Oh no! More boring computer problems! Oh no!

will give you a list of common(ly named) files

in any case, i would recommend getting into the bios settings at bootup and see if the computer sees the drive on that level, before even getting into windows

also are the jumpers on the drives set correctly for their positions on the ide channels? (is the slave drive set to slave or auto)

1) write the list of commands in a file
2) put this at the top:

#!/bin/bash

or, more generically, "#!" followed by the path to the shell you want to use.

(-d stops rsync recursing)

xpost

> How do I turn a list of commands into a shell script?

you don't need to, really. just

sh file_full_of_commands

btw chmod +x file_full_of_commands makes it executable

does the copying with no intermediate file.
the {} token in rsync command will expand to the found directory.

I lost the data by converting the disk from Dynamic to Basic - I had it all backed up though so no problem. Have assigned a letter to it and will be using it purely for sharing media. Thanks to Caitlin and Keef for the help here.

Any ideas?

Unplug the mouse, login and plug it in again.

No PS/2, tried unplugging it but Cursor remains frozen in middle of screen.

I have also had to relearn the harsh lesson that the solution to almost all windows problems is to reinstall the OS.

can I chain my ipod through the back of the lacie via the second firewire port?

As for the exclamation marks, what you need to do is "touch" all the songs in the library so that iTunes checks them out. There's an applescript to do it, but I can't find it from work. I'm sure I've got it at home, so give me a yell if you need it. What might also work is "consolidate library" from the Advanced menu, even though it has nothing to actually move.

If all that fails, select all the songs in the library (Apple-A) then get info (Apple-I). Put "Stet is topp" or something in the comment box, and click OK. Then wait. And wait. It'll go through each track in the lib, and should hopefully sort it out.

(do yours or Mark's computer have networking? If all else fails, you can connect two computers together using a "null modem" cable and make a copy of your files that way. A null modem cable plugs into the serial port of each computer and should only get a few quid; but check what connectors your computers have before you get one, because serial port connectors can be either 9-pin or 25-pin.)

I've got most of the important stuff (eg latest thesis draft) backed up via emailed copies, although at this point I know there are misc. documents still on there that I refer to maybe once a month and haven't backed up, also lots of photos, and I should really transfer everything if possible. Fingers crossed it will turn on again long enough to transfer everything. It will pain me to lose photoshop though. (The CD for it is somewhere in storage in the US.)

Follow the guide from microsoft and get your files over ASAP and then stop creating new files on your laptop.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;304040

The hardisk will die at some point in the future, so you will need to buy and fit/have fitted a replacement hdd, if I was doing this I would buy a new disk now and using adapters on a standard PC ghost (make an exact copy, using Norton Ghost) your old drive onto the new one while it was still working this would be seamless, you may find a computer shop willing to do this for you. If not you'll need to resinstall Windows and all your applications onto your new HDD.

Pash, pour water on it.

The point is that most people don't have a single internet connection in their house. So they need something that can give ethernet, which everything speaks.

(Ed is right here. Quibbling about different varieties of ?DSL is neither here nor there, because your average off-the-shelf DSL modem supports all of them. The hard part is finding out what settings your ISP hasn't told you)

I hate iPhoto, sorry but it sucks. anyway, I have got myself into a right pickle. i was trying to show my dad flickr and see if i could upload some of his photos onto it. anyway hes got 3000 or so photos in his iPhoto Library, and iPhoto was being difficult, and seemed to have crashed, so I used Force Quit. the one that says "you may lose any unsaved data".

so the next day i get a phone call and it turns out that all his photos hvae "disappeared". when i next am home, i look high and low for the missing photos but cant find em. not in the trash, not in any hidden folders or something. all thats left is photos left in other folders outside fo the iPhoto Library folder.

so what does this mean? iPhoto ate my photos? where coudl they have gone? what happens to data when it just is "lost"? is there any hope of using data recovery software to get it back? it seems hard to get such software for the mac, and i wasnt sure whether it would work. is there anything i can do?

im not sure how much more detail i can give, especailly as i am not using that computer at the moment.

thanks in advance for saving me from my dads wrath!

also: windows has a neat little feature where you can restore the machine back to a certain date. like the day before all the photos disappeared. im not sure if mac has something similiar.

find / -name '*.jpg' | less

it should list every .jpg file on the entire system. You'll have a lot of trawling to do to find any of the ones that you're looking for, but if they're still on your computer they'll be somewhere in the list.