[Channeal]

Hello to both of you.

 

It was strange to wake up today without my first thought being "What can I do to try to fix the computer today?"

 

Thanks for coming back Godawgs - and for all your help so far. Yes, I guess you could say we have had a bit of an adventure here! I was looking back at my very first message and was surprised to learn that it was actually as long ago as 25th February! I only came here in the first place to make sure that my computer was clear of the virus that I had been trying to get rid of..... no way did I expect to still be here all this time later! Everything seemed to start going wrong after that though: the monitor started misbehaving on the 20th March and the sound around the same time. I couldn't believe it when the printer also went wrong in April lol! Looking back, I suppose it was perhaps good that all the problems arose while I was here, because at least I already had you guys to help me. At the time though, I thought some evil computer sprite was unfairly playing tricks on me.... and poor Phill probably thought he was never, ever going to get rid of me!

 

Okay.... I am going to follow your instructions to reverse the system changes we made. I will probably do that some time tomorrow or Wednesday.... it is a bit manic here today, as our son is in the throes of moving back here for a while. Btw, is it okay to just delete the c:\i386 files via Windows Explorer, the way you would do with any file?

 

Once I have finished that, I will have a go at backing up the hard drive. I will probably use Acronis, since we already have this program. I may well have to ask more questions about that at some point though.

 

I was surprised, Phillpower, that you said that you had learned something from this too. It is nice if you did; I certainly have learned an awful lot.

 

Cheers,

Chris.

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Btw, is it okay to just delete the c:\i386 files via Windows Explorer, the way you would do with any file?

Exactly. Just right click on the i386 folder in the root drive C:\ and click Delete.

 

Speaking for myself, and I think Phill, we are always learning. I sometimes think of us as the Marines of malware removal. We often have to adapt and overcome. Very few computer problems are exactly the same. Malware is always evolving. So we are constantly learning. The great thing about your problem is that you stuck around until it got resolved. You didn't do anything to exacerbate the problem and you did a lot toward resolving it. Keep safe. 

[godawgs]

Btw, is it okay to just delete the c:\i386 files via Windows Explorer, the way you would do with any file?

Exactly. Just right click on the i386 folder in the root drive C:\ and click Delete.

 

Speaking for myself, and I think Phill, we are always learning. I sometimes think of us as the Marines of malware removal. We often have to adapt and overcome. Very few computer problems are exactly the same. Malware is always evolving. So we are constantly learning. The great thing about your problem is that you stuck around until it got resolved. You didn't do anything to exacerbate the problem and you did a lot toward resolving it. Keep safe. 

[phillpower2]

Ditto to the most wise words of godawgs 

 

On the subject of learning something new Channeal, now that you have a stable computer why not take a look at Puppy Linux and it`s uses, there is no need for it to be installed to the HDD as it uses the system memory, you can burn Puppy to disk or download it to a USB thumb drive, a couple of tutorials for you here and FAQ here

[Channeal]

Hello again!

 

Godawgs, I followed your instructions for reversing the system changes yesterday and all seems to be okay. I haven't deleted the 2 files on the desktop yet, but will do so later on today as long as everything stays okay.

 

Phillpower...... Puppy Linux? I know you threatened me with that before, but I thought my computer problems had been solved just in time to save me from having to face this unknown creature.... and now you are telling me that I should learn about it anyway!  Being serious though, I did read through the links you gave me and found it fascinating: I had no idea such a thing even existed! It certainly does sound like something I would find interesting to have a play around with, especially as it seems as if I couldn't do too much damage if it all went wrong.

 

Can you please tell me though what the advantages of having it would be, other than the interest factor? When and why would I use it? I think I read somewhere that it is more secure than Windows and that it is good to use for Internet banking. Is that correct? I also think I read that it is useful if there is a problem with the computer as it enables you to access the hard drive somehow. How does that work? I am thinking that maybe it would have been useful a few years ago, when my daughter got a really nasty virus on her computer which wouldn't let her access very much. I researched the virus on our computer and then burned a Kaspersky rescue disc on here and was able to sort it all for her with that. I also used the Kaspersky disc when our hard drive failed last year, as it enabled me to save files to our second hard drive just in case the external drive developed problems too. It is all still on the second hard drive actually, but I haven't found it easy to keep the really big files like 'my music' (which is pretty large) up to date on there.

