Windows 10 Upgrade - Beware!

[Bonnie2001]

My home PC broke a few weeks ago, which is why I haven't posted much lately. I had to leave it with a relative who is fixing it (the hard drive broke) and he is doing it for free which means he will take his time.
I'm not looking forward to reinstalling all my software and tweaking Windows the way I had it before. That will take me a couple of weeks.

 

[Hornet3d]

My home PC broke a few weeks ago, which is why I haven't posted much lately. I had to leave it with a relative who is fixing it (the hard drive broke) and he is doing it for free which means he will take his time.
I'm not looking forward to reinstalling all my software and tweaking Windows the way I had it before. That will take me a couple of weeks.

I feel for you and hope you are up and running soon, on the bright side the resultant clearout is often beneficial. The thought of having to reinstall all my work is why I always have at least two clones of my system drive, one with what I call day one, which is all the basics I require and the other is a working clone updated whenever I install new software.

 

[Bonnie2001]

One good thing is that all my runtimes and projects are on another drive.

 

[Hornet3d]

One good thing is that all my runtimes and projects are on another drive.

Smart move, that is a lot of time saved.

 

[seachnasaigh]

My home PC broke a few weeks ago... the hard drive broke...
I'm not looking forward to reinstalling all my software and tweaking Windows the way I had it before. That will take me a couple of weeks.

Yeah, I just pulled the power supply from workstation Cameron; it was a bit of work with so much packed into that tower case. I'll run tests on the power supply (a tester costs $30 US); I hope it's the power supply; that's not too bad to replace.

I also put my Poser runtime, content zip storage, software downloads, Poser scene files, and Silo modeling files on a secondary drive, rather than on the C: drive.

Oh, if you ever try to power a PC up and it seems utterly dead, yet the power supply tests good, then it is likely that the motherboard has developed a fault, and the power supply shut itself down as a safeguard. Replacing the motherboard would mean I'd need to convince the publishers of all of my installed software -including Windows- that this is the same machine.

One pre-emptive strategy for hard drive failures is an Acronis backup license ($80 US for three PCs/Macs). It will copy your entire C: drive -including windows- as a compressed disc image file to an external hard drive. A single 8TB HD can hold backups for all four of my workstations, which have 1TB or 2TB C: drives, plus one or more 1TB/2TB secondary drives.
Subsequent backups only need to copy whatever has changed since the last backup.

On the other hand, I got three new (new to me; they're 8yr old enterprise refurbs) server blades put into service: Andromeda, Epona, and Europa. I've been running 120V AC power lines through the house so that every group of four blades will have their own 20A electrical circuit. I'm doing a similar project upstairs in the workstation room, so that each workstation is on a different circuit.

Once I get all this AC power wiring completed, I'll get back on rendering big skydome panoramas in Vue, for use as skydome textures for Poser, D/S, Carrara, et al.

With Andromeda, Epona, and Europa added, the PixieHollow network will bring 480 render threads to bear on those big tough Vue atmosphere renders, with a total core*clockspeed factor of 1,430!

 

[quietrob]

Yeah, I just pulled the power supply from workstation Cameron; it was a bit of work with so much packed into that tower case. I'll run tests on the power supply (a tester costs $30 US); I hope it's the power supply; that's not too bad to replace.

I also put my Poser runtime, content zip storage, software downloads, Poser scene files, and Silo modeling files on a secondary drive, rather than on the C: drive.

Oh, if you ever try to power a PC up and it seems utterly dead, yet the power supply tests good, then it is likely that the motherboard has developed a fault, and the power supply shut itself down as a safeguard. Replacing the motherboard would mean I'd need to convince the publishers of all of my installed software -including Windows- that this is the same machine.

One pre-emptive strategy for hard drive failures is an Acronis backup license ($80 US for three PCs/Macs). It will copy your entire C: drive -including windows- as a compressed disc image file to an external hard drive. A single 8TB HD can hold backups for all four of my workstations, which have 1TB or 2TB C: drives, plus one or more 1TB/2TB secondary drives.
Subsequent backups only need to copy whatever has changed since the last backup.

