Bloody PCs

[Deleted]

Too late for this baby , drives are clanking and groaning , heads sticking etc. ghosting and reformatting isn't the answer this time around , ah well it's served me very well since I built it over 10 years ago lol

[domesticextremist]

Mar 3, 2012 0:52:23 GMT alvoram said:

Am I the only person that still uses the old "vacuum it if you keep getting BSOD's, and on the rare occasion that don't work, reformat the bugger" method?

Guess it's a bit hard with a laptop?

Nah, I hoover out the PC every few years.
It works especially if the power supply is full of fluff.

[Scylla]

Guys, do you remember PC cases gunged up with nicotine-stained... gunge? Those were the days

Steve, somebody, please set me up with a keyring USB + backup software - when hard drive prices come down I have to get a bigger one for my new laptop and am useless re cloning, can't get my head around it. Links to specific items would be lovely

[steve386]

Mar 3, 2012 9:22:05 GMT Scylla said:

Guys, do you remember PC cases gunged up with nicotine-stained... gunge? Those were the days

Steve, somebody, please set me up with a keyring USB + backup software - when hard drive prices come down I have to get a bigger one for my new laptop and am useless re cloning, can't get my head around it. Links to specific items would be lovely

Here is the one I use:-

www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/20254812/Pretec-i-Disk-Bulletproof-USB-Flash-Drive-16GB/Product.html?searchstring=bullet+proof+usb&searchsource=0&searchtype=allproducts&urlrefer=search

I've had one of these for several years now and it never fails. I have all my security and anti-virus tools on it.

Hard drive prices seem to have gone up recently. I used to buy Western Digital 80gb drives for about £30 each. They make great boot C: drives. I then have a much larger one in each PC for work and data. If the C drive starts to fail, I just swap it out for a new one and put the last ghost for that system on there.

My USB drive is like my tool kit. Never leave home without it

[Scylla]

Thank you Steve, I'm going to buy one of those for SO (as well as for me) because he has one for his work laptop and the flash drive they've supplied with it is useless.

[maccafan]

www.todo-backup.com/

Easy to use and free and runs from within windows.

If you want to run a linux based one from a booting device like USB or CD the best ones are Clonezilla or Redo Backup and recovery. I use the latter because it is also a partition manager.

[Scylla]

Mar 3, 2012 11:56:24 GMT maccafan said:

www.todo-backup.com/

I have installed that thank you. I'm going to have to PM you re backups and cloning when I get my courage up, cos I need educating. Been lucky not to have had HDD failure for many years and keep data on D, so usually format C and reinstall if any problems, but now I've got programs that I can't register again so need cloning really.

[maccafan]

No worries Scylla..

Refer this page:

www.todo-backup.com/backup-resource/copy-and-clone-hard-drive.htm

[Scylla]

(((Macca)))

[Deleted]

Macca do you know if this software will do the same thing as ZInstall ? I have a new pc coming as I said earlier however I will be installing Win 7 and at present my pc is using XP Pro , from what I have read you can switch between XP and 7 , using XP it acts as though it's a virtual drive or summat

[maccafan]

Mar 4, 2012 15:01:15 GMT @storm said:

Macca do you know if this software will do the same thing as ZInstall ? I have a new pc coming as I said earlier however I will be installing Win 7 and at present my pc is using XP Pro , from what I have read you can switch between XP and 7 , using XP it acts as though it's a virtual drive or summat

No. it's a backup and recovery software in case of HDD failure.

Zinstall does something simlilar to this free utility from M$:

windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows7/products/features/windows-easy-transfer

[maccafan]

And this too if you want your programs:

www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/default.aspx

[Deleted]

Much appreciated Macca m8 , I didn't fancy paying silly money when you can get a FREE prog that does the same