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Main Area and Open Discussion => General Software Discussion => Topic started by: holt on December 18, 2015, 02:54 PM
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i have a gateway ta6 laptop, a.k.a. model cx2724. i know it's slow but it's all i've got. it has two 500mb ram sticks. according to this link (http://www.memorystock.com/memory/GatewayCX2724.html), my max upgrade limit is two 1-gb ram sticks. before i commit to buy them, can anyone confirm if i can get two 2gb or 4gb ram sticks instead?
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have you tried any other site e.g. http://www.crucial.com
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found this (http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/compatible-upgrade-for/Gateway/cx2724#memoryResults). still a 2gb (2 x 1gb) limit.
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I recently acquired the Gateway TA6 laptop, with problems:
-Napster shows up in Control Panel Add/Remove programs and nowhere else and refuses to go away.
-PC MightyMax 2009 shows in systray (lower right desktop) and nowhere else and refuses to go away.
-It is a Win XP Tablet, and I would like to disable the Desktop 'Tablet PC Input Panel' somehow.
-I will never use the Motorola fax feature in systray and wonder how to disable it.
-How can I selectively disable McAfee safe web browsing?
Any helpful sugs would be greatly appreciated.
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Interesting.
The definitive guide as to a laptop's specification for things like RAM, bus, CPU and other features will usually be the specifications pages in the full User Guide (not a brochure).
If you do not have a hard or softcopy of the guide (the softcopy would usually be a PDF file), then it should be easy to download one from the manufacturer's site.
You will need to be able to correctly identify the laptop. Correct identification tags are usually displayed on difficult-to-remove stickers on the laptop underside or maybe sometimes in the battery compartment, and some of them will probably also be displayed in the system details in the operating system.
Identification tags for any given build of laptop will include things such as (for example):
- Model Number
- Serial Number
- Manufacturer ID (e.g., DELL and Gateway have their own peculiar ID numbering schemes).
For confirmation of identification, knowing the Operating System in the original as-built model might help, though this would probably be independent of hardware specs (i.e., the hardware specs wouldn't necessarily vary if there was a different OS installed).
From experience, armed with the above information, documentation and system drivers (even for old laptop models) are usually easy to find and download from the manufacturer's support website.
So, I would suggest that you go to the Gateway Official Support Site: Worldwide (http://www.gateway.com/worldwide/support/)
Then:
1. Select your country.
2. On the next page that appears, select on the horizontal Support bar the Drivers & Downloads "button".
3. On the next page you will see that there are 3 options to:
- Search by Serial Number or SNID (I would guess SNID is a DELL-specific ID and relates to the as-built spec.)
- Search by Product Model
- Select my product from a list
You will eventually get to the CX series of numbers, and the search granularity seems to stop at CX2720 for your model, so it should be included there.
However, when I went through these steps assuming country-US and took the third option where I assumed that the OS was a Vista version and 32-bit, I drew a blank.
From the menu that appeared below on that page, I selected the Documents tab and was presented with a list that included these download links:
Gateway Notebook Hardware Reference (http://global-download.gateway.com/GDFiles/Document/Generic%20UG/Generic%20UG_Gateway_1.0_A_A.zip?acerid=634303159245071109&Step1=NOTEBOOK&Step2=CX SERIES&Step3=CX2720&OS=V10&LC=en&BC=GATEWAY&SC=PA_6G)
Gateway User Guide Gateway Notebook (http://global-download.gateway.com/GDFiles/Document/Generic%20UG/Generic%20UG_Gateway_1.0_A_A.zip?acerid=634303160374852314&Step1=NOTEBOOK&Step2=CX SERIES&Step3=CX2720&OS=V10&LC=en&BC=GATEWAY&SC=PA_6G)
Annoying, these documents were "generic" documents and neither of them referred to hardware specs. - which I found quite surprising.
I didn't inspect the other documentation listed as it was all labelled "Generic UG".
By the way, you can also download system drivers (software) and a BIOS update from that site, so my visit there might not have been a complete waste of time.
I then did a duckgo search for Specification for Gateway Model ta6 laptop cx2720, and came up with this link: http://gatewaycomputers.wikia.com/wiki/CX2720
I'm unsure whether it is authoritative, but it does state there that RAM is:
1GB PC2-5300 DDR2 memory standard (max 2GB)
- so it seems that you are probably stuck with that max RAM constraint.
You could consider a potential workaround to the constraint (to some extent) by installing a fast (C10 min.) memory card - that laptop apparently has an Integrated 5-in-1 Card Reader - and using that as a Ramdrive, but I am unsure whether that would give a useful performance improvement. You'd have to "suck-it-and-see".
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If the limit is 2x1GByte RAM modules, that is the limit then. if it is old, it likely only supports the DDR2 notebook version of RAM modules. This is an old hardware format, which means they are expensive, because they aren't produced anymore. Second hand RAM is likely what you will end up with. If you think there is too much crap on the laptop, download all the drivers from the manufacturers website and store these on a pen drive, get the windows key from the bottom of your laptop (if that is still readable, else find a piece of software to retrieve your Windows key), find the installers and keys from the software you want to keep, backup whatever data you already put on the laptop and re-install.
Such a "fresh" start will make the laptop more enjoyable. You won't have to bother with finding ways to get rid of crap the previous owner installed, you can use the AV solution you like, etc. etc. My advice is always to put as much RAM in your new PC/Laptop as you are able to afford. Not only will you enjoy using the PC/Laptop longer, it will have more re-sale value (especially with laptops). So, find out which model of RAM your laptop uses from its manual and find two RAM sticks of 1 GBYte, the hardware in your laptop cannot handle any other RAM memory configuration. Buy something else and you have thrown good money out of the door. Don't think it will be easy to resell the wrong memory module configuration or expect to get a decent price. Remember, it is only expensive when you buy it...
General advice:
If you want to know what the specifications of your laptop (https://panam.gateway.com/s/Mobile/Q106/ViperC/1009036sp2.shtml) are, look at the site of the manufacturer or manual. In the manual, you usually find which type and model of RAM will work with your laptop. The manufacturer usually has support (http://us.gateway.com/gw/en/US/content/drivers-downloads), where you can download drivers, updates, manuals etc. Other websites will do their best effort to have all this info available, but as long as there is a manufacturers support website, why bother going somewhere else.
