Andromeda43

I'd rather have a bad case of poison ivy!

Most likely!

Having some function or another of XP to stop working is nothing new. At first when that would happen I'd just reinstall XP. Then I began making Ghost backups of xP while it was working correctly. When I'd have a problem I'd just do a Ghost Restore. Of course I'd loose days of eMails, saved files, etc. So that wasn't really the solution for small problems. Then there's the Unattended RE-Install. Now, that's really neat! It refurbishes windows while leaving all your drivers and data files alone. Here's how that's done: Re-Installing Windows-XP If you need to reinstall Windows-XP and want to keep all your current installed applications and settings: 1. Start Windows-XP 2. Find the location of your source files (a folder called "I386" , May Be on Your Install CD or a folder on your HD) You may find several i386 folders on your PC but you want the one that has the .cab files in it along with the command file "Winnt32.exe". 3. Run WINNT32 /unattend ,,, For example, D:\I386\winnt32.exe /unattend (type this command into the RUN box, then press ENTER).... Leave just one space where I've put three for emphasis, at the end of the command and before the switch (/unattend). I've often needed to do this to repair something that had gotten corrupted and I didn't want to do a clean install. ************************************************************************ Then there's the little fixes available for individual problem programs, like System Restore. You might find some help with System Restore, Here. Good Luck, Shadow B)

Why did M$ ever spend the money to create and release Windows 98/SE? I wish they had just called it Windows 99, because it's like a whole new version of Windows. It fixes so many problems, glitches and insufficiencies in ol' 98, it's not even funny. You'd be well advised to keep 98/SE on the one maching and upgrade to other one to SE too. The 98/SE upgrade CD's are available all over the place. You probably have more than one friend who has one. They can still be bought over the internet too. Good Luck, Andromeda43 B)

Unless FDISk has been changed, it will only set up four partitions. Making multiple logical partitions in the Secondary partition is redundant. Just use Folders to separate data files. Also, keeping your storage or DATA drive in FAT-32 format will help immensely when you need to get to that data in an emergency, like where Windows is trashed. Even a simple DOS boot disk will allow you access to your files. I went one step further and I just keep all my drives and partitions in FAT-32 mode. I can access any file on my PC with my DOS boot disk. Don't get crazy with partitioning.....it can come back to haunt you! Good Luck, Andromeda43

The only two times you can do a Ghost Clone operation is when cloning one drive to another on the same computer or to another computer that's an EXACT duplicate of the first PC. Any slight difference can prevent the cloned image from booting. That's a safety feature built into Windows XP. It also helps if the receiving drive is pre-partitioned and formatted. Now, for ease of use, never use Ghost from within windows. I won't even load the Ghost package on my PC. It's redundant! I have used Ghost 2003 for several years and Ghost 2002 even before that and the original Ghost.exe program from Ghostsoft, Inc., way back in the mid 90's. So, I guess you could say I'm an old Pro at using Ghost. (for about ten years now) I've developed a Ghost boot disk with a nice little Ansi-Color menu. Included on the disk is several batch files to do various cleanup jobs on the HD before I actually run Ghost.exe. Here's the Menu: ****************************************** GHOST 2003 Menu 1. Run Ghost to make a new image, Windows XP This program will delete all temp files, cookies, histories, etc. The Cleanup works only on a FAT-32 partition. 2. Run Ghost This program runs Ghost alone, with NO cleanup being done. Use this version to do Ghost Restores or Ghost image without cleanup. You must use this option on any NTFS partition. 3. Run Ghost on Windows 98 (deletes the Swapfile and all temp's.) 4. Delete all Restore points (Windows XP. Works on FAT-32 partition only) 5. Delete Windows "Pagefile" (Windows XP. Works on FAT-32 partitions only) Type in a number at the DOS Prompt and press ENTER ***************************************** I created this boot disk on a 1.44 floppy. Nero allowed me to convert this to a CD. I use it several times a week to make Ghost backups of my HD. From the Autoexec.bat file I load 'Mouse.com'. Running Ghost with the mouse is much easier than from a keyboard. For the life of me, I will never understand why people have so much trouble with a program that's so powerfull but yet so easy to use. Ghost 2003 reads NTFS partitions as well as FAT-32 partitions and can write directly to a DVD as easily as a HD. I'll be glad to help anyone wanting to use Ghost the way I use it. Cheers! Andromeda43 B)