 

At the moment, I am busily tidying up all our files and doing a general computer spring clean before attempting the Acronis thing. When the program was on here before, it developed some kind of problem which stopped it doing its regular back-ups of any changes, but hopefully it will be okay when I start again from scratch. I used the documents that it had backed-up on the external hard drive on one previous occasion when Windows had to be reloaded (I think that was due to another nasty virus) via technical support, but have no idea how to make use of it other than that. I just looked at the leaflet that comes with the program and it says: 'If you are going to install a new hard drive disk drive, Acronis True Image 10.0 Home will help you transfer information from the old one in minutes, including operating systems, applications, documents and personal settings.' Well, I obviously missed out on that one!!!! What should I have done..... given the external hard drive to the shop when they put in the new hard drive? Or what?

 

I was thinking about all my recent computer problems - and the fact that I did stay around until they finally got solved (even though there was more than one occasion when I really felt like giving up!). The thing with me is that I alway look ahead and foresee the consequences. Once I had invested quite a bit of time trying to solve it all - with your help, of course - I knew that I would feel really despondent if I had had to admit to having failed. Okay it wouldn't have been the first time - lol - and I would have gotten over it pretty quickly.... but what really drove me on was the thought that - if I did manage to succeed after all that time - just how good it would feel. And it sure did!

 

Thank you both for still continuing to help me. I feel like I should just disappear now really and let you get on with helping other people; you have both definitely given me more than my fair share of your time!

 

Cheers,

Chris.

 

PS I forgot one more thing I meant to ask. You told me to keep an eye on the computer temperatures (I need to download the fan program again as it disappeared when we did the system restore). What am I looking for? What sort of temperatures would I need to really panic about?

[phillpower2]

Hello Channeal,

 

Puppy is a great alternative and free OS, it allows you to back up data from a HDD that has issues ( it cannot do this if the HDD is 100% dead ) and it uses the system memory to run and so does not affect Windows or any other program on the HDD/s.

 

As to how secure Puppy and other Linux programs are, you will read that Linux software is more secure than Windows and it would be difficult to argue the point where XP is now concerned, godawgs is the expert in this area and can advise you far better than I can but consider the following, security updates and support for XP from MS has now ended and the less desirable people out there will exploit this with their malware and hacking activities, Windows Vista, 7, 8 and 8.1 are used by more people than any Linux program the world over and this is why the nasties out there target Windows, even with security support from MS, if you can infect or hack one you can do the same to many ( the latter is the bad guys objective ) if the roles were to be reversed Linux would be the #1 target.

 

Possibly having a back up of the original OS but not using it should be put behind you as you were not to know at the time, keep in mind what you have learned from this, if the issue was to happen again you would be well prepared.

 

We are always willing to help others so if you ever have a question or a particular computer concern you only need ask on the appropriate forum and someone will help 

 

The maximum safe operating temperature of your processor is 66.6°C and should not be exceeded, you can use Speedfan to monitor this, download from here

[Channeal]

Thanks for the explanation, Phillpower.

 

As far as backing up data goes, I have the external hard drive which should have everything backed up on there eventually as long as I get the Acronis program working okay. And I guess that if we were ever to install another new hard drive on this computer (probably not likely as the computer is old, but say for argument's sake we did), then presumably we should tell whoever reinstalled it that we have got a copy of the OS already on the external hard drive. Is this correct?

 

In addition, we have the second hard drive which can also be used as a back-up. I am not really sure whether we should back everything up on there, or just use it to store certain things. For ages, we never realised that we even had a second hard drive until a really lovely lady working for Dell (the best Dell technical support person I have ever spoken too by far) told me. It still remained completely unused though, until the hard drive failed last year and I managed to use the Kaspersky disc to back up files from the failed drive to the other one.  I was thinking originally that it would be a good place to store just our photos and music, both of which we would not want to lose - but I ended up replacing the whole big file every time I wanted to update and that was such a pain. I decided that I didn't really need to do it in addition to the back-up on the second hard drive..... so I am thinking of deleting most of the stuff on there. Can I ask what you would recommend using this second drive for?

