[AccessD] OT: Windows 7 .. I'm VERY impressed

jwcolby jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com
Fri Jan 22 07:46:18 CST 2010


 > With drives getting so cheap, and SATA Raid Controllers becoming more standard on motherboards,

One caution is that raid controllers created by motherboard hardware can cause a disaster if the 
motherboard dies.  At best you will need to get the same raid chip set (intel, or AMD or ...), at 
worst your raid array can be unreadable.

I use a hardware co-processor raid array and have never had that issue.  I have moved the entire 
raid setup from one box to another with an entirely different motherboard, and in fact even a 
different OS and the raid array just turned on and ran (after driver installs of course).

For critical data, a hardware controller is highly recommended.

John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com


Drew Wutka wrote:
> Preach on Brother John! ;)
> 
> VMWare and VPC aren't like the great bound/unbound debate.  There are
> advantages to both.  I started with VPC 2004, and that was ok.  It
> brought my 1 ghz pIII to it's knees trying to run a Windows XP box.  Now
> on my laptop, 2.2 ghz duo core, with 3 gigs of RAM, I can run several
> machines (I've run three 2003 servers and a client XP machine at the
> same time) and the performance wasn't bad at all.  Virtual Server let's
> you run each machine in it's own thread.  And the two apps are both
> completely free (though I think you have to pay for the absolute latest
> Virtual Server) and interchangeable.  VMWare performs better, (even now,
> from what I've read about 6 months ago) and it is simple to run any OS,
> even non-MS stuff.  I have a ubuntu Linux VM in Virtual PC, but you kind
> of have to jump through some hoops to do it.  VPC will get closer and
> closer to VMWare, as far as performance, but it will always be slanted
> towards running Windows based OSes.  I'd probably play around with
> VMWare a bit when I have some time (LOL, who has that?), but I took the
> time to create a base hard drive with every MS OS from DOS 6.22 to
> Windows 7.  (Though I've tossed the Vista and 7 one, cause they are
> pretty big, and unnecessary right now, and I never touched ME, couldn't
> pay me enough to have the .iso image of that install on any of my
> machines! LOL)
> 
> Couldn't agree more on RAID drives.  It's one of my favorite preach
> points when people ask me about machines.  With drives getting so cheap,
> and SATA Raid Controllers becoming more standard on motherboards, it's
> almost a crime not to be using a RAID.  (Though I use RAID 0+1's more
> then anything else.)
> 
> As for the ISO images, try this:
> 
> http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/miso-magicdisc-overview.htm
> 
> Get the 106 version, behind the Windows 7 link (and one of the others I
> think).  I can install that version on anything (just put it on a
> netbook running XP pro the other day, and it runs fine in Windows 7 64
> bit and Vista 32/64 bit).  In vista and 7, you'll be prompted about an
> unsigned driver, but it works great.  You can add as many Virtual
> CD/DVD-Roms as you want.  (one of my favorite games is FreeSpace, and
> old 'space' game I got with my first PIII.  It needs the DVD to play, so
> I usually have a drive specifically housing that iso image all the time
> on my laptop.  Fun to play when I'm bored).  It runs in your system
> tray, and is very user friendly.  It'll even make ISO images for you
> (and other formats if you want).  I stick with ISO.  Did you know
> another feature of Windows 7 is that it will natively burn an ISO image
> to a blank CD/DVD with no other software?
> 
> With the 'working' VM machine on standby, I use it a lot, cause Access
> 97 is a little finicky on a windows 7 box, if you use another version of
> Access, Access 97 tries to right to the registry and fails, so you have
> to restart it 'As Administrator', which is a pain.  I use 97
> periodically, still have a lot of working .mdb's still in 97 format.
> Easiest way is to use my XP box (which has Office 97 and 2003 installed
> together).  But another big reason I keep that, is that when I setup a
> dev machine, I do a few extra things, which are just time consuming.
> Like setting up file extension special commands (like when I right click
> on an MDB, I make it so I have the option of what version of Access I
> open it with, and if I open it with a secured mdw.).  
> 
> Drew




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