Plastic Nev

Hi nice to see you again, It does look like a lot of problems indeed, so I would suggest you look into the malware removal section with this, follow the instructions for downloading the various tools and post the logs, our malware guys will be able to see more from the logs and help remove anything else unwanted that will be hidden from normal views. Here is a link to the instruction page, then either post them here and we will move this thread to the security and malware, or you could start a new thread in there. http://extremetechsupport.com/threads/10689-Before-posting-for-Malware-Removal-help-WinXP-Vista-and-Win7#.U0RmqVfDWng Edited to add, ignore my link and scroll to the bottom of this thread and follow Starbucks instructions in his post please. Nev.

Hello and at least a happy birthday to you. Yes I am also on staff at CHF, so be careful how you work on here. Nev.

There can be no sure answer to that Ray, but no different to say the same for any other operating system. The real safeguard is always a full backup regardless of the operating system involved. If anything does go wrong, a backup is the rescue back to safety. Remember, it may not be a bad malware attack, a worn out duff hard drive is just as disastrous. If not afraid of a screwdriver and basic practical skills, have you seen my tutorial for cloning the entire system to a spare hard drive? Here is the tutorial :- http://magazine.freepchelp.uk/making-a-cloned-hard-drive-using-macrium-reflect/ Nev.

Hi Norm, It may at first look difficult, but it actually isn't too difficult for making the clone. If at some later date it requires the clone fitting into the computer and not of a mechanical enough nature to fit it yourself, any technician would do it for you reasonably cheaply. To set up the clone, all it needs is to buy a spare hard drive, and an enclosure to put it in. The enclosure then will connect to a USB port or socket. I recently found that an enclosure is cheaper than any other method of connection, plus it puts the spare hard drive in a safe container till required. Once that is done, I recently wrote a tutorial for how to make a clone which is in our magazine here :- http://magazine.freepchelp.uk/making-a-cloned-hard-drive-using-macrium-reflect/ Nev.

In fact it was me you spoke to in a PM Ray, however I had no idea at the time that it was such a short period. I think the five minutes that Randy has put it at is more reasonable and under most circumstances will be enough. As I said to you, any of us can later edit further if asked and if it is for a good reason. The only thing else worth a mention is that to have a good read of your post before actually hitting the post button, and if you go advanced, you can then also preview the post to see how it will look in the final posting, and of course change anything if needed before posting or hitting the "Submit reply" button. Nev.

Hi Ray, most security vendors are saying they will be giving support for up to two years, no doubt one of our security guys will have more information regarding that, however have you given serious thought to backups should you get caught out? Have a read of the advice I gave to GeordieLad, take note of his original idea and why I advised the way I did, and have a think about it, here :- http://extremetechsupport.com/threads/16157-WinXP-Final-Updates#.U0LXz1fDWng

Hi, it is of course worth a phone call, you never know. I once had a much older satellite on XP and got a new motherboard fitted under extended warranty. As for the USB adapter, it is actually much cheaper to buy an enclosure, just fit the hard drive and then connect to another computer. £6-99 from Amazon, here :- http://www.amazon.co.uk/Allcam-IT700-inch-Enclosure-Drive/dp/B000V8I5GW I looked at adapters first, thinking they would be cheaper, they certainly aren't, just for example look here, a massive difference in price. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bipra-SATA-Adapter-Power-Drive/dp/B001A5SK56 Nev.

Hi, before we look at full replacement, it would be worthwhile connecting it to another computer where other checks can be run from that other computer. I wouldn't like to say yes it is a duff drive if it turns out that the real fault could be the hard drive controller on the motherboard, or some other motherboard fault. If this hard drive is easily removed from the laptop and is the modern SATA type, (which the HDD model number says it is) providing there is a spare SATA port on another computer it can be connected and checked out quite simply. If there are spares, the ports will be on the motherboard and may require a short SATA cable and Power supply cable if not already present. If no spare ports, then for minimal cost an adapter can be bought to connect the drive to a USB port. If the drive is recognised, and can be accessed while connected to that other computer, it will be a fair bet the drive is OK, and other checks can then be run as well. If however it doesn't show up at all on the other computer, then it may well be a dud. Better going this way first rather than buying and installing a new drive to find the fault is on the motherboard. If at the end of this it does prove to be the hard drive faulty, a new drive can be obtained from many computer parts retailers, though if possible the similar model number may be the best to rule out any UEFI BIOS problems. Once a new drive is fitted, you can download Windows 7 service pack 1 from Digital River and burn it to an ISO disk, or considering this laptop will boot from USB, it can be downloaded to a USB pendrive for installation that way. Once installed the product key from the sticker is all that is needed to activate it. The download is fully legal and from here :- http://www.w7forums.com/threads/official-windows-7-sp1-iso-image-downloads.12325/ Nev.

