Comments for The OS Quest

Comment on School of Hard (Drive) Knocks – Part 2 by osquest

osquest — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 22:48:41 +0000

@Mike
Yup, the downside of the WHS is the time it takes removing/replacing a drive. It’s great when it works, a royal pain when it doesn’t. The Drobo idea is interesting. I’ve never really trusted USB on a home server but I see they now have models with eSata and Firware too.

I still like the idea of being able to stream the video since I’m basically lazy so I’ll keep using the WHS. Also helps to be able to stream at the PC if I’m using the drive for something else.

I got a bad batch of WD drives for sure. Including replacement, attempts I ended up 0 for 4 on the WD Green 2TB drives, all Oct 2009 Mfg dates. Three were obvious DOA’s and the fourth managed to spin up and be seen by the OS but gets errors which are fixed by diags only too have the the errors return hours later. Although I’ve used WD for years without a problem. Guess every manufacturer has a problem every now and then. When I tried Seagate’s awhile back it was when they were having BIOS problems and I was 0 for 2 on those before I gave up.

Comment on School of Hard (Drive) Knocks – Part 2 by Mike Swanberg

Mike Swanberg — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:42:48 +0000

I had some WHS problems with a bad drive myself not too long ago (WD Caviar Green 1TB… wonder if it’s an October 2009 like your bad ones). Man, what is it about WHS that it just can’t handle a drive going casters up? It send the whole machine into a tizzy! And then if you have a decent amount of data (videos) like you and I do and have to remove a drive, it takes for-friggin-ever.

I’m beginning to think that the ideal WHS disk setup is to have a Drobo or 2 plugged into the USB ports and just be done with it.

I’m also beginning to think it’s just easier to keep my movies on DVDs rather than streamable. Sure, it’s a trip upstairs to retrieve the disc when I want to watch it but that’s probably far less heartache than what you and I have both experienced with WHS.

Thanks for the articles… misery loves company.

-Mike

Comment on iPhoto Tribulations, Tools & Tips by ROBIN JERVIS-READ

ROBIN JERVIS-READ — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:48:59 +0000

Hi there,

I have been an enthusiastic convert from PC to IMAC.

However I am very keen to be able to place the date that a photo was taken on the front of the image so that when I get them printed the date is there.

It seems the brilliant IPHOTO will not let me do this – very dis-appointing.

Whe i operated the PC I had to use a software package – TimetoPhoto – that let me do this.

Unfortunately this software is not suitable for the IMAC.

Is there a way in IPHOTO to achieve this ?

If not are Apple thinking of including the facility in an IPHOTO upgrade ?

Cheers

Robin

Comment on WD My Book Button Manager Removed and Some Frustrations by ray

ray — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 04:37:53 +0000

@Monkey David – I think the WD has changed a lot since I wrote this. At the time is was not a login item but it might be now.

Comment on WD My Book Button Manager Removed and Some Frustrations by Monkey David

Monkey David — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:55:48 +0000

If you go into System Preferences, then Accounts, are they not showing under the Login Items tab? They are on my computer, so they were easy to turn off…

Comment on Domains Up For Auction At Bido by Jarred

Jarred — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:45:48 +0000

Thanks for the coverage about Bido and best wishes with your auctions.
We appreciate your support of Bido. If you need anything, please let me know.

Comment on The OS Quest Trail Log #45: Windows 7 Unleashed Edition by ray

ray — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:41:09 +0000

@bettieblue – Getting a newer Mac is not an option @ $1700+ for the one I’d want even tho’ yes, my iMac is a older core 2 duo that boots the 32-bit kernel. I don’t need a new iMac, the one I have works fine for how I use it. For the money I paid I want 4 years out of it. The comparison would be interesting, but personally, I’ve lost interest in the whole “which is faster?” debate, I’m not straining either one. For me Windows horsepower is much cheaper since I can build my own PC and upgrade any areas that are lacking in performance. And yea, the Windows 7 PC is newer with a quad core and 8GB, but what I wanted was also much cheaper than 1700 bucks. OS X has better and more elegant applications from 3rd parties. If I was doing something heavy duty like video editing then I’d have a dilemma as I’d want elegance and horsepower all in one. As for boot-up time it’s a non-issue now that Windows finally is reliable waking up so I rarely boot either Windows or OS X.

