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Author Topic:  Desktop PC advice needed
Bill Ladd


From:
Wilmington, NC, USA
Post  Posted 20 Jan 2017 7:53 am    
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Forumites - My desktop hard drive crashed a few weeks back. I took it to a local computer shop and they were able to get my drive running again and load all it's info onto a replacement drive.

My machine starts and runs and seems stable in that respect but it's buggy as all get out.

It's Windows seven and is a pretty powerful box for it's age. I bought it when I got into flight sim.

Should I just back up the data I want to keep, use one of those key locating programs, and download and clean install 7?

I know MS is only going to support it for four or so more years, but I really do prefer it over 10. Also, I can do a clean install of 7 for free (if I can successfully un-encrypt my key code).

What say you experts?
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Jim Smerk


From:
Ohio, USA
Post  Posted 20 Jan 2017 10:04 am    
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Without knowing the particulars, I will say this...

IF you have a way to reload your OS AND your files are safe, I would do what I call a FULL Nuke & Pave...

Open the machine up and clean it out fully. Make sure ALL the dust you can reach is gone from the CPU cooler, memory, HDD areas, and Power supply using compressed air.

Format / zero out the drive that is going to be your C: / OS drive, since it has an OS on it AND it is acting up / buggy.

Take it one step at a time, loading ONLY the programs you use all the time, and running it at least 2 hours before loading another one, JUST to make sure each necessary program is running fine.

Yes, this will take a long time.

Yes, this seems excessive.

Yes, it might even be considered by some to be bad advice.

But I can promise you that your systems WILL run smoother and last longer doing a full reload this way. I clean ours like this at least once a year, and still have some older AMD Phenom and Core2Quads running 100% fine.

Hope this helps!
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Bill Ladd


From:
Wilmington, NC, USA
Post  Posted 20 Jan 2017 10:12 am    
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Yes Jim. It does, thanks!

The computer shop really cleaned it up physically well, so I'm good there.

Just got off the phone with Microsoft. Get this - they don't care about my key code! Once I get everything backed up, they'll hook me up with new Windows 7 for free.

I was on hold with them for maybe 10 seconds, tops.

YeeHaw!
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Jack Stoner


From:
Kansas City, MO
Post  Posted 20 Jan 2017 11:12 am    
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I saw a post on a computer forum today, 3 more years of Win 7 support from Microsoft.

Nothing wrong with Win 7, however as Win 10 is the "current" OS. software and hardware companies will eventually abandon support for Win 7.

I had dual boot Win 7 and Win 10 for a long time. I just built a new PC and Win 7 is not supported by the motherboard vendor for this model and its Win 10 only. I've been using Win 10 only for the last 6 weeks and "I don't miss Win 7". Win 10 is actually better for my recording studio hardware. With Win 7, 6 ms was the best recording latency I could use (reliably). With Win 10, I could go down to 4 ms (reliably).
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Bill Ladd


From:
Wilmington, NC, USA
Post  Posted 20 Jan 2017 11:37 am    
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Maybe I'll upgrade to 10 eventually. For now, though, I'm starting to get a handle on my bugs. If I try to open, say, a .pdf, contained in a certain folder, Adobe won't recognize it. If I move that document to a different folder, then all the sudden Adobe recognizes it. This happens with jpegs, word, excel, music files...

So I'm simply moving files to good folders.

This is waaaaay over my payscale, but I can't afford any more money on this thing.

Still having problems downloading from IE or Chrome and cannot load Firefox at all.

My guess is when my hard drive went, stuff 'sploded all over the place and hasn't reassembled in the proper places.
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Dave Potter

 

From:
Texas
Post  Posted 20 Jan 2017 4:58 pm    
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Bill Ladd wrote:
Maybe I'll upgrade to 10 eventually. For now, though, I'm starting to get a handle on my bugs. If I try to open, say, a .pdf, contained in a certain folder, Adobe won't recognize it. If I move that document to a different folder, then all the sudden Adobe recognizes it. This happens with jpegs, word, excel, music files...So I'm simply moving files to good folders. Still having problems downloading from IE or Chrome and cannot load Firefox at all. My guess is when my hard drive went, stuff 'sploded all over the place and hasn't reassembled in the proper places. It's Windows seven and is a pretty powerful box for it's age. I bought it when I got into flight sim.


