Recent Posts

4401

Living Room / Re: Outpost - why do I bother ... or am I just paranoid!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 23, 2007, 05:11 AM »

Thanks - I haven't tried Comodo - last time I was looking for a firewall I installed and uninstalled so many I screwed up my system. In the end I gave up looking and settled for Windows XP built in firewall. I am also behind a router firewall so I feel reasonably 'hidden' from view.

If I can summon up the courage I might have a look at Comodo.

I already use NOD32 - and yes I think that is really good. I am a bit surprised though that ESET seem to have given up on updates for NOD32 - there hasn't been one for many months (apart from pattern files). Presumably they are working to hard on the unwanted mega suite they seem to be planning!

4402

Living Room / Re: Outpost - why do I bother ... or am I just paranoid!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 22, 2007, 07:29 PM »

Anyone tried the free PCTools firewall (from the developers of PCTools Spyware doctor)?

4403

Living Room / Re: Outpost - why do I bother ... or am I just paranoid!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 22, 2007, 01:58 PM »

You not having any issues with the latest builds of SpySweeper? The version I unistalled seemed to cause registry permission problems when installing software and if I wanted to change file associations etc. It had some locked registry entries that meant MSCONFIG wouldn't allow its resident scanner to be disabled at startup too.

4404

Living Room / Outpost - why do I bother ... or am I just paranoid!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 22, 2007, 12:45 PM »

OK - having uninstalled WebRoot SpySweeper because of issues it was causing my system has been running great (much faster and with not obvious problems in logs etc).

I thought - "I know ... my unused Outpost Family license has a few months still to run." I haven't used it since version 4 was released and caused havoc on my system but I figured that by now they must have ironed out the issues and it does supply at least some realtime spyware protection.

Sure enough - installed it - and immediately started suffering random sudden reboots (no warning blanks screens and restarts - seemed particularly bad when I was browsing with Firefox - but I don't know if it was related).

What gives - or am I paranoid and Outpost is out to get me!

4405

Living Room / Re: a wet tv remote control problem

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 22, 2007, 06:19 AM »

I would suggest thoroughly washing it in clean water and then place it in an oven on 'keep warm' setting (no higher than 50C) for a couple of hours or in a warm airing cupboard (or wherever your hot water tank is) over night.

4406

Living Room / Re: Does my future pc suck ?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 21, 2007, 02:41 PM »

I'd go with the best motherboard you can afford - SLI is just one feature of the board you first listed. You don't have to use the SLI feature but I can guarantee that the rest of the board is more than the earlier non-SLI versions.

For only slightly more money you could pick up 2 nVidia SLI 7600 256Mb cards. That is just one example - if you aren't in to gaming then a pair of 7300 SLI cards would be cheaper than the ATI card you specified. You then have two graphics cards which can share the load or run two monitors if you want to splash out on a second monitor in the future.

4407

Living Room / Re: Does my future pc suck ?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 21, 2007, 10:52 AM »

CRT > LCD for any sort of image manipulation (especially if you get a 'multisync' or 'multiscan' one ). 

-tonsofpcs (August 21, 2007, 10:27 AM)

Disagree these days - I stuck with CRT for years for precisely that reason but I wouldn't go back now I have moved to LCD. Newer LCD displays are much clearer - and with good colour management seem to have much truer colours to my eyes. They are also fine for video editing these days - I can't see any ghosting on mine (which was another reason people didn't like LCD in the past).

4408

Living Room / Re: Does my future pc suck ?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 21, 2007, 10:50 AM »

If you are getting an SLI mobo why go for an ATI graphics card? If you want an SLI mobo you'd be better with an nVidia card (and preferably 2 identical SLI compatible cards if you can afford it and want maximum graphics capability).

If you are committed to the idea of ATI cards why not get an ATI CrossFire compatible mobo - even if you don't fit a pair of graphics cards now you could add a second card at a later date.

4409

Living Room / Re: PC Upgrade - still possible to reuse old components?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 20, 2007, 12:08 PM »

You could always use a PATA > SATA adapter

4410

Living Room / Re: Best Freeware FTP client?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 20, 2007, 09:47 AM »

You can also use WinSCP as a plugin for Salamander. Having tried WinSCP I really like it - plus I love that you can launch a puTTY session with a single click and not have to re-enter passwords etc.

