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mikeszekely

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  1. mikeszekely
    Check to make sure the SSD in your Toshiba is a 2.5" SATA drive and not an mSSD, then. I don't know of any adapters you can use to clone an mSSD. I doubt you'll have any issues with a 1TB drive fitting inside your computer. Last I checked, it's only the 2TB drives that are a little thicker. But the best place to check would be with Toshiba. You should be able to find the maximum dimensions, then just check the dimensions of the drive you want to buy. Like Az, I've used bunches of drives. WD, Seagate, Hitachi, Toshiba, IOmega, and Samsung for regular drives, and Kingston and Mushkin for SSDs. The brand of SSD used to matter more, but I think the controllers have all matured enough that it really doesn't matter. Same with spinning platters, although I admit a slight preference for WD. And when I say slight, I mean I usually buy what's cheapest in the size I want, but if they're the same price, I'll go with the WD. Oh, just some other random tips with SSDs... I confess, I've been installing stuff on the C drive that I probably don't need to, but on a 120GB drive I'm using about 90GB. It could be less if I installed some of the programs on another drive, or got rid of some of the programs I installed for school (Office 2013 Pro, Visio 2013 Pro, Project 2013 Pro, Expression, etc). The trick is to install large programs and programs you don't need often on another drive, and create a personal folder on another drive as well, with folders inside for pictures, downloads, videos, documents, etc. Then, if you're using Windows 7, just set all the Libraries to use those folders instead of the default ones on the C drive.
  2. mikeszekely
    Yeah. An SSD makes for a great boot drive, but you're going to run into a lot of problems. For one, how many 2.5" SATA bays does the laptop have? Most only have one, but some gaming laptops have two. If you have two and use a regular 2.5" SATA SSD, you'll probably have less trouble. If you're like me, though, I only had one bay, but I had a mPCIe available, so I used an mSSD. My laptop's UEFI didn't care for that one bit, until I switched it to Legacy mode. Either way, if you want to actually clone your existing hard drive, you will need to delete and uninstall everything until on your current drive until the amount of used space is less than the total space of the SSD. Which, to be honest, defeats a lot of the purpose of cloning. If you're cloning to a bigger mechanical drive, then were you planning to add an SSD for more storage? If that's the case, don't bother. I'm not going to say you won't get any performance boost, but you'll get the most bang for your buck if Windows and any programs that automatically load when Windows does are on the SSD. If you're going to use an SSD for booting, I'd strongly recommend making a backup of your personal files, then do a fresh install, either with a generic Windows disc or with your computer's specific recovery media. I'd also suggest downloading the wi-fi and/or ethernet drivers for your laptop and having them available on a flash drive either way.
  3. mikeszekely
    Yep. Although I've never used that brand. I've used the Rosewill one that's a $1 more, and at work we used Startech. More or less. What I usually do is plug the adapter into the drive, then plug the adapter into a USB port. There will also be an AC adapter that looks like a small laptop power supply, except the end will have SATA and IDE power connectors on the end. Plug that in. Cheaper models will be on as long as they're plugged in, better models will have a power switch. Before you do any of that, you'll need to download Clonezilla and burn it to a blank CD. Set your BIOS to boot from CD, make sure the CD is in the drive, one drive is installed in the laptop, and the other is up and on the way I described, then reboot to the CD. Carefully note which drive you want to clone, and which drive you want to clone to... if you do it wrong, you could end up erasing the drive you're trying to clone (it's not a bad idea to back up any important files before you start). When you have it set up right, Clonezilla will run for awhile, and when it's done both drives should be identical, except one has more space on it. If the one with more space on it is installed in the laptop, you should be able to boot from it like normal, with all your programs and settings. Just more room.
  4. mikeszekely
    I bought a huge Targus backpack for my old Asus, and I figured that'd be enough. And I didn't mind taking it over to friends houses or whatever, but it was a huge, heavy pain when I flew to Beijing. Now I'm all about spending a little extra on the thin and lights; I just wish I wouldn't have bough the one I did. The GTX 660m hasn't performed all that great. If I'd waited a year, I could have and would have bought the one that Archer did, and not have paid that much more. I've never cloned a laptop drive, but I've cloned desktop drives. I used a free tool called Clonezilla. It's not pretty, but it's pretty simple. You burn it to a blank CD, then boot from the CD. Once the software is up and running, you simply tell it what hard drive you want copied, and what hard drive you want it copied to. Now, on a desktop you'd figure it'd be pretty easy to slap the new drive in an empty bay and clone away, and you'd be right. And you're probably thinking it's more of a pain on a laptop, which may not have room for another drive (although some gaming laptops actually do!). Enclosures are one option... they're basically USB hard drives without an actual hard drive inside. Another option I use pretty frequently is to just get an adapter. They run around $20 on Newegg, and come with the actual adapter, a power supply, and some extra cabling. They're not a permanent solution, like an enclosure would be, but they're more versatile because most of the ones I've seen/used support both IDE/PATA and SATA, in both the 2.5" laptop sized drives and the 3.5" desktop sized drives. They're handy not just for setting up drives for cloning, but for recovering files from the hard drives of computers that won't boot. If you're only ever going to need to do this once, to copy your current drive to a bigger one, you're probably better off with the enclosure, since you can still use the old drive as external storage. But from personal experience, the adapter kits are just useful to have around.
