Messages

51

Living Room / Re: Help - not sure what happened but windows seems to be hosed

« on: January 28, 2018, 07:04 AM »

OK Seem to have got Windows 7 up again.

No idea how - I did another CHKDSK from Windows 10 and no errors showed up. I ran an SFC check on the Windows 7 installation from Windows 10 (using OFFBOOT options) and no errors showed up.

Restarted and it started as normal.

Having said that I have 32Gb of RAM installed and it is currently using around 25% of it - all I am doing is browsing and running a virus scan (neither of which have increased RAM usage more than 2%)

The two largest processes are instances svchost.exe (553Mb and 240Mb) - which looks like a lot to me. I checked Windows update and there are no updates pending or happening in the background.

Anyone any idea how to figure out where 8Gb RAM is going?

I ran a full Malwarebytes scan (no detections) and am running a full virus scan - so far nothing.

I am usually quite good at figuring out this sort of stuff but this has me confused.

52

Living Room / Help - not sure what happened but windows seems to be hosed

« on: January 27, 2018, 09:37 PM »

Hi

Sorry not been around for ages - wonder if anyone has any ideas

Yesterday Windows got really slow, and ran out of system RAM (all 32Gb) and I have no idea why as I wasn't running anything unusual.

I tried to restart but it froze so I forced a restart and it got passed the usual Windows 7 start up screen but not to the desktop. I just ended up with a blank screen.

I have run CHKDSK and it comes up with no errors. I tried to start Windows in Safe Mode but it scrolls through the usual drivers, the hard disk is chuntering but it doesn't seem to go any further.

The problem is my system is dual booting Windows 10 and Windows 7 - when I try to boot from a windows 7 repair disk it says the wrong version of windows is installed.

Any ideas how to get in to repair the windows 7 installation? There is no 'Repair this computer" in the advanced startup screen for windows 7 in the dual boot menu.

I am currently seeing this from the Windows 10 installation. Files on the Windows 7 side appear to be fine

53

Living Room / Re: Can you hear this silent GIF?

« on: December 07, 2017, 06:42 PM »

Yes 

Oddly I could still hear it when I closed the page - does this make me weird?

54

DC Website Help and Extras / Re: Official CMS Migration Progress Thread - September 2017

« on: September 29, 2017, 08:17 AM »

No worries, we're sticking with smf, just like you're sticking with the cello! 

-mouser (September 28, 2017, 07:42 PM)

LOL - pretty much joined at the hip with the cello these days 

55

DC Website Help and Extras / Re: Official CMS Migration Progress Thread - September 2017

« on: September 28, 2017, 04:32 PM »

Hey Carol!
Yeah, that's not a bad idea..

Though I think I have a pretty good solution in place with some custom extensions I've written (I've enjoyed writing joomla extensions).
With my approach the page content of parent pages is dynamically generated from the menu structure, to yield parent pages that look like those shown here.
Perhaps the nicest thing about this approach is that if pages are added and moved around, those parent pages are automatically always up to date.

-mouser (September 27, 2017, 03:09 PM)

Nice

Whatever you do don't be tempted by the Kunena forum software (flippin' nighmare!!) - keep is as a separate thing with a matching theme!

56

DC Website Help and Extras / Re: Official CMS Migration Progress Thread - September 2017

« on: September 26, 2017, 03:32 PM »

Sorry just saw this thread ...

Glad you are liking Joomla

What I have been doing is using a combo of drop  down and cascading vertical menus

Check out www.tanyaanisimova.com and look in the Tanya and Sheet Music Menus

57

Living Room / Re: Stumped - can anyone help? Laptop drive issue

« on: June 27, 2017, 11:52 AM »

Finally sorted it out - the drive was inaccessible on other computers because I had to change the share settings on the drive and then all the permissions. Never seen this happen before.

All very odd.

The drive appears in windows on the laptop - just not outside the installed version of windows - also very odd?

Anyway after a lot of swearing and too many hours he has a working computer again!

Thanks everyone for the suggestions xx

58

Living Room / Re: Stumped - can anyone help? Laptop drive issue

« on: June 24, 2017, 08:17 PM »

Not sure if it helps, but you could try to use a piece of software, called: PartitionGuru.  It comes as feature limited freeware, but it might help you to access the data of the drive when you take it out of the laptop, into a dock connected to your computer.

