Replies

Whoops…I erred in what I said…I meant to say “if the peripheral you are plugging into the front of your computer is more important than the ones in the back, then plug that peripheral into one of the back USB ports, and leave the rest unplugged until you reboot your computer…

Sorry about that…
Bertie

If you have a peripheral plugged into your front USB port and it interferes with your boot process, so that your computer doesn’t boot until you unplug your perifphera, I would suspect that adding your peripheral is just about straining your computer capacity to the limit. Now, I don’t know what you have connected to the USB port in the back of the computer, but I suggest you decide which USB peripherals are most important and, if the peripheral that you’re plugging into the front USB port is less important than others, then plug that peripheral in a back USB port, and don’t plug anything into your front ports until your computer has booted up.

Not knowing anything else about your computer, I would say it sounds like your computer is being used to its processing capacity. This means that you might need more RAM or, perhaps, a new computer with more resources.

Good luck…and don’t rush out and buy a new one…change you USB connections first and see what happens…and don’t forget to clean the registry and other assorted junk from your computer, to free up as much disk space as you can…

Bertie

ok…is that a problem?

Have you enabled Oriental characters anywhere in your computer? If you’re not sure, check out language choices wherever you can find them…

bronze lounger is correct in all that he/she says…however, it isn’t easy to find an xp disc with SP3, and you may have to search for SP2 if you don’t already have it downloaded somewhere. You can use an xp disc that has been used only once before, since a backup is usually allowed. Keep in mind that if you start with just an xp disc and no service packs, your usb drives might not work until you install at least SP1. However, once you have your internet connection, you can download any drivers you need, if you don’t have them before you start.
I’ve done this many times, from Vista to XP and the process is smooth, but you must be able to obtain the Service Packs and the drivers at some point.

Good Luck

I haven’t the faintest idea why your laptop isn’t going into standby…but if it just started, you might try a system restore…since obviously something has changed in the computer….

Good luck…

You may want to consider whether or not you want all the updates…because Microsoft sends out not only updates for Windows, but also updates for their software, such as Microsoft Office. I set my automatic updates to notify me bu let me choose the updates I want. Then I look them over and take only updates that indicate Windows Security Update, or Windows Update. If my software is running fine, I don’t update it.

Good luck…
bertie

I agree with Clint above re: limiting any one copy experience to approximately 12GB at one time. However, with what you’ve been doing so far, and with not being sure if data copied accurately, I would consider formatting the drive and starting your copy and paste over, in batches of 12GB at a time. Once that’s done, you’ll have your backup and will only have to copy new material when you create it. Good luck

Addendum….I fogot to mention that elderly people, such as myself, are really better off with just one email address…the more differences there are, the more confusion generally follows…Let us know if you get this solved….I would prefer they stay with Yahoo…that way they don’t lost their email if something goes wrong with their computer….

Check the following link…it gives you the info you need, I believe…for Yahoo…

http://techblissonline.com/yahoo-pop3-and-smtp-settings/

Good luck….
Bertie91

Joe P. is absolutely correct when he says that it’s important to know the pros and cons of various programs. I certainly believe that “knowledge is power” and is always useful. However, I believe that most of us are interested in recovering the computer we have when we talk of imaging. Moving to a computer with different hardware is always a challenge that, I believe, is best approached with the knowledge that it will run best when configured from scratch. Sometimes,for best results, there is no substitute for a clean install…

Oh boy…this discussion is beginning to split hairs and lose sight of the real purpose of imaging software. Basically, we want a program that will clone our system drive so, in the event of drive failure, the system can be recovered with minimum muss, fuss, and aggravation. Now we know that Norton Ghost does that. We also know that Acronis True Image does it. And it seems there are a few other programs that are also in the running, but have some additional features. For me, I could skip all the additional features and live with knowing that my computer can be recovered to exactly the way I want it in a less than an hour or so without my having to scrounge around for applications and drivers.

That’s worth gold, folks…and we don’t need to knock ourselves out trying to figure which is the best program. As long as any of them do that, it’s great. Anything more is gravy, but beyond what we really need.

Wow…your post gives me food for thought. Let’s think for a moment what you want to end up…I gather you want to have a computer with win 7 on your C: drive and all your files and programs on your C: drive as well, eventually eliminating your current OS from your C: drive. Of that’s correct, let me suggest a slightly different scenario.

Your C: drive has an operating system and other stuff. I would suggest you first partition your drive into two more sections, one for Win 7 and programs, and another for all your Documents, Pictures, etc. That way if you ever have to reformat your OS drive, your Documents and Pictures, and any other data you save on this second partition will not be affected.

Having said that, let’s go a bit further. If you partition as I suggest, you’ll have one partition with your current OS, another with Win 7, a third with Documents and Pictures, and a fourth that already exists, which I assume may well be a recovery drive. So far, so good.

