I have a Dell XPS 8500, with Windows 7 Professional, SP1,
with Spywareblaster, Malwarebytes, Avast , Windows Defender
and Windows firewall.

Seagate Desktop HDD ST2000DM001 2TB 64MB
Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal
Ram 12.0 GB
System type : 64-bit operating system

I also have

I have a Dell Optiplex 780 Tower, with Windows 7 Professional,
SP1, with Spywareblaster, Malwarebytes, Avast , Windows Defender
and Windows firewall.

Seagate Desktop HDD ST2000DM001 2TB 64MB
Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal
System type : 64-bit operating system

and (external hard drives)

(8500)
WD BLACK SERIES WD2003FZEX 2TB 7200
RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal
Hard Drive

(780)
Seagate Desktop HDD ST2000DM001 2TB 64MB
Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5"
Internal Hard Drive


This concerns the 8500; twice now, yesterday and today
it hung up on me. Yesterday, I left it to shut down and
when I returned today it was still 'in the process' of
shutting down, so I powered it off.

Then today when working with my Dell Imagining it got
hung up again and the Dell Imagining was not responding.
I tried to end it with Task Manger multiple times but it had
no effect. I then decided to restart the computer but again it
got hung up when shutting down and I had to power it off.

Why is my computer hanging up? Is there anything else I can do
besides powering it off? I'm afraid of damaging the HD when
I do that but I see no recourse when it hangs up using Dell Imaging
and/or during restarting and Task Manger has no effect.

Thoughts/suggestions
Robert



--
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

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On 11/12/2021 4:38 AM, Robert in CA wrote:

I have a Dell XPS 8500, with Windows 7 Professional, SP1,
with Spywareblaster, Malwarebytes, Avast , Windows Defender
and Windows firewall.

Seagate Desktop HDD ST2000DM001 2TB 64MB
Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal
Ram 12.0 GB
System type : 64-bit operating system

I also have

I have a Dell Optiplex 780 Tower,  with Windows 7 Professional,
SP1, with Spywareblaster, Malwarebytes, Avast , Windows Defender
and Windows firewall.

Seagate Desktop HDD ST2000DM001 2TB 64MB
Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal
System type : 64-bit operating system

and (external hard drives)

(8500)
WD BLACK SERIES WD2003FZEX 2TB 7200
RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal
Hard Drive

(780)
Seagate Desktop HDD ST2000DM001 2TB 64MB
Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5"
Internal Hard Drive

This concerns the 8500; twice now, yesterday and today
it hung up on me. Yesterday, I left it to shut down and
when I returned today it was still 'in the process' of
shutting down, so I powered it off.

Then today when working with my Dell Imagining it got
hung up again and the Dell Imagining was not responding.
I tried to end it with Task Manger multiple times but it had
no effect. I then decided to restart the computer but again it
got hung up when shutting down and I had to power it off.

Why is my computer hanging up? Is there anything else I can do
besides powering it off? I'm afraid of damaging the HD when
I do that but I see no recourse when it hangs up using Dell Imaging
and/or during restarting and Task Manger has no effect.

Thoughts/suggestions
Robert

https://dell-picture-studio.software.informer.com/

"Dell Picture Studio 4.0

Nothing more that Jasc Paintshop Pro 7
and Image Expert 2000 rebranded by Dell
"

Your Dell Picture Studio 2.0 could be an
earlier package bundle, including Image Expert 2000.

*******

Your failure to shut down could be:

1) A process that refuses to shut down.
The OS is in control, and after a sufficient
number of suitable 15 second intervals, should
succeed at fixing this.

2) Open registry hive. The OS can't shut down, unless
all registry items are properly put away. The registry
is journaled, so even if you turned off the power,
*some* version of the registry still exists. A modification
was added in WinXP era for this (registry problem), and
rather than being optional software, it was added
permanently to Vista and Windows 7. Consequently,
the registry can't refuse today, whatever they did to
fix that.

3) Something else :-)

The Something Else could include an aberrant behavior
by an AV program, or any number of other things. Anything
which has commandeered the machine, can prevent shutdown.

At one time, the networking stack could hold the OS hostage.
But that was around Win98 era or so. That's because the
networking stack seemed to be its own little blocking
thread of activity. And it could stall or jam up the OS,
if some packet sent, no response came back. But the network
stack has improved a lot since then, and while Win2K
frequently went into a tizzy at shutdown, they eventually
curbed that behavior. The networking stack was probably
OK in Win2K, but they didn't seem to have finished the
job at that point.

Vista was a rewrite, a major one, and the tasking model
likely changed at that point. When the OS project I
worked at, had it's "second version", all the hardware
timing changed on the OS, and when this happens, it
resets all your preconceived notions of what is going on.

I don't see too many good, health reasons, for a
jam-up at shutdown now. It leaves a tussle between
the AV and "something that doesn't belong" as a
possible reason.

You have two accounts on the machine ? Try booting
and logging in as the second account, then test the
shutdown. If that works, then that suggests the problem
is with the other profile. It's beyond my skill level,
to suggest a solution based on the test result though.
I know that one of your accounts was elevated and
the other was a Limited User, for exploit reduction.
But if the results differ between the two accounts,
that doesn't guarantee an answer about the root cause,
it just shows that the problem is Ring3 and account
specific. If both accounts mis-behaved, that hints
at Ring0, kernel, drivers, AV intervention at Ring0
level as if it was a driver.

Paul

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"Robert in CA" <RobCA1@yahoo.com> wrote

|I have a Dell XPS 8500, with Windows 7 Professional, SP1,
| with Spywareblaster, Malwarebytes, Avast , Windows Defender
| and Windows firewall.
|

This is an XP group. You might want to ask in
alt.windows7.general. I have a Dell XPS. 615, I think.
Occasionally it just stops taking input, the screen goes
blank, and I have to unplug it. Haven't figured it out,
but I suspect it might be connected with using the
TV as a second monitor.

Slow shutdown can happen with all kinds of things.
You have a lot of bloated stuff running and it's probably all
updating itself. If it were me I'd start by inspecting what's
running and maybe also do some services weeding. Also
check the settings on your security army. Do you really
need all that stuff? If so, how does it run? Many of those
programs default to doing a malware scan on every file
you touch. That's already overkill. If 5 different programs
are doing such scans then most of the CPU time is probably
taken up with scanning. Most or all of the security software
could be set to only check likely probblems: downloads,
email and connected drives.

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It actually happened a 3rd time after I posted but this time I just
reset the 8500 instead of powering off the server. I don't know why
I didn't think of that sooner but still doesn't resolve why the computer
is all of a sudden hanging up when it never had this problem before.

The computer has always been quick and responsive.

Yes, that is correct, it's an earlier version of Dell Imaging I'm using that came with the 8200 and since I have the disks so I just downloaded it to
the 8500 and 780 and I haven't had any issues before?

btw I did check the usage while on Task Manager and it was 5GB

I'll try logging on and off with the Admin account and see how it works
and let you know.

Thanks,
Robert

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I logged into my Administrator Account and ran malewarebtyes
and SuperAntiSpyware scans and browsed the news. I also noticed
it didn't have a home page icon but decided not to mess with it at this
time. After the scans finished I shut it down and it had no issues of
hanging up. Then I powered the server off. I then powered it back on
some time later and logged on to the User Account with no issues.

So that's where I am now.

Robert

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On 11/12/2021 9:19 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

I logged into my Administrator Account and ran malewarebtyes
and SuperAntiSpyware scans and browsed the news. I also noticed
it didn't have a home page icon but decided not to mess with it at this
time. After the scans finished I shut it down and it had no issues of hanging up. Then I powered the server off. I then powered it back on
some time later and logged on to the User Account with no issues.

So that's where I am now.

Robert

So it's something related to that account then ?

And you can't use Procmon, because the session never makes
a nice clean exit and you have to RESET the hardware, so there
would be no trace on the next startup to look at.

I don't know how to debug that, except through indirect analysis
of what has been added to the machine. Maybe something was
installed recently. It is probably not a driver, as the
Admin account shut down OK, and both would use the same
driver setup.

That leaves a Macrium Restore... again... to some date.

Paul

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It happened again, while I was working in Dell Imaging
but I was able to close it this time with Task Manager.
Then it again happened when I was watching a video on
You Tube. It just hung up in the middle! I had several other
windows open and toggled to each and they were all hung
up as well as Word and Dell Imaging. I couldn't even pull
up Task Manager! So had to restart the 8500 and went
through the usual abnormal shutdown routine to logon.

Is my motherboard failing? Could it be a bad HD? I'm just
guessing here. You read my mind about another Mrimg
restore to an earlier date than 10-2-21?

At present, just to play it safe I just have FF and Word open.

I sure have had more than my share of off the wall problems!

So we'll do a Mrimg restore and hope that fixes it.

Thoughts/suggestions?
Robert

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It seems something went wrong or I mislabeled the Mrimg because it looks like
it's from a year ago not from 9-2-21. I thought it look strange when it came back up.


Robert

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I did a Mrimg restore to 9-2-21 and saved all my important folders/files.

Macrium had an update to Version 8 and looked allot different than the
previous version and I had to wing it. It went into the PE mode again to finish the restore. I don't have many mrimgs left if this doesn't work. I wish you would
take a look at Version 8 and give me new instructions on how to do backups, clones and restore on Macrium. I think it would be prudent to make another backup
but there's just too many variables now and I don't know which to choose?.

When I came back online I had these pop-ups. I don't have any Apple products I'm aware of so I quit the update and the second threat pop-up just came up when I only had Word and Paint open. Then came up again with a voice which
is the first time that ever happened.

https://postimg.cc/470cm33h

https://postimg.cc/ykcR8sCk

I'm also missing my bookmark icon.

I hope this cures the hanging up.

Thoughts/suggestions,
Robert

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Also, could you please give me instructions to create a about:blank homepage icon
in firefox? I've tried to look for instructions but can't seem to find any.

Thanks,
Robert

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Also Google doesn't look the same at all.

Thoughts/suggestions?
Robert

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On 11/13/2021 8:15 AM, Robert in CA wrote:

Also Google doesn't look the same at all.

Thoughts/suggestions?
Robert

I would select an MRIMG a bit closer to the
current date. You might have a bunch of stuff to
do over again, by running older images like that.

*******

Google does not have any promotional material or
animation on display. Not at this moment. They
had something a bit darker looking yesterday.

https://i.postimg.cc/wTTT09Zk/Google-Today.gif

Some web pages, if you use an older browser version,
the web site (on purpose) sends "vanilla" pages with
material missing. Google doesn't do that on their own
page, but I'm sure they encourage anyone they can find
to be doing that.

For Firefox, when it starts for the first time
after an update, there might be a picture of the
"Grinder Woman" as promotional material.

*******

Here are examples of setting a blank page for the homepage.

https://i.postimg.cc/pr9ZfwfY/Setting-Home-Page.gif

Paul

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I went to the 780 and both your links worked and also Postimage
However I don't have the home listed in preferences and there's no
way I'm going into config at this point for about blank page. I remember
it being easy to do not all this. I thought it was something like naming
a page about:blank and dragging and dropping on a toolbar?

At any rate I can live with it for the present since were going to restore it soon after we make a backup.

Thoughts,Suggestions,
Robert


Robert

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Agreed,.. I thought I was choosing 9-2-21 but it sure
looks allot older than that just by my Dell Imaging files.
It's missing something like 20 folders! That can't be just
2 months ago.

I think at this point we should make a backup now
(just in case, because while older this mrimg works,
otherwise I'll loose it correct?) and I don;t have that many
mrimgs left to choose from. Then restore the 8500 to mrimg
11-2-21 that I made after we resolved the speaker icon
problem.

However I need your assistance in using Macrium
Version 8 because its all different and has allot of drop
down boxes but I don't know what to choose? As I said I
was just winging it this last time and trying to follow your
original instructions you gave me but it's all changed and
different now. Plus I'll need instructions so I can do my
monthly backup and would be a good idea to create on after
I restore it to 11-2-21 so we have another mrimg.

Neither of your links worked and I couldn't open Postimage
either because it gave me the same error screen.

It had a yellow band at the top of the screen and below it had a
lock with a red diagonal slash and says:

Your Connection is not secure, and says The owner of i.posting.cc
has configured their website improperly. To protect your information
from being stolen, Firefox has not connected to this website.

This site uses HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) to specify
Firefox may only connect to it securely. As a result, it is not posible
to add an exception for this certificate.

Learn More,.....

and below that it has a blue bar with Go Back on it.


Please take a look at Macrium Version 8 for backups and restore and
give me some guidance on how to proceed with the drop down menu's
etc. so I can back this version up before we restore it with a new mrimg.
So many things are not working. I can't use Postimage and I can't log into
my bank account because I'm using an older version and it wants me to
pick from several to download.

This is not good, I need your help to get back to where I was.


Thanks,
Robert

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Good news,.. I updated Firefox so I was able to login to my bank account
and Postimage works now.

We still need to return to 11-2-21 however. There's too much missing.

Robert

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I'm on the 780; here's some images of the drop down boxes I was
speaking of for backups and restore but I don't see anything for cloning?
Also what happens after you select whichever option? I don't know how
to proceed to do backups or to restore. Please advise on what to choose
so I can proceed to do a backup(so I won't loose the present mrimg) and
then to do a restore and then will make another backup immediately
afterwards so we have more mrimgs but I need your guidance to get started
and walk me through this.


https://postimg.cc/4mpTwQkJ

https://postimg.cc/62FDfyM2

https://postimg.cc/qN0HF642

Thanks,
Robert

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On 11/13/2021 7:48 AM, Robert in CA wrote:

I wish you would take a look at Version 8 and > give me new instructions on how to do backups... on Macrium

Here is a backup for Macrium 8.

It isn't much different than the other film strip.
Picking the name for the backup has additional options
now, which you don't have to use if you don't want to.

[Picture]

https://i.postimg.cc/4xjBHK62/Macrium8-Backup.gif

Use the "Download Original" button on the page, to
get the original picture back. The site has a 10Kx10K
limit, and I had to chop out a frame to fit the limit,
which didn't hurt anything.

Paul

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On 11/13/2021 4:40 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

Agreed,.. I thought I was choosing 9-2-21 but it sure
looks allot older than that just by my Dell Imaging files.
It's missing something like 20 folders! That can't be just
2 months ago.

I think at this point we should make a backup now
(just in case, because while older this mrimg works,
otherwise I'll loose it correct?) and I don;t have that many
mrimgs left to choose from. Then restore the 8500 to mrimg
11-2-21 that I made after we resolved the speaker icon
problem.

However I need your assistance in using Macrium
Version 8 because its all different and has allot of drop
down boxes but I don't know what to choose? As I said I
was just winging it this last time and trying to follow your
original instructions you gave me but it's all changed and
different now. Plus I'll need instructions so I can do my
monthly backup and would be a good idea to create on after
I restore it to 11-2-21 so we have another mrimg.

Neither of your links worked and I couldn't open Postimage
either because it gave me the same error screen.

It had a yellow band at the top of the screen and below it had a
lock with a red diagonal slash and says:

Your Connection is not secure, and says The owner of i.posting.cc
has configured their website improperly. To protect your information
from being stolen, Firefox has not connected to this website.

This site uses HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) to specify
Firefox may only connect to it securely. As a result, it is not posible
to add an exception for this certificate.

Learn More,.....

and below that it has a blue bar with Go Back on it.

Please take a look at Macrium Version 8 for backups and restore and
give me some guidance on how to proceed with the drop down menu's
etc. so I can back this version up before we restore it with a new mrimg.
So many things are not working. I can't use Postimage and I can't log into
my bank account because I'm using an older version and it wants me to
pick from several to download.

This is not good, I need your help to get back to where I was.

Thanks,
Robert

The browser issue is related to certificates, and a few weeks back
it was a certificate related to Let's Encrypt that was the problem.

