jaclaz

Yes and no. TRIM in Windows 7 is a sort of "background activity" but *any* manufacturer's tool should work under 7 even if it does not work under XP, and you can try using ForceTrim on 7: http://ticksontech.blogspot.com/2011/12/trim-for-masses_10.html The tool is (was) here: http://web.archive.org/web/20120530102049/http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?73888-Here-s-a-tool-to-force-TRIM-your-entire-drive Can still be got from here: http://www.mediafire.com/download/1cd8dh0msw2jq1w/ForceTrim.zip I am attaching a copy, just in case. Some more info: http://web.archive.org/web/20160714163804/http://www.thessdreview.com/forums/threads/forcetrim-an-excellent-little-proggie-that-works.2647/ As always, YMMV. jaclaz ForceTrim.zip

Yes, this is "normal", a disk driver can be "hooked" at different system levels. Some drivers do not expose a physical drive, some do expose one but it is inaccessible by disk manager, some only expose the volume, if I recall correctly Gavotte, like IMDISK, is of the latter kind, only the volume is exposed, what sounds "strange" at first sight is that you cannot format it, possibly it is the specific settings/automatic size, etc . that create this situation , this may also depend on the MediaType you have (either set or automatically generated) in the Registry, or some access restrictions, check the attachments in this thread: jaclaz

Sure they do, the point might be that they cannot be found anymore in the version that works under XP. BUT, you seem to be running a dual boot XP/7, in this case you should do ALL the disk management under 7 anyway, alternatively you'd better use a Linux bootCD/USB for that (as a side note modern SSD's should not/need not be TRIMmed too often) XP Disk Manager has a nasty bug with volumes in extended partitions if the disk alignment is (as it MUST be on SSD) to the MB (as opposed to cylinder), briefly, the default in XP is aligning to the Cylinder, which means that your first partition will start at LBA offset 63, while Vista onwards defaults to MB alignment which means that your first partition will start at LBA offset 2048, the disk manager in XP may - at any change, even unrelated, such as changing the active/boot status of a partition, delete the references in the EPBR's to the logical volumes inside extended : .http://reboot.pro/topic/9897-vistawin7-versus-xp-partitioning-issue/ The 63 before is DEFINITELY NOT recommended for SSD, though 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024 are all valid values on a SSD (multiples of 4KB), the 2048 default one is the most common and recommended. jaclaz

Yes, like *everywhere else* on the internet they make multi-mega-para-ultimate-cms_enabled-ML_ready-AI_enabled STUPIDLY complex sites and routinely change contents ruining half or more links, besides removing products/tools. The tool (the simpler drive copy) can also be downloaded via Wayback machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20150302054110/http://www.minitool-drivecopy.com:80/download.html jaclaz

Clonedisk: https://labalec.fr/erwan/?page_id=42 http://reboot.pro/index.php?showtopic=8480&page=1 is free and works under XP, but to clone a boot/system disk you will better boot to *something else* like a PE (this latter can be both XP based - like a BartPE - or based on later Windows OS). Cloning the disk where the OS is running is possible, but not recommended/failproof, there is however at least one freeware (for home use) tool that should be able to do that: http://www.minitool-drivecopy.com/drivecopy.html If you can boot two different OS, you can use one of them to copy the "other" partition and then the other OS to copy the first, without risks, the only issue may be the conflict with Disk Signature, but this can be worked around booting *any* Linux distro or possibly even (on 7) putting the cloned disk "offline". If the SSD is exactly the same size as the old hard disk is one thing, as a "perfect clone" would do and you could get away with a simple dd or dd-like tool running under *any* OS, but if the SSD is smaller or larger you will likely need to additionally resize (either reducing or enlarging) the partitions, in this latter case Linux based tools like Clonezilla may (or may not) be suitable, or you may need additionally something that includes gparted. Post more info: 1) exact size of the old disk 2) exact size of the new disk 3) how the disk is partitioned currently 4) it is a laptop/notebook, isn't it? How can you connect the source disk and the target SSD concurrently? About trim under XP, see: jaclaz

