svasutin

Well, Right-Click your desktop Select Properties Click the 'Settings' Tab (last one on the top right) Click the 'Advanced...' button Have a look around. Since it's an LCD/TV, don't go above 60Hz for your refresh rate. Since I'm not sure of your model, or the company website, I can't be too specific. However, if it is a multi source monitor (s-video, vga, dvi, coax, etc) see if your monitor has a setting for selecting the specific source and not just auto. Also, disable any 3:2 pull down, interacing (all pc's are progressive), and other optional features.

I think the biggest sources of fan noise are the video card and chipset fans. Hence, get an ATI AIW 2006 edition (256 MB AGP 8x NO FAN) and a board without chipset fans. From there look into Antec True Power II 550 (2 fan) power supply. Finally you should be down to case + cpu fan (and the fan on your optical device, which you can't control). For these fans look for settings under 25 dB(A). As for hard drives, rumor has it, SATA is quieter than ATA/100/133. Don't get hung up on dB(A). If you ever watch late night tv, then you know commercials are usually louder, even though the dBA (volume) is the same. The difference is in the pitch/frequency. 60 Hz at 34 dBA is quieter and much less annoying than 1kHz at 34 dBA. Less fans = slightly less noise; removing or adding one fan typically cannot be heard (3 dBA difference for two identical fans). As for Cool, remember, in Las Vegas, they have days at 117 F ~ 47 C, and computers still run. Since you really can't cool more than your surrounding, shoot for 50-55 C (I know people are going to think I'm nuts). Having your case closed adds 5-10 C depending upon a small/mid/full tower, but decreases the pitch, and hence the noise, of fans.

Well, I'm trying to do a simple back up and restore for home users; xp home, family PC, one shared account. I already have favorites, my docs, outlook express, and other folders moved to c:\somedir\theirAcct, which windows won't overwrite on any upgrade or in-place reInstall. The main issue is not having to re-register/Install all the software. My thinking is, when things go wrong, just reInstall windows, and then restore the saved files ntuser.dat files upon the first reboot. However, I'm pretty sure, w/o the NetworkService\ntuser.dat files, the SID won't jive with the other ntuser.dat files. I'm thinking more in terms of DRM and other licensing. I know you can just reInstall software, but trying to get keys, licensing, registration, and passwords is a pain. If i had a nickle for every, 'I can't remember my password/license/key/...' I'd be rich ... wait a second, never mind.... anyway These days, certain major company's do not ship the XP CD with their systems, hence there is no ValueAdd folder to install ntbackup.msi. From experience, the restore is a standard erase useful files, but keep certain non-essential folders. Aside from investing in DVD's and a skeet-shooting equipment, I kinda figured this would be a quick and dirty fix. This is for when System Restore is not available, the Recovery Console has not been installed, and Last Known does not work. Sort of a ntldr issue when one doesn't have a floppy. I'm looking for a way to back up and restore with a minimal amount of user knowledge required. In certain circumstances telling a user about profiles and tweaks has caused undesired effects (I wonder what this will do?)

I'm trying to figure out a way to backup, and then of course restore, the ntuser.dat, .dat.log inside the %userprofile%\..\NetworkService folder. So far, i've used gpedit.msc to set a shutdown and startup script that copies the other folders and files in the 'Documents and Settings' folder. It is only the NetworkService directory that is giving me trouble. Essentially, my shutdown script, turns off all services except for DCOM, Event log, Plug and Play, and Remote Procedure, and then just does xcopy %src% %dest% /v /g /h /y ... It copys everything except for the ntuser.dat and ntsuer.dat.log, and I'm thinking there has to be a way to do this. Thank you for your help.

This is just an update, I'm working on this issue now. What I've found out so far is: There is a difference somewhere in the ntlrdr and/or ntdetect for the various service packs, distributers (Dell, Compaq/HP), and home/pro. Also, got to find a way to detect the correct settings for the boot.ini Finally checking on driver versions for SATA devices.

Actually, I kind of like movie maker. Usually I'm using premier, but 1 day i just needed to trim, cut, and paste. After one figures out it's a simple product, and does exactly what you tell it to do, it's pretty good for quick and dirty jobs.

You know, I'd think the people at Msft Activation would know me by now. I must activate 5-20 times a year. I'd think they'd go, "oh,....it's you again." Everytime I call, I explain it's installed on just one system, no it's not a new computer, just most of the parts got swapped out; I'm doing some testing....no the old system isn't in the trash.... I've always wondered what would happen if I said it was a new computer? Surely they must know the license has been activated a million times since 2000. The bad case is when I have to email and/or fax them my letter from Msft legal stating I'm allowed to install the software on 1 home and 1 portable system. Then it's the, "well how do we know this came from Msft?" Duh, just track the header info. Sometimes, the line goes dead, and then by magic + 30 minutes, I can activate windows. I suppose I should add, 'cause I know people are going to say "Why not just use a 2nd drive", I'm under constant attack from within my home network thanks to the habbits of my housemates; sometimes things get through. Ho hum, ho hum