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I recently acquired the Gateway TA6 laptop, with problems:
-Napster shows up in Control Panel Add/Remove programs and nowhere else and refuses to go away.
-PC MightyMax 2009 shows in systray (lower right desktop) and nowhere else and refuses to go away.
-It is a Win XP Tablet, and I would like to disable the Desktop 'Tablet PC Input Panel' somehow.
-I will never use the Motorola fax feature in systray and wonder how to disable it.
-How can I selectively disable McAfee safe web browsing?
Any helpful sugs would be greatly appreciated.
-holt
Well, the scope of your post seems to have just expanded to become a classic bundle of problems - which I would normally avoid trying to help with as remote support can become a real time bandit and I don't want to get sucked in by the vortex they create.
However, having gone as far as I did above, I would suggest that, with the symptoms you describe, having an unknown quantity of software in a laptop, you should suspect the worst and act accordingly - you may have a virus or a hijack virus and that would put you on the back foot, as it were.
To take and maintain control of the situation, I recommend that you therefore download and install and run, one at a time/one after the other, in this order:
- MBAM - Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (FREE) (https://www.malwarebytes.org/downloads/)
- RevoUninstaller (FREEware v1.95) (http://www.revouninstaller.com/revo_uninstaller_free_download.html)
- CCleaner ($FREE) (https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner)
If you do have a virus, then a common behaviour is that it may try to block downloads/installs, in which case, if you cannot complete the first step (download, immediately install and then immediately run MBAM), then you will need to take out the drive and treat is as virus-infested as a portable USB drive to a secure computer already installed with the above software, which can then be run to clean that hard drive. I have done this to successfully disinfect and expunge viruses and expunge PUPS (Potentially Unwanted Programs) on several infected/hijacked hard drives for friends.
You should use RevoUninstaller to delete and expunge other unwanted or annoying programs (e.g., Norton Anti-Virus or "Security" software) that may have hooks deeply embedded in the registry - RevoU seems to be the best FREE tool for this.
Then use CCleaner to tidy up the registry and remove all the excess system detritus that most badly neglected PCs will tend to have accumulated. This can sometimes have a surprisingly significant performance improvement for many of your applications and sometimes even the OS, and on a neglected PC can generally free up a considerable chunk of disk space.
As a penultimate cleanup step, open a Run window and run the windows cleanmgr.exe, and select the option to delete restore points (it deletes all but the very latest restore point). You can do that in CCleaner also, but cleanmgr is a good belts-and-braces precaution in my view, as it can sometimes clean up a few bits not necessarily caught by CCleaner. This can generally free up a considerable chunk of disk space.
The final step should be to optimise hard disk performance - run the Windows defrag.exe and automate this by setting it in the options to run every couple of weeks (automatically controlled via Task Scheduler). On a neglected PC this can generally make a useful performance improvement, potentially affecting the performance of most/all applications.
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The laptop was a freebie, and i can use it to look for something new and affordable. But for now, i think i'd like to upgrade the ram at least from 1gb (2 x .500) to 2gb (2 x 1gb), for $11 per ram stick plus s/h.
The freeware RevoUninstaller killed PC Mighty Max 2009 from running and i deleted its folder. I also successfully wiped out all Napster traces. I will never use the tablet screen writing feature and am not sure if it is safe to disable or remove, but it would save some ram. I am still trying to disable the Motorola fax from auto-starting.
Thank you to everyone for all your help.
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I am still trying to disable the Motorola fax from auto-starting.
-holt
WinPatrol (https://www.winpatrol.com/winpatrol/) might be able to help you with that, but I can't make out from the website whether there is still a free version.
Edit: Oh, yeah, there is still a free version.
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I added freeware WinPatrol, and thank you.
This is a Gateway tablet Win XP laptop. On boot up, the laptop will reach the pre-Desktop screen where you are to choose your user name icon and click on it, and it will say this:
Windows XP.
To begin, click your user name.
After you log on, you can add or change user accounts.
Just go to Control Panel and click User Accounts.
A small 1/6th-screen virtual keyboard also appears that I don't think belongs there and don't know how to get rid of. You can right-click at the top of it and move it around, but if you put any of it off-screen it realigns to the screen edge. It always loads/appears a little slower than the parent screen, suggesting separate origins. To right- or left-click at the top of it or the parent screen produces no sub-menu, but when you click on some virtual keys they change color. I added the picture by clicking first on the virtual 'print screen' (PrtScn) key to grab a shot of it. Clicking on virtual ctrl-alt-del (in sequence) produces a message to just use the pc tablet Windows Security button. Free RevoUninstaller can't 'target' it there. Whatever it is, I see no need, and it may be tying up ram. What is it and does it belong there, or what's the use of it, or how do I remove or disable it?
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That is Microsoft's virtual keyboard to help you log in to your system. This keyboard is helpful when you only have your stylus to type in your password. Looks to me like your keyboard isn't detected (fast enough) and that Windows XP is helping you out by activating its virtual keyboard instead.
I don't think your computer has the option in BIOS, but you could try to see in there if there is an option for the BIOS to wait until all USB devices have registered themselves with the BIOS before it continues booting your computer. There will be an option to select if you want to do a slow boot. That could give the keyboard also enough time to register itself properly. By doing this, Windows XP shouldn't show the virtual keyboard anymore to help you log into your Windows account.
Once you logged into Windows, check if you can change this behavior by checking the options of virtual keyboard and the Windows boot routine. The 'Control Panel' should get you access to both.
