Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Removing the roadblocks to living with Windows 7
It might sound dramatic, "removing the roadblocks to living with Windows 7", but I'm not ready to sacrifice access to a bunch of network drives just to get away from Vista.
Therefore, getting my "toaster" (the Netgear / Zetera SC101 network drives) running is an important step in migrating away from Vista. Although the set-up program is able to install, - after a fashion, anyway - it won't actually run under W7, even via any compatibility mode.
Thinking back, Netgear was pretty slow to put up drivers even for Vista, so there's no hope that the company is going to be proactive with a niche product like the toaster ... as confirmed by the forums, where in Jan 2009 the official moderator wrote: "Please wait until Windows 7 is fully out".
Since then, nothing - not even any hints that Netgear might be developing drivers etc and looking to benefit from those tens of thousands of beta testers. What a huge missed opportunity: Netgear doesn't strike me as a very progressive or customer-friendly company any more. Shame... While I'm on the subject of customer care, Netgear still hasn't even bothered to certify its Vista / XP drivers for the SC101.
The same thread, however, does offer plenty of information from enthusiastic users. Better still, there are step-by-step instructions that actually work. They involve exporting registry keys from XP or Vista, and importing into Windows 7.
This worked, to a point. After I'd started the z-san service, the network drives just popped up in Explorer. I got asked if I'd like to format one (of course not) as it was mounting. But the anti-virus software didn't like this and I got my first 7 bluescreen. A reboot, reinstallation of the a-v software and things stablized.
Note to Netgear: I'd love to test an official beta of any SC101 software for W7. I'd even sign an NDA... But I am not holding my breath waiting for you to actually do anything for at least nine months.
Therefore, getting my "toaster" (the Netgear / Zetera SC101 network drives) running is an important step in migrating away from Vista. Although the set-up program is able to install, - after a fashion, anyway - it won't actually run under W7, even via any compatibility mode.
Thinking back, Netgear was pretty slow to put up drivers even for Vista, so there's no hope that the company is going to be proactive with a niche product like the toaster ... as confirmed by the forums, where in Jan 2009 the official moderator wrote: "Please wait until Windows 7 is fully out".
Since then, nothing - not even any hints that Netgear might be developing drivers etc and looking to benefit from those tens of thousands of beta testers. What a huge missed opportunity: Netgear doesn't strike me as a very progressive or customer-friendly company any more. Shame... While I'm on the subject of customer care, Netgear still hasn't even bothered to certify its Vista / XP drivers for the SC101.
The same thread, however, does offer plenty of information from enthusiastic users. Better still, there are step-by-step instructions that actually work. They involve exporting registry keys from XP or Vista, and importing into Windows 7.
This worked, to a point. After I'd started the z-san service, the network drives just popped up in Explorer. I got asked if I'd like to format one (of course not) as it was mounting. But the anti-virus software didn't like this and I got my first 7 bluescreen. A reboot, reinstallation of the a-v software and things stablized.
Note to Netgear: I'd love to test an official beta of any SC101 software for W7. I'd even sign an NDA... But I am not holding my breath waiting for you to actually do anything for at least nine months.
# posted by Nesjo : 09:42
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