A few browsers, the certificate store is in the browser. Updating
the browser version (like Firefox 93), might solve the problem.

Other browsers use the OS certificate store. The OS (Windows 7)
should check in a couple times a day with Microsoft, to acquire
certificates. The other part of the equation is the schannel
for encryption, and if new algorithms are missing, then you're
out of luck. But as long as TLS 1.2 still works, some of the
older encryption methods for https will still work. So I
don't expect that to be a problem. It would be something
like WinXP that would be in a bit worse shape. And the
browsers don't even run there any more, the candidates.
There are a few forked open source projects for WinXP
browsers, but even they are getting creaky.

But you're on Windows 7, and a bit of updating
and a bit of waiting, it should be fixed. Firefox,
updated, should be a good choice.

If you do a Macrium Restore, of course that
is like using a Time Machine, and the stuff
will be broken again :-) Just, update'em.

Paul

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On 11/13/2021 6:25 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

I'm on the 780; here's some images of the drop down boxes I was
speaking of for backups and restore but I don't see anything for cloning? Also what happens after you select whichever option? I don't know how
to proceed to do backups or to restore. Please advise on what to choose
so I can proceed to do a backup(so I won't loose the present mrimg) and
then to do a restore and then will make another backup immediately
afterwards so we have more mrimgs but I need your guidance to get started
and walk me through this.

https://postimg.cc/4mpTwQkJ

https://postimg.cc/62FDfyM2

https://postimg.cc/qN0HF642

Thanks,
Robert

Macrium 8

"Create Backups" plus click "Image this Disk" == Backup

"Create Backups" plus click "Clone this Disk" == Clone

"Existing Backups" plus "Browser for an Image file" == Restore

And the Existing Backups, is graphically a bit messy
looking on my screen.

I thought the staff were learning something about making
better looking screens, but I guess not in this case.

There are multiple ways to open a backup and decide
what to do with it. And that's part of the problem with
how they made that screen. It's just too too busy.
It is a visual distraction.

I think in File Explorer, you could just navigate to
your collection of .mrimg files and right-click one
and select "Restore" from the File Explorer right-click menu.
But again, the graphics jump around a bit, and the tool
is in a big rush.

It's really better in Macrium 8, to just using the "Existing Backups",
because there would be less stuff flashing around.

Paul

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At present I'm unable to login to FF. I checked for updates and it's
Version 94.0.1 but its not working. I'm restarting the computer in hopes
it will help. In passing, I've noticed more and more than there are background programs that need to close before shutting down.

I hope this works.....Ok it didn't work, FF is not working ! Jeez one minute
it is and next it isn't. See what I mean? I updated it it and now this happens.
What do I do now?

Robert

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Are you suggesting I stay with this? I'm missing so much, I
suppose I can copy/paste from the Mrimgs but what about
all the bookmarks? I would loose allot and I'm still having issues
here. I've lost my about blank homepage again when I updated
Firefox. Seems every time I take a step forward I have to take 2
steps back. I'm trying to load Windows updates but 3 keep failing
and there's an optional update as well. FF is not acting normally
and I checked for about Firefox and it cycling forever looking for
updates. I also got hung up again in Dell Imaging and wasn't about
to bring up Task Manager but I managed to close it. So you see
I'm still having issues.....

All this just came from no where,.... I haven't downloaded anything,..
and my computers are just hanging up for no reason and acting weird.

Robert

Robert

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On 11/14/2021 2:44 AM, Robert in CA wrote:

At present I'm unable to login to FF. I checked for updates and it's
Version 94.0.1 but its not working. I'm restarting the computer in hopes
it will help. In passing, I've noticed more and more than there are background
programs that need to close before shutting down.

I hope this works.....Ok it didn't work, FF is not working ! Jeez one minute
it is and next it isn't. See what I mean? I updated it it and now this happens.
What do I do now?

Robert

We have one observation, that it follows your account.

One account has the behavior, the other didn't.

Perhaps you could create a test account "MisterTest"
and give that a try for a while. Find the control panels
user accounts thing and create an account. Make it an
unelevated account, and see if it behaves itself.

*******

If you've run out of MRIMGs to use, you might have
to do a re-install. Or, visit one of the malware
cleanup services, and see if any of the tools they
have you run, as scanners, can pick anything up.
You would expect things like the free Malwarebytes,
would show something if it was present.

Paul

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On Sat, 13 Nov 2021 at 04:48:10, Robert in CA <magineer02@yahoo.com>
wrote (my responses usually follow points raised):
[]

the restore. I don't have many mrimgs left if this doesn't work. I wish
you would
take a look at Version 8 and give me new instructions on how to do backups, >clones and restore on Macrium. I think it would be prudent to make
another backup
but there's just too many variables now and I don't know which to choose?.

[]
Just out of curiosity: why have you moved to Macrium 8? I'm reading this
in the XP 'group (and it isn't crossposted to any others), and I found
my Macrium 5 worked for XP, 7, and early 10 (not current 10). The only
reason I am aware of to move to later ones is USB3 (Macrium 6? I've not
worried much because I don't have any USB3), and better SSD support.
(Current W10 needs at least M7.)

Do you have USB3 kit (both ends of the lead of course!) or SSD(s)? If
not, for XP imaging, I'm just curious about what later Macrium actually
gives you.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

I was never drawn to sport, to which I attribute my long life.
- Barry Humphries, RT 2016/1/9-15

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I moved to Macrium Version 8 because when I
opened Macrium there was a download for it.

Robert

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p.s. I deleted Mister Test (locked)

Robert

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I had (3) important Window updates and (2) optional
updates. They ran all night but none of them succeeded.

I created the Mister Test User Account as you suggested.
It has a blank screen without the Windows logo it came up
with a pop-up that says:

The snipping Tool is not working on your computer right now.
Restart your computer and then try again. If the Problem persists,
contact your system administrator.

I'm still trying to get it to work. I restarted it and it said
Mister Test (locked) and didn't show the other Users at all
How did that happen? See what I mean? Things just happen.

Firefox is not connecting

I still have some older Mrimgs but it seems like everything I do is
messed up and getting worst. Until we know what is causing it to
hang up I would be more comfortable with restoring it to 11-2-21
and see if it still hangs up. It certainly is better than nothing working
at all and we still don't know why? Then if the problem is still present
we can always use one of the older mrimgs but at this point
things have gotten worst not better. I can't even use the 8500 now.

I hope I don't have to start all over again. That was the whole point of creating the Mrimgs.

Thanks,
Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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You gave excellent instructions on backing up mrimgs
but I need one for restoring. and cloning. I didn't quite
follow you when you said:

Macrium 8

"Create Backups" plus click "Image this Disk" == Backup

"Create Backups" plus click "Clone this Disk" == Clone

"Existing Backups" plus "Browser for an Image file" == Restore

At present, I think I would like to restore it to 11-2-21 and
there no sense in saving this as a backup mrimg since
it doesn't work.

Then after the restore and working, we create a mrimg
backup for it. After all the 11-2-21 mrimg was created
after we resolved the speaker icon and before the 8500
started hanging up so it should be clean. As a matter of
fact, that's the mrimg I should of used.

Thoughts/suggestions,
Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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I think it's best to try restoring the 8500 to 11-2-21 to see if it works
and to get the 8500 running again. Then we can make muliple mrimgs
backups for redundancy. In addition, we have the spare bootable HD's
as our ace in the hole.

I don't know why this mrimg got messed up after I updated FF but
somehow it did. Now it doesn't even work and I can't uninstall firefox
and re-install it because the Internet doesn't work even though I'm
connected.


Thoughts,suggestions,
Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On 11/14/2021 4:55 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

I think it's best to try restoring the 8500 to 11-2-21 to see if it works
and to get the 8500 running again. Then we can make muliple mrimgs
backups for redundancy. In addition, we have the spare bootable HD's
as our ace in the hole.

I don't know why this mrimg got messed up after I updated FF but
somehow it did. Now it doesn't even work and I can't uninstall firefox
and re-install it because the Internet doesn't work even though I'm connected.

Thoughts,suggestions,
Robert

Do not forget that, if you have malware on C: , C: is booted, and then you connect the backup drive, the malware can "see" your MRIMG
files on the backup drive, and it can mess them up. You don't
have ransomware, but if ransomware was on C:, it would overwrite
the MRIMG files.

Boot from the Macrium Rescue CD and do a Verify of the MRIMG.
All of your MRIMGs, were made with pre-Macrium8, so the Rescue CD
should still work with them.

Only if you'd made a Macrium8 backup, and had not made a Rescue CD
yet, would you be in trouble when trying to do a bare-metal restore
to the C: drive.

Keep the materials associated with the 8500, away from the 780.
We don't want that full of crap too :-) Be careful.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On Sun, 14 Nov 2021 at 11:57:10, Robert in CA <magineer02@yahoo.com>
wrote (my responses usually follow points raised):

I moved to Macrium Version 8 because when I
opened Macrium there was a download for it.

Robert

Ah. So you're not booting from the Macrium CD, but using the installed
Macrium on (probably) C:.

[Is this XP? You mentioned the snipping tool - I thought that was
something that came with a Windows later than XP.]
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

One of my tricks as an armchair futurist is to "predict" things that are already happening and watch people tell me it will never happen.
Scott Adams, 2015-3-9

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On 11/14/2021 3:44 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

p.s. I deleted Mister Test (locked)

Robert

I don't know what snippingtool would have to do with it,
except if a fake snippingtool.exe was part of their
exploit entry point. Sometimes the Black Hats replace
legitimate tool executables, with their own code.

Roll to your desired MRIMG, using the Macrium Boot CD.
I presume you've been doing that, but just in case,
I'll suggest that. Connect backup drive, and boot from CD,
then restore over top of C: . Being careful to keep copies of
your email database, bookmarks, or other valuable items
for copying over, later.

A clever Black Hat, upon seeing your backup drive
connected some day, could write stuff into every .mrimg
file. But to do that, would require defeating the
checksum field on the archive. It is always possible,
that the method used to checksum the MRIMG is not
powerful enough, and some methods can be hacked.
For example, MD5 as a checksum, can be hacked in
about 60 seconds of computation, so it is considered
broken if being used to enforce security. It's still a
fine method for less demanding situations (comparing
two large files to see if they're equal). SHA1 is also
suspected of being crack-able, but you might need a lot
of CPUs to do that one. SHA2 (SHA256) is still good,
because if SHA256 were to be cracked, all the Bitcoins
in the world would be worthless :-) Plenty of incentive
to crack that one.

While you could do a "Verify" on the MRIMG files, just
the action of doing a Restore does a verify. If it got
to the end and said "error in archive" or similar, then
you'd know that the checksum failed on it.

You can do a Verify on an MRIMG, from the Macrium Boot CD.
Where it offers options to restore, might be a button to
Verify, which takes about as long as doing a restore takes.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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Yes,

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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I understand why now what you mean with maleware 'seeing'
the mrimgs. but are the instructions using the CD similar to the
original ones you gave me to restore? How do I save my email
database and bookmarks, etc?

I do try and keep the 780 as bare as possible and only have associated
A/V programs etc on it e.g. Avast, malwarebytes and the basic's. I did
add my Bank and Paypal links to it though while the 8500 was still up
and running because for awhile I couldn't access it.


I'll wait till you give me the go ahead or new instructions to restore.

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I just realized that there is nothing to save here so we can proceed.
Just let me know if I need new instructions to restore the mrimg?

I have your old instructions,

https://postimg.cc/SXS07y4p

https://postimg.cc/NLy3xJ3L

https://postimg.cc/nCBNyscJ

https://postimg.cc/68KFt9yG

and so on,... will these get me through OK?


Thanks,
Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/14/2021 8:21 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

I understand why now what you mean with maleware 'seeing'
the mrimgs. but are the instructions using the CD similar to the
original ones you gave me to restore? How do I save my email
database and bookmarks, etc?

I do try and keep the 780 as bare as possible and only have associated
A/V programs etc on it e.g. Avast, malwarebytes and the basic's. I did
add my Bank and Paypal links to it though while the 8500 was still up
and running because for awhile I couldn't access it.

I'll wait till you give me the go ahead or new instructions to restore.

Robert

If you connected the backup drive to the machine, while the
normal OS was running, that could give a malware (such as a
randomware), an opportunity to modify or overwrite materials
on the external disk.

The thing is, the procedures you use, are partly affected
by the "level of threat" presented. I've only ever had
malware on the machine here, in any spectacular fashion,
the one time. As a consequence, I might get lazy, and not
use the safest means of doing backups.

If you find yourself constantly dealing with pests, then
that's a sign you might need to use safer methods of doing
backups. Such as booting the Macrium Rescue CD and doing
a backup from there, onto the external drive. The external
drive is then disconnected, before rebooting into the
normal OS. The problem with that, is you can't really
use the machine while the backup runs. With the less-strict
method of backing up, running the backup using the normal
C: drive as the OS, if a malware was present, it would have
an opportunity to access the external drive. But at the same
time, you could be using Firefox, MSWD, or other tools, while
the backup runs.

*******

Macrium has a limited kind of "File Explorer" onboard. I don't
think this is a Microsoft software, and it would probably drive
you crazy trying to move your email profile onto the backup
drive with it. It is one of the icons in the lower left
corner, when the Macrium CD is booted.

If you make a backup of the *current* C: drive right now,
you can access the MRIMG file later, as if it was a disk drive.
There is a dialog to access the partition(s) stored in a
single MRIMG, you can select the partition(s) from it that
you want, and even assign a custom letter to each mounted
partition. Then navigate to K:\users\rob\Downloads and copy
something from the old C: which is K now, into the new C:
which is labeled C: . The MRIMG can be operated read-only
(but it still is not protected from overwrite at the
storage level though - it can still be attacked). We don't
know (yet), whether the restored C: is clean.

But in any case, that's a way to store your polluted C:
drive in a safe place, is to store it as an MRIMG, carefully
picking a name for the backup, such as "my_infected_8500_C"
so you will always know that the image had issues.

If I had nothing in the room but the Macrium Rescue CD to use,
I would not use their little File Explorer, and instead would
back up the infected C: for later rummaging.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On 11/14/2021 9:00 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

I just realized that there is nothing to save here so we can proceed.
Just let me know if I need new instructions to restore the mrimg?

I have your old instructions,

https://postimg.cc/SXS07y4p

https://postimg.cc/NLy3xJ3L

https://postimg.cc/nCBNyscJ

https://postimg.cc/68KFt9yG

and so on,... will these get me through OK?

Thanks,
Robert

I would not expect it to be substantially different.

I hope you can afford to wait for a bit, because
I can be pretty slow making those.

I take lots of breaks these days :-) Lazy.

The one I made the other day ("Backup"), was made in a virtual machine,
so I'll have to set that up again.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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I now see why/how my system may of got infected because
I wasn't using the Rescue CD all this time. From now on I will and
to that point. Since I will be using it from now on is there a way
to make a copy of the Rescue disk? Just in case? However we
can deal with that after we do a restore.

I can afford to wait but as I said your backup instructions were
too small to read on the 780 15 inch screen. I could read them OK
on the 8500 when I had it running because it has a 32 inch screen.
I can read your older instructions on the 780 because I created
screenshots for each step.

In passing, I tried to install the Windows updates again on the 8500
but this time one at a time but they all failed. I then tired to do the optional
updates and the first one failed but the second is downloading 2
updates (595.5MB) and is at 7% but hasn't budged for hours. I'll
just let it go and see what happens. If it hasn't completed by tomorrow
I'll stop it and save what I can on the patriot drives.

Hopefully we can resolve this soon so I can use the 8500 again and
resume my work.

