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conceptualclarity

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  1. I'm setting up a new computer that will have a 250 GB Samsung EVO 850 SSD and two 1 TB Seagate Barracuda hard drives. I want the SSD to be the boot drive and have the Windows folder with the operating system (Windows 7 Professional 64 bit). I also want to have a few programs on the SSD: browsers, email, and VLC Player. I prefer to have a lot of software programs. (That's just me. I have my reasons; don't waste your time trying to talk me out of it.) I don't want to overcrowd the SSD. I want to keep the great majority of programs and of the application data folders on one of the Seagate drives. I guess you could say I basically want a big Program Files folder on a Seagate drive and a mini-Program Files folder on the SSD. What's the proper way to proceed? Install the whole system drive package, with Program Files and user profiles/accounts as well as the actual OS (which I assume is synonymous with or subsumed in the Windows folder) on one of the HDDs, and then migrate just the Windows folder to the heretofore blank SSD and set the SSD as boot drive in the BIOS? Or should I install Windows 7 to the SSD and then create parallel Program Files and application data folders on the Seagate hard drive? Or maybe move Program Files to the Seagate if possible, and just have my small number of programs on the SSD in their own folders there?
  2. I use the Maxthon browser. Recently I had a BSOD crash that wiped out the much greater part of my Maxthon history. I utilize the history a lot, so this was disconcerting. The Maxthon history is kept in a folder under C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\. Is there any chance at all that a System Restore in XP would get this history back for me? Computer: DELL Dimension 2400 CPU: Intel Pentium 4-2667 (Northwood, D1) 2666 MHz (20.00x133.3) @ 2658 MHz (20.00x132.9) Motherboard: DELL 0G1548 Chipset: Intel 845GEV (Brookdale-GEV) + ICH4 Memory: 2048 MBytes @ 166 MHz, 2.5-3-3-7 - 1024 MB PC3200 DDR-SDRAM - Kingston K - 1024 MB PC3200 DDR-SDRAM - Kingston K Graphics: Intel 82845G/GL/GV Graphics Controller [DELL] Intel i845G(L) Integrated, 64 MB Drive: WL120GPA872, 117.2 GB, E-IDE (ATA-7) Drive: WDC WD2500JB-57GVC0, 244.2 GB, E-IDE (ATA-6) Drive: HGST HTS545050A7E380, 488.4 GB, Serial ATA 3Gb/s <-> USB Drive: SAMSUNG CD-R/RW SW-252S, CD-R Writer Sound: Intel 82801DB(M) ICH4(-M) - AC'97 Audio Controller [A-1] Sound: Creative Technology SB Live! Series Audio Processor Network: RealTek Semiconductor RTL8139 PCI Fast Ethernet NIC [A/B/C] OS: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Build 2600 Antivirus: Avast Internet Security 18.5.2342 Firewall: Avast Internet Security 18.5.2342 Ad Blocker: Universal Ad Blocker Default Browser: Maxthon 5.2.4.1200 Secondary Browsers: SeaMonkey 2.4.94, Firefox, SlimJet
  3. I am grateful for Windows Updates Downloader, which seems like a great program. I do have a question. As you see in the screenshot I have used WUD to do a lengthy download of XP Service Pack 3 because I seem to have some files missing from that. i don't know what to do next because I don't know what the three square buttons at the top are. I don't see any wording when I hover my arrow by them. Computer: DELL Dimension 2400 CPU: Intel Pentium 4-2667 (Northwood, D1) 2666 MHz (20.00x133.3) @ 2658 MHz (20.00x132.9) Motherboard: DELL 0G1548 Chipset: Intel 845GEV (Brookdale-GEV) + ICH4 Memory: 2048 MBytes @ 166 MHz, 2.5-3-3-7 - 1024 MB PC3200 DDR-SDRAM - Kingston K - 1024 MB PC3200 DDR-SDRAM - Kingston K Graphics: Intel 82845G/GL/GV Graphics Controller [DELL] Intel i845G(L) Integrated, 64 MB Drive: WL120GPA872, 117.2 GB, E-IDE (ATA-7) Drive: WDC WD2500JB-57GVC0, 244.2 GB, E-IDE (ATA-6) Drive: HGST HTS545050A7E380, 488.4 GB, Serial ATA 3Gb/s <-> USB Drive: SAMSUNG CD-R/RW SW-252S, CD-R Writer Sound: Intel 82801DB(M) ICH4(-M) - AC'97 Audio Controller [A-1] Sound: Creative Technology SB Live! Series Audio Processor Network: RealTek Semiconductor RTL8139 PCI Fast Ethernet NIC [A/B/C] OS: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Build 2600 Antivirus: Panda Antivirus Pro 17.0.1 Firewall: Panda Antivirus Pro 17.0.1 Ad Blocker: Adguard, Ad Muncher, Adblock Plus Default Browser: Maxthon 4.4.8.1000
