RE: [FairfieldLife] Re: Computer Upgrade? Question for the Geeks
Progress report: I purchased and ran http://www.liutilities.com/products/speedupmypc/ and it sped things up considerably, both boot up and general operation. I'm thinking of getting http://tinyurl.com/bt9cg7 for backup instead of Norton Ghost, with which I've been rather dissatisfied. Anyone have any experience with ShadowProtect, or opinions on alternatives?
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Computer Upgrade? Question for the Geeks
Rick Archer wrote: Progress report: I purchased and ran http://www.liutilities.com/products/speedupmypc/ and it sped things up considerably, both boot up and general operation. I'm thinking of getting http://tinyurl.com/bt9cg7 for backup instead of Norton Ghost, with which I've been rather dissatisfied. Anyone have any experience with ShadowProtect, or opinions on alternatives? I use Acronis True Image on my XP Pro machine. Everything else I use the free System Rescue CD which is a lean bootable version of Linux that can backup drives (it can also backup NTFS drives). However the latter is still fairly geeky. I just wrote the instructions on my CD to refresh my mind how it works. I backup to a 500 GB Buffalo external drive. http://www.acronis.com/ http://www.sysresccd.org/
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Computer Upgrade? Question for the Geeks
On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 1:47 PM, Bhairitu noozg...@sbcglobal.net wrote: Rick Archer wrote: I use Acronis True Image on my XP Pro machine. Everything else I use the free System Rescue CD which is a lean bootable version of Linux that can backup drives (it can also backup NTFS drives). However the latter is still fairly geeky. I just wrote the instructions on my CD to refresh my mind how it works. I backup to a 500 GB Buffalo external drive. http://www.acronis.com/ http://www.sysresccd.org/ I use Acronis True Image on my fleet of XP Pro machines. I've used it to re-image a PC with a failed hard drive more than once. What I find truly amazing about True Image is that it appears to create this cryptic .tb image file. Fact is, the .tb image file isn't cyptic at all if you have True Image installed. The .tb file type is easily opened with True Image and pretty much looks like just another volume, though of course because the Windoze registry is all over the place you can't run any of the applications in it. But if you want to go back and find some old documents, well just open up the old .tb and there they are. Now if only you didn't have to subvert Windoze in so many ways just to boot up over a USB device...
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Computer Upgrade? Question for the Geeks
On Jan 30, 2009, at 10:16 AM, Larry wrote: Then I would defrag Is that legal in Iowa? Sal
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Computer Upgrade? Question for the Geeks
I have Intel Core 2 Dual Ultimate on a laptop and run Vista Ultimate (point being that it's couple years old). And it's pretty fast all things considered. I sort of hate the additional admin necessities, but they are good for security so it might be one of the more secure Microsoft appz. Vista being based in Windows NT or 2000, which is why compatibility for so much software is absent. That of course and the 86 bit software need. Of course we need to know what software you're crunching as sound and graphix appz can stall out any HD. There's this free synthesizer app called Orangator which makes sine waves of any shape and it can stall any hardrive when you get rolling. But it's really apocalyptic what sounds when Gabriel gets on the PC and starts blowing some dope notes. I always have stuff downloading. To me an internet conection means ones should use it up even if just passively lending to P2P and a free right to the road. - Original Message - From: Richard M compost...@yahoo.co.uk To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Friday, January 30, 2009 10:05 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Computer Upgrade? Question for the Geeks Your hardware spec looks pretty good to me (better than mine that's running Vista). I think your computer's problems must be all in its mind i.e mental (software), not physical. Or perhaps you have some hardware that is not performing to spec (unlikely).
RE: [FairfieldLife] Re: Computer Upgrade? Question for the Geeks
In response to various peoples comments: We Defragged and it may have helped a bit. I run all sorts of software for my business that wouldn't run on those other operating systems, so I've got to stay with Microsoft. When we started in safe mode the boot up was pretty fast, so I must be loading apps at startup that are slowing things down. I'll try http://www.tune-up.com/products/tuneup-utilities/, as Larry suggested. I don't have an external USB drive. My internet connection is fiber optic, so very fast. My virus protection is AVG. The HD is often cranking away on who knows what. I can tell 'cause the little light stays on. One question nobody addressed: is there any significant advantage to 64-bit processing yet, seeing as how not many apps have been written to take advantage of it? Is that something that will be more useful a year from now?
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Computer Upgrade? Question for the Geeks
Rick Archer wrote: In response to various peoples comments: We Defragged and it may have helped a bit. I run all sorts of software for my business that wouldn't run on those other operating systems, so I've got to stay with Microsoft. When we started in safe mode the boot up was pretty fast, so I must be loading apps at startup that are slowing things down. I'll try http://www.tune-up.com/products/tuneup-utilities/, as Larry suggested. I don't have an external USB drive. My internet connection is fiber optic, so very fast. My virus protection is AVG. The HD is often cranking away on who knows what. I can tell 'cause the little light stays on. One question nobody addressed: is there any significant advantage to 64-bit processing yet, seeing as how not many apps have been written to take advantage of it? Is that something that will be more useful a year from now? What are you running for an anti-virus? Some of the popular ones are really slow. I use CA's product which comes with 3 licenses so it is on two desktops and one laptop. Microsoft used it for years and the engineers helped CA get it running in the background without slowing things down. http://shop.ca.com/ Outlook is a pretty dumb program and some folks I know that worked at Microsoft called it Look Out! It is know to be pretty inefficient and slow but it is also hard to migrate to another program. All my email unless traveling is done on this Ubuntu machine where an anti-virus isn't needed. Check your drive speed. I don't have my XP Pro machine up at the moment but there is a free program that can check drive speed for you. I had a drive that was running at about 10% of it's speed. Defragging didn't help as it had become damaged from heat. I bought a new drive and moved stuff from the old drive over (it was a data drive not the one which the OS was on) which took a while due to the old drive's speed. I added an extra fan to keep the new drive from getting too hot. I'm not sure that a 64-bit machine will give you that much advantage. It's like buying a car with a fancy engine. There aren't many program that take advantage of 64-bit yet. Duo core processors are good because the OS runs on one core and your app on another. I hope to upgrade my video editing machine this year and I can do it fairly cheap anymore and have what I need to do AVCHD (which is a CPU hog) but it will most likely be custom built. Putting together a PC is rather trivial anymore if you have a little patience. But I've got a Fry's nearby where I can get components at good prices which helps.
