mike13

If your computer is doing a disc defrag, and you start using the computer, does the Defrag stop, or does it continue to run in the background, which has to slow the computer a bit ?? Thanks, Mike

DosProbie---I checked out that link you furnished for EASEUS. Pretty impressive. I downloaded that program and it works pretty good. I think I will image my hard drive with EaseUS one month, and then use Paragon the next month, since I have two external hard drives. Thanks again for the link. I think I will forget about getting that Windows 7 File program to work. Mike

jaclaz----OK, I am am back again. When I look in MY COMPUTER, the only drives I see there are the "C" drive, and the DVD burner. Although there has to be a partition somewhere with the RECOVERY on it, because I did use it once. Maybe that is what is messing everything up. In the mean time I downloaded that free Paragon Backup and Recovery program. That works well, but it only uses 39 Gig of space on the Seagate external hard drive, instead of the 55 Gig I was expecting. Maybe it compresses the data a bit ?? Anyway, i would prefer using that Windows 7 File Recovery within Windows 8, if i could get it working. Any other suggestions ?? Thanks, Mike

OK, I am back and did as you (jaclaz) suggested. I file =528 btyes 1Dir = 988,766,056,448 bytes free So that proves that there us sufficient space to copy an image og 59 gig onto a I terabyte external hard drive. I then went to the Command Prompt and typed CHKDSK, thia is the message I received. "43 Index ntries processed index verification complete o unidentified files scanned o unidentified file recovered Chkdsk is verifying security descripancies stage 3 of 3Security descripancies completed 7 data files processed Errors delected in the upper case files Windows has checked the file system and found problems. Run chkdsk with the /F (fix) option to correct these . 3086 kbotal disc space 4 kb in ndexis 0 kb in bad sectors 2485 kb in use by the system 2048 kb occurring by the log file 587 kb available on the disc 512 bytes in each allocation units 6173 total allocation units on disc 1195 allocation units available on the disc" I tried running that chkdsk /f but I was told that the type of ths system is BTSF Windows can not run disc checking on this volume because it is write protected. I then went to Western Digital and did an extended of the hard drive. No problem was found !! So I am at loss. Suggestions, PLEASE MIKE

jaclaz---Thanks for the reply, however we had a death in the family, so I will have to deal with this later. Mike

I used the Windows 7 File Recovery from Control Panel.

I have used my External hard drive several times to create an image of my computer running Windows 8. I just got a new computer with Windows 8. I tried to do an Image of the new computer the same way I had done images before of my other computer. The hard drive on the NEW computer is 500 Mg. The Seagate external hard drive is a TB. When I try to do an image I get this message "THERE IS NOT ENOUGH DISC SPACE TO CREATE THE VOLUME SHADOW COPY ON THE STORAGE LOCATION. MAKE SURE THAT FOR ALL VOLUMES TO BE BACKED UP. THE MINIMUM REQUIRED DISC SPACE FOR SHADOW COPY IS AVAILABLE. THIS APPLIES TO BOTH THE BACKUP STORAGE DESTINATION AND VOLUMES INCLUDED IN THE BACKUP." The space used on the computer hard drive is only 48 Gig, so why am I getting a message that there is not enough space. Suggestions, help. Mike

allen2 and jaclaz, Thanks for the replies. I went back and set the resolution to 1920 X 1080 as you suggested. I then put display setting at 125% and all is good again. Many thanks, Mike

puntoMX, I did as you suggested, and the message are gone. Thanks, Mike

Thanks allen2, and jaclaz for the replies. Late last evening I was reading some literature that came with the mouse. It referenced different DPI settings. Maybe it is just a matter of setting the mouse for bigger sizing, after I reset the display to 1920 X 1080 I will check it out this evening after work. Thanks, Mike

I just received my new Dell Optiplex computer that I bought on E-Bay (I know, that could be trouble) anyway, once in a while I get this message "THE CATALYST CONTROL CENTER IS NOT SUPPORTED BY THE DRIVER VERSION OF YOUR ENABLED GRAPHICS ADAPTER. PLEASE UPDATE YOUR AMD GRAPHICS DRIVER OR ENABLE YOUR AMD ADAPTER USING DISPLAYS MANAGER." I noticed there is an opening in the back of the computer where an optional graphics card might have been. They probably removed the card, and forgot to put the small tab back in. I found reference to this Catalyst Control Center in Task Manager, and I disabled it. Should this fix the problem, or do I need to "UPDATE" something as the message said. My thought is that this message is referring to the missing graphics card. Your thought, suggestions. Thanks, Mike

I have a Dell computer running Win 8, and a Asus 23 inch monitor. I had the display set at 1440 X 900 and I was happy. The picture went from end to end of the monitor. I think the computer has the onboard intel graphics 2000 .and my connections were a HDMI on the computer to a HDMI on the monitor. Anyway, I got another Dell computer that has the intel 4000 onboard graphics etc. I am using a Display port from the computer to a DVI on the monitor. The only setting that will display my desktop from end to end of the monitor is a 1990 X ??? I forget the other number. Anyway, it is the default setting. That is OK, but everything is too small. I liked the old 1440 X 900 setting. But if I choose that setting, I get about a one inch block of black on each side of the monitor. What can I do to fix this setting ? I don't think the connections have anything to do with it ???? If I waited for Newegg or TigerDirect to offer a cheap video card maybe for free, would that fix the problem. Suggestions, please. Mike

jaclaz---Thanks for the reply, and the link for different connections. Makes a good read. very interesting. puntoMX----Thanks for the reply. I did not receive the Dell computer as yet. Maybe there will be that adaptor in the box. If not, I think I will pick up one of those cables either on Ebay, Newegg, or Tigerdirect. as you suggested. Thanks again to you both.....Mike