As you say, the drive is correctly recognized by the Windows management software, but won't allow you access. Software, such as PartitionGuru, might give you that access as it can circumvent standard Windows controls. Perhaps it could be an idea to use a linux liveCD to access the data from that docked drive. If you can't beat Windows into submission with Windows based tools, liveCD's might provide the proper (read-only) stick. It all depends on how the data access is locked.

The advantage of this is that you won't have to open the laptop in ways you are not comfortable with. Still, if you are able to clone the disk first, do so. And use the tools and skills of your choice on the cloned copy.

-Shades (June 24, 2017, 02:16 AM)

Thanks - will give that a go if I need to

I did a Duckgo search of "Windows does not allow access to a USB hard drive", and came up with several hits. This one looked interesting (and reminded me of when I went and deleted some obscure settings about USB drives in the registry, when a single USB port on a laptop couldn't access a perfectly OK USB hard drive):

Windows 7 - Notices but does not 'see' external usb hard drive
I upgraded from Vista Home Premium SP2 (32Bit) to Windows 7 Home Premium (32Bit) and after the upgrade my external usb hard drive can not be seen. The system notices it when it is plugged in and/or powered on but does not show it under My Computer or any other drive display option.

I have seen other posts about this all without a solution- could I have missed the solution - if so please forgive this posting and please point me in the right direction.
If there hasn't been a solution posted and you know how to solve this issue I am very interested.
The Windows 7 Hardware Compatibility indicates this drive is supported and the upgrade advisor did not object to it.
Thanks ...
...
Resolved:
The resolution was to:

• Plug in and turn on the external USB hard drive
• Right mouse click on My Computer
• Left click on Manage
• Left click on Device Manager
• Expand the USB list
• Find the USB device for your USB Hard Drive (in my case it was the one that had no description)
• Right mouse click - Uninstall
• Turn off the external USB hard drive
• Turn on the external USB hard drive and let it find and install the driver
• It should work

Lionel B. Dyck
_____________________

Not sure whether it will help.

-IainB (June 24, 2017, 10:43 AM)

No because I am not looking for it in Windows - I am using WindowsPE (basically a Live CD of Windows 7) which works fine with USB disks on other computers not just on this laptop. I figured it must be a BIOS setting but either I can't see it or it is hidden??? The BIOS allows boot from a USB HD - but I can't see how if it doesn't pick up there is a drive plugged in.



The drive I am fiddling with is 500Gb so I have order a 1TB replacement which gives me plenty of space to fiddle with - hopefully!!

59

Living Room / Re: Stumped - can anyone help? Laptop drive issue

« on: June 23, 2017, 04:32 PM »

I have tried connecting the laptop drive to a desktop computer - Drive is listed as healthy and given a drive letter but won't load - the only thing I can think of is cloning it and trying to deal with it on the orginial laptop

60

Living Room / Re: Stumped - can anyone help? Laptop drive issue

« on: June 23, 2017, 02:22 PM »

The path of least resistance would seem to be making a backup of the laptop drive using the laptop, using a cd-based backup tool at boot time, and a usb stick or an external usb dock/drive, and then telling client to replace the hard drive.
With the cost of hard drives, my advice would ALWAYS be, at the very first sign of trouble that has even a 1% chance of being hard drive related, is to backup the hard drive, then replace it and put the original on the shelf.

-mouser (June 23, 2017, 01:26 PM)

I'd love to do that but given that it won't recognise a USB drive to backup 

61

Living Room / Re: Stumped - can anyone help? Laptop drive issue

« on: June 23, 2017, 01:11 PM »

I decided the best approach was to rip out the disk - plug it into another computer and backup the data before putting it back and doing a factory restore.

Seems like the right approach to me..  Or else plug in an external drive to the laptop and clone the internal hd -- which sounds like what you were trying to do next..

OK I plugged numerous USB drives into the computer and none of them show up in the BIOS or in Paragon - reloading the disk tables doesn't find the USB drives either.

So are you saying that essentially -- your desktop couldn't read the laptop drive when plugged into a usb dock connected to the desktop, AND the laptop refused to see any external usb doc drives?

-mouser (June 23, 2017, 10:14 AM)

Yes the laptop drive can't be read on my desktop and no USB drives show up on the laptop - and all the drives seem to work otherwise.

I have used USB 2 and 3 drives on the laptop (it has 4 USB ports 3 x USB3 and 1 x USB2).

I have a drive cloning station so in theory I could clone the orginal drive onto a larger hard disk and them maybe create a new partition in the spare space and copy the data over. All feels a bit like hard work and it is all time - at what point do you say this is beyond economic repair - get a backup next time!