Comment on The OS Quest Trail Log #45: Windows 7 Unleashed Edition by bettieblue

bettieblue — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 23:19:24 +0000

You need to get a newer Mac. In the only picture I have seen of your Mac its an older white plastic iMac. That tells me its at least 2 or more years old and probably using only a 32bit CPU, with Intel Graphics.

How does this compare to your Windows 7 computer?

I have 4 Macs in my home and one Windows 7 Ultimate box. The Windows 7 Ultimate box is a quad core, 8gig of RAM desktop (7200RPM drive) that I used to run ESXi on. My oldest Mac now is a 2007 Blackbook, so all of my Mac’s have 64bit/Core 2 CPU’s in them. Even the Blackbook with a 2.4ghz Core 2 and 4gigs of RAM with Snow Leopard boots up faster than my Windows 7 Ultimate box.

I do Windows Sysadmin, and VMware administration at work, and use a Macbook at work to do so, with a Parallels Windows 7 VM.

If I quit IT I would NEVER use a Windows box again. From a consumer standpoint I think OS X is so much better than Windows.

What I would like to see is a great review of Windows 7 and Snow Leopard running on a new 27inch iMac. Take the top 10 user needs and walk through how each OS does this. Count the steps and time the whole deal. That would be a great comparison.

Comment on Linux by ray

ray — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 03:37:15 +0000

@Steve, for the other user on the laptop make sure the emcryption keys are copied to the other users profile. (The section where the “mkdir ~/.ssh” command is. You can use the same public/private key combo, just need to copy it to the profile.

For the isolated computers see if you can ping the servers IP address from them. If not, then there is something in the networking. Good luck.

Comment on The OS Quest Trail Log #45: Windows 7 Unleashed Edition by ray

ray — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 03:26:43 +0000

@Mike, have to agree if stuff works no sense upgrading, but I was never a fan of Windows XP. When I built my main Windows PC (just before the Windows 7 betas) I got an OEM version of Vista because it was the cheapest option. Didn’t use Vista long enough to form and opinion before I went to Windows 7 beta on it. My netbook came with XP and while I waited for the production release it was pretty much a done deal that I’d put 7 on it.

Comment on Reviewing My Backup Strategy by ray

ray — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 03:16:40 +0000

@Mike, The regular Drobo support Firewire 400 & 800 in addition to USB now. I found FW800 faster than USB on my rig but not by much. I use FW800 tho’ to avoid the USB overhead and it is faster. It’s much slower than the single FW800 external drive I also had.

iTunes is pain for sure since it’s library is so large. Since I wrote the article I moved my iTunes audio library to my Drobo for the added protection. I use ChronoSync to copy it to my WHS drive and my iMac drives to have two copies. Since ChronoSync only does changes the copy isn’t long and I schedule for overnight. But should I need to restore it would be a couple of hours. My audio files (minus those I really don’t care about) fit on my iPod so I’ve always considered that a backup too.

Like you, I’ve had problems with iTunes and restores and moving files around. I think the solution may be to replace iTunes. Moving files has been a pain when I’ve had to do it. When I replaced my WHS (which is where my video files are) awhile back I expected a problem with iTunes finding the files I had on it. What I found was that since I kept the share names the same all I had to do was mount them in OS X and iTunes just found them without a problem. I’ve considered just moving everything to the WHS since it would be easier to move them as disks die or the library grows. I’m thinking that would make a restore easier too. But like you said on your blog, not all the meta data is in the files, so if the iTunes DB gets corrupted it would still be tough.

Comment on Linux by Steve Cornall

Steve Cornall — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 02:33:05 +0000

hi there,
thanks for the great article on ssh in ubuntu linux. I have now created a server and used ssh to access it through a laptop connected to it by a switch(which i was unable to do until I read your article). i tried making the same network connection for anoher user on the same laptop. It still insists on a password for that user. Also i have been unable to access this server from other computers which are isolated from it by another server. i’m sure it’s just a problem with my lack of understanding of networking fundamentals especially in linux. Sure could use further help if you’re up for bit more challenge.Thank-you again.

