Hello, again my readers,
I just spent 8 days on 1 of the fastest Steam Commercial ships ever built, and being a Merchant Sailor by profession, it put a little money into the pocket. Took the ship out for Sea Trials, lots of hard work. Now that is a different story and we will get to the point of this entry.
I have been doing some work with Acronis True Image 2010 or 2011 I don't remember which as I up graded the download, and one of the sister programs that Acronis has; Acronis Disk Director11 Home 2011.
Now one of the programs that you can find in this interesting combination of programs is the bootable disks that the have. One as I mentioned in my last post was the Linux version that I created in a Windows format.
That disk did a right good job of booting and I will if I can figure out how to do so make a Bootable Flash Drive using this program.
I have the option of using some Windows Programs to create other Bootable Disks and I saved them before I got underway on the ship. Now a lot of water has passed under my keel and I am refreshing my aging brain cell as to what I was doing. Then figure out how to make some "Windows" formatted Boot Flash Drives, the one of greatest interest is for Windows 7.
I was in communications with my mentor Mr. Monte Russell webmaster at www. DIY-computer-repair.com about this program. Now Mr. Russell after reviewing the Windows Downloads recommended by Acronis tells me that these downloads are in the same format as ERD Commander that Microsoft stopped making in their great wisedumb aggravating most of us that would like to keep our operating systems functioning.
He was particularly impressed with the ability to make bootable flash drives with this program and so am I. In fact he gave it a "Cool" which for him I have learned is about as positive as you can get on a subject.
In order to do all this you have to down load three (3) different Automatic Install Kits (AIK) 1 that is just under a gig in size the second at 1.4gigs and the third for Windows 7 is at just under 1.8gigs. That is a lot of downloading. You can pick and choose also if you want to make only one disk and eventual flash drive.
But since I have fully Optimized my laptop in the manner that Mr. Russell teaches, in his very fine manual Self Computer Repair, Unleashed, (click on the link to git your copy) I was able to download all 3 at the same time [you have to save not run the AIK's in my case I saved them in my desk top.] Using my laptop it took 3 hours using the slow wireless g.wifi in the computer.
Think that we will stop here don't want to boor you to death. part 2 coming in my next post.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Unable To Shrink; C-Drive Windows XP Home Eddition! Why? Page 2
Well here it is Thursday and I have not posted a thing on this blog. So guess that I had better get to work been spend the daylight hours at my Union Shipping hall looking for a ship (job).
Why I could not shrink the C-Drive on XP Home Edition. But was able to do so using the Disk Manager in Windows Vista.
One may ask how do you do this and where is the Disk manager so I will walk you through the steps to do so in Vista. My Computer -right click- list opens-left click Manage- new window opens. Find Disk Manager- new window showing all partitions. in open area or white area of the C-Drive right click- under options click re size partition- shrink partition
At this point I want you to understand that you can only shrink or reduce the partition to the point that you reach one of the following: the page file; the temp file; and last the unmovable files. And you want to attempt to do so only after defraging the drive.
After you create your new partition or 2 you can then move the following files to the new partition drives. Temp, TMP, Page Files and in Internet Explorer Options, the temp folder under setting. after reading how to do so in Self Computer Repair, Unleashed. (Click on the picture of the book to get your own copy on the right side of this blog page.)
By now you are asking when is he going to get to the point where he tells me how to shrink that C-Drive to create these new partitions.
I have these ERD also know as bootable disks that are pre Operating System, that you can set up your BIOS in the Boot Section to Boot the DVD/CD Rom before the Hard drive so that you can boot from the disk. This is a DOS system BUT all that is on the disk.
The one I used is "Powersuite Boot Care 2009 Edition". Was unable to shrink or resize the C-Drive using the installed Powersuite Wincare 2010 as it works from an active Operating System. Nor was I able to do so with my newly downloaded copy of Acronis Disk Director or their True Image Program.
I had not created the bootable disk for Acronis at this time but have done so since writing my last post in fact that is why I have not made any post lately is because I have been trying to make a number of different bootable disks. As well as some Bootable Flash Drives. Plan on a Bootable USB Hard Drive soon also.