You can leave your computer this way and set it to boot from your Win 7 Drive, leaving your current OS as it is in case of emergency, which allows you to boot your computer from it if you need to because something goes wrong with Win 7. Some people think this is not a bad idea.

However, if you want to eliminate your current OS, which I assume is on your C: drive, then, after you copy all your documents and pictures to your new partition created for Documents and Pictures, and you have Win 7 as an alternate boot partition, I would format the C: drive and install Win 7 on it. After that, format the second drive on which you installed Win 7 and merge the free space with your Documents and Pictures drive.

So you end up with the following: Drive C: Win 7 and Programs (which will have to be reinstalled to your boot drive no matter what)
Drive D: Documents and Pictures
Drive E: The other original partition which I assume is a recovery partition.

The end product is a nicely organized computer, with all info on one physical drive, but partitioned so that any problems with the OS will not affect your Documents and Pictures, nor you Recovery drive.

I would also suggest you purchase something like Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image so you can set up a clone image of your C: drive on your D: drive and recover your C: drive within an hour if anything ever goes wrong with it.

I hope I’ve outlined this business correctly to give you a fairly fail-safe computer, with the exception that a hard drive failure will result in you possibly losing everything. The only way to beat that is to have your Documents and Pictures on second physical drive, and I’m not sure that your computer will allow that. I, personally, prefer it, but doing it depends upon whether or not you can install a second physical drive. If so, then your C: drive would contain a partition with your OS and your programs, along with a second partition that is now there, which I’ma assuming is your recovery partition, and your second physical drive would contain your Documents and Pictures, and another partition on which you would save your cloned images of your C: drive. That way, if you C: drive ever fails, you can install another and restore you OS and programs within an hour or so.

All this is something to think about, but if you take it one step at a time, it should go smoothly.

One thing I would add about the current shift to the gigantic drives now available. It reminds me of what occurred with memory sticks for digital cameras. They are now so large that one memory stick can store over 1000 5mb foto files. Of course, if you happen to step on the memory card, all the images can be destroyed. However, if you had smaller cards, then the loss of one would not result in you losing 1000 digital files.

I’m afraid there’s no easy out on this. Just remember that whatever you do, be sure to have a backup disk with all your Documents and Pictures. Operating systems can be reinstalled, but data files cannot be recreated.

Good luck.

Bertie91

Oh boy…Now why would you want to do a clean install on a machine that is working just fine? If the bloat is there, make use of “Revo Uninstaller” (free) and uninstall the bloat ware. Then defrag your C drive, and “yes” do partition your single drive into the basic C drive, approximately 30gb, and at least one more partition that contains “Documents” and “Pictures”. Of course, if you have a recovery partition, do nothing with that but keep it, since it will restore your computer to factory received condition if you ever need to do that, with all the necessary drivers.

If there is anything I’ve learned over the years of working with computers, it’s not to do anything that isn’t necessary. A clean install to eliminate bloat is really unnecessary when the bloat can simply be uninstalled.

Use free programs such as “Ccleaner” and “Advanced System Care” to keep you computer running smoothly by eliminating unneeded registry entries and accrued junk files that result from surfing or visiting any websites.

Other than that, “enjoy” your computer. Sony makes good stuff that lasts, and is very reliable.

b

Well, without an installation disk, installation really isn’t possible. And you can’t simply copy an OS from one machine to another. The bottom line is you have one working computer, with two others that would work if you had an OS to install. Of course, you can try Ubuntu, but it isn’t the most user friendly. However, it is open source, meaning it’s free and you can install it on as many copies as you want.

However, I think in your situation, you might try some heavy duty maintenance on your other two machines. By that I mean using a program like Revo Uninstaller to delete all programs except for those that are installed along with Windows. Also uninstall all peripherals, such as printers, scanners, external hard disks, etc. In other words, get the Computer in stand alone factory condition.

I would then recommend you use something like Ccleaner to clean up your registry and junk files, and Advanced Systems Care (look for free versions of each progam) to further optimize and spruce up your system. After that, find yourself a good, free defrag program, such as Auslogics, and defrag your disk. Then see how it’s running. Subsequently, do a thorough virus and spyware check with Avast antivirus, and Adaware (all free). And, again, see how the machines are running. You should notice a huge improvement.

After that you can start installing your hardware and check how the machines run after each installation. If any addition results in a noticeable slowdown, I’d eliminate it unless it was absolutely necessary.

Incidentally, I should also mention that you really ought to check how much RAM you have in your machine as compared to how much the machine can take. There’s no sense in doing all this work until the hardware configuration is the best you can get. You can do a RAM scan on Crucial.com, with recommendations as to what memory to buy from them to bring you machine up to maximum RAM.

And, finally, if you find that all this is just too much work, then you might just want to spring for one of the new computers in the $400 range. There’s good stuff out there now that will satisfy the needs of most people I know that is about as inexpensive as it’s ever been.

So…good luck…and happy decision making…

Bertie