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CHKDSK runs at boot

If you shut down your computer incorrectly, it’s likely that CHKDSK (Windows disk checking utility) will run the next time you boot your computer. It’s not exactly common, but it’s not unheard of for Windows to then get “stuck” and want to run CHKDSK on a disk every time you start your computer. What’s worse, if Windows wants to run CHKDSK on a system drive, you might get locked out of your computer: Windows will run CHKDSK on the system drive, then reboot, then run CHKDSK again, then reboot, then run CHKDSK and reboot… and on and on and on in an infinite loop, and you never get to the desktop.

Yesterday, I was surfing the topics at a popular message board, when I came across a user who complained that CHKDSK was running at every boot on an external drive attached to his computer. The disk came up clean every time, but it was annoying to have to sit through the unneeded disk check every single time he booted his computer.

A poster suggested that he run the following command:

chkntfs /x d:

This is a horrible idea. It permanently disables automatic disk checking for that volume. While it will indeed solve his immediate problem of Windows checking the external drive at every boot, it also prevents Windows from checking the disk for errors in the future. It’s like suggesting that the best way to fix a video driver issue is to turn off the monitor!

A much better solution would be for the user to start REGEDIT and look in the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\CONTROL\Session Manager

Look for the BootExecute entry. By default, the value should be autocheck autochk *. If it is not, change it back to autocheck autochk * and reboot. Problem solved!

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-04-25

  • Mmmmmm… Cambozola – a triple cream blue cheese. It’s like the love child of Brie and Stilton with a Camembert rind! #
  • Woot! Happy 4/20 everyone! 🙂 #
  • Use McAfee and Windows XP? Don’t let it install the latest update: http://tinyurl.com/22wfwpk #
  • Wow… the new $100 bills are hideous: http://tinyurl.com/y4md4sn #
  • I don’t want the Steelers to trade Roethlisberger… unless it’s to the Raiders, in which case I think it’s funny. #
  • OMG! Trader Joe’s Mandarin Orange Chicken REALLY IS almost as good as Chinese takeout! “Four Stars – Would Eat Again!” #
  • Agent Dunham makes me giggle like a schoolgirl! #
  • Jonathan Dwyer is a Steeler? SWEET!! 🙂 #

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Ashes to Ashes: Season 3, Episode 2

This episode begins with Alex having a dream… in which Gene and the gang recreate Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl” video:

ashes_to_ashes_s3_ep_2_01

Alex wakes up, and static crackles on the TV. A lonely Alex looks at the TV and asks where everyone is.

Back at the station, “Uptown Girl” plays on the radio as workers hammer and saw and make other construction noise. Shaz jumps up and asks who long they’re going to be, as they’re giving her a headache. The workers say that they’re “dragging this place into 1983”. Chris tries to comfort her with some small talk, but a short-fused Shaz tells him to get lost.

Continue reading “Ashes to Ashes: Season 3, Episode 2”

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Ashes to Ashes: Season 3, Episode 1

“My name is Alex Drake… and, quite frankly, your guess is as good as mine.”

So begins season 3 of Ashes to Ashes. The credits start the episode, and we’re then sent to 2008 (or is it 2009 yet?), where Alex is talking to a therapist. The two discuss how “real” her visions of the early 80s world were. The doctor then asks if she’s still “hearing voices”. Alex says that she isn’t. She’s asked if she still dreams about Gene Hunt and we then see a montage of Hunt kicking ass to the tune of Wagner’s “Flight of the Valkyries”. Alex ignores the question. Then doctor then asserts that her “dream world” wasn’t real. Alex says that Sam Tyler was in a coma too, and that he went to the same place as Alex, so how could it be possible for the two of them to “imagine” the same thing? The doctor assures her that Sam Tyler is dead and that the world she imagined isn’t real.