Thanks,
Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/14/2021 8:21 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

I understand why now what you mean with maleware 'seeing'
the mrimgs. but are the instructions using the CD similar to the
original ones you gave me to restore? How do I save my email
database and bookmarks, etc?

I do try and keep the 780 as bare as possible and only have associated
A/V programs etc on it e.g. Avast, malwarebytes and the basic's. I did
add my Bank and Paypal links to it though while the 8500 was still up
and running because for awhile I couldn't access it.

I'll wait till you give me the go ahead or new instructions to restore.

Robert

Here is a CD Restore film strip, fresh from the oven.

https://i.postimg.cc/rsj7NXqV/Macrium8-CDRestore.gif

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

The updates failed, so whenever your ready lets do
the restore.

I'm going to save as much as I can on the Patriot
flash keys as I can in the meantime.

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/14/2021 8:14 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

Yes,

Robert

The reference to "snippingtool" may have come from Macrium
while a WinPE for a rescue or boot structure was being
prepared. A WinPE would not normally have a snippingtool
in the .WIM file and they probably added one for fun. I
can see the button for snipping, in the lower left
corner of the rescue screen (booted from Macrium 8 CD).

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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Ok,, this is scary as hell but I will proceed.

Let's hope all this works,..

Many thanks,...
Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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I have a question: in the first picture the partition in blue is
the destination correct?

So, In the second picture aren't you pointing to the source
partition?

I assume I only adjust partitions that have a blank /unused area?
Otherwise I leave it alone? btw, I didn't do this the last time I restored.

Thanks,
Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/15/2021 3:25 AM, Robert in CA wrote:

I have a question: in the first picture the partition in blue is
the destination correct?

So, In the second picture aren't you pointing to the source
partition?

I assume I only adjust partitions that have a blank /unused area?
Otherwise I leave it alone? btw, I didn't do this the last time I restored.

Thanks,
Robert

In the second frame of Macrium8-CDRestore.gif, the
upper disk diagram represents the contents of the MRIMG backup.

The bottom disk diagram is meant to hold all of your
destination disks.

In this case, the destination disk has exactly the same
partition setup as the MRIMG backup. The destination disk
also happens to have the same eight digit disk identifier.
That's because this is a backup I had done just ten minutes before.

What I was doing, is restoring the MRIMG, over top of my
C: drive on the originating disk. Thus wiping out my
malware.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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We've got another problem; I put the cd in the drive and restarted
the computer but it doesn't go to the cd. I tried pressing F12 several
times to change to boot sequence but it doesn't respond.

However if I put the cd in the computer, the computer see's it so why
doesn't it activate it during booting?

So I'm stuck again. Is there a way around this ????

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/15/2021 3:18 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

We've got another problem; I put the cd in the drive and restarted
the computer but it doesn't go to the cd. I tried pressing F12 several
times to change to boot sequence but it doesn't respond.

However if I put the cd in the computer, the computer see's it so why
doesn't it activate it during booting?

So I'm stuck again. Is there a way around this ????

Robert

It is possible to remove the optical drive from the boot
order, if you're not careful.

As for getting in, you had some problem in the past, with
pressing the F key while pressing F12. There was
some detail about pressing a modifier key to make
a particular keyboard work. A second keyboard of
yours, worked without complaint.

You can have multiple keyboards connected to a PC if
you want. It will accept key input from them all at
the same time. If one of them has a known-working
F1-F12 row, then use that.

The Insyde BIOS on my laptop, the timing window for
pressing the F2 it uses, is only 1 second wide. It
might take me several tries, to enter the key needed
at the time needed. Your machine should not be that
stingy with the time constant.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
On 15/11/2021 20:18, Robert in CA wrote:

We've got another problem;

You mean you've got a problem? Please clarify.



--
Windows-10: <news://freenews.netfront.net/alt.comp.os.windows-10>
Windows-8: <news://freenews.netfront.net/alt.comp.os.windows-8>
Windows-7: <news://freenews.netfront.net/alt.windows7.general>
Windows XP: <news://freenews.netfront.net/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general>
Windows-XP: <news://freenews.netfront.net/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general>
Firefox: <news://freenews.netfront.net/alt.comp.software.firefox> Thunderbird: <news://freenews.netfront.net/alt.comp.software.thunderbird>

Google Groups: <https://groups.google.com/g/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general>


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<style>
body{font-size:1.2em;color:#900;background-color:#f5f1e4;font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;padding:25px}blockquote{background-color:#eacccc;color:#c16666;font-style:oblique 25deg}.table{display:table}.tr{display:table-row}.td{display:table-cell}
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 15/11/2021 20:18, Robert in CA
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:9c3654dc-38cc-498d-8e7a-63739fe2e4f1n@googlegroups.com">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">We've got another problem;
</pre>
</blockquote>
<p>You mean you've got a problem? Please clarify.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Windows-10: <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="news://freenews.netfront.net/alt.comp.os.windows-10">&lt;news://freenews.netfront.net/alt.comp.os.windows-10&gt;</a>
Windows-8: <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="news://freenews.netfront.net/alt.comp.os.windows-8">&lt;news://freenews.netfront.net/alt.comp.os.windows-8&gt;</a>
Windows-7: <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="news://freenews.netfront.net/alt.windows7.general">&lt;news://freenews.netfront.net/alt.windows7.general&gt;</a>
Windows XP: <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="news://freenews.netfront.net/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general">&lt;news://freenews.netfront.net/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general&gt;</a>
Windows-XP: <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="news://freenews.netfront.net/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general">&lt;news://freenews.netfront.net/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general&gt;</a>
Firefox: <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="news://freenews.netfront.net/alt.comp.software.firefox">&lt;news://freenews.netfront.net/alt.comp.software.firefox&gt;</a>
Thunderbird: <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="news://freenews.netfront.net/alt.comp.software.thunderbird">&lt;news://freenews.netfront.net/alt.comp.software.thunderbird&gt;</a>

Google Groups: <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="https://groups.google.com/g/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general">&lt;https://groups.google.com/g/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general&gt;</a></pre>
</body>
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--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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btw the CD Rescue was still Version 7

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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When I finish I understand I have to remove the cd
before re-booting but don't I also have to hit F12 and
change the boot order back?

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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Operator error,... the F lock wasn't on,.. am in the
process of restoring,..I checked to adjust the partition
but they were identical like in your example
so I didn't do anything but clicked cancel so I had to
start over but everything seems to be going OK. I
selected the 11-1-21 mrimg.

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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I just got a Macrium Reflect pop-up that says

Restore failed - Error 9

The restore was at:
38% overall progress
35% current progress.

I'm going to try again and see if I can get it to work.

Thoughts/suggestions?
Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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After I clicked OK and box closed and on the Macrium screen in
red it says Restore failed - Error 9 - Read failed -2- The system cannot
find the file specified

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On 11/15/2021 6:08 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

I just got a Macrium Reflect pop-up that says

Restore failed - Error 9

The restore was at:
38% overall progress
35% current progress.

I'm going to try again and see if I can get it to work.

Thoughts/suggestions?
Robert

Look into doing a Verify from the CD.

Error 9 is a read error from the Backup drive.

I hope you made a backup of the "broken" setup...
and used the CD while doing so.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On 11/15/2021 5:46 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

When I finish I understand I have to remove the cd
before re-booting but don't I also have to hit F12 and
change the boot order back?

Robert

If you are making permanent modifications to boot
order, you'd put

Floppy [first]
Optical
HDD1
HDD2 [last]

For the removable media drives, they're ignored if no
media is present. HDD1 would then be the boot device.

The Dell BIOS, of course, does everything its own way,
and even in the obvious cases, it doesn't do the
obvious thing. For example, it might be sensitive
to you unplugging HDD2 in the example, and then
trying to boot. It might stop the boot and complain
HDD2 was missing.

I can't promise you anything when it comes to Dell behavior.
It breaks all the well established behaviors of retail
motherboards.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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Mission Control: The Eagle has landed!

The restore completed! I'm now going to remove
the cd and reboot and see how it looks. Let's hope
everything is OK.

Thanks,
Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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In that case, I shouldn't have to do anything because I
selected the cd drive for the boot order so it should still
be as I selected it. Correct

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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Unfortunately , no I didn't make a backup of the
broken setup and I think I missed the verify the
cd portion already.

However, I am trying again an it's at

Overall progress 87%
Current progress 86%

Lets hope this works. If it does, then I would like to
make multiple backups for redundancy.

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/15/2021 7:45 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

In that case, I shouldn't have to do anything because I
selected the cd drive for the boot order so it should still
be as I selected it. Correct

Robert

I would hope it's in the normal part of the order.

But I have seen behaviors, such as a USB boot stick needing
to be "seen" by the BIOS first, before it's allowed to be
in the boot order.

That's why it may take more than one attempt, sometimes, to
get a Dell BIOS to behave.

When the tray is empty, it should be a simple matter to
move down to the HDD in the list and look for the first one
listed there.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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I'm on the 8500 as I write this... at first it didn't seem
like it was going to connect but I gave it a few minutes
and then just like normal it was lighting fast. How I
missed that! I checked and everything is current. whew!!!

So now Ill take a break, so to speak and enjoy the computer
and do some work and then will start making backups mrimgs
using the cd. By the way, how do I safely disconnect the external
hd? This time I just waited till it rebooted and disconnected it.
Is that the norm?

Is there anything else I should do?

Many thanks for all your great help,
Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On 11/15/2021 6:11 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

After I clicked OK and box closed and on the Macrium screen in
red it says Restore failed - Error 9 - Read failed -2- The system cannot
find the file specified

Robert

Is the file really there ?

Is the filename mangled in such a way that it
is not being "passed" to the EXE properly ?

Just as an example, if there is a space character
in a file name, the whole file path may need
double quotes around it.

"C:\Program Files\someProg\some.exe"

In that example, when you put double quotes around
that, in a shell situation, then the software can
see and access the file properly. A program would
do that (without you seeing), as a matter of good practice.

A few keyboard characters would be illegal punctuation
in a filepath. And normally, when you first make a
backup, that would be the time when the software
would tell you not to do that.

Error 9 can also happen when working with Windows 10 NTFS
file systems. Version 7 of Macrium is fixed for that,
and should not cause a fuss. As would a Version 7 Rescue CD,
it should be able to deal with Windows 10 NTFS OK.

But you're on Windows 7, and so no "challenge" is expected
there, and even Macrium 5 would work.

So don't panic -- if an error shows up early like that,
it might be something you can fix. Getting such an error
later... is not good. I've lost two or three MRIMG files
due to my bad RAM sticks, so I've had restores aborted,
at least until I realized I needed to Verify the MRIMG,
to figure out how many MRIMG files were ruined. There's no
reason at the moment, to suspect you have a RAM problem,
as it could cause crashes and you would probably notice.
It's when RAM errors are *only* in low memory, that the
symptoms are very strange.

I don't know how big the file is, but
try copying it and rename it. For example

Win7-Backup-111221-Version-734129.mrimg --- copy to ---+
|
test.mrimg <--------------+

It should not be necessary to do this. And if I was doing
that, I'd copy from one drive to another, to reduce
head clatter. You might not have enough enclosures to
do something like that.

It's too bad the program does not display the filename it
thinks it is accessing, so you could verify what it was
trying to do. That would be the best way, but seldom done
in the software. A person could use Sysinternals Procmon
to record the attempted access, for analysis. I might have
to do something like that here, if I had your Error 9.

I have debugged entire backups with Procmon. The trace file
is 60GB in size, and some of the operations can take hours
to do. I blame some of that on reckless Microsoft. That program
used to work well, a few years back.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I don't know exactly what you mean, that's the WD external
hd with all the mrimgs on it. Are you suggesting to use
one of the spare bootable Win 7 hd's for any new mrimgs?
If so I'll have to set it up and means one less spare hd for the
8500.

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/15/2021 8:10 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

Mission Control: The Eagle has landed!

The restore completed! I'm now going to remove
the cd and reboot and see how it looks. Let's hope
everything is OK.

Thanks,
Robert

Since you know that MRIMG might be worth keeping,
keep the backup drive away from the running
Windows 7 OS, until more is known. In case
you have to restore with the CD a second time,
at some future date.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I just thought, how can I set up a mrimg folder in the PE environment? I
can't, I would have to connect it metal to metal to create the folder. Then when actually creating the Mrimg that's when I would use the cd correct?

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I started running a malwarebytes scan and it found this:

https://postimg.cc/dhwJVZ6r

I ran the san again and came up clean. I'll continue running
all the scans before I create any backups. I also need to make
a new System Restore point.

I had another message when I open the action center to check
for downloads.

https://postimg.cc/LnpsJ83k

https://postimg.cc/YhzCYBd5

There was one important backup that succesfully installed - the
malicious tool removal I think. I'm a bit leery of checking for
updates to FF considering what happened last time so I don't think
I'll go there just yet.

So far everything seems OK,

We'll found out what happens when I make a mrimg 'test' backup

Thoughts/suggestions?
Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/15/2021 8:31 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

I'm on the 8500 as I write this... at first it didn't seem
like it was going to connect but I gave it a few minutes
and then just like normal it was lighting fast. How I
missed that! I checked and everything is current. whew!!!

So now Ill take a break, so to speak and enjoy the computer
and do some work and then will start making backups mrimgs
using the cd. By the way, how do I safely disconnect the external
hd? This time I just waited till it rebooted and disconnected it.
Is that the norm?

Is there anything else I should do?

Many thanks for all your great help,
Robert

Most people would use Safely Remove icon for USB devices
in the lower right corner.

But waiting for the PC to shut down, then when the computer
is quiet, remove power from the drive enclosure and pull
the USB out, that should be a very safe way as well.

I find that WinXP had excellent table manners in this regard.
It knew how to flush and put away hardware properly. On later
OSes here, after doing a safely remove, my SSD-on-adapter device
records a "dirty shutdown", which means the Safely Remove sequence
isn't working properly. It's possibly an SSD issue, rather than
NTFS being corrupted. I don't like the SSD to be seeing
stuff like that though. There is no way to know what risks
I am taking. That's why, for that SSD device, I shut down
the computer and remove it. I have lots of other toys here (HDD),
that would not be so picky.

You had a problem previously, where Safely Remove could not
complete, because the volumes refused to dismount, and that
was potentially traceable to NTFS Transactional TXP support.
And we had to do that crazy offline/online stuff as a
workaround. What that protocol does, on the file system,
is supports atomic commit on write. You write a bunch of data.
The data is only acknowledged, when a single bit is flipped.
That's the "atomic" aspect. It is either like the data does
not exist, then when the bit is flipped, the whole chunk of
data is acknowledged. Macrium seemed to be clicking the button
for that, about two times per second. I could hear something
weird here on my backups, when there should not have been
such a sound effect present. Something related to directories
was going on, and it might have been TXP.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Just thought you'd like to see the complete screen.

https://postimg.cc/FdR8D8Xs

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/15/2021 9:27 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

I don't know exactly what you mean, that's the WD external
hd with all the mrimgs on it. Are you suggesting to use
one of the spare bootable Win 7 hd's for any new mrimgs?
If so I'll have to set it up and means one less spare hd for the
8500.

Robert

# Most of the time, you want the external to be disconnected,
# so malware cannot ruin the MRIMG files on the external.

Regular Win7 C: booted X----External enclosure disconnected

*******

# If you boot the Macrium CD, now is the time to have the
# external drive connected. Since the CD is booted, we hope
# that no malware managed to sneak on the CD during its creation.

CD booted-------+
|
Win7 C: resting ------ Comp -------External enclosure connected
and ready for bkp

Doing it this way, is the "next level of security". It's
a nuisance, but if you're getting one infection after
another, maybe you have to do the backups this way.