 

Anyway,  I already have two potential places to back up to....... but you are telling me to use Puppy to back up as well? How much can be kept on there, is there a limit?

 

One thing I wasn't sure about when I read the instructions is whether, once you have burned the CD, you have to do the Flash Drive thing too. At first, I thought it was an either/or thing, but the second time I read it I wasn't sure. How big does the Flash Drive have to be? The only one we have in our possession at the moment is just 2GB.

 

Finally, I have a question for you, Godawgs, if you are still around. It is about XP security and the fact that Microsoft have now withdrawn support for it, as Philpower mentioned in his message. I thought I read somewhere the other day though that they have released a patch for the big new security vulnerability that has been in the news (sorry, I cannot remember what it was called) and that they have actually decided to include XP in this as well on this sole occasion. How do I get this? Is it something that will come automatically via Windows Updates?

 

Am just trying to get a few things clear in my mind before I finally leave you both in peace!

 

Cheers,

Chris.

[phillpower2]

You are welcome Channeal 

 

The store that previously replaced your HDD should have asked you if you had either the original Dell install/recovery disk/s or a back up image, so yes you are correct in that your back up disk should be provided (and returned to you) to/by the tech if replacing the HDD.

 

Can I take a look at your present HDD arrangement before making any suggestions; 

 

Go to Start then to Run/Search

Type in compmgmt.msc and click Enter
On the left side click on Disk Management
On the right side you will see your hard drive.                                                                                                                                                                                         
Now I need you to take an expanded screenshot and attach it to your next reply.

To capture and post a screenshot;

Click on the ALT key + PRT SCR key..its on the top row..right hand side..now click on start...all programs...accessories...paint....left click in the white area ...press CTRL + V...click on file...click on save...save it to your desktop...name it something related to the screen your capturing... BE SURE TO SAVE IT AS A .JPG ...otherwise it may be to big to upload... then after typing in any response you have... click on browse...desktop...find the screenshot..select it and click on the upload button...then on the lower left...after it says upload successful...click on add reply like you normally would.
 

Screenshot instructions are provided to assist those that may read this topic but are not yet aware of the “how to”.

 

Sorry but crossed wires regarding Puppy, I was explaining what Puppy can be used for other than as an OS, we use Puppy as a means to back up important data from a failing HDD and I was not suggesting that you use it long term for backing up.

 

If you load Puppy  from disk you would save any data from the HDD to a USB stick, the capacity of the USB stick would be determined by how much data there was to recover, the data btw could be backed up to an external USB HDD and the thumb drive suggested in the tutorial is only used as an example, this because most if not everyone that uses a computer does have at least one USB thumb drive but the same cannot be said for external USB HDDs. 

 

The XP security update information that you mention, could it be the post here

[Channeal]

Hi there,

 

Sorry for misunderstanding about the Puppy thing being used to back up the hard drive; just me being stupid again, no doubt!

 

Here are the Disk Management details you asked for (though the CD-Rom drives etc did not fit onto the page) : -

 

 

 

The XP security update information that you mention, could it be the post here

 

Ah yes, that is what I was talking about.... and written by you too! Thanks very much.

 

Cheers,

Chris.

[phillpower2]

Hello Channeal,

 

Certainly no need for any apology, you have been all around the block with computer issues for a good while and maybe I didn`t explain it too good 

 

Can I ask which HDD was replaced as in the C: or D: drive.

 

I am thinking that if your OS is on the C: drive (most likely) you could back up any data that you need to from the D: drive to your external HDD, format the D: drive, clone the data from the C: drive to the D: drive, reverse the drive letters so that D: becomes C: etc and then use the smaller C: drive as your boot device/has XP on it, this would then allow you to format and partition the larger capacity storage device as you see fit, one for clerical type work, one for music, one for videos and one for photographs.

[Channeal]

Hello again,

Many thanks for your suggestions regarding our two hard drives. I haven't really had a chance to study them and understand what you said fully, as we have a friend staying for a couple of days and have had a busy day. Will look at it again once she has left.

Cheers,
Chris.

[phillpower2]

Hello Channeal,

 

No worries, reply when you can and we will answer any questions that you may have.

