My Precious Partition

Over the weekend, I initiated myself to lengthen the life of our old PC Andrea.

She’s on her fifth year as a computer and even with Windows 7 Ultimate installed and everything, it’s still slow. I know that the hardware is the reason for this, but I have to make sure that my parents and younger brother would still be able to use it. I need to squeeze the life out of it and get maximum use from it. Hopefully they’ll be able to get a new one next year.

All I know is that the hard drive is nearing its end, the video card might be broken (outdated to say the least) and the processor is about to give.

I decided to install a Linux distribution, only hoping that might increase the life of the computer itself.

I created a LiveUSB of Ubuntu and began installation. There it was, the partition interface. I mean, I’ve seen it before. The only scary part about it is that if I make one mistake – no matter how small – I could kill the partition.

Alas, fate is cruel. The partitioning system crashed. I restarted the computer. I entered Windows 7 and only saw one partition. Panicking, I started to look for ways to get it back.

Then I found EaseUS Partition Manager, which also comes with a partition recovery tool. I used it to recover files that were in that partition that I knew was important like pictures and converted home videos.

The recovery tool worked with a little help from Black Beard. I got my stuff back!

In short, the lesson here is: always back up your files. Don’t be an idiot like me.

Right now, after that whole event, I just think that reinstalling Windows 7 might do the trick. Probably after that, I’ll install a distribution of Linux, but that’s another story. Besides, I don’t want it to go back to its prime, because I know that will never happen. All I want is for it to just last long enough until my family gets something new.

Keep Chewing!

The Truth About Careless People

Ever since I worked for Future Shop, I’ve always wanted to write this. Here it goes.

What really grinds my gears are those who can’t take care of their tech. I am a lover of all things computers, from cellphones, gadgetry, hardware and software. Out of all of my things, I’ve only broken one special thing to me: my old Toshiba. After that, that was it.

Even then, although I was not tech savvy as now or as careful as now, I still feel bad for being careless about my stuff. I just feel that we should give some kind of importance for the things we buy or we get, no matter the price.

Consider this. I’ve had my HP laptop (Hannah Patricia) for an exact year now. Never have I scratched her, broken her or let her down. Sure, she was sick every once  and a while from BSODs and fever (overheating while installing Ubuntu), but I made sure that she was working on top performance. I cleaned her every week both software and peripherally. She still runs as good as new.

I hate those people who are so careless that you can literally smell the smoke coming out of their computer. I opened computer units that are so dirty, I had to excuse myself because I vomited a little. Some collect so much dust, that we have to vacuum it for at least 10 minutes.

Some are just so scratched out, that when we write our sign-in report, we just literally put an X on top of the report to signify that the unit came in with these scratches.

Come on! I seriously can’t believe some people. I mean, even Apple products get scratched. It shows that people are becoming less and less appreciative of things.

If you are reading this and you think you’re one of those people that I mentioned, please stop. Take care of your stuff. Be nice to it. Be thankful that you have it. Don’t get careless.

Keep Chewing!

Why I Didn’t Install Ubuntu

Ubuntu is a popular Linux distribution. It’s the most user friendly and a very heavily supported open source operating system. It’s what Linux newbies (like myself) install.

I definitely liked it when I worked with it in school, but the OS is terrible for laptops. Here’s why:

1. It’s a battery hog. It’ll eat all of the battery power it can take. Jupiter, the famous power management application, is no longer supported and so it was taken off the Ubuntu market.
2. It overheats my laptop. Like I said, Jupiter is no longer supported, so that’s never going to get fixed.
3. For some reason, my settings don’t stay the same. Each time I reboot my laptop, everything is there: my account, background and customization, but my power settings, brightness settings and other things such as my Unity Tweak settings do not stay the same.
4. It looks a lot like the Mac OS X user interface. I just don’t like it. Period.

I am hoping for some more apps similar to Jupiter that can help my battery life. Get this: when I had Ubuntu on my laptop, it only ran approximately one (1) hour on a 96% battery percentage. Usually, on my Windows 7, I’d be using my laptop for at least five to six hours.

At some point, when Hannah Patricia doesn’t perform her abilities (I’d say that would be five years from now), I’ll be getting a System 76 or something like Lenovo or ASUS.

If you have any suggestions for a battery friendly distro, comment below!

Keep Chewing!