Surprise rebuild last night. :?

[digitalwanderer]

Ya ever get zapped by putting off a gunked up XP install just a few months too many? I did last night, my precious Bubbles decided to take a crap on me and I ended up doing a full XP reinstall that I am STILL working on.

I just never appreciate how much she does nor how complicated my set-up has gotten until a rebuild, then its hell for about a day and a half as I relearn how to get everything working together nice again.

I know I should ghost, but everytime I try I always end up upgrading something making my ghost images moot....I think I just prefer tinkering around and seeing if I can get my set-up to work just a leeeetle betterer each time.

I've gotten basic functionality back, now I'm just adding on all the bells & whistles....but DAMN have there gotten to be an awful lot of bells & whistles lately!

 

[digitalwanderer]

Ok, I'm full blown bonkers confused about my internet connection and whatever the hell it is doing! :?

Now none of the physical hardware has changed nor has anything other than the software on my PC, but before I had my cable & DSL hooked up to my 'puter and it would default to using the cable and would only use the DSL if the cable went out.

Now it's using the DSL and will only use the cable if I disable the DSL NIC. (Both DSL & cable are hooked up to network cards on my pc, I don't like the USB connector)

In a way it's kind of neat because I can fire up Azureus with the DSL disabled and once it starts up using the cable I can re-enable the DSL and use that for browsing, but I'd prefer a bit more control over what is going on.

Anyone got a clue? I'm using XP corp SP2 with no networking tweaking.

 

[t0y]

I don't know if this works, but you might very well try it out..

1. Right-click "My Network Places" on the Desktop and go to Properties;
2. On the menu bar select "Advanced -> Advanced Settings...";
3. On the connections list use the arrows to reorder the interfaces.

If you put your cable interface first, windows might use its default gateway instead of using the DSL one, but this is just a guess...

 

[digitalwanderer]

I don't know if this works, but you might very well try it out..

1. Right-click "My Network Places" on the Desktop and go to Properties;
2. On the menu bar select "Advanced -> Advanced Settings...";
3. On the connections list use the arrows to reorder the interfaces.

If you put your cable interface first, windows might use its default gateway instead of using the DSL one, but this is just a guess...

I LOVE YOU!!!

Thanks, I had no clue that setting was there and now I'm playing around in there. I should be able to set it up the way I want it to be.

Thanks a million, this has been mystifying me since I got two internet connections and I think I finally "get it". 8)

 

[Jimmers]

Rebuilding? It's calling. 8)

 

[philoni]

It's laughing at gentoo.

 

[digitalwanderer]

I keep meaning to give Linux a try, but I guess I'm subconsciouslly putting it off until gaming and ATi's drivers are a tad better on it. :?

No disrespect to Linux as it's something I feel I should get into, but I don't think we're quite ready for each other yet.

 

[_xxx_]

Ya ever get zapped by putting off a gunked up XP install just a few months too many? I did last night, my precious Bubbles decided to take a crap on me and I ended up doing a full XP reinstall that I am STILL working on.

Clean install once, Ghost or alike, make an image of the partition and you're settled as long as you have that machine.

EDIT:
_xxx_ will be reading whole posts first before posting crap...

 

[_xxx_]

But still, if you ghost a clean install with only the most essential drivers/apps, it should be a no-brainer to add those bellz'n'whistles. You'll still be saving yourself a few hours.

 

[digitalwanderer]

I tried that last time, but I change my basic set-up too damned much so it never works out. :?

 

[Tahir2]

There is a trick to Ghosting that works well for me...

Install Windows XP... install all drivers except the IDE driver leaving that as the default MS driver.

Install all the main programs you use i.e. Photoshop, Office etc.

Now Ghost and as long as you do not go the way of S-ATA you will be able to use this image on multiple chipsets.

If you decide to go SATA then whenever you upgrade make sure you have the same SATA controller onboard your motherboard and again you can carry on as you were.

 

[digitalwanderer]

But by the time I need my ghost image there are newer drivers out for half my hardware! (And I do the sATA thing too)

 

[Tahir2]

I find the main problem of rebuilding an OS install is not the drivers, (that usually is a few clicks and two reboots if you know what you are doing), but the real problem is the programs that you use which take ages to reinstall - these take about the same time to install as a fresh install.

Another thing I have found is that newer versions of said programs are released all the time with patches etc, but I only update them when I actually use them. This gives me a steady software upgrade rather than a mental rush to have everything up to the latest build.

 

[_xxx_]

I don't install any drivers prior to imaging. Just windows and stuff like office/Photoshop etc. When I restore, I install the latest drivers and I'm all set within an hour or so.