Windows 8 usage over twice that of Windows 7 beta

In a twitter post, Microsoft stated that

Windows 8 consumer preview usage more than twice Windows 7 beta at the same point in time. Millions of people using everyday

Source: Twitter

 

[Night Hawk]

Here I have the CP installed directly in a dual boot on the second drive with the 64bit 7 host on the first. The CP is also on a VM as well as now being installed on a 32gb flash drive. As far as backing the 7 install up I already have full system images stored on two other drives.

As for recovering OEM machines the option to perform a full restoration which is a wipe of C and fresh copy of Windows is a full recovery option when first going to power up the desktop or laptop. Not all Vista laptops at the time saw this however.

But the customer can simply go back through the dealer and often have one ordered if not using a disk creation utility for the cost of shipping only at times depending on if the unit is still under warranty. The mistake that was made to begin with was by the owner of not haiving either created or ordered a recovery disk prior to simply watching the preinstall vanish and not having the means to replace the CP to go back.

Newbie errors are unfortunately a common occurance while the better seasoned user knows better to be prepared at least. You saw it when the 7 beta and later RC builds were out and someone simply rushed to download and install and then looked for help after they made an ut ohhhh.. Then that was also another reason why SF grew fast!

 

[mart4494]

It actually surprises me that people don't know PC Makers no longer gives you a Windows disc, or even a restore disc, and only a restore partition, companies such as Dell, or HP will sell you a restore disc that will bring your PC back to original factory specs, which still causes the end user to lose all the work he/she has done modifying their PC(s) to their individual tastes.

Talking backup, it never ceases to amaze me the number of folks that don't bother with any backup system whatsoever. They keep all sorts of things that are precious to them - photos, etc. But mention using a simple external HD for backup purposes and they always want to think about it even though they've spent several hundred $$$'s on the laptop. I had one recently where the laptop died, managed to save some stuff from the old HD. Set-up the new Dell and restored some of the personal stuff. Mentioned backup and it was another I'll think about it even though they seem distressed somewhat about loosing several of their personal files on the defunct laptop!! A go figure time (again) for me.

 

[GMan]

Talking backup, it never ceases to amaze me the number of folks that don't bother with any backup system whatsoever. They keep all sorts of things that are precious to them - photos, etc.

Precious is an understatement. I'm about as serious of a musician that one can get without actually doing it for a living. (I would never "sell out" but if the correct opportunity arises, I may do something with it.) I have a ton of music on my pc that I simply can not lose or I would be devastated. So what I do is use Allway Sync every few weeks to backup my music folder to my father's netbook and disallow any type of remote pc to alter the share, while still sharing. (Other pc users here are noobs.)

So if my HDD goes down that has the music, at least it will be fine in another location. Other than that though, on all the machines I admin, I turn off System Restore and keep no kind of recovery method. Things have always been very well and I'm sure the future will be the same. Worse comes to worse here, I have to reinstall the OS on a failed HDD, but even a failed HDD has never happened to me in all my life. (Knocks on wood.) I attribute that to being meticulous with defrags, and the right types at the right times.

 

[Mike Lonewolf]

I still say a good weekly/monthly backup plan is the best idea. WITH the low cost of high terabyte drives, and enclosures are a no-brainer these days, and backing up the entire partition (including O/S) is simple at best. I would venture to bet the seasoned users here have excellent backup plans, and like me format and clean install often. Not only does that give you a more responsive system, but gets lots of the residue garbage out as well.

 

[GMan]

Performance degradation is a myth. The only thing that really slows down Windows is when people have junky stuff starting with the OS. Or performance is degraded from otherwise bad Admin-ing.

My 7 here has been upgraded with every leak/release since beta 7000 - it's a typical example of how I do on all machines.

I manually clean the registry very thoroughly, but I don't delude myself that I'm gaining speed or anything like that. It's just for peace of mind and perhaps the occasional re-install software without troubles.

Other than that, you could install as much software as your storage can hold and nothing is going to slow down. Maybe a reg cleaner like CCleaner would take few extra seconds, but no effects really beyond that.