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i think i'll leave the virtual keyboard alone, and thank you for the information. did i mention this laptop was a freebie and came with no manual or advice. this morning, the front glass screen fell out onto the keyboard. it was almost comical although i was horrified. i put it back into place and pressed it down into a black sticky border. it left a few tiny black streaks under glass along the bottom edge of the screen, which i decided not to try to remedy. to force it loose again using a flat edge paint scraper could crack the glass. i'm thinking either to let it fall out again someday, and then clean the streaks, and tape it down next time...or...a repeat could add more streaks. some sticky black residue was around the outside, and nothing would touch it but acetone on tissue paper. it's all cleaned up except for the very faint and tiny streaks under glass at the extreme bottom edge of the screen. might be best to tape it all down to avoid a worse predicament. it has been quite a learning experience.
in spite of this, i think laptops are not so bad. if i ever get a newer one, i'll just try to avoid a 'tablet' design.
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The top/outer layer of screen glass started to fall out of the frame again, just from being on for three hours from the heat of normal operation, and I would appreciate a few suggestions please.
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I would like to run a backup/clone copy of the laptop's hd somehow, but I'm unfamiliar. Do you use a toaster-style device to drop both the laptop hd and the cloning hd into? Or do they make a master/slave IDE kind of hd ribbon cable to plug into where the laptop's hd goes, so you can just plug in two HDs? But the laptop hd uses a different plug shape (for a 10 year old Gateway TA6, while the cloning hd would be IDE. Or what would someone suggest? If I have to use a USB port and take all night, I can do that too.
That's a thought; can I just get a USB adapter to plug into the external HD, and then where would the HD power jack get its power from?
I replaced the malfunctioning DVD+RW player/burner with an identical used like-new unit so it works now; it is older and slower technology, and took 40 minutes to transfer 3 gb of files from a DVD disk to the HD, but it's better than nothing. Replacing the unit was easy, except for the snap-on plastic external bezel, which took 2 hours of nerve-wracking work with a pile of little bitsy screws and tools and a magnifying light to get the bezel off the old unit without breaking its three concealed delicate little plastic fish hook prongs, but I finally succeeded.
I'm making good progress resurrecting this old laptop and appreciate everyone's help very much.
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Cloning in itself isn't hard to do, there are many pieces of software that can do this (free and commercial) and if you take the time to properly identify which hard disk is which (including reading any message that software presents to you), there isn't much that can go wrong. However, if you do this wrong, you are in real trouble...that is, if you mind losing your data.
Finding someone that still has a mainboard with IDE ports that work will be harder. If you are sure the laptop uses IDE, you can even use the laptop itself, but you might need to take it apart to connect both the master-slave drives. And keep it like that for as long as the cloning procedure will take. If you do find someone with such a mainboard, you might still have a problem. Connecting both drives to the same hard disk controller will reduce the time to do the cloning considerably, so that would be the preferred option.
Connecting an IDE HD from a laptop onto the IDE hard disk controller of a desktop PC, might require you to alter the IDE cable. Had to do this on occasion when connecting laptop HD's to the IDE port of the Amiga home computer. Don't assume blindly that the IDE cable for a desktop PC is immediately usable in a laptop. Some lines in a standard IDE cable are meant to transfer power and it is not a given that those lines are in the same spot. Often I had to remove one of the IDE connectors find the cables for power, loosen them from the rest of the cable, twist that part of the cable and use a connector from the laptop IDE cable to be able to use the laptop HD in a desktop.
It is easier (and neater) to take the hit in cloning speed and use an external USB device to do the cloning. If all you want to do is making a backup, than don't do cloning. There is much more backup software available that is much simpler in use and faster too. Anyway, when you have a computer, it really is a good idea to invest in a portable hard disk to make backups on. Reliable and simple, what is not to like?
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I see what you mean about USB and HD backup. While I was away from the laptop the outer plastic monitor sheet fell out again, so I put it to one side. What I mean is, there is a second outer clear layer of plastic to view through, and the adhesive -which is in the form of a 1/8" strip around the perimeter- has degenerated into black sticky goo, and the clear outer plastic sheet keeps falling out onto the keyboard. So I left it out. The actual glass of the monitor which is underneath/inside seems to be fine without it.
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I keep touching the touchpad accidentally with the base of my thumb and everytime I do that the cursor jumps halfway across the screen and it beeps at me, so then I have to grab the external mouse and put the cursor back where I'm typing. I tried blocking the pad with a post-it note and an index card but it didn't block it.
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I keep touching the touchpad accidentally with the base of my thumb and everytime I do that the cursor jumps halfway across the screen and it beeps at me, so then I have to grab the external mouse and put the cursor back where I'm typing. I tried blocking the pad with a post-it note and an index card but it didn't block it.
-holt
have a look at the mouse/trackpad settings, they can sometime be 'desensitised'
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If push comes to shove...you could remove its driver and disable the device in the Windows Device Manager. That means though that you will not be able to use the trackpad at all. Be sure to carry a working computer mouse with you the whole time when you decide to go drastic like this.
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Can't find any way to adjust sensitivity, but thanks it was worth a look. Rather cover the touch pad somehow than drastic uninstall of drivers; cursor 'jumped' half a screen three or four times just typing this. How would one block it physically? It 'senses' right through a post-it and index card.
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^ It's a while since I used XP, but that should be possible:
http://www.makeuseof.com/answers/deactivate-touchpad-windows-xp/
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It sounds like your computer is more or less falling apart already. Open it further and disconnect the power to the track pad. Even more drastic ;)
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Another option: Turning a crappy old Windows PC into a full-fledged Chromebook with CloudReady | Ars Technica (http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/10/turning-a-crappy-old-windows-pc-into-a-full-fledged-chromebook-with-cloudready/)
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Yes. Making the best. When I touch the main pad and move my fingertip, the cursor stays in one place and vibrates, then jumps unpredictably. To its right is a narrow vertical column with up and down chevrons that apparently does nothing. Below these are a long horizontal bar that corresponds to mouse left click, and to its right is a shorter bar that gives a page submenu. I'm seriously considering uninstalling the touch pad driver, as I found no 'disable when usb or mouse connected' option.
I installed Revo uninstaller free, as advised. Will that enable reinstallation of tablet drivers at any future time if needed? I'd feel better uninstalling, if I knew it could be restored. Other than that, I'm still wondering how the tablet 'senses' and if I could cover it with a plate of something instead of pulling the drivers and possibly destabilizing anything else.