Recently, I had a rather unpleasant experience, although I'm suprised that I hadn't seen this issue earlier. The system had only SATA hard drives, no floppy, and XP Pro SP2 with SATA drivers slipped. In upgrading SATA drivers, the old SATA drivers were UnInstalled, rather than applying the update to the existing system. The system would not boot into the GUI, but displayed the Boot list of options: Safe Mode, Last Known Good Configuration, Normal, etc. (No Recovery Console). None of which worked (the system would reboot). I went through 4 reboots with each option, none of which allowed me to get into the GUI. Hence, windows was loading, but it couldn't get into the GUI. I believe the PnpDrvrs folder was deleted on the system, and I'm not sure of their System Restore settings. So here's my question. Any thoughts on a recovery process, aside from reInstalling Windows? The part 2 of the question. A second hard drive was added to the original system. The original hdd had 2 partitions, with the DVD @ D; partitions were added after Xp was installed. The second hard drive causes a reOrdering of the drive letters and the location of the DVD drive letter.

thank you again for all your help, it is really appreciated. Also, i needed a little venting. I was surpizingly able to have quite a few applications reload. However, pressing the 'R' for repair is very important. Also, this time, i'm going to set up a script to install the recovery console the 3rd tuesday of everymonth. Also, i increased their system restore size. What a pain. There are a few conflicts with drivers. There were the drivers I provided with the unit, and then there are the drivers that are installed. I'm slowly getting everything back. ho hum, ho hum. I think they will wake up in a few hours. Oh ya, what brought this all on? They bought an iPod that didn't quite work. Man, I hate apple. Now I gotta figure out how import their old itunes and security IDs.

sorry for the delay, really long delay. No they didn't reformat, they just reinstalled windows into the same Windows directroy. Unfortunately, the progfile\common was wiped clean, so lots of stuff has been lost. As of olx, i can find the dbx and wab files, but they had different identities, and I'm not quite sure how to import this stuff ~ it's not outlook 9x/2k+x. I have 4 entries in docs n settings\username\local settings\app data\identities I'm pretty sure two of them were are all thier files and folders. Just don't know PS: I'm also working on ZoneAlarm

Well, some of the stuff seems to be working, but a large majority isn't. Anyone have thoughts about Outlook Express?

Great, actually, I just found out the system is up and running, but they didn't press 'R' when they went to reInstall; they said they wanted their computer back tonight. So now they say their software is missing. I told them they might be able to reInstall, but let me check a few details. Crap, next time I'll just tell them to wait until the morning. I'm going over now, should be there in 30 minutes.

I'm just thinking about reinstalling all the software (searching for new drivers, what was that password again?) I'm just hopping these two are correct http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811151 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313055/

thank you, and well, at least that's something. but unfortunately, the last known good configuration doesn't work. Can't boot into safe mode Can't seem to find a recovery console When i asked about the asr disk, oh, I used that for something else I'm thinking, I should be able to reinstall winxp, and then import their old profile. Any thoughts?

I got a question, supposing someone uninstalled their SATA drivers in XP, and rebooted. Naturally XP won't boot any more. Anythoughts?

I'm pretty sure the problem is in my sector size.... Did you try just creating a regular CD with the files? I suppose, when I go to reformat in 18 days, I'm going to first delete the ntldr file and try a few CDs. Track this topic, as this is something I should have anyway.

Thank you, but help would only be if I actually got your system running. You could, if you had another ntfs system, connect up your drive as a slave, and then copy fresh ntldr and create a new boot.ini file. I think I need to create the XP floppies, and then burn them to a CD, and then image. In three tests so far, I can't seem to get my system to boot from the CD Oh well, we tried.

My original boot img for my pc didn't work, but I just remembered I'm booting off part(3) on this system. Will be back

let me check into nero's help file [edit] I'm still looking, about to burn my own

1 sector on a Cd is 2048 bytes My boot.ini is 211 bytes so that's 1 sector My ntdetect.com is 47564 bytes so that's 24 sectors ntldr is 250048 bytes so 123 sectors Select no emulation and use 148 sectors? That doesn't sound right. I did this one time with Win2k (which has a different ntldr and ntdetect files).

ok, give me a moment

when you get your system back: D:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons where d is the drive letter holding your slip xp cd

try this with nero. I think this is the correct process First, create an ISO CD and copy the files stated above. Press CTRL+R and select Image Recorder Burn the image to your desktop, call it boot Once nero is finished (a few seconds) Press CTRL+N and select CD Boot Select boot.nrg [edit] the next step i'm uncertain and floppy emulation Now copy the same files again to your CD Press CTRL+R and select your actual recorder Burn your CD and use verify

do you have nero?

copy Ntldr Ntdetect.com Boot.ini To a floppy Your boot file should look like *** [boot loader] timeout=0 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Msft Win Xp" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect *** Or, since you are using SATA, you might need to replace multi(0) with scsi(0) for *** [boot loader] timeout=0 default=scsi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS [operating systems] scsi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Msft Win Xp" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect *** If neither of the two above work, then If and when you open your computer, or look at the mfr's website, download the sata drivers. Copy the three files of same name .cat, .sys, .inf to the floppy. Now rename the .sys file to Ntbootdd.sys So your floppy contents would be: Ntbootdd.sys someDriver.cat someDriver.inf Ntldr Ntdetect.com Boot.ini If that don't work, I suspose we could get into the System Recovery Console, but it might be easier to just reInstall (not reformat) windows.