It depends on what is installed too...like if you install 3rd party security - then that is meant to slow down the system because it can't work otherwise. It's all common sense with a sprinkle of know-how.

 

[Night Hawk]

I tested the backup and system image options in the RC and later the retail with the image being restored in Oct. 2010 and still going strong. I still see to the periodic full backup image as well as manually backing newer items up as well as any new downloads seeing repeat downloads to the different drives used for things like utility programs, updates, etc. in case of any bad downloads as well as keeping them onhand in more then place in case of any drive fail.

In the last 15yrs. alone I still to see one WD drive fail on me while I took one of my old much smaller drives and replaced one on someone else's system when that drive failed. While a different brand entirely it still shows even a raher new system back then could see a drive go belly up on you at any time!

In your situation there GMan I would have added in a pair of extra storage/backup drives like I did on this build to accompany the host 7 and test drive where the CP is presently installed. I also keep another drive in a fan cooled usb enclosure to backup the backups!

With 7 the full system image option has also proved itself reliable in some unusual as well as typical types of restorations such as setting up a restoration of an image to the second HD to see if a dual boot could work. With the built-in option the second HD's restoration and edit into the host BCD made the host obsolete! The restoration on the second drive however was worth that test since i could have simply swapped data cables between drives to see that made the default host drive.

Once the Release Preview is out I will be testing the backup features for the new Windows as well to see how that goes not expecting anything but reliable results once again. Of course even with any large improvements seen with the backup features in 8 you wouldn't expect that to be any major selling point.

And the increasing numbers of those looking at 8 having missed 7 are now being stumped by the Metro UI having replaced XP installs with the CP it seems! I hear more complaints lately about how awkward it is for them. As far as people actually trying out and staying with any new version since XP was first out 7 was the "MS in the Brightest Light" moment over what I see now with too many being reluctant to want to keep running with 8!

 

[GMan]

In the last 15yrs. alone I still to see one WD drive fail on me while I took one of my old much smaller drives and replaced one on someone else's system when that drive failed. While a different brand entirely it still shows even a raher new system back then could see a drive go belly up on you at any time!

I would never use any other spinner than WD. I've fixed machines for friends of family members with shot drives. Always a Samsung or some other brand that failed, that needed replacement.

I was given a laptop with a failed drive once too, that I actually use now every day. I used a program call HDDRegenerator on it. (Ya, I laughed too before I used it! lol No WAY this would fix it but thought I had nothing to lose by trying. VERY skeptical.) It ran overnight and when I woke up, the machine operated flawlessly and has ever since. I never even checked to see the maker of the HDD, but I'm sure it's not WD.

The program kept saying something like "repaired cluster 2939" "repaired cluster 3430" so on and so on and I kept laughing at it until I saw the excellent results. I figure it just marked the segments bad so they can never be used again and moved the data elsewhere.

 

[Night Hawk]

I'm familiar and actually have a limited version of HDD Regenerator onhand here. That still can be help as long as the main armature isn't history and slapping up against the spindle for repair of bad sectors. The Windows installer will also work around bad sectors found on brand new drives as well marking them bad to place files elsewhere.

The drive found DOA on that old prebuild however wasn't any Hitachi or Samsung you might expect to see fail these days since other companies are putting out the lower quality lower cost drives but a small Seagate commonly seen back in the 90s. The WDs have always lasted in many builds while you often see a board or supply fail before anything else!

The point being made about seeing multiple backups of files however is not just in case a drive croaks on you but file degradation over time can leave files totally fragmented especially when bounced back and forth between folders. I've run into that too often when keeping files on drives moved into a new build until transferred over to a new larger drive only to find some useless!

Data disks burned on an old build and then being read on a new can also be problematic at times as well. I've had to toss data cds and dvds as well when they could no longer be read or you were able to retrieve files from them in satisfactory condition while the disks remained in perfect condition while others lasted for years at the same time.

The Golden Rule of Thought there is never ever count on any one backup 100%! Strange things can happen no matter how well the initial backup goes. Backup the backup of the backup of the...