  5. mikeszekely
    I sat in the back and took a GBA to my boring classes.
  6. mikeszekely
    Having tried this game, based on the enthusiasm earlier expressed in this thread, I can honestly say I do not see the appeal of 2048 at all.
  7. mikeszekely
    Well, no emulator is going to give you the feeling of swapping cartridges, and if you're running an emulator off of a PC, you're always going to have to boot the PC first.That said, there are things you can do for a better emulation experience. For starters, get USB versions of the actual controllers. A SNES game was meant to be played with a SNES controller, after all. Then, if you've got suitable hardware, use an emulator like Higan that is focused on accuracy instead of efficiency. That should help with the emulator "feeling right." If sitting to close to a computer monitor is an issue (it's not for me... I had mine hooked up to a 13" TV in my room, and I used to sit right up in front of it), try hooking a computer up to your TV. Smaller computers designed to fit in home theater setups are increasingly common (and are convenient for other things, like watching free Hulu content or video files in containers that other devices don't like). You can put the computer in sleep mode instead of turning it completely off, and the wake time will be faster than the cold boot time. You can even look for controller-friendly front-ends to run your emulators from, although I haven't gone that far.
  8. mikeszekely
    Ok. I was just thinking about my TV stand when you said what consoles you have. But mine is actually a stand; I have a 70" TV on it, with speakers in the small shelves directly under the TV. Under that, it's basically two rows that go shelf, drawer, shelf. On the left side are the PS3 and PS4, on the right are the One and 360. I stick stuff like cables and extra controllers in the drawers. As perfect as it is for me (I think I have mild OCD; during the previous console generation I the PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U, and a Mac mini. After I got the Xbox One, I would up rearranging so the One and 360 would be on the same side, then I actually removed the Wii U and Mac mini so that the PS4 I didn't even have could be on the same side as the PS3, then I spent the next two months driving myself nuts actually trying to track down a PS4), it doesn't sound like it'll work for you. But if I see anything, I'll let you know. This. I've got three Windows desktops, two Windows laptops, a Linux laptop, an Android phone, an Android tablet, and a Nvidia Shield (and lets not forget a PSP with custom firmware). I've got a USB SNES controller, a wired Xbox 360 controller, a USB adapter for a DualShock 2, and the USB receiver to use wireless 360 controllers on PC. Plus, there are ways to get both the DualShock 3 and DualShock 4 to work with PCs. Seems way easier to just use what I have than to spend money on another box... then find a spot in my entertainment center for it... If they didn't downgrade the screen, I'd have considered selling my Vita for the Slim just to have micro USB charging. I guess I'll stick with the one I have... which I don't play anyway. Seriously, I played WipeOut and Uncharted when it first came out, I was super addicted to Persona 4 Golden (hence my avatar), and I did re-buy digital versions of a few PSP games I had (Maverick Hunter X, Final Fantasy IV Complete Collection, and Persona 3 Portable stand out in my memory). But the last time I seriously played anything on my Vita was after I came back from China in June 2012, and I bought Dynasty Warriors Next. So, even though my friend is constantly going on and on about how great the Vita is and how he's playing all these games on his Vita, mine's been collecting dust for nearly 2 years.
  9. mikeszekely
    So... You need something for four consoles. That's it. Not the TV? Is it problematic if it has more space?
  10. mikeszekely
    Whirl's shoulders can actually be pushed into his torso a bit. That makes his shoulders seem much less loose. His knees aren't weird and don't need reconciling! Those are the exact knees he's had for the last two+ years in More Than Meets the Eye, which would still be the absolute best version of him in fiction even if it's only competition wasn't he blurb on the back of the G1 toy's box. Seriously, just read the comic book already! It takes a character who was never in the cartoon and only briefly in the Marvel run and turns him into a main (and interesting at that) character, to the point that even though I actually had a G1 Whirl back in the day I wish the Generations toy were even more like the IDW comic, with cockpit parallel to the ground in bot mode, skinnier legs, thicker upper body, forearm rotors, chest guns, and rotor blades that for V-shaped wings on his back.