I wish you all the very best Dougie and look forward to any pictures you post in the sticky photo's and pictures thread. As you know from elsewhere, I am looking at buying the same camera, so providing I can obtain one, we may be able to compare results. Nev.

Hi, OK, the first thing is to be sure the spare hard drives you have are the same type and at least the same size in capacity. Next, please read all I have written below, it will give you a better understanding of it before making a start. From the specifications I can find, the hard drive in your machine is the older IDE, it has a broad flat cable for the data, so whichever spare hard drive you wish to use should be the same type of connection. There are quite a few software programs available that will create a clone, some paid for and some free. However I only know the workings of one which is fortunately available as a free version as well as paid for Pro version, I will be explaining the use of the free version as it is all that is required to create a clone. The software is called Macrium Reflect, and is by Paramount software. The free version can be downloaded from here :- http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/macrium_reflect_free_edition.html You can go to the Paramount software Macrium reflect's own website to see and learn , though be careful downloading from their site that you do indeed get the free version and not the trial version of the pro and paid for. Also check carefully and remove any ticks for add ons or other unwanted softwares, you don't need them and some are a plain nuisance if accidentally downloaded and installed. http://www.macrium.com/ From that you may actually be able to work out how to create a clone onto another hard drive, or even create and put an image onto an external hard drive. However, some time since I wrote a tutorial on it and is here in our Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help Magazine tutorials section. From that you will find step by step instructions, although they were written for an earlier version of Macrium Reflect, the present version is very similar. http://magazine.freepchelp.uk/making-a-cloned-hard-drive-using-macrium-reflect/ You may ask what is the difference between a clone and an image? An image, which is meant to be stored on a permanently external hard drive, is a means of restoring your system by reinstalling the image onto either the original hard drive, or a new replacement hard drive, however it will be the system as it was at the time of the creation of the image and will not carry later data or backups. That is due to the image being in a compressed format which is difficult if not impossible to change at a later date, except by creating a new image. Which includes all the time required for that process to complete. The image is compressed in order to reduce the amount of space required on your external hard drive. A clone on the other hand is a complete copy of your system in exactly the same format and taking up the same amount of space. In other words, it is not compressed and easy to modify or add to. If the clone is stored on a spare hard drive of the same type as the one installed in the computer, it can be swapped in at any time and you are back up and running in the time it takes to remove the old and fit the new. A much shorter time than reinstalling an image onto the original or replacement drive. A clone also has the advantage that it can be reconnected at any time and new data copied on to it as a means of keeping up the backups. The only disadvantage is newly installed software cannot be copied, it has to be installed, which means making a fresh clone of course once the new software has been installed on the computer. Hope all that helps and please ask if any questions, Nev.

Under most circumstances and for most files or photo's 16 GB will be quite adequate. If it were all video files, which are usually the biggest if in high definition, that stick would give you at least two hours or more of video. Edit to add, Ray (Posted just before me) has maybe the better idea of getting two 8GB, depends on how far the cash can spread really. Nev.

If as you say things are on websites you have to sign on to in order to see them, then they would still be there whatever you do, in fact you could come to my house, use my computer to sign in and they would be there to see from here. So for those, you just need to sign out on the windows 8 computer. By all means buy a memory stick as they are always useful for all sorts of data transfer and short term storage. Nev.

Hi, just on the off chance that it requires the older version, (Being an older machine it just might,) try burning the legacy software as per the note at the bottom of instruction 3, as I quote :- NOTE: If you have any difficulty booting up with this version, please use one of the legacy versions of SeaTools for DOS. If that still fails let us know the full model number of the laptop please, we may need to know that to advise further. Nev.

Thanks for the move Ken as I am waiting for a reply from GeordieLad, and if that progresses will move that down to this XP forum too. Now then Norm, firstly for now it isn't that much longer to the final support finishing date so for now and providing all updates are already up to date and still coming in till that date it is possibly best to actually do nothing till then as your backups on the external will be OK till then as well. What I will suggest though now is to have a look at the advice I gave to GeordieLad and have a think about creating a clone drive. Being on a separate hard drive that can be slotted in the minute anything goes wrong with the current drive, I rate it as the best possible backup you can have. All it needs is a screwdriver and about half an hour or less to swap the drives round. The down side is a one off purchase of a spare hard drive and some means to connect the spare drive to a USB port. I assume with this being an older computer with a small 70GB hard drive it will be of the older IDE type, these are now very cheap and have found a good make at £12-99 on Amazon here :- http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital-WD1600AAJB-160GB-Drive/dp/B006Z4IRT6/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1396545604&sr=1-1 A USB to IDE adapter at £14-95 to connect the hard drive ready for cloning here :- http://www.usbnow.co.uk/Adapters_&_Connectors-USB_to_IDE_Adapters/c42_46/index.html After that, all you need is the free software to actually create the clone onto the spare hard drive. The software and how to use it I can describe if you are interested and wish to look into doing it. I personally have two different clones on two different hard drives these days and I feel they are more reliable than ordinary data backups or even the older idea of images stored on external drives. Nev.

