StarDestroyer.Net BBS

I was asked to take a look at the VP's PC as a favor. The DVD-R drive was no longer showing up in the system. This is a Win2K Pro machine on a Compaq desktop. All I know is the last person to touch it was a 4 year old.

So anyway, the drive shows up in BIOS, but has the yellow exclamation mark in Device Manager. I uninstall it and reinstall. No luck. Boot to a floppy drive and it works. Stick it another machine, it works. Stick another CD-rom into the Compaq and it fails. Copy all CD-Rom drivers from a good machine to the Compaq and it still fails. Install SP3, fails. Nothing seems to work.
So before I decide to hose the OS entirely, I did a google/micrsoft KB search and came up with this article

http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... us;Q270008

So, I run regedit and now the drive is back. Holy crap. But nobody uninstalled Easy CD Creator, so I dont know what the hell happened but Im with so many others that the Registry is a big pain in the ass!

How is this politics?

Indeed.

DOH! My bad, I thought I clicked Off-Topic!

The only reason the registry is such a pain is that Microshaft tries to hide information about it.

Personally, I have no problem running around in the registry.

EmperorMing wrote:The only reason the registry is such a pain is that Microshaft tries to hide information about it.

Personally, I have no problem running around in the registry.

The registry cannot be easily repaired. If it is corrupted, your system is fucked. I'd call that a problem.

Old-fashioned ASCII config files are vastly superior. You can dig through them for useful config information (particularly if they're properly documented), you can back them up easily, fix corruption or even copy one from a different installation if it's hosed, and separate the config data for different apps so that you don't have an "all your eggs in one basket" problem.

Darth Wong wrote:

EmperorMing wrote:The only reason the registry is such a pain is that Microshaft tries to hide information about it.

Personally, I have no problem running around in the registry.

The registry cannot be easily repaired. If it is corrupted, your system is fucked. I'd call that a problem.

Old-fashioned ASCII config files are vastly superior. You can dig through them for useful config information (particularly if they're properly documented), you can back them up easily, fix corruption or even copy one from a different installation if it's hosed, and separate the config data for different apps so that you don't have an "all your eggs in one basket" problem.

Just another example of why ghost images are a life saver for NT/2000 admins. INI files are easier to search than the registry anyway.

EZ CD Creator can be a PITA even if it isn't uninstalled.

phongn wrote:EZ CD Creator can be a PITA even if it isn't uninstalled.

You know what's funny? When you install the damn thing, it doesn't work out of the box! You have to kill Direct CD to even be able to use it!

*pats copy of Nero*

Works rock solid, right out of the box. All I can say is, if someone is too stupid to not be able to figure out Nero, they don't even need to be touching a computer in the first place.

EmperorMing wrote:The only reason the registry is such a pain is that Microshaft tries to hide information about it.

No one can be "told" what The Registry is. You have to experience it for yourself.

Nero rawks. The best burner I've used.

Dalton wrote:Nero rawks. The best burner I've used.

You know what really impresses me with what Ahead has done with Nero?

1. It doesn't have a lame-ass n00b interface.
2. The programs bundled with it are *gasp* actually USEFUL! (Nero Wave Editor for starters, is a kickass free sound editor proggy. You can even save directly to mp3 with it.)
3. Takes up very little disk space. Maybe 10MB max.

I have one hangup about Nero.

It absolutly insist on creeping into the registry's startup and run NeroCheck.

Fucking hate selfstarting programs Start when I run the program and not when I boot the computer.

It hides at: BTW
If you don't know what that is trust me on this one DONT mess with it.

Faram, what does NeroCheck do?

Dalton wrote:Faram, what does NeroCheck do?

From Ahead's page:

"The NeroCheck program looks for known driver conflicts with our Nero software. So that when a Nero Log file is printed, at the very bottom of the Nero log file you will find a list of drivers we have found on your system that could be causing conflicts, if you are running into problems.".

In other words pure crap.

edit: nevermind, see previous post.

Durandal wrote:

EmperorMing wrote:The only reason the registry is such a pain is that Microshaft tries to hide information about it.

No one can be "told" what The Registry is. You have to experience it for yourself.

Very true.

BTW, the only versions of Adaptec and Nero I use are the ones that come with my burners. I take it you are using the verisons off the shelf?

If you like Nero, you will love Clone CD and Especially Alcohol 120%

the saviour of 98 is "scanreg /restore"

I don't like CloneCD very much, actually.