Lately I had a couple of (temporary) failures of internet connection(s) at the office, the first one lasted a couple days, the latter only a few hours. Nowadays we have a lot of programs/devices that (stupidly and in some cases without any real need) cannot operate without an internet connection, besides - of course - the lack of e-mails that is an issue. We had the same thing happen a couple years ago, the downtime was much longer, possibly 4, 5 or 6 days, as while doing some roadwork nearby they cut both the telephone and xDSL lines in several points (the demented guys were inserting posts for guardrails and managed to physically cut the cables every 3-4 m for some 200 m before the telephone company managed to find out and stopped them, so they had to re-dig and replace some 250 m of cables). At the time, in emergency, I put together a temporary solution (half-@§§ed and el-cheapo as always). For telephone we used a cellular phone, managing the telephone company to temporary divert the landline number to it. For internet I got one of those Huawei portable wi-fi "modems"[1] (I often happen to ask myself what - the heck - is actually modulated o demodulated in the devices that the industry insists on calling "modems") with its SIM, and found a device from Link-sys that can act as access point and wi-fi bridge, and a couple other functions. So, connected it to the LAN (if I recall correctly it seemingly becomes "transparent" in it when in "bridge" mode) and directed it to bridge to 192.168.1.1 via wi-fi, then set the soap bar own IP to 192.168.1.1, disconnected from mains/switched off the "normal" dsl router/modem (as well normally set to 192.168.1.1) and - more by sheer luck than because I knew what I was doing - everything worked (though slowly, on UMTS connection, anyway enough for the *whatever* needed internet, including e-mail) and ALL devices on LAN needed not to have their gateway - fixed to 192.168.1.1 - changed. Now, I would like to set up a ( still el-cheapo, but possibly not-so-half-@§§ed) more permanent/more suitable and possibly automated solution for these emergency cases. In my perverted mind, this (failover to LTE in case DSL connection is down) should be one of the simplest/most straightforward things to do, BUT I cannot understand, or trust, or both how exactly to do it. My LAN is as simple as it can be (there is NO, nor I want any wi-fi[2]): Various devices and PC's [IP 192.168.1.xx/255.255.255.0] | Unmanaged switch(es) | Current DSL modem/router [IP 192.168.1.1/255.255.255.0] Now I have found three possibilities : 1) replace the DSL modem/router with one that has a provision for failover to a USB "internet key" (that contains the SIM)[3], i.e.: Various devices and PC's [IP 192.168.1.xx/255.255.255.0] | Unmanaged switch(es) | NEW DSL modem/router [IP 192.168.1.1/255.255.255.0] -> failover to USB "internet key" 2) insert between the switch and the current DSL modem/router a dual WAN router with failover functions and add a LTE/4G modem or modem/router. i.e.: Various devices and PC's [IP 192.168.1.xx/255.255.255.0] | Unmanaged switch(es) | dual Wan router [IP 192.168.1.1/255.255.255.0] -> WAN 2 set as failover -> LTE/4G modem/router [IP DMZ 192.168.2.1 - gateway 192.168.2.254/255.255.255.0] | WAN1 set as main connection -> Current DSL modem/router [IP DMZ 192.168.3.1 - gateway 192.168.3.254/255.255.255.0] The dual wan router I could use is the Ubiquiti Edge Router X, that seems like cheap and reliable. 3) insert between the switch and the current DSL modem/router a LTE/4G modem or modem/router i.e.: Various devices and PC's [IP 192.168.1.xx/255.255.255.0] | Unmanaged switch(es) | LTE/4G modem/router -> failover to [IP 192.168.1.1/255.255.255.0] | WAN 1 main connection -> Current DSL modem/router [IP settings???] For the LTE/4G modem/router I have EXCLUDED the Netgear LB2120 (as it seems that - while being extremely popular - half the internet is reporting that is working just fine, exception made for its failover functions) so candidates are the (preferred) Teltonika Router RUT240 (that seems to have a very good reputation) or *something* else, like one of the n LTE modem routers with wi-fi (that I have no use for) and automatic failover, an example is the digicom R4GW-T04. Now the questions: 1) do you have any experience with similar setups? 2) if yes, suggestions about suitable hardware (4G/LTE modem/routers with or without failover, devices that double as dsl and LTE/4G routers, DSL routers which allow use of a second WAN for the LTE/AG modem/routers and similar) are welcome, what do you use? 3) in the specific case #2 I have found a couple (IMHO vague enough) examples where the modem/routers have the 254 address but are set in the dual wan routers as DMZ with address 1, but I am not sure to understand the logic/method used, if you have some good resources/examples/tutorials, they would be appreciated, as well as any correction, possibly what I found is specific to the Ubiquiti router only and other devices work differently. Or, have you better ideas for the dual wan router and its settings? 4) in the specific case #3 above listed, how (the heck) are to be setup the IP settings (if any) on the "old" DSL modem? 5) any other ideas/examples/explanation to get to the same final result (adding a reliable failover to 4G/LTE to a simple LAN connected primarily via a DSL modem/router)? Please note how the "el-cheapo" characteristic is vital, so please avoid Cisco and similar high end, professional, suggestions, we are talking of a 100-200 € budget here. jaclaz [1] we affectionately call them "saponette" in Italian, i.e. soap bars [2] actually there is one, that *somehow* I manage to maintain working, that uses however an own set of access points connected through a VPN and an internal router, so - for all that matters - the whole stuff is only a single device connected to the switch [3] BUT these "internet keys" have - at least the ones I have used in the past - relatively low connection speeds and will be poorly receiving in the place where the DSL modem/router is placed, AND it is pure madness as there is no guarantee whatsoever that the USB "internet key" will be compatible with the modem/router, nor that they will be compatible with this (or that) low cost SIM provider, so possible solution #1 is excluded