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If push comes to shove...you could remove its driver and disable the device in the Windows Device Manager. That means though that you will not be able to use the trackpad at all. Be sure to carry a working computer mouse with you the whole time when you decide to go drastic like this.
-Shades
Is this it? Synaptics PS/2 Port TouchPad. "Sample rate 100 reports/second".
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If push comes to shove...you could remove its driver and disable the device in the Windows Device Manager. That means though that you will not be able to use the trackpad at all. Be sure to carry a working computer mouse with you the whole time when you decide to go drastic like this.
-Shades
I am not sure if I found it but it only allows uninstall, not disable. Synaptics PS/2 Port TouchPad. "Sample rate 100 reports/second" can be modified. I can't uninstall if I'm not sure that's all that will be affected.
-holt
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The image above is taken from Windows Server 2012, but Windows XP has a similar window (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/308423). The link leads you to instructions (from Microsoft itself) on how to access this window in Windows XP. The section you need is called: Device Manager.
In there you can update drivers, remove drivers (Windows XP will try to re-install the next time you reboot) or disable the device (Windows XP won't try to re-install drivers).
But if you want to be absolutely sure, the main board in the laptop provides power to the device and you can disconnect that link. When you do that Windows won't even see the device anymore and you are sure not to be bothered anymore by the track pad. At all.
If you like the last option the most, you will need to find a way to open your laptop in a proper manner, so you can assemble it again. A brisk search revealed this document (http://tim.id.au/laptops/gateway/gateway%20convertible%20notebook%20cx200%20cx2000%20m280%20m285%20s-7200%20ta1%20ta6%20ta7.pdf) (pdf) that shows how to properly disassemble your Gateway laptop. Do the steps in reverse to assemble the laptop back into a working state. That manual might also give you an idea about properly mounting the plate that keeps falling off.
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http://superuser.com/questions/301013/how-does-touchpad-in-laptop-detect-a-tap?rq=1 (http://superuser.com/questions/301013/how-does-touchpad-in-laptop-detect-a-tap?rq=1)
I read this article, and after tapping harder on my touchpad a few times it seemed to wake up, and seems to be working better. I can scroll a page with the narrow right part that has up and down chevrons now; before, that never did anything but now it scrolls more like it should. So I think I'll play with it for awhile.
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As I hate track-pads with a passion, you won't see me use a laptop much. But when someone hands me one for repair, I will make sure to have an extra mouse. Even prefer a track-ball, joystick (how else do you call that thing in the center of Thinkpad keyboard) or keyboard navigation over the track-pad.
Hence I am quick with suggestions to disable track-pads in any way or form. ;) But, whatever works for you...works for you. :)
If you didn't do this already, I would still suggest to take a look at the pdf manual from my previous post. It shows you how to disassemble the laptop completely in the correct order and which tools you require. With that manual you should be able to do most, if not all, of the hardware maintenance your laptop requires in its technical lifespan.
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I'll check out your manual.
Just for grins; GATEWAY TA6 take apart, how-to video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr9S6-uuC1k) :D
PS - Where do people get that kind of energy?
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In there you can update drivers, remove drivers (Windows XP will try to re-install the next time you reboot)
-Shades
Interesting.
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A laminated business card held in place with Scotch invisible tape. So far, works fine; now if I can just stop flinching everytime I type something.
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Can someone please tell me where I can download a safe copy of Nero 7 Ultra?
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Can someone please tell me where I can download a safe copy of Nero 7 Ultra?
-holt
Buy the latest at http://www.nero.com or an outdated stock-item on www.ebay.com etc.
When in need of a free CD/DVD burning suite: use google to find any of the gazillion suites available.
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ImgBurn...that used to be my favorite burning software, back in the days I still used CDs/DVDs to store stuff on. Nowadays I only use pen drives and (portable) hard disks (and virtualized" tapes in my Bacula setup, but that is a whole different story). Much more convenient and faster too.
Nero 5.x was the last version of Nero I used for quite a long time actually. Way too much bloat in later versions of Nero steered me towards ImgBurn v2.5.2, which is the embodiment of 'lean and mean' software (3MByte in total). It is freeware and, as a bonus, it works as portable application too. Never looked back or for other burning software since.
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ImgBurn...that used to be my favorite burning software, back in the days I still used CDs/DVDs to store stuff on. Nowadays I only use pen drives and (portable) hard disks (and virtualized" tapes in my Bacula setup, but that is a whole different story). Much more convenient and faster too.
Nero 5.x was the last version of Nero I used for quite a long time actually. Way too much bloat in later versions of Nero steered me towards ImgBurn v2.5.2, which is the embodiment of 'lean and mean' software (3MByte in total). It is freeware and, as a bonus, it works as portable application too. Never looked back or for other burning software since.
-Shades
I presume ImgBurn does more than 'burn image files'. I own a purchased serial number to Nero 7 Ultra, and always liked it. I downloaded a copy, installed it perfectly, and it took up one-half gig. I tried to burn a copy of the download of it to disk, and got the error 'an exception has occurred' and 'out of memory', twice. I only have 25GB of free space left anyway, so I uninstalled it, and am thinking seriously about your 3MB ImgBurn suggestion.
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The last time I bought a flash or 'thumb' drive, I remember paying one dollar per gig. I just found out I can get a 512gb for $14 with free shipping on ebay. I recall there was a scam going on a few years ago with fake thumb drives, so I have to ask is this legit? My vintage laptop with its USB 2.0 ports would probably take a month to read or write all 512gb in one operation, but that would be the last thumb drive I would ever have to buy for my laptop.
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The last time I bought a flash or 'thumb' drive, I remember paying one dollar per gig. I just found out I can get a 512gb for $14 with free shipping on ebay.
-holt
how about a link to same?
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The last time I bought a flash or 'thumb' drive, I remember paying one dollar per gig. I just found out I can get a 512gb for $14 with free shipping on ebay.
-holt
how about a link to same?
