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The drive gave up the ghost about a week ago; maybe the "phrik kee noo" pepper (translation: "spicy sh*t of mouse") chilified electrons in the Thai electricity was just too much for it after 4 years of constant guzzling.
Two days later, after the usual tearing of hair and clothing, in states ranging from paresthesia to paranoia, a 1 terabyte WD Blue was installed, Win 10 installed, and ... you know what comes next ...
The excruciatingly tedious tribulations of restoring, reinstalling, reregistering, driver downloads, Win update after update, sucking the backup honey down from various clouds.
Lost some good stuff, including parts of a code library for geometry functions I intended to publish here ... darnit; just after i had coded for finding the foci and perimeter (using a Ramanujan approximation) of ellipses. Contents of GDrive partially bolloxed, some OneDrive stuff transmogrified into hexadecimal teratomas.
I hear what you are thinking: in my defense, let me say I was about to do my weekly full image backup.
Here's a strange thing: after all this foofaraw, suddenly, when using Skype, the built-in laptop camera now renders my ugly mug in full color, instead of fifty shades of gray.
May you be ever free from such afflictions !
cheers, Bill
«The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled» Plutarch
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BillWoodruff wrote: I hear what you are thinking: in my defense, let me say I was about to do my weekly full image backup.
So ... why not restore the previous weeks?
Yes, you lose 7 days work, but that's waaaay better than losing it all. Or am I missing something? 
I can strongly recommend dual drives: SSD for apps and Windows, a separate HDD (or SSD if the finances run to it) drive for data and work. Separate backups, and if one goes, you don't have to waste time with the other. And obviously, never rely on OneDrive or Google Drive as backups rather than simple transfer / duplication media.
But that's probably preaching to the choir anyway! 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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suggestion:Dell laptop is very good.
diligent hands rule....
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My 2012 Dell Latitude agrees with you.
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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I've used Dell laptops for over 20 years and will soon buy the next one. The current one is an XPS-15 that will turn 5 next month, but it's getting a little long in the tooth, with its ZXCV keys having become flaky.
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I have a Dell XPS 15 - 9570 and I like it too.
diligent hands rule....
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Time to start using GitHub or Azure DevOps or something for storing (and versioning!) your code?
(But that sucks you lost data)
cheers
Chris Maunder
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I posted long time ago for my old HP computer that can not power up. I got lot of of tips from this lounge.
two weeks ago, my area got a power outage and my workstation Dell T1700 SFF can not power up.
I speculated the power switch button or power supply may be the key reasons. so I ordered a power switch button for $5.99 and power supply for $30.00 from eBay. yesterday I got all of them in my mail box.
so this morning I installed these two components. it is very easy to install them with Dell's simple and clean design of chassis.
press the power button, then it starts to reboot now...
diligent hands rule....
modified 15-Aug-21 21:14pm.
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There's nothing like diagnosing and fixing your own equipment. Always gave me a sense of accomplishment, and a feeling of independence.
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yes, I have such feels. also I gained more confidence on Dell computers. So all computers in my home are Dell...
diligent hands rule....
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Boo! You should have installed one of the components then tried. Now you don't know which part was busted.
Some of us are invested in the story. 
I’ve given up trying to be calm. However, I am open to feeling slightly less agitated.
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since these components are ordered and hard to return, so I installed them all in one shot.
based on symptom, I think it is power supply issue.
diligent hands rule....
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Well, he could always reinstall the old components one by one... 
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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it is true to reinstall these components to get answer.
the truth is: when I removed hard drive and DVD drive, power switch wires and power supply wires are closely put under one direction in this small form format(SFF), it is not worthy to put up these wires again....
diligent hands rule....
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Southmountain wrote: power switch wires and power supply wires are closely put under one direction in this small form format(SFF), it is not worthy to put up these wires again....
Obligatory xkcd: Memo Spike Connector
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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SWMBO has been telling me I need to lose weight for several months. So I went on-line to Noom.com this afternoon. I went through all of their B.S. and signed up for a 6 month program. I plunked down my $159.00 and expected to be emailed the Program guidelines. The website said I would hear from them right away.
When nothing came after 3 hours I went on-line to registration support to find out what the issue was. After an extended "Chat" session I was informed that I had to use my phone to download an "APP" to participate in the program. This immediately fired me up as I don't run "Apps" on my phone. I use it to make calls, and receive calls, and send and receive text messages. The Texting thing is torture, as the form size is incredibly, ridicuously small and unusable for me. I have big fat clumsy fingers.
Why would the dimwits that wrote the phone app, not realize they could have developed an application that could be run on both a phone or a desktop, or laptop at the same time.  Is it all the "cool kids" doing it? Don't they realize that most of the people out there wanting to lose weight, or struggling with Diabetes, are "Senior Citizens" like me, and did not grow up with mobile phones, texting or "apps". And I'd bet that most of them feel the same way I do. There are many people out there that can not afford to even have a mobile phone to begin with.
