If it aint broke......

[PeteT]

So my system has been running perfectly fine for 4-5 years now and still is. I even turned down an offer from my dad to buy it as he wants a HTPC. He said i could then buy a new all singing and dancing one, i did think about it, but then i thought, minw does what its meant to and never misses any TV recording etc...

Then yesterday and today i've come back to the site to ask a question about IR receivers and low and behold i find myself looking at all the new things that have come out recently, like new codecs, MyMovies. Wow, MyMovies has moved on a lot since i last looked. So now i am tempted to install it and see what it does, but i don't want to break my system.

what to do

But we all know what will happen

[barnabas1969]

Just make a backup of your system drive before you make changes. If you break it, you can restore.

[mark1234]

Don't do it!

Or at least use another PC/laptop to test things on first.

[makryger]

I'll admit that the movie add-ons can be a very nice addition. I use MyMovies, and have culstered certain movies together- like putting the LOTR trilogy under one movie heading. I didn't like how the normal movies strip keeps even the two LOTR extended edition disks separately. Now its all a lot more polished. Plus, with MyMovies, I've made it so a custom intro plays at the beginning of each movie. Just little things to make more 'wow'.

But at the same time, I completely agree with the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it' mantra." Which is why I haven't upgraded my graphics driver just for the sake of upgrading. And I haven't tried a new motherboard just so I can upgrade to one of the newer intel processers (I have a core 2 duo e7200). Heck, I haven't even installed the more recent version of My Channel Logos because I've already gotten it working the way I want.

[newfiend]

Wait, what?? Your not using MCL 2.0.?? And I was a beta tester guinea pig? Man... Some ppl. LOL

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[newfiend]

Although I opted to be the guinea pig...so.. That's my own fault..hehe..
And I would do it again... So..

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[PeteT]

Just make a backup of your system drive before you make changes. If you break it, you can restore.

what are ppl using now for imaging? I have a copy of Acronis that i used in the early days of my HTPC.

I also use a home server and understand that has imaging in it but i have never used it or how effective it is. I think i need to get a book on home servers and get up to speed on it.

[STC]

If ever I perform a driver upgrade or anything remotely major, I backup the OS with Acronis to my recorded TV drive. Very quick to perform, although restores take a while. It's saved my bacon a couple of times.

[adam1991]

Acronis has come to suck. It's gone the Norton route.

The native Windows 7 backup utility is free, and does exactly what you want. Even better, it can work in network environments where Acronis is known not to work. See the Acronis forums.

[STC]

Acronis has come to suck.

I use the 2010 version 100% successfully on Win7x64. The latest versions do start to take over your machine I must admit.

[adam1991]

yes, the reports seem to indicate that "sucky" started with 2011 specifically compared to the 2010 version, and that 2012 got even worse.

When it can't do something so simple as see a network share that Windows can see, and when Acronis simply gives me my money back upon request because of this, it's plain that they know about this flaw (although they don't acknowledge it in their forums, despite the seemingly thousands of posts about it) and simply don't want to address it.

[barnabas1969]

I have Acronis 2012. I'm very happy with it. However, in most cases, you should be able to use Windows Backup just fine. Just make sure to make a boot disc if you do not already have a Windows installation disc.

The reason I was forced to buy software is because I have moved pieces of my system drive to my recording drive via directory junctions... and Windows Backup tries to backup the whole recording drive when I tell it to do a system image. Acronis does not do this... it figures out what to backup and what to skip.

So, unless you've made a bunch of directory junctions that point from your system drive to your recording drives, I recommend Windows Backup.

[Ack]

I have Acronis 2012. I'm very happy with it. However, in most cases, you should be able to use Windows Backup just fine. Just make sure to make a boot disc if you do not already have a Windows installation disc.

The reason I was forced to buy software is because I have moved pieces of my system drive to my recording drive via directory junctions... and Windows Backup tries to backup the whole recording drive when I tell it to do a system image. Acronis does not do this... it figures out what to backup and what to skip.

So, unless you've made a bunch of directory junctions that point from your system drive to your recording drives, I recommend Windows Backup.

With windows backup, definitely make a boot disk, but I just discovered for the first time this past weekend that if windows is still operational you don't need the boot CD to restore an image. One of the image restore options lets you boot to a command prompt like you had booted to the recovery CD. Worked great to restore an image. Didn't need the CD at all.

Just to confirm I restored an image this way and not a restore point.

Edit: where I had typed "boot" (I thought) spell check put "dolt". Thought I'd fix that.

[makryger]

Wait, what?? Your not using MCL 2.0.?? And I was a beta tester guinea pig? Man... Some ppl. LOL

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No no no... I'm using MCL V2, just not MCL Version 2.10.... im back on 2.06 or something.

[newfiend]

I was just poking fun.. I figured you were using 2.0 just not the latest release..hehe

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[PeteT]

Well the story continues....

I built my dads HTPC and it works perfectly I then see how fast his is and want the same...sooo i bought an Intel SSD, good choice i thought, i'll have the same system but faster response time. I reinstalled windows onto it and it work fine initially until you reboot it then it just falls over. I tried the SSD in my laptop and it worked perfectly so i knew it was a stable SSD. So then i had the probelm i had an SSD that was too small really for the laptop but didn't work in my HTPC, what to do?

Well i decided to get a Intel Core i5-3570K, Asus P8H77-M Pro motherboard and 4gb Kinston RAM Os installs fine, its a really really fast machine but by TV tuner (TBS6981) doesn't work in it. The system crashes So motherboard is back with the supplier being tested but i am not holding out much hope for it i think they will return it saying it works fine. It does as i've tried my old blackgold DVB-S card in it an it works. I need-want DVB-S2

So i am stuck really now and i refer back to the title of this thread!!!

If/when i get the motherboard back, i will try different options like DVBlink or DVBlink server and install the tv card into my WHS.

Arrrggghhhh