotting away. A couple of moths ago I had cause to be interested in
how many apps I'd ever downloaded, and how many were still available and
it was in the region of half of five hundred.

Some can't be helped, of course, like Virgin Trains, and defunct
electric bike hire company OFO. And as for Matt Hancock (back in his
digital-minister days, all I ever got from his app back in 2018 was
"Unfortunately Matt Hancock has stopped", oh how we laughed.

Here are a selection of latest reviews (dated this June):

I downloaded this app, and it turned out to be utterly hopeless in
every way. On the plus side, I got a £32 million contract to supply
the
NHS with PPE.

Downloaded the app, and after opening it, it snogged my girlfriend.

Please be aware that 2 doses of the Matt Hancock app are required for
complete immunity from the reality of normal life.

At the least the app is still there - even if its only function appears
to be as a satire-magnet. Meanwhile it's Javid, not Handcock, who is
poised to "take the batteries out of the smoke alarm" with his more
recent app.

>I’ve moved between devices several
>times, both with iPhones and iPads. iOS has moved from being 32 bit to
>32/64 bit and now only supporting 64 bit applications. Some very minor apps
>failed to get updated to 64 but, and in my own experience, these are the
>only ones that failed to migrate. But you’d suffer this issue even if you
>upgraded your OS on the same device.
>
>The bigger issue is that of apps failing to continue to work on old devices
>that only support the old 32 bit OS. BBC apps are the worst for this. The
>app remains on the device but the BBC refuse to let it connect to their
>services so it becomes useless. IPlayer radio became BBC Sounds. The latter
>doesn’t work on old devices and the former will no longer connect to the
>streams.
>
>Once you’ve got past the 64 bit only hump in the road, migration between
>devices seems to be very smooth.

Android hasn't suffered from a 32/64 bit hump, as far as I'm aware, but
it does have what must be significant changes to its API between major
versions, which tends to have consequences. Android developers seem less
committed to backwards compatibility than their Windows colleagues.

But it can be done - almost the only third-party app still running on a
4.2.2 [Feb 2013] tablet I have is from XC (and it has all my previous
searches saved/imprisoned), unfortunately it no longer goes online.
v1.94.06, the latest is v4.0.4 "requires Android 5.0 and up" [Nov 2014].
--
Roland Perry

Roland Perry <roland@perry.co.uk> wrote:
> In message <sbehegd17adopu8pc7dnrhk5etuj4e97ik@4ax.com>, at 22:06:56 on
> Fri, 9 Jul 2021, Scott <newsgroups@gefion.myzen.co.uk> remarked:
>
>>> It does a PC no harm at all to be reinstalled from scratch from time to time. In
>>> fact it does them a power of good. So, if you have a licence key, you could just
>>> reinstall Windows onto the replacement SSD. As your data is on a separate
>>> physical drive that's safe - especially as you'll back everything up first. I
>>> use Veeam Windows Agent and back up to a NAS or external drive.
>>>
>> I am a bit nervous about losing programs, in case I have to pay again
>> or the program is discontinued.
>
> That's a legitimate concern. I've yet to find software (other than pure
> disc cloning) that reliably transfers all the application software from
> one setup to a new one. It's really hard work to remember to keep all
> the licence keys and source files [especially now most are downloaded
> rather than supplied on CD], and even then what if the supplier no
> longer supports the application and won't re-authenticate it?

Have you tried PCmover?

https://web.laplink.com/product/pcmover-professional/

I think it used to be called 'MovemyPC'.

I've used it successfully in the past, even when moving to a new version of
Windows.

>
> It's the same on Smartphones, where the standard transfer utility on
> Android (maybe someone can comment on iphones) doesn't actually shift
> the app, but insists on re-downloading it from the store. And what if
> it's no longer *in* the store?
>
> The other thing is all the various configuration data (including basic
> stuff like browser favourites, "recent" file info, pinning on start
> menus, etc) which can be a pain to transfer.