When you've screwed up the registry to where windows won't boot again, then the Ghost Image is your best friend, but.... For those little Ooooops where you've just screwed up your desktop or something simple, a quick System Restore will solve the problem in just a few minutes. Use the appropriate fix for the problem at hand. Using C4 to crack eggs would be a bit of "OverKill" don't you agree? Reinstalling windows to fix a small problem is likewise 'OverKill'. That's the type of response I'd expect from the "Geek Squad" but not from a real tech. NO tech would blow up his house to kill a few ants. That's a pretty rediculous analogy right? So is reinstalling XP when you don't really have to. Since the day I first installed XP, several years ago, I've never reformatted and reinstalled XP. The Ghost.exe file (Norton's Ghost 2003) and mouse.com on a bootable floppy or CD does the best job of making a disk image of anything I've ever seen in 26 years. It's quick, easy, highly efficient and sometimes just plain FUN! Following a backup with an immediate restore, does a fabulous Defrag. As seen Here. I'll share all the info on how to make this disk for anyone seriously wanting it. Cheers, Andromeda43

I work on hundreds of PC's that use dial up modems. I even use one myself. Anything from 28 to 44 kbps is a normal dial up speed depending on line usage at different times of the day. Download speeds of anything from 2 to 4 kbps is typical. Occasionally, you'll get a burst of greater speed, even up to 15+ kbps, but that's not usual and you sure can't count on it. I don't know about where you live, but here in Florida, the lightning capital of the US, you absolutely MUST have a surge protector in line with your computer's modem. It takes a very small power surge on your phone like to fry your modem. A really serious surge will go right through the modem and fry your motherboard. A typical thunder storm here will generate 3000 to 5000 lightning strikes. SO, use a good quality surge protector in your phone line. Good Luck, Andromeda43 B)

So much work for such a small return! All you need to get a thorough HD cleanup on every boot is my XPCleanup.bat program. It uses the Deltree.exe program found on any windows 98, 98/SE or ME computer. It's also on My Webpage Every temp folder or cache folder on the HD is emptied in just a few seconds. The batch file or a shortcut to it can be placed in the Startup folder for free maid service every time you boot up your PC. A clean PC is a Happy PC. Then run "Disk Cleanup" and "Defrag" once a week for a really Happy PC. Since its a simple DOS batch file, lines can be added or removed to suit your personal needs and desires. Both the batch file and Deltree.exe are contained in my "Care Package" found on my Download Site, Here. I've even included an Install program for it. In the Care Package, read the Instruction file before running any of the programs. Happy Computing! Andromeda43

Most HP's use an on-board video card. It's built right into the motherboard. Since it's on-board it has no memory chips of its own and has to borrow some from the system ram. Many bios's will let you set how much system ram to designate as Video ram. It looks like your Video is using about 8 megs of system ram. This would be very normal for an older HP. Nothing to get all flustered about. If you're running a computer today with only 64 megs of RAM installed, you're really running at a horrible disadvantage. I'd get some more ram into that PC, ASAP. At the very least another 64meg stick. Enjoy! Andromeda43

What does it do for executable files which GMail refuses to accept? (.exe, .bat, .com,,,etc.) That turned me away from using GMail at all. Andromeda43

