My 10GB disk on my VirtualPC was nearly full to overflowing so I went looking on how to resize the virtual disk. There’s a free product that does this for you, but to quote an old song “I waved that thing all over the place, my boomrang won’t come back”. In fact I was using the app correctly but not understanding what the app actually did. This guide showed me the way.
I preordered Windows 7 Home Premium from Amazon. These are my thoughts.
First off I thought I backed up my system. Unfortuntely I didn’t. I assumed it worked as there was a large amount of files copied and it took a long time. So I lost all my app settings.
I dropped the 64bit version into my drawer and rebooted. Selected the SSD, formatted it and installed. It was quick compared to WinXP MCE which was on there previously.
A few problems after initial install: Sound thought it was running through SP/DIF (it isn’t), Belkin Wireless G USB wasn’t working, and there was a mysterious yellow exclamation mark. Gigabyte drivers for the mobo and onboard sound fixed the sound issue but Belkin doesn’t issue 64bit drivers it seems. So I plugged in my Netgear WG111T usb wireless. That worked.
The WG111T caused a few blue screens. Turned out the exclamation mark was Away Mode system being 32bit. No crashes since I disabled it in BIOS.
The new interface will take some getting used to. Also where do you put your own codecs now? You used to drop them in system32 and run regsvr32. There isn’t a system64 and everyone on the net makes stupid directories in the root for them.
Doesn’t feel any faster. In some cases it feels slower. This is on a dual-core AM2 5300+ running at 2.7GHz with 2gb of memory. Also memory at start is 500mb.
Installation of MediaPortal was pretty straight forward if not without slight hiccups.
MiL is now home: Been told to take it easy for a couple of weeks but I think she will start cooking before the end of the week. All lines have been removed from Mrs Bear which is good. However she is now in some discomfort, in no small part due to the amount of fluid she needs to drink (7 litres yesterday). She’s also been visited by the dietician whose promised not to change her food choice from the non-KPI but vegetarian Quiche to the KPI friendly but non-vegetarian Ham Sandwich. Also from this change she can get her hands on Cheese and Biscuits.
Final Comment: I am becoming a dab hand with the rear wheel turning wheelchairs!
Just to let you know that I am back from spending 2 nights in a dingy motel on the outskirts of Newcastle!
Mrs Bear went into theatre about 2 hours after MiL did, at 2pm yesterday. They managed to remove MiL’s kidney by keyhole which was a surprise since they thought they’d have to do it via standard surgery. Mrs Bear left Recovery near midnight, but they allowed me and FiL to visit her while there just briefly. She was very pale and quite puffy. Early today, about 10am-ish, she was still pale and weak, drifting in and out of conciousness as the drugs she was being pumped full of kept her sedated. This afternoon saw a marked improvement. She was sat up in bed, chatty – moaning about the horrid hospital food – and talking to the patients/nurses. We bought her some prawn sandwiches and laters some Ploughmans which she was grateful for. MiL was quite nauseus this morning but feeling a lot better in the afternoon. Me and FiL went on a wheel chair hunt that took us what seemed like two hours to find one (though it only took 45 mins) – they are like gold dust! They had a good chat before wheeling back and we relinquished the ‘chair.
Hopefully Mrs Bear will be home later next week!