In message <scbjoa$soc$1@dont-email.me>, at 07:54:50 on Sat, 10 Jul
2021, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
>Roland Perry <roland@perry.co.uk> wrote:
>> In message <sbehegd17adopu8pc7dnrhk5etuj4e97ik@4ax.com>, at 22:06:56 on
>> Fri, 9 Jul 2021, Scott <newsgroups@gefion.myzen.co.uk> remarked:
>>
>>>> It does a PC no harm at all to be reinstalled from scratch from
>>>>time to time. In
>>>> fact it does them a power of good. So, if you have a licence key,
>>>>you could just
>>>> reinstall Windows onto the replacement SSD. As your data is on a separate
>>>> physical drive that's safe - especially as you'll back everything
>>>>up first. I
>>>> use Veeam Windows Agent and back up to a NAS or external drive.
>>>>
>>> I am a bit nervous about losing programs, in case I have to pay again
>>> or the program is discontinued.
>>
>> That's a legitimate concern. I've yet to find software (other than pure
>> disc cloning) that reliably transfers all the application software from
>> one setup to a new one. It's really hard work to remember to keep all
>> the licence keys and source files [especially now most are downloaded
>> rather than supplied on CD], and even then what if the supplier no
>> longer supports the application and won't re-authenticate it?
>
>Have you tried PCmover?
>
>https://web.laplink.com/product/pcmover-professional/
>
>I think it used to be called 'MovemyPC'.
>
>I've used it successfully in the past, even when moving to a new version of
>Windows.

I've tried several, usually including whatever was getting the best
reviews at the time. The problem is they all seem to have "stuff they
don't do" - see the pre-emptive section on 'What You Should Know' there.

But I'll bear that one in mind next time I need to migrate some stuff,
which won't be long now, because I have two migration projects coming
up.

Last time I think I employed EaseUS Todo PCTrans, partly because it
claimed to do multiple users (aka more than one login).

ps Laplink cables - that takes me back. Still got one from the 80's,
although I would struggle to find PCs with Centronics printer and/or
25-pin serial ports to hook it up with. Later I moved to using a
printer-port Ethernet dongle, which was a lifesaver when laptops
didn't have built-in Ethernet, nor any way to add one internally.

Even had a BNC connctor too! <https://manualzz.com/doc/1009129/techni
cal-bulletin-de-620-ethernet-pocket-adapter-trouble>
--
Roland Perry

Roland Perry <roland@perry.co.uk> wrote:
>
> ps Laplink cables - that takes me back. Still got one from the 80's,
> although I would struggle to find PCs with Centronics printer and/or
> 25-pin serial ports to hook it up with. Later I moved to using a
> printer-port Ethernet dongle, which was a lifesaver when laptops
> didn't have built-in Ethernet, nor any way to add one internally.
>
> Even had a BNC connctor too!
> <https://manualzz.com/doc/1009129/technical-bulletin-de-620-ethernet-pocket-adapter-trouble>

Did you carry a T-piece and a teminator just in case?

Sam

--
The entity formerly known as Sam.Wilson@ed.ac.uk
Spit the dummy to reply

Sam Wilson <ukr@dummy.wislons.fastmail.co.uk> wrote:
> Roland Perry <roland@perry.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>> ps Laplink cables - that takes me back. Still got one from the 80's,
>> although I would struggle to find PCs with Centronics printer and/or
>> 25-pin serial ports to hook it up with. Later I moved to using a
>> printer-port Ethernet dongle, which was a lifesaver when laptops
>> didn't have built-in Ethernet, nor any way to add one internally.
>>
>> Even had a BNC connctor too!
>> <https://manualzz.com/doc/1009129/technical-bulletin-de-620-ethernet-pocket-adapter-trouble>
>
> Did you carry a T-piece and a teminator just in case?
>
> Sam
>

It’s amazing how far we’ve come in such a short time. We’ve gone from
almost no networking to the planet being covered in it, right down to
fairly sophisticated domestic stuff, in less than the length of my working
career.

In message <scbong$3jh$1@dont-email.me>, at 09:19:44 on Sat, 10 Jul
2021, Sam Wilson <ukr@dummy.wislons.fastmail.co.uk> remarked:
>Roland Perry <roland@perry.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>> ps Laplink cables - that takes me back. Still got one from the 80's,
>> although I would struggle to find PCs with Centronics printer and/or
>> 25-pin serial ports to hook it up with. Later I moved to using a
>> printer-port Ethernet dongle, which was a lifesaver when laptops
>> didn't have built-in Ethernet, nor any way to add one internally.
>>
>> Even had a BNC connctor too!

