Home Computer Talk

By: Mr JM

Now you have your Windows XP computer up and running nicely – the Video card is installed, sound is working and your computer is once more talking on the network or through your ADSL (Broadband) modem to the Internet.

How do you get your precious information from your dead Hard Drive?

Sometimes a hard disk dies for good. If that’s the case, you need to figure if your information is worth the maybe $1000 to get professionals to recover your data. They can open the drive, pull out the platters where all those little magnetic moments happen, insert the platters into a different drive and pull out your bits.

But mostly, the hard disk dies slowly. Here’s what to try – once you have a compatible machine to put the drive in.

You need the new PC to be ready to run, but open so you can insert your old drive. If you aren’t sure about what goes where, get some help. If the new machine is SATA and the old drive is ATA, disconnect the DVD in the new machine so the old hard disk can connect on the ATA cable.

Next, find a nice sealable plastic bag, one big enough to take the hard disk in it. Sandwich bags with the clip-lock seal are great for this. Take your old hard disk from the machine, carefully removing the attached cables – the ribbon or SATA cable should come off easily – the power cable may take a bit of a pull, but try to make sure you pull straight out.

Also be sure that when you are pulling on the power cable, there is nothing of knuckle-busting capability within reach of your freely swinging hand as the cable releases. Computers do like to take a blood sacrifice from anyone who opens them.

Place the drive in the plastic bag and seal it – seal it good – you do NOT want moisture in there. Now place the bag in your freezer overnight.

Yes, that’s right, in the freezer. It doesn’t have to be a standalone freezer – the one in the top of your fridge will do fine. Try to avoid using the one in the local supermarket – not only do they frown on the idea, but someone is going to get a hell of a surprise when they try to carve your drive for dinner.

By: Mr JM

If your old computer died and you’ve bought (or begged borrowed or stolen) another to take its place, you may think you have to start all over. There is however, some good news. If your computer died, the chances are excellent the hard disk is still viable so you can get all your work transferred over to the new machine.

And if your hard disk died, the chances are pretty good your computer is OK and all you need is a new hard disk. If you are one of the six people in the country who have actually backed up their work, you’re smiling. If you aren’t one of them, there’s a possibility of getting your data back from the hard disk.

First you need to have the computer up and running – this probably means getting a new hard disk, a Windows disk, and rebuilding your Windows system. There are some earlier posts in this blog to deal with how to boot to your Windows CD and run setup.

For most desktops, the Windows build process will provide adequate access to all the hardware. The areas where it tends to miss are with Video cards, Network cards and Audio cards. Also, laptops tend to have radically tweaked drivers for the hardware inside – you WILL need to find your laptop drivers and have them ready to install once Windows is up and running.

If you don’t have a list of the hardware that is in your machine, you should make one now. For those with a dead doorstop in front of them, open the machine, touch something large and metal for grounding, then look inside the box to see what identification you can find.

If the PC will start but not boot into Windows, you can usually find the information about what hardware you have in CMOS – this is the hardware setup of your computer – usually pressing [Delete] or [Del]> as the computer starts will get you into it, but on some systems it can be [F2] or even [F1]

NOTE: Change nothing in CMOS!!! Doing so without knowing what you do can kill your machine dead! Knowing in this instance means actually KNOWING what that setting is and what changing it will mean for your chips and circuits.

Once you have your hardware information, go to a friend, to your work or to an Internet Café and find the manufacturer’s website, track down the model of hardware you have and download the drivers for it. If you don’t have one already, get a USB stick. (AKA USB memory, USB flash drive, USB key) You can buy a 2GB one for around $20.

By: Mr JM

At the simplest, the changeover can be simply removing one hard disk from a machine & connecting it into another.

Unfortunately, that simple version is rarely how things go. One immediate issue is whether the old computer is ATA style of hard disk and the new one is SATA. (ATA is Advanced Technology Attachment and SATA is Serial Advanced Technology Attachment – they are standards for connecting hard disks and CD/DVD drives) The problem is they use different cables to attach for data and power.

A lot of new computers or motherboards (also known as mainboards) come with connectors for both types of drive. While hard disks are pretty much converted over to SATA now, there are a lot of CD/DVD drives still connecting with ATA.

How to tell which you have? Easy – ATA have the flat 40-pin cables, usually grey, and 40 thin wires in a flat plastic ribbon, terminating in a rectangular, two rows of 20, plug. If your cable has way less than 40 wires and has a plug less than two centimeters wide (less than ¾ inch) it is SATA.