My new Dell 9010 is only going to have VGA and Display port, "OUT" connections to a monitor. My existing 23 in. Asus monitor has VGA, DVI, and HDMI "IN" connections. Should I buy a cheap (under $30) video card that has DVI and HDMI connections out, or should I buy a cable that has Display port to either DVI or HDMI. I am NOT into gaming etc, but just want the best quality picture. The computer has 8 Gig of memory. Thanks, Mike

I was talking to a women at Microsft last evening. I explained that I had taken advantage of that upgrade to windows 8 for $20 last fall, and that everying went well. My question was, if I removed Win 8 from that computer, and reinstalled Windows 7, could I install Win 8 from the DVD I made, on another new computer that has Win. 7 Her answer was yes. She told me to start installing Win 8 on the new computer, and when I came to the part where I had to enter the 25 digit code, to call Microsoft again, and they would give me a new code. So that was good info. After I hung up, I wish I had asked her if I could wipe the hard drive on the new computer before I started installing Win 8, because I believe a fresh install is always better. But I did not know if that "UPGRADE" was going to look for Win 7 first, before it installed. I could call Microsoft back, but I was just wondering if anyone here would know the answer. Many thanks, Mike

CharlotteTheHarlot---Many thanks for the detailed descriptions of what causes hard drive failure. Mike

If my antivirus is constantly scanning the hard drive in the background when the computer is idle, will this scanning lead to an early failure of the hard drive. Does this scanning cause the hard drive to keep spinning, or is the hard drive constantly spinning anyway ?? Thanks, Mike

That listing is not accurate. I have been trying to install Bitdefender 2013 Total Security for about a week now on my Windows 8 computer, no luck so far. Even the folks on the Bitdefender suppot site can not figure it out as yet, so you can remove BD from that list. Mike

Since I have Windows 8, I have only been running Windows Defender, so I can't say if Windows 8 is the problem or not. I would think the ability to scan a file would be with the AV though. I have been trying to install Bitdefender Total Security 2013, for about a week now..no luck.

Hello JorgeA----I have tried several antiviruses in the past years. Such as AVG, Avast, Avira, Bitdefender, Norton and MSE. All of these had to ability to right click on an individual file and to scan it. Even MSE which is the former Windows Defender. Mike

Thanks everyone for your replies. The more I read about Windows Defender, the more disappointed I am. I originally had / have a paid subscription to Bitdefender Total Security 2013, but when I upgraded to Windows 8 Bitdefender got messed up. I later found out that I should have removed Bitdefender first from my computer, did the upgrade, and then reinstall Bitdefender. Well, after I upgraded to Windows 8, I thought I would give Windows Defender a chance before I reinstalled Bitdefender. Now I think I will just reinstall Bitdefender as it is ranked one or two in most of the testing I read about, and delete Windows Defender. Thanks again everyone for your replies, Mike

I have upgraded to Windows 8 Pro, which has Windows Defender as the default antivirus. Two questions.( 1). It does not appear that I can scan an individual file. Normally I would right click on a file or folder, and then I would get a dropdown menu. One of those choices would be to SCAN the file or folder with your antivirus. I do not get that option. Am I doing something wrong ?? (2) Is this Windows Defender any good ?? I do not see any testing of this antivirus compared to other antiviruses yet by the major testing labs. Thanks, Mike

MAVERICKS CHOICE----I feel like am id***. The problem was that I was NOT opening all the files far enough. When I clicked on the Seagate drive, I saw the following: My favorites, My Music, My Documents, My Music, My Pictures, and WindowsImageBackup. When I double clicked on WindowsImageBackup, I saw Mike-PC. I never clicked further. If I now click on Mike-PC, I see the following : Backup 2012-12-28 163417, Catalog, Logs, Sppmetadata cache. If I then double click on the first item, Backup 2012-12-28 163417, I then see about 12 files. The first two have a name that starts with 20db, etc. The Date Modified, The Type, which says Hard Disk Image File, and the size. The first one is 6,307,90 KB, the second one is 54,290,168 KB. Soooo, everything is good. I was just not opening ALL the files / folders far enough. Thanks to you, and everyone else who made suggestions. HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!! Mike

Ok, sorry if you go into Control panel/Folder options/View, then un tick "hide extensions for known file types" then see what you come up with? Tried that, no difference. So I went back and RE-TICKED that item. Just for the heck of it, I copied four other folders from my hard drive to the Seagate external drive. I copied, MY FAVORITES, MY DOCUMENTS, MY MUSIC, AND MY PICTURES. If I then look at those folders, I CAN see the contents of THOSE Folders. The MY DOCUMENTS folder had 9 Gig of info. and the others have a couple hundred Mb. in each of them. It must have something to do with the way Windows makes that WindowsImageBackup folder. Question----Have any of you guys used that program ? IF so, do you SEE the contents of YOUR folders? Or is it just me. Thanks again, Mike.

Hi bphlpt---I am reading about you not seeing that Windows 7 File Recovery on your computer, so I set up one of my other computers that does have Windows 7 on it. I ALSO do NOT see that program in Control Panel. However if you type sdclt in the cmd or run box as maxXPsoft has suggested below, you will the the backup and restore program. It is NOT called Windows 7 File Recovery, but it looks like the same program. Hope this helps. Mike