Just a bottle? Hey, I like Merlot too, as long as it's Blackberry Merlot. Right now I don't have any so I'm tempering my own frustration with some Southern Comfort and Coke. Get into safe mode with your F8 key during bootup. Then run Disk Cleanup from the location I gave you. Then go into your Control Panel and access your Add/Remove program. Then DE-Install Norton. That's probably causing you a lot of unneeded distress. Norton is so bad that they (Symantec) were forced to provide a Norton removal tool. Finding it and its accompanying registry cleaner was no easy task. Finally I found everything I needed to clean Norton out of my customer's PC's. I thought maybe others could benefit from it too, so I zipped the two files together and put the zip file on my Download Site (a web site where I rent space, just for this reason). You can get the "Norton Killer" file Here. Unzip it and run both files. The .exe file will remove all Norton files and folders from your HD. The .reg file will remove up to 1891 lines from your Registry that Norton installed there. Since I put the "Norton Killer" on my site, there have been hundreds of downloads of it. I repeat.....I did NOT write it. In-total, it was written by Symantec (possibly under federal court order). I just made it easier to find and download. I've already given you the URL's to download all the Security Software you'll ever need. And, it's 100% FREE. It's what I use for myself and all my hundreds of customers to keep us completely safe from malware. The only program that I bought was "Trojan Hunter". I really like it! It's removed Trojans from customer's PC's that no other program could find and remove. The 30 day free trial is all you'll need to clean up your PC. Good Luck, Andromeda43 B)

duh! Did I miss something? Why on earth do you have bad or corrupted files on your computer? In 26years of working with computers and copying files from place to place, I've never experienced the problems you're complaining about. Why, you may well ask? because I keep my hard drives clean, defragmented and in good condition. Only a corrupted HD is going to give you the problems you're complaining of. If you're looking for an OS designed to run on a corrupted HD, I suspect that you're barking up the wrong tree. Clean up your mess and run Chkdsk /f on your HD followed by a defrag and you won't be experiencing those problems with corrupted files. If your job is one that you will repeat, then write a simple little batch file and put it on your desktop or in a handy to get to place. Use XCopy to do the job. Once set up it will never change, but do the same job over and over again till you change it. Here's how XCopy works: (thank you chilifrei64 for that excellent suggestion) **************************************** XCOPY: Copies files and directory trees. XCOPY source [destination] [/A | /M] [/D[:date]] [/P] [/s [/E]] [/W] [/C] [/Q] [/F] [/L] [/H] [/R] [/T] [/K] [/N] source Specifies the file(s) to copy. destination Specifies the location and/or name of new files. /A Copies files with the archive attribute set, doesn't change the attribute. /M Copies files with the archive attribute set, turns off the archive attribute. /D:date Copies files changed on or after the specified date. If no date is given, copies only those files whose source time is newer than the destination time. /P Prompts you before creating each destination file. /S Copies directories and subdirectories except empty ones. /E Copies directories and subdirectories, including empty ones. Same as /S /E. May be used to modify /T. /W Prompts you to press a key before copying. /C Continues copying even if errors occur. /I If destination does not exist and copying more than one file, assumes that destination must be a directory. /Q Does not display file names while copying. /F Displays full source and destination file names while copying. /L Displays files that would be copied. /H Copies hidden and system files also. /R Overwrites read-only files. /T Creates directory structure, but does not copy files. Does not include empty directories or subdirectories. /T /E includes empty directories and subdirectories. /U Updates the files that already exist in destination. /K Copies attributes. Normal Xcopy will reset read-only attributes. /Y Overwrites existing files without prompting. /-Y Prompts you before overwriting existing files. /N Copy using the generated short names. ***************************************** I'm always writing little batch files for my customers, often using XCopy, to do repeated tasks, like copying FD's to a folder for burning to a DVD/CD. Using XCopy and a batch file just takes all the drudgery out of repeating tasks. But first, clean up your HD and run Chkdsk /f and defrag. You'll like the results. Good Luck, Andromeda43 B)

I'm amazed! But not amuzed With all the information that's out there on how to keep ones computer clean, neat and running at rull efficiency, still there are those reformatting and reinstalling windows. Why, I scream, at my computer screen.....WHY? It's absurd, insane and a huge waste of valuable man/woman hours. If that were done in the business community, the costs in time lost and manpower would be astronomical. I managed a huge mainframe computer for my County for about two years. Every evening we did an "End of Day" backup of everything done on that computer, all over the county, for that day. At the end of the month we did a total system backup. It took several hours to complete. Today, home computers are nothing but micro-miniature Mainframes. They run a whole lot faster too. When I set up a new system or a rebuilt one for one of my customers, I tweak it, tune it, and get it as perfect as humanly possible and then I make a Ghost Image of the C: drive and save it to a bootable DVD. Toshiba does this for their Restore DVD's. If ever the HD shoots craps or some piece of crapolaware screws it up, I can do a restore in about 30 minutes from the DVD and be right back in business, with everything exactly the way it was when I did the Ghost backup. There's absolutely NO reason to ever reinstall from an XP CD. I do this on my own system at least twice a week after doing a very thorough HD cleanup. With proper HD maintenance, I still get my entire C: drive on a single DVD. I've posted my entire process in another thread, this very day. I won't repeat it here. Good Luck, Andromeda43