Is there a CD/DVD player in the laptop using a SATA connector?

If so, you can use an external (and separately powered) USB dock that allows you to connect it with a standard SATA cable. I got one of those from an U.S. embassy auction sale (a bi-annual thing here in Paraguay) and it works well.

That way you can connect 2 drives on the laptop and start cloning to have a backup.

Disadvantage is that you will likely need to open the laptop. Depending on make and model, that could be a damaging operation. With that I mean too "plasticky" laptops don't close up nicely anymore after they have been opened.

-Shades (June 23, 2017, 11:57 AM)

I suppose that might be the only other option but I am reluctant is is pretty flimsy and there is no guarantee I can get at the SATA connector without having to strip away all the plastics and maybe even have to remove the motherboard - don't really fancy that without a disassembly manual.

62

Living Room / Stumped - can anyone help? Laptop drive issue

« on: June 23, 2017, 07:49 AM »

Hi

I have been given a laptop to sort out. It was crashing out during windows 7 pro startup to a blue screen.

The drive had surface errors which chkdsk repaired, on restarting Windows Repair loaded and checked the hard disk again.

It then starts windows but gets to a black screen with a mouse pointer and no further (same in Safe Mode). I have also tried last good configuration.

I decided the best approach was to rip out the disk - plug it into another computer and backup the data before putting it back and doing a factory restore.

This is where the real fun starts:

On my desktop Disk Manager assigns a drive letter and marks the partition healthy but when I try to open the drive is says Access Denied. I expected this on the data folders but this is the whole partition and gives no option to go further.

I plugged it back in the laptop and went into the recovery console command prompt and can read the partition fine.

I ran Paragon's Disk Management tools from CD and the drive shows up - I can see and copy the files - so the drive isn't bitlockered.

OK I plugged numerous USB drives into the computer and none of them show up in the BIOS or in Paragon - reloading the disk tables doesn't find the USB drives either.

Anyone any idea how to get a USB drive to be recognised - the BIOS has USB legacy enabled, I have tried USB 2 and 3 sockets, it doesn't have secure boote enabled or any other security measures that I can see enabled.

Failing that any idea how to access the drive via a USB adapter on my desktop?

I don't like giving up but I am stumped!!!

63

General Software Discussion / Re: Malwarebytes 3.0 out

« on: June 08, 2017, 06:20 AM »

Vienal, welcome to the forum.  I've used and highly recommended Malwarebytes for years.  And I'm still very happy with version 2.  In theory, version 3 sounds like it has a lot going for it, but the feedback on the Malwarebytes forum and elsewhere has made me wary of upgrading.  Although some folks here and on the MBAM forum have said that the newest update seems to have cured the problems they'd been experiencing, others are apparently still having problems.  I tend to be conservative in these matters.  I'm usually in no hurry to install new software until I feel confident that I have more to gain than to lose.   But I'm still very very happy with Malwarebytes version 2.  I know of no similar program I like as well.

-cyberdiva (February 15, 2017, 12:16 PM)

I can confirm I had a lot of problems with the early 3.0 versions (mainly starting up on switch on or restart). Recent versions seem to have fixed that and it runs smoothly now. Worth having for the anti-hijack and anti-rootkit features IMHO.

64

Living Room / Re: [Breaking News] Cyber Attack cripples UK NHS.

« on: May 21, 2017, 05:10 PM »

Seems to work reading the comments - I think MS is still supplying updates to XP running on POS terminals until 2019 - and the hack makes MS think you have a POS terminal - I suspect you need to be selective in the updates you install. Once guy said MS gave him 128 updates after the registry addition.

65

Activation/License/Language Help / Re: WHAT LICENSE KEY ? LOAD OF CRAP

« on: May 19, 2017, 08:20 PM »

^^^ What he said (but you don't get a halo) 

66

Activation/License/Language Help / Re: WHAT LICENSE KEY ? LOAD OF CRAP

« on: May 19, 2017, 08:50 AM »

Haven't enjoyed a thread so much for a while - Mouser you are a saint 

67

Living Room / Re: [Breaking News] Cyber Attack cripples UK NHS.

« on: May 18, 2017, 06:19 AM »

Windows XP support isn't the issue - it is available and this could have been avoided by governments and corporations making responsible decisions to get support for their ageing systems.

The big problem with the NHS is that when our current PM was Home Secretary she blocked the funding necessary to maintain secure systems by upgrading or paying MS for beyond EOL support (as the US military do!!!). The potential security risks were well known and the government repeatedly warned but they closed their ears.

