General Computer Thread

[Unicron]

Does anyone have experience with Seagate drive products? I'm hoping to get a new laptop this week and I got a backup slim drive a couple of years ago as a Christmas gift. I've never really used it before now.

I don't have any trouble connecting and disconnecting the drive with USB, but when I try to do anything with the drive I get an error message from the "start here" option. It apparently tries to register the product but then says it can't connect to the registration server (which I did in my browser with no issue).

Any advice on how to get around this problem so I can actually copy stuff to the drive?

 

[Santaman]

Sounds like that there's some software on the drive that is autostarted when you plug it in, solution is to format the thing and completely erase what is on there, to be sure open drive management and see if there are other partitions, if so, remove everything, create one big partition and format it, that should solve it.

 

[Unicron]

It's not so much an autostart, as trying to use the start links provided doesn't seem to work. I don't know how to do the formatting you're describing.

 

[Santaman]

*shakes cane* Damn Apple user!

Eh, dunno, try and search for partitioning and formatting drives on Apple..?

I have no clue, I don't have a Apple machine..

 

[Unicron]

I might have found something that will work. It just seems like extra trouble, IMO.

* shakes cane as an old fart *

ETA: I think I solved the problem, more or less.

 

[Santaman]

^^ I hope it works.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

What system were you using the drive on?
If you are on Windows diskpart is very easy to use and can fix that drive up quick smart.

Just use that to wipe the partitions off the drive and then go into disk management and format the drive as brand new.

 

[Unicron]

I was using it on my MacBook Pro, and I think the problem was that the drive was formatted for Windows system as the default even though it's meant to be compatible with either system. I was able to format it properly and backed up my system.

 

[Marc]

I was using it on my MacBook Pro, and I think the problem was that the drive was formatted for Windows system as the default even though it's meant to be compatible with either system. I was able to format it properly and backed up my system.

Their idea of compatible probably means you can plug in into an Apple computer and it will work not that it's the correct file enabled.

I have seen external USB drives targeted directly at Mac users but that was an excuse to charge people more cos it came formatted for AFS and in white rather than black case.

 

[Unicron]

Yeah, you might be right.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Some interesting news of late--

It seems traditional computers still have some use:
https://phys.org/news/2022-09-traditional-quantum-problems.html
A new Caltech-led study in the journal Science describes how machine learning tools, run on classical computers, can be used to make predictions about quantum systems..

Now--YOU can do super-computing
https://phys.org/news/2022-09-machine-scientists-peer-future.html
Their method is also less computationally expensive; while solving complex computing problems previously required a supercomputer, they used a laptop running Windows 10 to make predictions in about a fraction of a second—about 240,000 times faster than traditional machine learning algorithms.

Another boost.
https://phys.org/news/2022-09-artificial-intelligence-equation-quantum-physics.html
Using artificial intelligence, physicists have compressed a daunting quantum problem that until now required 100,000 equations into a bite-size task of as few as four equations—all without sacrificing accuracy.

Filling in on a bit of business since the mod is not online.

Publius, you have been given numerous verbal admonitions about dropping these linkstorms with little or no content or thought of your own provided, so you have received a warning for spamming. Comments to PM.

 

[Qonundrum]

With Apple's M1 (now M2), I'm thinking it's only a couple years 'til we start seeing any significant SOC efforts from Teams Green/Red/Blue ... but they ALL need to start playing catchup in a HURRY. Of all companies, APPLE has set the bar for powerful AND efficient desktop processors. ... Who the hell saw THAT one coming???

'Cause 450W TDP with 600W spikes ... that's not revolutionary, not even EVOLUTIONARY ... reminds me more of the old GTX 690, the chonky dual gpu card. "Just increase the power draw!!!" No. SOCs are the future. Just HOW they'll be implemented on PC (separating/combining CPU/GPU/RAM), is still murky.

Just a few benchmarks to compare M1/M2 to AMD's Ryzen (Intel's 12900K and others' statistics are also available in most sites...), I'm skeptical of bar setting for now...

https://nanoreview.net/en/cpu-compare/apple-m1-vs-amd-ryzen-9-5950x
https://nanoreview.net/en/cpu-compa...//versus.com/en/amd-ryzen-9-5950x-vs-apple-m1
https://www.notebookcheck.net/M2-vs-R9-5950X_14521_12787.247596.0.html
https://www.cpu-monkey.com/en/compare_cpu-amd_ryzen_9_5950x-vs-apple_m2
https://versus.com/en/amd-ryzen-9-5950x-vs-apple-m2
https://planetside.co.uk/terragen-4-benchmark-results/
A couple years old but still interesting: https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/a...op-Workstation-for-Adobe-Creative-Cloud-1975/
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/apples-m2-benchmarked-mediocre-cpu-meets-impressive-gpu

etc

Impressive in some eras, less so than in others. Especially when multiple cores are involved, everyone who doesn't have "Ryzen" in their title needs to hurry, since there are newer AMD models that wipe the floor with their older ones...

Once Adobe Apps are more finely-tuned for Apple's new CPU line, will the performance really shoot up beyond the comparable PC's? Or come close? Depends on functionality and need...

SoC is interesting; more efficiencies in some ways but if one element goes out you have to throw away the entire board - while that is also inevitable on modular desktop systems, it's easier to swap out a failing SSD, video card, or RAM module (assuming those don't get integrated into the SoC too) - of which each costs a lot less than to chuck out the entire system in one go.

Looking up discussions on well-known hardware forums yields an even more interesting picture. Again, robust in some areas, less so in others. Invariably there are trade-offs... On top of hardware, it takes a while to optimize software for each chipset out there... Considering Apple is also more closed-source, until it opens up its CPU designs the way Intel and AMD did for their clones (heck, even Intel licensed AMD's 64-bit features for the consumer desktop line...) The reduced power usage will pique the interest, but with all the other factors involved... There's a long way to go either which way. And between now and then, there's no clear winner.

 

[Unicron]

I finally replaced my Mac with a more modern Air. Now I just to relearn a few things to feel less old.

 

[Santaman]

^^ Congrats old fart!

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I love these retro videos

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Last couple Seagates I've had failed. They are not the gold standard anymore. Samsung and Toshiba have been reliable. Samsung esp for SSD's (sata and nVme).

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Last couple Seagates I've had failed. They are not the gold standard anymore. Samsung and Toshiba have been reliable. Samsung esp for SSD's (sata and nVme).

Failed how?

For more quirky fun LGR has a series on weird designs. Some of these are interesting

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[publiusr]

The one in the shape of the Refit is the only recent one that stands out.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

The one in the shape of the Refit is the only recent one that stands out.

Which one was that? I liked the media centre one that people thought was a bomb, I just like the shape and look.

 

[Marc]

Last couple Seagates I've had failed. They are not the gold standard anymore. Samsung and Toshiba have been reliable. Samsung esp for SSD's (sata and nVme).

seagate have been shit for quite some years now. Some brands have bad batches (hello IBM deathstar) but seagate have never really seem to have recovered.

That said I do have a 4TB one that I use for offsite backup of my media collection.

Never had experience with Samsung spinning though I've just gotten an EVO SSD. Probably get a couple of more over the next 6 months, got a couple of SSDs that are very high wear (one's at 43%) that I'll swap out.

Toshiba give me shudders. Years ago had a client that liked sony vaios which used toshiba drives in RAID-0 config and they'd always break.

Have at 4TB HGST 7200rpm (pre-WD buyout) that's just ticking along nicely.

Crucial has range of the SSDs (can't remember it was the BX or MX) that were solid reliable performers but not the fastest drives their quality has taken a dive recently.