Comment on The OS Quest Trail Log #45: Windows 7 Unleashed Edition by Mike Swanberg

Mike Swanberg — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:43:40 +0000

I got my girlfriend to get me a student version of Win7… it worked pretty well (had to download it twice as the first one was corrupted somehow). It’s Home Premium Upgrade only, so that’s the only choice. And it comes as an installation program, not as an ISO. But there are instructions out there to create an ISO from the installation files. I haven’t tried that yet since the normal installation went fine.

Overall, I am having a hard time deciding on upgrading everywhere. As you say, it just works. Which is great. All of my current OSes just work too, so what would be the point in spending money to stay pretty much in the same spot?

One of my machines suddenly decided it doesn’t want to boot. It has a dual boot of Win7 RC and XP, but if it won’t boot, what’s the point in buying it a new OS until I diagnose the issue?

I may try putting my machines to sleep now, though, since you say that works better.

-Mike

Comment on Reviewing My Backup Strategy by Mike Swanberg

Mike Swanberg — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:28:51 +0000

Yeah, I think I am going to shy away from the disk image on the WHS too. It isn’t very solid.

I hadn’t heard that about the Drobo, other than, as a USB device, it’s not going to be super fast. I think the Drobo Pro is considerably faster, but I don’t have that kind of cash to drop. I’d always believed the Drobo is only for backup, not for every day use.

As for HP’s support (my WHS box is an Acer — love those hot-swappable bays) for Apple’s TimeMachine, I am not so sure about that. First, that’s basically that whole sparse image over ethernet again. Plus, only local TimeMachine backups can be used for a full system restore (something I’ve had to do more than once on my Mac Mini); those on remote machines can only be used as data backups. So that would still leave a system backup to add into the mix. Also, HP’s support is TimeMachine only, right?

Right now, I am at a crossroads. I’ve had many issues with iTunes (as I would bet you have too, and with a huge repository of files, it is SO difficult to recover from — I wrote about it on my blog if you’re interested in the details, but I would be interested in how you safeguard your iTunes data) and my Mac Mini needs external storage for my iTunes stuff. I have a 320GB FireWire drive where my OS is stored (the internal drive is kaput), then a 1TB FireWire drive where the music and movies are stored, and then a 1TB USB drive that I use for backups. Since I will need to do a clean wipe to install Snow Leopard, I am not looking forward to the monumental effort to get that done. Although, I think I will be happier in the end. I’ll probably move the whole OS and media to the 1TB FireWire and then use the 1TB USB as a TimeMachine drive, and then the 320GB drive will be extra… might make an OS backup out of it (exclude the media).

In the end, OSX is my pick for being able to backup the system, but Windows seems far more adept at robust data backup solutions.

Keep up the good work, I always look forward to reading your posts.

-Mike

Comment on Reviewing My Backup Strategy by ray

ray — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:02:16 +0000

@Mike,
I did try creating a disk image on my WHS a long time ago. I found it to be extremely slow, not sure why really. If I remember right, a fixed image file size performed OK but a sparseimage that could grow as needed was very slow It was faster for me to create the image locally and then copy than to create directly on the WHS. Also, having the Mac open the file off the server was painfully slow.

I do agree with you on Jungle Disk’s nickel and dime feeling. I avoided it for that reason too. Luckily I got it before they went to monthly fixed pricing. So while the amount varies it’s typically less than the current monthly charge. But I had serious problems with Mozy so switched to Jungle Disk while I looked for something else. I didn’t find another flat rate solution that I liked so I’m still with it. I really want something where only I have the encryption key and the encryption happens on my PC.

I’m not a huge fan of Drobo, although others are. I almost sent it back when I first got it due to poor performance, which I wrote about on this site. It’s better now after some firmware updates although copying to my WHS is typically faster than copying to the Drobo. I’m not too sorry I kept it, but I still cringe when I hear other glowing reviews and try to distance myself from those. HP’s doing some interesting stuff with Mac support in their Windows Home Servers. If I was looking today I’d seriously consider one of those over a Drobo.

Good luck.
Ray