[Wolves] I hate Windows

[Mark Ellse]

Just a rant, but explaining my other post.

As well as backing up my data files, I use Norton Ghost to copy the hard 
disk from time to time just in case my system goes faulty. That way I 
have a relatively recent backup system disk that I can put in if there 
are problems. Belt and braces - safe whatever happens. But you're not, 
and here is what happened.

1.	Windows tells me to perform automatic updates. I did.
2.	Windows then starts behaving flakily. So I think let's take 
prevenative measures.
3.	Can't Ghost system disk - Ghost can't read from certain sectors.
4.	Run Windows checkdisk utility. It takes all night and fiddles with 
the disk. Then Windows won't boot. It says that a file is missing from 
the system.
5.	So copy file to CD and put it into computer. Silly me, forgot that 
disk is NTFS and can't be accessed with Win98 boot disk. (Why no Win2k 
boot disk facility and ability to read NTFS I don't know.)
6.	No problem, I think. Simply put the disk with the missing file into a 
computer with the backup hard disk. Boot the machine and copy missing 
file over to the faulty disk. Yes, it worked and the original hard disk 
will now boot.
7.	Now, since CHKDSK has run, and repaired errors, I should be able to 
back up the original hard disk. Can I? Not likely.
8.	But never mind, I still have the backup disk with the system on don't 
I? No I don't!!! Very often, when you put two NTFS disks into one 
computer, Windows, in its great wisdom, decides to put the paging file 
onto the opposite disk from which the system boots. There might be good 
sense in that from the operating point of view. But then, when you 
remove the second hard disk, the first one can't boot because it has an 
inadequate paging file.

So now I have one flaky hard disk I can't copy from, and one messed up 
backup.

AND PEOPLE PAY MONEY FOR THIS TO THE RICHEST MAN ON THE EARTH!!

Mark