Link: spotmau.com; this will take you to the site. Now you can get the package for a lower price if you enter the same in a web browser. From past experience you ca n clean a little too much out of your Registry Files with this disk and the system will not boot if you do. It is a very powerful disk, makes you a dangerous person around a computer. Same thing when optimizing the Services do too much and something won't work.
Link: Acronis.com/True_Image 2011; this a very powerful disk that allows you to make clones of your operating system and if used in conjunction with their Disk Director 11 for 2011 you can have a very interesting package for maintaining your computer....
link:Acronis disk director 11 2011;
I have made a Bootable CD of the Linux boot program for this combining the True image and Disk Director and boot file on the disk and I choose to use the windows PE environment as apposed to the Linux due to familiarity.
Am now in the process of creating the Windows version of the same but it is a bit more complicated to do so
needs DVD's to create a boot disk. Dang it I forgot to buy the DVD's.
End of the post trust you as like myself have learned something new about your computer.
Why I could not shrink the C-Drive on XP Home Edition. But was able to do so using the Disk Manager in Windows Vista.
One may ask how do you do this and where is the Disk manager so I will walk you through the steps to do so in Vista. My Computer -right click- list opens-left click Manage- new window opens. Find Disk Manager- new window showing all partitions. in open area or white area of the C-Drive right click- under options click re size partition- shrink partition
At this point I want you to understand that you can only shrink or reduce the partition to the point that you reach one of the following: the page file; the temp file; and last the unmovable files. And you want to attempt to do so only after defraging the drive.
After you create your new partition or 2 you can then move the following files to the new partition drives. Temp, TMP, Page Files and in Internet Explorer Options, the temp folder under setting. after reading how to do so in Self Computer Repair, Unleashed. (Click on the picture of the book to get your own copy on the right side of this blog page.)
By now you are asking when is he going to get to the point where he tells me how to shrink that C-Drive to create these new partitions.
I have these ERD also know as bootable disks that are pre Operating System, that you can set up your BIOS in the Boot Section to Boot the DVD/CD Rom before the Hard drive so that you can boot from the disk. This is a DOS system BUT all that is on the disk.
The one I used is "Powersuite Boot Care 2009 Edition". Was unable to shrink or resize the C-Drive using the installed Powersuite Wincare 2010 as it works from an active Operating System. Nor was I able to do so with my newly downloaded copy of Acronis Disk Director or their True Image Program.
I had not created the bootable disk for Acronis at this time but have done so since writing my last post in fact that is why I have not made any post lately is because I have been trying to make a number of different bootable disks. As well as some Bootable Flash Drives. Plan on a Bootable USB Hard Drive soon also.
Link: spotmau.com; this will take you to the site. Now you can get the package for a lower price if you enter the same in a web browser. From past experience you ca n clean a little too much out of your Registry Files with this disk and the system will not boot if you do. It is a very powerful disk, makes you a dangerous person around a computer. Same thing when optimizing the Services do too much and something won't work.
Link: Acronis.com/True_Image 2011; this a very powerful disk that allows you to make clones of your operating system and if used in conjunction with their Disk Director 11 for 2011 you can have a very interesting package for maintaining your computer....
link:Acronis disk director 11 2011;
I have made a Bootable CD of the Linux boot program for this combining the True image and Disk Director and boot file on the disk and I choose to use the windows PE environment as apposed to the Linux due to familiarity.
Am now in the process of creating the Windows version of the same but it is a bit more complicated to do so
needs DVD's to create a boot disk. Dang it I forgot to buy the DVD's.
End of the post trust you as like myself have learned something new about your computer.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Unable To Shrink C-Drive, Winows XP SP3. Why?
Some back ground information. I have been working to restore a computer at the house I am visiting at for a while. After getting most of the bugs out and connecting the computer to the wifi vial a USB adaptor I was able to complete most of the Optimization of the computer.
But could not move the Temp, TMP, Page Files and the Internet Explorer, Temp files off the C- Drive, as there was but 2 partition's D: The Recovery Disk or Restore disk, then the C-Drive all on what is suppose to be a 200gig SATA hard drive.