There has been a lot of comment in the UK about the NHS being irresponsible in their attitude to IT security and data safety but really the fault lies squarely at government's door. There is centralised, national procuement contracts to commission bespoke software (which presumably won't run properly on Windows 10) and as always whenever government get involved in national databases scandals and incompetence follow.

What I really don't understand is why are government databases being run on consumer level Windows based software - surely a more secure system would be available by contracting out to Linux or other less targeted systems - the open source nature means it can be customised and hardened to make it work effectively and securely and at a fraction of the cost?

68

Living Room / Windows 10 S - anyone surprised?

« on: May 15, 2017, 06:42 AM »

A worrying development - but is anyone actually surprised?

I wrote the following to explain it to a non-tech-savvy friend ...

Basically it boils down to new computers later this year will be supplied with a new version of Windows 10 called Windows 10S.

The upshot to this is that you wan't be able to install any programmes unless you buy them from Microsoft.

So you want to download a free programme from the internet like LibreOffice (an excellent free alternativeto Microsofts expensive Office package) - well tough you can't ... unless the developers of that free software PAY Microsoft to put it into their store - and how many people writing free software can afford to do that.

Another example - you go out and buy a new printer - let's hope the printer manufacturer have paid Microsoft to include the software that makes the printer work in their store or you won't be able to use it.

Of course there is a way to overcome this - everyone that buys a new computer with Windows 10S PAYS Microsoft a fee to unlock the computer to get a proper version of windows that lets you do what you want!!!

I predicted when Microsoft offered free upgrades to Windows 10 that they would find a way to charge.

My guess is that they will upgrade the free versions to Windows S and then you wil have to pay them to unlock it again. And at some point they will upgrade to a version that requires an annual subscription.

69

Living Room / Re: [Breaking News] Cyber Attack cripples UK NHS.

« on: May 14, 2017, 08:18 PM »

NSA does what National Security Agencies do - I'm appalled at how they're doing mass surveillance of honest citizens, but NSA doing offensive malware research is not a problem - the bugs were there, it's only a matter of time before somebody found and exploited them.

-f0dder (May 14, 2017, 11:12 AM)

It isn't malware research - they actually produced the malware that was used by the hackers. As far as I am aware they weren't reporting the security issue to MS but rather keeping it quiet so that they could illegally exploit it themselves.

The UK government is arguing that GCHQ should have the tools to access anyone's computer, browsing history, email (basically ANYTHING you do online) as a matter of law and expecting companies including MS and Apple to hand over sufficient info to allow them to do that. They even want methods to break online encryption used for shopping.

So far American companies have resisted but UK ISPs are already forced to hold data on every customer for 2 years - including all the above data.

In the US the NSA & Co seem to have a carte blanche to do anything they want without any sort of scrutiny or oversight. If they can't get legal access to things they just build tools to hack them.

As for funding issue, that's both yes and no, up until very recently - and in some cases still - bank ATMs and commercial POS ran XP ....  at multi million and sometimes billion companies. Not restricted to government entities.

-rgdot (May 14, 2017, 10:17 AM)

For commercial companies that is bordering on criminal negligence.

For government funded bodies like the NHS it is a political decision. The current (and last) UK government actively wants to destroy the NHS. The secretary of state for health even wrote a book arguing it should be scrapped and based on private insurance and we know how well that works in the US!!! The non-funding of IT maintenance and upgrades was a political decision which not only verges on the criminal but given that the public have been put at risk and confidential data that should be protected potentially leaked (nobody actually knows if data has been stolen) it is actually criminal because they have not taken steps to comply with their own data protection legislation/laws.

70

Living Room / Re: [Breaking News] Cyber Attack cripples UK NHS.

« on: May 14, 2017, 08:25 AM »

It is the faults of the UK and US governments primarily.

It is the US governments fault for legislating that the NSA can snoop on American citizens that ultimately got stolen by/leaked to hackers (which everyone knows is inevitable) - this is going to happen more oftne inthe US and UK and we should all be railing against the decimation of our rights and privacy as citizens.

It is the UK's fault to refusing to fund the necessary upgrades to computer hardware/software in the NHS. It isn't by negligence but a decision not to fund.

When the NHS were building integrated infrastructure across all branches of the NHS everyone knew this would be an inevitable result - to be honest I am surprised it took so long!!

71

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 update screwed dual boot system - STUMPED!!

« on: May 01, 2017, 06:28 AM »

Sorry I am being dense but I didn't follow most of that - both installations were on MBR format disks.

