Nobody Cares about Tech Support

[Govi]

Oh, and it also has a neat partition editor/control, so you could easily backup all your drives to a single drive, partitioned appropriately.

 

[Free]

partitioned appropriately

I once wanted to live my life that way. Once.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

I've upgraded my computer a lot over the years but weirdly I've never cloned a drive, even once. I always just started "fresh". I remember one time burning my My Documents folder onto a CD or DVD or something to transfer my stuff, and using thumb drives after that. But programs and settings and stuff? No I always just spent like the weekend reinstalling everything.

 

[Casey Pelous]

On this system, (assembled in 2020 and Win11) I have only ever cloned C: to another drive. However, on my previous system (assembled in 2012 and Win7), I have cloned D: to C:. I used to change D: to my main system drive in the BIOS to test whether it was a true clone; the test was successful: it booted on D: properly with all my stuff. Then, after using D: as boot drive for a few days, I'd clone D: to C:, switch in BIOS and then boot to C: It is a slick system, though I haven't performed the same test on this system, it should work. But I won't know until I've tested it.

My next question was going to be "how 'bout if I partition the external drive" so you beat me to it.

Thanks!

 

[Noodles]

I've upgraded my computer a lot over the years but weirdly I've never cloned a drive, even once. I always just started "fresh". I remember one time burning my My Documents folder onto a CD or DVD or something to transfer my stuff, and using thumb drives after that. But programs and settings and stuff? No I always just spent like the weekend reinstalling everything.

Personally, this is the way.

Why bring all the years of cruft and build up when you can start fresh.

That said, I think I have cloned a drive trying to do data recovery.

 

[Casey Pelous]

I've upgraded my computer a lot over the years but weirdly I've never cloned a drive, even once. I always just started "fresh". I remember one time burning my My Documents folder onto a CD or DVD or something to transfer my stuff, and using thumb drives after that. But programs and settings and stuff? No I always just spent like the weekend reinstalling everything.

What's a "weekend?"

Personally, this is the way.

Why bring all the years of cruft and build up when you can start fresh.

That said, I think I have cloned a drive trying to do data recovery.

No cruft here!
So far as you know....

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

I haven't done a fresh reinstall of Mac OS without using Migration Assistant or the equivalent to copy my previous software and configuration over since the '90s.

It's an overnight process and next morning I'm back where I was with no downtime.

I'd rather spend the weekend building a new snake enclosure for Mrs Argent's boa.

 

[Casey Pelous]

Well. That was ... an interesting afternoon and early evening.

Since Windoze 10 is slated to hit end-of-life in about a year, I thought I'd seize a moment between projects to do some long-deferred updates on my computer and look into doing what is still a free update to Windoze 11. PCHealthCheck tells me I'm all good to go except two little things: enable "TPM" and "Secure Boot."

Turning on TPM turned out to be laughably simple -- one switch in the BIOS and that was handled.

Secure Boot? "Just switch the boot mode from Legacy to UEFI/BIOS," sez the interwebs. Seems simple enough. Oh, but wait -- that requires a boot drive using MBR, not GPT. And my drive is ... (one hour of farting around with various arcane utilities later) ... crap, it's GPT. Okay, how do I switch it to MBR? Ah, Disk Management ..... click here .... select that .... and reboot ....................................

And, it's bricked. C: drive no longer exists. Okay, that makes sense -- I need to switch the BIOS to UEFI and that should ................. nope.

Four hours later I'm getting pretty close to a full-blown panic attack and it is no closer to being unbricked.

Thank goodness I took Govi's advice and bought that Casper backup software then made a rescue USB drive as well as a full image of the boot drive. Two hours of restoring the backup later plus two switches in the BIOS and everything came back to life.

I still have no clue what I need to do to transition to 11. Buy new drive and image the current C: onto that? In any case, this project has suddenly lost a lot of its urgency!

