Plastic Nev

Hi, Firstly I don't know I tunes at all, so can't say. However whether using W.Media Player, or I Tunes, or indeed any other software I wouldn't recommend saving them as MP3 as that is a compressed format, it is only used to save space or if intending to later copy to some other external player, again to save on space used on that player. Providing you have a good amount of free disk space and intend only playing them from your computer, save all music files as WAV if wanting full fidelity, the compressing of MP3 loses the finer points of any music. This then leads to the next point, and for best quality the higher sampling rate the better, though at those speeds I doubt you would hear much if any difference, the higher rate does increase the finished file size though. As for play lists, if you wish to make them, and using Windows Media Player, it does the job for most folk. Nev.

I only did the clone article, it was KenB who wrote the one about making a full image. In both cases though both myself and Ken worked together on it and we both used the Macrium reflect, rather than the Windows own image or backup maker. However, as already discussed, altering an active partition while that partition is in use is risky, so it could well be the reason for the later problem. As DSTM suggested, much better to pre organise partitions before making a clone. Nev.

Hi Peter, I have a Canon MG 2250, that uses a cartridge numbered 540 (B) and 541 ©, slightly different I think by looking at pictures of yours, however, these styles of cartridge are very similar to those used by HP and for 56 and 57. With the HP cartridges you just peeled back the paper label which then exposed a hole you could inject fresh ink into the cartridge. Though as yet not needed to do so as my Canon printer isn't that old, I am expecting to find something similar. However, if no hole, most refill ink kits come with a small drill, and instructions for where to put the hole for cartridges that require a hole drilled into them. Edit to add, I found instructions for the black 540, I expect yours will be similar here :- http://www.octopus-office.de/en/info/ink-refill-instructions/ink-refill-instructions-for-canon/refill-instructions-for-canon-pg-540-cl-541/ink-refill-instructions-canon-pg-540-pg-540-xl/ A search round that site might find some instructions for yours, though maybe in German?? I also hope there isn't some odd thing in software that rejects or refuses to accept a refilled cartridge, as some other printer manufacturers install and requires a chip in the cartridge to be reset. Nev.

How does Palemoon compare with Firefox for memory use Starbuck? Though I recently updated, I soon got used to the new interface in Firefox, it just irks me that in comparison to IE the memory use is so high, regardless of what version Firefox is or has been. Still use it, but if doing something else that is RAM intensive, I have to remember to shut Firefox to get the best out of whatever I am using. To put your mind at ease Ray, I have been using Firefox for many years and seen it go through a lot of changes as they update to new versions. I can assure you that all favourites in IE do stay there, they are only copied to Firefox, not completely moved. The only gripe with Firefox is its hunger for memory or RAM use, I just looked at "Task Manager" and after being on for a couple of hours it is running 330,000K of RAM, which in comparison to other tasks is a lot, the highest other process is my Windows Live Mail which is using around 53,000K. It isn't too much of a problem for me with a total RAM of 4GB, however with older 32bit machines maybe still running XP with the minimum 500KB, other processes will be struggling without first shutting Firefox down. Nev.

Hi Gary, if you can tell us the make and model we can be sure, however a lot of laptops have a boot order page as well which can be the F2 key or sometimes the F10 key, either way you can set the disk drive to be selected to boot from by moving up and down the list. Instructions are usually on the relevant page as to how to change the boot order. Nev.

Hum, I think we are back to some driver somewhere causing this problem, as well as the possibility of a faulty hard drive as suggested by DSTM. It now depends on whether the owner has some full system recovery disks, or it is one of those that works from the recovery partition. If replacing the hard drive then obviously the partition type of recovery isn't much use so that would mean a new copy of Windows 7 and then using the original product key, which as suggested earlier, Speccy can find that for you. Whichever method, a new hard drive and full install of the operating system plus the required drivers, may be the way to go now as any other things tried may just be a waste of time any way. Nev.

Hi, Further to good advice and idea's from DSTM so far, in most cases where only Vista drivers are available, they should work. The two operating systems are actually very close any way. A good clue is that it was originally Vista, and then the upgrade was installed, and no doubt everything worked OK yet the drivers would all have been original. However, before we go right down the road of new drives and reinstalling everything, lets have a look at the operating system itself as one thing we should try is the system file checker. Do you know how to run sfc /scannow as administrator, in elevated mode? If so try it, if not we can explain. Nev.