You, ask why would I want to do this; why would I want temp., files stashed all over my C- Drive. Causing the drive to fragment this is as I understand it the leading cause of that feared task: WHY, we Defrag!!
Now where do you think I like to put those temp files. ( Note: for every user account you have on your computer you need move the TEMP Internet flies to a different drive. Will not happen by themselves.) On the D: Data: Drive. Doing so speeds up the computer.
Why the page file for the same reason. Think of this, if your computer has more than 2 gigs of memory then you have to have a D-Drive as Windows recommends that your page file not be larger than 2 gigs. Thus for every 2 gigs of memory you need another drive partition for the page file. This is the blight of computers with 3 or less gigs of memory. As the hard drives now are large in capacity and memory is less that 3 gigs.
Base formula is that the page file should be 1.5 time larger than total memory. Do your math.
In XP the system would work fine with 512MHz. of memory 1-3 gigs even faster as memory other than over clocking is what speed up a computer. The page file(s) has to be equal if not greater.
Here is the dumb question what in blue blazes is the page file. It is a file on your hard drive or partitions of your hard drive(s) that the computer uses to dump files when you change the video image or when you open a new window or program.
Hay, not bad for a self taught computer tech next month will be 4 years since I bought my first one.
Back to the title of this post. There is a windows program that I have used in the past to shrink the C-Drive or operation system drive after I defragment the drive. Why? Good question there is absolutely no reason in the world to have a 200; 320; 500gig. hard drive, the more data and programs you add the more memory you use the more temp files you create the slower your computer gets.
For the OS to search for a file in one 50mb on a hard drive that has 200 gigs of used space on a 320 hard drive takes a long time. Particularly if, if is a spread sheet. Or your income tax return that you are waiting for at H&R Block. ( Do my taxes there I like them.)
Did you know that you cannot defrag, a drive that has less that 15% free space? Nope cannot be done.
Yes I know that the programs automatically delete all temp files after you close the window. NOT! NOT!
Who knows what evil lurks within your computer? The Shadow knows and he is the man who taught me what I know well most of it.....
Well I spent some time looking for it and could not find it in XP but I know that I have used it on my own computer very successfully to that 300 gig partition down to 40. that is about the size you need for vista.Giving me room to create 2 more primary drives. Data & Misc/Music and a logical drive for my back-ups. Did so on my Nieces computer, her dad's on 6 laptops. Boy howdy did this stump me.
Went to DIY-computer-repair.com; my mentor's website. Into "Questions & Answers" and posted the same as the title of this article. Received a reply with in 5 hours. Suggested that I try a couple of things; you can read his reply and my additional remarks for yourself.
While in personal email with Mr. Russell I realized that it was on windows "Vista" that I had used the program to shrink that big hard drive.
Hay check it out this is one of the good things about "Vista" the Dog, Operating System.
Trust that you learned something like I did in my next post I will continue with article 2 in this series.
But could not move the Temp, TMP, Page Files and the Internet Explorer, Temp files off the C- Drive, as there was but 2 partition's D: The Recovery Disk or Restore disk, then the C-Drive all on what is suppose to be a 200gig SATA hard drive.
You, ask why would I want to do this; why would I want temp., files stashed all over my C- Drive. Causing the drive to fragment this is as I understand it the leading cause of that feared task: WHY, we Defrag!!
Now where do you think I like to put those temp files. ( Note: for every user account you have on your computer you need move the TEMP Internet flies to a different drive. Will not happen by themselves.) On the D: Data: Drive. Doing so speeds up the computer.
Why the page file for the same reason. Think of this, if your computer has more than 2 gigs of memory then you have to have a D-Drive as Windows recommends that your page file not be larger than 2 gigs. Thus for every 2 gigs of memory you need another drive partition for the page file. This is the blight of computers with 3 or less gigs of memory. As the hard drives now are large in capacity and memory is less that 3 gigs.
Base formula is that the page file should be 1.5 time larger than total memory. Do your math.