-tomos
512GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive Metal Swivel High Speed Memory Stick Thumb Pen Gifts (http://www.ebay.com/itm/512GB-USB-2-0-Flash-Drive-Metal-Swivel-High-Speed-Memory-Stick-Thumb-Pen-Gifts-/181960533303?hash=item2a5db16537:g:xrIAAOSwNphWbZjH)
$13.66 & free shipping
512GB Mini Tiny USB 2.0 Flash Memory Stick Pen Drive Storage Thumb new hot !! (http://www.ebay.com/itm/512GB-Mini-Tiny-USB-2-0-Flash-Memory-Stick-Pen-Drive-Storage-Thumb-new-hot-/252245235184?hash=item3abafcd5f0:g:Q28AAOSwKtlWkpGI)
$12.90 & free shipping
I'm thinking of buying, and seeking opinions. The laptop I was given is about 10 years old, and only has USB 2.0 anyway, so it would be pointless to pay more for USB 3.0 or greater. I do wish to be warned if the offers may be bogus somehow, because a few years back there were bogus thumb drives being offered on ebay, but times change and the technology seems legit in this case.
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For only fourteen bucks it's a steal. Now I'm thinking, it's also about the time I would put in on this, and is there any option besides this anyone would like to suggest? Any other thumb drive?
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....(portable) hard disks (and virtualized" tapes....
-Shades
I'm not sure what you're referring to but it sounds interesting? Something that could be hooked up to a laptop?
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Portable hard disks (2.5 inch sized ones) would be a good deal for you. Those are available in lots of places, 1TByte and 2TByte models aren't that expensive (think in a 60 to 100 USD range) and usually much faster than a thumb drive, even on USB 2.0 ports.
Bacula is an extensive (Linux based) backup solution and its "Virtualized tapes" are in essence just big files on a hard disk in my case...which could be spooled to a real tape drive, if I had one of those still.
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512GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive Metal Swivel High Speed Memory Stick Thumb Pen Gifts (http://www.ebay.com/itm/512GB-USB-2-0-Flash-Drive-Metal-Swivel-High-Speed-Memory-Stick-Thumb-Pen-Gifts-/181960533303?hash=item2a5db16537:g:xrIAAOSwNphWbZjH)
$13.66 & free shipping
[..]
I'm thinking of buying, and seeking opinions. The laptop I was given is about 10 years old, and only has USB 2.0 anyway, so it would be pointless to pay more for USB 3.0 or greater. I do wish to be warned if the offers may be bogus somehow, because a few years back there were bogus thumb drives being offered on ebay, but times change and the technology seems legit in this case.
-holt
it's hard to believe they're real at that price, but I dont know :-/
The negative reviews the seller gets are all related to SD cards that dont have the advertised space:
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=haucn_oohce&iid=-1&de=off&items=25&which=negative&interval=180&_trkparms=negative_180
which would make me wary.
I suspect many people buy, see 512GB listed as size on PC and give positive feedback -- but AFAIK that can be 'fixed', and it's only when they run out of space @ 32GB or whatever, that they realise they've been conned.
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512GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive Metal Swivel High Speed Memory Stick Thumb Pen Gifts (http://www.ebay.com/itm/512GB-USB-2-0-Flash-Drive-Metal-Swivel-High-Speed-Memory-Stick-Thumb-Pen-Gifts-/181960533303?hash=item2a5db16537:g:xrIAAOSwNphWbZjH)
$13.66 & free shipping
[..]
I'm thinking of buying, and seeking opinions. The laptop I was given is about 10 years old, and only has USB 2.0 anyway, so it would be pointless to pay more for USB 3.0 or greater. I do wish to be warned if the offers may be bogus somehow, because a few years back there were bogus thumb drives being offered on ebay, but times change and the technology seems legit in this case.
-holt
it's hard to believe they're real at that price, but I dont know :-/
The negative reviews the seller gets are all related to SD cards that dont have the advertised space:
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=haucn_oohce&iid=-1&de=off&items=25&which=negative&interval=180&_trkparms=negative_180
which would make me wary.
I suspect many people buy, see 512GB listed as size on PC and give positive feedback -- but AFAIK that can be 'fixed', and it's only when they run out of space @ 32GB or whatever, that they realise they've been conned.
-tomos
I can hardly believe my eyes, but you're right. It's the same con. A ripoff, the reviews tell all (http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=haucn_oohce&iid=-1&de=off&items=25&which=negative&interval=180&_trkparms=negative_180):
//--PC shows it is 256GB but it's not able to hold that much-FAKE, do not buy.
--Memory card does not work...beware of low price
--Works only to 10G!
//
Imagine that.
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Well, as usual when the price is too good to be true: it probably is :huh:
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Well, as usual when the price is too good to be true: it probably is :huh:
-Ath
...even in ebay, with a trusted seller of alleged good repute, who is actually a ripoff con artist.
My freebie ten year old laptop came with on-board dvd burning software known as Cyberlink Power2Go, with a UI that looks a lot like Nero 7 layout. The laptop lacks sufficient memory (2GB) to run Nero, so I uninstalled Nero, but wanted to save it to a dvd I have, titled 'downloads'. I finally got daring enough to try burning my 190MB Nero download to that dvd. Power2Go ran almost like Nero, took 10 minutes to burn to dvd, and 'failed'. The entire laptop OS locked. I finally had to power off by holding on the power button until it shut down the OS. On reboot, the laptop tried to read the dvd and went into a continuous loop feedback. I powered off with the power button again, and used a straightened paper clip to manually eject the now-toxic dvd, which went straight into the 'circular file' (waste paper basket). On reboot, the laptop took an extra 5 minutes to reach desktop, but recovered. I went online and found out how to create a restore point in XP and ran it.
I guess I'll try ImgBurn next.
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I downloaded ImgBurn from the official website (http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download), and my anti-virus triggered a warning for a 'pup' or 'potentially unwanted program', named -of all things- PUP-FCA. Google has no info. Can anyone please advise. Thanks.
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My AV (Symantec) just gave a warning about it containing OpenCandy, but that's relatively harmless. I tried the ImgBurn provided mirror, btw, maybe other mirrors trigger the warning based on their hostname?