My bad , I was thinking MinGW and wrote MSYS instead. jaclaz

Besides that, what amazes me is the apparent craze for something that by any standards sucks (and sucks big). I mean, I understand how the insiders (or whomever) are interested in the news, and want to try it as soon as possible (possibly to monetize or however use as a promotion the article/blog/video/whatever) but once one, two, three, tens of people have tested it and it clearly is (not so surprisingly) at the most a "meh" product, there is IMHO no need to hurry to get/install/test it.. I could understand if everyone that actually tested it described it as the third best thing in life (after bread and ice-cream), but come on, the (admittedly only few) reports I have seen seem to have divided the opinions between "it sucks" and "it sucks AND it is unfriendly to the user and hardware". Surely, when there will be something final, the usual endless number of tweaks, mods, hacks, etc. will appear, making it bearable (like it has happened for previous windows versions) but the point remains that the thingy "as delivered by the manufacturer" is reported almost everywhere as only a little more than a pig[1] with lipstick (and the lipstick is the wrong colour ) jaclaz [1] with all due respect to pigs, of course

Naah, they are not that bad, the whole point is (was) that if you "adopt" the whole Cygwin as if it was an added subsystem, while still senselessly bloated, the bloat is compensated by the amount of tools you have at your disposal (of which a normal user will actually use/need 3% to 7% anyway) but if you just want to run a single, simple tool (or a handful of them), you can't have them in a simple, straightforward way and in any case you will need to download/install a number of bloated .dll's. The point of the mentioned post was however more on the latter aspect, the difficulty any normal user will have in finding and installing the tools (if he she doesn't want the "whole, bloated, pack"). jaclaz

It seems like there is a simple workaround to install without TPM 2.0 nor secure boot, only for the record: https://allthings.how/how-to-install-windows-11-on-legacy-bios-without-secure-boot-or-tpm-2-0/ jaclaz

Do you really want to know? http://reboot.pro/index.php?showtopic=15207 jaclaz

Is that machine so d@mn fast that you really *need* to slow it down? jaclaz

Sure, and not so casually I previously proposed (tentatively) a couple of cities in states that are around the middle of the rating by price: About: Sure, that is clearly confirmed by: https://247wallst.com/special-report/2019/06/21/hot-dog-and-hamburger-consumption-by-state-2/6/ https://247wallst.com/special-report/2019/06/21/hot-dog-and-hamburger-consumption-by-state-2/7/ We can use the formula 481/236/(197/171)=1,77 to obtain a good enough approximation of 16/9.9=1,61. And, at the light of this, we can introduce a HPCF (House Price Correction Factor) of 2 and the West Virginia vs. Virginia bottom tier makes sense as $52,166*1.61*2=167,947 $ which is a very good approximation of the $165,069 jaclaz