And all that this scheme does, is prevent the malware from
actively scribbling over the external drive surface. The
Win7 C: drive can still have malware on it, you can still
back up the malware, you can still restore it. But since you
disconnect the External before booting Windows 7, then anything
nasty on Win 7 C: can't damage the External.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/15/2021 10:49 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

Just thought you'd like to see the complete screen.

https://postimg.cc/FdR8D8Xs

Robert

Your restore happened at USB2 rates or 35MB/sec or so.
Just dividing the amount of data, by the number of seconds.

241,790,000,000 bytes
---------------
6821 seconds

The Rescue CD, the label on the window says it was
done with WinPE 3.0. The next time you prepare a Rescue
CD, try WinPE 5.0 or WinPE 10.0, instead of WinPE 3.0.
This would include a USB3 driver, to get a bit more speed
from your external enclosure (assuming all the things
in the path are USB3 of course). The last one I made,
I used WinPE 5.0 I think.

The 780 likely doesn't have USB3 and it is more
likely to be USB2 only (black). The 8500 might have
some blue USB3 ports (in a picture, I see two black
and two blue, and the blue are the ones you want).
That could cut a bit of time off your restores,
the blue port plus a differently prepared CD.

Macrium doesn't go all that fast, relatively speaking,
so going much faster than that would not help. The Blue
connector and a disc with the right driver, is enough
hardware to throw at it. Maybe someone with a real
racer computer could test that for us.

Black connector = 35MB/sec or so (what happened in your picture was 35)
Blue connector = 500MB/sec class (Macrium can benefit a little bit)
(HW ranges 200 to 430 maybe, Macrium =~ 125)
Red connector = 1000MB/sec class
USB-C tiny = 2x1000MB/sec class
Thunderbolt/USB4 Higher (Rather obscure stuff :-) )

So there's no verify error apparent in the success dialog.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/15/2021 9:22 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

I started running a malwarebytes scan and it found this:

https://postimg.cc/dhwJVZ6r

I ran the san again and came up clean. I'll continue running
all the scans before I create any backups. I also need to make
a new System Restore point.

I had another message when I open the action center to check
for downloads.

https://postimg.cc/LnpsJ83k

https://postimg.cc/YhzCYBd5

There was one important backup that succesfully installed - the
malicious tool removal I think. I'm a bit leery of checking for
updates to FF considering what happened last time so I don't think
I'll go there just yet.

So far everything seems OK,

We'll found out what happens when I make a mrimg 'test' backup

Thoughts/suggestions?
Robert

Regarding: https://postimg.cc/YhzCYBd5

My WER Queue folder had a bunch of stuff in it.

So I'm guessing my WER service on Windows 7 isn't able to contact
Microsoft either.

I saved about 3GB of stuff, by cleaning out that folder.

Since Windows 7 is beyond the support period, perhaps
they no longer care to receive the reports. Which is a
bad attitude, since they should collect every scrap of
intelligence available, and let the computers sort it out.
Nobody expects clicking that button, for any sort of
intelligence to come back from Microsoft.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I just had a thought,... after were done with all of this and have our
backup mrimgs in place would it be possible to get a card for the 780
with blue USB ports like we upgraded the 8200, remember? So that the
780 would have 3.0 USB ports as well?

Would it be possible to also add the same tab slots as the 8500 has?
That use the thin flash drives in cameras.

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Agreed.

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I made a new System Restore point, and ran all the scans,
although I didn't check FF because of what happened last
time I did that.

When would I prepare a Rescue CD? Can I make one now?

Correct the 780 has only black USB ports but the 8500 has blue,
it has allot more in the back as well and on top.


Back to your thought of keeping the WD external hd
separate from the 8500 I understand what you mean now.
Separate from maleware by using the cd, correct?

Now that I know to use the cd, I propose to create (3)
mrimgs on the WD external hd. By using the cd they'll
be protected so any maleware can't 'see' them.

What do you think?

btw were you saying there suppose to be a safe disconnect
in the PE environment? When I connected the external hd
I didn't see the same pop-up that I see when it's metal to metal.
I had to look for it. It was the D: drive and didn't say anything
else just D: Maybe I have to right click the letter D: to disconnect?

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Should I turn on Real Time Protection or is this just another
way of them trying to get me to buy premium?

https://postimg.cc/4mCqTRL7

All is good so I'm about to do a mrimg backup with the cd of
course.

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I started the backup with cd, in passing I checked online
and there doesn't seem to be a way to safety disconnect
the USB cable from the PE environment so again I waited
till it logged off. However, I digress.

It got to the point where it asked for the destination but it
didn't recognize the previous drive I: because I had been
using the online version of Macrium (the one I changed to V8)
So I searched for the drive again and the mrimg folder and
selected it but then it skipped all your instructions and went
straight to downloading! The next step should of been un- ticking
full and differential backup boxes then select save and enter the
name for the backup.

https://postimg.cc/xkQZ7wRG

It came back with the message not enough space. How can that
be when we just used up a mrimg and one before that? I have two
mrimg folders on the WD external hd; one in the User Account
(nothing in it) and one in the Admin Account. It should be going to
the Admin Account but I tried both with the same message

https://postimg.cc/ykBSDnvQ

Also, I had to use the F12 again because the boot order is set and I
can't seem to change it.

So what am I doing wrong?

Thoughts/suggestions?
Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/16/2021 1:10 AM, Robert in CA wrote:

I just had a thought,... after were done with all of this and have our
backup mrimgs in place would it be possible to get a card for the 780
with blue USB ports like we upgraded the 8200, remember? So that the
780 would have 3.0 USB ports as well?

Would it be possible to also add the same tab slots as the 8500 has?
That use the thin flash drives in cameras.

Robert

Yes, there are add-in USB3 cards for PCs. But your 780 has
some limitations, so we cannot "select the finest of the lot" :-)

The original NEC chip based one, supports back to
WinXP. That's what I used on the WinXP setup until it died.

The Asmedia chips, support Win7 or later.

Custom USB3 drivers are required for Windows 7. Later
OSes W8/W10/W11 don't need USB3 drivers. The reason this
is so, is the register interfaces on USB3 hardware follow
standards, and the Microsoft in-box driver can handle the standard
Class driver needs.

Generally for a Windows 7 user, you have to verify that the
chip on the add-in card in question has drivers, because they're
pretty stingy with drivers now. For example, Asmedia contracts
with MCCI to write their drivers for them, so there is something
for a Win7 user to use. At some point, companies like
Asmedia will stop including Win7 drivers.

*******

There are tray-mount USB devices to add SD/MMC slots to
a computer. Then, run a cable down inside the machine,
to a ten pin USB header. You have to check that a
header for this is present, before buying the device.

Some card readers fit the floppy drive hole on the machine.
Some include an adapter so it fits in a 5.25" drive bay.

As the speed of card media increases (95MB/sec on a UHS-I SD),
the interface cable on the card reader changes. And such
a card reader would have a USB3 cable on it. The 780 for
example, would not have a header to install such a thing.
When you buy the USB add-in card, sometimes those have
an internal header for connecting a "toy" to with internal
cabling. Thus, the two upgrade projects can potentially
be coupled to one another - shocking.

I think the fast SDs, can run at slower speeds. So if you
do buy a USB2 card reader (and the 780 had a header for it),
the plugged in SD can't go faster than 35MB/sec. Even if it
is a 95MB/sec SD.

Example of a card reader with options for faster cards. USB3.
Fitted with USB3 header.

https://www.startech.com/en-us/hdd/35fcreadbu3

https://sgcdn.startech.com/005329/media/sets/35fcreadbu3_manual/35fcreadbu3_card_reader_manual.pdf

https://www.newegg.com/p/09Z-01R9-00008 $37 USD

I'd expected better of the manual. I will draw my own circuit then.

USB3 ----------------------- to faceplate blue USB3
20 pin
female ----- Realtek --------- SDXC UHSII
RTS5321 --------- CF
--------- MS etc

It is the size of a floppy drive, but I can find no
pictures of the floppy mounting holes.

It would also be normal, to give the pinout of
the 20 pin USB3 cable, for verification before use.
USB3 has nine pins per channel, two USB3 is 18 pins
plus an additional ground, plus a missing pin used
for keying. The blocked keying pin allows only one
rotation of the connector to fit.

You cannot stick a USB card in the 780 x16 slot. The
BIOS will reject that (although other brands allow it).
You have to use one of the x1 slots, which means you cannot
fit an x2 Asmedia card in a 780. The Asmedia card sums the
bandwidth of two lanes, for better high-end performance.

Here is a 4-Port card, with two of the ports arranged
so the card reader can plug in with the internal cabling.

VANTEC 4-Port SuperSpeed USB 3.0 PCIe Host Card w/ Internal 20-Pin UGT-PC345 $35

https://www.newegg.com/vantec-model-ugt-pc345-pci-express-to-usb-card/p/N82E16815287019

https://vantecusa.com/products_detail.php?p_id=125&p_name=

Renesas uDP720201 # A NEC USB3, unexpected (works in WinXP)

# Use the driver CD in your Win7 OS

https://vantecusa.com/CKEdit/images/files/ugt-pc345_manual.pdf

Verification the chip is 4 Port. Some addin cards pull tricks
and use a 2 Port chip, and it can be "flipped" to the front or
the back but not both. This is why the chippage must be checked,
to see that a legit solution is being used. The pictures
are not of sufficient quality to visually verify a lack of
shenanigans, so we use the chip spec as a check instead.

https://www.renesas.com/us/en/products/interface-connectivity/usb-switches-hubs/upd720201-usb-30-host-controller

Use anti-static precautions when handling these goods.
Some chips are better than others at ESD protection. This
is a NEC/Renesas, so we're more careful with it :-) Power off the
780, wear summer shorts, sit the PC in your lap while
installing the items.

NEC changed their name, roughly around the time the USB3 chip
was released. Their new name is Renesas, and they're Japanese.
NEC has quite a history of silicon design, although not a lot
of people had heard of them. Their chip catalog was pretty big
and varied (ATM switching chips).

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/16/2021 1:28 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

I started the backup with cd, in passing I checked online
and there doesn't seem to be a way to safety disconnect
the USB cable from the PE environment so again I waited
till it logged off. However, I digress.

It got to the point where it asked for the destination but it
didn't recognize the previous drive I: because I had been
using the online version of Macrium (the one I changed to V8)
So I searched for the drive again and the mrimg folder and
selected it but then it skipped all your instructions and went
straight to downloading! The next step should of been un- ticking
full and differential backup boxes then select save and enter the
name for the backup.

https://postimg.cc/xkQZ7wRG

It came back with the message not enough space. How can that
be when we just used up a mrimg and one before that? I have two
mrimg folders on the WD external hd; one in the User Account
(nothing in it) and one in the Admin Account. It should be going to
the Admin Account but I tried both with the same message

https://postimg.cc/ykBSDnvQ

Also, I had to use the F12 again because the boot order is set and I
can't seem to change it.

So what am I doing wrong?

Thoughts/suggestions?
Robert

I can't tell from here.

It probably isn't a permissions problem. Sometimes, it will
complain if you write into the root (top level) of a partition.

All you can do, is verify the I: letter you selected, actually
has the space left that you think it has.

You can do that, while booted with the Macrium CD. You use the
File Explorer icon from the task bar in the Macrium Rescue session.

[Picture]

https://i.postimg.cc/zfGn0GHR/Macrium-CD-Space-Left-Check.gif

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Wow, I never expected so much information!

The external card readers sound interesting but I wouldn't really
be gaining anything and I really don't want to clutter up the 780.
The 4 ports look wild, I've never seen anything like them before.
On second thought, it's probably best not to mess around with
the 780.

Well, it was just a thought. Actually when the 8500 is operating
normally the wait time isn't so bad. It's when it's acting up it takes
forever to load anything.

I may find the space and all but it doesn't explain why it skipped
over all the instructions. Should I try it again?

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I tried it again. I had to use F12 again to initiate the cd and I deleted
(3) 2016 mrimgs to give me enough space.

https://postimg.cc/K1FymC7C

https://postimg.cc/TLKzkxG5

Again it skipped all the procedures and went immediately into the update.
It almost finished but ran out of space again.

https://postimg.cc/v4c902kx

https://postimg.cc/47JxSmy2

https://postimg.cc/5XxKjJHd

https://postimg.cc/T5MCxv8s

https://postimg.cc/n9FTrYzK

https://postimg.cc/BXwNZFGD

Then I remembered the external hd was one of the bootable hd's and thus
has all my folders/files on it besides the mrimgs. So I want to attach it again
via cd and go in with Explorer and delete the last 2016 mrimg and as many files as I can to free up space since they aren't needed.

I hope it works this time, but I wonder about monthly backups now

Thoughts/suggestions
Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I deleted the last 2016 mrimg and then went in to the User Account
and deleted as many of the folders files as I could one by one.


I then started the update; its running now,...

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/16/2021 9:55 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

Wow, I never expected so much information!

The external card readers sound interesting but I wouldn't really
be gaining anything and I really don't want to clutter up the 780.
The 4 ports look wild, I've never seen anything like them before.
On second thought, it's probably best not to mess around with
the 780.

Well, it was just a thought. Actually when the 8500 is operating
normally the wait time isn't so bad. It's when it's acting up it takes forever to load anything.

I may find the space and all but it doesn't explain why it skipped
over all the instructions. Should I try it again?

Robert

Making the backup ?

I think just for the purpose of writing up
your own backup notes, it would be worthwhile
solving it.

At the same time, you can work on improving the
transfer performance. As the 8500 has USB3 and
with the right Rescue CD you should be able to
make it go faster. Quite a few of the disk
enclosures will manage 200MB/sec before they
run out of steam. And that's plenty for poor ole
Macrium. It does 125MB/sec if the wind is blowing
in the right direction.

*******

The only time I don't like add-in cards, is
when all the slots are full, and I have to
swap one card for another type, for an experiment.
That gets tired pretty quickly.

You may be able to find a cheaper add-in card for
USB3. That was just the first one I could find with
the right port setup for you.

And since the card reader used a RealTek chip, that
product offering could stand to be a bit cheaper too.
A thing like that should be $15, if these were
normal times. There are USB2 and USB3 card reader
products. You only want a USB3 one, if your cards
and cameras are the faster kind, and you have acquired
a gigantic collections of pictures. My 32GB card only
dumps at 10MB/sec and a USB2 reader (what I've got)
is fine for that. As it'll do up to 35MB/sec, if the
cards were good enough.

The next version of SD will be the interesting one.
The interface will be based on PCI Express, so the little
cards will "smoke"... if they put good flash in them.
It remains to be seen if anyone will make a really
good SD that way.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Success!

https://postimg.cc/p9WcRWK7

Its after 2AM ,..... will respond tomorrow

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/17/2021 5:11 AM, Robert in CA wrote:

Success!

https://postimg.cc/p9WcRWK7

Its after 2AM ,..... will respond tomorrow

Robert

Well, the "Explorer" icon on the lower-left in
Macrium Rescue CD screen, is your friend, and
will help with the space management. At least
to the extent a single number can help you
(like, figure out whether you'd done cleanup
recently or not).

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I almost messed everything up today..

I went back in the PE environment because I wanted to take
a look at the properties of the external hd and see how much
free space I had left.

https://postimg.cc/xNSxLJ12

https://postimg.cc/0zNtGqPb

https://postimg.cc/G4SXqSmz


Unfortunately, when I removed the cd and logged off and removed
the usb cables I didn't remember to shut the external hd off when I disconnected it's power cable!

So I reloaded the cd to check and see if there was a problem and I
got an error screen message saying it couldn't proceed because it had
been interrupted with the USB cable being pulled while it was still
active. I had a screenshot of this but for some reason none of the pictures were on the camera memory card when I uploaded them?

Anyways, I noticed I had used the 2016 rescue disk so I decided to try
my 2018 (which is the one we have been using) and thankfully it loaded
and then I disconnected everything and this time made sure I turned the
power off! Whew that was close! I actually went back in twice because there were no pictures. So I know it works.

