Is it just me or have the boards slowed down a bit since Doom 3 landed? Hmmmm. I'm now deep into the Delta Labs and still loving it.....

CT

At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid.

-Friedrich Nietzsche

I have passed like 5 lockers without finding the damned security codes, which is irritating, but it just means I'll have to start over and look around better. The detail on everything is just amazing. And I like how you can use the computers "in engine" without jumping to another screen.

Check your PDA everytime you pick another PDA up - it downloads their data onto yours. Some people have locker codes in email, some in their recorded log files.

I like the interaction with the PDA and computers both. True, the PDA does feel like an update of System Shock, but the fact that it's in an id game at all is amazing.



I will think peaceful, happy thoughts about my new video card, in hopes that it will work.

I finally got my Doom3 by UPS last night.

I really like the interface. And the heavy metal track that plays is not bad. I am in the "Enpro" section or whatever.

I think the game rocks so far, but I wish it wasn't quite so DARK. Jesus. It actually is scary, I have jumped back in my seat several times.

I thought the "Super Turbo Turkey Puncher" machine was hilarious! Did anyone see that? If you go in there before the first mission you can play it.

I have passed like 5 lockers without finding the damned security codes, which is irritating, but it just means I'll have to start over and look around better. The detail on everything is just amazing. And I like how you can use the computers "in engine" without jumping to another screen.

And I keep getting plasma cells everywhere, but I didn't see the plasma gun. Where was it? Overall I think it rocks.







CT

At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid.

-Friedrich Nietzsche

Can you do backups from the boot cd also? Creating an image file WHILE in windows just seems....I don't know, wrong? Like you're asking for trouble? Maybe not...

To be honest, I don't recall. I THINK you can, but I'll have to check when I get home.

As for problems, I've never run into one. Granted, I'm not sitting there and gaming while it's running (besides Solitaire), but I do some basic web browsing or other light things that don't use the hard drive too much.

I just learned that Symantec (owners of Ghost and Norton AV) bought out Powerquest. However, Drive Image is still sold and supported through them. I think it happened before I even purchased Drive Image, I just didn't notice it.

Ghost might be a better bet though. It's more popular and thus probably a little better. I only got this because it was on sale and it had some good reviews. Ghost 2003 might work out better than what you have now. But I can't comment on the since the last Ghost I used was acerca 2000.

Good luck!



Pentium 4 3.06 GHz w/ Hyperthreading + 533 MHz FSB
1024MB DDR2100 Crucial RAM
PNY Verto GeForce 6800 GT
Windows XP Pro
SB Live! Value
Viewsonic 17" VP171b LCD

This comment was edited on Aug 6, 11:07.

I use "Drive Image" by PowerQuest.

It runs pretty well. Backing up can be done through Windows (even if you're backing up your Windows partition), and doesn't completely bog down the system. At "HIGH" compression, it reduces the size to a little under 50% on average, though it takes a little longer to do it on high.

I usually tell it to make the image sizes fit on a DVD, so after it's done, I archive them with my trusty DVD Burner and it takes up A LOT less space than when I used CD's.

Restoring the Windows partition requies (I'm 90% sure) to use the boot CD (the install CD).

Can you do backups from the boot cd also? Creating an image file WHILE in windows just seems....I don't know, wrong? Like you're asking for trouble? Maybe not...

Thanks for the tip. I'll look them up.



I will think peaceful, happy thoughts about my new video card, in hopes that it will work.

So what do you use for imaging? For some reason, the last time I tried ghost at home, it didn't see my drives...

I use "Drive Image" by PowerQuest.

It runs pretty well. Backing up can be done through Windows (even if you're backing up your Windows partition), and doesn't completely bog down the system. At "HIGH" compression, it reduces the size to a little under 50% on average, though it takes a little longer to do it on high.

I usually tell it to make the image sizes fit on a DVD, so after it's done, I archive them with my trusty DVD Burner and it takes up A LOT less space than when I used CD's.

Restoring the Windows partition requies (I'm 90% sure) to use the boot CD (the install CD).

It may not be the best one out there (not entirely sure it's even still sold). But it's recent, and the UI is very simple.

In all, it's saved my butt a couple of times, and I got it on sale, so I'm quite pleased.

Pentium 4 3.06 GHz w/ Hyperthreading + 533 MHz FSB
1024MB DDR2100 Crucial RAM
PNY Verto GeForce 6800 GT
Windows XP Pro
SB Live! Value
Viewsonic 17" VP171b LCD

So what do you use for imaging? For some reason, the last time I tried ghost at home, it didn't see my drives...

