Root Access

(also for some unbeknownst reason, it breaks the existing Windows install on the target disk, sticking that into a startup repair loop when nothing needs to be repaired)

Bob

@Dog Eh, letter assignments aren't stored on the partition (or table) anywhere at all AFAIK...?

Ben N

IIRC drive letters are only a Windows thing

Dog

2:57 PM

@Bob They seem persistent from the main OS to the OS recovery console so it's stored somewhere

Bob

@Dog They're not persistent as soon as GUIDs start changing, afaict => superuser.com/questions/421467/…

Dog

support.microsoft.com/en-gb/kb/223188

I suspect this will fix it

Ben N

Hmm, looking at bcdedit /enum, the boot manager is identified with an OM name, while the main loader has a drive letter

Dog

@BenN the drive letter is just a display name enumerated on dismay

Bob

@BenN The drive letter is only an abstraction by bcdedit. It's not stored as a drive letter in the BCD itself.

...what Dog said.

Ben N

2:58 PM

Ah, that makes sense

Dog

Yeah what Bob said

Remove the drive letter from the drive, without changing anything in the BCD, and it'll show the underlying device path instead

Bob

Anyway, I do know that cloning via Acronis asks if you want to reset NTFS IDs.

Dog

Funny thing is? Windows manages to connect to my Bluetooth speakers before loading the boot menu.

Bob

whoops

s/NTFS ID/NT signature/

misremembered

I wonder what it actually is... something stored in the partition table?

Dog

Does it 100% reliably every time, even when it can't actually boot the OS. Yet connecting to the speakers from inside properly working windows is a hit and miss affair...

Bob

3:01 PM

kb.acronis.com/content/6323 Seems like only Acronis uses that name for it.

cat6, band support, dual-SIM. Pick two.

Because dual-SIM is almost always an Asian variant which won't do B28 or won't do cat6.

Dog

S7 dual sim?

Bob

@Dog Well, looking at the lower prices :P

djsmiley2k

/me looks in

Bob

cat6 is pretty much only available in flagships right now...

Dog

Yup, that fixed it

Bob

3:04 PM

maybe I should try next year

> LTE Cat4 150/50 Mbps or LTE Cat6 300/50 Mbps

gee thanks gsmarena

that really clears it up

gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_a3_(2016)-7791.php

oh, it's the A310M

Ben N

Oh, I think I just found the answer to the booting confusion

Dog

Windows 10 seems to still be completely reliant on the good old DosDevices registry key from pre-XP, even on GPT + EFI systems -_-

Bob

which doesn't do B40... godammit

djsmiley2k

when you've been wondering for weeks why some of those thin clients you have won't automatically patch

Dog

Windows 10 seems to still be completely reliant on the good old DosDevices registry key from pre-XP, even on GPT + EFI systems -____-

djsmiley2k

3:05 PM

only to find out some how only a few have 32bit builds on them :(

Ben N

Inspecting the BCD configuration data, the bootloader stores drive serial numbers

That explains why it blows up when the serial number changes (i.e. data is cloned to a different drive)

Bob

@BenN isn't that more or less what I've been saying this whole time? :P

Ben N

Yeah, but I had to see for myself :p

Dog

Something odd going on with battery mon reporting no batteries found though, even though they're in device mangler

Oh wait, that's cause I've actually physically removed the batteries -_-

Ben N

That would do it

Bob

3:07 PM

lol

Dog

Right. Now everything works. Only took me the entire friggin day

To figure out that WIndows 10 still needs that damn registry entry changed (and only! that registry entry changed) to clone/move/convert to UEFI

Bootloader? Firmware? BCD? Drivers? Devies paths? Nah, ALL that just autoconfigures fine. But the old DosDevices registry key still overrides and breaks everything.

Up until it loads the GUI, or command prompt (in safe mode with networking), everything is fine because it just runs from "System drive" as specified by the EFI loader.

Ben N

Ah, but then Object Manager sees that key and says "oh, I better swap out these identifiers!"