>>
>><https://manualzz.com/doc/1009129/technical-bulletin-de-620-ethernet-po
>>cket-adapter-trouble>
>
>Did you carry a T-piece and a teminator just in case?

There was probably one in the carry case. I've still got several BNC
gubbins in a drawer. In practice very few people used BNC, because it
was too topologically fragile. One broken connection and the whole
network was likely to go down.
--
Roland Perry

On Fri, 09 Jul 2021 18:40:02 +0100, Trolleybus
<unknown@birchanger.com> wrote:

>On Fri, 09 Jul 2021 16:57:30 +0100, Scott <newsgroups@gefion.myzen.co.uk> wrote:
>
>>My PC has 256 GB SSD (programs) and 1 TB hard drive (data). The SSD
>>is now very full and I see I could realistically obtain a 1 TB SSD.
>>
>>Before I investigate this in detail, could someone tell me whether
>>this upgrade is a straightforward job that I could do or should I be
>>be getting the computer shop to do it for me? Can I place an image of
>>my existing drive on to a new one or should I go for a new W10
>>install? If I go for an install, will I lose all my programs or can I
>>extract them individually from the present SSD.
>
>There are multiple ways to achieve this.
>
>It does a PC no harm at all to be reinstalled from scratch from time to time. In
>fact it does them a power of good. So, if you have a licence key, you could just
>reinstall Windows onto the replacement SSD. As your data is on a separate
>physical drive that's safe - especially as you'll back everything up first. I
>use Veeam Windows Agent and back up to a NAS or external drive.
>
>Of course you'll also need to reinstall everything.

Which causes acute rectal discomfort.

After a disk crash on an ASUS laptop some years ago, I had to replace
the drive.

I discovered my original my original dvd image backup was corrupt and
also that my routine software image backups (I can't remember which
software, it was later taken over by Norton) wouldn't restore to the
new drive. We'd used the full version at work and I was using the home
version.

So I had to reinstall all the software from scratch, including several
years worth of Windows updates which took forever. I even had to buy a
new Win7 install disk because the install package was in another
partition of the crashed disk.- I got a cheap OEM one from Egghead.

I'd kept regular external file backups,so I only lost that day's data
- mostly photographs from alt.binaries.pictures.rail which I just
downloaded again and a few emails. I hadn't been doing any of the
serious stuff.

On Fri, 09 Jul 2021 18:40:02 +0100, Trolleybus
<unknown@birchanger.com> wrote:
[snip]
>
>But I'm wondering what crap has built up on your existing SSD? Have you run
>Treesize to see just where the space has gone?

Mr T, you're a superstar. A program called Registry First Aid has
deposited 48GB of back-up files into the SSD. Having deleted these,
the files on the C drive are now manageable with a comfortable margin,
so replacement is no longer needed. Now that I am introduced to
TreeSize, I will continue looking to see if there is anything else
that can be deleted or moved to the D drive.

Do you happen to know if the RFA back-up can go on the D drive. Is it
possible to restore a registry from a drive that is not the primary
drive?

Thanks again for your words of wisdom.

Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> wrote:
> Sam Wilson <ukr@dummy.wislons.fastmail.co.uk> wrote:
>> Roland Perry <roland@perry.co.uk> wrote:
>>>
>>> ps Laplink cables - that takes me back. Still got one from the 80's,
>>> although I would struggle to find PCs with Centronics printer and/or
>>> 25-pin serial ports to hook it up with. Later I moved to using a
>>> printer-port Ethernet dongle, which was a lifesaver when laptops
>>> didn't have built-in Ethernet, nor any way to add one internally.
>>>
>>> Even had a BNC connctor too!
>>> <https://manualzz.com/doc/1009129/technical-bulletin-de-620-ethernet-pocket-adapter-trouble>
>>
>> Did you carry a T-piece and a teminator just in case?
>>
>> Sam
>>
>
> It’s amazing how far we’ve come in such a short time. We’ve gone from
> almost no networking to the planet being covered in it, right down to
> fairly sophisticated domestic stuff, in less than the length of my working
> career.

And it’s also surprising that, given that in the 1980s there were a whole
load of competing LAN technologies, most current networking tech is derived
from the original Ethernet.

