Sunday, August 31, 2008

Hurricanes, Hurricanes and more Hurricanes

Here we go again, Gustav & Hanna plus two more as-yet-unnamed disturbances behind them. Check it out:

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/east/tatl/loop-wv.html

(I guess that the big party in St. Paul has really upset the balance of nature - Don't say that Al Gore didn't warn us)

Meanwhile my little brother goes Kayaking from Salem Willows to Misery Island (put it in 'Slide Show' mode at:

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/566047100ACzCzP

......and further, have a nice day !!

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Nice of Hurricane Fay to give me some time to update my 'Backbone' computer. This is a 1998 Gateway which still has the original case & floppy drive. It was originally delivered with 1st edition Win 98. This I updated to 98 SP 1 when it came out. Shortly after that I added larger HDs, always cloning the previous to the next.

I skipped ME & 2000, but did update to XP Pro and all subsequent SPs. In all this time, I always 'cloned' up or updated on the existing system. OK, it's 2008, ten years of never doing a complete clean-up and the registry probably looked like a car engine that had never had an oil change.

The back breaker was using the Scanner. I had to shut down my Zone Alarm AV & Adware functions in order to start the scanner software. ZA was just using too many clock cycles and you could see it clearly in Task Manager & Process Explorer.

All important files and programs were available on my Vista Desk top & Laptop so I could wipe clean without really losing anything. I had two 40g drives available so I just completely removed the 80g & 10g (used for swap file). I installed one 40g. (You know the song, Fdisk, Format - Reinstall.) With XP Pro sp1 & immediate update to sp2 & sp3. After that, AVG virus scanner, PC Tools Firewall Plus, my original, tried & true Office 2000, SysInternals, Firefox& ACDC etc.

After everything was in, running and fully updated, I took my second 40g disk, and cloned the first on to the second and then swapped drives. So the drive I just built is on the shelf as an emergency replacement & the clone is now happily whirring away in my 'Gateway'. I'm going to hold the 80g drive 'loaded' on the shelf for a while in case I need to re-install it.

Best of all, if I want to Scan, I can do so directly without having to shut down something else in order to do it. When not doing that, I can watch Hurricane Fay as it proceeds merrily on it's Florida Vacation. What do you do on a rainy day?

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Hot Links

Another update: I have updated the 'Hot Links' with several new links. These are for - primarily - trouble-shooting issues. As well as products to prevent the need for troubleshooting in the first place. That way you may enjoy 'Happy Computing' ! Have a Good Day!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Windows SteadyState now supports Windows Vista
http://blogs.msdn.com/securitytipstalk/archive/2008/07/15/windows-steadystate-now-supports-windows-vista.aspx

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Link Update

I have got the 'Notes' link updated to 'Hot Links' now. For now, these links will be sources of downloadable programs, such as virus scanners, spy ware detectors & various other tools. Use or not use them at your own risk.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Links

I've got to change my 'Notes' button to 'Links' . Stuff in 'Notes' can go to 'Blog'. Add useful Links to 'Links'.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Back-Ups

Yes, I do really do do back-ups ! Yesterday I did a full backup & an image. My program is scheduled to back up any changes weekly. Do you have your stuff together?