In XP the system would work fine with 512MHz. of memory 1-3 gigs even faster as memory other than over clocking is what speed up a computer. The page file(s) has to be equal if not greater.
Here is the dumb question what in blue blazes is the page file. It is a file on your hard drive or partitions of your hard drive(s) that the computer uses to dump files when you change the video image or when you open a new window or program.
Hay, not bad for a self taught computer tech next month will be 4 years since I bought my first one.
Back to the title of this post. There is a windows program that I have used in the past to shrink the C-Drive or operation system drive after I defragment the drive. Why? Good question there is absolutely no reason in the world to have a 200; 320; 500gig. hard drive, the more data and programs you add the more memory you use the more temp files you create the slower your computer gets.
For the OS to search for a file in one 50mb on a hard drive that has 200 gigs of used space on a 320 hard drive takes a long time. Particularly if, if is a spread sheet. Or your income tax return that you are waiting for at H&R Block. ( Do my taxes there I like them.)
Did you know that you cannot defrag, a drive that has less that 15% free space? Nope cannot be done.
Yes I know that the programs automatically delete all temp files after you close the window. NOT! NOT!
Who knows what evil lurks within your computer? The Shadow knows and he is the man who taught me what I know well most of it.....
Well I spent some time looking for it and could not find it in XP but I know that I have used it on my own computer very successfully to that 300 gig partition down to 40. that is about the size you need for vista.Giving me room to create 2 more primary drives. Data & Misc/Music and a logical drive for my back-ups. Did so on my Nieces computer, her dad's on 6 laptops. Boy howdy did this stump me.
Went to DIY-computer-repair.com; my mentor's website. Into "Questions & Answers" and posted the same as the title of this article. Received a reply with in 5 hours. Suggested that I try a couple of things; you can read his reply and my additional remarks for yourself.
While in personal email with Mr. Russell I realized that it was on windows "Vista" that I had used the program to shrink that big hard drive.
Hay check it out this is one of the good things about "Vista" the Dog, Operating System.
Trust that you learned something like I did in my next post I will continue with article 2 in this series.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Interesting Visit At A Friends House.
I am visiting at a friends house or should I say extended families house, last night I started up an older unused computer that is in a little apartment in the basement of the house. Was here a few weeks ago and cleaned the insides of the computer, as well as a couple other and taught the daughter how to maintain the insides of the computer. Used a can of air to blow the dust spider webs out of the fans the front panel. The computer was about 6 years old. A HP a819n model.
This is a very interest little computer, motherboard Asus; 775 socket and a P4 Dual Core processor 2.8 GHz. 4 SATA ports. A 200gig hard drive, interesting that the hard drive has a jumper on the back and mounted flat against the front bottom part of the case. This is the first time I have seen a hard drive mounted this way. Uses the old white 4 pin power plug and not the 15 pin of the new SATA Hard Drives.
I decided that I would try to shrink the C-drive as it was partition at 200gigs. Learned that I would not be able to do so even thought the operating system is XP Home Edition. There is an option in the disk management that is suppose to allow you to do so. Have found it on some computers and not on others and I don't know why. Have used my Spotmau Recovery disk to do so on certain computers in the past.
Before I attempted to do this I defraged the C-drive, after removing the expired Norton's Antivirus and Firewall. Restarting Windows Firewall, installed a free antivirus Microsoft Security Essential (A download from Microsoft) and 8 hours later after several restarts I removed 42 Malware Trojan Horses and virus from this computer.
This is the results of using the computer in the Administrator account and not creating a separate user account to do your every day computing needs. The computer was running very slow for some unknown reason and a new one had been purchased to replace it.
Unfortunately the replacement computer is probably in the same condition. I will need to gently teach the daughter how to save herself a lot of pain in creating a separate user account. There was no password protection of the Administrator account either.
The problem is that she is not alone her first computer, and a darn nice one I speak with people all the time about computers and have learned that there are many, many person who have no IDEA of how to properly protect their data their computers from spyware, malware Trojan horses and virus.