Sam

--
The entity formerly known as Sam.Wilson@ed.ac.uk
Spit the dummy to reply

Roland Perry <roland@perry.co.uk> wrote:
> In message <scbong$3jh$1@dont-email.me>, at 09:19:44 on Sat, 10 Jul
> 2021, Sam Wilson <ukr@dummy.wislons.fastmail.co.uk> remarked:
>> Roland Perry <roland@perry.co.uk> wrote:
>>>
>>> ps Laplink cables - that takes me back. Still got one from the 80's,
>>> although I would struggle to find PCs with Centronics printer and/or
>>> 25-pin serial ports to hook it up with. Later I moved to using a
>>> printer-port Ethernet dongle, which was a lifesaver when laptops
>>> didn't have built-in Ethernet, nor any way to add one internally.
>>>
>>> Even had a BNC connctor too!
>
>>>
>>> <https://manualzz.com/doc/1009129/technical-bulletin-de-620-ethernet-po
>>> cket-adapter-trouble>
>>
>> Did you carry a T-piece and a teminator just in case?
>
> There was probably one in the carry case. I've still got several BNC
> gubbins in a drawer. In practice very few people used BNC, because it
> was too topologically fragile. One broken connection and the whole
> network was likely to go down.

When we started installing ethernet across the University at the end of the
1980s we used thin ethernet because that’s what there was - running thick
ethernet or long AUI cables through offices was really not an option. And
yes, people did do the wrong thing with T-pieces (and Apple blithely
invented a transceiver that would happily break a network) and terminators
(we found one member of staff who used to take the terminator of the cable
in his office and fiddle with it as a displacement activity; I can’t
remember whether we gave him one of his own as a desk toy).

“An Ethernet is not only a distributed packet switch, it is also a
distributed single point of failure.” Boggs, Mogul and Kent, 1988, IIRC.

Sam

--
The entity formerly known as Sam.Wilson@ed.ac.uk
Spit the dummy to reply

On Sat, 10 Jul 2021 09:40:28 +0100, Roland Perry <roland@perry.co.uk>
wrote:

>
>Last time I think I employed EaseUS Todo PCTrans, partly because it
>claimed to do multiple users (aka more than one login).
>
+1 (sort of - I've used EaseUS Todo Backup Free (now v 13.0) to clone
SSDs several times, including the transfer from a SATA drive to an M.2
PCIe drive and between different sizes. I also try to keep a copy of
the current installation to hand in case anything goes awry with it,
then I can just swap it out with the backup.)

Sam Wilson wrote:

>When we started installing ethernet across the University at the end of the
>1980s we used thin ethernet because that’s what there was - running thick
>ethernet or long AUI cables through offices was really not an option. And
>yes, people did do the wrong thing with T-pieces (and Apple blithely
>invented a transceiver that would happily break a network) and terminators
>(we found one member of staff who used to take the terminator of the cable
>in his office and fiddle with it as a displacement activity; I can’t
>remember whether we gave him one of his own as a desk toy).

We had an early office network which kept having intermittent
cable faults which brought everybody's work to a stop. The IT
department gave us no support at all, and our most sophisticated
piece of fault-finding equipment was a GBP5 multi-meter from
somebody's car boot.

I badgered IT to get some proper kit, but no joy.

Eventually I wrote a proposal for our department to buy a GBP1000
hand-held tester, showing that it would pay back its cost in the
first 15 minutes of network inactivity.

Money well spent, and fault easily found and cured.

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK
chris@cdixon.me.uk @ChrisJDixon1

Plant amazing Acers.