4411

General Software Discussion / Re: Guess what, you do have certain downgrade rights from Vista to Windows XP

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 20, 2007, 09:45 AM »

You may well find that the OEM discs you have will only install on the original hardware supplied with the CDs - sometimes the OEM company modifies Windows to check the hardware as windows starts so that it can't be installed elsewhere.

4412

Living Room / Re: PC Upgrade - still possible to reuse old components?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 20, 2007, 09:42 AM »

There are a lot of new boards about with both multiple SATA and IDE controllers (for 4 devices). Almost all come with at least one IDE socket (for 2 devices) because there aren't that many SATA optical drives around yet (though they are appearing). Sometimes it is difficult to tell from the mobo descriptions because IDE is not a big selling point any more. If in doubt go to the manufacturer website and download the manual.

4413

General Software Discussion / Re: changing label from E: to C: in the primary boot partition (windows XP). How?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 19, 2007, 12:23 PM »

So are you all sorted now? Sorry - having a senior moment here and not sure if the original request has been fulfilled?

4414

General Software Discussion / Re: Guess what, you do have certain downgrade rights from Vista to Windows XP

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 19, 2007, 12:21 PM »

It's not clear at all how you downgrade if you don't already have a copy of Windows XP media and an XP key??? If you have the media and the key why do you need to ask permission to use it?

4415

General Software Discussion / Re: changing label from E: to C: in the primary boot partition (windows XP). How?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 19, 2007, 12:15 PM »

Out of curiosity what is on drive C: now? (so not sure whether you have said - I glanced through the thread but couldn't see this)

4416

General Software Discussion / Re: changing label from E: to C: in the primary boot partition (windows XP). How

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 19, 2007, 12:02 PM »

Does paragon not show hidden partitions?

You should be able to see a hidden partition using windows disk management console (Start > RUN > diskmgmt.msc)

Any partitions not appearing in windows will appear as partitions without letters.

What happens if you open a command windows (START > RUN > CMD.EXE) and type E: (press return) DIR (press return) ?

Actually if you only have drives C: D: and G: in windows (open START > My computer) then the letter assignment G: must have been done manually at some time (unless you have used an external drive of some kind - ext. hard disc, flash disc, pen disk or similar and that was assigned E: when it was first used - if so E: would be reserved for that use in future within the registry). Is your optical drives F: ?

Looking back at your original post I think you will find that if you run Windows from Drive E: then program installers should (and most will) automatically choose E:\Program Files to do any installations. You should check as a matter of course when you install programs but it is usually automatic (it is a good idea to check locations where ever you have windows installed).

4417

General Software Discussion / Re: changing label from E: to C: in the primary boot partition (windows XP). How

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 19, 2007, 11:29 AM »

(see attachment in previous post)Well, it looks like it's inside the extended partition. I have attached a picture using paragon partition manager. I haven't been able to find a way to change this ext partition into a primary. But maybe there's one?

-urlwolf (August 19, 2007, 10:52 AM)

Yep - it is inside the extended partition - but it is a "Logical Partition" not a "Primary Partition" - it's just terminology. The difference arose because the original partitioning methods (typically using FDISK under MSDOS) only allowed 4 primary partitions on a disc (there were no other kinds of partition). To get round this limitation as disks grew in size and people demanded more flexibility extended partitions (a form of Primary partition) were developed. An extended partition can contain "Logical Partitions" - so that you can effectively break the 4 partition rule. Logical partitions aren't true partitions they are just a way of breaking up a large primary partition into what look like partitions. You still can't have more than 4 primary partitions on a drive - it is just that one of those primary partitions can be an extended partition which can contain more 'virtual' partitions. It is a typical MS fudge - rather than fix the original problem they cobbled a solution and it has remained until today.

I am surprised if Paragon can't convert between logical and primary partitions (check the help files). Otherwise try Acronis Disk Director - there is a free trial version - though whether it will let you do that during a trial I don't know.