Hi Gotalife, if the auto backup is set up to backup the entire system including WindowsXP operating system, then it is all you need, however if all it does is back up Data and not the operating system, then it needs changing so that it does. Nev.

Hi, I have merged the two threads as they cover the same subject, I can understand your concerns regarding the end of support for Windows XP and the worry that should you need to reformat back to factory condition there would indeed be a lot of updates to re-install. If the present system is fully up to date through the normal Windows updates, and kept that way until the support does end, you need do nothing more with the system as it stands. However there is a better way to get around it than trying to store all the updates for future installation should the need ever arise. As you have seen the number is huge and with a different approach, unneeded. What is that approach? It is called a clone of the current drive. This is a spare hard drive of the same type and size or larger of the current hard drive in the computer, which holds a complete copy of everything that is already on the current hard drive. Should the worst happen and the current drive becomes useless through corruption, malwares, or a plain ordinary mechanical failure, the original drive is simply removed and the spare drive fitted in its place, you are back up and running in the length of time it takes to do the physical exchange. (A lot quicker than a reinstall and reinstall of all the updates) To do this, it does mean buying a spare hard drive, and if nothing available, also buying a means to connect the new drive via USB so that the clone can be created onto the new spare hard drive. There is also a second approach, this is called a mirror image of the system and is again a complete copy of everything, but in this case it is stored on a permanently external hard drive if you have one, it also requires creating a rescue boot disk. If interested in looking at these further and you have confidence you can do it, let us know and we can explain further. Also please let us know the make and model of your computer, that may help us to recommend the type of hard drive you need to buy if going that route. Please reply below by clicking on the "Reply to Thread" button below this post. Nev.

Hi, to boot from a disk it does need to be changed as you say no3 now needs to be no1. Once that is done, give it some time as booting from a disk always takes a bit longer than booting from a hard drive. The no 4 is the normal network adapter, you can ignore this, but to explain, without it you couldn't connect to a network or the internet. However when it is enabled as no 1 in the BIOS it means the computer could actually boot from an operating system actually on the network or internet. Nev.

Hi, Is this fully shut down, or is it in sleep or hybernate mode? If in sleep mode only and "Wake on LAN" is on, any signal coming in from the network will wake it up. Especially if you are using a wireless connection, a wireless signal from a neighbour could be enough. If on the other hand it is fully shut down, the start button may be faulty, or a possible fault on either the motherboard or power supply. That may be difficult to identify though. The final solution of course is turn off the mains power after shut down. Nev.

If you already have YouTube Downloader installed, it will possibly do the job. However, if it tells you there is a new version available, be very careful during the installation of the new version as they include a bit of junk now including the YouTube downloader tool bar. Be sure to check for and remove ticks on the unwanted stuff. I now use AVC, which when downloaded only includes Real Player in the install which is easy to spot and untick. However AVC may have a greater range of video types it can convert and certainly a big range of what to convert too than the YT downloader. It will also download and convert from YouTube and many other video sites as well. If you wish to try AVC, (Any Video Converter) here is the link for the free download, ignore the banner at the top for the Ultimate as that is their paid for version. http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/ Nev.

Hi, if it is only recently have you tried a system restore to a time previous to this happening? Nev.

I am glad it all worked out for you Ray and thanks for letting us know. I will mark this solved. Nev.

Hi Ray, firstly, I would temporarily copy off the red drive back onto your computer the photo's you put on it, then do a full reformat of it as the Tesco guy suggested as he may be right it is the other junk on it may be causing the problem. As for Infra Recorder, to burn a DVD with it the files must be in DVD format, which fortunately they are, so it should do a straight copy for you. Nev.

Are both memory sticks formatted to the same format, i.e. NTFS, or FAT? if one is different to the other might be why one isn't recognised by the TV. Have you tried the complete DVD files straight onto the memory stick? My guess is that should work on the TV, though willing to be proved wrong, I am learning something new along with you Ray. Nev.

That's OK Ken, I had forgotten about that method. Nev..

I am assuming the TV can take a USB input, it then depends on what the TV can work with, what information does the TV manual give about it Ray? It may be able to handle the full DVD file system, or it may only be able to work with one of the simpler formats. If you let us know the make and model of the TV I might be able to find some info, but no promises, TV info can sometimes be vague at best. Nev.