In message <sccner$qdt$1@dont-email.me>, at 18:04:11 on Sat, 10 Jul
2021, Sam Wilson <ukr@dummy.wislons.fastmail.co.uk> remarked:
>Roland Perry <roland@perry.co.uk> wrote:
>> In message <scbong$3jh$1@dont-email.me>, at 09:19:44 on Sat, 10 Jul
>> 2021, Sam Wilson <ukr@dummy.wislons.fastmail.co.uk> remarked:
>>> Roland Perry <roland@perry.co.uk> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> ps Laplink cables - that takes me back. Still got one from the 80's,
>>>> although I would struggle to find PCs with Centronics printer and/or
>>>> 25-pin serial ports to hook it up with. Later I moved to using a
>>>> printer-port Ethernet dongle, which was a lifesaver when laptops
>>>> didn't have built-in Ethernet, nor any way to add one internally.
>>>>
>>>> Even had a BNC connctor too!
>>
>>>>
>>>> <https://manualzz.com/doc/1009129/technical-bulletin-de-620-ethernet-po
>>>> cket-adapter-trouble>
>>>
>>> Did you carry a T-piece and a teminator just in case?
>>
>> There was probably one in the carry case. I've still got several BNC
>> gubbins in a drawer. In practice very few people used BNC, because it
>> was too topologically fragile. One broken connection and the whole
>> network was likely to go down.
>
>When we started installing ethernet across the University at the end of the
>1980s we used thin ethernet because that’s what there was - running thick
>ethernet or long AUI cables through offices was really not an option. And
>yes, people did do the wrong thing with T-pieces (and Apple blithely
>invented a transceiver that would happily break a network) and terminators
>(we found one member of staff who used to take the terminator of the cable
>in his office and fiddle with it as a displacement activity; I can’t
>remember whether we gave him one of his own as a desk toy).
>
>“An Ethernet is not only a distributed packet switch, it is also a
>distributed single point of failure.” Boggs, Mogul and Kent, 1988, IIRC.

<https://www.informationweek.com/computer-glitch-strands-thousands-at-
lax-what-went-wrong/d/d-id/1058148?piddl_msgorder=thrd&>

Nine hours to find what I think other reports confirmed as a broken
Ethernet card in just one PC, crunching the whole internal network.
--
Roland Perry

On Sat, 10 Jul 2021 18:41:00 +0100, Scott
<newsgroups@gefion.myzen.co.uk> wrote:

>On Fri, 09 Jul 2021 18:40:02 +0100, Trolleybus
><unknown@birchanger.com> wrote:
>[snip]
>>
>>But I'm wondering what crap has built up on your existing SSD? Have you run
>>Treesize to see just where the space has gone?
>
>Mr T, you're a superstar. A program called Registry First Aid has
>deposited 48GB of back-up files into the SSD. Having deleted these,
>the files on the C drive are now manageable with a comfortable margin,
>so replacement is no longer needed. Now that I am introduced to
>TreeSize, I will continue looking to see if there is anything else
>that can be deleted or moved to the D drive.
>
>Do you happen to know if the RFA back-up can go on the D drive. Is it
>possible to restore a registry from a drive that is not the primary
>drive?
>
>Thanks again for your words of wisdom.

PS One more question while I am on a roll. Why are all the
overprovisioning options for my Samsung 840 Series greyed out? I
assumed it was because the disk was too full but now it's not. Is
there some Windows setting needed to allow overprovisioning?

On 10/07/2021 10:26, Tweed wrote:
> It’s amazing how far we’ve come in such a short time. We’ve gone from
> almost no networking to the planet being covered in it, right down to
> fairly sophisticated domestic stuff, in less than the length of my working
> career.

I remember Guy Kewney writing a piece years ago about how originally you
had to take your work to the IT people (I think they had a different
name then). They would run when it suited them so had a lot of power.
Then computers got more powerful and people could do the jobs
themselves, taking power away from IT.

Then IT retaliated by having the software and files on the main server
so they got control again......

On 10/07/2021 11:31, Roland Perry wrote:
> There was probably one in the carry case. I've still got several BNC
> gubbins in a drawer. In practice very few people used BNC, because it
> was too topologically fragile. One broken connection and the whole
> network was likely to go down.

It depended a lot on whether you used 50 Ω or 75 Ω BNCs.

Video is 75 Ω but it was standard to use 50 Ω connectors because they
have a thick centre pin which is less likely to get broken.

(I think I have that the right way around!)

MB <MB@nospam.net> wrote:
> On 10/07/2021 10:26, Tweed wrote:
>> It’s amazing how far we’ve come in such a short time. We’ve gone from
>> almost no networking to the planet being covered in it, right down to
>> fairly sophisticated domestic stuff, in less than the length of my working
>> career.
>
> I remember Guy Kewney writing a piece years ago about how originally you
> had to take your work to the IT people (I think they had a different
> name then). They would run when it suited them so had a lot of power.
> Then computers got more powerful and people could do the jobs
> themselves, taking power away from IT.
>
> Then IT retaliated by having the software and files on the main server
> so they got control again......
>
>

That’s so true. These days they are using GDPR and security as reasons for
reasserting their grip. To some extent it is justified, but it’s certainly
a gift to the central IT departments.