New PC - Mac or Other?

[johnwhelan]

Going by the Belarc number both drives are Hitachi SATA ones so they should be fine. The 40 quid drives I mentioned earlier would be fine if you really want to replace the drive but I don't think I'd bother.

Cheerio John

 

[angelah]

That's a laptop 2 1/2 inch drive and will need additional brackets and possibly some sort of cable adapter depending on what laptop it's supposed to fit,
and adds complication. You need a desktop 3 1/2 inch, however looking at you last post probably a reformat and reinstall may be all that's needed.

Hi Malc (Clam backwards...)
Ah, right....! I told you so, I asm a complete twit at this and haven't a clue, like trying to find my way across a fully furnished restaiurant in the dark blindfold.....
So I must look for a 3.5 inch one, that helps.
TBH I haven't a clue what's going on with the PC. Belarc reckons both drives are find and both AV propgs say it is free of viruses. It's got me scratching my head.

I suppose a reinstall first and see what happens. If that fails look again for a drive. A reinstall will be XP as I have the disc, got it with the PC. They don't do that now do they... So how would one go on if W7 failed, no disc, no reinstall...

Angela

 

[johnwhelan]

Hi Malc (Clam backwards...)
Ah, right....! I told you so, I asm a complete twit at this and haven't a clue, like trying to find my way across a fully furnished restaiurant in the dark blindfold.....
So I must look for a 3.5 inch one, that helps.
TBH I haven't a clue what's going on with the PC. Belarc reckons both drives are find and both AV propgs say it is free of viruses. It's got me scratching my head.

I suppose a reinstall first and see what happens. If that fails look again for a drive. A reinstall will be XP as I have the disc, got it with the PC. They don't do that now do they... So how would one go on if W7 failed, no disc, no reinstall...

Angela

For Win 7 buy a USB external hard drive such as ebuyer.com Toshiba £55.00inc vat with free delivery http://www.ebuyer.com/288366-toshiba-1tb-stor-e-partner-external-orange-hard-drive-pa4284e-1hj0 and then you need a CD or DVD burner to create a restore disk. Windows backup create restore disk and you're home and dry.

They even have them as USB powered these days, Lite-on makes bost of them and their own brand is usually cheaper. £23.73 buys you http://www.ebuyer.com/180608-liteon-etau108-usb-2-0-dvd-write-optical-drive-retail-etau108-02 that way you can use it with your Laptop if it doesn't have a DVD or CD burner.

Cheerio John

 

[ray_whiley]

I have a 4GB RAM installed in my WIN XP, but, it only uses 3.25GB maximum as my XP is 32 bit, even if Angela fits a 4GB RAM stick into her PC she only be able to utilise 3.25GB out of it anyway

Yes, this is normal for XP. But at least it's better than 2GB!

Ray

 

[johnwhelan]

Yes, this is normal for XP. But at least it's better than 2GB!

Ray

It's when you get into the 64 bit operating systems that you can mess with the memory mapping, the 32 bit ones use roughly 512-768 mb of the 4 gigs of memory addressing for accessing the computer hardware. When you get into the 64 bit ones and the different address modes then you can access all 4 gigs of memory when its installed.

Cheerio John

 

[angelah]

Another bloody disaster....
My laptop is playing up so this is from my failing PC. The laptop went into download mode when I went to turn it off last night, 86 upfrades it said, took bloody ages, then it shut down. This morning when I turned it on it said Configuring Windows, that took 5 minutes then it turned itself right off, no reboot..!! Turned it on again and a further 4 downloads appeared and then it 'reconfigured windows', but this time it stayed on. When I started IE all I got was an almost blank screen with a bit about Acer on it and a small toolbar at the top saying Acer again and below that the dreaded search wheel saying Google not responding. There are no tools ar other toolbars so no way to get online with it nor reconfugure for a Google Home Page, which I had. So thanks bery much MS for buggering up a perfectly good laptop..!!
At present running AVG but at 3/4 done there are no faults. Plainly Google is working, it's up okay on here so it's the laptop. God knows how I can sort that out, I haven't a clue.

I cannot mess about any longer, I have ordered that Zoostorm otherwise I shall be up the proverbial creek not only without a paddle but also minus the canoe..!! It should be here tomorrow.

All this is getting very worrying... and I am starting to panic as to which way to go - do I stay connected to the Internet? Do I keep Win7 on this new PC or wipe the drive and install XP because that very clever Win OS upgrade completely buggered up IE... Now I have a useless laptop as well.
I cannot believe 86 updates, I had it on the day before so why did that lot come down next day and even more this morning? Is that normal?
How do I get Win& reinstalled, I have no disc to do that with, the trait of shops since XP is to sell the machine with it installed and that's good enough - it will never go wrong, will it? Some bloody hope, Windows always go belly up every now and then.