Anyways, it appears I will have to delete several mrimgs for any new
mrimgs and I think a larger external hd is indicated so I can do monthly backups. Will a larger hd fit the Startech case? What do you think of this one?

https://www.newegg.com/seagate-desktop-hdd-st6000dm001-6tb/p/N82E16822178783

Would we be able to fit inside the 8500 after cloning it to make it bootable but actually we don't need or want it to be bootable do we? Its sole purpose would be an external hd.

In addition, I keep getting these malwarebytes real time protection pop-up's all the time. Is that their way of wanting me to subscribe to premium and is there a way to turn it off?

https://postimg.cc/hXSGpp5J

Thanks,
Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I just noticed something else, when on eBay and
I click an item to view and I click to enlarge it
there's a circle as if still loading the picture.

I restarted the computer but its still there.

I checked the 780 and it does it on it also.

Everything else seems fine though. Is this an eBay
issue?


Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/18/2021 5:24 AM, Robert in CA wrote:

I just noticed something else, when on eBay and
I click an item to view and I click to enlarge it
there's a circle as if still loading the picture.

I restarted the computer but its still there.

I checked the 780 and it does it on it also.

Everything else seems fine though. Is this an eBay
issue?

Robert

It could be.

If you have an example to share, post it and
someone can test it.

There is a *lot* of weird behavior on web pages
these days. Like yesterday, my Seamonkey browser,
I was having trouble getting the interface to respond,
and the CPU was not railed. But, it was using
a lot of RAM, and had hit a RAM limit. Removing
known-bad (tenforums.com) tabs from the browser,
fixed that. The advertising on that site is
quite aggressive.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On 11/17/2021 5:10 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

I almost messed everything up today..

I went back in the PE environment because I wanted to take
a look at the properties of the external hd and see how much
free space I had left.

https://postimg.cc/xNSxLJ12

https://postimg.cc/0zNtGqPb

https://postimg.cc/G4SXqSmz

Unfortunately, when I removed the cd and logged off and removed
the usb cables I didn't remember to shut the external hd off when I disconnected it's power cable!

So I reloaded the cd to check and see if there was a problem and I
got an error screen message saying it couldn't proceed because it had
been interrupted with the USB cable being pulled while it was still
active. I had a screenshot of this but for some reason none of the pictures were on the camera memory card when I uploaded them?

Anyways, I noticed I had used the 2016 rescue disk so I decided to try
my 2018 (which is the one we have been using) and thankfully it loaded
and then I disconnected everything and this time made sure I turned the
power off! Whew that was close! I actually went back in twice because there were no pictures. So I know it works.

Anyways, it appears I will have to delete several mrimgs for any new
mrimgs and I think a larger external hd is indicated so I can do monthly backups. Will a larger hd fit the Startech case? What do you think of this one?

https://www.newegg.com/seagate-desktop-hdd-st6000dm001-6tb/p/N82E16822178783

Would we be able to fit inside the 8500 after cloning it to make it bootable but actually we don't need or want it to be bootable do we? Its sole purpose would be an external hd.

In addition, I keep getting these malwarebytes real time protection pop-up's all the time. Is that their way of wanting me to subscribe to premium and is there a way to turn it off?

https://postimg.cc/hXSGpp5J

Thanks,
Robert

The Malwarebytes dialog label says "Trial", so it thinks it is running
in Trial mode at the moment. Would this be a function of
having been restored from a backup ?

As for the Startech case, you will have to check the advert
for the case and its model number, to see what the "max capacity" is.

They typically verify max size by testing the device. Rather
than the firmware having some limit that is well known. There
have been some pretty weird limits on enclosures at times,
leading me to question the sanity of the firmware developers :-)

So the idea is, you make an enclosure for disks, you test with
a 2TB drive. It works. The advert then says "works with 2TB drives".
OK, a year passes. Seagate makes a 4TB drive. In the lab, you plug
it in. It works! You update the advert for the product to
read "works with 4TB drives".

Does anyone go back, and test all the old products with a new
18TB drive ? Apparently not.

You have to check:

Advert
Customer reviews "I stuck a 10TB drive and it worked!"

You would need the Newegg reviews for the Startech case for that.

As for the drives, the one inch high drives are a popular
height standard.

The buying experience could be like this...

buy new 6TB drive
doesn't work in case
buy new external enclosure that does take 6TB drives

I haven't had a problem with my 6TB drives here. And that's
the largest I stock. 8TB and higher might be Helium, which
runs a bit cooler.

*******

Have you looked at the contents of what you're archiving ?

I can usually shave 200GB off mine, with some number of
hours of cleaning effort. Every little bit helps. For
some of my big files, the naming convention is like this.

mybigfile__eraseme.ext

If a file has the word "eraseme", and it is Backup Day,
then I run through the drive and erase those. These are
temporary files, only valuable for three days or so. That
is one way that I manage my "cleanup". This relies on me
knowing in advance, that the files are only temporary.

*******

I manage my space a bit, with 7ZIP compression. But I'm not
recommending that for you, as there is a lot of manual
handling that is just not worth it. It takes hours
moving stuff around, compressing and expanding stuff,
and it's more trouble than it is worth. But if you asked
"how could I store more MRIMG on my 2TB drive", that is
how you would do it. To compress every MRIMG on one of
my backup drives here, costs around $1 worth of electricity.
Just in case you were wondering whether everything
done on a computer "was free" :-) Compression costs money.
Compression is one of the few things, where the cost finally
adds up to a dollar.

The new computer is better on electricity. The compression
there costs $0.50 :-) Almost free.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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As far as malwarebtyes pop-up I don't know if
this is caused by the restore? I don't recall what
we did if anything last time to stop it from
popping up. Maybe we re-installed malwarebytes?
I can't remember. Maybe it will stop after the trial
ends and I re-start it again?

From what you say, I think in addition to a 5TB HD
we should also buy a new case for it just to make
sure. Could you please recommend some for the 5TB
Seagate?

I have a basic idea of what I'm archiving and I went
in the external and shaved off all I could. Also, I have
been going through the 8500 and deleting folders/files
that I don't need or use anymore.

btw with this last mrimg I decided to start numbering
them as well so it will make them easier to track and
us to refer to.

Sorry, I forgot to provide you with an example of the
circle on eBay. Here you go:

https://postimg.cc/WdBFXcFM

Isn't that strange? It was there yesterday also. I agree there
is allot of strange behavior. On news stories lately I see little
lions, bears in the corner.

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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I meant 6TB hd of course.

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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I just got a pop-up for an update to Macrium
V7.3 .6391 not V8 ! So I downloaded it even
though were using the cd.

https://postimg.cc/p9nVTsZk

btw can we create a new rescue media cd so it's
more current? How do I do it?

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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I need to keep allot of data e.g., jpeg files for my research and
study of smoking pipes which has taken 40+ years to accumulate.
So I have allot of folders and files on the subject and I need them
and to refer back to them all the time. That's mainly why the mrimg
is so big. I can't delete any of those!

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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That version was version 8! not 7.3

Well, it doesn't really matter since we use the cd
and it's version 7 but why would they label it 7.3
when it was v8?

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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I checked the 780 and it has v8 but also an update for it.
I decided not to download it since were doing everything
off of cd now.

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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Understood, but what about the 780? It has V8 and the
pending update? We haven't done anything in the PE
environment there. So should I download the V8 update
or what?

It seems like it's best not to update Macrium though but
isn't it a mute point with the cd? Is there a way to turn off
updates or what's the best course of action? I'm confused
with using the the cd's and updating the online Macrium.

What about recommendations for external cases for the
6TB hd? I looked but am totally lost. I still have some
Startech cases:

https://www.newegg.com/startech-sat3510bu3-others/p/N82E16817707227

Here's some we looked at before:

https://www.newegg.com/rosewill-rx304-apu3-35b/p/N82E16817182316

https://www.startech.com/en-ca/hdd/s3510bmu33

Thoughts/suggestions

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On 11/18/2021 7:32 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

I checked the 780 and it has v8 but also an update for it.
I decided not to download it since were doing everything
off of cd now.

Robert

You restored over top of the previous C: .

In the previous C: , you installed Macrium 8.

Then, you booted the Macrium 7 CD to restore
a Macrium 7 MRIMG, containing an older C by a
few days.

In that older C, the Version 8 is no longer installed
and the version is now an older version again. Thus,
if an older version wants to update itself, it could
propose an older version or a newer version.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On 11/18/2021 4:19 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

As far as malwarebtyes pop-up I don't know if
this is caused by the restore? I don't recall what
we did if anything last time to stop it from
popping up. Maybe we re-installed malwarebytes?
I can't remember. Maybe it will stop after the trial
ends and I re-start it again?

From what you say, I think in addition to a 5TB HD
we should also buy a new case for it just to make
sure. Could you please recommend some for the 5TB
Seagate?

I have a basic idea of what I'm archiving and I went
in the external and shaved off all I could. Also, I have
been going through the 8500 and deleting folders/files
that I don't need or use anymore.

btw with this last mrimg I decided to start numbering
them as well so it will make them easier to track and
us to refer to.

Sorry, I forgot to provide you with an example of the
circle on eBay. Here you go:

https://postimg.cc/WdBFXcFM

Isn't that strange? It was there yesterday also. I agree there
is allot of strange behavior. On news stories lately I see little
lions, bears in the corner.

Robert

OK, I visit the Ebay.ca page, and the colored squares with Smartphone
or Laptop or Video games icons, that is known as a "Banner Carousel".

There is a button to stop the Carousel moving, in the lower right corner
of the Carousel.

If you move your mouse to the top of the Firefox window and pretend to
move the window around, and the Carousel is in "play mode", the Carousel
moves rapidly horizontally.

If you manage to put the Carousel in "stop mode", the Carousel should not
move, even if you grab the window at the top via the title bar.

The Carousel is implemented as a WAI-ARIA player. It is intended as a
form of support for blind people with screen readers. When that Carousel
is thrashing about, a blind person with a screen reader is supposed to
receive a fairly intelligent voice-over description of what the hell
is going on :-)

Now, from your point of view, the question would be, how could you disable WAI-ARIA (Web Accessibility Initiative - Accessible Rich Internet Applications) support on the browser, making a tiny difference to CPU load.

The white circle is a "throbber", for when the WAI-ARIA player is "busy".
Now, I caught a very brief glimpse, maybe a frame or two on my screen,
of the throbber and then it disappeared and hasn't been back.

If you open a separate Firefox window and do

about:performance

and click the More button under one of the busy pages, you can get
some idea how much of the machine is tied up with unnecessary stuff.
For example, if I open a tenforums.com tutorial web page, I have to
close it, because it sucks the life out of the computer. And presumably,
in "about:performance", I would be alerted there, as to the high usage.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Accessibility/WAI-ARIA_basics

They don't say anything about the Throbber circle though. So it must be something else. It turns out there are an infinite number of those
throbber designs, and any yokel could borrow one and use it on a web page.
I can't be sure the carousel is doing it. In any case, click the button
on the lower right of the carousel area, and see if it stops moving.

*******

This Rosewill is out of stock (has a fan)

https://www.newegg.com/global/uk-en/rosewill-rx-358-u3c-blk/p/N82E16817182247

The Nexstar is an option. Tested with 16TB drive.

https://vantecusa.com/CKEdit/images/files/NST-387S3-BK-QIG.pdf

https://vantecusa.com/products_detail.php?p_id=260#tab-3

"VANTEC NexStar HX NST-387S3-BK Aluminum / ABS Plastic 3.5" Enclosure USB 3.0 With Fan" $43

https://www.newegg.com/vantec-nst-387s3-bk-enclosure/p/N82E16817392118

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On Thursday, November 18, 2021 at 9:02:09 PM UTC-8, Robert in CA wrote:

I just realized that the next time I do mrimg backups I'll be using
the cd on the 780 and it will change Macrium back to version 7
as you described but sooner or later it will have another update
pop-up again, do I just ignore it? or do we just keep resetting V8
or V9 back to V7 every time we restore. or should we create a v8

I meant 'every time we do a backup' of course.

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On 11/18/2021 10:11 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

Understood, but what about the 780? It has V8 and the
pending update? We haven't done anything in the PE
environment there. So should I download the V8 update
or what?

It seems like it's best not to update Macrium though but
isn't it a mute point with the cd? Is there a way to turn off
updates or what's the best course of action? I'm confused
with using the the cd's and updating the online Macrium.

The backups made with the CD, can be restored with the CD.

If the OS backup is older, like V7, then the V8 CD can
restore it. If the OS backup was ahead (in some future year)
and was V9, then the V8 CD might not restore it. But
I don't know what the official policy is of Macrium, as
their feature set hasn't changed too much for a few
releases. Full, incremental, differential, incremental_forever.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/18/2021 10:11 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

Understood, but what about the 780? It has V8 and the
pending update? We haven't done anything in the PE
environment there. So should I download the V8 update
or what?

It seems like it's best not to update Macrium though but
isn't it a mute point with the cd? Is there a way to turn off
updates or what's the best course of action? I'm confused
with using the the cd's and updating the online Macrium.

What about recommendations for external cases for the
6TB hd? I looked but am totally lost. I still have some
Startech cases:

https://www.newegg.com/startech-sat3510bu3-others/p/N82E16817707227

Here's some we looked at before:

https://www.newegg.com/rosewill-rx304-apu3-35b/p/N82E16817182316

https://www.startech.com/en-ca/hdd/s3510bmu33

Thoughts/suggestions

Robert

There's a Nexstar in my previous post. The fan is 60mm and the
smaller the fan gets, the more noisy it gets.

*******

The Nexstar is an option. Tested with 16TB drive.

https://vantecusa.com/CKEdit/images/files/NST-387S3-BK-QIG.pdf

https://vantecusa.com/products_detail.php?p_id=260#tab-3

"VANTEC NexStar HX NST-387S3-BK Aluminum / ABS Plastic 3.5" Enclosure USB 3.0 With Fan" $43

https://www.newegg.com/vantec-nst-387s3-bk-enclosure/p/N82E16817392118

*******

At first, I thought I could select a low-power drive, then select
an enclosure without a fan, but that just didn't work out. You really
have to select an enclosure first, then when the drive choices aren't
the best, you can select whatever is best without worrying about
the enclosure.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I just realized that the next time I do mrimg backups I'll be using
the cd on the 780 and it will change Macrium back to version 7
as you described but sooner or later it will have another update
pop-up again, do I just ignore it? or do we just keep resetting V8
or V9 back to V7 every time we restore. or should we create a v8
cd? I just don't want to keep dealing with online updates if were
using the cd. It doesn't seem to make any point to me
yet we have to have Macrium online correct?

Hmmm, my eBay link doesn't have anything like a carousel. I went
to eBay.ca and I still couldn't see what your describing?

https://postimg.cc/3WKHLzxM

Would it help if I gave you my normal link to ebay? Actually I have
allot of them.

I did the about:performance

https://postimg.cc/YvN3yDSV

The Vantec Necstar it is but it sounds tricky mounting it on the rails
once the drive is installed. I need a very quite fan but of course this
is only for creating mrimgs. so it won't be on all the time. I couldn't
handle that. That's why I use Seagate hd's and they've proven to be
very reliable..

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/19/2021 12:02 AM, Robert in CA wrote:

I just realized that the next time I do mrimg backups I'll be using
the cd on the 780 and it will change Macrium back to version 7
as you described but sooner or later it will have another update
pop-up again, do I just ignore it? or do we just keep resetting V8
or V9 back to V7 every time we restore. or should we create a v8
cd? I just don't want to keep dealing with online updates if were
using the cd. It doesn't seem to make any point to me
yet we have to have Macrium online correct?