1) neither will work as "over provisioning" Essentially over provisioning means, "out of the total amount of space accessible by the controller, let only part of it accessible by the OS (and the rest will be used by the controller for spare sectors)", not using some of the space that the OS can see is totally irrelevant. you need specific tools (by the SSD manufacturer) or hdparm (or similar) to effectively implement an opverprovisioning space, see (examples): http://www.tech-g.com/2015/06/13/over-provisioning-ssd-in-linux/ https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/white-papers/over-provisioning-nand-based-ssds-better-endurance-whitepaper.pdf 2) check the COLOURS in the Disk Management view Black top bar: Unallocated (where you can create EITHER a primary or an extended partition) Dark Blue top bar: Primary Partition Light Blue top bar: Logical Volume inside Extended Light green frame: Extended partition Light green top bar: Free Space (inside Extended, where you can ONLY create an additional logical volume) If you prefer, in the first disk ALL space is allocated by the three primary partitions and by the extended one, but inside the extended one you made 2 volumes and there is some free space left "on the right", still within the extended partition, while in the second disk, most of the disk is allocated by 5 primary partitions (either the disk is GPT or as you say Disk Manager is mis-representing the partitions ) , but there is some unallocated space "on the right", outside any partition. Personally I don't buy that the ext4 volumes/partitions can create a fifth primary partition, there are 4 entries and no more in the MBR partition table, the filesystem used on any partition won't change this, anyway, if you believe that Disk Manager is misrepresenting the situation, you shouldn't use it. jaclaz

Sure, but that contradicts the base assumption, we were talking about: is not the same as "looks like it should be condemned as unlivable" or "in a poverty district". .No, I am pretty sure that what you describe happens alright, many years ago I was involved in the construction of some 96 flats for "social housing" in Geneva (in Italy each city council has - or should have - a branch that builds or buys houses to rent them to people with very low level income, and the rent for these houses is very, very low, usually something like 20% to 25% market price) and I made in the following years (after the completion of the actual construction) a few inspections (to solve minor problems that could have been covered by the builder's warranties) and was amazed by two things: 1) the amount of BMW's and Mercedes parked in the condo parkings 2) the sheer "luxury" of the furniture inside some apartments jaclaz

The already posted one (no idea if reliable/accurate): https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/research/average-house-price-state/ vs: Of course, since these are median values, the Washington D.C. area may well account for the difference. jaclaz

Yes, the 28% or 29% (or the previous 30% standard) is approximately the same number as the complement for my 2/3 to 3/4 needed for living, that leaves 25% to 33% of income to pay for the mortgage. The issue with house prices you used is that they are "reverse engineered" from the affordable mortgage, that will be fine in (say) West Virginia, where the bottom tier house is 52,000 $ (and minimum wage is higher at 8.75 $/hour) but it will change dramatically in (still say) Virginia where the bottom tier house is 165,000 $ (and minimum wage - from May 2021 - is only slightly higher at 9,50 $/hour). These two adjoining states data show how buying a house with minimum wage in one it is possible, and in the other it is not. Same goes for two states that have the same 7.25 $ minimum wage, Alabama and Georgia , in the first bottom tier is 68,000 (meaning possible), in the second it is 117,000 (meaning not possible). For the record, there never was a question, there was a statement that revolved around the fact that (in Italy) the ratio houses/minimum wage is in 2021 roughly double the one in 1984, and that this can only be due to two things: 1) the minimum wage raising failed to follow properly inflation OR 2) the house prices have increased much more than inflation (or the combined effect of both) I.e. what is relevant is the ratio_2021/ratio_1984, in a perfect world that should be around 1 while it is - at least for Italy - more like 2. jaclaz