This can be caused by having an older version of Ghost that doesn't detect the NTFS file system, but you'd have to have a REALLY old version of Ghost for that to happen.

Also, any Ghost version before Ghost Personal Edition actually runs from a Dos box, and the disk you want to run Ghost from must be FAT32, or it won't work (well, unless you get REALLY creative).

I have a bootCD that will start up the necessary stuff, ramdisks some commands here and there, then allows me access to the one FAT32 partition I have that contains Ghost. From there on it's a simple matter of Ghosting my NTFS partitions.
I've always used Ghost, and always will. It has never, and I do mean NEVER failed me yet. (knock on wood)
I've worked with Imagequest on my last rollout job, and just didn't like it as much. Too many errors creaping into the restore process, way too many times.

My current setup is such that all application critical data is stored on an E partition, and all programs and windows stuff point to that E partition. My C (boot) partition is Ghosted frequently, so if something nasty happens, ie a virus, or some spyware that gets through my tripple spyware killing layer, it's a VERY simple matter of putting the last Ghost back and going on. Nothing else needed, just dump the Ghost image back, and keep on gaming. All my email etc is also stored on E, and Outlook is a part of my Ghost image while pointing to the E drive as its storage place, so there's nothing else I need to do.
Works like a charm

One thing I never understand, though, is why people make backups of their entire harddisks? Over 90+% of the data on your disks will be programs / games, right? For which I assume you still have the original CDs, right? So why in God's name are you backing that up? What's the difference between having to reinstall it from your original CDs, or from newly written backup DVDs? I just don't understand that train of thinking.
All I backup are my documents, some savegames and characters from certain games, and my boot partition for disaster recovery purposes. That's it.
So what if some virus kills your Doom 3 install? Pop the CDs back in and reinstall.

It just seems a waste of time to backup your entire system.

Creston

Edit : What, the fact that I would cream my pants, or that you want to see SS2/3 running on the D3 engine ?

You are a very disturbed individual

This comment was edited on Aug 5, 23:57.

Well, they are both cripples...together, maybe 3/4 a person?

Joking...just joking :D,
Ray

-----
But, what is ultimately important in life?
http://users.ign.com/collection/RayMarden
http://www.dvdaficionado.com/dvds.html?cat=1&id=ray_marden
I love you, mom.

So what do you use for imaging? For some reason, the last time I tried ghost at home, it didn't see my drives...

I use ghost all the time at work and love it. It's been a life saver more than a few times...

Thanks!

I will think peaceful, happy thoughts about my new video card, in hopes that it will work.

Then I started using Imaging software (partitions, not pictures).

Kannibal - what imaging software do you use?

You cannot make anything fool-proof. The fools are too inventive

The 250 did have higher RPM...

That (plus everything else) makes sense then. My apologies.

I have a 4x dvd burner, but I figure if it's important enough to backup, it's important enough to verify that the data burnt correctly on the disc. But verify basically doubles your burn time (20 minute burn, plus 15 minute verify). A 120 gig drive would take at least 26 dvds to backup (this last time I used about 8, I think). A 250 gig drive would take at least 56 dvds.

I used to do that, but the number of CD's and (later) DVD's was getting pretty huge. Then I started using Imaging software (partitions, not pictures).

You can image your hard drive, and it compresses it A LOT (like, zip maxium compression or greater). With the software I have, you can set it to specify an "output disk size" to fit CD's (650MB or 700MB), DVD's, etc, or custom.

I just set it to DVD-size, let make image files for one hard drive onto the other, then burn the resulting image files to DVD. After the DVD has been validated, I delete the image file off the hard drive.

It takes a while to both image the hard drive AND burn DVD's, but it takes up a lot less space in my DVD-album. And the imaging isn't as bad as you'd imagine. With some software, you can just do it through windows (no reboots), so while backing up your secondary drive, you can still browse the web and do low-CPU-intensive apps.

This way, if I ever need to (or decide to) reformat even my primary drive, I can revert it to a couple levels of baselines (Windows, Windows + Office, Windows + Office + Dev Tools, Complete with Games, etc).

The only problem is if I need to browse through those disks to find 1 particular file, it can take a while for the software to find it (I might need to swap the DVDs every so often).


Pentium 4 3.06 GHz w/ Hyperthreading + 533 MHz FSB
1024MB DDR2100 Crucial RAM
PNY Verto GeForce 6800 GT
Windows XP Pro
SB Live! Value
Viewsonic 17" VP171b LCD

This comment was edited on Aug 5, 14:41.