  4. I have used Hiren's Boot CD a great deal, but now I am unable to. Whenever I click Enter on USB Flash Device in the menu, instead of opening up Hiren's Boot CD, it is giving me the message: When I strike F1, it just repeats the same message ad infinitum. I have Hiren's on a 4GB flash drive. (My old computer won't let me boot from CD or DVD.) As for the context of this, I have replaced an old hard drive that was clearly on its way to failure with a larger unused IDE drive. The BIOS seems to recognize that there is a new hard drive, but elsewhere I see non-recognition, including within MiniXP on Hiren's before this error shut down my access to Hiren's. Computer: Dell System B3 Desktop CPU: Intel Pentium 4-2667 (Northwood, D1) 2666 MHz (20.00x133.3) @ 2657 MHz (20.00x132.9) Motherboard: DELL 0G1548 Chipset: Intel 845GEV (Brookdale-GEV) + ICH4 Memory: 2048 MBytes @ 166 MHz, 2.5-3-3-7 - 1024 MB PC3200 DDR-SDRAM - Kingston K Graphics: Intel 82845G/GL/GV Graphics Controller [DELL] Intel i845G(L) Integrated, 64 MB Old Drive: ST380011A, 78.1 GB, E-IDE (ATA-6) New Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE (WD2500JB) 250GB 8MB Cache 7200RPM ATA100 (Western Digital Caviar SE (WD2500JB) 250GB 8MB Cache 7200RPM ATA100 Hard Drive - OEM w/1 Year Warranty Drive: HGST HTS545050A7E380, 488.4 GB, Serial ATA 3Gb/s <-> USB Drive: SAMSUNG CD-R/RW SW-252S, CD-R Writer Sound: Creative Technology SB Live! Series Audio Processor Network: RealTek Semiconductor RTL8139 PCI Fast Ethernet NIC [A/B/C] Network: Broadcom 4401 10/100 Integrated Controller OS: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Build 2600 SP3 Antivirus : Advanced System Care Ultimate (Bitdefender engine) Firewall: Windows Firewall
  5. I'm trying to wind down my days on my old XP. I had its original hard drive die. I replaced it with a refurbished one and got professional recovery from DriveSavers. On their advice I'm backing up the 500 GB Touro hard drive they sent me with the recovered data (which I've whittled down to about 65 GB or so) and about 35 GB more I've added. I'm trying to back up all that 100 GB of data to a 128 GB Lexar flash drive I got for $40. To copy the files I had to get a special freeware, Unstoppable Copier. It was going on for many hours yesterday. My system got pretty tight, and I had a very difficult shutdown of Outlook Express. Then about an hour later while closing down Maxthon browser I got a blue screen at the worst of times meaning I'd have to start all over on the backup. After the blue screen, after the next reboot I discovered a huge amount of fresh emails that had already downloaded to my Inbox were gone. I called my cable company and retrieved a fair number from their server, but an estimated 60 or so were not retrieved. There may have been valuable personal messages or highly valuable messages of another nature. Could they still be somewhere on my computer, maybe in Inbox.dbx? Do you think I could hunt them down with one of those data recovery softwares that are so abundant? If so which one has good tech support as well as being an effective program? Computer: Dell System B3 Desktop CPU: Intel Pentium 4-2667 (Northwood, D1) 2666 MHz (20.00x133.3) @ 2657 MHz (20.00x132.9)Motherboard: DELL 0G1548Chipset: Intel 845GEV (Brookdale-GEV) + ICH4Memory: 2048 MBytes @ 166 MHz, 2.5-3-3-7 - 1024 MB PC3200 DDR-SDRAM - Kingston KGraphics: Intel 82845G/GL/GV Graphics Controller [DELL] Intel i845G(L) Integrated, 64 MB Drive: ST380011A, 78.1 GB, E-IDE (ATA-6)Drive: HGST HTS545050A7E380, 488.4 GB, Serial ATA 3Gb/s <-> USBDrive: SAMSUNG CD-R/RW SW-252S, CD-R WriterSound: Creative Technology SB Live! Series Audio ProcessorNetwork: RealTek Semiconductor RTL8139 PCI Fast Ethernet NIC [A/B/C]Network: Broadcom 4401 10/100 Integrated ControllerOS: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Build 2600 SP3