Hmmm, my eBay link doesn't have anything like a carousel. I went
to eBay.ca and I still couldn't see what your describing?

https://postimg.cc/3WKHLzxM

Would it help if I gave you my normal link to ebay? Actually I have
allot of them.

I did the about:performance

https://postimg.cc/YvN3yDSV

The Vantec Necstar it is but it sounds tricky mounting it on the rails
once the drive is installed. I need a very quite fan but of course this
is only for creating mrimgs. so it won't be on all the time. I couldn't handle that. That's why I use Seagate hd's and they've proven to be
very reliable..

Robert

The reddish-pink section of your picture, is the carousel.
The parallel bars on the right, are the "Pause" button, to tell
the carousel to stop horizontal scrolling. The thing becomes
agitated and moves more rapidly, if you attempt to access the title bar
area at the top of the browser. Using the "Pause" button, should
stop the carousel from moving, no matter where the mouse goes.
Pressing the "Pause" button a second time, allows the carousel to
continue with its antics again.

*******

You don't have to worry too much, about the version of
Macrium restored to the drive. If V7 is restored, it might
pester you to upgrade, and it's an arbitrary decision if you
do it. If the OS version is V8, then any backup it happened to
make, would work.

Any time you change versions, there is always a possibility of
some version-related issues later. You have to decide how you
want to run your operation, like standardize on a version
for best results.

I haven't been too successful with that here, as I have maybe
five CDs and I label all the backups with the version number
they were made with. This ensures I boot the correct CD on
the first try, when doing restores. I was doing the odd restore,
back when the RAM went bad on my computer. Well, now the
motherboard is dead on that thing, so the RAM no longer
is a concern :-)

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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I went back to ebay.ca and clicked the lower right parallel
bars and it changed it to an arrow but it didn't stop the circle.
I went back to ebay.ca and the parallel bars had returned.

This is one of my usual ebay pages and is allot different:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/Estate-/4119/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=sasieni&_sop=10

You can click any item and click to enlarge and see if you get the
circle on your side. Then its an eBay issue for sure even though I tested
it also on the 780 and its doing it there as well. So that makes me think
eBay itself is doing this and we can't stop it.

I thought about this and as you say each time we do a cd mrimg
it resets the online macrium back to v7 so I think it's best not to do
any Macrium updates after the mrimgs and just ignore the updates.
That way everything will be version 7, correct?

Here what I propose,.. buy the Seagate 6TB hd and the Vantec case
near the end of this month and once set up create a mrimg and also one
for the 780 which will be its first using cd and thus set it back to V7.
The new mrimgs will also establish a file path so I don't have to keep
typing it in every time. Once we have both computers back to V7 leave
them there with no macrium updates.

Since there's nothing on the 780 except the basics the mrimgs should
be pretty small and the Seagate 2TB hd should suffice. I'll check out it's properties when we do the mrimgs and see where we are.

What do you think?
Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/19/2021 3:27 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

I went back to ebay.ca and clicked the lower right parallel
bars and it changed it to an arrow but it didn't stop the circle.
I went back to ebay.ca and the parallel bars had returned.

This is one of my usual ebay pages and is allot different:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/Estate-/4119/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=sasieni&_sop=10

You can click any item and click to enlarge and see if you get the
circle on your side. Then its an eBay issue for sure even though I tested
it also on the 780 and its doing it there as well. So that makes me think eBay itself is doing this and we can't stop it.

I thought about this and as you say each time we do a cd mrimg
it resets the online macrium back to v7 so I think it's best not to do
any Macrium updates after the mrimgs and just ignore the updates.
That way everything will be version 7, correct?

Here what I propose,.. buy the Seagate 6TB hd and the Vantec case
near the end of this month and once set up create a mrimg and also one
for the 780 which will be its first using cd and thus set it back to V7.
The new mrimgs will also establish a file path so I don't have to keep
typing it in every time. Once we have both computers back to V7 leave
them there with no macrium updates.

Since there's nothing on the 780 except the basics the mrimgs should
be pretty small and the Seagate 2TB hd should suffice. I'll check out it's properties when we do the mrimgs and see where we are.

What do you think?
Robert

That Ebay page seems to open on two different browsers here OK,
and I didn't see any circle appear. No big circle.

*******

Your plan for backups should work.

The backups on the 780 will be small, but the USB2
bandwidth will be small too, so it might
take a while.

I have machines here with bad USB on them.
The Mac G4 had USB 1.1 that writes at 1 megabyte per second.
Try doing a backup with that.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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Wow 1.1 !! I image it does take awhile!

The 780 shouldn't be all that bad because as I say
it just has the bare basics. There's no data on it at all.

I ran the Avast Smart scan and everything was
OK till the end and it gave me this:

https://postimg.cc/mtT14z43

Is this another way of their trying to get me to buy premium?
I'm always leery of these kind of fix-all's. They end up causing
more damage than good. Also, I'm not sure I want Avast to be
messy around with my registry or programs etc. So I elected to
skip it and then got this:

https://postimg.cc/WDqh80mV

In this day and age just about everyone is exposed online one
way or another.

Thoughts/suggestions?
Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Wow 1.1 !! I image it does take awhile!

The 780 shouldn't be all that bad because as I say
it just has the bare basics. There's no data on it at all.

I ran the Avast Smart scan and everything was
OK till the end and it gave me this:

https://postimg.cc/9wPhQQGs

Is this another way of their trying to get me to buy premium?
I'm always leery of these kind of fix-all's. They end up causing
more damage than good. Also, I'm not sure I want Avast to be
messy around with my registry or programs etc. So I elected to
skip it and then got this:

https://postimg.cc/HrrTQdH8

In this day and age just about everyone is exposed online one
way or another.

Thoughts/suggestions?
Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/20/2021 1:41 AM, Robert in CA wrote:

Wow 1.1 !! I image it does take awhile!

The 780 shouldn't be all that bad because as I say
it just has the bare basics. There's no data on it at all.

I ran the Avast Smart scan and everything was
OK till the end and it gave me this:

https://postimg.cc/mtT14z43

Is this another way of their trying to get me to buy premium?
I'm always leery of these kind of fix-all's. They end up causing
more damage than good. Also, I'm not sure I want Avast to be
messy around with my registry or programs etc. So I elected to
skip it and then got this:

https://postimg.cc/WDqh80mV

In this day and age just about everyone is exposed online one
way or another.

Thoughts/suggestions?
Robert

Avast is rather relentless.

Anything to make a buck!

There is a merger underway, between "NortonLifeLock", at some point
part of "Symantec", and Avast. I didn't read far enough to determine
what the new company will be called. Maybe "Greedy Inc" ?

https://investor.nortonlifelock.com/About/Investors/press-releases/press-release-details/2021/NortonLifeLock-and-Avast-to-Merge-to-Lead-the-Transformation-of-Consumer-Cyber-Safety/default.aspx

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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*L* that was pretty good and accurate. Our entire
gov't is corrupt and greedy, for decades.

I had Norton before and it invaded everything and
was harder than hell to remove. I think you helped
me to remove it. Now they are merging!

What are your thoughts about it all aside from them
being just greedy, what other free A/V is there that
you would recommend.? I've tried allot over the years'
but Avast has been the best so far which is why I keep
it along with malwarebytes and SuperAntipsyware,
Windows Defender and Windows Firewall.

I use to have Spybot, AVG, MacAfee,....

Thoughts/Suggestions?
Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Now the circles are gone from ebay. Strange they appeared
and now they're gone.

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/20/2021 10:32 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

Now the circles are gone from ebay. Strange they appeared
and now they're gone.

Robert

Since the code for the Ebay web page would change from day
to day, maybe someone noticed the mistake they made.

*******

As for Avast, I don't know how the two companies will
interact. Sometimes when corporations merge, they build
a "firewall" between operations. For example, when my
company acquired a pretty large company, at first, they
were going to connect their LAN to ours. Then, they decided
against that, and we never learned a blasted thing about
the new portion. It was like it wasn't even there.

Maybe with a bit of luck, just the press releases will come
from Norton, and the code will remain an Avast responsibility.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Maybe with a bit of luck, just the press releases will come
from Norton, and the code will remain an Avast responsibility.

Paul

Let's hope so!

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I just wanted to show you another curious feature that
started up a few weeks ago.

For news, I search around and look at all the News not
just one source but only on Fox News does it have this
weird animated running lion on the lower right that
appeared recently.

https://postimg.cc/qNbZcP7G

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/21/2021 1:44 AM, Robert in CA wrote:

I just wanted to show you another curious feature that
started up a few weeks ago.

For news, I search around and look at all the News not
just one source but only on Fox News does it have this
weird animated running lion on the lower right that
appeared recently.

https://postimg.cc/qNbZcP7G

Robert

No idea. Not showing in a search.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I decided to check out the 780 external hd properties
to see how much space was available.

https://postimg.cc/DmBLFwz2

As I thought, there's allot of free space and the 2TB external
is sufficient.

I think it would be a good idea when we make the mrimgs
to also create a new v7 cd's for both the 8500 and the 780.

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I decided to take a look at the properties of the
external drive of the 780. It's almost all used up!

https://postimg.cc/DmBLFwz2

I looked for the mrimgs but this is all I could find
and its in the user account!

https://postimg.cc/1gT8j8Rt

I thought I put everything in the Admin account and
I know I've made more mrimgs since 2019 but it's not
showing them and something is eating up all the memory.
At any rate all previous mrimgs are tainted because they
are metal to metal.

It appears I'll have to get two 6TB hd and cases
for both the 8500 and 780 and start fresh after cloning
and create a folder on the Admin account for mrimgs
made with the cd.

Thoughts/suggestions?
Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/21/2021 6:01 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

I decided to take a look at the properties of the
external drive of the 780. It's almost all used up!

https://postimg.cc/DmBLFwz2

I looked for the mrimgs but this is all I could find
and its in the user account!

https://postimg.cc/1gT8j8Rt

I thought I put everything in the Admin account and
I know I've made more mrimgs since 2019 but it's not
showing them and something is eating up all the memory.
At any rate all previous mrimgs are tainted because they
are metal to metal.

It appears I'll have to get two 6TB hd and cases
for both the 8500 and 780 and start fresh after cloning
and create a folder on the Admin account for mrimgs
made with the cd.

Thoughts/suggestions?
Robert

Don't panic.

Say the external drive is letter E:

1) Open File Explorer, click on E: so you are at
the top level.

2) In the search box (upper right), type

ext:mrimg <cr>

After you hit return (<cr>), all the files that have
.mrimg as a file extension, should show in the list.

Response may be slow. Even if the SearchIndexer is
properly programmed, the response is frequently a pig.
And occasionally, it is fast.

There are better file search tools, like Agent Ransack
from MythicSoft or Everything.exe from voidtools, but
some setup is required.

*******

Another way to view disk contents, is Sequoiaview.

The original site is gone.

This is the signature from my copy.

Name: Sequoia1_3XPInstall.exe
Size: 567003 bytes (553 KiB)
SHA1: C1DB10A0F7D36ADBC14B5A7A3F08FC35DB1BEE8B

And this is the signature of this one. A match.

https://matt.ucc.asn.au/mirror/Sequoia1_3XPInstall.exe

Name: Sequoia1_3XPInstall.exe
Size: 567003 bytes (553 KiB)
SHA1: C1DB10A0F7D36ADBC14B5A7A3F08FC35DB1BEE8B

That's a tool which shows you where all the "rotund"
files are on a disk partition. I was using that
just yesterday, while shrinking a C: drive from
70GB to 26GB. The tool spotted the hiberfile and
pagefile which needed work. When I backed up that
C: and compressed it, the final size was 10.0 GB.
That's the best I could do.

WIN10_AMD_250GB_724523-00-00.mrimg.7z 10.0GB

The "AMD" is the machine identifier.

To restore that, I have to decompress the file first.
While the technique saves space, more work is involved.
I just tested it, and it took 41 seconds to decompress.
If a slow drive was involved, it would go a lot slower.
When I work on really big files (my 1.3TB backups),
those take all day to decompress. I can't use any of my
little tricks on those.

WIN10_AMD_250GB_724523-00-00.mrimg 26.0GB

Occasionally, a drive letter needs the
System Volume Information cleaned. This is
in the "System Protection" part of sysdm.cpl.
If the backup partition is listed as ON, visit
the Configure and use the Delete button to clear E: .
It is more important to not delete C: restore points,
if you frequently need/use those. You have to
think about the Delete button, when dealing with C: ,
whereas cleaning E: should not be nearly as big
a deal.

I don't expect you need to clean E: that way, but
if the items don't show up in SequoiaView, then you
have to use your powers-of-guessing, that the missing
material is in System Volume Information.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I don't know if I did this correctly,...

https://postimg.cc/8fmHg2Cj

https://postimg.cc/sMNJz939

https://postimg.cc/r06C0V0D


probably not and it doesn't say how
big the mrimgs are. I really didn't
know what I was doing and played it
by ear. I had to add the external hd
drive F: before I could do the search.
It only had E:

I didn't download Sequoiaview but maybe I
should. I assume I do it before I use the cd
and then just open via PE environment under
programs? I just tried to install it and it says
it doesn't have enough memory.

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/21/2021 8:50 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

I don't know if I did this correctly,...

https://postimg.cc/8fmHg2Cj

https://postimg.cc/sMNJz939

https://postimg.cc/r06C0V0D

probably not and it doesn't say how
big the mrimgs are. I really didn't
know what I was doing and played it
by ear. I had to add the external hd
drive F: before I could do the search.
It only had E:

I didn't download Sequoiaview but maybe I
should. I assume I do it before I use the cd
and then just open via PE environment under
programs? I just tried to install it and it says
it doesn't have enough memory.

Robert

You double-click the icon for F: and you can
look inside.

Note that this tool in the Rescue CD is not "File Explorer" from
Microsoft. It's the Macrium Explorer, and the navigation
widgets are not the same. To go upwards in the tree,
you use the up-arrow icon, closer to the menu line.

I don't really know if you can run Sequoiaview from WinPE.
When I've tried doing stuff like that, my experiments
told me that I needed to use the 32-bit WinPE setup,
rather than the 64-bit one. That seemed to help. But,
the executable you're trying to run, it helps if that
one is "portable". The less reference to the Registry,
the better.

So *some* Win32 stuff will run from WinPE and have
a graphical output for you. But not all of it.

I will see if later, I can cook up a working example.
I have to go out in a moment.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I already double clicked the F: drive and looked inside and I could not
find the mrimgs. The must be in some folder though.

I tried to download Sequoiaview again on the 780 not the external but it
says there's no destination? Should I of said yes?

https://postimg.cc/rz3SmGbf

https://postimg.cc/0bS7JM1P

https://postimg.cc/BjcDMrvz

https://postimg.cc/62SG8wH8

https://postimg.cc/Sj2Mw2sC

I checked the properties of the 780 and as I thought it has tons of free space

https://postimg.cc/MMZY7Wbt

So it seems I have to go through and delete the mrimgs one by one on the external
hd but how do I do that? They aren't listed as the previous ones I showed you all
nice and neat although they must be and are hidden somewhere because they're there.
I knew I had done more mrimg backups.

In passing I had to restart my computer (3) times to get the SD/RS flash drive to
work. Sheesh!

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I went into the 780 again and this time I had problems selecting the cd
because it wouldn't respond to the arrow keys. So I had to reset it and
tried again.

I found the mrimgs, they aren't on any account but just sitting there!

https://postimg.cc/2qydcCK5

That's why I never saw them in either account. I wanted to show them to you first then I would like to create a folder in the Admin Account and move them all there one by one and the Mrimg folders in the User Account which has the mrimgs from 2019 or
should I delete all of those mrimgs to clear space and then go through these mrimgs and delete as many as I can and then move them into the folder?