Dog

@BenN Yeah pretty much

Swap them to some ancient values last documented in Windows XP

Bob

Two Ascend Mate 7 variants. One has dual-SIM, the other has B28

Dog

Now that's that day wasted, I gotta get ready to go out

Bob

3:12 PM

fluff.

Dog

!!foxgofloof

Err

!!Bot dead?

Ben N

!!ping

Dog

> Feature update to Windows 10, version 1607: Error

Ben N

@Dog Clear out WIMMount?

Dog

@BenN Meh, I'm busy trying to get my USB to work first

Bob

3:14 PM

why is there a Samsung Galaxy C5

S-series, J-series, A-series... C-series?

And I have no idea what the difference between them is, apart from S being the phone flagship.

Dog

Through all the restarts and what not to get Windows to boot Windows took that to mean the last update it forced on me before I migrated to have broken the system, rolled it back, and left crap in an inconsistent state

@Bob Yup

Bob

> 4G bands LTE

GEE THANKS GSMARENA

THAT REALLY HELPS

*cough*

Dog

Funny thing is? If Windows had never seen the disk before I was cloning onto, it probably would have auto-assigned the boot partition as letter C on first boot.

Ben N

There's always the nuclear option of sysprep /generalize followed by an imagex

Dog

@BenN That's not the nuclear option.

Ben N

3:19 PM

s/nuclear option/less than ideal fallback

Dog

THIS is the nuclear option:

Ben N

The /generalize will let the system boot pretty much anywhere, but it'll also blow away all machine-specific info like the product key (unless you have a digital entitlement)

Dog

Ah crap you can barely see the "Format C:" command there

Better

Bob

that's not the nuclear option

diskpart
select disk=0
clean all

Dog

@Bob pfft

> DISKPART> sel disk 0

Disk 0 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> clean all

Virtual Disk Service error:
Clean is not allowed on the disk containing the current boot,
system, pagefile, crashdump or hibernation volume.

Bob

3:23 PM

lol

I've never actually tried that before.

Dog

I did, accidentally, an hour ago, which is why I knew what'd happen :-P

djsmiley2k

:D

i love patching :/

Still, it's better than walking around actually talking to users ;/

Dog

Great, now my USB 3 controller works, but only in USB 2 mode

Time for another "Turn it off and back on again"

Yup. That fixed it

Bob

o.O

Dog

gb.imdb.com/title/tt4383594/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_6

Look! I found a movie about cats

Bob

3:30 PM

Did someone say movie about cats?

imdb.com/title/tt0356634

Dog

@Bob That's from before I was born (as a cat)

Bob

I've used 4 GB doing speedtests so far :P

Dog

Heh

Do any of your operators have any free speed test arrangements you could abuse?

Bob

@Dog not that I've heard of :(

my antenna should hopefully arrive tomorrow

I just have to figure out how to get it through the flyscreen without too big a hole

...should probably thread the wire in from the outside

Burgi

@Rahul2001 told ya!

djsmiley2k

3:47 PM

yawn

KB2973112

Old patches are old D:

Dog

Y'know what else is old? Yo mo.... never mind.

djsmiley2k

:D

Also I'm rebuilding old outta warranty laptops

because we aren't allowed to buy any 'spares'

3 hours ago, by Dog

Query volume for shrinkable space: You can shrink by 200 GB
Request shrink: 20GB - Error, not enough space to complete operation
Request shrink: 10GB, ten times: Completes fine.

:P

Dog

Jan 13 '14 at 10:41, by Bob

why am I a toilet

It's been two years 8 months Bob, you still haven't figured out?

@djsmiley2k Trust Microsoft to build something that fails for having too much and not enough space at the same time.

djsmiley2k

hehe

urgh lates this week makes smiley sad boy

but at least I might be able to get this software sorted out.

atm I have to switch profiles to administrator just to use it. Need it installing on a server instead so someone else can push these patches! :D

djsmiley2k

4:11 PM

wow I've just seen @DavidPostill's total for reviews in the queues :O

That's quite some dedication

DavidPostill

@djsmiley2k Thanks :)

Dog

8TB is a lot of space compared to 1T.

djsmiley2k

it's 800%!