I currently have 6 hard disks in my system plus an SSD drive (Disk 0 - still labelled Win7ProSSD because I never got round to changing the label to Windows 10)



They are all MBR disks apart from Disk 5 - which is a 3Tb data GPT drive

The system currently books from disk 1 (which was the first drive to have windows installed on it when I built the original system.

The System Reserved folder on disk 1 has a BOOT folder and bootmgr system file

During all the recent messing about I set the Windows 7 (C:) partition active and that now too has a BOOT folder and bootmgr system file

Should I set the System reserved partition as the active partition and remove the extra boot info from C:

Also at some point M: (which is on the GPT drive) also acquired a BOOT/bootmgr setup - I don't know when this happened as the drive was added to the system after the SSD but before I upgraded to Windows 10 on the SSD.

I presume the boot config appeared on M: when I upgraded to Windows 10 but was unaware that had happened.

I am not really that familiar with disk formats and the boot process - how can I best recover the boot system to make Windows 7 on C: the only boot option (which it currently is) using the original boot process - and can I then delete the extra BOOT/bootmgr bits on the other drives.

If at that point I start installing a freshly downloaded Windows 10 onto the formatted/SSD what effect will that have on boot processes?

72

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 update screwed dual boot system - STUMPED!!

« on: April 29, 2017, 05:24 PM »

Should the windows partition be set to an active partition or should it be the small system partition set to active?

73

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 update screwed dual boot system - STUMPED!!

« on: April 29, 2017, 04:06 PM »

Thanks - seem to have 'almost' recovered Windows 7 but the windows 10 upgrade via windows update has hosed the SSD completely - files are still readable but there isn't an OS installed on there.

I seem to have a boot folder and bootmgr in that little partition as well as on C: and another hard disk.

I think the one on C: is the one being used

Got to the point where I can't face any more! At some point I will do a clean install!

74

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 update screwed dual boot system - STUMPED!!

« on: April 29, 2017, 11:18 AM »

Back to square one - just a windows 10 style blue screen saying Boot\BCD is missing or corrupt error 0xc000014c

I have made a Windows 10 recovery CD on my laptop - automated repair hasn't worked so I tried firxmbr, fixboot and rebuildbcd options - it doesn't even find windows 10. No change after that lot

I did the same with a Windows 7 repair disk, automated repair said it was fixed but it wasn't. I even used Microsoft's instructions to backup/delete/rebuild the BCD info which I did only adding the original Windows 7 Ultimate as an option.

I still get the Windows 10 style error screen

What is odd is that the Boot\BCD folder isn't on either of the Windows partitions??? It is on another drive altogether

Any other ideas - I got Windows 7 up and running again once but on restart I was back to the same pale blue screen???

75

General Software Discussion / Windows 10 update screwed dual boot system - STUMPED!!

« on: April 29, 2017, 07:15 AM »

I 'had' a dual boot system of Windows 7 Ultimate on hard disk and Windows 7 Pro on an SSD!

Windows 7 Ult is my main OS on a large hard disk and I used the free period to install upgrade to Windows 10 on an SSD in dual boot mode to get the free license for future upgrade.

I use Windows 10 on my laptop all the time so rarely on my desktop PC which usually boots into Windows 7.

Dual booting has worked fine and I could use the system properties to set the default operating system (worked fine).

Stupidly yesterday I booted Windows 10 and decided to run Windows update and leave it over night. Because it had a Windows version update to do I switched to automatically boot into Window 10 so it could get on with it while I was asleep.

Got up this morning to a blue screen"DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION"

I rebooted and on restart got missing/damage \Boot\BCD error with error code 0xc000014c

I thought - no big problem and bunged in Windows 10 Recovery CD and booted from that - it failed to find Windows 10 - instead it found Windows 7 Ult (phew) and the legacy Windows 7 Pro folder (Windows.old which is still there from the Windows 10 upgrade).

After a lot of faffing, swearing and stomping around, and in the end using a windows 7 recovery disk, I finally managed to get Windows 7 Ult running again.

Anyone any idea how to fix the Windows 10 installation to dual boot again so that I can try to get it running and updated properly?

I am stumped - almost all the info I can find on dual booting is a mix of Windows and Linux.

To give a bit more description:

When Windows 7 was set as default the 'Select operating system' screen during boot up was the Windows 7 version, but when I switched to Windows 10 default it swapped to the Windows 10 version.

Also no I can find a Boot folder on either drive (hidden or not)