Too Much Coffee

[rant]

Sorry, but this gets me angry.

With Windows' Back up and Restore feature, I've ticked the "Let Windows manage the space of the backups". Assuming that when my backup disk was full, Windows would delete older backups to make place for new ones. What else is "managing space"? How wrong I was.

When my, during a backup, the backup disk got full, Windows gave an error and stopped backing up, stating it was full and I needed to manually free space by deleting old backups. Effectively rendering the option I ticked earlier utterly useless! Empty as it were.

Why, for crying out loud, does Microsoft put in an option that does not do anything when ticked?

[/rant]

I feel for you.... I recently had to replace my printer. [rant] I only want to print text. But no the new printers have scanners built in. Then the printer insisted that I had to have XP before it would work. I was happy with Win 98. Of course then I have to update ALL my software. Then to add insult to injury the new printer fails within 6 months. I failed to use "original" cartridges. And how is it that 4 "original" cartridges cost more than a new printer!!! [/rant]

Yes totally agree Aadje. For all the advancements in W7 they are still a long way off the mark with many of the newer 'value added' features that used to be the domain of third party developers. Paragon Disk Manager Suite is a really good option for backups and disk management. They offer various cut down versions that work very well free on the Paragon site.

JulieJayne, W98 . The issue there is security, it has not been supported for a while now and I wouldn't trust it online these days if you have it connected. Printer retailers certainly make their profit from the ink. We always check the replacement costs/options now before committing to a printer.

I've downloaded Cobian backup already, it is totally free

The Paragon System Backup software also seems to do what I want it to do. But costs 29 dollars.

The more advanced the operating system seems to be the less freedom they appear to have!
I had vista on my new computer,, god it was irritating,, "are you sure your sure you want to do this" Then after selecting yes the bloody thin wont do it anyway!
Frustrated I went to XP64,,, that at least allows me more control, I toyed with the idea of Win7 but I will wait until it's been well tried out on real people first.

To be certain I am no fan of MS and prefer Linux whenever possible. I have a number of machines running Win7 and so far it would appear to be the best version of a bad operating system yet. The problem with all of this is simple: The more secure an operating system is the more demanding it is on the user and the less freedom one appears to have. Assuming you have the ability to give yourself administrator privileges in XP, Vista or 7 you can give yourself all the freedom you could want, possibly shooting yourself in the foot by doing so, but the possibility is there. In Vista you could turn off the "Are you sure..." messages, but you had to know how and it isn't really trivial to do so. That is the case with all operating systems that have a certain degree of security. I have spent hours studying a Windows 7 administrator's handbook to learn how to use the management console and snap-ins, set networking allowances, tweak the user interface, etc. I don't have my black belt in 7 yet, but I'm working on it because I have users that need to know how to get along with it. Most people rightfully don't want to spend that much time on a stupid operating system, but computers and networking, Internet and intranet are very complicated systems. It ain't really fun, but it's life on the planet.

Regarding the original post, the backup-space problem is a known bug and occurs with drives that are larger than a certain size (I don't remember how large). I personally would never trust Steve Balmer to back up my data.

I personally would never trust Steve Balmer to back up my data.

Nicely put Bruce

Aadje wrote:I've downloaded Cobian backup already, it is totally free

The Paragon System Backup software also seems to do what I want it to do. But costs 29 dollars.

Cobian is good. Paragon were offering free licences to some special editions of the software on their site recently. I remember it was hard to find and I couldn't see it there just now. I have some of the free special editions on computer mag cover disks. Just shout if you need one at some point.

I'll start with Cobian, but thanks for the offer. If Cobian and I don't work out, I'll let you know

Aadje wrote:

I personally would never trust Steve Balmer to back up my data.

Nicely put Bruce

We tried using him too, but he eventually chewed through the rope and escaped back to Redmond

How about another Steve? Mr. Jobs perhaps?

Aadje wrote:How about another Steve? Mr. Jobs perhaps?

I don't think this is a good time to ask him, however.

Or maybe Steve Vai, now that would be nice