Look where it's at!!!!! It's in the temp folder, for goodness sake! If you were running my XPCleanup.bat program from your Startup folder, like I set it up for all my customers, that program wouldn't even be there. It would have been deleted the very first time you rebooted your computer, which I hope is at least once a day. You're killing yourself (well, your computer anyway) by just not keeping it clean. Just a simple thing like running the "Disk Cleanup" program that's already installed in Windows, C:\Program Files\Accessories\Stytem tools\Disk Cleanup will take care of that problem. You may want to do your cleanup in safe mode to preclude any Malware from running and avoiding the Cleanup. So why didn't Norton just delete the darn'd thing? Again, Norton is a useless P.O.C. Get rid of it!!!!!!

I've addressed this question before, to the point of my fingers bleeding from so much typing, so I'm not going to go through all that again. Well, not in great detail anyway. There seems to be a huge misconception about the UnAttended ReInstall. If done right, it reinstalls all the windows files, fixing lots of little screw-ups caused by corrupted windows files, but does NOTHING to drivers, data files, etc. It simply "REFRESHES" windows. Here's how to do it right: ******************************************** Re-Installing Windows-XP If you need to reinstall Windows-XP and want to keep all your current installed applications and settings: 1. Start Windows-XP 2. Find the location of your source files (a folder called "I386" , May Be on Your Install CD or a folder on your HD) You may find several i386 folders on your PC but you want the one that has the .cab files in it along with the command file "Winnt32.exe". 3. Run WINNT32 /unattend ,,, For example, D:\I386\winnt32.exe /unattend (type this command into the RUN box, then press ENTER).... Leave just one space where I've put three for emphasis, at the end of the command and before the switch (/unattend). I've often needed to do this to repair something that had gotten corrupted and I didn't want to do a clean install. ********************************************* Then for the more major screw-up where windows won't even boot any more, having a Ghost Image on a bootable DVD is the cats' Meow. In just a few minutes, you're back up and running. No fault, NO foul! For just a quickie restore, having a Ghost image on a second HD or second partition on Drive 0, is the ticket. With my SATA drive, a complete Ghost backup of C: takes me all of four minutes. A restore takes about the same time. (using the second partition on my SATA drive) Doing a backup followed immediately by a restore, performs a fabulous "Defrag". All files are re-written in perfect order with NO spaces and NO fragmentation. I do this about once a week to keep my HD in perfect order. My resulting HD efficiency is phenominal. I've seen NO defrag program that will do this and surely not in such a short time. Since I kept my C: drive in FAT-32 mode when I upgraded from 98/SE to XP several years ago, I can run my Ghost program (Ghost.exe) from a bootable floppy or CD and then from some simple DOS batch files, I can delete my Pagefile and my old Restore files as well as all the temp files and other junk files from the HD befor doing the actual Ghost backup. This cleanup of the HD saves me about 2 gigs of space in the resulting Ghost Image. Allowing me to get the entire image written to a single DVD. Ghost does the writing to the DVD and even includes the boot info from the floppy as the boot sector on the DVD. I have a series of backup DVD's going back over two years. I try to make a new DVD at least once a week. I do the quickie backups to D: at least every two to three days. I've also written and implemented a VBScript that forces a System Restore point to be made every time I boot up my system. (which could easily be three to four times a day) Better to have more restore points than you need, than not having the one you really need, when you really need it. I put that script into my Startup folder so it runs on every boot. I share this technique with many of my customers. It's no big deal though, as those extra restore points will be deleted when I do my next Ghost backup. I've assisted users worldwide to set up a Backup system like I use and they really love it. So Quick and So simple. Norton's Ghost 2003 is the program I use. It's still available over the internet for under $10. I don't use the entire Windows install, only Ghost.exe on a bootable floppy or CD. It's almost identicle to the program that Norton bought from 'Ghostsoft, Inc.' back in the late 90's. Happy Computing! Andromeda43 B)