I hate Win7 but have been forced into this. I would have preferred to reconfigure this present PC with XP, and I might even do that yet once I have a machine that will reliably, at least for a while, to connect to the Internet.

So I am NOT having good days, mostly each one is an increasing disaster on the last.

Angela

 

[amigacooke]

Sorry to hear the problems you're having. I too have a Windows 7 installation that has no OS disks. There probably is a utility included by the manufacturer to make recovery disks.

Good luck with that though, I could never get it to work.

 

[angelah]

Sorry to hear the problems you're having. I too have a Windows 7 installation that has no OS disks. There probably is a utility included by the manufacturer to make recovery disks.

Good luck with that though, I could never get it to work.

Found out what happened during those 'upgrades' (I think they are retrogrades...). The IE screen has been changed and Favourites have been put into a tiny icon top left, only found that out by accident. Trouble is that so-called upgrade also knocked out my usual homepage and there is no way I can get it back. I have a list of favourites and this site is one of them but the link goes to this Home Page, not into the actual forum. Clicking on forum does bugger all, nothing, so I cannot access links in IE any more. - some bloody 'upgrade' eh - not one you really need.

Angela

 

[boc61]

Sorry to hear the problems you're having. I too have a Windows 7 installation that has no OS disks. There probably is a utility included by the manufacturer to make recovery disks.

Good luck with that though, I could never get it to work.

My last PC a Dell was like that, just the hidden recovery partition if I wanted to reinstall the OS. This machine was built to order for me, so it has the Recovery partition as well as the Win 7 discs.

 

[amigacooke]

My last PC a Dell was like that, just the hidden recovery partition if I wanted to reinstall the OS.

I could never work out what use a recovery partition is if your HD fails.

 

[boc61]

I could never work out what use a recovery partition is if your HD fails.

True. It was a way to get you to spend an extra $20 for the discs I guess.

 

[RRSignal]

Another bloody disaster....
My laptop is playing up so this is from my failing PC. The laptop went into download mode when I went to turn it off last night, 86 upfrades it said, took bloody ages, then it shut down. This morning when I turned it on it said Configuring Windows, that took 5 minutes then it turned itself right off, no reboot..!! Turned it on again and a further 4 downloads appeared and then it 'reconfigured windows', but this time it stayed on. When I started IE all I got was an almost blank screen with a bit about Acer on it and a small toolbar at the top saying Acer again and below that the dreaded search wheel saying Google not responding. There are no tools ar other toolbars so no way to get online with it nor reconfugure for a Google Home Page, which I had. So thanks bery much MS for buggering up a perfectly good laptop..!!

<snipped for space>

Well, some *possibly* good news. Although Zoostorm's web support appears to be non-existent, it appears they use Gigabyte motherboards. So, you can get XP drivers. Might be worth calling the company to verify that though.

An option is to install XP and make the machine a dual-boot. You can do this with the existing hard drive, although it's much easier and safer, and provides redundancy, if you have a second one installed. If that's an option you'd consider, I can post some how-tos. Gigabyte boards are very good about this.

As for updates, you can turn off automatic updating in Windows' Security Center. I haven't tried rolling back to an earlier version of IE, at least not in the last few years, but a quick search shows lots of people have supposedly figured out how to do it.

 

[johnwhelan]

As for updates, you can turn off automatic updating in Windows' Security Center. I haven't tried rolling back to an earlier version of IE, at least not in the last few years, but a quick search shows lots of people have supposedly figured out how to do it.

Please don't, use firefox or chrome to avoid losing your start up etc in future.

Cheerio John

 

[Mouse84]

I have Windows updates turned off and only install select updates and I've only had to reinstall every couple of years, where as a friend who religiously checks for and updates every week reinstalls his computers every couple of months.

 

[boc61]

You have to be careful with Windows Update, especially when it shows driver updates. A lot of times they aren't current. I have mine set to gather the updates automatically, but not to download them. Then I choose which ones to install.

 

[clam1952]

You have to be careful with Windows Update, especially when it shows driver updates. A lot of times they aren't current. I have mine set to gather the updates automatically, but not to download them. Then I choose which ones to install.

Same here otherwise you get some out of date or even wrong driver, unwanted versions of IE or lately they seem to be putting that Bing desktop rubbish as an update. I haven't got it and don't want it so why is it an update??