  6. ...other programs can't extract? I need something that will get what I'm not able to extract with the DownThemAll or Flash Video Downloader extensions or with Aiseesoft Video Downloader. I prefer freeware but I can do a trial on shareware. I use Firefox and Maxthon browsers but have Slimjet from the Chromium family handy as well.
  7. Thank you for your response. I was very disturbed a few days ago to find that when I tried to implement my last dozen or so System Restore points, with each one Windows acted like it was going to restore them but then comes up at the last minute and tells me it cannot. Also, there was about a week, last week, in which no Restore points were recorded. That isn't supposed to happen. I have a Dell Service Pack 1a Reinstallation CD for XP Home. I am getting rid of big unwanted files and folders on my system before backing it up. I'll back up the external hard drive (which has much more data than C) to a 128GB flash drive and back up C to the external hard drive. Then I plan to reinstall. So portable programs are not going to be installing services, drivers, etc.? Do you think I'm correct in attributing the SnoopFree service's near immortality and invincibility to its being installed in system32? I very recently got Universal Extractor, but I haven't really learned to use it yet. I once tried Sandboxie. My processor was not up to handling it. System was frozen till I got rid of it. Maybe on my next computer. Could you explain?
  8. I am not at present able to use my Start Menu or Quick Launch. If I try they freeze up, remaining on the screen and thereby obstructing my usage. Then the taskbar and system tray will also become unusable. However already opened applications and Explorer windows remain usable. This came on the heels of a trauma on my system. I had installed the program SnoopFree Privacy Shield. At first I liked it. Then I ran into significant problems with screenshots. I wanted to disable the program to test things, but I couldn't disable the service, get it off autostart, or shred it, and uninstallers wouldn't remove it. I think the fact that it had installed itself to System32 was protecting it. I spent a long time on the issue before getting WinPatrol to do a bootup delete of it. Right after that these Explorer problems began. I am certain that I'm completely rid of SnoopFree. (By the way, can one block third-party programs from installing to System32?) Prior to all this, I was having problems with wmiprvse.exe grabbing too much CPU. The prescribed remedy of restarting it at Services was effective. I have had problems at times with my CPU Usage being dominated by System Idle Process as programs such as browsers and email and Services failed to grab the available processing power and make their GUIs appear. Windows XP Home Edition 32-bit SP3 CPU: Intel Pentium 4 Northwood 0.13um Tech RAM: 2.00 GB DDR @ 166MHz (2.5-3-3-7) Machine: Dell Computer Corp. 0G1548 Graphics Default Monitor (1280x1024@60Hz) Intel 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV Graphics Controller Storage: 74.5 GB Seagate ST380011A (ATA) 3.67 GB Lexar USB Flash DriveUSB Device (USB) 119.22 GB PNY USB 2.0 FD USB Device (USB) SAMSUNG CD-R/RW SW-252S Optical Drive Unimodem Half-Duplex Audio Device Anti-Virus Roboscan free
  9. I will introduce myself. I would rate myself an intermediate computer user, much improved over the last year and a half. I've begun to get some knowledge of hardware. My greatest knowledge is about third party software, a topic that interests me greatly. Aside from the domains of Windows Explorer, I'd rate my understanding of Windows as pretty weak. I am happy that I've learned how to get help effectively for my problems on computer forums. I am registered with many of them and always have my eyes open for a new good prospect to join. I have searched in vain for a good book that would teach me all the things I want to learn about computers that are foreign to me, like scripts, command lines, wildcards and regular expressions, drivers, and BIOS, for example. Right now I'm on an old computer that's lacking in memory and hard drive space but most of all processing. I will, however, in the foreseeable future switch to a high-powered gamer-type computer with Windows 7. I'm not a