Gee, I'm sure glad I read the last line in this thread before commenting. SP1 had that 130 (something) HD space limit. SP2 does not. Sp2 just fixes a lot of problems that were present in SP1. Anyone with an old SP1 windows CD and a SP2 CD should immediately do a Slipstream of the two and get them into one XP/SP2 disk. I found a very simple way to do this with all DOS commands. The instructions only took two small paragraphs. The result was that I now have an XP/SP2 CD that I can use any time I need it. Congratulations on getting your space back. Blessings, Andromeda43 B)

Simply put, Norton will do exactly what you're complaining about all by itself. NO Trojans required. But if Windows is still running, I'd start by removing Norton and then cleaning up the mess before ever thinking about reinstalling Windows from the original CD. There are several free Trojan removers available for download, but my program of preferance is "Trojan Hunter". It downloads as a 30 day trial, so NO money is required to use it to clean up a Dirty PC. I clean up "Dirty" PC's for a living and I've gotten pretty good at it. Here's the list of the programs I use and share will all my customers. **************************************** These are the programs I use every day to keep my own PC spotlessly clean. I suggest every person having any Virus or Spyware issues get these programs and use them immediately. Do check for updates to all your security software on a DAILY basis. (when possible) SPYWARE/Trojan BLOCKERS/REMOVERS: Trojan Hunter, is a first class Trojan Horse Virus removal program. The dowloaded version is a 30 day, Fully Functional, free trial. Use the Free Trial to clean up a Dirty system or buy the retail license to have a year of full service plus updates. Download "Trojan Hunter" here: http://www.misec.net/trojanhunter/ From the web page, just click "Download Free Trial Version" It's a 5.9 meg download. Spybot Search & Destroy, a great anti Spyware program. Can be downloaded from: http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_desc...id,22262,00.asp For instructions on how to set up Spybot for best operation, See my Spybot Setup instructions on this webpage. AdAware SE/Personal. Another top notch anti Spyware program. Can be downloaded from: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download506.html Spyware Blaster, a great Spyware Blocker. Protects both I.E. and Mozilla Firefox. Can be downloaded from: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download2859.html ANTI-VIRUS PROTECTION: AVG 7.1 FREE: World famous AVG FREE will keep your computer free of viruses, trojans, dialers, etc. By default, it updates and scans for viruses on a daily basis. Can be downloaded from: http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/ Save to your desktop and run the install from there. Immediately get updates. More than one may be required. vCleaner, Stand Alone Virus Checker from Grisoft. Can be downloaded from: http://www.infinitevelocity.com/tips/tips_vcleaner.htm Save to your Desktop and run from there. REGISTRY CLEANER: Easy Cleaner, the best Registry Cleaner I've found so far. Can be downloaded from: http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm Personal Website = (http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts). Just scroll down to "Download & Installation" and click on the first floppy disk symbol. *************************************** Cleaning up a badly infected PC isn't a five minute job. It would take me, a professional, about three hours to install all the software and do all the scans, deinstall all the unwanted programs and clean out all the junk. Shutting down unneeded services and tweaking the registry to improve XP's use of ram and HD space, greatly increases the efficiency of the system and speeds up the process. Some systems that are exceptionally "Dirty" can take longer. Fortunaltely, I charge by Flat Rate and not by the hour. I've incorporated most of the tweaks, etc., into one package and placed it on a site where I've rented space just for this purpose. Download my "Care Package" from Here. Unzip the package and read the "Instructions" file before running any of the programs. With the proper application of tweaking and cleaning, you can realize a 100% increase in system efficiency. Good Luck, Andromeda43 B)

