Flasherly,
I admire your spirit of self-reliance; Rush Limbaugh would love you. At
one time, I, with my two U of Mich bachelors degrees in engineering, was
like you, having to know the intimate details of how things worked.
(Once a friend said I wasn't satisfied with merely buying a piece of
wood; I also had to know how the tree grew.) Now, at age 76, I still
have a streak of independence in me, but I'm ready to gloss over the
detailed inner workings of many things and get on with the bigger
project.
A chemistry professor once tried also to tell me that;- youngest and
brightest and with accolades for his degree of intense specialty, none
wouldn't have been amiss in respect I harbored within for him.
It's easier to pay someone $85 for the install rather than buy
a more expensive MS W8 disc and do it myself.
I still disagree with you in principle, that that $85 in the
technicians pocket ought compensate, for the whole, a richer provision
to stand by your esteemed faculties, were it to recompense by way of
the Windows 8.1 install DVD additionally for another approximate $39;-
funny how that initial sum comes around.
But I do tend digress. It must be in my genes. My sister, it is true,
I observe also somewhat unknowingly has it -- in the form of a "know
it all," as she hasn't pursued a broader formal education;- even my
very own father advised me I'd stop to "argue with a stop sign."
And why I never quite bothered to sum a sense of accredited knowledge,
instead choosing a rambling path over three universities in as many
fields of elective endeavors irrespective of curriculum or subsequent
degree.
Tech #1 at PC Warehouse did a clean install from whatever disc he used
onto a virgin WD 1TB drive. He used the product key I got from the
internet XP-to-W8 install; didn't matter that the key was for the 32-bit
version and he was installing 64 bits. The owner just insisted that I
had a legitimate key, which I did.
When they returned the computer to me on August 21, Tech #1 showed me it
booted properly with both hard drives powered. When I got home, I
noticed the problem and fiddled with the Reset routine to live with it.
When I brought the computer back yesterday, Aug 25, to discuss the
booting problem, a different tech made the suggestion about using a
temporary third drive store my data, reformatting the second drive, and
copying the data from the third drive back to the second one (and then
removing the third drive) to ensure a single copy of W8 was in my
computer. Made sense until I found the problem existed even with drive 2
unpowered.
Today, as I think back to yesterday, I noted that Tech #2 always shut
the computer off by pressing the power switch, not by the lengthier
Start/Shut down routine. Assuming Tech #1 and the other techs also work
this way, it would explain why the problem didn't show up in the store.
I've only just installed W7, myself, but did note the three methods of
shutting down (one of which would be hibernation) seem to me more
"embedded" than of formerly XP;- moreover with 8.1, as you say, I can
imagine since a reception I've heard rumors of Microsoft dispensing
with the Start Menu.
It doesn't explain why I had to follow Paul's suggestion (8/25, 10:13
p.m.) about using the powercfg -h- off command. The PC Warehouse is
closed on Tuesdays; tomorrow I'll bring my findings to them, to expand
their "lessons learned" database of knowledge.
I had the impression Paul had hit upon, provided you a workable
solution. Although I've never placed much tow in a consumer-oriented
workplace, I'll admit Rebel1, at least what I first suspect is at its
first front, among capitalistic forays of immediacy and profiteering;-
anything involving a qualified, residing technical is as much and
often matter of scrutiny, assessment and study;- [For] I'll as easily
walk away, without looking back, when their presiding technical
interests are no less a shallow facade and [mis]representative
appearance of technopreneurialism.
I'm still in the awkward position of not having a bootable disc in case
of future problems.
Ah! Hah! . . .
Paul postings dwelled on the hibernate mode, but I never use it.
Thanks to all for your help.
Paul suggestion is good enough, observant and perhaps pertinent (among
many liklihoods appertaining).
As in the above, being somewhat a perfectionist - (and there's
actually a study to qualify what I read: the more a person knows of
computing, the more personal becomes their computer) - I could never
let another fiddle-fart with mine.
And I'm as good as shot, a sitting duck in the water, without my own
disc of the installation - proper, for a damn-straight clean as a
whistle install! The job's only as good as the tools used to get it
done, a commander as good as his lieutenants.