  11. mikeszekely
    It's not supposed to be a Bay reference... at least the toy isn't. While 90% of the toy's design is an updated G1 Whirl/Dorvack, the knees and head are inspired by IDW's take on Whirl (who has become a favorite character in the already-great character-driven Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye). And his knees aren't simply backwards-bent like a Gerwalk (although I think they should be in his "heliped" mode. Properly transformed, there's two joints, as in the comic book.
  12. mikeszekely
    The only game trailer I saw today that held any real interest for me was Dynasty Warriors Gundam Reborn. One more reason I'm glad I kept my PS3 when I got a PS4.
  13. mikeszekely
    Hmm, I've yet to see Rhinox. Of course, I never saw FoC Starscream, Kickback, Waspinator, or Skids.
  14. mikeszekely
    In my (Pittsburgh-ish) area, Whirl's been at Toys R' US for at least two or three weeks. I saw a few at Target yesterday, too.
  15. mikeszekely
    That'd be my guess. Another solution, and one I highly recommend if you were planning to boot from a 3TB drive, is to instead use that drive for storage and install Windows on a much faster SSD. 120GB is enough for Windows 7 and most of your non-game software, and one of the nice things about Windows 7's libraries is that you can set a default location for pictures, videos, downloads, music, and even documents as folders on the 3TB drive. I use setups like that (a120GB SSD for Windows, a 1TB WD Black for my games, and a 3TB drive for storage on my desktop, and a 128GB SSD for Windows with a 1TB drive for games and storage on my laptop), and the boost you get in performance, especially boot time, is worth it.
  16. mikeszekely
    I think I need to see better pictures before I pass judgement.
  17. mikeszekely
    When Street Fighter IV first came out, it was like a breath of fresh air. I hadn't had that much fun with Street Fighter since SFA3. The constant re-releases, though, fatigued me the way they did with SFII and SFIII. I'll probably pass, unless they release it on PS4. I find that the new-console factor has me buying games I wouldn't normally buy.
  18. mikeszekely
    Fixed for you. Seriously, as much as I liked X-Men, X2, and First Class, Fox is still responsible for X3 and the pair of turds that are the Wolverine movies, as well as both the craptastic Fantastic Four movies, and the creme de la crap Daredevil and Elektra movies. That kind of track record doesn't exactly inspire a lot of confidence. Besides, if Marvel Studios could get the rights to Spider-Man, they could tie him into their movie-verse and get him on the Avengers.
  19. mikeszekely
    He's a Japan-only character a lot of us are only passingly aware of, negating any nostalgia value, that transforms into a space-brick that resembles no realistic vehicle on earth. What's to get excited about?
  20. mikeszekely
    Huh. Never heard of it, but then again I don't really play games on my phone.
  21. mikeszekely
    On phonics?
  22. mikeszekely
    Disclaimer... I'm going to watch the movie. My brain will shut off, and I'll enjoy two hours of CGI robots beating each other up and explosions and Optimus Prime riding a dinosaur. I'll do this because I'm a sucker for Transformers. That said, man, I didn't think it was possible for me to hate the Bayformers aesthetic more, but boy are AoE designs awful.
  23. mikeszekely
    Ah, but he didn't trust Black Widow. At least not at first. And I don't think he really trusted Fury, either, until he figured out that Hyrda was involved. As for Falcon, well... I think the point of showing him running with and talking with Cap at the beginning, as well as at the VA support group meeting, was to present a sort of Reader's Digest version of them bonding. Yeah, it's pretty flimsy and contrived, but they're best buddies in the comics. I think it might have worked better if, instead of showing them meeting for the first time, they'd have used the running scene to establish that they have been friends. And again, with Stark, yeah, we the audience get that he isn't anyone's tool and doesn't bow to authority. But from Cap's more limited POV, he might just be an arrogant hot head, which wouldn't necessarily inspire trust. Especially once he realized that Hydra is behind Insight, and Insight is using Stark's tech. How is Cap supposed to know, from that one time they hung out, if Insight is using Stark's tech because he thought he was working with Shield and was duped, or if Stark was in on it? Honestly, of all three post-Avengers movies, Cap 2 is the one I have the least trouble accepting that the other Avengers wouldn't get involved. I mean, in Iron Man 3, terrorists freaking kidnapped the President! If that's not something you get Captain America on, I don't know what is...
  24. mikeszekely
    Well, does Cap really know Stark would help? I mean, we the audience know, sure, but they just had the one movie together (well, two for the Widow). It's possible that Cap, after being told not to trust anyone, doesn't trust Stark enough to ask for his help... Especially when Stark's repulsor tech is being used on the Insight helicarriers.
  25. mikeszekely
    Sure.
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