Back in the early days of Windows 98, I wrote a cleanup batch file which I called Hoover.bat. I named it after the Vacc. Cleaner. I sent it via file transfer in Paltalk and via EMails to hundreds of users worldwide. It's still available for quick download on My Webpage (It's for 98, 98/SE and ME only) It uses 'Deltree.exe' a fabulous windows routine that was left out of Windows XP. Once added to XP, it runs just fine, as it did in 98. I've put the new XP-Cleanup program, XPCleanup.bat on my website also, and I've included the 'Deltree.exe' program file as well. Both XPCleanup and Deltree.exe are included now in my "Care Package" that I've placed for download on a rented Server at My Download Site. There's even a little batch file there to install it for you. If you want to really do a 'tune-up' on XP, download the Care Package, but read the instructions file before running any of the programs in the zipped file. XPCleanup.bat, will clean out all the junk that windows likes to keep on your HD. Putting a shortcut to it in your "Startup" folder will give you a daily cleanup, sort of like FREE Maid Service everytime you boot up your PC. I run this myself and install it for all my customers. They love it, getting rid of junk everytime they boot up. It only takes a second or two to run and then it's done. It doesn't stay in memory. Well, that's MY answer to the Junk problem. Cheers! Andromeda43 B)

Could anything good come out of a place called Pocatello, Idaho? jus raggin' ya man!

I run XP on a FAT-32 partition and it runs like a 'Scalded Dog'. The XP OS seems to have nothing to do with NTFS. If my PC ran any faster on my FAT-32, SATA drive, I'd have to chain it down to the desk. Cheers! Andromeda43 B)

Any ditz would know that xp is a totally new version of Windows that came after ME. ME is built on the old DOS kernal that powered Windows 98.......Xp is built on the NT Kernal that powers the NT branch of Windows. They are as different as a VW Bug is from a Porche 911. So, what on earth are you talking about?

NO one who really knows what he's doing would just reinstall Windows for the heck of it. Too many little thingys get lost in the process. Windows Registry Restore is for those little 'OOOOooops' that occur every now and again. For the major '' Aw s***z! " that occur once in a year or so, there's Norton's Ghost. If you have a current Ghost Image on a backup drive or partition, you can reload it in just minutes and be back to where you want to be in short order without ever loosing any important data. Totally re-Installing Windows is totally INSANE!!! And, completly UN-Necessary. I've been using GHOST for my weekly backups now for several years and I've never had to re-Install Windows. Why should I, when I have weekly Ghost backups going back several years. If I ever want a file that I deleted two years ago, all I have to do is use Ghost Explorer and look into an old backup Image and extract the needed file. It's truly a 'Piece of Cake'. I can recover any file that's been on my computer for the last three years. Can you do that? If you're serious about Computer Security, use Ghsot at least once a week to make backup copies of your HD. I run Ghost from a boot floppy or CD.......Nothing is easier! Happy Computing, Andromeda43

I'm a Professional of 40 years. I've been setting up backup schemes for my friends and clients for at least 26 years now on Windows PC's and I've never found any program any better than Ghost 2003 for making quick copies of a HD. It's been around since at least 1996 and was originally written and marketed by Ghostsoft, Inc. I use it.....I share it with all my customers who need it and I heartily reccommend it for anyone, anywhere, that needs to backup a hard drive. I've helped people worldwide set up their own Ghost backup setups and they all just LOVE it. My recommendation is that you too acquire it and use it. I've seen it for sale on the internet for as little as $6.95. Your own search results may varry. You don't need to install the whole package into Windows. The Ghost.exe file and Mouse.com on a boot disk will do the job nicely. I like using Ghost with my mouse instead of the keyboard. Mouse.com makes this possible. For additional help,,,,,,just PM me. Andromeda43 B)

Hmmmmm! Part of the problem here is that the validation checking program is issueing false positives all over the place. You may well have a perfectly legal version of windows but the WGA software is in error and telling you that what you have is NOT legal. This is happening all over the world. A temporary work around is to remove the tattletale software,,,,,the WGA files. There is a batch file that will remove that troublesome BS software........Here! Look down the list of available software to "Kill Bogus Key Notification.bat" Just download it and run it to remove the validation check software. Then be sure to disable Auto Updates so you don't download the same crappy software again. Do manual updates from now on and tell it to NOT download the WGA package. (ever again) I know this will help. Use it with my blessings. Andromeda43