Well, in the good ol' times whenever you had a problem with a (SCSI) disk you could look everywhere but it was the cable (or more rarely a terminator or connector). With IDE the only issues were when (newer) devices required 80 wires cables but the old cable was 40 wires OR if you used the CS (Cable Select) option (that rarely worked properly, unlike the manual master/slave jumper setting) Now, with SATA we are back to whenever you have a problem with a disk you can look everywhere, but it is the cable (actually almost always a connector). History repeats itself. jaclaz

No, the overall results are consistent,2021:1984 ratio of 2, 102..7:48.2 or 200:100 are essentially the same numbers, but you used the "wrong" pay levels. The idea is (and has always been) bare entry level pay. (as some people will have the possibilities, or capabilities, or luck or all of them to soon have a better wage or however a better than minimum income, but many will be deemed for years, often tens of years, to have the minimum or slightly above the minimum income). 1984: minimum monthly pay (net): 700,000-800,000 Lire cost of flat: 73,500,000 Lire You needed around 100 monthly minimum wages to pay for the flat (100/12=8,4 so this was feasible with a 20/25 years mortgage if you could live in the meantime with roughly 2/3 to 3/4 of the minimum wage[1]). 2021 minimum monthly pay (net) : 900-1000 Euro cost of flat: 200,000 Euro You need around 200 monthly minimum wages to pay for the flat. (200/12=17 so this, even if interests are at a very low level, is not feasible with a 25/30 yeas mortgage[2][3]) The huge difference is that the 1984 is (was) feasible. the 2021 is not. jaclaz [1] at the time interests were high, but so was inflation and minimum pay followed (somewhat) inflation and increased whilst mortgage was fixed rate, so in a few years the re-payments "weighted" less and less [2] nowadays we have low interest rates but also inflation is (or, better, is calculated as being) very low, so there are not noticeable increases in minimum pay levels and the weight of the re-payments tends to remain unchanged. [3] and of course exceeding 30 years for a mortgage is very rare, though there are a selected number of banks that market 40 years ones, in these cases new formulas came out (since around 2014 if I recall correctly), essentially "rent to buy" ones, where you pay partly for the use (rent) of the house and part for its property and delay for several years to go "all in" and pay the rest of the property cost.

Check your associations. This might be useful: https://www.sevenforums.com/browsers-mail/411381-i-cant-get-url-extension-associate-firefox.html https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/file_types_manager.html The "application not found" might mean that right now you have an incorrect path to the .exe or to the "provider"(ProgID/file class) , which should be - i believe - FirefoxHTML, compare with this (though the program is for later versions of windows that introduced hashing for some settings: https://www.winhelponline.com/blog/set-default-browser-file-associations-command-line-windows-10/ An older (but good) tool you can get from here (though NOT intended for Vista, it should work on it just fine) via Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20170910210713/http://wstudios.home.xs4all.nl/Associate/index.html jaclaz

No problem, the fact that your post was hostile and offensive doesn't mean that I was actually offended. Statistics is fine, if compared with statistics, the moment you use averages and medians of (extremely large and "miscellaneous") datasets against specific datapoints what you obtain is at the most a median or average of a mishmash. You compared an average wage (which is usually, but has to be checked, NOT net) against a (surely) net data for a very specific kind of income: first job, minimal legal pay for full time that I provided. Surely there is similar data for the US, but you have some 50+ states, and each one is different, minimum wage is between 7.25 US$/hour and 15 US$/hour: https://www.monster.com/career-advice/article/state-minimum-wage https://www.epi.org/minimum-wage-tracker/ For around 2,000 hours/year, that means a fork between 15,000 and 30,000 US$/year which is between 1,250 and 2,500 US $/month. And that is - I believe - gross or "before income and other taxes", anyway both extremes are very different from the $87,864 you used in the comparison. Then the house, you provided median data for a single family house, that is at least a couple levels higher than the kind of flat I used in my post, which is a very basic one, near to the minimum size that a single or a young couple, without children, can live in with a minimum of space, i.e. 55 sq m or 600 sq ft (legally, in Italy, no house can be smaller than 28 sqm, and the minimum - again legally - for a couple, is 38 sqm, roughly, respectively, 300 and 400 sq ft) US houses (and again it depends on states and even on cities) tend to be much larger and a "single family house" is usually a 2 or 3 bedroom one some 1500 to 2500 sq ft: https://www.statista.com/statistics/529371/floor-area-size-new-single-family-homes-usa/ Then the location, even as we have some rather wide differences by region or city, it is rare to find the same wide differences you have among different states and cities in the US, my single datapoint is about a city which is more expensive than many but not among the most expensive ones, to "port" it to the US, that would possibly be (say) Phoenix, Az or Baltimore, Md: https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/research/average-house-price-state/ and probably the "bottom tier" prices are more comparable. In these two states, minimal pay is around US $ 12, which makes 24,000$/year, which I believe are gross and that become for a single (very roughly) around 12,000 (exempt)+85%*12,000=22,200 which, divided by 12 mean around 1,850 US $/month net . So, in my calculation the ratio is 190,000/1,850=÷100, the same as my old italian 1984 one, but very different from your calculated 3.43*12=41,16 one. If you have the time and will, try finding the corresponding 1984 US data to be able to make a comparison. jaclaz

