Your strange, eccentric, odd, or lesser-known programs and hardware

Speaking of "known to be failing" HDD-s, there is some more hardware I have a strange/odd use for.

The hardware itself is not exactly strange, it's just how I use it. I use an old laptop HDD (it could be 80% dead and it would still serve nicely) and an HDD caddy for this purpose.

I have 50+ programs installed on my laptop, about 35+ of them never need updating. Most of them are small utilities, but some are larger like ArcGIS and AutoCAD. I also like trying out new programs although I rarely like one enough to put it in the perma-lineup.
Once or twice a year I refresh my OS. Instead of backing up data, reinstalling Windows, updating it, installing drivers, de-bloating it, re-installing all of the programs again etc... I just back-up any data and clone the good-to-go HDD (used exclusively for this purpose). I just swap the SSD from my laptop with the HDD, and put the SSD in the caddy slot where the DVD drive was, format+clone and I already have a de-bloated OS with all the drivers and framework and the 35 programs that don't need regular updates.

The HDD goes back in the drawer for another 6-12 months.
I just finish up with installing the programs that I do update regularly (Skype, security programs...) and that's about it.
Yes I know I can use System Restore but I've had some bad times with it where it failed to get rid of some malware.
Yes I know I can use Clonezilla with a USB stick or SD card and avoid HDD data degradation over time, but I'll experiment with it when this system starts failing.

The caddy and HDD cost almost nothing, can be bought used, and save a tremendous amount of time.
Plus if the HDD dies, no important data is lost, it's just an inconvenience.

A cleaver way of doing things. I actually refresh my linux system about yearly as well (arch based) and I like the idea of this. How are you avoiding problems when copying programs that rely on registry keys? also, do you still keep backups of your data?

cant forget the megadriver

//when the thread accidentally becomes a guitar thread

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say whut ?


This is their FULL performance of their speed run of the original Metroid played along with live music. The only sounds from the game are the basic sound effects. All the music is performed entirely by the band on stage while another of the members plays the game live on stage as well.

@ 5:30 ish i like the missile pickup

This little known app. I find it useful on MATE / XFCE

added to list..

That's actually a pretty nice tool, I'll add it to the list later.

Oddly, it being a github link reminded me of this gem:

Yea kind of wish it was on SolusOS. Its so handy when you swap between headphones / DAC etc.. Gnome and cinnamon have this baked in.

you should be able to change your DE to whatever you prefer

It's a Distro the packaging is different from Arch, ubuntu.

https://solus-project.com

https://solus-project.com/download/

I have a separate 3.5' drive for backing up data (data being - everything that is not a program, pictures, music, installations, work projects...). I also use some SD cards and USBs for storage and backing up.

The smaller (let's call it "master") 2.5' drive is the one that came with the laptop. When I bought an SSD, I set up everything just the way I wanted, drivers, framework, programs, directory hierarchy; and cloned it to the SSD (inserted via caddy) using Samsung's Magician software. Once they're cloned, they are identical, including the registry. Later i just swap them and put the "master" drive away with the caddy, so I'm left with only the SSD. I can swap this SSD for that "master" drive at any time and everything would work. I would just be missing some data which I accumulate yearly as well as a dozen or so programs that I didn't put on it because they need regular updates. I just download the latest versions, instead.

The only "flaw" is that the "master" drive works exclusively on this laptop. Which is fine by me.

edit: I'm using Windows 7 and updates are turned off. I'm not sure how this would work on Linux.

Then just download and manually compile/install from source

i know, i should ;)

On *linux it would need a significant amount of scripting to accommodate for each users particular quirks, distro, and package management, but it should still be possible

This video (ignore the twangy guitar music)


Featuring this thing.

And despite appearances, it does actually appear to work.

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I've actually seen this before, and I'll definitely give it credit for being weird. it's too bad it has such a list of things that make it impractical, as the idea of just hooking up a powerhouse to my laptop when I want to run hashcat or something is pretty awesome

yeah, having a janky PSU setup and an HDMI franken-connector hooked up to the bottom of a laptop is kinda odd... I'll be trying this out with an old C2D tablet sometime down the road, hopefully, so it should be fun :D

Honestly I have at least 5 of the same level of jank PSUs set up in my room, but, yeah, it's the franken-cable running into the bottom that's a turn off to me.

I was thinking in terms of the cloning procedure and cloning software.

No scripting should be required to do this. Once you set up everything just the way you want it (user preferences, package managers and additional repositories) and make a clone, the drive that gets stored away is basically like a time capsule. All of the information is stored on the drives, the rest of the laptop is just an exo-suit.

Think of it as cloning the entire machine (PC or laptop). Except that one of the 2 machines is your daily driver which gets filled with yearly garbage, while the other gets turned on once a year. It should still work. The drives are connected to the exact same hardware.

Oh, I see, hell, in that case I can just dd it to an iso and shove it away.