Many think that it is safe to think that you cannot get a virus infection or a Trojan if you have antivirus. Think so will read what Monte Russell wrote on his blog about how his Missus allow her daughter- in- law to use her computer and allowed her to down load a program in the administrator account. Bang in spite of having the best, antivirus she still got one. I follow his blog on this blog and you can search the page from this blog.
If you are interested in getting a copy of his latest book Self Computer Repair, Unleashed just click on the picture on the right side of this blog you will go directly to the web page.
Now if one of the Computer Engineers who worked for a company that helped Microsoft developed XP can get a virus that was so nasty that he could not get rid of it using 3 different Spyware, Trojan Removing and Antivirus. Then you can too. Reinstalling the operating system turned out to be the only solution.
Fortunately he being the computer expert that he is had Images of the operating system that were not too old, and he lost none of the wife's data. Only a day of his life trying to get the bug out.
This is something you should think about. After all it is your computer your online banking, your data, your personal information, that can be stolen but not mine.
What do you think it would have cost my Son's mother-in-law to pay for what I did for free at $75.00 per hour at the local or national computer repair chain store. It took me 8 hours to get all the bugs out and install all of the Microsoft upgrades. Believe me I am not slow.
Was talking to my taxi drive who is from India, I use him all the time to get around Alameda, Calif. when I don't walk or take the bus. Took me to Office Depot today where I purchased a new hard drive for the same computer mentioned in this article.
In route he said that his only computer got a virus and it cost him $165.00 at Best Buy to clean the virus out of his computer. Reason he did not purchase the antivirus before it expired after 60 days trial was over. He now has Norton's AV installed on his computer but is still using the administrator account. I explained to him how to get into his control panel to user accounts and how to set up the limited user account. He was very happy. He had no idea as to how to not get a virus in his computer, but was interested in learning how.
Here is something for you a freebie, the reason I purchased that particular 500 gig hard drive is that it comes in a BOX included the hard drive SATA. power cable adaptor, mounting screws, installation manual ( very complete) and a Software CD that makes a Clone of your old hard drive and creates partition on the new.
It is a Seagate The product number is: 9BD648-553 did your homework for you. You don't need to take it to a geek to install or up grade the hard drive using this hard drive, you can DIY.
Knowledge share it don't keep it. That is why I have this blog. I posted a Question on DIY-computer-repair.com, Question and Answers pages as to why I could not shrink the C-Drive just so that others who go to his site who have had this problem will learn how to do so.
Hope you have enjoyed this post.
This article may be freely redistributed if maintained in original form.
This is a very interest little computer, motherboard Asus; 775 socket and a P4 Dual Core processor 2.8 GHz. 4 SATA ports. A 200gig hard drive, interesting that the hard drive has a jumper on the back and mounted flat against the front bottom part of the case. This is the first time I have seen a hard drive mounted this way. Uses the old white 4 pin power plug and not the 15 pin of the new SATA Hard Drives.
I decided that I would try to shrink the C-drive as it was partition at 200gigs. Learned that I would not be able to do so even thought the operating system is XP Home Edition. There is an option in the disk management that is suppose to allow you to do so. Have found it on some computers and not on others and I don't know why. Have used my Spotmau Recovery disk to do so on certain computers in the past.
Before I attempted to do this I defraged the C-drive, after removing the expired Norton's Antivirus and Firewall. Restarting Windows Firewall, installed a free antivirus Microsoft Security Essential (A download from Microsoft) and 8 hours later after several restarts I removed 42 Malware Trojan Horses and virus from this computer.
This is the results of using the computer in the Administrator account and not creating a separate user account to do your every day computing needs. The computer was running very slow for some unknown reason and a new one had been purchased to replace it.
Unfortunately the replacement computer is probably in the same condition. I will need to gently teach the daughter how to save herself a lot of pain in creating a separate user account. There was no password protection of the Administrator account either.
The problem is that she is not alone her first computer, and a darn nice one I speak with people all the time about computers and have learned that there are many, many person who have no IDEA of how to properly protect their data their computers from spyware, malware Trojan horses and virus.