You still looking for a months worth of tv storage?

Just watch in super low hd? :D

Hennes

Emulate model M keyboard sound on modern hardware

DavidPostill

4:34 PM

lol
A Library Services employee of University of Southern Queensland is sending phishing email. His boss and IT have been informed :)

Dog

A haha lol

One hour early for a party cause my PC changed itself to GMT+2 for some reason

DavidPostill

mxtoolbox.com/Public/Tools/…

djsmiley2k

:<

allquicatic

o/

DavidPostill

lol

"This is most likely because our Student Support Team only accepts emails from a USQ UMail address, or a registered alternative email address, to ensure the privacy of our students."

How to bin a complaint.

Lets see if HR and his boss also bounce my complaint :)

allquicatic

4:48 PM

@DavidPostill probability suggests some malware/virus has hijacked his system and email acct and it's not the actual employee doing it

Guitar Shoe Dave

Ah im back

Makes me happy when I come back and I see potentially DBA related chat

Just finished my 3rd upgrade of our travel systems.

allquicatic

directly sending phishing email as an employee is incredibly stupid and a quick way to get fired

DavidPostill

@allquicatic Could be.

Ben N

I'm sure it's a compromised account

I get such e-mails from .edu addresses occasionally, I always send info about it to webmaster@ and abuse@ the website

djsmiley2k

microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=50970 -- down for everyone?

as i can hit microsoft.com but this download page isn't working :/

..www.microsoft.com unexpectedly closed the connection. D:

DavidPostill

5:00 PM

@djsmiley2k Works for me :)

djsmiley2k

ok weird it's just chrome

how to stop chrome doing whatever the fak it's doing

'I derped and thought I'd ignore your dns settings'

Oh great, IE just froze instead

I <3 computers

Rahul2001

@djsmiley2k Works on chrome for me ;)

Hehe, I'm going on a spam adventure :D

Psycogeek

@GuitarShoeDave travel system?

Guitar Shoe Dave

Yes

Agresso

Psycogeek

wiki needs updating on that? what is it? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agresso

Canadian Luke

5:13 PM

@djsmiley2k It's just you. Want me to post the file somewhere public for you?

@djsmiley2k jmc.sd57.bc.ca/~lbarone/SuperUser

oldmud0

bc.ca is a tld?

wow apache 2.4.10 they better get their act together

at least it's not IIS 6.1

My dad started yelling me to reset the router because "the internet isn't working" -_-

I don't like it when my dad does that.

I don't treat him very well for it either.

"hey, are you USING THE INTERNET AGAIN!??!?!"

Well of course, I'm using the internet from the moment I turn on my computer.

djsmiley2k

5:29 PM

@CanadianLuke I sorted it by kicking chrome in the butt

but thanks.

Ok weird, why doesn't this laptop I've just freshly built connect to th ewifi o_O

Rahul2001

howtogeek.com/trivia/…

djsmiley2k

Dr Who?

Canadian Luke

@oldmud0 .ca is. The BC Government (my province) owns the .bc.ca part. Each province gets their 2-character code from the CIRA

Rahul2001

@djsmiley2k you built a laptop?

djsmiley2k

I know doctor who was a weird one

his on screen daughter was his predeessors daughter or something

@Rahul2001 lol nah just re-imaged

Rahul2001

5:30 PM

Lol, I haven't seen it yet

djsmiley2k

I did build a router from a alix board tho

What, any doctor who?

'Georgia Moffett, who plays Jenny, is the real-life daughter of Fifth Doctor actor Peter Davison and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy actress Sandra Dickinson. David Tennant described the episode by saying "We get to see the Doctor's daughter, played by the Doctor's daughter."'

