PC Tech Thread

Tidy!!

How often do people on here do disk-health checks? I'm starting to get really anxious about data-loss

My NAS does the checks weekly for me and emails me. I read the emails. This is RAID 6, I can suffer losing any 2 drives so long as I replace them quickly once they fail.

I backup my NAS to an external drive, that is not kept plugged in, at least once a month.

I don't use cloud backup for this as it's... erm... maybe 15TB? Cloud backup isn't onerously expensive but the time to upload 15TB, keep it in sync, and then download it in an disaster recovery situation... well, that seems onerous. Cold storage external hard drives just seem way cheaper and better in almost every way... I have a Google calendar reminder that recurs monthly to remind me... but it's not that hard to remember, I do backups when I get paid so it's just one of the pay-day monthly chores to plug the drive in, run the sync script and then un plug it.

Eventually that drive will be off-site, it isn't at the moment. But for documents that I really care about all of that is in Google Drive, additionally sync'd to disk on the NAS and copied to the external drive.

For most of the stuff on my NAS drives (mainly media) I don't bother backing up but do make a weekly file listing (which is backed up to the cloud) so if I lose a drive I know what I've lost and what needs to be ripped/downloaded again.

Local computers are backed up to my NAS. There's the risk of fire or theft wiping everything out but nothing I'd lose is that important.

The stuff I really don't want to lose is on Onedrive (also pay about a fiver a month for Office and 1TB of storage {in fact it's 1TB per user so 6TB if you want to get creative}).

That's things like pictures, scans of contracts, config files, etc that would be difficult/impossible to recreate.

I'm really surprised that you're ok with an on site backup! I have been burgled and lost my computers AND my backup drives before. Let alone the fire and flood risk.

I know you know this and you've made the right decision for you.... but it still puts me on edge!

I'm really surprised that you're ok with an on site backup! I have been burgled and lost my computers AND my backup drives before. Let alone the fire and flood risk.

Right now I'm between homes and leaving an employer.

Typically I would store the backup hard drive off-site... but right now I lack that luxury.

In a few months when things have settled I'll go back to having an off-site... likely will just add an extra HDD so that I rotate them and have the local backup be the fresh one and the off-site be last month's one.

Oh hai!
Can anyone recommend a really cheap tiny pc, preferably with WiFi, ssd, can take 2 screens kind, run windows 10. Kidd of like the Lenovo Tiny series. Second hand is best. Where would one find such an item?
https://www.lenovo.com/gb/en/desktops-and-all-in-ones/thinkcentre/m-series-tiny/c/M-Series-Tiny#compareSection

Search back a few pages and you'll find a discussion about this exact subject... but this is a good place to look

An NUC is the other option. Keep an eye out on ebay as they come up reasonably often. Be aware that some of the Lenovo ones in particular have pretty underpowered processors so have a search of them.

Or if you can be flexible on the Windows 10 requirement you could try a raspberry pi.

If people weren't aware there's a new Terminal out for Windows 10 https://www.howtogeek.com/673729/heres-why-the-new-windows-10-terminal-is-amazing/ Looks decent from a first play, particularly if you're running the Linux subsystem.

Woop, shan't be renewing my mobaxterm subscription then!

OK, thanks everyone. Some good options there!

Does it need to be tiny? :)

It's amazing. And switch to wsl2 as soon as it is out

Yep, small, very small. Hope all is good with you.

My data woes are looking a little rosier now. That drive I had with barely any uptime that was spouting i/o errors is sat 1.8 days into a ddrescue from a live usb. Seems like a fantastic tool. A (always terrifying) dd clone failed almost immediately. Process is down to around 17MB of bad space on it so data loss shouldn't be too bad.

It is, thanks. The one I have for sale is not that small :)

Struggling with file sharing issues on windows. I currently have at home PC-A (my one) PC-B (work computer) and a laptop.

All 3 on the same LAN, signed in as the same microsoft account, file sharing on and networks set as private status.

PC-A can see shared folders on PC-B and vice versa, PC-B can see shared folders on the laptop and vice versa, but PC-A (mine) can see very limited folders on the laptop and is denied permission to the documents folder, which should be shared in theory (PC-B it works fine)

Is this likely to be an issue on PC-A or the laptop?

Is there a way to reset file sharing settings and start from scratch?

Also, is there any way to get remote desktop working in windows 10 home?

Not natively. You need, iirc, pro or enterprise.

I have not tried this, but have been curious before: https://remotedesktop.google.com/

Chrome is basically a mini-OS nowadays, because it forms such a core part of Chromebook... and so they have a remote desktop capability via an extension, that is what that is. Chrome is both the server and the client.

Why haven't I used it? Because I have multiple machines, but I only need to remote into one of them and that is the one that is Windows Pro and has the server, and the RDP client is free on the non-Pro Windows, so it turned out I had everything I needed.

Oh yeah, I think I used that before. Will do the job.

In reply to my first post - I managed to share the docs folder of the Laptop, turns out all I needed to do was add 'Everyone' to the 'shared with' user.

That doesn't sound that secure though. Considering I am on the same windows account on all 3 machines you would have thought it would be easy to just share with users logged in under that account....

My work desktop is sometimes connected to the company network via VPN, so does that mean all my workmates will be able to see the contents of my laptop, or does file sharing not cross over networks like that?

Sorry, selling my printer spam.

Has anyone used Miracast "Projecting" on W10 to set up a 2nd spare laptop screen as a second screen?

We're WFH and I keep trying to work out a neat way to have a second screen, a laptop that can be put away sounds better than a monitor permanently living on our dinning room table.

Just wanted some user experience before I spend time on something only to find out it's painful and unusable irl.

I looked at this recently and it seemed like it was unlikely to to work for my use, which was to get a Desktop's screen on to a Surface Pro, in order to use it as a graphics tablet, but with the greater processing power of the desktop. I'll be chuffed if I'm proved wrong though.

The portable, USB-powered monitors are neat. This kind of thing
https://www.amazon.co.uk/AOC-I1659FWUX-16-Inch-portable-Monitor/dp/B07DKTPH6G

Just one USB cable for power and monitor connection and half as thick as a laptop means it's easy to put up/take down.

The one I have (not the above one) I use with one of these stands https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007FNF5IC/ as the supplied ones are a bit bulky.

I've tried to use Miracast in the past and it was always a ballache. I guess it may be better nowadays.