 

[angelah]

Well, some *possibly* good news. Although Zoostorm's web support appears to be non-existent, it appears they use Gigabyte motherboards. So, you can get XP drivers. Might be worth calling the company to verify that though.

An option is to install XP and make the machine a dual-boot. You can do this with the existing hard drive, although it's much easier and safer, and provides redundancy, if you have a second one installed. If that's an option you'd consider, I can post some how-tos. Gigabyte boards are very good about this.

As for updates, you can turn off automatic updating in Windows' Security Center. I haven't tried rolling back to an earlier version of IE, at least not in the last few years, but a quick search shows lots of people have supposedly figured out how to do it.

Hi there,
I do have a second drive (E:/) in this PC and it is only a quarter full so plenty of space. I keep hardly anything on C;/ enough to run the PC basically.
Ran CCleaner and managed to get things going a bit faster, but that was under guidance from a friend who knows more than I do. He is coming in to set up the Zoostorm for me and get it running properly and have a look at the Laptop. The IE screen now says Acer at the top which is the make of it. But nothing much can be done with it, cannot change a link if I go to a site. Bloody stupid MS....
So yes, I do have a second drive I can run another OS from if that's possible.

Went to the shooting range today and took out my fury and annoyance on some targets...

Thanks,

Angela

 

[RRSignal]

Hi there,
I do have a second drive (E:/) in this PC and it is only a quarter full so plenty of space. I keep hardly anything on C;/ enough to run the PC basically.
Ran CCleaner and managed to get things going a bit faster, but that was under guidance from a friend who knows more than I do. He is coming in to set up the Zoostorm for me and get it running properly and have a look at the Laptop. The IE screen now says Acer at the top which is the make of it. But nothing much can be done with it, cannot change a link if I go to a site. Bloody stupid MS....
So yes, I do have a second drive I can run another OS from if that's possible.

Went to the shooting range today and took out my fury and annoyance on some targets...

Haha, that's a great stress reliever.

I'm assuming you have a copy of 32-bit XP available; OEM versions such as those from Dell, HP, etc. usually won't work. First, find out the motherboard make and model using Belarc once you get your new PC, or call Zoostorm. Once you have that, you can get drivers for the appropriate model here:

http://uk.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/download-center.aspx

Download the XP ones onto a memory stick. Be sure you're downloading the XP 32 bit versions, not the XP-64 ones (unless you have XP-64. I do and love it! ) You'll need the Chipset, Audio and VGA/Video drivers. Also grab the LAN driver if you want to be able to use internet on the XP partition. Some of my partitions DON'T have the LAN driver and, thus, no internet, which greatly improves performance and eliminates the need for anti-virus software, firewalls, etc. You can still email, do internet, download, etc. from the Win7 partition when it's running. Just something to consider.

You/your friend will have to install the second disk in a spare drive bay. One that's done, dual booting with two or more hard disks is simply a matter of popping your XP CD in the drive and installing it on the second disk. Just be sure you know which is which. Windows will identify the drive by it's hardware name or manufacturer ID. I prefer to temporarily unplug any other drives while formatting with Windows, only because that eliminates any possibility of formatting the wrong drive (and I have many drives with similar or identical IDs, so it's quite possible) but not everyone does that. Just as long as you install to the right drive, you'll be fine. Once Windows is installed, run the driver installers from your USB stick. That's it.

When you go to start your computer, you hit F12 as it's starting to select which Windows partition. Your second drive will probably be called "HDD1", assuming the Zoostorm folks set up your machine properly, while the Win7 drive will be on HDD0. If you want to make the XP drive the default one the computer boots to, go into the BIOS and try to find an option called "Set Boot Priority" or "Set Boot Order". Make HDD1 the first on the list and HDD0 the second. Save and exit.

I don't know if TRS2006 would benefit from the /3Gb switch that lets would allow Trainz to use more memory than it normally would. Maybe someone else can chime in on whether that's worth enabling on XP.

 

[cascaderailroad]

I never installed the IE9 update, ( and hid ihe update) ... so I continue to use IE8, as IE9 has bugs.
I never downloaded Google Chrome as it has malware Funmoods toolbar.
I did download Firefox, No Squint, Color That Site, and Firefox app, I.E. Tab version 4.0
Bing Toolbar disables the Ctrl+M function on your PC ... so totally uninstall Bing Toolbar.

 

[alexl102]

I've had a mac primarily for music purposes but also for trainz and other stuff for two years. I hate it. Cannot wait until I can swap it for a PC.