gamer. I just like to have lots of tabs and extensions on my browsers, a good number of programs running real time, and lots of software in my collection. I am very interested in security programs. My AV history is : I began with AVG. Then my computer shop switched me to Microsoft Security Essentials. I lost patience with its outrageous surges of CPU usage that at times would freeze my system, so I switched to avast! Then avast! one day told me I was no longer registered with them, so I switched to a combo of Webroot on six-month giveaway and Panda free. I didn't like Panda free's inscrutability, its lack of configurability and its tendency to go crazy on CPU usage early in the session, so I dumped Panda and kept Webroot.Eventually Webroot expired, and I went with an Advanced System Care Ultimate trial. I really liked it. I got Bitdefender protection without Bitdefender high-handedness (i.e., removing programs without the user's permission.) At the end of that triaI I tried Ashampoo Anti-virus for a few days but found it to be too demanding on system resources. Then I turned to the free version of Roboscan, which has been the lightest anti-virus I have ever had. Earlier I recognized avast! was the best AV I had had at that point, but I was frustrated by its false positives. It went after everything from Panda Cloud Cleaner to MozBackup. Webroot was even worse with false positives, and it infuriated me because it often would not obey my configurations. Webroot acted as though the computer belonged to Webroot rather than to me. Advanced System Care Ultimate was the first AV I've had (since the AVG of long ago) that didn't go baying like a hound dog after false positives. Roboscan has come up with a good number of false positives, but it's been easy to deal with them, and unlike avast!, it only seems to flag obscure programs with false positive detections. False positives have become a major concern to me. I am very leery of using an AV that has a bad testing record with false positives. I don't run on demand scans as often as I would like because I think to myself "I'm not going to have time to deal with a load of false positives tomorrow." I now have a one year giveaway of IObit Malware Fighter Pro, giving me my first real time anti-spyware since Ad Aware years ago. I now understand that IObit Malware Fighter Pro is not considered to be a highly effective realtime program. I like to do full scans overnight about once a month with Spybot, SUPERAntispyware, Malwarebytes, and IObit Malware Fighter respectively. I'm adding Comodo Cleaning Essentials to that mix. I am interested in building a much broader security configuration. Among quite a number of other things, I want to choose a premium firewall to replace Windows Firewall. I'm interested in learning about whitelisting programs. I already have lots of security browser extensions. I might want to run ThreatFire; I've got its last version. I want to get Spyware Blaster. Being on XP, I think my first security priority now should be anti-exploit programs. I'll probably get EMET from Microsoft, and I'll look into the anti-exploit program that Malwarebytes bought and one called Crystal, I think. I need to learn about backup. The complexity of the subject has intimidated me, but I have assembled some readings that I hope will help me grasp it well. I actually have downloaded a good number of backup programs on giveaways. I have to study and decide which is the best for me to use. I am obviously very interested in learning from the advanced users here. Operating System Windows XP Home Edition 32-bit SP3 CPU Intel Pentium 4 Northwood 0.13um Technology RAM 2.00 GB DDR @ 166MHz (2.5-3-3-7) Motherboard Dell Computer Corp. 0G1548 (Microprocessor) Graphics Default Monitor (1280x1024@60Hz) Intel 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV Graphics Controller (Dell) Storage 74.5 GB Seagate ST380011A (ATA) 3.67 GB Lexar USB Flash DriveUSB Device (USB) 119.22 GB PNY USB 2.0 FD USB Device (USB) Optical Drives SAMSUNG CD-R/RW SW-252S Audio Unimodem Half-Duplex Audio Device Anti-Virus Roboscan free
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