* Too many PC gotchas still getcha
My office looks like a computer hospital. If you believe strongly in karma, you may think I brought this on myself by complaining about Microsoft and other vendors. The problems I was having with my video drivers was getting worse, and a friend brought his sick PC over, so I located my diagnostic software and got to work. This hasn’t been fun, but I have some tips to pass along.
My goal is not to make you listen to my problems, because my poor wife gets that job. My goal is to figure out if I’m missing support improvements by vendors, or is support for home users and small businesses still disorganized? If vendors really care about small business as they claim, why don’t their support pages help less technical users?
Here’s my “stupid penalty” for backing up just data I put on a separate disk partition, away from the operating system files: a missing calendar and a missing e-mail address book. Could I have backed up every byte of both partitions, operating system and Data? Yes, but I carefully (I thought) made sure all data and configuration files were on the data partition.
Unfortunately, Mozilla.org’s Thunderbird e-mail program stores the address book with the program and configuration files, rather than with the data (local folders holding e-mail). I thought I didn’t need to bother with backing up the convoluted Documents and Settings folder hierarchy, and my stupid penalty is losing my e-mail address book. OK, my stupid penalty is not for using a separate data partition, because that saves your data when your operating system crashes, but for not also grabbing a backup of my Documents and Settings folders to catch hidden data files.
In a perfect world with an outstanding computer support staff in your company, every program installed on any computer would be thoroughly examined for all changes it makes to the computer when installed. Since few things are perfect, especially support staff budgets in small companies, such things fall through ever-widening cracks.
Second, the Personal Information Manager (PIM) I’ve been using, InfoSelect, stores data where I tell it, so everything is on my Data partition. Yet when I reinstalled, my calendar files did not reappear with all the other data files. Support says the file should have been in my main Overview data folder, but it stayed over with the application files. I’m going to try TreePad Business now.
Here’s my new backup advice: back up everything, including all your program files. Since you should also copy all backup sets offsite, sending just your data files saves time and remote storage space. But don’t cheat and skip your program files, or at least back them up locally for easier recovery.
Avoid my stupid penalty by testing your restore process now and then. That’s a tough call because mistakes mean hours spent rebuilding the tested computer. But better you schedule the restore test and hours for any necessary fix than let random fate crater the computer during your busiest week.
Grab a typical user computer, then back it up separately from your normal process to save yourself some time if your real restore process fails. Simulate a disk crash by formatting the hard disk. If you have two partitions, one for the program files and one for data, just erase the operating system/application file partition.
Restore the system to the point the user gives you a thumbs up. Are you happy with the time and trouble required? If so, pat yourself on the back. If not, change your backup process before you must recover a system for real under serious time pressure. These gotchas aggravate users trying to “spring clean” their computer to get rid of application debris, causing them to stop preventative maintenance and just waiting until the computer dies and must be rebuilt in a hurry.
On the hardware front, my friend’s PC died after he tried unsuccessfully to install two different video-to-PC interface kits. Finding drivers for an “orphaned” PC starts by trying to figure out what video and network components are on the motherboard (what original documentation? my friend asked). Interestingly, Microsoft couldn’t tell me, but a Knoppix Linux live-boot CD (it runs the operating system from the CD without installing it) told me exactly what components needed drivers.
Will someone from ATI tell me why you require Microsoft’s .Net framework in order to run your own video board control program? I never realized .Net facilitated low-level hardware interaction.
While we’re talking, ATI people, explain why you display error messages for CLI.EXE and MSCOREE.DLL yet don’t provide those on your support download pages. Downloading the huge 45MB driver/software package and installing it twice didn’t eliminate the error, and your Catalyst control software refuses to work for lack of the MSCOREE.DLL file.
Next I attacked my own PC and went off to the store to buy a new video board based on an ATI chip. More “fun” ensued. I assumed my ATI problems with my friend’s PC came from the lack of original driver disks and configuration details. Imagine my surprise, er, annoyance, when the brand new ATI-based board I installed in my PC refused to work properly because of a problem with the CLI.EXE program.
I will return the new video board for a replacement, in case the problems are hardware related. If necessary, I will buy a more expensive video board. But if ATI boards continue to work improperly, and Nvidia boards conflict with Windows XP updates, what next? Anyone been through this and want to map out the path to success?
