Cricalix.Net

I mentioned to a friend of mine, Matt, that I needed to somehow ghost my shiny new Windows installation from the SATA array to some other drive as a backup.  I’m used to doing it with Symantec Ghost, but last did that when Ghost ran from a DOS diskette.  Yeah, ages ago in other words.  Matt promptly introduced me to BartPE - a Live CD Win32 environment.  Feed it a source CD/directory tree with a recent Windows XP/2000/2003 installation (source, not installed to C:\Windows), stick any plugins in the SCSIAdapter or nic directories, add any additional software via a third directory and let it rip.  One 156 MB ISO image, burnt to CD and booted.  After a bit of a wait, one Win32 environment, Ghost 8, a RAID array and an 80 GB drive were available.  Click, click, click, ghost done.  1 GB/minute.

Thanks Matt!

The new beast of a workstation arrived (in parts) at 7:45 this morning. I’m now typing up this posting using the new beast, and watching Windows Update install 77 updates. Amazingly, there were no more updates after a reboot.

Regarding the assembly of the beast, I’m very impressed with the level of documentation that came with it, and the way various accessories were packaged up. Firstly, the monitor - 22″ LCD made by LG. It arrived in 3 component pieces - the panel, the base and the riser. Slot the riser over the mating on the panel, then over the mating on the base, job done.

Secondly, the Corsair HX520 power supply. The box was properly solid, and contained some very nice foam padding around the actual PSU, a booklet in multiple languages on how to install it, a set of zipties for neatening up the inside of the PC, and a velcro’d pouch with all of the modular cables in it. The pouch made me go ‘oooh’. Sad huh? There’s a good selection of cables in the pouch, including 2 PCI-e power cables, and a dedicated fan only splitter.

Next up, the retail Intel Core 2 Duo CPU and heatsink/fan. Not much to say, other than the fan is nice and quiet, and since when were the pins on the motherboard and not on the CPU?

(And the rain pours down. I hope I’m not in a flood plain.)

I ended up picking the Gigabyte P35C-DS3R motherboard, complete with two RAID controllers, 8 SATA ports, an e-SATA connector (which will be handy if I decide to splurge on a Thecus 2050 later on), and a dirty big heatsink on the chipset. All of the cabling for the drives etc was nicely packaged in individual bags, so getting one set of cables out didn’t mean spilling the lot. The only thing missing was a good number of #6×32 screws - I had to dig into my bag of screws that I’ve accumulated over the years to find some.

The video card was a bit of a surprise - I was expecting it to be a bit bigger (it’s an 8600, rather than an 8800), and was a bit boggled when I couldn’t find a PCI-e power socket on it. I guess the 8600 doesn’t need one. It’s also passively cooled, and seems to be quite happy in the case. I also never realised how large a passive heatsink for a two-slot card can be :)

Finally, the Silverstone TJ04B case. It was well worth the money spent on it, given the decent amount of room, 4 hard drive bays, two 3.5″ external bays and four 5.25″ external bays. It also came with two 120mm fans pre-installed, though they’re dumb fans, so no RPM control. The gloss black finish on the sides is very nice, and I can see fingerprints showing on it already, so I think it needs a bit of a wipe down. The drive slots use sliding catches, so no screwdriver required to perform the install. Just slide the catch back (and apply a bit of force to make it life the metal prongs), slip in the drive and slide the catch forwards. Done.

I’m still installing all the software I need (such as EVE!), but it looks like this will be a very nice machine. Hopefully it will last me several years at least.  The only thing I think I need to get now is a decent USB keyboard.  This PCline (PC World cheapie) is misbehaving.

So I’ve got the steamer again, and my muscles are muttering about a pre-emptive strike to stop me from using it.  I pity the fools (and I’ll pity myself by tomorrow evening!).

Amusingly enough, the steamer is made by the same company that makes the household steamer that my mother has.  Small world.

I’ve managed to get a few quotes from various tradesmen for the work that I need to get done - there’s no way I’ll have the time or expertise to acquire and hang 7 new doors, or replace the guttering, fascias and soffits.  If I can get things lined up properly, the inside of the house should be done come August.

So, Tuesday I call the company I ordered a skip through, and asked for it to be picked up on Friday morning. This would let me park the car in the driving bay, and back the van up to just outside my house. Imagine my surprise when I got home yesterday and found that my skip had mysteriously turned invisible. After walking through where the invisible skip was, I concluded that it wasn’t actually invisible, and was in fact not there any more. A quick word with my neighbour confirmed that the local depot had come back that morning and removed the skip.

So, a quick call to the national company I used, and a very polite jumping up and down over the phone, and I’ve got a skip coming tomorrow, pickup on Monday. Gratis. So I can finish throwing stuff out on Sunday.

Dad dropped by yesterday to give me a hand with de-wallpapering the front bedroom.  The first steamer was a bust, it appeared to have thermostat problems.  Quick trip back to HSS, and I had a working steamer (2.7 kW heater + tank of water).  In about 6 hours, with a pause to take the radiator off of the wall, bust the valve-pipe mating slightly and scramble to find a fix, we manage to de-paper and de-paint the entire front bedroom, which is something like 980 square feet of wall.  There were 2 layers of paint on every wall, followed by 4 layers of wallpaper (on one wall at least), followed by another layer of paint.  The plaster looks so much better!

Needless to say, Dad and I were knackered after that event.  I actually had trouble getting to sleep due to the complaint from my muscles, and ended up taking some aspirin to make it possible to sleep.  I believe my muscles have filed an injunction against me, prohibiting their use in such a manner again.  Little do they know that I have every intent of doing 3 more rooms by the end of June.