gateway ta6 laptop

[tomos]

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 (January 14, 2016, 05:52 PM)

Yeah, ironically, you need to be even more careful of the big names, than of the smaller ones...

[holt]

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 (January 14, 2016, 05:52 PM)

Yeah, ironically, you need to be even more careful of the big names, than of the smaller ones...

-tomos (January 14, 2016, 06:32 PM)

I just finished reading every post and link in the Topic: Is Windows 10 a trojan? thread; and I thought I had problems.

[tomos]

^ 

[holt]

I like this external hard drive case. 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?

[Shades]

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.

[holt]

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 (January 16, 2016, 06:18 AM)

Thank you, it is very much appreciated!

[holt]

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, "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 which I'm thinking of getting, is to hold a 500GB platter type 7400 RPM SATA hard drive.

[Shades]

External drive case looks fine enough. Alignment is what you should check first. For a very brief explanation visit this link.
For a much more detailed explanation, that uses an image to clarify what the aligning problem is, visit this link.

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.

[holt]

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, "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 which I'm thinking of getting, is to hold a 500GB platter type 7400 RPM SATA hard drive.

-holt (January 16, 2016, 09:33 PM)

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:?

[holt]

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.

[Shades]

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.

[tomos]

I wanted a backup copy of my laptop HD OS.

-holt (March 05, 2016, 07:46 AM)

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)

[holt]

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 (March 05, 2016, 03:32 PM)

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.

[holt]

I wanted a backup copy of my laptop HD OS.

-holt (March 05, 2016, 07:46 AM)

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 (March 05, 2016, 04:09 PM)

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.

[tomos]

^ 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.

[Shades]

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.

[IainB]

@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://gatewaycomput...ikia.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).

[holt]

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.

[holt]

The hard drives are different incompatible sizes.