[Channeal]

Hello Phillpower2.... and thanks again for your ideas about what we might do with our two hard drives.

The present C drive is indeed the one which was replaced last year. We started off with 2 drives which were both the same size as the present drive D - but the computer shop replaced the failed drive with a larger one, although they never asked us if we wanted that. We were pleased, of course, as the old hard drive had been almost full.

My first thought when I read your suggestions was that they are way too hard for me; I think maybe you have the idea that I am cleverer than I really am!

I do have some questions/comments though, as I am interested in learning more about what this would involve....

-----------------------

THE SMALLER DRIVE (AT PRESENT DRIVE D).

I guess having the smaller drive as the boot drive would make sense. Would it make the starting-up process any quicker (it does take quite a long time at the moment) as there would not be much left on the boot drive, or does the second hard drive affect the start-up time too?

As I think (but am not certain) that its position as the second hard drive at the moment means it does not need all the system files to operate,  I imagine this would involve having to install the XP operating system onto this drive? I do not know how to do this, although I have done it in the past with the help of technical support.

Re-installing all of the programs would not be too much of a problem, as we do not have too many programs on here at the moment (I am sure we had many more before the hard drive crashed!). I am thinking about the michievous printer program though.... I am really not sure I could go through all that all over again!

NB The only files on this drive at the moment are back-ups of the files on the present drive C..

-----------------------


THE LARGER DRIVE (AT PRESENT DRIVE C).

First of all, I really know absolutely nothing at all about formatting a drive, or making partitions! :-(

What are the advantages of partitioning this drive, rather that simply putting all the data on there just as the back-up files are now?

Can you download music files direct to a second hard drive?

Having our music files, picture and documents on the second hard drive does make a lot of sense. Actually, this was what I was proposing to do (though without swapping the drives over) when the hard drive was first replaced. I had already got a back-up copy of all our files on the second hard drive anyway and was thinking of just leaving them there. However, I got a bit confused and bogged down about whether this would work: for example, would music files stored on the second hard drive play okay? Before I could find the answer to this, life got somewhat more stressful than normal: my husband had to have an operation for one thing and all computer stuff got forgotten for a while!

-----------------------

I seem to be getting some kind flu bug at the moment, as I am burning up. The girl who has been staying with us came on a flight from Singapore and told us that there was somebody on the plane who seemed really ill, so  am hoping she hasn't given me something really nasty! At least though I have got an excuse if my ramblings above make even less sense than normal!

 

Cheers,

Chris.

[phillpower2]

Hello Channeal,

 

Sorry to hear that you are unwell 

 

The smaller HDD with not much on it but the OS would boot up quicker, the second HDD does not affect the boot time of the first boot device.

 

You would not need to do a fresh install of XP following the steps that I have provided because you will basically be swapping the present OS and other software from one HDD to another.

 

You can save whatever you like to the second HDD.

 

You may wish to print the following steps, once you have decided what you wish to do just let us know and I will find some tutorials for you, there is no rush so do it when you feel better.

 

Back up any data that you need to from the D: drive to your external HDD.

Format the D: drive.

Uninstall any unused programs on the C: drive.

Clone the data from the C: drive to the D: drive.

Change the drive letters so that D: becomes C: and C: becomes D:.

The new smaller C: drive will be your boot device as it has XP on it.

The new larger D: drive can now be formatted, you do not need to partition it if you do not want to, an easier option would be to create individual folders for each theme.

[Channeal]

Hello again,

I am feeling quite a bit better now thanks.

I printed out your last message and studied it while I was ill. It took me a while to grasp some of the concepts in it (although the fact that I was alternating reading it with attempting to translate a Greek story may not have helped my already aching head to take in any more information lol).

I think I am going to give this a try..... As long as I have tutorials and understand them fully beforehand, I guess I should be okay with doing it. I am not a very confident person generally and I always foresee possible problems (or even impossible ones) and think that I will somehow mess everything up. Though paradoxically, when some gadget or similar thing goes wrong, something else kicks into gear and I have a strange (and often unrealistic) belief that I can fix things!

I have a couple of comments\questions: -

 

 

Back up any data that you need to from the (smaller) D: drive to your external HDD.

