Adding a SATA Hard Drive to Your System

January 6, 2012 By

Reader Rick Goodier wrote me about the problems he was having adding a SATA hard drive to his new computer.


Hi, Terry. I am a new subscriber just signed on.

Perhaps I will have some suggestions for you as time goes on. I have been playing around with computers for more than a few years.

But today I have a question. I am working to max storage on a new comp I have built. 3 GHz processor, I GB memory, medium video card. I want to have at least two (three better) optical drives, so my ide slots were mostly used up. I put in an extra ide controller card I picked up years ago with an early large capacity hard drive I bought. So I am currently running three drives, one as primary, and two as storage on the extra ide card. Yet I would like to have that PCI slot free for another function, a video recording card.

So, because a 300GB SATA drive turned up at a great price, I got one, realizing that I had two SATA controller connections free on the mobo. I hooked up the drive and booted up, thinking I would see the drive as an unformatted drive in the drive manager function of “manage” under “my computer”. Not there. Bios seems to recognize it, because a new request comes up during boot up, asking if I want to set up a raid array. I tried Acronis Partition Manager, and even dusted off Partition Magic. But no joy while in Windows.

So, here’s my question, do I need to fdisk the drive first, before windows will recognize it? Or is there some magic software that will recognize it, even though windows doesn’t…

Continue reading Adding a SATA Hard Drive to Your System

Filed Under: Hard Drives, Hardware, System Repair, Terry's Computer Tips, Upgrades

Disadvantages of a Notebook Computer

January 4, 2012 By

I’ve mentioned many times that my main computer is my notebook computer. Sure, I have a desktop computer, too, I just don’t use it very much. I also have my home theater PC and a Linux-based file server for backup. But, my Dell Inspiron 8600 is the real workhorse.

In this week’s online newsletter, my article Why Buy a Notebook Computer? I’ve written about making the decision on whether or not to buy a notebook computer — and when to go for the cheaper models.

But, first, let’s consider some of the limitations of a notebook computer, as compared to a typical desktop computer.

These include:

  • Price — for an equally capable computer, a notebook is more expensive

Continue reading Disadvantages of a Notebook Computer

Filed Under: Hardware, Notebook, Terry's Computer Tips Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

To Update Web Browsers Or Not?

January 3, 2012 By

Longtime subscriber Chet wrote to ask about the need to update Internet Explorer and Firefox:


Hi Terry

Is it wise to update every time you get an email…for instance I’m still using IE8 and am hesitating to go to IE9…and now it seems FIREFOX, MY BROWSER OF CHOICE, (V3.6.18) is updating every 10 minutes!

I still haven’t gotten around to v4 and they are up to v5. Is it better to wait awhile rather than jump right in as soon as they announce something?

Thanks,

Chet (long time fan and subscriber)

I immediately wrote back to Chet to tell him that it’s time to update to Internet Explorer 9 and to Firefox the current Firefox version.

I usually wait a couple weeks for any "growing pains" to be resolved with IE updates, since I don’t normally use IE.

Firefox, however, I always update immediately. That’s even more important now, since…

Continue reading To Update Web Browsers Or Not?

Filed Under: Communications, Firefox, IE, Terry's Computer Tips, Usability, Web browsing, Windows Updates Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

The Network Is Down – No Internet Access

January 2, 2012 By

I sat down at my computer recently to finish writing my newsletter, only to find the hated words “Not connected.”

Windows 7 was informing me that I had no network connection. Not just no Internet access, but not even access to the other computers on my home network. This was a horrible morning.

Everything worked fine last night when I went to bed. It was time to put on my Debugging Hat…

My first step was to reboot my cable modem and my router. The process was easy and seemed to be fine. Unplug the power to the cable modem; unplug the power to the router; plug in the power to the cable modem; wait for the cable modem to download it’s configuration data from the cable Internet service provider and stabilize it’s lights, plug in the power to the router so it can make its connection to the cable modem and to the other computers and the Gigabit Ethernet switch connected to it.

But, it didn’t solve the problem…

Continue reading The Network Is Down – No Internet Access

Filed Under: Communications, Networking, System Repair, Terry's Computer Tips, Web browsing, Windows 7 Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Why Don’t Deleted Emails Appear in the Recycle Bin?

October 20, 2011 By

Subscriber JPB had a question about deleting emails, and why they don’t get recycled:

When you delete files (normally) they go to the recycle bin. How come E-mail doesn’t work the same way. it get’s compacted? I’m using Thunderbird and Windows 7.

The reason that deleted emails don’t show up in the Recycle Bin is that the Recycle Bin stores files after you delete them (note that some programs will delete files without putting them into the Recycle Bin). This is sometimes a problem with older programs or programs that are simplistically ported from another operating system.

Most Windows email programs store emails as data in large files containing multiple emails. They’re not stored as individual files. Email “folders” are actually files, in most cases, although some email programs may not create separate files for the folders.

Thunderbird is one such…

Continue reading Why Don’t Deleted Emails Appear in the Recycle Bin?

Filed Under: Communications, Email, Software, Terry's Computer Tips, Thunderbird

I Dumped Eudora OSE

October 19, 2011 By

I changed one of my everyday software programs this week. I wrote about a year ago concerning Eudora OSE (Open Source Edition), a new open-source version of Eudora that is based on the Thunderbird email program from the Mozilla Foundation.

After a few days of running my old Eudora program in parallel with Eudora OSE, I quickly changed to Eudora OSE for my everyday use.

It took some adjustments and took figuring out how to have multiple email accounts using multiple email servers. But, I was pretty happy with Eudora OSE.