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My AV (Symantec) just gave a warning about it containing OpenCandy, but that's relatively harmless. I tried the ImgBurn provided mirror, btw, maybe other mirrors trigger the warning based on their hostname?
-Ath
Thanks. After I install ImgBurn, I'll just run Malwarebytes and a few other anti-pup scans to do a general pup cleanup.
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My AV (Symantec) just gave a warning about it containing OpenCandy, but that's relatively harmless. I tried the ImgBurn provided mirror, btw, maybe other mirrors trigger the warning based on their hostname?
-Ath
Thanks. After I install ImgBurn, I'll just run Malwarebytes and a few other anti-pup scans to do a general pup cleanup.
-holt
when installing, just be careful:
read each dialog window carefully, make sure to avoid installing any additional toolbars or software (sometimes it can be done/phrased sneakily). Generally, that's enough (with opencandy at any rate).
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That's very good advice, and thanks. I'm thinking of -or strongly tempted anyway- to make a separate post, titled something like "McAfee's Nasty Little Secret" or words to that effect. I had purchased a McAfee Key Code card from a non-McAfee vendor who advertised it for a cut-rate price as 'compatible with Windows XP', and found out it didn't cover Windows XP, and refused to install. McAfee's hot line chat representative, after I courteously explained my predicament and showed my proof of purchase with a genuine McAfee Key Code serial number, 'made good' and very nicely set me up with a valid subscription that works with Windows XP.
But in the process, I learned that McAfee normally requires your credit card number as part of the Key Code validation/authentication process, and sets you up for automatic renewal the NEXT time around (1 year later) at full retail price (and very exorbitant). I somehow circumvented and skirted past this little high-pressure sales gambit this time, because of my product Key Code problem; the chat rep validated me differently and didn't ask me to crank in a credit card number.
But NEXT time I need to renew, 1 year from now, I am forewarned in advance what McAfee's game plan will be; "Give us your credit card number, and agree to automatic renewal charges in advance (at McAfee's exploitive online website full retail price), or we won't let you register THIS time." That's quite a surprise, and nobody gets advance warning of it until they go to register what they've already purchased, even if elsewhere such as from an Ebay or Amazon.com reseller first. I royally dread advance purchase agreements like that, especially compulsory ones, and most especially surprise compulsory ones. NEXT time, I will know what to expect, and I don't think I will be purchasing McAfee no matter how nice their product is. I do not like that kind of sales approach.
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I royally dread advance purchase agreements like that, especially compulsory ones, and most especially surprise compulsory ones. NEXT time, I will know what to expect, and I don't think I will be purchasing McAfee no matter how nice their product is. I do not like that kind of sales approach.
-holt
Yeah, ironically, you need to be even more careful of the big names, than of the smaller ones...
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I royally dread advance purchase agreements like that, especially compulsory ones, and most especially surprise compulsory ones. NEXT time, I will know what to expect, and I don't think I will be purchasing McAfee no matter how nice their product is. I do not like that kind of sales approach.
-holt
Yeah, ironically, you need to be even more careful of the big names, than of the smaller ones...
-tomos
I just finished reading every post and link in the Topic: Is Windows 10 a trojan? (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=41439.0) thread; and I thought I had problems.
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^ ;D
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I like this external hard drive case (http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-5-Inch-USB-3-0-External-Sata-Hard-Drive-External-Case-Enclosure-Silver-Durabl-/361141106256?hash=item5415aff650:g:ZjMAAOxyc2pTX2UV). But I read somewhere, some cases will power down the drive when not in actual data transfer mode; is that something I should look for to prolong hard drive life, and can someone please comment, or even show me a link to one?
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Yes, HD's power down after a certain threshold of inactivity is reached. Using a portable HD case that comes with its own power supply, this threshold is larger than than with a portable HD that draws power from the USB port it is connected to.
And I don't think it is bad to assume the threshold for each type of portable HD varies when connected to a desktop or a laptop. In principle, a desktop has less problems sustaining the portable HD that draws power from USB than a laptop does. Mainly because the power supply in a desktop is much "beefier" than the power supply of a laptop.
If a portable HD with its own power supply is used with a laptop, it will put much less strain on the laptop and as a result the threshold could be increased.
One more thing to consider: the threshold will also be affected as well by the power saving settings of either the desktop or the laptop.
Prolonging life of a hard disk...that is an interesting subject, invoking much debate.
For me (running servers and desktops 24/7) it is important to keep hard disk in their "comfort zone", meaning: between 35 and 45 degrees Celsius operating temperature, dust free and using philosophies to reduce writing/reading wherever I can. Yes, trusting the NTFS file system to do that for you is...not smart. This is me, being politically correct here. In case you are interested, see other threads here in the forum how I really feel about this subject.
Just know that powering up any hard disk is quite taxing for that device. So you want to prevent that as much as possible. If you are going to turn it off, leave it of for a significant amount of time. If you continuously power down/power up a hard disk you will wear it out much quicker than have it running all the time. All of the above is valid for spinning hard disks...SSD hard disks are a completely different type of beast.
Come to think of it...if you are still running XP on your laptop, you should check with a tool such as Minitool Partition Wizard (free/commercial) to check if the partition(s) on your hard disk are aligned. If that is not the case, I suggest you let that software fix that for your laptop. That is a job that can take all day, depending on the size of your hard disk and the amount of data that is stored on it. It is also essential to keep your laptop connected to reliable power grid for as long as this procedure takes. Afterwards you will notice a 5 to 15% gain of general speed, because writing/reading to your hard disk has been reduced significantly.
Modern version of Windows already take care of aligning the partition(s), but XP and older didn't.
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Yes, HD's power down after a certain threshold of inactivity is reached. Using a portable HD case that comes with its own power supply, this threshold is larger than than with a portable HD that draws power from the USB port it is connected to.
And I don't think it is bad to assume the threshold for each type of portable HD varies when connected to a desktop or a laptop. In principle, a desktop has less problems sustaining the portable HD that draws power from USB than a laptop does. Mainly because the power supply in a desktop is much "beefier" than the power supply of a laptop.