As with ALL partition alterations a backup is recommended before doing anything radical.

There is a whole page of partition tools at http://www.thefreeco...rtitioneditors.shtml - though you use them at your own risk!

Partition Magic can do the job - there is a free 15 day demo version: see http://www.click-now...l/PartitionMagic.htm


PS: Looking again at your image I think Paragon have clouded the image somewhat. Drives C and D are what everyone else in the industry would call Primary partitions. Why Paragon call them logical is beyond me - and very confusing.

4418

General Software Discussion / Re: imaging & partitioning queries

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 19, 2007, 10:46 AM »

It's bad if you want to put anything else on there

The main reason you don't want totally full partitions is that you can't defrag them. If you are simply storing data and don't need to add anything or defrag the partition it isn't a problem.

The main irritation are the blasted balloon pupus that tell you every time you start your system.

4419

General Software Discussion / Re: changing label from E: to C: in the primary boot partition (windows XP). How?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 19, 2007, 10:40 AM »

There is no such thing as a primary partition embedded in an extended partition (if you really have that situation your partition table is screwed).

If it is inside an extended partition then it is a logical partition. Many partition managers will convert Logical to Primary if you want/need that.

4420

Living Room / Re: Best Freeware FTP client?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 19, 2007, 10:18 AM »

I used to use AlFTP too when it was first released. Nice app but at the time I had a few problems (they are probably fixed now).

Before that I used the paid verision of Ipswitch WinFTP which is very good but I got fed up with the expensive updates (AKA bug fixes).

Now I used Directory Opus to save having another tool handy.

Actually I like the idea of WinSCP if it has puTTY incorporated - I might give it a looksee.

4421

General Software Discussion / Re: imaging & partitioning queries

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 19, 2007, 10:05 AM »

Depends how much memory you have. I would say you want the page file about 1.5 x the memory size you have (up to a maximum of 3Gb) so if you make a partition of 3.5 Gb it should be adequate for all eventualities - but strictly it just needs to be large enough to hold the file. I do find Windows XP complains that your disc is nearly full if you make the partition exactly the same size at the pagefile (you get constant balloon notes popping up in the system tray). You can either disable 'disk full' notifications or just leave a bit of spare space on the partition.

To work out page size multiply memory (in Gb) by 1024 to get the size in megabytes (which you need to calculate the pagefile size). You are best to make the pagefile a fixed size (set minimum and maximum to the same size) then it saves Windows having to bother shrinking and expanding the file as required.

4422

Living Room / Re: PC Upgrade - still possible to reuse old components?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 19, 2007, 09:29 AM »

It's almost impossible to find new mobos that take older RAM sticks.

You may find a suitable mobo in a 'bin end' or second hand on eBay.

4423

General Software Discussion / Re: changing label from E: to C: in the primary boot partition (windows XP). How

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 19, 2007, 09:07 AM »

Changing the system drive label can be done but it is difficult to acheive without some headaches. It isn't sufficient to change the boot stuff - but also there are lots of explicit references in the registry that will need need to be changed and also you will need to update all your shortcuts on you hard disc - that will affect almost all software you have installed. There may also be INI files and other 'config' type files for some software that have explicit references - if they aren't plain text files that you can find and edit manually you will probably find the software will need to be reintsalled - and it may prove difficult to uninstall if uninstall references are hidden from normal areas such as the MS Installer registration.

There are some utilities (the used to be one in Partition Magic) that can help but the whole process is non-trivial and prone to probems - even with utilities. Personally I would leave well alone or reinstall Windows from scratch - probably quicker in the long run.

4424

General Software Discussion / Re: imaging & partitioning queries

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 19, 2007, 09:02 AM »

Depends whether you actually use Windows Memory Dump for debugging - given that no one seems to offer any support out there (unless you are extremely rich) and the data dumped is cryptic in the extreme I have never seen much point in enabling this feature.

4425

General Software Discussion / Re: imaging & partitioning queries

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 19, 2007, 07:41 AM »

Page file should be on Disc 2 - preferably the first partition on the disc (the fastest area of the disc). You could use a partition manager to resize D: and move it up to make space (probably worth backing up first though).