There is nothing on it to back up, as it has solely been used to back up drive C
 

 

Format the (smaller) D: drive.
Uninstall any unused programs on the (larger) C: drive.
Clone the data from the (larger) C: drive to the (smaller) D: drive.

These steps puzzled me for quite a long time, because I didn't realise that when you said 'clone the data' you meant that absolutely everything - operating system and all - is somehow taken from the larger drive to the smaller one.

 

 

Change the drive letters so that D: becomes C: and C: becomes D:.

It would never even have occurred to me that you could do this. I imagine that there is some special way of doing it - rather than just changing the letters as you would the name of any old file - in order to avoid having, say, 2 drive C's for a time. If it was me, I would probably call one 'Drive X' for a while, but I am sure this is not how it is really done!

 

 

The new smaller C: drive will be your boot device as it has XP on it.

Yes. Understood now.

 

 

The new (larger) D: drive can now be formatted, you do not need to partition it if you do not want to, an easier option would be to create individual folders for each theme.

This one really puzzles me! Formatting the drive means there is nothing at all left on it, right? I know that there are quite a few system files on the current (smaller) D drive, as the files I backed up on there last year are scattered amongst the system files when I look at the drive via Windows Explorer. Do you not need to have similar files on the new (larger) D: drive though?

My big problem with this is going to be when I will actually be able do it. I am going to be busy the next couple of days doing homework for our lesson on Wednesday night (we have a lot to catch up on as we couldn't print stuff out when the printer was out of action). Thursday is completely out of the question, as we are actually working from very early morning until almost midnight. Friday might be a possibility, as long as my husband doesn't need to use the computer. Really, I would prefer the house to myself to do a job like that which needs full concentration, as both my husband and daughter are people who talk quite a lot and I need to be fairly quiet in order to concentrate :-) Realistically then, I probably may not be able to attempt this until some time next week.

At the moment, I still have to back everything up onto the external drive. I have been busy doing some general tidying on here today ready for backing it all up. I should hopefully get a bit of time to do that tomorrow morning.

Thank you very much for helping me with this extra matter. You have already spent so much time helping me with with my long saga of computer problems (and putting up with my long rambling messages lol) and I would not have blamed you had you got rid of me as soon as possible once things were finally solved. I really appreciate the extra help.

Cheers,
Chris.

 

PS I just had this horrible thought that it may have been Godawgs - and not you - whom I told that we are attempting to learn Greek. If it wasn't you,  then you will have thought me completely mad talking about Greek translation etc. That bad memory of mine again!

[phillpower2]

Hello Channeal,

 

Glad to hear that you are feeling better 

 

Back up any data that you need to from the (smaller) D: drive to your external HDD.

There is nothing on it to back up, as it has solely been used to back up drive C

The new (larger) D: drive can now be formatted, you do not need to partition it if you do not want to, an easier option would be to create individual folders for each theme.

 

This one really puzzles me! Formatting the drive means there is nothing at all left on it, right? I know that there are quite a few system files on the current (smaller) D drive, as the files I backed up on there last year are scattered amongst the system files when I look at the drive via Windows Explorer. Do you not need to have similar files on the new (larger) D: drive though?

 

Answer to both of the above: What we are going to be doing is creating an exact image of the C: drive on the smaller D: drive, this is the reason why you should get rid of anything on the C: drive that is no longer used, old programs that you no longer use for example, if there is nothing on it to be removed that is fine as long as all of the data will fit on the smaller present D: drive, I suggest Macrium Reflect free for this, the details are available here and you can familiarise yourself with them until you are ready to complete the task.

 

It would never even have occurred to me that you could do this. I imagine that there is some special way of doing it - rather than just changing the letters as you would the name of any old file - in order to avoid having, say, 2 drive C's for a time. If it was me, I would probably call one 'Drive X' for a while, but I am sure this is not how it is really done!

 

Windows by default should automatically allocate the drive that has the OS on it the drive letter C:, as you are creating an exact image of the boot drive once it is done you will need to manually change the drive letters so that Windows boots from the new smaller boot drive, "how to" here

 

As ever you are most welcome and no rush, when you are ready 

 

I did read your malware topic and so was aware of the Greek lessons btw