For those Who Care to Play: Acros SOOC + RAF
 

In article , Bill W
wrote:

It's almost exactly like ransomware, except that a lot of Googling
came up with a fix. About 10 commands (bootrec & diskpart commands)
typed into the command line - really about 60 seconds if you type
fast, and it's fixed. The ridiculous part is that the Windows
install/recovery files (Media creation files) come out differently
depending on whether you choose to write them to a USB drive, or to a
DVD. Some tools are missing in the USB version, and a couple of the
commands fail, the critical one being bcdboot.

welcome to windows.

One of the last things I said to them was, " I guess this is why
people move to Apple". It might be a couple of years, but next time I
think I need something new, I will be looking at them for the first
time.

macs don't care if they're booted from internal or external drive,
whether it's usb, firewire, thunderbolt or sata. as long as the system
on the drive is compatible with the mac, it will boot, without any
changes necessary. they can even boot and install macos over the
internet to a blank hard drive.

there is also a recovery partition, which is automatically installed
(and is used for more than just recovery), so you don't actually need a
separate emergency boot disk.

All stuff I didn't know, but that points to the usual stumbling block
- I'd have to learn a new system. I'm old...

meanwhile, you're futzing with fixing windows rather than actually
doing useful stuff with the computer...

For those Who Care to Play: Acros SOOC + RAF
 

On 2017-05-11 05:48:59 +0000, Bill W said:

On Thu, 11 May 2017 01:24:58 -0400, nospam
wrote:

In article , Bill W
wrote:

Well, I finally got my photo computer working again a little after I
hung up on MS customer support, and a little before I reached the bomb
threat level of frustration with them.

what does it take to move beyond threat level and actually carry it
out? :)

After they told me I had to pay them to tell me how to fix the problem
that *their* update caused, I was at the tipping point... And this was
after I told them exactly what was wrong - a munged boot sector. "Oh,
well at this level 1 customer support, no one knows anything about
MBR's and those things. You have to get that info at level 2, our paid
service".

customer support is mostly useless, and at the larger companies, they
just want to get you off the phone because they're rated on number of
calls.

It's almost exactly like ransomware, except that a lot of Googling
came up with a fix. About 10 commands (bootrec & diskpart commands)
typed into the command line - really about 60 seconds if you type
fast, and it's fixed. The ridiculous part is that the Windows
install/recovery files (Media creation files) come out differently
depending on whether you choose to write them to a USB drive, or to a
DVD. Some tools are missing in the USB version, and a couple of the
commands fail, the critical one being bcdboot.

welcome to windows.

One of the last things I said to them was, " I guess this is why
people move to Apple". It might be a couple of years, but next time I
think I need something new, I will be looking at them for the first
time.

macs don't care if they're booted from internal or external drive,
whether it's usb, firewire, thunderbolt or sata. as long as the system
on the drive is compatible with the mac, it will boot, without any
changes necessary. they can even boot and install macos over the
internet to a blank hard drive.

there is also a recovery partition, which is automatically installed
(and is used for more than just recovery), so you don't actually need a
separate emergency boot disk.

All stuff I didn't know, but that points to the usual stumbling block
- I'd have to learn a new system. I'm old...

No problem. My 94 year old father has his iMac and he seems to manage
without too many problems.

....and the system he was using before he started using a Mac was pencil
and paper. He is now on his third iMac, and has two laptops, a
Powerbook Pro, and MacBook Pro which he seldom uses these days.
However, I speak to him daily using Facetime.
--
Regards,

Savageduck

For those Who Care to Play: Acros SOOC + RAF
 

In article 2017051023131814915-savageduck1@REMOVESPAMmecom,
Savageduck wrote:

All stuff I didn't know, but that points to the usual stumbling block
- I'd have to learn a new system. I'm old...

No problem. My 94 year old father has his iMac and he seems to manage
without too many problems.

...and the system he was using before he started using a Mac was pencil
and paper. He is now on his third iMac, and has two laptops, a
Powerbook Pro, and MacBook Pro which he seldom uses these days.
However, I speak to him daily using Facetime.

wtf is a powerbook pro?

back then, the powerbook was the pro version, while the ibook was the
consumer version. with the intel transition, they renamed them to
macbook and macbook pro.