Then, I ran into a problem with its email filters. The filters allow the user to take specific actions on an email, based on the content of the Subject, To or From lines. I’ve put up with that problem, which came from no known reason — and certainly not a buggy update (there haven’t been any updates) for a couple months, but it finally aggravated me too much.

I’d used filters for years to get control of my Inbox, and put related emails into their own folders, e.g. I set up a folder for emails from a mailing list, and set up a filter to have Eudora OSE put them in the folder automatically.

However, Eudora OSE developed a problem for some reason…

Continue reading I Dumped Eudora OSE

Filed Under: Email, Eudora, Terry's Computer Tips, Thunderbird Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Unable to Write to Flash Drive

October 18, 2011 By

Jerome Safer wrote recently about a problem with his USB flash drive:

Terry,
I have a 4GB USB flash drive I am trying to use in my USB 2.0 port on the front of my Compaq Presario computer.

When I try to save something to it I get a message “I don’t have authorization for this drive”, “Contact the Administrator”. I am the Administrator and I am logged in that way.

Do you have any suggestions on this.

Thanks,
Jerome Safer

First, I wrote back to Jerome to ask if he was a subscriber – I don’t normally respond to questions from people who don’t subscribe to my free newsletter. If they’re not interested enough to subscribe, I don’t have time to provide free consulting for them.

So, I asked Jerome if he was a current subscriber? I don’t see this email address subscribed to my newsletter. I see an old “bellsouth.net” one subscribed, but you’ve apparently moved to a different ISP.

Jerome responded…

Continue reading Unable to Write to Flash Drive

Filed Under: Hard Drive Recovery, Hard Drives, System, System Repair, Terry's Computer Tips

Uninstalling and Reinstalling Programs

July 3, 2011 By

Every once in a while, we decide to uninstall a program because we don’t need it any longer. We go to Start / Control Panel / Add or Remove Programs. After Windows shows the list of programs we can uninstall, we select the one and click on the Remove button. Sometimes, we have to go to the Start Menu section for that program in order to find the uninstall program.

The process is usually very easy. Some programs, unfortunately, do not always clean up after themselves properly when they uninstall themselves.

“When they uninstall themselves?” Yes; although you might believe that Windows is actually uninstalling a program when you use the Add/Remove Programs tool, all you are really doing is running the program’s own uninstall routine. The programmer has to create the uninstall program and register it with your copy of Windows for it to show up in that list.

There are some third-party programs that are designed to monitor program installations so that they know what to “put back” if you use the third-party program to do uninstalls. Norton CleanSweep is one that comes to mind. You can buy it separately or as part of the Norton Systemworks package.

Sometimes, though, the uninstall completes but leaves your computer disabled in some way. Norton Antivirus 2002 was such a program — on some computers, it would uninstall perfectly. On others, it would not remove one of its settings in the Windows Registry. I had NAV2002 uninstall perfectly on two computers and fail to remove a registry setting on two others.

Unfortunately, the setting told Windows not to …

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Filed Under: Operating System, Software, System, Terry's Computer Tips Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I Want a Real Backup Program

June 21, 2011 By

Subscriber Mike Gallagher wrote recently to ask about backing up his computer:


Hi Terry,

I am confused about "backup" your computer. I see all sorts of ads and articles about backing up a computer. Most all of what I see is not a REAL backup. What I mean as a "real backup" is that if a hard drive crashes — even one with the operating system on it, full recovery can be made. This is true even if the disk crashes with sound, smell, and visual effects included — a head crash resulting is lots of nasty noise, circuit board shorts with sparks and nasty smelling smoke. O.K. you get my point.

If I have a REAL backup, I replace the hard drive, load the backup CD or DVD, boot and start loading all the necessary files onto the new hard drive, remove the backup media, re-boot and am right where I was, running, just before the excitement.

Does such a procedure really exist, or is "backup" just a save application programs, but without all the install and run info? It seems that this is what most backup programs do.

I am looking for a backup program, or whatever term you want to use, that allows me to create a CD / DVD, or set of them that I can recover as described above, without having to go find my original install disks for the operating system and the applications as well.

I am running windows 7, 64 bit, home premium.

Thanks,

Mike G.

Mike’s asking for it — and I’m already using it, as a number of Terry’s Computer Tips readers. The solution is an image backup program called Acronis True Image Home 2011.

Continue reading I Want a Real Backup Program

Filed Under: Backups, Software, Terry's Computer Tips Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Solving Jerky Streamed Videos

June 2, 2011 By

Subscriber Gordon Shaw wrote for help to solve a problem with jerky streamed video:


Hi Terry

Wonder if you could help. I have a PC with AMD Athlon tm 64 processor 3800+. 2.4GHz, ASUS M2V-MX Motherboard & 2GB Ram. The video card is a NVIDIA Ge Force7600Gs with 256MB of Video Memory. I’m running XP Home 32 bit with SP3.

I recently installed a BENQ G2420HD LCD Monitor with a natural resolution of 1920×1080 but have had to reduce this to 1620×900 as videos I play especially on BBC iPlayer are really jerky. Even now at the reduced resolution it isn’t perfect.

Do I need to replace my graphics card with say 1GB of video memory to achieve the proper resolution? If you could recommend a replacement I would be very grateful.

I wrote to Gordy to suggest that he check the Nvidia web site to make sure he has the latest driver. I also suggested that he check the Benq web site to make sure he has loaded the latest driver for his monitor. While the standard Windows plug-and-play monitor driver may work, and the video card driver in Windows may work, they’re not likely to be optimized.

Continue reading Solving Jerky Streamed Videos

Filed Under: Communications, Hardware, Notebook, Terry's Computer Tips, Video
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