We next see Alex at an electronics store looking at DVDs. She “sees” a DVD for a movie called Legal Force, which has Gene, Ray, Chris and Shaz on the cover:

We’re pretty sure she’s imagining it, especially when, a few minutes later, we see Ray suddenly appear on a wall full of TVs. He’s begging her to wake up, as a girl has been kidnapped and, with Hunt on the run from the authorities for shooting Drake, he (Ray) has been put in charge. The screens then burst into static for a second, and then Chris appears, offering Drake a melon (he says he couldn’t find grapes). He too begs her for help with the kidnapping. He then says that Shaz will be coming in soon, and also mentions that he and Shaz have broken up. Another burst of static, and we see Shaz, who offers to clean up the melon on the floor. She then gives an emotional plea to Alex, saying that she made CID better then left her hanging.

Continue reading “Ashes to Ashes: Season 3, Episode 1”

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Website Update

Just thought I’d give my site’s readers (both of you) a heads-up about some of the things going on here:

– I haven’t forgotten the Ashes to Ashes recaps, honest! The recap of episode 1 is basically done (all it needs is proofreading and polish), and it should be posted no later than noon today. I hope to get started on Episode 2 as soon as Episode 1 is published, and have that one completed by Thursday, so I can start the recap of episode 3 before episode 4 airs in the UK on Friday. Got all that?

– Just to remind you, I was out of town when episode 1 aired, had out-of-town guests when episode 2 aired, and had plans virtually all day long this past Saturday (after episode 3 aired).

– I hate that they moved Ashes from Tuesday (or was it Monday?) to Friday. The missus and I don’t normally do much on Friday nights, but we almost always do stuff on Saturday and most Sundays, so that means I normally won’t be able to start a recap until the following Monday. I mean, I’m not sad for having a life, I just hate the the Beeb moved the show.

– The new NFL schedule is out, and depending on how motivated I am, I might post my annual “Steelers Schedule for Microsoft Outlook” tomorrow if I need a break from the Ashes recaps. If not, look for it in the next few days, sooner rather than later.

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A Strange Coincidence

So yesterday I was reading this thread over at the SDMB about strange coincidences in people’s lives, so I thought I’d share my own story:

“Karen” transferred to my high school in my senior year. She liked the same music I did, we had similar senses of humor, and she liked to party, so we became fast friends for the next couple of years.

Karen was really wild though, and she was eventually kicked out of her house for stealing money. So she moved in with a friend… and stole all of his cash, did all his drugs, and ran up his phone bill. She then moved to Pensacola, where she moved in with a girl… and, after a couple of months, stole all her cash, did all her drugs, and ran up her phone bill. She then moved to New Orleans, where she moved in with a guy and (wait for it) stole all his cash, did all his drugs and ran up his phone bill.

Karen would then move back to Atlanta and try to reconcile with her family. But her wild ways would eventually get the best of her, and she would move out and start her “Triangle of Terror” all over again: ripping people off in Atlanta, then Pensacola, then New Orleans, then Atlanta again.

She would normally call me when she was back in Atlanta, and at one point it really seemed as though she had a genuine interest in getting her act together. Things were going so well, in fact, that her grandmother (her legal guardian, the one she had stolen from to get kicked out in the first place) allowed her to have a friend from Pensacola stay with the family for a week. The friend was named Jessie, and I remember her well because I picked her up from the airport (and because she also burned a gigantic cigarette hole in the back seat of my car after passing out drunk a couple days later, but that’s neither here nor there).

Continue reading “A Strange Coincidence”

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-04-18

  • RT @OfficialKat: Everything is crazy sauce #
  • Rooney press conference starts NOW! Hit up ESPN for coverage! #
  • "Once upon a time… in Nazi occupied France" #
  • RATT has a new album? Really? #
  • At a BBQ cook-off… Life is good! #
  • @AveryHutchinson Good luck with the ghosts, Avery! 🙂 in reply to AveryHutchinson #

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FRIDAY FUN: Best Coast

I really fell in love with the song “When I’m With You” by the band Best Coast a couple of months ago. But my love affair has been rekindled now that the official music video has been released. The Internet also seem to love it too, judging by how many places have posted the video:

I guess that chick likes hamburgers… which makes her kinda hot.