For those Who Care to Play: Acros SOOC + RAF
 

On Thu, 11 May 2017 02:05:26 -0400, nospam
wrote:

In article , Bill W
wrote:

It's almost exactly like ransomware, except that a lot of Googling
came up with a fix. About 10 commands (bootrec & diskpart commands)
typed into the command line - really about 60 seconds if you type
fast, and it's fixed. The ridiculous part is that the Windows
install/recovery files (Media creation files) come out differently
depending on whether you choose to write them to a USB drive, or to a
DVD. Some tools are missing in the USB version, and a couple of the
commands fail, the critical one being bcdboot.

welcome to windows.

One of the last things I said to them was, " I guess this is why
people move to Apple". It might be a couple of years, but next time I
think I need something new, I will be looking at them for the first
time.

macs don't care if they're booted from internal or external drive,
whether it's usb, firewire, thunderbolt or sata. as long as the system
on the drive is compatible with the mac, it will boot, without any
changes necessary. they can even boot and install macos over the
internet to a blank hard drive.

there is also a recovery partition, which is automatically installed
(and is used for more than just recovery), so you don't actually need a
separate emergency boot disk.

All stuff I didn't know, but that points to the usual stumbling block
- I'd have to learn a new system. I'm old...

meanwhile, you're futzing with fixing windows rather than actually
doing useful stuff with the computer...

Exactly, and over several days this time. That PC was down for over a
week.

For those Who Care to Play: Acros SOOC + RAF
 

On Wed, 10 May 2017 23:13:18 -0700, Savageduck
wrote:

On 2017-05-11 05:48:59 +0000, Bill W said:

On Thu, 11 May 2017 01:24:58 -0400, nospam
wrote:

In article , Bill W
wrote:

Well, I finally got my photo computer working again a little after I
hung up on MS customer support, and a little before I reached the bomb
threat level of frustration with them.

what does it take to move beyond threat level and actually carry it
out? :)

After they told me I had to pay them to tell me how to fix the problem
that *their* update caused, I was at the tipping point... And this was
after I told them exactly what was wrong - a munged boot sector. "Oh,
well at this level 1 customer support, no one knows anything about
MBR's and those things. You have to get that info at level 2, our paid
service".

customer support is mostly useless, and at the larger companies, they
just want to get you off the phone because they're rated on number of
calls.

It's almost exactly like ransomware, except that a lot of Googling
came up with a fix. About 10 commands (bootrec & diskpart commands)
typed into the command line - really about 60 seconds if you type
fast, and it's fixed. The ridiculous part is that the Windows
install/recovery files (Media creation files) come out differently
depending on whether you choose to write them to a USB drive, or to a
DVD. Some tools are missing in the USB version, and a couple of the
commands fail, the critical one being bcdboot.

welcome to windows.

One of the last things I said to them was, " I guess this is why
people move to Apple". It might be a couple of years, but next time I
think I need something new, I will be looking at them for the first
time.

macs don't care if they're booted from internal or external drive,
whether it's usb, firewire, thunderbolt or sata. as long as the system
on the drive is compatible with the mac, it will boot, without any
changes necessary. they can even boot and install macos over the
internet to a blank hard drive.

there is also a recovery partition, which is automatically installed
(and is used for more than just recovery), so you don't actually need a
separate emergency boot disk.

All stuff I didn't know, but that points to the usual stumbling block
- I'd have to learn a new system. I'm old...

No problem. My 94 year old father has his iMac and he seems to manage
without too many problems.

He's probably smart...

For those Who Care to Play: Acros SOOC + RAF
 

On 11/05/2017 08:31, Bill W wrote:
[....]
All stuff I didn't know, but that points to the usual stumbling block
- I'd have to learn a new system. I'm old...

I've taught my 93 year old friend to use Facebook so he can communicate
with his daughter in Australia and a granddaughter in HongKong!

No problem. My 94 year old father has his iMac and he seems to manage
without too many problems.

He's probably smart...

