Aquarium Marine 3.2

[Jean-Pierre Marro]

Hello Jim,
Can we hope to see additions in the Aquarium marine de 3.2 in the days which come?
They would so be the timely since the last modification.
Thank you for an affirmative answer …

[Jim Sachs]

I'm still struggling to get a new PC up and running so I can do more development on the Aquarium.

[patscarr]

Jim, your computer "struggles" always make me chuckle. It's the easiest thing to buy a brand new one for a few hundred bucks.

[Jim Sachs]

That's exactly what I did. As I mentioned in another thread, the struggle is to get back to where I was - a point where I can actually do MA development on the new computer. The old hard drive has all my programs, which aren't "registered" on the new one. These are mostly ones which were downloaded years ago with a one-time installation, so there's no re-installation disk, and haven't even been supported for years. Visual C++ 98 is a good example. Lightwave 8 is another. PaintShop Pro 8. Even MS Word wants me to buy the whole MS Office suite before I can even read .doc files again.

[patscarr]

Oh, right. I thought you were trying to get one of your dinosaurs working again so as to have the minimum capabilities to run MA on, like you've done several times in the past. Well, then I have to agree with Morgan. If you need expensive software, I would think your manager/agent/publisher could provide it. You're like a musician without an instrument, an artist without his paints, or a singer without a recording studio. Give Riechart a call. I'm sure he'll hook you up. You just have to let them know over there what you need. They don't read this forum everyday like we do.

[DazednConfused]

Jim...have you tried imaging software? My personal favorite is Shadow Protect. Acronis also does well with disk cloning.

[feldon34]

Originally posted by DazednConfused:

Jim...have you tried imaging software? My personal favorite is Shadow Protect. Acronis also does well with disk cloning.  

Acronis is good. The problem here was transitioning to a new computer with new motherboard, components, etc.

[Jim Sachs]

I used Image Assistant from PC Mover. It was a total waste of $39.95. I might as well have just dragged all the files over from one drive to another. None of the programs considered themselves registered afterward.

[cjmaddy]

I've kept regular images using Acronis for many years now. It's saved my bacon more than once. - I would never want to be without it

But!!! - It was a nightmare transferring to Windows7....

Originally posted by cjmaddy:

....that was only the start of my problems...

I have an external hard drive with all my Acronis images and backups on etc.
But this external drive wasn't recognised. - Also I needed to install Acronis.... and that wasn't accepted - it needed an update.... that wouldn't load!

I would say here that when starting with Windows 7 it is essential to have available a computer with an OS you know, and access to the internet!

When I finally got an updated version of Acronis loaded, it didn't recognise any drives!!
Eventually I tried to uninstall Acronis, (numerous times!), - it went through all the apparent steps but repeatedly remained installed!
A re-install over the existing install finally did the trick... and at last I could see all the drives!

It was one long toil of problems, meaningless error messages and frustrations...  

Good luck transferring to Window 7 ... You'll need it!!! .... (And don't even think about Windows 8)....

[Jim Sachs]

I was already using Win7. The current problem is simply transferring from one Win7 hard drive to a bigger one.

[hillover]

Originally posted by Jim Sachs:

I was already using Win7. The current problem is simply transferring from one Win7 hard drive to a bigger one.  

It's a bit late for your current recovery effort.

However, for the future, have you considered installing Windows Home Server? Among other benefits, transferring an entire system to a bigger hard drive is simple and straightforward and painless. Of course, it won't handle things like "video card incompatibility".

[cjmaddy]

Originally posted by Jim Sachs:

I was already using Win7. The current problem is simply transferring from one Win7 hard drive to a bigger one.  

I would be surprised if an Acronis image couldn't do that. But with Windows7, - who knows?

[Jim Sachs]

I don't really expect you guys to come up with a magical cure - the main reason I'm posting in this thread is just to explain why my recently planned additions to MA 3.2 have not been forthcoming.

I'm actually on the new computer right now. Internet Explorer works (though it gives a bunch of error messages each time I close one of its windows or shut it down). I got MS Word working (finally found an old Word 2002 disk).

Other than that, nothing. No Visual C++ 98 or utilities for program development, no PaintShop Pro 8 for drawing, no Lightwave for creating 3D objects, no FinalDraft for writing scripts, no Quickbooks for dealing with finances, no Adobe Premiere for editing videos, no AntiVirus, no nuthin'...

89 icons on my desktop, and only 6 of them work.

[hillover]

Originally posted by hillover:

It's a bit late for your current recovery effort.

However, for the future, have you considered installing Windows Home Server? Among other benefits, transferring an entire system to a bigger hard drive is simple and straightforward and painless. Of course, it won't handle things like "video card incompatibility".  

Looks like this had already been recommended a couple of years ago.

https://www.feldoncentral.com/forums...ver#post122328

[Jim Sachs]

I'm not quite sure how a Home Server would be much different, but then I don't know much about them. The programs don't just live 'in the cloud', they must be on some actual hard drive somewhere. When that hard drive fails, maybe it will be easy to duplicate, but won't the programs all say "Sorry buddy, this is a different system. You'll have to buy a new license".

[feldon34]

Windows Home Server is great for backing up all the data off every computer every night. It's also great for keeping all your Photos, Videos, Installers/software, etc. in one place and then they're accessible from everywhere.

But restoring a Windows 7 backup to a different motherboard won't work. Jim's issue in this case was not having all the installers for all the programs he uses in one place. When you are developing software/doing 3D animation, it's a lot more programs than most people realize. We're talking Lightwave, the whole Visual Studio (which is a beast), etc.


If I were to visit Jim, the first thing I would do is go through every box in the house, find all the software, and sort it into 2 piles "Useful" and "Museum". Then I'd setup a low-end computer with WHS with all the automated settings for updates, backups, etc. Then I'd copy all the installers for all of Jim's programs (using Isobuster for all the installers that are on disk) to one folder "Software" on the WHS. I'd also redo the computer with a 64GB SSD and change all the default folder locations so that data CANNOT be stored on the C: drive but will all be stored on the D: drive. Then who cares if the Windows 7 boot drive gets wiped?

If I were Jim's publisher, I would have bought 2 or 3 sets of motherboard, CPU, power supply, hard drive, etc. so that parts can just be swapped in if they fail. There's really no excuse for an artist to have to worry about their computer setup.

[hillover]

I totally agree - with the added note that it's quite possible to restore to a computer with a similar motherboard (similar model of CPU, motherboard manufacturer, etc.). And the issue of video board compatibility is usually easily resolved.

...and I've always found it rather easy to purchase an identical (or sifficiently similar) motherboard on eBay, if I didn't have one saved on the shelf, from some previous project.

The key aspect of this is that the registry is restored.

[Jim Sachs]

One problem is that even if installation disks exist for those ancient programs, all that stuff has been in storage for the past 6 years while I've been building the new house. Picture a storage facility like the one in Indiana Jones, where the government keeps the Ark of the Covenant.

One small ray of hope - Re-registering Final Draft turned out to be easy. It's nice to see a company give you a pass after a hard-drive disaster.

[dwax]

I made a clone of my old drive with, Paragon Drive Copy 12 Professional. After I did I put the new drive in the pc it worked without any problems. I did it because I needed more space. I don't know if that would work if I put it in a new computer because of the difference of parts difference tho. But Paragon has alot of other software for computer migration maybe they have something you can use Jim.

http://www.paragon-software.com/

[Jim Sachs]

I gave up, wiped the drive, installed a new copy of Win7, and will attempt to rebuild one program at a time.