Forumite Members › General Topics › Tech › Windows Talk › What a PITA
- This topic has 9 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 4 months ago by
Ed P.
-
AuthorPosts
-
October 30, 2018 at 8:53 pm #27727
Looking at my drive usage, my system drive (Arch Linux) seemed to be using an inordinate amount of space. More investigating, and the Win 7 VM was stored on it. No problem, I’ll just move it.
Easier said than done. You can’t release a drive if it isn’t found, so after copying backwards and forwards, finally got it moved.
Then the VM couldn’t find any stuff, so delet the VM and create a new one, using the pre-existing disk image (whilst trying to remember how I set it up). And success.
Except, Windows now thinks it’s a fake (it isn’t), so I have to go hunting for the key and re-activate it.
This is why I use Linux.
Arch Linux, on a Ryzen 7 1800X, 32 GB, 5 (yes -5) HDs inc 5 SSDs, 4 RPi 3Bs + 1 RPi 4B - one as an NFS server with two more drives, PiHole (shut yours), Plex server, cloud server, and other random Pi stuff. Nice CoolerMaster case, 2 x NV GTX 1070 8GB, and a whopping 32" AOC 1440P monitor.
October 30, 2018 at 9:36 pm #27734Yes Windows is a PITA but I’ve spent the day setting up Ubuntu servers in the Cloud (more on that later) and there’s no way I could have done what I’ve done on my own and I do know my way around to some extent. You need to know what you’re doing whatever os you choose.
Windows 7 is now the equivalent of Ubuntu 9.04, perhaps if you kept as up to date on Windows versions as you do Linux? Us Windows after 7 users haven’t been messing about with keys for 6 years or so.
October 31, 2018 at 6:55 am #27749I have been clearing out some old computers and checking the hard drives before I decided what to do with them. I loaded Windows 7 vice XP onto one of the old machines and it went straight in without needing a number, giving me 30 days to continue. It then did several hundred updates, connected to the network and performed automated backups (all for nothing in the event). It was all amazingly smooth, though after the initial study which lasted about 5 days it was all torn down and the main carcase was sent off for ‘re-cycling’ following in the footsteps of several other machines.
Work was interrupted by refitting a drinking water tap, rewiring some lights where the switch had failed and had to be replaced then replacing a two way socket with a fused three way version, (a very nice neat solution to a messy problem). The three gang two way switch replacement was a right pig, it was wired in an odd way, the old switch had a very different terminal layout and the pinch down screws basically did not want to pinch down without a fight. The mobile phone camera was my friend for that job. Clearly computer operating systems are not the only thing sent to try our patience – and language.
October 31, 2018 at 7:24 am #27751Not of any help, but for future reference never ‘copy’ a Windows VM always ‘move’ it. The act of ‘copying’ tells Windows that it is a new setup, new NIC etc and triggers DRM.
As far as I can see the only practical difference between the two options is in networking. Copying sets up a new network connection while ‘moving’ tries to preserve the old network settings. (Probably means something in a virtual networking setup)
October 31, 2018 at 4:10 pm #27765Oops ?
October 31, 2018 at 8:30 pm #27774Not of any help, but for future reference never ‘copy’ a Windows VM always ‘move’ it. The act of ‘copying’ tells Windows that it is a new setup,
How does that even work? Surely an identical copy (retaining the old VM ID) is just that, an identical copy. How would Windows know where or which drive the copy was on?
To answer Dave , switching to Win 10 is not an option. A. I have a license for Win 7, and B. I hate Win 10 with a passion (I have to use it at work, and every major update is practically a work day lost fixing what it breaks).
Arch Linux, on a Ryzen 7 1800X, 32 GB, 5 (yes -5) HDs inc 5 SSDs, 4 RPi 3Bs + 1 RPi 4B - one as an NFS server with two more drives, PiHole (shut yours), Plex server, cloud server, and other random Pi stuff. Nice CoolerMaster case, 2 x NV GTX 1070 8GB, and a whopping 32" AOC 1440P monitor.
October 31, 2018 at 10:49 pm #27778All I can say is that if every update breaks Windows 10 like that it must be set up in a very strange way. I look after 50+ W10 PCs for various clients and this just doesn’t happen. There have been odd problems, usually with network printers and windows own sockets. Changing this to IP ports does the trick but I haven’t even seen this for a while now.
Windows 10 generally just works. It is the most stable version of Windows I’ve seen and I’ve been about since before Windows for Workgroups. If you are having that much trouble someone in your IT Dept needs to get their act together.
November 1, 2018 at 5:52 am #27793To be fair, it’s probably as much to do with the providers of proprietary software we use, but it’s been enough to sour my view.
Arch Linux, on a Ryzen 7 1800X, 32 GB, 5 (yes -5) HDs inc 5 SSDs, 4 RPi 3Bs + 1 RPi 4B - one as an NFS server with two more drives, PiHole (shut yours), Plex server, cloud server, and other random Pi stuff. Nice CoolerMaster case, 2 x NV GTX 1070 8GB, and a whopping 32" AOC 1440P monitor.
November 1, 2018 at 6:51 am #27794I had a feeling it might be that. I’m not sure if it’s the developers who hold the customer to ransom over the cost of upgrades (some might say they are merely tweaks) or the customer who pays for a product in year 1 and expects it to still work in year 10. Somewhere between the two is the reality.
Then there’s conflicts between different apps. Say SAP will only work with Adobe current version -2 and the security team want everyone on current version as Adobe is like a swiss cheese. Then there’s back waters of the business that haven’t upgraded Adobe for years (as they were autonomous and now aren’t) and there is no upgrade path. That one gave me nightmares.
November 1, 2018 at 10:42 am #27802Not of any help, but for future reference never ‘copy’ a Windows VM always ‘move’ it. The act of ‘copying’ tells Windows that it is a new setup,
How does that even work? Surely an identical copy (retaining the old VM ID) is just that, an identical copy. ”’
It works because it is marked as a copy, but moving adds no marks. My guess is that this is ‘by design’ for large offices that have one master VM but the Administrator wants to discriminate between the various copies. The vm move handles this bit of admin automagically.
With respect to your second point which I interpret to be about the vms internal drive representation. Moving works for the following reason:
When you set up a Windows OS as a VM, the drive partitioning you do within the VM container you have first established, it bears no relationship to the real world. When you launch a Windows VM it takes the launching vm drive to be C. When you move the vm image, it is still C. Retention of the internal vm ids is essential to avoid unnecessarily triggering DRM.
A Linux vm behaves in a similar manner the boot disk is always (afaik) sda1 and sda5 is always the lvm, so a Linux vm does not care if is ‘moved’ either.
-
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.