If a portable HD with its own power supply is used with a laptop, it will put much less strain on the laptop and as a result the threshold could be increased.
One more thing to consider: the threshold will also be affected as well by the power saving settings of either the desktop or the laptop.
Prolonging life of a hard disk...that is an interesting subject, invoking much debate.
For me (running servers and desktops 24/7) it is important to keep hard disk in their "comfort zone", meaning: between 35 and 45 degrees Celsius operating temperature, dust free and using philosophies to reduce writing/reading wherever I can. Yes, trusting the NTFS file system to do that for you is...not smart. This is me, being politically correct here. In case you are interested, see other threads here in the forum how I really feel about this subject.
Just know that powering up any hard disk is quite taxing for that device. So you want to prevent that as much as possible. If you are going to turn it off, leave it of for a significant amount of time. If you continuously power down/power up a hard disk you will wear it out much quicker than have it running all the time. All of the above is valid for spinning hard disks...SSD hard disks are a completely different type of beast.
Come to think of it...if you are still running XP on your laptop, you should check with a tool such as Minitool Partition Wizard (free/commercial) to check if the partition(s) on your hard disk are aligned. If that is not the case, I suggest you let that software fix that for your laptop. That is a job that can take all day, depending on the size of your hard disk and the amount of data that is stored on it. It is also essential to keep your laptop connected to reliable power grid for as long as this procedure takes. Afterwards you will notice a 5 to 15% gain of general speed, because writing/reading to your hard disk has been reduced significantly.
Modern version of Windows already take care of aligning the partition(s), but XP and older didn't.
-Shades
Thank you, it is very much appreciated!
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Familiarizing myself with MiniTool Partition Wizard (so I wouldn't bug you so much), I found this; The Difference Between Basic and Dynamic Hard Disks (http://www.onlinecomputertips.com/pc-hardware/basic_dynamic.html), "Dynamic disks are not supported on laptop computers." All this is a little over my head, but I note this because my computer is a laptop with Windows XP Tablet and a 100GB SSD hard drive. The external drive case (http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-5-Inch-USB-3-0-External-Sata-Hard-Drive-External-Case-Enclosure-Silver-Durabl-/361141106256?hash=item5415aff650:g:ZjMAAOxyc2pTX2UV) which I'm thinking of getting, is to hold a 500GB platter type 7400 RPM SATA hard drive.
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External drive case looks fine enough. Alignment is what you should check first. For a very brief explanation visit this link (http://www.overclock.net/t/1226963/how-to-properly-re-align-your-ssd-hdd-partitions).
For a much more detailed explanation, that uses an image to clarify what the aligning problem is, visit this link (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Format#4Kn).
The first link also tells you what you need to do to check and/or fix it with several different pieces of software, including Minitool Partition Wizard. Please, do follow the advice about making a backup of your data before attempting to fix a problem with your hard disk. There is always a (minute) chance something fails and it is better to be prepared. Now that I know you have an SSD hard disk, it is unlikely you will have this problem, but it doesn't hurt to check it anyway.
Depending on how much partitions you are comfortable with, I wouldn't bother too much with basic and dynamic disks. Most, if not all, partition software can deal with basic disks. Although dynamic disks are around for quite some time, there could be a problem finding a freeware piece of software that can help you with fixing a situation in the future. Finding such software for basic disks is much less of a hassle. Speed-wise there won't be too much difference between a basic and dynamic disk.
Dynamic disks can be problematic in laptops, so I really would keep it as simple as possible.
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Familiarizing myself with MiniTool Partition Wizard (so I wouldn't bug you so much), I found this; The Difference Between Basic and Dynamic Hard Disks (http://www.onlinecomputertips.com/pc-hardware/basic_dynamic.html), "Dynamic disks are not supported on laptop computers." All this is a little over my head, but I note this because my computer is a laptop with Windows XP Tablet and a 100GB SSD hard drive. The external drive case (http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-5-Inch-USB-3-0-External-Sata-Hard-Drive-External-Case-Enclosure-Silver-Durabl-/361141106256?hash=item5415aff650:g:ZjMAAOxyc2pTX2UV) which I'm thinking of getting, is to hold a 500GB platter type 7400 RPM SATA hard drive.
-holt
After weeks of waiting, the slow boat from China arrived and so did my external drive case. I'm surprised at the speed of data transfer; evidently USB 3.0 is pretty fast, and it was my old thumb drive that was the slow poke. I plan to familiarize myself with the external drive setup, and then figure out how to create a clone backup of the laptop drive OS in a secondary partition on the external drive. Somewhere down the line, then to address your suggestion of aligning the laptop's SSD drive. The external drive and USB 3.0 connection are really quite fast.
I can't figure out how to instruct MWB to scan the external drive. Does it do that automatically only after doing C:?
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Using EASE US Partition Master, I deleted all old partitions on my external HD in a USB case, wiped the drive, and then clone-copied the laptop drive to the external drive.
Result; fail to boot from external HD OS clone.
I ran Lazesoft boot recovery tool to create a bootable recovery CD, and ran it.
Result; fail to boot from external HD OS clone.
I wanted a backup copy of my laptop HD OS. At least I didn't screw up the laptop.
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From your previous posts I understood that your laptop is an old one, so it is not a given that is able to boot from USB. Even if it is able to, the BIOS in your laptop could be configured in such a way that only a subset of USB devices (keyboard, mouse, pen drive) is allowed to boot from. Computer manufacturers do this to make their computers boot faster. Most modern computers allow you to change this behavior, but not all of them.
Is your laptop able to boot from a portable hard disk on any USB port? That would be my first question if you insist on booting from a portable hard disk. Even if you manage to boot from an external hard disk...it makes use of the USB port, which is in each and every case much, much slower than the internal SATA port which the internal hard disk uses.
In other words, if you think your laptop is slow with the internal hard disk, with USB based external devices it will become like the slow nephew of a snail. Or, if you need a visual: USB would be a the size of a drinking straw, SATA would be the size of a garden hose, PCI Express would have the size of the sewage pipe that connects your house to the main sewage system. Imagine data to be water and guess which will be faster moving water in the shortest amount of time.
