Did a backup of my M17X last night using DriveImage XML. It was simple to execute. So now, I've a fresh copy of Windows 7 on my recovery partition, a copy of that with some apps installed stored to a memory stick, and now I've a copy of the C: as it is right now. At some point, I need to do a drive-for-drive image, but I don't want to have to buy another backup drive (and a big one at that)...a drive-for-drive image will be copying used and unused space...all 1.5 TB of it...or am I wrong?
What I really want is an extra copy of the restore partition, so I can burn it to CD and put it somewhere safe. DriveImage XML won't even let me see the recovery partition, although native tools such as diskmagn (the default Windows disk management system) sees the partition.
Now I need to take that backup that ran last night, and place it on the MBL backup drive. :)
Friday, May 25, 2012
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Installing a Couple of Flight Sims
Installing Wings over Vietnam and Strike Fighters Project 1...older games, I know, but I want to start using my simulator games on the Alienware system. I'll get Strike Fighters 2 next payday and maybe install Blackshark and A10C sometime this week, also.
EDIT:
Installed both but I believe that Wings over Vietnam is the successor to SFP1, so I'm going to remove SFP1. Played some last night and I enjoyed myself. Went to ThirdWire's website and downloaded the patches and installed without a hitch. One problem, though, is that the game continues to use my integrated graphics card instead of my dedicated 580M. Not that it matters with this game, though, since it is older and this system is so powerful. I tooled with the game's settings as well as the Nvidia control panel and could not get the game to use the 580M.
EDIT:
Installed both but I believe that Wings over Vietnam is the successor to SFP1, so I'm going to remove SFP1. Played some last night and I enjoyed myself. Went to ThirdWire's website and downloaded the patches and installed without a hitch. One problem, though, is that the game continues to use my integrated graphics card instead of my dedicated 580M. Not that it matters with this game, though, since it is older and this system is so powerful. I tooled with the game's settings as well as the Nvidia control panel and could not get the game to use the 580M.
Friday, May 11, 2012
Miscellaneous...
So, I'm finding out that the M17xR3 is bulky enough to where I don't want to carry it around from one part of the house to another, so I've still been using my Macbook (when I'm lazy). Been using it a lot to pay bills, IRC (##slackware), and web browse.
So, one day, I unplug it and go to another room to help my wife with a project and notice that the battery icon is still showing 100% after not being plugged into AC power for about an hour. I click the icon and it states that I'll be needing another battery soon. COME ON! First I run into the limited hard drive space, now I'm going to need a new battery? GRRR... Might be time to retire it. Granted, this battery has been stellar since the original was replaced...it IS about time for a replacement, I guess. And, it could do with more than 80GB of drive space. So, it looks like I might be refreshing both sometime this year. Maybe July/August, if I can hold off.
About the M17xR3. I've decided to subscribe to Carbonite as a backup utility. I was using Dropbox but didn't want to pay for the extra space (using the free account...and no, I'm not going to hawk Dropbox to my friends to get extra space). Carbonite has no limit on backup spacing, but is tied to one PC. It also won't backup the OS or applications, but will backup everything else. I purchase the HomePlus version of Carbonite and it has a drive mirror option, but requires a dedicated local drive to mirror the drive...BUT...I'm using two drives in RAID0 format (stock configuration), which HomePlus won't support.
I'm also using DriveImage XML and plan to perform a whole disk backup (as soon as I figure out where to store the image...it should be pretty big). I will also need to back up the restore partition. I do have a clean image backed up to USB drive (using Alien Respawn), but it is a copy of the drive without most of my apps, which is a good start, I guess.
I've been gaming a lot from my dining and living room (via wifi connection), playing L4D2 and BF3. The Killer wireless card is awesome, as I've noticed NO lag or connectivity issues. I'm loving the fact that Killer prioritizes the packets associated with gaming...that may be why I'm seeing no connection issues. I do notice that it takes BF3 longer to load (which I was attributing to my RAID0 setup), but most of my clanmates are experiencing the same issue, and they're using standalone hard disks. The load issue wasn't present before the last BF3 patch, so I'm thinking the issue is related to that.
I'm having issues with using my iMac as a second screen now. Not a real issue, but for some reason when I try to get BF3 to show on the 27" screen, Windows 7 keeps placing the gaming window on the M17x monitor instead. I didn't have this problem initially, so I wonder why W7 is doing this.
I began to use my G930 wireless headset with the M17x and it is awesome. I still need to get the headset set up so that W7 detects that it is in use and uses the headset by default when it is plugged into the Alienware system (I have to manually go into the sound settings to enable it). I don't remember having this issue with my Turtlebay headset, but want to use my G930 since it sounds soooo much better than the Turtlebay.
So, one day, I unplug it and go to another room to help my wife with a project and notice that the battery icon is still showing 100% after not being plugged into AC power for about an hour. I click the icon and it states that I'll be needing another battery soon. COME ON! First I run into the limited hard drive space, now I'm going to need a new battery? GRRR... Might be time to retire it. Granted, this battery has been stellar since the original was replaced...it IS about time for a replacement, I guess. And, it could do with more than 80GB of drive space. So, it looks like I might be refreshing both sometime this year. Maybe July/August, if I can hold off.
About the M17xR3. I've decided to subscribe to Carbonite as a backup utility. I was using Dropbox but didn't want to pay for the extra space (using the free account...and no, I'm not going to hawk Dropbox to my friends to get extra space). Carbonite has no limit on backup spacing, but is tied to one PC. It also won't backup the OS or applications, but will backup everything else. I purchase the HomePlus version of Carbonite and it has a drive mirror option, but requires a dedicated local drive to mirror the drive...BUT...I'm using two drives in RAID0 format (stock configuration), which HomePlus won't support.
I'm also using DriveImage XML and plan to perform a whole disk backup (as soon as I figure out where to store the image...it should be pretty big). I will also need to back up the restore partition. I do have a clean image backed up to USB drive (using Alien Respawn), but it is a copy of the drive without most of my apps, which is a good start, I guess.
I've been gaming a lot from my dining and living room (via wifi connection), playing L4D2 and BF3. The Killer wireless card is awesome, as I've noticed NO lag or connectivity issues. I'm loving the fact that Killer prioritizes the packets associated with gaming...that may be why I'm seeing no connection issues. I do notice that it takes BF3 longer to load (which I was attributing to my RAID0 setup), but most of my clanmates are experiencing the same issue, and they're using standalone hard disks. The load issue wasn't present before the last BF3 patch, so I'm thinking the issue is related to that.
I'm having issues with using my iMac as a second screen now. Not a real issue, but for some reason when I try to get BF3 to show on the 27" screen, Windows 7 keeps placing the gaming window on the M17x monitor instead. I didn't have this problem initially, so I wonder why W7 is doing this.
I began to use my G930 wireless headset with the M17x and it is awesome. I still need to get the headset set up so that W7 detects that it is in use and uses the headset by default when it is plugged into the Alienware system (I have to manually go into the sound settings to enable it). I don't remember having this issue with my Turtlebay headset, but want to use my G930 since it sounds soooo much better than the Turtlebay.
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