On the other hand, I got three new (new to me; they're 8yr old enterprise refurbs) server blades put into service: Andromeda, Epona, and Europa. I've been running 120V AC power lines through the house so that every group of four blades will have their own 20A electrical circuit. I'm doing a similar project upstairs in the workstation room, so that each workstation is on a different circuit.

Once I get all this AC power wiring completed, I'll get back on rendering big skydome panoramas in Vue, for use as skydome textures for Poser, D/S, Carrara, et al.

With Andromeda, Epona, and Europa added, the PixieHollow network will bring 480 render threads to bear on those big tough Vue atmosphere renders, with a total core*clockspeed factor of 1,430!

Just a question. Can Vue do Panoramaic Starscapes?

 

[quietrob]

My home PC broke a few weeks ago, which is why I haven't posted much lately. I had to leave it with a relative who is fixing it (the hard drive broke) and he is doing it for free which means he will take his time.
I'm not looking forward to reinstalling all my software and tweaking Windows the way I had it before. That will take me a couple of weeks.

Bonnie, somehow it doesn't warrant a like. I just had a PC disaster so I know your pain, I feel your pain. But it's so good to have you back!

 

[seachnasaigh]

Can Vue do Panoramaic Starscapes?

Well, you can certainly add stars to a night atmo and adjust density, brightness, twinkle, etc.
I've never tried to do an outer space starfield panorama. Don't know if I can. I'll make some if I can figure it out.
For a starfield pano, we'd want the entire spherical panorama.

 

[quietrob]

I checked and there is only Starry Night for the Dystopia Skydome. Nothing for PP11. I would think it quite useful. Let me know how I can help.

 

[spearcarrier]

I would assume Win10 isn't all that bad on a brand new computer, but I've heard enough horror show stories from those who upgraded to stay away from it.

My favorite Widows version was XP Pro, BUT, it was only 32-bit, and when I got this laptop, which is 64-bit, it had Win7 Pro installed. It took me about 2 1/2 weeks to rework the way they had the Start Menu set up, as I was used to how my XP Pro laptop was set up, and wanted it to be as close as possible. It didn't take long afterwards for me to start to like Win7, and 5 years later, I don't want to start playing with Win10 on this computer.

BTW, my first version of Windows was 3.11 For Work Groups, which I installed on my first, DOS-based laptop years ago, and then I wrote a menu system for the laptop to boot to, so I could choose which apps I wanted to play in. My first Windows only version was Win95, then Win98SE, then XP Pro, and now 7 Pro. I've had enough of Windows to last the rest of my lifetime.

I confess. Once I had Windows 10 installed, I found the hack to force it to behave like Windows 7 .And now you know. I wouldn't be able to work a straight Windows 10 pute3r.

 

[Miss B]

There's a hack to make Win10 behave like Win7??? Interesting.

 

[Bonnie2001]

Bonnie, somehow it doesn't warrant a like. I just had a PC disaster so I know your pain, I feel your pain. But it's so good to have you back!

Thanks Rob. My PC is back home and I've started installing my software. Just a little bit at a time, an hour or so each night so I don't fry my brain. I had to contact Pixologic support to get a new activation for ZBrush because obviously I didn't de-activate it before the computer died. They were very quick, gave me a new activation within a few hours of my request. Keyshot, Poser and DAZ installed and all Bridges/Goz working.
Octane, Substance Painter and Photoshop I will install tonight. I'll install Maya and Max last as they take ages.

 

[Hornet3d]

Thanks Rob. My PC is back home and I've started installing my software. Just a little bit at a time, an hour or so each night so I don't fry my brain. I had to contact Pixologic support to get a new activation for ZBrush because obviously I didn't de-activate it before the computer died. They were very quick, gave me a new activation within a few hours of my request. Keyshot, Poser and DAZ installed and all Bridges/Goz working.
Octane, Substance Painter and Photoshop I will install tonight. I'll install Maya and Max last as they take ages.

Glad to hear you are getting there.