If any of you guys work(ed) for Noom, please let me know what they/you were thinking.
I am flabbergasted that they would exclude and alienate such a large portion of their market. I cancelled my subscription as soon as I found out what is involved. I learned a long time ago that businesses want as many customers as possible, and the goal is to make it easy for the customer to use your service or product.
BTW: Whoever did their website should have put a great big message on every form "You can't use this program without using our Mobile Phone App! There was NO indication anywhere that the program could onyy be used on a mobile phone. The irony is they sure as hell have a complicated "App" running on their website!
If you know anyone in charge at Noom ask them to call me.
Finally, I know I am a cranky, old, S.O.B. and freely admit it. Telling me this is the case, and that I should move on with the times, would be a waste of effort.
Change is not always good. Especially when the only reason is to be"cool".
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There are a couple of sites I frequent which are good, yet the management has decided that mobile "apps" are better and seem to be killing their web sites in favor of mobile "apps" -- it's horrible and it's likely that they will lose lots of paying users.
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PIEBALDconsult wrote: ...yet the management has decided that mobile "apps" are better
at targeting ads, and tracking users. They are not wrong.
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I have terrible news for you, the number of people who can afford a $159 weight loss program and who do NOT have a smart phone must be tiny, your decision not to load "apps" into your phone is just you being a grumpy old bugger.
I just wish the young whippersnappers would used a decent sized font.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity -
RAH
I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
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Examples of this are EVERYWHERE. As a result of Covid, many restaurants have introduced order+pay apps so you don't need to interact with a person or touch menus etc. I can just about understand that BUT why implement it as an "app" (horrible term) rather than simply put the form on a (mobile-friendly) website? So much easier - nothing to download, no hardware / software requirements, easier to update, etc.. etc.. Also, because I don't use my phone for apps, I really don't need - or want - "mobile data". I use my phone, like you, to make phone calls. It's a pay-as-you-go and I top up £10 every couple of months or so, if that. So yes, I can use a website on it - if there's WiFi available. Many of these restaurants that have their own app don't even have wifi!
But it gets worse... In the UK we have the "track and trace" app (which we're all supposed to use, everywhere). But it only runs on recent versions of Android or iOS. I have a 7-year old (very small + compact, with long battery life) mobile that runs Android 4. Yet the idiots put in some requirement or other into the app that requires the latest (or latest less one?) version of op system. (I guess that *may* be the app store requirement, but I don't think so - there are a few apps I've tested that download and run, like WhatsApp). In this case the Government is virtually forcing people to trash functional hardware and spend ten times the original cost on an "upgrade", together with all the environmental (plastics and energy etc) damage involved. [In fact it may be that it requires a recent version of Bluetooth which it uses to detect proximity - but they could SAY so and allow the proximity aspect to be disabled whilst still retaining the "scan in" QR aspects]
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Me too. I got my phone in 2005, amd it still does everithing I want it to.
When I get to a restaurant that requires scanning an OCR code, I tell them to bring me a paper menu, and if they don't, I just get up and leave.
And yes, I am just a grumpy old fart.
Zaphod
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I agree with you (in my early 40's). I won't pay with Venmo because payments only work on phone apps. I don't trust my phone for financial stuff. I'll use Paypal's desktop app, but otherwise you'll have to find another way to get money from me.
Hogan
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I'm with you.
Web sites that will only allow a "mobile phone number" for a confirmation; no other number or email address.
It was only in wine that he laid down no limit for himself, but he did not allow himself to be confused by it.
― Confucian Analects: Rules of Confucius about his food
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I recently leased a Chevrolet Bolt EUV; one of the nice things about it is that I can check the status of the battery, etc., remotely. As of September, they're dropping that access from the website; it will only be available via an app. That app is particularly obnoxious; about every 3rd or 4th time I try to use it, it just hangs on startup. So far, the only fix I've found is to delete the app and reinstall it.
In addition, to be prepared for any trip beyond the base range of the car, I've had to add 7(!) apps to my phone - MyChevrolet to talk to the car, ABetterRoutePlanner (ABRP) to plan the route including charging stops, PlugShare to check to make sure that the charging stops ABRP picked actually exist and are working, plus Blink, ChargePoint, Electrify America and EVgo so that I can actually use the chargers. Apparently very few of the chargers are set up to allow you to swipe a credit card; they all want you to use their app instead.
I really enjoy driving the car, but I'm less than thrilled with having to depend on a smartphone to be able to do much beyond local trips. At least the car has wireless charging capability that works with my phone, and Android Auto to let me mirror the phone display on the car's much larger screen.
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Just sell the Chevy and buy a Tesla and you won't have to mess with any of that mess.
If pigs could fly, just imagine how good their wings would taste!
- Harvey
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