So after all, you do doubt my word for it , of course you are perfectly free to go along this line of behaviour, which - JFYI - I find both offending and uncalled for/confrontational, besides the unneeded use of capital letters to shout at me. And of course I don't have to demonstrate anything. You might want to refresh the reading of board Rules/Guidelines, with particular attention to #7.b and 11 https://msfn.org/board/guidelines/ jaclaz

No. Maybe they are but you completely failed to demonstrate it . You are mixing numbers liberally, median house means nothing and of course average wage is very different from "net amount in pocket" of a yute. You need a very specific kind of house in a very specific kind of city and a specific (initial, first full time job, unqualified) net wage to be able to make a meaningful comparison. Go compare the price of a 600 sq ft flat in (say) New York, San Francisco, Seattle against a same size flat in (still say) Akron or Detroit. Median and average mean nothing, as an old Italian poet said, if I eat a chicken and you eat nothing, on average we had half a chicken each, and of course, from the Simpsons: jaclaz

It is interesting, as - according to Acronis - only Samsung and WD use that S.M.A.R.T.[1] parameter: https://kb.acronis.com/content/9118 Personally, I would change the SATA cable with a new one (it costs next to nothing) and leave the disk alone. In theory (but not necessarily on Seagate drives where it may well mean "number of stars in the sky as seen from the air hole of this disk in full moon nights, if they happen on wednesday") that should count the number of times the connection has shifted down from full speed (like 6 Gb/s) to a lower one (like 3 Gb/s or 1.5 Gb/s) and this can happen for a whole number of reasons, the only one you can attempt to fix (and as said costs next to nothing) is replacing the SATA cable (and if needed clean contacts on motherboard and disk). jaclaz [1] which I personally call D.U.M.B.

Naah , I believe that the good MS guys think in dec but write in hex , they have a single nibble available for version but reserved B,C,D,E,F for future use, of course NOT documenting it, but rather half-@§§edly marking those values as "RESERVED, DO NOT USE", the project manager quickly realized that he couldn't go further than A, so in order to keep compatibility with older versions added a field for subversion and the good marketing guys came out with clear, logical, consistent version naming, like, you know: Version 1507 Version 1511 (November Update) Version 1607 (Anniversary Update) Version 1703 (Creators Update) Version 1709 (Fall Creators Update) Version 1803 (April 2018 Update) Version 1809 (October 2018 Update) Version 1903 (May 2019 Update) Version 1909 (November 2019 Update) Version 2004 (May 2020 Update) Version 20H2 (October 2020 Update) (you remember the good ol' times when we had SP1, SP2, etc.?) and since they (the marketing guys) have no idea of what a version is, nor what names are for, or more generally no ideas at all, they promoted the "fixed" Windows 10 is and will be the last one. Recently they put a couple interns in a disused lavatory (with a sign on the door "beware of the leopard") where they had archived some old documents, and the yutes[1] found a post-it with scribbled on it "values B,C,D,E,F can be used for Windows versions 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15, need to add this to the official documentation", and the Windows project started a new life. Mind you, not that this is what has happened, but it is what may have happened (and still is much more logical than Windows 10 versioning ). jaclaz [1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104952/quotes/qt0404568