 

[Veritable Quandry]

Don't quote me on this, and keep your back up handy, but once TPM is on if you run the Win 11 install tool you can wipe the drive during install and let it reformat for you. But you will not be able to use the method that preserves your programs and files. Also be sure to have your license key backed up and also printed out.

I am undoubtedly wrong, but that will encourage others to correct me. I just bought a new computer since my Win 10 machine did not support TPM.

 

[Noodles]

Yeah, UEFI has repeately been a frustrating asshole. I hate it. Its good in theory, but I have "lost" drives like that.

Usually there is a way to get it back if you can just keep flipping awitches in the BIOS.

That said, something got fucked up on the drive that came with my PC and I never got it recovered. I can't even get it to refprmat again. I just had to buy a new drive and reinstall.

It wasn't a huge deal, most of my importat files are stored elsewhere or synced elsewhere, but I had some custom trained Stable Diffusion models on it that I have not been able to replicate, even using the same training sets. Maybe one day I will try again to recover them.

 

[Casey Pelous]

Don't quote me on this, and keep your back up handy, but once TPM is on if you run the Win 11 install tool you can wipe the drive during install and let it reformat for you. But you will not be able to use the method that preserves your programs and files. Also be sure to have your license key backed up and also printed out.

I am undoubtedly wrong, but that will encourage others to correct me. I just bought a new computer since my Win 10 machine did not support TPM.

Once I come down off this massive cortisol high, I might venture down that path. *twitch*

 

[Kokoro Fasching]

Once you are ready to try again, two pre-steps
Make sure the TPM module is enabled in BIOS.
Clear the TPM module.

Go to Start > Settings > Update & Security > Windows Security > Device security. This will launch the Windows Defender Security Center.

Select Device Security again, and then under Security processor, select Security processor details.

On the next screen, select Security processor troubleshooting, and then under Clear TPM click on the Clear TPM button.

This will reset your security processor to its default settings.

Your device will need to restart before the process is complete.

Clear TPM using PowerShell
The Clear-Tpm cmdlet resets the Trusted Platform Module to its default state and removes the owner authorization value and any keys stored in the TPM.
Clear-Tpm

Then hook up a second drive in the system, init and then format it. Restore the backup partitions to the new drive. Power down, pull out current C and put new drive in place, power up, verify system working. Then start the Windows 11 upgrade.

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

Buy new drive and image the current C: onto that?

That's what I always do with Windows. Windows transitions with all the grace of a drunk elephant with sinus allergies.

 

[Casey Pelous]

Once you are ready to try again, two pre-steps
Make sure the TPM module is enabled in BIOS.
Clear the TPM module.

Go to Start > Settings > Update & Security > Windows Security > Device security. This will launch the Windows Defender Security Center.

Select Device Security again, and then under Security processor, select Security processor details.

On the next screen, select Security processor troubleshooting, and then under Clear TPM click on the Clear TPM button.

This will reset your security processor to its default settings.

Your device will need to restart before the process is complete.

Clear TPM using PowerShell
The Clear-Tpm cmdlet resets the Trusted Platform Module to its default state and removes the owner authorization value and any keys stored in the TPM.
Clear-Tpm

Then hook up a second drive in the system, init and then format it. Restore the backup partitions to the new drive. Power down, pull out current C and put new drive in place, power up, verify system working. Then start the Windows 11 upgrade.

In my researches I have found nothing about this clearing the TPM business, so thank you!

I'm concerned about the drive switch procedure. When I restore the image of the current c: drive, which is MBR, to the new GTP drive, won't that make the new drive into an MBR drive, leaving me right back where I started?

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

I would clean install Windows onto a new drive after removing bitfucker and other transgressive security theater from the old one, then just copy anything I wanted to keep over manually. Because Microsoft sucks dirty swamp water through a pus-clogged garden hose.

 

[Casey Pelous]

... Because Microsoft sucks dirty swamp water through a pus-clogged garden hose.

