Proper geek needed - 0x490 system file integrity in dual boot

esuhl

paddyrg wrote: »

I appear to be able to see the folder structure OK, although many of the (user) files don't show.

Hmmm... could it be a problem with long filenames and language settings like in this post...?

fwor wrote: »

If you install "NTFS configuration tool" from the standard repositories, it should also add ntfs-3g automatically, and you should be able to mount any NTFS partition. Although some features were added to NTFS from Vista onwards, ntfs-3g should be able to cope with these changes.

Cheers, fwor. I can't see any packages called "NTFS configuration tool" (a search for NTFS returns ntfs-3g, ntfsprogs and fgetty), but I might give ntfs-3g a whirl at some point.

paddyrg

Time to buy white lillies for the drive. Linux can't even recognise let alone mount sda as a viable partition - the drive doesn't even register on a linux CD boot then using gparted - I suppose this means it is flakey hardware going through an extravagant death seeing as it is not even visible any more.

So, do I spank £900 on an i7 system, or £30 on a new HDD and sit it out with Mint (if you've never tried it, it's like ubuntu with proprietary extensions/drivers like flash, NVIDIA drivers, etc already in there - making ubuntu even friendlier!) until I actually have an editing job come in to pay for the machine replacement!? Alas the Vista restore was a partition on the same dead drive...

Oh one last tweak of advice - hardware specs-wise, is there anything to stop me buying Win 7 x64 and sticking it on this box? It's a quad-core, 3GB RAM, so not bleeding edge but not on the yellow bus either. Then I guess I'd have W7 if I buy a barebones i7 sometime later, and can probably still edit vids in the meantime. Maybe. Any thoughts? :-)

debitcardmayhem

I'd throw linux back on it with a new disk, then think and save up for a backup strategy , before having similar problems with an i7 sans back-up

esuhl

paddyrg wrote: »

So, do I spank £900 on an i7 system, or £30 on a new HDD and sit it out with Mint... [or] is there anything to stop me buying Win 7 x64 and sticking it on this box? It's a quad-core, 3GB RAM, so not bleeding edge but not on the yellow bus either.

Unless you really need something faster, I wouldn't blow £900 on a new machine when you've got a £30 fix. Whack in a new drive and (if you like) try a different Linux distro or buy Windows 7 - either option will be a lot cheaper. And if you do want to upgrade, you could keep the case, PSU, optical drive, etc. and get a decent machine for less than £900!

If you want a version of Linux that is lightweight, customisable, and doesn't overcomplicate anything, I'd strongly recommend Arch Linux. You begin with a fairly minimal installation (no X) and just install what you want. The wiki talks you through pretty much everything (so you don't actually need to know much about Linux except the basics). If you're happy to edit a few text files and can follow the wiki, go for it!

jbreckmckye

Arch doesn't even start with an X server?

Now that's minimalist.

esuhl

jbreckmckye wrote: »

Arch doesn't even start with an X server?

Now that's minimalist.

It doesn't have X to begin with - it's very clean, simple and minimalist, but you can add whatever you want. I installed XFCE, but you can use Gnome, KDE or whatever you prefer. Or don't use X at all if you don't need it.

It also uses a "rolling release" model. The installation CD doesn't include any packages - whatever you need is downloaded during the installation, so you start with a completely up-to-date system, and won't need to repeatedly download new CD images if you want to install the OS on multiple machines. And unlike Ubuntu (and other distros) that intermittently release a new version of the OS (requiring a re-installation), you just update any packages that have changed since you installed them.

My Linux knowledge is pretty basic, but I've tried quite a few distros and Arch is the best by a very long way! I'm not sure I could live without Windows XP and 7, but I use Arch as my main OS. I have it on my Asus EEE 901 netbook too - it boots to a login prompt in about 23s and shuts down in 14s, which ain't bad for a single-core Atom chip.

I'm gonna force myself to stop talking about it now!!!

gaming_guy

....................

candtalan

Note that Ubuntu live CD includes a disc utility which, if the disc can be examined at all, will indicate its condition.

Also, you are allowed to change the disc in Windows, and the licence registration whatever will still get accepted. (Not so easy for motherboards.) So you might want to consider replacing the original Windows or a reinstall, use the original key. However, as a very happy Ubuntu using bunny I would recommend upgrading to Ubuntu or Mint or something nice!

Because it seems that normal GNU/Linux installs work ok for you, then it is reasonable to believe that your RAM, Motherboard, and PSU are all ok. So purchase of a new machine seems a bit excessive.

Backup (off-site) is obviously important, and you may be aware that Ubuntu one is a 2GB free upload to web store, Dropbox also gives 2GB free store, there may be others to.
Good luck.

paddyrg

Hi all,

As I mentioned, most of my stuff is backed up, it's the "nice to haves" that are gone. Some turnkey iso's and VM's of part-built shopping site demos, unusual codecs, etc. All the business stuff is either on external hard drives or synced to offsite backup. But when you have terrabyte-order video source files, you just can't back those up online ;-)

If anyone is interested, sugarsync is well worth a look for keeping not just cloud backups but also replicating them to other devices, and I also use AWS S3 to store some stuff now the filesize limit has been lifted to something staggering.

I need a win-based install for my Avid Media Composer stuff - brilliant software, massively powerful, but also a bit picky about hardware support, and has a 'dongle' for security, etc - so I don't think WINE will cut it. Anyone got any ideas where to find a Vista installer that my OEM product code will work with? Alas the restore image was a pertition on the paperweight formerly known as my hard drive, and I can't find the repair image disk thing you were supposed to make with the horrible oem system PB liked for things. Maybe I should just get W7 and stick it on the drive, and drip drip my upgrade in the same case - the optical drive is old now, the PSU probably won't cope with an i7 system, so it is probably all change anyway!

esuhl

paddyrg wrote: »

If anyone is interested, sugarsync is well worth a look for keeping not just cloud backups but also replicating them to other devices...

Dropbox does that and supports Linux too...

paddyrg wrote: »

Anyone got any ideas where to find a Vista installer that my OEM product code will work with?

I've heard that you can often buy replacement recovery disks from the computer manufacturer. I'm not sure how much they'd charge, though...