What do you think?
Robert



--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/22/2021 12:34 AM, Robert in CA wrote:

I went into the 780 again and this time I had problems selecting the cd because it wouldn't respond to the arrow keys. So I had to reset it and
tried again.

I found the mrimgs, they aren't on any account but just sitting there!

https://postimg.cc/2qydcCK5

That's why I never saw them in either account. I wanted to show them to you first then I would like to create a folder in the Admin Account and move them all there one by one and the Mrimg folders in the User Account which has the mrimgs from 2019 or

should I delete all of those mrimgs to clear space and then go through these mrimgs and delete as many as I can and then move them into the folder?

What do you think?
Robert

There are ten of roughly 120GB each, which is 1200GB.

There must be a few more of them, hiding somewhere on G: .

If these are backups of the 780, presumably the 780 has not
had a lot of changes made to it. Maybe you can thin the herd
a bit.

I would question why the backups are that big. A basic OS
install, 20GB is plenty for the core portion of it. Sometimes
the pagefile or the hiberfile was made too large, and that
is wasting space in a backup. By my suspicion, is you were
backing up a backup... there was an MRING on the root
of the drive being backed up, and so you have copies
of some MRIMG in there. MRIMGs inside MSIMGS. That's
one thing an operator has to check for, before running
backups.

I've never tried to edit an MRIMG, and I don't know if
there is any way, post-backup, of fixing an issue
like that. That's why I do a few size checks before
doing a backup run. Like my example yesterday, where
a C: that said it was 70GB, well, it just needed a kick
in the pants to slim down. Then the backup went much faster.

*******

The SequoiaView did work here. I got it working.

But the tricky part is, you'd have to be running a hard
drive OS first, have installed it, then, you can copy
C:\Program Files\Sequoia folder to a USB stick. Boot
the Macrium Rescue CD 32-bit version, double click the
Sequoia.exe icon on the USB stick folder, and it runs.

But I like your idea better :-)

Not many applications run that way. The WinPE environment,
on purpose, was not intended to be "useful" in that way,
but, some stuff does work. And it's the 32-bit WinPE,
plus the 32-bit softwares, which are the best candidates.
The SequoiaView installs in the wrong folder, it's a
32-bit program that installs in the 64-bit folder,
but this does not harm its potential to run in WinPE.
Just bring the folder over where it can be accessed,
and it is portable-enough to use.

*******

The SequoiaView installer expects to be installed on the
current OS drive. The shell environment of each OS,
identifies where the %ProgramFiles% is located, and
that's how the installer knows what a good candidate is.
The trouble with the Macrium Rescue CD, is the folder
would be X:\Program Files rather than C:\Program Files.
X: is a RAM drive. I presume it is writeable, but I've never
tried to do what you attempted to do ("offline install").

And yes, it does install on the RAM Drive X:

When it asks where to install, change C: letter to X:

C:\Program Files\Sequoia

X:\Program Files\Sequoia

If it asks to create that folder, approve it and say "OK".

And then tick the box for it to "start" when the
installer is finished, and it will start. Launching it
from the installer, is *very* convenient. There won't
be a desktop icon, at a guess, and that's because PEExplorer
is not File Explorer, so the desktop functions are missing.

From the SequoiaView menu, select the letter of the drive
needing a scan. If it is scanning the wrong partition, just
click the "Cancel" on it, then menu down and select the
partition desired. In this case, the drive might be
C: or it might be G: . You have to decide which
partition to look at.

Holding the mouse over the largest square, will
give the pathname of the "fat" file. The right-click
and "Explore" menu option for the "fat" file does
not work, as expected. That's because the File Explorer
is missing from the Rescue CD and only the Macrium
PEExplorer is available. And they're not the same thing.

But still, since the path displayed is valid, you will then
know what directory a fat blob is hiding in, making it
easier to find them. A bit easier.

You will need to install to X: , each time the Macrium CD
is booted, because X: is volatile and when the
Macrium CD exits at shutdown, all context is lost.

I think you are very close to getting it to run :-)

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Why don't I use Agent Ransack, I already have it on both computers
and SequioaView doesn't seem to work. After scanning it just went to
blank screen and show nothing.

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I'm on the 780

I downloaded SequoiaView and it immediately launched
a scan of the C: partition on its own but then nothing.

https://postimg.cc/0MgGGmXp

https://postimg.cc/hh1wjPhC

https://postimg.cc/wtN4d9SQ

I think for now I'll delete all the 2019 mrimgs and then go
through the remaining mrimgs.

I don't even want to think about mrimgs in mrimgs. I've
tried to be very careful.


Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/22/2021 3:14 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

Why don't I use Agent Ransack, I already have it on both computers
and SequioaView doesn't seem to work. After scanning it just went to
blank screen and show nothing.

Robert

Remember, partition lettering in foreign environments
is a bit random at times. There's a rationale to it, but
still, the booting material can grab the wrong registry
to use as a reference.

Looking at your pictures, I know you've scanned the wrong
partition ("C:"), because, the total disk used and free
are "not that full disk we want to study".

It could be that letter G: (gee) is the partition
you should be scanning with SequoiaView. When you display
details of that one, most of the partition should be "full",
very little "free". And you'll know, if you've scanned the right
one, there will be around, at least, ten squares next to one
another, of quite respectable size. Then, you're looking for
the other, several, squares taking up the remaining
unaccounted space. Hold your mouse over those other squares,
to get the file path to their hiding spot.

You're close... very close...

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I deleted all the 2019 mrimgs in the User Account then created a folder for
the mrimgs in the Admin Account (I accidentally named it '8500 mrimgs' so
I'll have to rename it next time I go in. ) I then went through the mrimgs deleting the older ones so I have (3) mrimgs left in the folder.

https://postimg.cc/rKm0hkZh

https://postimg.cc/4KzmKNn3

SequoiaView scanned the C: all on it's own after downloading. I didn't select anything. This was done when the external wasn't even connected. How
do I put it on a flash drive?

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/22/2021 5:21 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

I deleted all the 2019 mrimgs in the User Account then created a folder for the mrimgs in the Admin Account (I accidentally named it '8500 mrimgs' so I'll have to rename it next time I go in. ) I then went through the mrimgs deleting the older ones so I have (3) mrimgs left in the folder.

https://postimg.cc/rKm0hkZh

https://postimg.cc/4KzmKNn3

SequoiaView scanned the C: all on it's own after downloading. I didn't select
anything. This was done when the external wasn't even connected. How
do I put it on a flash drive?

Robert

It depends on whether you installed SequoiaView in

X:\Program Files\Sequoia # path used, when installing while Macrium Rescue CD running

or

C:\Program Files\Sequoia # like, on your normal boot system

The idea is, you would copy the Sequoia folder
and contents, onto the USB stick. Then, when Macrium
is booted from a CD, you can plug in the USB stick,
navigate to the stick letter, like where you put it

T:\Sequoia

and double click the EXE in there to start it.

The pull-down menu in the program, when it is running,
allows you to select any working partition. You can "Cancel"
the current scan, go to the menu, change the drive letter,
and scan that drive letter. You don't have to accept the
"default" scanning it does. You can stop it, give it a
new drive letter, and off it goes, scanning your new choice.

SequoiaView is a pretty old program, but the people who wrote it have
moved on to other things (university students).

I still find it handy for doing quick surveys. And spotting
MRIMGs that need to be removed, is one of the things I use it for.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I installed SequoiaView on the 780 before I used the cd. I've coped it to the USB stick and now am trying it on the 780 with the cd. I copy/pasted it in the PE environment but it says it cannot open the file and when I tried to change the target and start to partition 'G' it said it wasn't valid.

https://postimg.cc/NyD79wNR

https://postimg.cc/qhZswxHR

https://postimg.cc/grQy6sKt

https://postimg.cc/PCkmSq9m

What am I doing wrong?

I stupidly connected the external hd for the 8500 but then realized what I did and logged off and disconnected it . SHessh However I better take a look after I'm done just to make sure the 8500 loads OK although I didn't open it or anything.

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I checked the 8500 to make sure it loaded ok with the CD then went in and deleted
(3) more Mrimgs even though we'll be getting a new external hd and all those mrimgs
were metal to metal.

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/22/2021 7:50 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

I installed SequoiaView on the 780 before I used the cd. I've coped it to the USB stick and now am trying it on the 780 with the cd. I copy/pasted it in the
PE environment but it says it cannot open the file and when I tried to change the target and start to partition 'G' it said it wasn't valid.

https://postimg.cc/NyD79wNR

https://postimg.cc/qhZswxHR

https://postimg.cc/grQy6sKt

https://postimg.cc/PCkmSq9m

What am I doing wrong?

I stupidly connected the external hd for the 8500 but then realized what I did
and logged off and disconnected it . SHessh However I better take a look after
I'm done just to make sure the 8500 loads OK although I didn't open it or anything.

Robert

This is what my folder on the USB stick looks like.

[Picture]

https://i.postimg.cc/Ss1hxszF/Sequoia-View-Copying.gif

Your copied folder, looks like it came from a Start Menu
of some sort. Rather than from Program Files.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

It looks as if your right. There's no data or version to the right
when I checked program and features but I tried to follow instructions

I uninstalled it. Can't we use Agent Ransack instead? This is getting
too difficult and isn't working and I hate to keep connecting the external
hd's for fear of some mistake which may make matters worst.

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/22/2021 10:07 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

It looks as if your right. There's no data or version to the right
when I checked program and features but I tried to follow instructions

I uninstalled it. Can't we use Agent Ransack instead? This is getting
too difficult and isn't working and I hate to keep connecting the external hd's for fear of some mistake which may make matters worst.

Robert

There aren't really that many places the MRIMG could be.

The top of a drive letter is one simple place they could be.
The way that Macrium navigates from the ... item on the right,
tends to toss you in places like this.

C:\some.mrimg

Your home directory is another area to check. But even then,
you have to navigate here, which isn't always easy.

C:\users\username # not quite as easy to get to

C:\users\username\Downloads # easy to get to (at least when backing up
# while booted from the regular C: ).

A Linux LiveDVD (in USB stick form), could also be
used to check out materials. And ones like Ubuntu,
as they're booting up, they verify the signatures
of a number of files on the media. Making it harder to
corrupt them.

When a Linux is burned to a DVD, that makes it harder for
something to modify the content. You could use a DVD-R for
example, which only burns the one time. And make sure the
session is finalized.

The only problem with Linux, is they never stop modifying their
File Manager, and it's easy for a feature to go missing.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

It sure seems difficult to find these mrimgs. I should
of done a better job in keeping track of them.

I went back to the external hd and looked through
the folders one by one although in some cases there
were more folders after I opened them then more so
I didn't look through every single folder.

When I looked under All Users I noticed I still have Apple
folders. I thought I had gotten rid of all Apple products. I
didn't do anything with them as yet but would like to delete
them. I shouldn't have any Apple products on the computers
should I?

I found one small mrimg and deleted it.

https://postimg.cc/vDqFkbgj

I found more macrium software but no mrimgs.

https://postimg.cc/t7mwDk8G

Here's the external hd properties:

https://postimg.cc/6y2SPRN2

How about I try using Agent Ransack because its already on both
computers and I've used it before. If I copy/paste the program onto
a stick it should work correct? I'll check it beforehand to make sure it has
an exe.

In passing, I'll need to download malwarbytes tomorrow or
the next day so is this link still valid?

https://www.malwarebytes.com/

Do I click on download now in the blue area or do I click the free
download upper right? They sure make it confusing.

Thanks,
Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I looked at the 8500 and the 780 properties they are both identical 2TB
Seagate drives but how can the 8500 have more free space with all the
data etc then the 780 which has nothing in it? I don't understand it?

I copy/pasted Agent Ransack to the Patriot stick and tested it before
using it and it worked. So the loaded the cd attached the external hd
then the Patriot stick but it didn't work! I tried changing the partition letter
but still it didn't work. Why would it work on the 780 but not the external?

https://postimg.cc/V50KRwwm

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/23/2021 1:12 AM, Robert in CA wrote:

It sure seems difficult to find these mrimgs. I should
of done a better job in keeping track of them.

I went back to the external hd and looked through
the folders one by one although in some cases there
were more folders after I opened them then more so
I didn't look through every single folder.

When I looked under All Users I noticed I still have Apple
folders. I thought I had gotten rid of all Apple products. I
didn't do anything with them as yet but would like to delete
them. I shouldn't have any Apple products on the computers
should I?

I found one small mrimg and deleted it.

https://postimg.cc/vDqFkbgj

I found more macrium software but no mrimgs.

https://postimg.cc/t7mwDk8G

Here's the external hd properties:

https://postimg.cc/6y2SPRN2

How about I try using Agent Ransack because its already on both
computers and I've used it before. If I copy/paste the program onto
a stick it should work correct? I'll check it beforehand to make sure it has an exe.

In passing, I'll need to download malwarbytes tomorrow or
the next day so is this link still valid?

https://www.malwarebytes.com/

Do I click on download now in the blue area or do I click the free
download upper right? They sure make it confusing.

Thanks,
Robert

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malwarebytes_%28software%29

Website: malwarebytes.com

https://www.malwarebytes.com/premium

* Windows only DOWNLOAD FREE

The buttons all seem to be the same, so it will be a trial
version, that when the trial expires, only the on-demand scan
will still work.

https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download/thankyou/

This gives a 2MB stub "MBSetup-119967.119967-consumer.exe"
---------------------

( https://data-cdn.mbamupdates.com/web/affiliate_builds/win_temp/MBSetup-119967.119967-consumer.exe )

Whereas this link gives the full installer (offline type).
IT guys like this flavor, when deploying to a hundred workstations.
It cuts down network traffic on the WAN connection to Internet.
+-------------------------------------+
http://downloads.malwarebytes.com/file/mb4_offline <=== LOAD THIS URL for 200MB file... |
+-------------------------------------+
The release notes say malwarebytes is version 4.4.11, and the
previous link returns

https://data-cdn.mbamupdates.com/web/mb4-setup-consumer/offline/mb4-setup-consumer-4.4.11.149-1.0.1513-1.0.47333.exe

Name: mb4-setup-consumer-4.4.11.149-1.0.1513-1.0.47333.exe
Size: 200,566,968 bytes (191 MiB)
SHA1: F63A45CB8BDA702FB0BE09B928442DC2B014A888

So that's a non-stub way of installing. It is likely to
still need some amount of AV definition update, to bring
it up to date when any on-demand scan is done.

The release notes are here, so that's how I know 4.4.11 is the one
and that file is the "current one". Using the "mb4_offline" link,
will dig up the latest one (like if you did it in December).

https://support.malwarebytes.com/hc/en-us/sections/360005863113-Release-History-News

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/23/2021 1:41 AM, Robert in CA wrote:

I looked at the 8500 and the 780 properties they are both identical 2TB Seagate drives but how can the 8500 have more free space with all the
data etc then the 780 which has nothing in it? I don't understand it?

I copy/pasted Agent Ransack to the Patriot stick and tested it before
using it and it worked. So the loaded the cd attached the external hd
then the Patriot stick but it didn't work! I tried changing the partition letter
but still it didn't work. Why would it work on the 780 but not the external?

https://postimg.cc/V50KRwwm

Robert

Look at the size of the file.

You seem to be copying some sort of shortcut folder,
like from a Start Menu.

To have a hope of something like this working,
the folder has to come from

C:\Program Files
C:\Program Files (x86)

Now, SequoiaView is an "odd bird". It uses a crusty installer that
few softwares use. What does it do ???

C:\Program Files <=== Puts SequoiaView 32-bit, into the 64-bit folder!

By us copying that folder from that place, that is
an anomaly.

For most other softwares, you look for the 32-bit folder.

C:\Program Files (x86) <=== My Agent Ransack is not in here

Now, where my Agent Ransack is located, is here.