Yep, that is the next, especially now you say it crashed while on the Kodak files, totally uninstall the printer, I assume a Kodak one, then try again before reinstalling the printer. If all is OK, but the problem returns after reinstalling the printer, it looks like some sort of conflict between the two. Let us know how you get on please. Oh and to answer the question why does it not BSOD in safe mode is because in safe mode the drivers will not be active for the printer. Nev.

Hi Joddle, from everything I have found, the main error code of 0x0000007a points at two different things, for some strange reason it can be associated with either boot up problems, or printer problems. However the second clue is the "Caused by driver ntoskrnl.exe", which is a vital part of boot up. Why that should be the cause of blue screens at the end of a Malwarebytes scan is a puzzle, however, someone has very kindly posted a video on Youtube showing how to download, and install a microsoft fix. Have a look at that, it may answer the problem. If not, the other possible causes for the original 0X0000007a error are printer problems, if a printer is installed, try uninstalling and a reinstall. Nev.

Something said earlier, and also the last post by RossMcGibbon has made me wonder if a program you had previously has not been reinstalled after the fresh install of Windows 7. I say this because you cannot enter or access anything in a zipped folder until it has been unzipped, so you might have had a program previously that was automatically unzipping them. Nev.

Hi how is the printer connected? Is it cable or wireless? If wireless check that all wireless settings are correct, and if possible turn the wireless off and connect by cable to check it works with cable. If already connected by cable check connections and if it seems OK then try another cable. Nev.

Hi Starling, if you want nothing more than a customisable website, there are quite few a free ones available, the Brass Band I was involved with are presently using this :- http://www.wix.com/lpviral/400?utm_campaign=vir_wixad_live It looks fairly easy to set up a starting site and can be added to later as you need. For an instance of what can be done have a look at the band website, give you an idea of what can be done here :- http://www.darwenbrass.co.uk/ There many other examples on the Wix website as well. Nev.

OK, I see where you are coming from, a bit belt, braces, and a few extra pairs of hands to hold your pants up type of thing. However in this day with Windows 7 being as stable as it is, most of those procedures are not really needed any more. However, as far as the BIOS ignoring your instructions to boot from the partition or drive of choice, I honestly don't understand why that is happening if you have definitely put it at the top of the boot list. I can only suggest making sure that the drive letter, or if relevant, name, for the desired option is correct. The only other possible thing would be a flash or update of the BIOS firmware, however, no longer as risky as it used to be, it still does have risks, so not too happy here to recommend that unless really necessary. See if someone else may have further thoughts first. Nev.

Ah right I understand now, a good idea actually in essence. So, for clarity, we will call the system you are adding to and changing drive 1 Drive 2 will be the drive you are then adding the clones to. First question is can you see drive 2 as if it were added storage while running from drive 1? If that is right, the only time you need to clone again is when a new program is installed, for normal file additions such as pictures, music, video, you can copy from one drive to the other while connected, just the same as copying to a pen drive or similar. Nev.

Hi Sebastian, can you be a bit more specific as to what these changes are, it may be that the change is being blocked by the BIOS, or even vice versa, the BIOS is always giving that one priority. If you let us know what the changes are it may be something we recognise as having been a problem in the past. Nev.

Hi joddle, further to DSTM's advice and a discussion with him, to be sure of having absolute full administrator control is to go into the so called hidden administrator account. To do so is normally not recommended as it can be a risk by exposing the system to a malware attack should you be unlucky, so once done in there revert it back to hidden. Here is how to get into the hidden account. First use as previously mentioned the right click to select run as administrator on the cmd.exe. When that window opens, type or better still copy and paste this into the box :- net user administrator /active:yes Then hit the enter key. You should then see it say "The command completed successfully" Once you have done that, either log out, or fully shut down and reboot, you then should see the log in screen with your account and the administrator account. Click the administrator account to open it, then once opened go through the sfc /scannow routine again and see if it will then run. When you need to hide the hidden account again, go back to the elevated command prompt and type or copy and paste :- net user administrator /active:no and hit the enter key. Again you should see "The command completed successfully" If still problems after running the sfc /scannow from the full admin account, it does look like a full re-install of the OS is going to have to be done. For more information about the hidden account and gaining access, have a look at this link :- http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/enable-the-hidden-administrator-account-on-windows-vista/ Nev.

