Another computer, another Win10 update

Windows 10 updated on Wing's computer, and just like with mine, the latest update well and truly killed off Windows Media Center. At first, he kinda got upset with us about it, that he liked the computer the way it was, didn't want any updates. I had to explain to him that with Win 10, you don't have the option to NOT update. You can put it off for a week, but it will still end up updating.

I tried to get WMC to work, and it would.. partially. It would scan the channels, load the EPG, but when you clicked on a channel, it would shut down. I did everything I my bag of tech tricks to get it work, short of installing a VM, and nothing worked.

I ended up installed NextPVR on his computer. It's free (donations are appreciated by not necessary. Since we are both using it, would be a good thing to do) Scanned for channels twice, found 31. Set up recording directory, and showed him how to use it.

Doing the great data shuffle/juggle

Windows 10 has issues with the 5 bay external drive (really long boot login time, powering it down without ejecting the drives first, causing data loss), so what I'm doing is shift data/files.  Putting certain files (installation files, back up files, video files)  and others that aren't often accessed on the external drives, and moving the data that is on the external drives, that is (will be was) accessed on a regular basis (photography, downloads, audio files) to the internal drives.

It has taken two days to juggle and shift files.  Currently copying the downloaded videos (ie my UltraViolet and other digital content files) to one internal J drive to the internal O drive, so I can shift my photography files on the external M drive, to the J drive once the digital content files have been moved.  MS time says about 2 hours to shift 1.2 tbs of said content.

Then I get to shift 2.6tbs of photography to the J drive. That will probably take overnight.

Physio appointment

With Simon, the Nice Sadist. (I have explained this to him, as all physiotherapists have to be a wee bit sadistic to deliberately hurt patients in order for them to get well)

He's amazed he can hit something painful, and I might yelp, but I don't move the sore leg he's working on.

This will come as no surprise to those who know me, but I have been overdoing the exercises... again.  Part of the problem is I'm in a hurry to get back to were I was prior to everything going to shit. Also, the lack of activity has skewed my sense of time. I thought it had been 3 weeks since surgery, but it's only been 2.

 
So, after some massage therapy to help with the fluid build up, and the over tightness of my leg, I was sent home with instructions to slow down a little.

Bets as to whether or not I heed those instructions?

EaseUS.. you suck

I had a HDD go RAW due to a power flicker. I started running EaseUS Partition Master to recover it.  Wanting to make sure I was doing the right thing, I started a support chat with EaseUS tech support.

The agent, Warren, told me that none of my programs would work. EaseUS Partition Master, nor M3 RAW Drive recovery.  He told me to cancel the Partition recovery I was doing.

He then put some program on my computer called WinHex, and did something for about 90 minutes, saying he recovered this but it would cost me a couple hundred dollars for a full recovery service.  He kept pressuring me, and using scare tactics saying the files would deteriorate if they weren't recovered right away.

I paid, and started running the program he set up... then it crashed.  I emailed support about it, got nothing but an autoreply, so I went back to using M3 RAW drive recovery, which recovered EVERYTHING.

Yes, Warren, you LIED to me.  I will be contacting my bank to have the charge reversed.

So, if you need to recover a RAW Drive, do NOT use EaseUS products. Use M3 RAW Drive Recovery.  It not only fixed the partition, I was able to shift the files from that drive to another after, clearing it off, as I had planned to do this weekend.

Customer Service at its best

Wing  and I (I'm still using crutch) went grocery shopping, and had a rather full cart.  All the lines were long, so we did like usual; no matter which line you get into, the other will go faster.

I hear someone say behind me "slide over to Number One".  It was one of the cashiers I know rather well. He opened up the register a few minutes early, before someone else's shift, so we could go through the check out.
Very grateful for that, more than he knows.  Home now, sore, tired, but a bit of faith in humanity and manners restored.

PostOp Check up

The wound is healing nicely, no signs of inflammation or redness.  Dressings were changed (dayam, having that 'surgical glue' plug removed fricken HURT!). Saw Dr S, and when I told him that the 'help' vanished because one day I didn't use the crutches around the house, and I was doing deep knee bends/squats to get things cleaned, he told me to have a discussion with Wing  and Alan.  I promised I would (and I did) and then off to the physio.

New physio, Simon.  First off, nice sadist, like all physiotherapists. But he was left kind of out in the dark, so I had to give him a quick rundown of my past medical history.  That took a while.  He also agreed that doing things like feeding the cats, or cleaning litterboxes needs to be done by someone else for a while, because we are trying to recover from compartment syndrome, not re-create it.

Then it was time for business. Poke, prod, stretch, rotate, twist. You know, the usual things.  I have to say, that even though the rehab exercises are simple, they're tiring!

Leg hurts like hell now, too.  Time for "Better living through Chemistry" aka take what Dr S prescribed.

One week, PostOp

One week after the surgery for compartment syndrome. It hasn't been all sunshine and flowers. Leg hurts, but hurts in a different way. Seeing as to how Mr S described what needed to be done, it's not too much of a surprise it's going to hurt, but it's causing sleeping issues again. Mostly because I can't sleep on my right side, as it's the outer leg/calf that had the surgery. Tomorrow, I get to see the practice nurse, and my first visit with a new physio, Simon. Oh joy.

Keito, Mister Old Cranky it seems, has taken to biting me really hard to wake me up around 4am. He came >.< this close to getting a reflexive backhand. Wing  put Loki in the back yard, think he was the one that bit me.  No, it was Keito. So Wing put him in the back yard with Loki.

It's so frustrating!

I know that with each new OS, there is teething pain, and a learning curve, but Windows 10 is a right pain in the ass.

After an MS Assure tech totally bollixed up my PC (she tried to kill a mosquito using a nuke. Task manager didn't work.), I ended up taking that HDD with Windows 10 installed on it out, and putting the original 500gb drive with pre-Assure fuck up Windows 10 back in it.  I had to reinstall a few programs, all the updates installed without a problem, but everything was working.... well, almost everything.

Windows 10 automatically presumes you're on a laptop, and hamstrings your system. You have to go through certain settings in the Device Manager, and in Power Management, to keep external drives from shutting down. 

Certain programs on Windows 10 Pro will not run unless you run them as administrator. Of course, if those files are in the Windows directory, you can't go in and adjust it to always run as administrator. There's a work around, make a short cut, then adjust the properties of that short cut to run as administrator. (Notepad is notorious for this) One would think if you were logged in as the administrator, this wouldn't be a problem, right?  Wrong.

Also, since the update, screen saver just will not work. Doesn't matter if I use the native Windows 10 screen saver, or a 3rd party screen saver. It *used* to work prior to the updates, so something in the updates screwed something up. Yes, I know that with and LCD, you really don't need a screen saver, but I want one.