"C:\Program Files\Mythicsoft\Agent Ransack\" <=== This will be the 64-bit version,
no good for the 32-bit Macrium CD

We would need to install the 32-bit Agent Ransack, to
have a 32-bit executable.

The deal with WinPE is, not all Windows subsystems are on
board. For example VSS is missing, so VSS cannot be used by
any program there. You cannot arbitrarily copy every 32-bit
program you can find, to a USB stick, and run it in WinPE
of Macrium CD. This should only work for a few things.

I sniffed a couple things from the MythicSoftware installer.
The output, is from the GNUWIN package having the "file.exe"
utility, which hasn't been updated in ten years. Still, it
knows the difference between 32 bit and 64 bit executables.
The two files, the "Details" tab for both is the same. You
cannot tell the files apart visually. The first one was
in "Program Files (x86)" tree, while the second was
in "Program Files" tree, and we can't use that one.
In fact, we don't even know at the moment, whether
C:\Program Files (x86)\Mythicsoft\AgentRansack\AgentRansack.exe
would work or not. Many things are too complicated. This one
uses .NET, and we don't know what the .NET library support is
like in a WinPE. Each OS has a "default" support level, the
WinPE5, the WinPE10, I bet you could look up what .NET comes
with them, and that would help determine whether this experiment
would work or not.

AgentRansack.exe; PE32 executable for MS Windows (GUI) Intel 80386 32-bit AgentRansack.exe; PE32+ executable for MS Windows (GUI) Mono/.Net assembly

What's our first problem ?

You and I both have Win7 x64 on our computers. When the
Mythicsoft installer runs, it will install only the PE32+ version,
which is exactly the wrong version for Macrium environment.

We would need a Win7 32 bit OS setup on the computer, to
extract a 32-bit folder.

If the Agent Ransack *installer* file is put on the USB
stick, and the package is installed in X:\Program Files
(which is a 32-bit tree on the 32-bit Macrium setup), then
it would be the best we could do on matches. It would still
leave in the air, the issue of whether .NET 3 or .NET 4 is
in the environment or not. I bet my CD and your CD are
different in that respect, because there are a few variables
when Macrium CDs are made, and we might not have selected
the exact same options.

I can test the installer. I will test

https://download.mythicsoft.com/flp/2951/agentransack_2951.exe

via my USB stick, under the Macrium 32-bit CD, and see if it
works in X:\Program Files or not. It would end up in
X:\Program Files\Mythicsoft\Agent Ransack or so, and would be
a 32 bit install. The installer sniffs the OS and knows that
the 32 bit flavor is required.

32 bit CD has

X:\Program Files <=== 32 bit materials

64 bit CD has

X:\Program Files <=== 64 bit materials
X:\Program Files x86) <=== 32 bit materials

OK, the install failed, and that's because the installer
relies on MSI files and the Windows Installer, and perhaps
that is not present on X: .

OK, so now I will copy the AgentRansack folder from
Windows XP install. Which is 32 bit. I took it over and
it runs.

I put a fake "Some.mrimg" in my user directory, and
an Agent Ransack run found it.

So you can do an Agent Ransack. But, you'd need to
prep it in a Win7 x32 installation, which you are
unlikely to have by default. I got mine, by reaching
into a really old WinXP image and I extracted
AgentRansack 332. Since WinXP is (for the most part),
32 bit, I knew I could get one there. Without having
to install Win7 x32 in a VirtualBox VM and prepare
my materials.

Trying to use the AgentRansack installer while in
Macrium, it did not work, which means some Windows subsystems
were missing for it to work. But copying an existing 32-bit
install, it worked in my test.

[Picture]

https://i.postimg.cc/65wjv3MR/copy-an-old-install.gif

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Also, can I remove the Apple programs
with harming the system?

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I tried downloading SequoiaView directly to the Patriot flash stick
then loaded the external hd usind the cd and then attached the
Patriot stck and nothing. it still wouldn't work!

The only thing I can think of is that SequoiaView never really
finished downloading it correctly. At the end it just give this
button to click to a link to other products. Usually, at the end of
a download there's a finish but not here.

https://postimg.cc/G4DVPL9p

Checking the Programs list on the 780 shows the download is not
correct.

https://postimg.cc/0MjCfnZC

I went back and tried to download SequoiaView again to the 780
but again it was a incomplete download. That's why it is't working .

Your correct, I wasn't going into Programs files but in any case the
download isn't working. and I wasn't aware about changing Agent
Ransack to fir the 32 bit. This is getting to be a real nightmare. All I
wanted to do was clean the external hd.


You gave me two malwarebyte links with exe's, which one do I use?
Your confusing me .


( https://data-cdn.mbamupdates.com/web/affiliate_builds/win_temp/MBSetup-119967.119967-consumer.exe )

Whereas this link gives the full installer (offline type).
IT guys like this flavor, when deploying to a hundred workstations.
It cuts down network traffic on the WAN connection to Internet. +-------------------------------------+ http://downloads.malwarebytes.com/file/mb4_offline <=== LOAD THIS URL for 200MB file... |
+-------------------------------------+
The release notes say malwarebytes is version 4.4.11, and the
previous link returns

https://data-cdn.mbamupdates.com/web/mb4-setup-consumer/offline/mb4-setup-consumer-4.4.11.149-1.0.1513-1.0.47333.exe

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I picked your first choice for the 14 day trial which is what I
had previously I believe.

However were still stuck on SequoiaView to properly install.

Thanks,
Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/23/2021 3:55 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

I tried downloading SequoiaView directly to the Patriot flash stick
then loaded the external hd usind the cd and then attached the
Patriot stck and nothing. it still wouldn't work!

The only thing I can think of is that SequoiaView never really
finished downloading it correctly. At the end it just give this
button to click to a link to other products. Usually, at the end of
a download there's a finish but not here.

https://postimg.cc/G4DVPL9p

Checking the Programs list on the 780 shows the download is not
correct.

https://postimg.cc/0MjCfnZC

I went back and tried to download SequoiaView again to the 780
but again it was a incomplete download. That's why it is't working .

Your correct, I wasn't going into Programs files but in any case the
download isn't working. and I wasn't aware about changing Agent
Ransack to fir the 32 bit. This is getting to be a real nightmare. All I wanted to do was clean the external hd.

You gave me two malwarebyte links with exe's, which one do I use?
Your confusing me .

( https://data-cdn.mbamupdates.com/web/affiliate_builds/win_temp/MBSetup-119967.119967-consumer.exe )

Whereas this link gives the full installer (offline type).
IT guys like this flavor, when deploying to a hundred workstations.
It cuts down network traffic on the WAN connection to Internet. +-------------------------------------+ http://downloads.malwarebytes.com/file/mb4_offline <=== LOAD THIS URL for 200MB file... |
+-------------------------------------+
The release notes say malwarebytes is version 4.4.11, and the
previous link returns

https://data-cdn.mbamupdates.com/web/mb4-setup-consumer/offline/mb4-setup-consumer-4.4.11.149-1.0.1513-1.0.47333.exe

Robert

I personally prefer offline installers.

http://downloads.malwarebytes.com/file/mb4_offline

but if you like the hidden nature of stub installers, you
can certainly use the one they offer from the main page.

*******

Your SequoiaView results suggest it installed OK.

Think about it for a moment. The "ClickTeam" installer, is an
installer nobody uses. It does not use MSI files. Consequently,
the "fields" in Programs and Features remain blank, because
Windows does not know what ClickTeam was doing. All Windows knows
is, the ClickTeam is done, and "here is your entry". If you
try to remove the ClickTeam item, it runs its uninstall file
that it placed in the Program Files ares.

Look in either C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files (x86) for the
SequoiaView folder. That's proof it installed. Running the
EXE from there ("Sequoia.exe"), would run it. As would some of
the other standard Windows methods. On my Windows 7, the Start menu
has a SequoiaView folder, further down the list.

The installer works, it's just a little non-standard design, which
leaves a few blanks here and there. Not a problem.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/23/2021 4:02 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

Also, can I remove the Apple programs
with harming the system?

Robert

You might have installed QuickTime for some reason.
There might be

QuickTime
Apple Software Updates

as items to remove. For anything QuickTime could do,
the VLC video player can perform an equivalent action.

I'm not aware of an "Apple Cleaner" for Windows, because
the Apple people are not that clever. There are other bits
of junk they leave behind, but you have to examine their
download package, to figure out what the items are. For
example, iTunes had around five MSI files in it. Which equates
to five items to remove from "Programs and Features".

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I prefer to go with what you recommend so I un-installed
my previous download and selected your link. It's now
scanning.

I went to the 780 which I had on and it says FF crashed!
When I opened it looks allot different and the task bar is all
different and allot of my bookmarks are missing. I can't
believe all these things happen and I didn't do a thing to
cause it.! Now I have to rebuild the 780 bookmarks.

I am now going to try SeqouiaView again

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

This is the message I got about FF crashing

https://postimg.cc/mP1YmPTM

but also a folder (mbar) appeared on the desktop.
I opened it :

https://postimg.cc/mP99QKSy

Should I just delete it or what?

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Well so far its not doing anything. Do I need
to click inside the dark area to the left? When
I hover the mouse there it says Sequoia.exe
if I hover to the right portion it says Seqouia.help
and the upper right it says uninstall.exe if I hover
over it.

How long does this take?

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I just noticed, the map isn't changing at all, when I move the mouse
to the help side(right side) the map changes to 30.8 of map. if I move
the mouse to the Sequoia.exe (left side) it says 66.2% of map and
neither has moved an inch and if I move the mouse to unistall.exe
it says 1.9% of map.

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I downloaded SequoiaView and then let launch on the 780
just to see it if would work. It's now scanning the 780 C:
partition but doesn't appear to be doing anything although
I have seen the map number (lower right of screen) change
but that's all.

https://postimg.cc/62KRYzQ4

https://postimg.cc/Y4zjq7pj

I also checked Programs to make sure it loaded correctly.

https://postimg.cc/tZrTWznj

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I tried to click inside the Sequoia.exe dark area to the left and nothing.
Even though it downloaded this doesn't appear to be working or is
taking an awfully long time. I see no activity at all.

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I finally closed SequoiaView which was running on
the Admin Account because I had to go there to verify
it was in Programs. It wasn't doing anything.

I launched it again in the User Account but it did the same
thing so I closed it.

What am I doing wrong?

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/23/2021 11:23 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

I downloaded SequoiaView and then let launch on the 780
just to see it if would work. It's now scanning the 780 C:
partition but doesn't appear to be doing anything although
I have seen the map number (lower right of screen) change
but that's all.

https://postimg.cc/62KRYzQ4

https://postimg.cc/Y4zjq7pj

OK, when the disk scan of C: stops, you're supposed to go
to the menu bar and select what you want. It decided to
scan all of C: but only display the sizes of things in the
SequoiaView folder.

Using the drop-down disk menu at the top of the page, select
C:\ instead of C:\Program Files\SequoiaView and then it will
show all the entries on C: .

I also checked Programs to make sure it loaded correctly.

https://postimg.cc/tZrTWznj

Robert

Yes, there's a folder in there, and Sequoia.exe.

The folder, is an example of what you would copy
to a USB stick. Since the program in this case, only
has 32-bit install capability, you know it is 32-bit
and suitable for a run-attempt while the Macrium CD runs.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/23/2021 11:01 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

This is the message I got about FF crashing

https://postimg.cc/mP1YmPTM

but also a folder (mbar) appeared on the desktop.
I opened it :

https://postimg.cc/mP99QKSy

Should I just delete it or what?

Robert

MBAR is the RootKit checked from MalwareBytes as far as I know.

I don't know any more about it than that.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/23/2021 9:05 PM, Robert in CA wrote:

I picked your first choice for the 14 day trial which is what I
had previously I believe.

However were still stuck on SequoiaView to properly install.

Thanks,
Robert

Copy the C:\Program Files\SequoiaView folder to your USB stick,
then boot the Macrium CD, then using the PEexplorer icon in Macrium,
open the USB stick and run Sequoia.exe from the folder of stuff.

It should work in Macrium, and any AV that used to be on C: is then
asleep.

You must select the correct drive letter, verify the size information
shown, as evidence of targeting the correct partition.

SequoiaView works here, but I don't have an AV running.

You have two AV running. The trial of Malwarebytes counts as an AV
for the next 14 days. After 14 days the trial ends, and it stops
being an AV and it starts becoming an "on-demand scanner". Thus,
after 14 days, it stops interfering with the machine.

Avast is also an AV and is your second AV program, when C: is booted
and not X: (Macrium boot).

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/24/2021 12:09 AM, Robert in CA wrote:

I tried to click inside the Sequoia.exe dark area to the left and nothing. Even though it downloaded this doesn't appear to be working or is
taking an awfully long time. I see no activity at all.

Robert

In your case, this will be mainly for identifying the
filename and path of "fat" files, for further analysis.
The Properties dialog sometimes tells lies about size
and cannot be particularly trusted. It worked better on
WinXP or Win2K maybe. It is possible the program does not
expect files to be larger than 4GB (it should be using
Open64 for this sort of thing).

[Picture]

https://i.postimg.cc/5NrwMxjD/Sequoia-View-Use.gif

Yes, it does take a long time, if the Win7 read cache is
not primed. A second run may go faster, not that this
is consolation.

The progress bar may appear to be full, but this may mean
instead that it did not know how many files were on the
volume, as it had first suspected. And it is still grinding
through them. All it is doing, is opening dir() and checking
the size field on each file.

It is unlikely to display the contents of System Volume Information.
Or, the Windows.edb belonging to the Search Indexer. There really
aren't a lot of Windows ecosystem utilities that can give
a *complete* accounting of NTFS file systems. nfi.exe comes close,
but even it is not perfect, and that one does not give sizes
in plain English, so is useless for casual forensic work.

But nfi.exe has given me file names before, that I would not
otherwise have seen with other utilities.

Even Everything.exe does not list all possible files.

Anything with "Permission Denied" is always hard to list.

In any case, in my picture, you can see I have a couple
candidate "fatty" files to check. The one in the example,
is Windows XP mode for Windows 7 Pro, a way to run WinXP
while Windows 7 is running. It starts out at around 1.2GB in
size, and is a lot smaller than your MRIMG files. The large file
on the top right, is a sparse file, and it does not take much
room at all. This is a form of compression the OS does for us.
There aren't really a lot of tools for sparse. On Linux,
there is "cp-sparse" for making sparse compressed copies of
files. That's an example of the kind of tool you find, with
some amount of detective work.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I'll give it another try.

Here the contents of the SequoiaView folder:

https://postimg.cc/xkY5XH40

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I selected C: after the disk scan finished but doesn't appear to be doing anything. However when I moved the mouse over areas to the left it shows different data although I can't see it.

https://postimg.cc/HcG1F6Zp

https://postimg.cc/9wC5QrHK

https://postimg.cc/nXCzJwk7

https://postimg.cc/grsk6Pt8

Am I doing this right?

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Well this is weird, it closed itself. I went to the kitchen
and came back and it was closed.

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I'm running a Avast scan now and will try it again afterwards.

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I tried it again.

I let the disk scan finish and the
drive had been changed to C: but
nothing happens. It's still a gray
screen with boxes but as I say if I
hover over the area with the mouse
it picks up all sorts of data as I showed
previously.

I'll let it run but it doesn't seem to be
doing anything.

Thoughts/suggestions?

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I followed your instructions but wouldn't open:

https://postimg.cc/c6QpdXqr

https://postimg.cc/gLdBwb9r

https://postimg.cc/jCbs6Wtn

https://postimg.cc/Yh2MVJ4p

https://postimg.cc/mPtRZCNJ

https://postimg.cc/gxQpxjgJ

https://postimg.cc/VrBPZRmr

https://postimg.cc/NLBc9Wk1


Also some good news; I ordered the 6TB hd and Vantec case.

Robert

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)