Hi, and to back up what DSTM said, Yes, Macrium reflect is both a cloning tool and also an imaging tool, it is available as a free version as well as the full paid for, however for most cloning or even image making jobs, the free version is very good. Both DSTM and myself use it as also does KenB, and we all swear by it and we are all using the free version, which you can download from either Macriums own site by selecting the free button, as per lower down on this page :- http://www.macrium.com/pages/downloads.aspx The instructions on that page are to try to make you install the trial version, however, follow what it says and click the drop down menus and select "Free" Or you can download the free version directly from here :- http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/macrium_reflect_free_edition.html The only warning being that like all free software these days watch for unwanted software such as "Real Player" and make sure ticks are removed from boxes. Once you have it downloaded and installed, I wrote a tutorial regarding using the cloning part of Macrium Reflect here :- http://magazine.freepchelp.uk/making-a-cloned-hard-drive-using-macrium-reflect/ Although I wrote it with a complete system clone in mind, you can see from the screen shots where to put ticks for whichever partition you wish to clone. Nev.

How exactly are you going to create the clone? Most cloning software that I know of, automatically reformats the drive or partition that it is putting the clone onto. It can't mix a new set of software into an existing one. Nev.

Hi Joddle, is it definitely cmd.exe that you see before right clicking on it? If it definitely is, and complete with the .exe after it, and then hangs doing nothing it does indeed point to a problem with the Windows 7 OS itself. If as you say the repair option also does nothing from safe mode, do you have the disks? It may require a fresh total install from the disks, so back up anything of importance as a fresh install will of course reformat and wipe everything. Before going that direction though, wait in case Ken has some other suggestions first. Nev.

Ah, You should open the command prompt in elevated for it to work, which means opening it as an administrator. To do that, first click the start orb, or press the windows key, then type cmd into the search bar, the small black box icon and cmd.exe is at the top, right click on it and select "Run as administrator", then type in the sfc /scannow, and press the enter key. It should then tell you it is checking files, it will take some time depending if it finds anything wrong or not. If it comes up with "Some files could not be repaired" run the sfc /scannow again, and if required again, sometimes it can take four or five runs if serious problems are encountered.

Hi, if all you are wanting to do is to clone one drive onto another, you might be better off cloning to the other drive with that one connected externally via a suitable USB connection, such as an enclosure or adapter, and use a suitable cloning program. Bear in mind, unless you set up a partition on the drive to be cloned to, and direct the clone onto that partition, most cloning softwares will firstly fully format the drive before starting the clone, therefore removing whatever is on the drive. Nev.

I seem to remember that in the case of two drives with an operating system on each, some BIOS systems actually ask you which to boot from on start up, Joddle just might be lucky and get that come up on screen at start up. Providing the motherboard if SATA, or the big wide data cable if IDE, will accept two hard drives, it is not likely to do any harm trying it out. Nev.

Hi Ray, that's why I suggested freezing it, if it took an hour just to register, then the read head drive might be sticky, freezing just might release it to run correctly. Certainly explains why it won't run in the laptop though if it takes an hour. Good idea to check the Del drive in the enclosure before trying it in the laptop as well Ray, certainly worth the few minutes it would take. Nev.

Hi not looking good at all for the old Toshiba drive. However several things to mention, firstly and still talking about the Toshiba drive, freezing has sometimes worked with drives that won't normally work. In a warm and dry atmosphere, wrap the drive tightly in a polythene bag to prevent moisture building up inside, then put it in a freezer, leave it there for more than two hours so its temperature is below freezing point, then quickly connect it back up and see if data can be retrieved before it warms up again. If you leave the drive in the enclosure and wrap the lot up, A good tight wrapping of cling film will do, it will be quicker to connect once frozen, but to make sure it is all fully frozen leave in the freezer for about three hours or more. One small point, if user data is protected by a password, that may be why it shows as 0 data. Now to have a look at the ex Del hard drive, as you found yes it will fit and providing the drive is definitely a good one it will work, at least as a hard drive. However very unlikely that the Windows Vista on it will start unless by some fluke Del, and Toshiba used exactly the same motherboard and other components. It should though show up at least in the Toshiba's BIOS. So long as it does, and the BIOS accepts it, we can go further with it. Let us know please. Nev.

Hi Louis, Thanks for the update and very glad all is sorted for now. By all means do come back with any other questions, we are always glad to help. Nev.