@ricedg
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You can get TPM chips for most motherboards. I believe they don’t have to be from the same OEM but there are 2 different types (number of pins) and cost less than a tenner.
Most modern laptops seem to have a “virtual” TPM which I believe is part of the Intel chipset.
Anyone going to Russia needs their heads testing. I predict a death and plenty of hospitalisation. The Russian equivalent of the F-Troop are waiting and in the current climate the local law enforcement will probably be helping them or a best turning a blind eye. I’m not going to even attempt to predict how far the team will get, but I wish I’d planned to go to Belgium at some time – probably the first of the knock outs.
I was in Leuven for some of the Euro 2016 competition and it’s the best time watching footie in public I’ve ever had. The normally reserved Belgians go nuts when their team is playing, but in the way it should be. Immense pride, flags draped out of house windows, involvement by all ages and parts of society. Loads of drinking and having a good noisy time but no-one puking, pissing, thumping or stabbing each other.
When you consider the local gnats piss is Stella Artois @5+% (and still served outdoors by the brewery’s mobile bars in glass, not plastic and still at the usual 2 Euros) and most are probably drinking something better and stronger (the ubiquitous Duvel is 8.5%) then we have no excuse for blaming grain or grape. The local coppers tooled up with automatic weapons sealed off the square where the tweens would be watching on big outdoor screens, then job done they watched the match with them.
Arrggghhh, I wish the Mrs had planned her time off better…
Now have the 32GB SanDisk. It’s software just creates a vault (secure folder) on the stick. You run a portable exe from the stick to run the software. This screws up when it updates itself (rename the file back to the original sorts it).
My conclusion: pay a fiver to an E-Bay seller to buy a Windows 10 Pro licence (10 minute non destructive upgrade from Home) and use BitLocker on any cheap USB stick.
From what I can find out the Linux solution is totally Linux only and a cludge at that – so if you need something truly o/s dependant you need one with a keypad on it. They can be expensive.
HDD Scan is my current favourite for drives like fujitsu that don’t have their own diagnostics.
Here’s a list of HDD diagnostic software https://www.lifewire.com/free-hard-drive-testing-programs-2626183 Samsung is #6 on the list.
That’s exactly what happened with the office PC my business partner uses. I’ve not been to his office for probably a year and was shocked when I turned the PC on. I had one of the 128GB SSDs with me, that was the reason for the visit, but the PC sounded like a bag of spanners and took ages to boot. Clearly I had got there just in time ?
Once home I ran the WD diagnostics, perfect. I also ran HDD scan on there and the sector response times were absolutely fine and it was quiet. So it went back in as a backup target (the only way to make sure at least some backups are done).
Since then I have had a similar experience twice. I wouldn’t trust the HDD as system drive but for backup or storage there seems to be plenty of life left in them.
That’s good news John. Let’s hope the 1TB is the same.
They are here http://tinyurl.com/yd48qml5 the one I got is Windows and Mac which seems pretty standard but the Corsair Padlock will work with Linux too (it has a keypad built in).
Following Drezhas post I’ve just started encrypting a normal stick with Bitlocker. See how that works later.
Best do that on the 250GB if it’s old too. If it’s not a WD you’ll need the diagnostics from whoever the OEM is.
I know where to find them.
I used WSUS when I was a corporate drone. The 4GB upgrade works in a different way and in this age of fast data download it’s not a huge issue.
By default now W10 will get updates from any local PCs it can see (you can opt in to include PCs on the internet) so everyone gets a WSUS effect.
Don’t panic just yet John. I have had noisy drives last years but it can be a bad sign. If it’s running slow, and I mean really chugging, that’s more critical.
One easy way to find out, download and run WD Datalifeguard from here
The Quick Test will look at the drives SMART diagnostics. If it’s really on it’s last legs you’ll find out very quickly.
If it passes that then run the Extended Test to search for bad sectors, this is usually the issue with old drives. With a 1TB it will take a while, just let it get on with it.
Every drive comes with spare sectors, if the test finds a bad sector it will take it out of use and bring one of the spares into play. If it runs out of spares it’ll tell you that it’s time to retire the drive.
Got myself a San Disk encrypted 32GB USB 3.1 stick for £9
Nothing is leaving my house unencrypted any more. I’ve even set up an encrypted share on the Synology specifically for customer backups.
Maybe paranoia but it’s only cost me £14 to implement, £5 on a W10 Pro for the laptop and £9 for the USB stick. Now if I leave anything on the bus there will be no data breach to report.
Mine usually fail, hence trying Rufus as well. It tall goes OK and boots fine, but when you go to install it says drivers are missing.
So much so that I have a USB that works but is a year+ out of date and do the 4GB update to the latest version afterwards.
Unfortunately it wasn’t “just” the motherboard, it was the network card, audio system, maybe graphics, USB controllers, SATA controllers etc. For OEM purposes this is the definition of a new PC.
You still use the media creation tool and you can create a bootable USB or DVD or just download the ISO.
It depends on the original W7 licence. If it was a full one you can change hardware to your hearts content. However, with W10’s digital licence it uses a hardware “fingerprint” to identify the PC the licence belongs to. I know that it can deal with HDD replacements but a change of mobo and everything that is now integrated on it changing too, I can imagine that’s a step too far. With a Pro licence under a fiver from E-Bay I just don’t worry too much any more.
I have continual issues with the Media Creation Tool and USB sticks where it boots W10 but says there are drivers missing so it can’t identify the hardware. No amount of persuasion will change that situation and it seems to be down to a duff creation of the ISO on the USB stick (I’ve tried using Rufus too). You may fare better creating a DVD, I did.
I’ll be in Belgium on Thursday where they do chips properly ? and beer ?
Leave it John, let the buyer decide.
A backup to the same drive is better than none at all but doesn’t protect you against hard drive failure. Then there’s how big to make the backup partition. You’re saying that the backup partition should be small, the implication of that is that they will be using a lot of C: In which case the backup partition is too small…
Second guessing what someone else will do is pretty difficult to get right. You’ve already done more than most and given them the tools to do the job. I’d leave it at that.
What causes the issue Bob? I have both and can’t see any problems with https connections.
Modular PSUs are almost a must have these days, they’ve come down a lot in price.
I just built my first PC with no drives attached, it has an M2 SSD on the motherboard. It sure is a lot tidier inside.
Well it takes all the politics out of who sits on which table. My eldest cousin’s youngest gets married 2nd June, her Aunt (my youngest cousin) has just left her husband of 25 years and he still lives in the marital home – one of the barn conversions on the farm right next to the mother of the bride (and the bride’s childhood home). The reception is in a marquee in one of the fields. Much seat juggling going on.
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