Don't tease us so...

What, the fact that I would cream my pants, or that you want to see SS2/3 running on the D3 engine ?

You cannot make anything fool-proof. The fools are too inventive

I almost cream my pants with the thought of someone porting over System Shock 2 to this engine - it was made for this game. Or even better, System Shock 3

Don't tease us so...

Creston

I will think peaceful, happy thoughts about my new video card, in hopes that it will work.

Sounds pretty Confusionist to me, you getting religious, nin?

From all the stuff that I've been reading about your problems, buddy, I would say that the RAM on your graphics card is actually busted, not so much the RAM in your system.

Hope you can solve it soon, though.

Creston

oops, wrong post

This comment was edited on Aug 5, 12:21.

"I will think peaceful, happy thoughts about my new video card, in hopes that it will work."

Good luck, nin. I have the opposite problem - a system that works and no time to play yet. Work and family life keep interfereing (sp?).

This comment was edited on Aug 5, 11:57.

Not to bash you, but why did you make the main drive 250 and the secondary 120? Was there a speed issue (more cache, higher rpm's, etc)?

I made that choice once too, but regretted it. You see, I like to have my secondary hard drive (drive D) store all of my backup files, downloads, drivers, mp3z, movies (all legit, of course ). Then, main main drive have all of my software installed.

The 250 did have higher RPM...I use the secondary drive the same way you do (backups, etc.), but I've found that backing up 120 gig (even with a dvd burner @ 4.5 gig) is hard enough. Had I done it the other way, backing up 250gig seems like a nightmare. So yes, smaller drive, but it forces me to do backups before there's too much data to backup!

Plus, with the larger drive, I never have to worry about software installs being too big, or having enough room for save games...

Edit: I have a 4x dvd burner, but I figure if it's important enough to backup, it's important enough to verify that the data burnt correctly on the disc. But verify basically doubles your burn time (20 minute burn, plus 15 minute verify). A 120 gig drive would take at least 26 dvds to backup (this last time I used about 8, I think). A 250 gig drive would take at least 56 dvds.

So..important stuff backed up on the 120, and if the 250 bites it, all I lose are savegames and windows itself.


I will think peaceful, happy thoughts about my new video card, in hopes that it will work.
This comment was edited on Aug 5, 11:33.

Welp! I actually managed to get in about an hour of play after installing the game. One reason I did not put in more hours was because I just got a new 4G 20 gig iPod and was loading up my music collection (LOVE the iPOD, for those interested - worth every penny I paid for it:)).

I have not gotten far - just a few minutes after "all hell breaks loose" - but I do agree that the game needs to be played with the lights turned off, in complete darkness except the monitor. I also agree with some comments about the whole flash light thing - it seems like a lazy way for id to create a sense of tension and forboding.

So far (and again, I have not gotten far), the game has zero innovation (in terms of gameplay, not graphics), but tons of atmosphere, just like I had expected. I still expect/hope Valve to deliver on both counts with HL2.

I almost cream my pants with the thought of someone porting over System Shock 2 to this engine - it was made for this game. Or even better, System Shock 3


You cannot make anything fool-proof. The fools are too inventive

This comment was edited on Aug 5, 11:36.

I did that one Sunday. That is to say, the 120gig that used to be the main drive became secondary after I installed a new 250gig (and installed windows fresh on that). (And yes, I configed the jumpers. )

Not to bash you, but why did you make the main drive 250 and the secondary 120? Was there a speed issue (more cache, higher rpm's, etc)?

I made that choice once too, but regretted it. You see, I like to have my secondary hard drive (drive D) store all of my backup files, downloads, drivers, mp3z, movies (all legit, of course ). Then, main main drive have all of my software installed.

I install A LOT of big software (Visual Studio .Net 2003, BEA Weblogic Workshop, JBuilder, Office, Oracle, UT 2004, etc), but I have trouble filling an 80GB drive (not impossible, but not likely).

Again, maybe you do have a lot of software to install or the newer drive is faster (or more reliable). I'm just saying from my experience, that the extra room comes is a lot more handy when storing files than when installing software.


Pentium 4 3.06 GHz w/ Hyperthreading + 533 MHz FSB
1024MB DDR2100 Crucial RAM
PNY Verto GeForce 6800 GT
Windows XP Pro
SB Live! Value
Viewsonic 17" VP171b LCD

This comment was edited on Aug 5, 11:17.

in our Blue's Doom3 tourny thingie?

Hrm? What's this?