External devices are ideal for simply creating a backup rather quickly...but using it as a boot device? Only for (re-)installing the operating system, nothing more.
A backup in my book is a copy of a file that is not stored on the computer it normally resides. Nothing more, nothing less.
What you can do still is turn the laptop completely off, removing its hard disk, open the enclosure of the external hard disk, remove the hard disk from the enclosure and connect it to the laptop, close the laptop. If the clone action went well, the laptop should boot normally.
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I wanted a backup copy of my laptop HD OS.
-holt
it's getting late here, but I think one of these would be the most practical:
# image backup of OS + boot CD (or USB) via same software, for restoring to your current OS drive (or a replacement of same)
# as you are trying to do in quoted post: copy onto a drive with which you can replace the current OS drive (as Shades says, you would have to remove current drive and replace with copy)
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External devices are ideal for simply creating a backup rather quickly...but using it as a boot device? Only for (re-)installing the operating system, nothing more.
-Shades
Thank you, Shades and Tomos. Yes, the above quote is exactly what I am aiming for.
I read that SSD HDs give no warning when they brick, and as mentioned, my laptop SSD is already quite old. I appreciate your water hose analogy, and offer another; a spare tire. If my SSD dies, I was hoping to be able to just boot from the external SATA USB, go online to get me a replacement SSD, re-copy the SATA USB clone onto the new internal SSD, and continue to reserve the external SATA as a backup spare copy of the OS.
The BIOS does offer the Boot options to boot from external USB hard drive, thumb drive, or disk. But so far, although I copied the OS to the external SATA USB HD, it just won't boot from it. So if my internal SSD ever dies, how am I supposed to save my OS which is loaded with the accumulated sum total of untold hours and days of hard work?
I did see where Seagate offers a sort of 'kit' consisting of a new SSD plus the necessary peripherals to clone your OS from your old internal SSD somehow, but forget the details, and don't have the money to get it (for now anyways). I also got burned by Seagate a while back with a whiny new HD which I returned to them, and they returned to me, and which eventually died prematurely just outside of warranty after a whiny abbreviated lifespan; so I'm not prejudiced, but they did burn me once.
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I wanted a backup copy of my laptop HD OS.
-holt
it's getting late here, but I think one of these would be the most practical:
# image backup of OS + boot CD (or USB) via same software, for restoring to your current OS drive (or a replacement of same)
# as you are trying to do in quoted post: copy onto a drive with which you can replace the current OS drive (as Shades says, you would have to remove current drive and replace with copy)
-tomos
Hmm; #1 option above; boot from a CD, and somehow copy the backup OS from the external SATA USB to a new internal SSD. The big question to me is, if an OS clone won't boot from an external SATA USB, how do I know if it will boot from the cloned backup OS after I re-copy it onto a new internal SSD? I would feel a lot more confident if it would at least give me a bootable OS on the external SATA USB drive, which is only intended to act as a 'spare tire' if or when my current internal 8 or 10 year old hand-me-down laptop's SSD ever dies.
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^ AFAIK the only way to really check it is (again, as Shades says) to actually replace the current internal SSD with your copy - boot and see if it works.
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As far as I know you bought the external enclosure and the hard disk that goes in it separately. That means it should be easy to open/close the external enclosure for you to add/replace the hard disk inside the enclosure.
The service manual for your laptop I linked to in a previous post should help you with the replacement of the internal hard disk, if that is of concern to you.
If there is no budget for a new laptop/PC, it is always a good idea to get acquainted with the service manual of the laptop/PC you do have.
Generally, replacing the internal hard disk of a laptop isn't difficult. Often there is a cover with one or two screws and/or a slide button that keeps the internal hard in it's place. Once the cover is removed, most of the time you see a plastic lip that makes it easy to slip the hard disk out of the SATA connector and that is all it takes to remove the internal hard disk. Reverse the steps with the hard disk you took from the external enclosure and you can boot the laptop to verify if the cloning process worked or not.
Exact specifics you'll find in your laptop's service manual. From what I remember, it is a very clear manual, using step by step instructions and lots of images along the way.
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@holt: Just reading through this thread to refresh my memory, I wondered about several things mentioned:
USB: The laptop has a USB port. You have connected this to a hard disk drive in an enclosure which supports USB 3.0.
The spec at http://gatewaycomputers.wikia.com/wiki/CX2720 doesn't mention USB at all, but it does mention Fastwire. It might be helpful if you posted the actual spec of your particular model of this laptop to a separate page on that wikia.com site, so we could all see it, and other people may be able to benefit from it too.
In any event, connecting a USB 3.0 device to a USB 2.0 port will result in data transfer rates that are considerably lower than USB 3.0 rates, and certainly not above the max rate enabled by USB 2.0. That is, though USB 3.0 is backwards compatible with USB 2.0, it cannot accelerate data transfer rates beyond the constraints/limits of USB 2.0.
AntiVirus: You appear to have opted for a $paid AV program. I would strongly recommend that you remove it and install Microsoft Security Essentials (discussed/reviewed elsewhere on DC Forum) - which is $free to personal users and which has a very good engine that makes it the de facto choice for IT network engineers supporting high security commercial network installations - e.g., in banks. Furthermore, MSE continues to be rigorously supported and updated by Microsoft, to contend with any newly-discovered attacks. So, though Microsoft don't support XP any longer, they still support MSE (which post-dates XP anyway).
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Thank you everyone. I need to mention I've been pretty sick lately, but can't say more. I'm taking it one day at a time.
Looking things over at ebay, I think it might be about as cheap to just get another complete used but serviceable Gateway TA-6 or -7 laptop; as to get just a new or used SSD for this one. I also see a few other models, MA-6, and so on. Then I'm not just acquiring a backup laptop HD, but the whole gizmo. The only other concern I have for now is that our microwave oven just died, and I had to reprioratize and order a new one, and put all my laptop ideas on the back burner for a little while.
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The hard drives are different incompatible sizes.