mike13

MAVERICKS CHOICE----The two files I see, do not have any file extensions. The main Folder / File I see is called "WindowsImageBackup" if I left click on that Folder / file, I get "Mike-PC" that is it. If I right click on either file, and choose Properties, I only see 16 bytes. But as I said before...I can see there is about 60 + Gig used of the Seagate Hard Drive. Mike

bphlpt----Go to Start, and type in WINDOWS 7 FILE RECOVERY, in the box, and hit enter.

vinifera----Thanks for the reply. Yes, they are ENABLED. I can SEE the folders, it just seems like they are empty. Mike

I am running Windows 8 Pro. I recently used that Windows 7 File Recovery program within Win. 8 to create an Image of my entire "C" drive to a Seagate external hard drive. At the beginning I was told that about 61 Gig of space was required. That made sense because there is about 60 Gig of info. on the hard drive including the operating system. Everything went fine, I even created the RESTORE disc. at the end of the instructions. HOWEVER...if I look at the contents of the Seagate external hard drive I see a folder called WindowsImageBackup. That I was expecting. But if I right click on that folder, and choose PROPERTIES, there is only 16 bytes of info. there. I was expecting about 60 Gig. If I left click on that folder, I see another folder / file called Mike-PC. If I right click on that, and choose Properties, I see the same 16 bytes. Is this normal, or am I missing something. The IMAGE took about 40 minutes, so it was doing something. If I right click on the Seagate hard drive, I can see that about 60 Gig. of space was used, so that seems correct, but why can I not see anything in either of those folders ?? Thanks, Mike

Thanks jaclaz for the reply. Your estimates are close enough. I think I will get an external hard drive, since the transfer time is reasonable. It will also have its own power supply, and not give off any extra heat inside the computer case. Thanks again, Mike

I have a Dell Vostro computer with a Intel Core i5-2500 @ 3.30 Ghz processor, The hard drive is 320 Gig, with about 85 Gig of data, which included the Win 8 operating system. I was going to purchase another INTERNAL hard drive so I could clone my existing "C" drive in case that HD fails, but am now considering an External hard drive instead. I believe my computer only has the 2.0 USB slots, so I guess it would take a lot longer to clone the "C" drive to a external hard drive versus an internal hard drive. On an AVERAGE, how long can I expect it to take to clone that 85 Gig of data to a internal hard drive, versus an external hard drive?? Are we talking an hour or two, or maybe 8-10 hours ? Thanks, Mike

Mr Snrub---You are correct, Thanks. I guess I did not see it because there is no line as was in Windows 7. But when I put the mouse down there and click, I come back to the desktop like I wanted. Thank you again, Mike

I have been trying to get a "desktop" icon or shortcut on the taskbar so I do not have to minimize everything when I want to get back to the desktop. I have Googeled it and got several solutions but have been unsuccessful so far. Windows 7 had that little rectangle to the far right on the taskbar, but not on Windows 8. Some of the instructions tell you to get the shortcut on the START menu. That works but then I need to hit the Start button, and then search for the desktop shortcut. I also tried several times to PIN the shortcut to the taskbar, again, no luck. I have downloaded Classic Shell, to get the Start button back etc. maybe that is stopping me. Suggestions please, Mike

MagicAndre1981----Thanks for the reply. I will delete that windows.old file, since it is so huge at 21 Gig. Mike

I just upgraded from Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 8. PRO . Then I went to DISC CLEANUP, and ran it. Toward the bottom I saw another category called CLEAN UP SYSTEM FILES. I then ran that. it found this category PREVIOUS WINDOWS INSTALLATIONS. that had 21.0 Gig, and the description was as follows. "Files from a previous windows installation files and folders that may conflict with the installation of windows have been moved to a file called WINDOWS.OLD You can access data from the previous windows installations in that folder" Can I check that box. and remove that PREVIOUS WINDOWS INSTALLATION that has 21 Gig of data in it ?? Thanks, Mike

UltimateSilence----Thanks for the reply. It works great. Thanks again, Mike

I had some issues with the computer, that I finally resolved. However when I click on the IE shortcut that I have on the desktop, it does not work. It tells me that IE has stoped working etc. I deleted the shortcut and went into START, and then I got that popup menu. I saw IE, so I right clicked on it and said to create a shortcut on the desktop, as I had done several times when setting up different computers. However that does not work, I get the same message that IE has stopped working etc. HOWEVER, if I click on the IE Icon down on the taskbar beside the START button, IE 9 opens up as it should. I am running Windows 7 Home Premium. Suggestions on how to fix this, please. I just do not want to further mess up anything. Thanks, Mike

Submix8c, Thanks for the reply. I do not know how to give you a link, but if you look at my older post on this site called FRAUD.SECURITY ESSENTIALS, in post number two, Tripredacus talked about scanning a slaved hard drive, and that viruses may not be caught that way. Probably for the same reason as you mentioned, that they hide themselves. I guess I thought the BEST way to scan a hard drive, was to remove it from the computer and slave it to another. Thanks, Mike

I always thought that running a virus / malware a scan during boot up, before Windows loads everything, is better because the virus / malware is not enabled yet. But I read somewhere that since the virus is not active yet, it is harder to detect by your antivirus. Comments ???? Thanks, Mike