No ...... as he's actually _using_ an iMac, he *IS* smart!

aside I've just been browsing your photographs on Flikr - *YOU* must
be pretty smart too, Bill, to capture such good shots! Thanks for
sharing. :-)

--
"Do something wonderful, people may imitate it." (Albert Schweitzer)

For those Who Care to Play: Acros SOOC + RAF
 

On 11/05/2017 06:24, nospam wrote:
[....]
macs don't care if they're booted from internal or external drive,
whether it's usb, firewire, thunderbolt or sata. as long as the system
on the drive is compatible with the mac, it will boot, without any
changes necessary. they can even boot and install macos over the
internet to a blank hard drive.

there is also a recovery partition, which is automatically installed
(and is used for more than just recovery), so you don't actually need a
separate emergency boot disk.

Hi 'nospam'

Do you know what processes occur if/when one uses 'First Aid' (Disk
Utility)?

Can it REALLY fix things which are wrong?

--
David B.

For those Who Care to Play: Acros SOOC + RAF
 

On 11/05/2017 07:13, Savageduck wrote:
[....]
No problem. My 94 year old father has his iMac and he seems to manage
without too many problems.

...and the system he was using before he started using a Mac was pencil
and paper. He is now on his third iMac, and has two laptops, a Powerbook
Pro, and MacBook Pro which he seldom uses these days. However, I speak
to him daily using Facetime.

I'm now wondering if MY (surviving) son will chat to ME on FaceTime when
I am 94!

In my opinion, FaceTime is far superior to Skype.

--
"Do something wonderful, people may imitate it." (Albert Schweitzer)

For those Who Care to Play: Acros SOOC + RAF
 

On 5/10/2017 11:31 PM, nospam wrote:
In article , Bill W


snip



customer support is mostly useless, and at the larger companies, they
just want to get you off the phone because they're rated on number of
calls.


With some companies, that is true. I have had good experiences with HP,
Adobe, and yes, even MS. I think it depends on who you get, and how his
wife treated him last night. My machine had a compatibility issue with
an HP product. I consider it a miracle that after MS claimed it was an
HP issue, and HP said it was an MS issue, I was able to get an HP guy
and MS guy on a conference call. Turned out to be an MS issue, that
could not be resolved.



It's almost exactly like ransomware, except that a lot of Googling
came up with a fix. About 10 commands (bootrec & diskpart commands)
typed into the command line - really about 60 seconds if you type
fast, and it's fixed. The ridiculous part is that the Windows
install/recovery files (Media creation files) come out differently
depending on whether you choose to write them to a USB drive, or to a
DVD. Some tools are missing in the USB version, and a couple of the
commands fail, the critical one being bcdboot.

welcome to windows.



--
PeterN

For those Who Care to Play: Acros SOOC + RAF
 

On 5/11/2017 1:24 AM, nospam wrote:
In article , Bill W
wrote:

Well, I finally got my photo computer working again a little after I
hung up on MS customer support, and a little before I reached the bomb
threat level of frustration with them.

what does it take to move beyond threat level and actually carry it
out? :)

After they told me I had to pay them to tell me how to fix the problem
that *their* update caused, I was at the tipping point... And this was
after I told them exactly what was wrong - a munged boot sector. "Oh,
well at this level 1 customer support, no one knows anything about
MBR's and those things. You have to get that info at level 2, our paid
service".

customer support is mostly useless, and at the larger companies, they
just want to get you off the phone because they're rated on number of
calls.

It's almost exactly like ransomware, except that a lot of Googling
came up with a fix. About 10 commands (bootrec & diskpart commands)
typed into the command line - really about 60 seconds if you type
fast, and it's fixed. The ridiculous part is that the Windows
install/recovery files (Media creation files) come out differently
depending on whether you choose to write them to a USB drive, or to a
DVD. Some tools are missing in the USB version, and a couple of the
commands fail, the critical one being bcdboot.

welcome to windows.

One of the last things I said to them was, " I guess this is why
people move to Apple". It might be a couple of years, but next time I
think I need something new, I will be looking at them for the first
time.

macs don't care if they're booted from internal or external drive,
whether it's usb, firewire, thunderbolt or sata. as long as the system
on the drive is compatible with the mac, it will boot, without any
changes necessary. they can even boot and install macos over the
internet to a blank hard drive.

there is also a recovery partition, which is automatically installed
(and is used for more than just recovery), so you don't actually need a
separate emergency boot disk.


Same with windows.
And no, I am not going further with this.
--
PeterN