Changing the Big Picture Environment AWAY from but INCLUDING some MS Windows

[login123]

I used "Your Universal Multiboot Installer" (YUMI) to install the 32 bit and the 64 bit Ubuntu distros onto a 4 gb USB stick. it is here:

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/

Not sure, but maybe you can not make them persistent.

 

Edit: Fwiw, the 32 bit Mint 15 USB stick (installed with LILI) runs fine on my win 7 64 bit computer. On here now using Firefox in Mint 15. It is persistent.

Edited June 17, 2013 by login123

[FreeCat]

OK, got around the GUI problem - Machine ahs two VGA outputs so I went to the main one.

Before that I tried all the stuff I found on hazelnut's link but it did not hyelp - maybe it was me - dunno

 

But I have it up on the stand alone machine nwo and it is nicer and easier to use tan on the W7 machine.

 

I joined the Mint forum. Nice.

 

Tried gedit, installed it but couldnot get it to execute - I woul like to make it my default RTF editor but can not figure that out either.

 

Working on installing VirtualBox tomorrow. )))

[FreeCat]

Installed Virtual Box and it is going very well.

 

And it is all thanks to Hazelnut and login123! Thanks very, very much .

 

The story and steps are here:

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=137297&p=732419#p732419

 

[link will not bring you to the page unless you have logged into that forum]

[login123]

Very kind of you, but it sounds like you did all the heavy lifting, with a nudge in the right direction from Hazelnut, and really good information on the Mint forum.

You did great. Feels good to get a project to actually work, eh?

Stay around and keep us up to date on how you and Mint are getting along.

Have you tried to open any documents created by LibreOffice using windows applications? And visa versa?

Couple of them worked great here, word and powerpoint docs, but either Alan_B or mta said the spreadsheet app is poor compared to microsoft excel.

[hazelnut]

Glad to hear all went well

 

Perhaps be aware that if you have, for instance xp, installed on a machine then you go and install it in a vm you will need a separate licence for it. Microsoft says one machine one licence.

[Alan_B]

but either Alan_B or mta said the spreadsheet app is poor compared to microsoft excel.

That is libel - no one ever heard me say that Microsoft ever Excel in anything but BSOD's

 

Microsoft Excel is worse than useless.

I developed a spreadsheet with a few macros for validating a charity's tax refund claims before they were submitted.

It worked well on my machine, and it seemed to work on the charity's machine,

but since I do not trust M.S. I compared printouts and found major discrepancies.

[FreeCat]

Great to see hazelnut, Alan_B and login123 are following and interested in what the future holds for my quest.

I have not yet gotten into application comparing, etc. In addition to this forum, I have to say the Mint forum is fabulous also.

It is really, all of you people. I owe it all to you. Thank you, peoples, one and all!

 

FWIW, you might like to know I am doing this on two levels.

Level 1 - Dell Optiplex - Mint and VB installed and working with first guest XP pro 32 bit SP2

Since the Optiplex has COA for XP I have contacted MS to use that COA for the XP guest; they say no problem --- nothing to buy; they are calling me back zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Then I am taking a hard drive copy of the big machine W7 U 64b and installing it as additional drive in the Optiplex to work on visualizing that. FWIW, here is the template I am using: https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=33356 - Theoretically, I have 30 days of use before validation will stop this guest from working (as it is currently being used by T7500).

 

Level2 - In that 30 days time I will do a lot of testing and I should know if I have confidence to ditch W7 on big box and do all that I just did on the Optiplex on the T7500. And, of course, if I want XP as a guest on the T7500, I will have to purchase another copy of XP (should be cheap, no? .

 

I know very little, but I will keep you posted on progress in case it will be of any help to others.

[login123]

Hi, Freecat. That sounds like a great plan.

By the way, just noticed that the link in post #28 is dead, maybe the new link is:

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=137297

 

Out of curiosity, have you backed up your systems before starting level 2?

I used Acronis to back up a win xp system to another HDD then just set that one aside as insurance.

Also keep a current system backup file stored on an external USB HDD.

 

The plan here is to do that for any system that works well. However, that is not yet done for my newer win 7 box. The reason is that UEFI BIOSes and GPT formatting seem to cause difficulties for the hard drive app developers. But if I read right Macrium can do it, maybe Acronis too, so I am waiting until lots of folks say they have successfully cloned a UEFI GPT win 7 system to another drive, then gonna do it.

 

I don't care much about keeping up with the latest & greatest OS from microsoft, just want to stay with something that works. Very similar reasoning to your first post. The thing is, one never knows when microsoft will release another gem like ME or vista, and take the previous OS off the shelves.

[Alan_B]

I consider an image backup far superior to a clone because :-

 

A clone costs an entire "spare" HDD, whilst a backup is just a another file to keep in an archive;

 

A Macrium image backup can always be validated courtesy of its built-in hash checksums, and this may apply to Acronis which I gave up on,

But a clone gives no clues - it either fails to boot, or if it boots you need to run SFC to check the integrity of its Operating System,

BUT after that your user documents and Applications are subject to Murphy's Laws;

 

Two backups are not enough incase one gets corrupted,

and the same applies to clones;

i.e. you need to make and preserve 3 clones if you want to be sure of finding a good one in your hour of need.

[FreeCat]

Hi login123,

 

Thanks for the comments.

 

Backup and Protection: Well, what I have been doing for a long time was having a RAID1 C drive and a RAID1 D drive. For protection, I use 4 Hitachi 2TB Deskstars (same drive model that I have been using in my Synology NAS [  for"]http://www.synology....+&lang=us]��for almost 6 years with no problem); and for backup I had been using MS Image Backup that works with stand alone MS boot disc. I (half-ass) tested it once by adding a 5th drive and watching the restore perform. The 5th drive then booted up. I was (dumbly and ignorantly) happy. So, for years after that first test that was my plan: Have the RAID1 in place if case of HDD failure and in case of corruption have last weekend's image backup ready to restore.