Oh, come on, Argent. They're not that good!

 

[Beebo Brink]

While waiting on the delivery of parts for my new build, I finally tackled the rat's nest of stuff (as in I don't even remember what is in there) packed into the shelving units next to my desk.

There were several boxes of never used spare cables and connectors from my last two computer builds (so going back to 2006). I was debating whether they would be of any use to anyone... until I pulled the boxes off the bottom shelf and discovered my cats had been marking territory on them for probably years. Forget recycling, they went straight into the trash.

On a higher (safer) shelf, I found a Zip drive and about a dozen zip disks from the early 2000s!

To my surprise, the drive still worked (good product, Iomega), but the disks are not readable from my PCs File Explorer. Oh right, I saved all the files from an iMac, now long gone. Out of all the disks, there was just one -- Camera Downloads -- that I would have liked to review because I suspect it may hold photos of our pets from that era. Mrs. Beebo wants us find someone who can do data recovery, but according to my research, they would need a vintage Mac to read the files, and I'm guessing that service is more expense than the photos are worth, even assuming they are on that disk. I've slipped the box back on a shelf and I'm hoping Mrs. Beebo forgets all about it.

So far I've gotten rid of three trash bags full of miscellaneous old computer stuff. I'm still waffling on whether to throw out an unopened box of floppy disks (in pretty colors) as well as a few backup disks of my first novel. They'll probably be Mac files, written in Word Perfect, so again, not even readable, assuming I had a floppy disk drive, which I don't.

Damn tech changes fast. My new build doesn't even have a CD drive (twitch). That makes me very nervous... even though I haven't used the one I DO have right now in years. The only possible problem this causes is that I can't install the Seagate portal software for a 500GB external hard drive, that I also haven't used in over ten years. But it's a perfectly good drive.... which I don't need.

I hate computers.

 

[Essence Lumin]

Damn tech changes fast. My new build doesn't even have a CD drive (twitch). That makes me very nervous...

You can get an external cd drive for around $20.

Amazon.com

 

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

On a higher (safer) shelf, I found a Zip drive and about a dozen zip disks from the early 2000s!

To my surprise, the drive still worked (good product, Iomega),

Lucky you, some Zip drives were known for bad reliability.

but the disks are not readable from my PCs File Explorer. Oh right, I saved all the files from an iMac, now long gone.

An iMac? OS9 or OSX iMac? Probably HFS formatted. You'll need something like HFSExplorer on Windows to read them

Catacombae - HFSExplorer

Failing that, if you know someone with a Linux machine, they should be able to read the Zip disks no problem at all.

Or use transfer floppy and zip disks at $6.95 a disk.

I'm still waffling on whether to throw out an unopened box of floppy disks (in pretty colors) as well as a few backup disks of my first novel. They'll probably be Mac files, written in Word Perfect, so again, not even readable, assuming I had a floppy disk drive, which I don't.

Should be able to convert the files....the hard part is getting them off the disks! If it's a 400k/800k Mac disk, you're going to need a Mac that can read the discs. But if it's a 1.44k disk, all you'll need is a 1.44M 3.5 inch USB drive....and perhaps HFSExplorer (or again a Linux machine)

My new build doesn't even have a CD drive (twitch). That makes me very nervous... even though I haven't used the one I DO have right now in years.

(twitch) I wouldn't buy a computer without a Blu-Ray/DVD/CD drive. I still use mine....for ripping CD's into FLAC. And every so often burning a Linux install DVD.

I hate computers.

Get in line, though I hate printers more.

I think I'm going to try to get a new computer before The Orange One can mess with tariffs. I usually do a refurb, since the only demanding application I use is SL! I do need an Nvme slot now and a reasonably modern CPU (at least a 10 series) and a PSU that can handle a modern video card. It's sad that the 1650 is the last GPU that only needs 75W and no extra power.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

Depends on the connector. I had a ZIP drive with a SCSI interface.