Update---I ran that Avast uninstaller, and all seems good now. When I do that manual update for MSE, it only takes about a minute now instead of over 5 like before. I then ran a full scan with MSE and it only took about 45 minutes instead of close to three hours. So I guess Avast was causing the problem. I then searched the malware section that Tarun has. (PC cleanup). I downloaded and ran Eset, Trendmicro, and Kasperski. Eset found two more worms and cleaned them. So I guess I should be clean now. I wish all these antivirus developers, and anti-malware developers would get together and develope one super program that would get rid of everything instead of running many programs etc, but that will never happen. Well, thanks for the help and suggestions. Great site !!!!! Mike

Success---I think. I was finally able to open and run Malwarebytes. I did not try for updates, I just wanted to run the program since it opened. It ran and found 874 items, about 6 were trojans. It removed everything. I then opened Malwarebytes again, and got the updates this time. This time it found only one item, and removed it. I then ran Spybot Search and Destroy twice. It came up clean. Prior to all this I had run Microsoft Security Essentials. It never found anything. My only issue now is that when I do a manual update for MSE, it takes forever, like 5 minutes when it should take maybe a minute. Then after the manual update, it never closes. I have to shut down the computer. Last evening I did another full scan with MSE. I stopped it after about two hours. Maybe it is me, but it looked like it was scanning the same folders somethimes. Now, prior to this I had tried to install Avast. It never really loaded properly. But if I open Windows Explorer, I see a few folders pertaining to Avast, but i can't delete them. When I try, I get a message that "the file may be in use" etc, or something like that. Avast does NOT appear in Add / Remove programs, so I can't remove it that way. I then Googled "Remove Avast' and found and downloaded a program to delete it. I will try to remove Avast this evening. Hopefully when I remove Avast, MSE will work better. Any other suggestions to try ?? Any other anti malware programs I should download and run, before I feel confident that all the viruses/ trojans, malware are removed ?? Many thanks. I think I am almost finished.

Tarun---Thanks for the reply, but I can not even open Malwarebytes, so I can't look for TOOLS etc.

Tripredacus, Thanks for the reply. I can not run Malwarebytes on the infected computer. I thought that it might be corrupted, so I removed it and re-downloaded Malwarebytes. Still can not run the program, even in SAFE mode. I can run MSE, but it finds nothing. As I said in my first post, Spybot does find two entries of Fraud.security essentials, but can not remove it. I have spent about 6 hours on this computer already. I guess it is time for nuke and pave. Mike

I have a friends computer infected with Fraud.security essentials. I know that because Spybot S & D has found it twice, but can not remove it. I then slaved the infected hard drive to my test computer and ran Malwarebytes, and Superantivirus, MSE, and Avast. Neither program found anything. I do not have Spybot S & D on my test computer, but tomorrow I plan to download it and then scan the infected hard drive again. Maybe with it being slaved and not active and running, Spybot can remove the infections. Any other suggestions ?? Thanks, Mike

OK, I do not know what I did wrong the first time, but last evening I was successful at installing Office 2010 32 bit on the computer. At the beginning of the install, I chose CUSTOM, and kept all the programs that were included with Office 2007, so now I have 2010 and also 2007. When I opened up OUTLOOK 2010, it imported all my emails and address from 2007, so that is good. If all stays good, I do plan to remove Office 2007 , but for now, I will keep both versions. Again, thanks to all that gave support and suggestions, Mike

SearanoX--Thanks for the reply. Yes I know there is a way to backup the emails and address, but I always had issues with it. cluberti--Thanks for the reply. No, there is no reason for me to install the 64 bit version of Office 2010. But I also tried to install the 32 bit version of Office 2010, but that did not work either. I think I got a message that my operating system was not a match because it was 64 bit and I was trying to install 32 bit Office 2010. I don't understand that, because I currently have Office 2007 installed and that is a a 32 bit version. I would think that since I currently have Office 2007 32 bit, there should be no problem installing Office 2010 32 bit ???? Mike

I am currently running Windows 7, 64 bit. WhenI I purchased the computer, Office 2007 was preinstalled. I recently tried to install Office 2010 Pro Plus 64bit and I can't install it. I get a message that I have to first remove my current version of Office 2007, becasue it is 32 bit. I would REALLY like to keep Office 2007 if I could, just in case I do not like Office 2010. Is there a way to do that ?? If not, and I have to remove Office 2007, will I loose all my email messages and address etc ??

Tripredacus and MagicAndre1981. Thank you so much for the info. I did NOT have that "BASE FILTERING ENGINE SERVICE" in SERVICES.MSC I downloaded those two downloads 1055.BFE.reg and also 0677.mpssvc.reg and followed the instructions. The instructions gave a lot of detail for the BFE to be installed in the registry etc, but there were no additional instructions for the other download 0677.mpssvc.reg, other than being told that it WAS added to the registry. Anyway all is GOOD. After I rebooted and started the BFE per the instructions, I WAS able to start the Windows Firewall. Again-----thank you soooo much. I am a happy camper, Mike

When I try to turn Windows Firewall on, I get this message. "WINDOWS FIREWALL CAN'T CHANGE SOME OF YOUR SETTINGS. ERROR CODE 0X80070424" I was running Avira for awhile which had its own firewall, but I removed it about a week ago and went back to Microsoft Sercurities Essentials. I remember when I removed Avira, I got a message Did I want to turn the Windows Firewall on again, and I said yes. I assume it was turned on again, but not sure. I am running Windows 7. I ran Malwarebytes in safe mode, it found nothing. I then ran CCleaner in safe mode. it found the regular cookies etc but nothing bad. I also did the registry thingy in CCleaner. I then ran Superantispyware, it found nothing. I then did that Microsoft Fix It, no better. same problem. Help. suggestions, please. Mike

SOLVED---He just calleed back and said the problem is fixed. He did not remember what he did exactly, but all is well.