Rahul2001

Yeah, haven't seen a single episode :/

djsmiley2k

D:

Ok some of it is really bad

Rahul2001

I don't even know where to start

djsmiley2k

hmmmm windows updates

but it's good too

I doubt they broke wifi tho :/

Series 6

oldmud0

5:32 PM

What if we made metamotherboards using FPGAs

djsmiley2k

the 'relaunch' is a good place

Rahul2001

The 2005 one?

djsmiley2k

yus

Canadian Luke

@oldmud0 TLDs are only the letters after the final visible dot (i.e. .ca, .us, .com, .net, et al). If I'm wrong, let me know, but that's what we operate with the belief under.

oldmud0

what about .co.uk

djsmiley2k

5:35 PM

it's .uk

org.uk; com.uk, etc etc

oldmud0

sure

so why do they pretend .co.uk is a tld

djsmiley2k

because nominet are dicks

/me shrugs

oldmud0

!!shrug

rip john cavil

Rahul2001

Did he die again? :/

Geek Trivia: The Communicator Used By Obi-Wan Kenobi In The Phantom Menace Is Actually A?

oldmud0

yes

!!caat

@ChatBotJohnCavil you will be miss 5ever

Rahul2001

5:40 PM

Um... Pretty sure @Bob The Almighty will resurrect him...

djsmiley2k

5:53 PM

ok it's getting kinda cold in here :/

that's shocking concidering how hot it is just outside the office door

bwDraco

6:27 PM

Also, why .co.uk and not .com.uk?

djsmiley2k

6:43 PM

hmmm we have both

No idea why it was originally .co.uk

also org.uk. gov.uk, and likely some others toooo

oldmud0

because nominet

djsmiley2k

yah :D

!!nobbers

allquicatic

7:21 PM

hi

Cavil is down because I let OVH expire my old server and I haven't put him up on my new box yet

bwDraco

JANET NRS

The JANET NRS (Name Registration Scheme) was a pseudo-hierarchical naming scheme used on British academic and research networks until the superficially similar system used by the Internet DNS was fully established. A principal difference was that the order of significance began with the most significant part (so called Big-endian addresses). Also, NRS names were canonically written in upper case. For example, the University of Cambridge had the NRS name UK.AC.CAM, whereas its DNS domain is cam.ac.uk. All NRS names had both a standard (long) and abbreviated (up to 18 characters) form. For example...

This is why it's .co.uk and not .com.uk.

Dog

!! Caaaaaaaaat

Oh

:-(

I need to get me a new server

djsmiley2k

7:37 PM

D:

did you loose the bits?

allquicatic

@djsmiley2k nope

I have everything thanks to zfs send

djsmiley2k

:)

Ben N

9:23 PM

Interesting fact: even on non-domain-joined Windows Pro machines, you can have a distinct GPO for each user

The LGPE can't view or edit them, but manually fiddling the files (or using a third party tool) works

oldmud0

stack logo to go up stairs, ok

DavidPostill

@oldmud0 lol

oldmud0

gamespot 404 page

pls sue

Dog

Ah hah!

I remembered I forgot I rememberd I forgot something

2

Ah train tickets, that was it

bwDraco

I'm reviving this question:

1

Q: Why and When are closed questions deleted?

It seems closed questions are very insecure. Why and When, are closed questions deleted? (Even highly voted well formed closed questions can be deleted). What is the argument that they can't just remain closed, and should be deleted? added by bwDraco to bring attention to the question again ...

Since we can't run bounties on Meta, I've decided to edit the question to draw attention to the issue.

Ben N

9:41 PM

@bwDraco I might remove the call-out of random, especially considering that it's someone else's post you're adding it to

bwDraco

Done.

Ben N

Thanks :)

DavidPostill

He is the main perpetrator though. Here's another one (10K only) that got deleted yesterday (too broad). Note his was the only close vote (mod privilege) and of course the only delete vote (again mod privilege). It had several good answers (mine and @BenN) and the question was also upvoted clearly showing that at least some people thought it was useful ...

superuser.com/questions/1095367/…

Ben N

Ah, so that's why I lost a shred of rep the other day

He does tend to occasionally remove things (see the 10K tools), but calling him out in someone else's question is less than ideal

Anyway, I'm currently writing an answer to that meta question

DavidPostill

@BenN Thanks for reminding me about the 10K tools. I must remember to visit them more often :)

bwDraco

9:58 PM

I'm about to write an open letter to random about this on Meta. I'm getting tired of this.

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