Sounds to me like there's some file type association issues, but the "moving to a different folder" business doesn't corroborate that hypothesis. So, I don't really know what's going on, but something is.

Jack's comments were prescient, however. Software/hardware vendors will eventually force you to upgrade; they won't keep supporting Win7.

Lastly, if you do flight simming, you'll need to maximize your system's performance, and you'll get better performance with Win10, assuming compatible hardware.
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Bill Ladd


From:
Wilmington, NC, USA
Post  Posted 22 Jan 2017 9:50 am    
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I imagine I'll ditch this box before they shut down 7 support. Got bored with flight sim. Not doing that anymore. This box will just be for music.

Also, I'm rasslin' with cancer at present, so money's tight - don't want to spend another cent on it.

I'm thinking as I type this, though, they may upgrade me to 10 for free. After I've grabbed everything I want to keep I will ask when I call them back.

Thanks a bunch for the great advice so far y'all.




Oh, okay, I do have a salient question. Will a large capacity CD (or multiple CDs) handle a backup? Or will I need to get my hands on a remote hard drive?

Thanks!
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Dave Potter

 

From:
Texas
Post  Posted 22 Jan 2017 10:23 am    
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Bill Ladd wrote:
Will a large capacity CD (or multiple CDs) handle a backup? Or will I need to get my hands on a remote hard drive?


Generic answer, not having any details about your system, is yes, you can back up to an optical drive. The number of disks will depend on how much data needs to be backed up. DVDs are preferrable to CDs, which have much smaller capacities.

The gold standard for backing up data is an external hard drive, of course, for lots of reasons. Instead of having to manipulate, handle, and keep track of multiple disks, you simply start the backup and "let 'er rip". They're not all that expensive anymore, and they're a much better option than multiple optical disks. I use two external drives, one 3TB and one 8TB, and I alternate backing up between the two for redundancy in case one fails.

In case you're unfamiliar, Macrium Reflect is one software product which can make images of one's hard drive which can be used to restore an entire crashed system drive to the state when the image was made. There's a free version available. There are others out there, obviously, but I've been using the paid Macrium product for years without issues.
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Bill Ladd


From:
Wilmington, NC, USA
Post  Posted 22 Jan 2017 10:54 am    
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As I was writing the question I thought to myself, "Bill, no one can possibly answer that unless they're sitting in front of your computer."

Anyway, the generic answer is great, plus the DVD advice. There's a bunch of old junk on there I don't need to keep.

Perhaps I'll see if one of my friends has an unused hard drive or I'll spend a few bucks for a new one.

In my present situation, seems like a quite high-value thing to have! Embarassed
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Dave Potter

 

From:
Texas
Post  Posted 22 Jan 2017 12:03 pm    
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Bill Ladd wrote:
Perhaps I'll see if one of my friends has an unused hard drive or I'll spend a few bucks for a new one.


Used or unused, that would be the lowest cost way to implement external backup. You could buy a hard drive dock similar to this one and just plunk the hard drive into it, and you'd be in business. I own one, and they work fine. The critical thing is that the drive be external. If you back up to an internal drive, and your system crashes, you could end up being unable to access your backup.

If you do this, USB 3.0 is well worth having for the added speed it offers over USB 2.0, but your PC would have to have a USB 3.0 port - otherwise, you'd be stuck with 2.0 data speeds. Backing up on a USB 2.0 connection is doable, but a lot of data is being transferred, and it takes more time for the backup. If you don't have USB3.0, there are USB 3.0 add-on cards like this that are inexpensive, and can get the job done.
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Bill Ladd


From:
Wilmington, NC, USA
Post  Posted 22 Jan 2017 5:33 pm    
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I was not clear, but did mean external hard drive. Got 3.0 usb ports as well!

I'll check out Macrium Reflect once I get everything straightened out.

Thanks for the help! Very much appreciated.
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Bill Ford


From:
Graniteville SC Aiken
Post  Posted 4 Feb 2017 7:00 am    
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FWIW...Install Revo uninstall, and when a program starts acting funky, wipe it off with Revo, and reinstall, most time that works OK because when moving a program, things get disorganized. Backing to an ext hard drive is a good idea also.

BF


http://www.revouninstaller.com/revo_uninstaller_free_download.html... scroll down for the Freeware Portable
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