Many think that it is safe to think that you cannot get a virus infection or a Trojan if you have antivirus. Think so will read what Monte Russell wrote on his blog about how his Missus allow her daughter- in- law to use her computer and allowed her to down load a program in the administrator account. Bang in spite of having the best, antivirus she still got one. I follow his blog on this blog and you can search the page from this blog.
If you are interested in getting a copy of his latest book Self Computer Repair, Unleashed just click on the picture on the right side of this blog you will go directly to the web page.
Now if one of the Computer Engineers who worked for a company that helped Microsoft developed XP can get a virus that was so nasty that he could not get rid of it using 3 different Spyware, Trojan Removing and Antivirus. Then you can too. Reinstalling the operating system turned out to be the only solution.
Fortunately he being the computer expert that he is had Images of the operating system that were not too old, and he lost none of the wife's data. Only a day of his life trying to get the bug out.
This is something you should think about. After all it is your computer your online banking, your data, your personal information, that can be stolen but not mine.
What do you think it would have cost my Son's mother-in-law to pay for what I did for free at $75.00 per hour at the local or national computer repair chain store. It took me 8 hours to get all the bugs out and install all of the Microsoft upgrades. Believe me I am not slow.
Was talking to my taxi drive who is from India, I use him all the time to get around Alameda, Calif. when I don't walk or take the bus. Took me to Office Depot today where I purchased a new hard drive for the same computer mentioned in this article.
In route he said that his only computer got a virus and it cost him $165.00 at Best Buy to clean the virus out of his computer. Reason he did not purchase the antivirus before it expired after 60 days trial was over. He now has Norton's AV installed on his computer but is still using the administrator account. I explained to him how to get into his control panel to user accounts and how to set up the limited user account. He was very happy. He had no idea as to how to not get a virus in his computer, but was interested in learning how.
Here is something for you a freebie, the reason I purchased that particular 500 gig hard drive is that it comes in a BOX included the hard drive SATA. power cable adaptor, mounting screws, installation manual ( very complete) and a Software CD that makes a Clone of your old hard drive and creates partition on the new.
It is a Seagate The product number is: 9BD648-553 did your homework for you. You don't need to take it to a geek to install or up grade the hard drive using this hard drive, you can DIY.
Knowledge share it don't keep it. That is why I have this blog. I posted a Question on DIY-computer-repair.com, Question and Answers pages as to why I could not shrink the C-Drive just so that others who go to his site who have had this problem will learn how to do so.
Hope you have enjoyed this post.
This article may be freely redistributed if maintained in original form.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
My First Post To This Blog Orange Pickel On Computers! Welcome.!
I created this blog today it is about computers. Yes I know we all have computers, however I have learned that many people I have spoken with have no realization that the way they use there computer, can cause them many problems.
I am by no means an expert on them just the average Joe that actually read what is in Windows Help. Read
the Owners Manual that came in PDF form in the PROGRAMS file in the start list.
Have you?
There are people who do not have Passwords for their Administrator User Account, nor Passwords for their User Accounts. These are the people who ask me how to fix their computers when their 2 year old starts pressing buttons on their computer, when they go to the restroom. With the Screen Saver not set up.
There are people I have spoken with that have virus' in their computer who still use them but don't know how to remove them, and can pass those virus' to other people from their computers. They don't have antivirus.
This post is a short one just to let you know that the blog is now set up and I hope that you will enjoy reading and learning from the posts.
Thank you.
I am by no means an expert on them just the average Joe that actually read what is in Windows Help. Read
the Owners Manual that came in PDF form in the PROGRAMS file in the start list.
Have you?
There are people who do not have Passwords for their Administrator User Account, nor Passwords for their User Accounts. These are the people who ask me how to fix their computers when their 2 year old starts pressing buttons on their computer, when they go to the restroom. With the Screen Saver not set up.
There are people I have spoken with that have virus' in their computer who still use them but don't know how to remove them, and can pass those virus' to other people from their computers. They don't have antivirus.
This post is a short one just to let you know that the blog is now set up and I hope that you will enjoy reading and learning from the posts.
Thank you.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)