 

Not so much smart. Before I decided to set this up, I was told that this will restore all the programs and settings would be backed up; I would get the complete system back. What I failed to do in my test was use the 5th drive restored system to see if all the programs were there and worked.

I still do not know if there were there, but I heard earlier this year that they were not; that this plan was bogus. So, after I finished biting my nails (something I never do) I asked around and heard many people (in the trading world) swear by Acronis. So, I listed to the Acronis sales person, compared by browsing and bought it. I really, really liked the incremental backup every night (that was FAST) and the good feeling that at worst I would only loose a day if corruption occurred.

 

I normally keep all data on NAS (that has all drives RAID1 with Create Synchronicity [http://sourceforge.n...-synchronicity/ ] replicated to a Dell 840 (which I wish was not here in this building).

 

But, on with my tail (as I am a cat): All OS and programs and "data" (artifacts not cleaned off my desktop) use 435 GB of space on my C drive. The D drive before any backup was blank --- kept that way so it could be used only for backup. So that (435 GB) is about the size of the MS backup image on D.

 

After installing Acronis, I kept the last MS image backup, " just in case," and the Acronis put the first full backup down and took up about 220 GB more the the D drive. That brings the total to 655 GB used.

 

So, Acronis, began making incremental backup until it filled up the drive. During this time, I inserted a 5th drive to test Acronis: Message "Restore Successful" but it would not boot. Acronis support (3 calls --- several different people) said more or less, it was my problem and I should talk to the computer manufacturer.

 

Now, I asked and re-asked before I purchased it: "Can I boot from the restored drive?: Yes, Yes, Yes, I was told by several people. Then after another week or so Acronis filled up the D drive and after a technical support call I was told how to turn Acronis backup off, but not how to re-cycle the oldest backup so I could continue making backups. [still waiting for that answer.] Acronis support is Indian based so support is hard to understand at times.

 

In the meantime, I called main office (I actually purchased it from a small consulting company [Acronis "partner"] run by two nice and very helpful guys Andy and Chip who did their best they could to get me answers; but, they were not Acronis and they were not technical on Acronis). The main office put me on with some "executive" with a fancy name who really knew nothing but the rules and played by the rules. “Only a scheduled conference call is allowed to talk to the god of Acronis configuration.” She setup a call with this god of Acronis configuration over another week into the future. The weeks of these problems kept slipping by.

 

On that call I spoke to Robert (god) who gave me the warm and fuzzies and told me he would send me written procedure on how to do everything I wanted. I felt good.

 

I felt very good, in fact, until I decided that this is the guy to ask about my VirtualBox plans. He answered my questions and then the "executive" who was on the call chimed in and began with talk about my having a $erver. Dollar signs were flashing in her eyes as now my Acronis would have to be upgraded to a $2,000 or $3,000 version. And there would be a surcharge for each VB guest. And, maintenance each year would be $200 or $300. I can not remember the exact figures because my mind went into a tailspin at the time. I would up receiving an email written by the executive that was basically gibberish attempting to describe the procedure god said he would send. My English is not that good, but hers was 5 levels below mine. Apparently, god, warm and fuzzy as he is, delegates sometimes.

 

Well, that is ---more of less --- where I am now on backup, except that I will be UN-installing Acronis and emailing Andy and Chip to get the money returned as it has been a week since we spoke and they said they would get back to me on all these issues. It is not their fault; it is clearly the fault of Acronis on whom they depend on and who may have a good product for big crony businesses [who can be put at the top of the support list] but not for me.

 

This tail (sic) will continue as I have found some other backup systems that hold promise and that look good today; and, I will report once they have/have not panned out.

[Alan_B]

I strongly recommend Macrium.

Their technical support is almost never needed, and when required it is prompt, courteous, and I have never seen it fail.

Support Forum

http://support.macrium.com/

 

I have used Virtual Box with their standard product

http://www.macrium.com/personal.aspx

 

If you are using Server software you get change out of $200

http://www.macrium.com/business.aspx

 

Please note that I am not aware of any capability for either Macrium or Acronis to run under Linux O.S. and create backups.

 

My experience of Macrium is that when Windows is toasted by a spurious defective Microsoft Update,

the Macrium Boot Rescue WinPE CD was able to create perfect FULL backups of the entire system

(After I modified a financial spreadsheet in User documents and had saved it, Microsoft did the dirty on me and trashed Windows before I could archive it.)

 

I am sure that the Macrium Boot Rescue WinPE CD will work if you totally remove Windows.

[FreeCat]

Howdy Alan_B,

Thanks for the suggestion. I will add it to my list and definitely check it out.

My list is long and I want to shorten it before I waste peoples time with my blather.

Thanks again.

[FreeCat]

Hi Haxelnut, login123 and Alan_B

 

I am learning (sort of) Linux Mint Olivia, and, as I said, I like it.

 

But, I have noticed that Olivia 15 will only be supported until Jan 2014 and Maya will be supported until 2017. I am wondering if I should switch to Maya and what I would be missing if I did. In February 2014 would I have to do a new install of LM 16? I am not a typical male and do not look forward to changing my woman each year.

 

I would appreciate any thoughts

 

And, BTW, I got over the boot problem,etc. with help from "programming is hard blog" and I have described it here:

 

http://forum.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=137297

 

And, thanks Hazelnut, Alan and login for your suggestions. (gedit good 4me