ATA had a nice system where you could put two devices on each cable; SATA so far seems to be one per cable, so I would think the ATA system will be around for a while so systems can have two hard disks AND a DVD.

So, if you have an older flat ribbon type drive, the chances are pretty good you’ll be able to add it into your new machine, at least long enough to copy your data over, and quite likely as a second hard disk for data storage.

Ideally you’d want the system drive to be the SATA drive as they are faster and pump more data through to the system, but there is no reason not to have an ATA drive in there for data files.

By: Mr JM

So, what is it you want to do with your computer changeover? Are you replacing your computer because it’s old? Has your previous one gone to God & you’ve got a new one to set up and you want all your data, documents, pictures, movies, music etc. from the old one brought onto your new one?

It may be you’ve finally bitten the bullet and shelled out for a new computer simply because your old one simply doesn’t cut it anymore.

Whatever your reason for changing over, one thing is farily sure – you want to bring with the change all the things you want to keep and leave behind all the things you didn’t need or want or that were slowing things down.

In my case, I have a perfectly good computer on my desk which, by good fortune, I can change over into a slightly newer one at no cost. The newer PC has four RAM slots rather than two, which means I can increase the amount of memory without having to scrap memory modules. Also, it has a moderately quicker CPU – the chip that performs most of the calculations that make computers do stuff.

These scenarios offer a range of options as to how you go about changing over. Keep in mind, most of the work can be done by anyone who can use a screwdriver, line up a plug with a socket, and MOST importantly, pause and think before trying to force something to happen.

There is a lot of jargon and all kinds of complexities about computers, but the basics are pretty simple. It’s like the programming side of things – everything seems incredibly complex and wonderful, but at base, it’s all just 0’s and 1’s.

By: Mr. JM

We all make Backups of our data… right? So the simplest thing to do is set up the new computer with all your programs and then copy your documents, music, videos and personal settings over from the backup.

For those three people out there who haven’t made regular, complete and timely backups of their work and pleasure, there are ways to perform the move to new hardware which offer a chance to clean up the current mess and allow for a better chance in the future to save your electronic treasures.

Now, if your new computer is truly new, fresh out of the box, you can concentrate on the parts following that deal with how to find and save, then transfer, your data – the sections dealing with how to clean the not-so-new computer, how to set it up so it is ready for its new life, will not apply.

A big step to all of this is having a Windows Boot CD or DVD. Unfortunately, most computer manufacturers don’t even provide this with a brand new PC, and if you’ve got a second hand computer, the chances aren’t good it was passed along with your purchase.

But you need it.

Also, you need to have a good idea of what it is you wish to save. If you’ve been saving stuff all over the place on your hard disk, it can be quite a task to find it all. This can also apply if you’ve been using computers for a long time and have gone through a variety of versions of Windows.

Microsoft programmers are paid a lot of money to provide human-friendly environments on computers – given most of them have never met a human in person, they do a fairly good job, but over the years, they have altered how things work, so if you’ve upgraded a couple of times over years, your information can be hard to locate. Windows may know where it is, but chances are, Windows ain’t going to tell you about it.

By Mr. JM

Recently we had a clean out of stock at work. As an exclusively IBM (now Lenovo) company, we regularly replace the older computers and so have a range of machines which, while by no means useless, are not wanted by the company. We cycle laptops every three years and desktops every five years.

However, one of the sites recently replaced a machine that wasn’t IBM/Lenovo with one that was. Before throwing out (or cleaning up and passing to staff for a home computer) the box, I took a look at what was in it.

Turns out it is a better machine than the desktop I have on my desk at home, so I snaffled it.

But that raises a problem – on my home PC there is the accumulation, across two large hard disks, of software, installations, documents, movies and music. I don’t want to run two PC’s so one has to somehow move across to the other.

I thought it might be useful to go through the process I follow in converting one system into my new home system while cleaning the other to act as a network ‘server’ which will run the network, printers and scanner for myself and JM.

It is a complex process to follow if one wants to keep the environment from the original PC. The easiest way is to simply place the new PC in place with the raw bones of your system (Windows, Office, Windows Media Player and other software you use) and let the accumulation process start again.

But that involves also finding all those downloads, reconnecting to sites, rebuilding favourites and contacts for email. It could be months before things get back to ‘normal’ doing it that way.

But how do you find all the stuff on your old PC to move it over? Where do you get a list of what is installed so you can install it over on the new PC? If the PC is second hand, how do you set it up to be ‘as new’ for your own use?

You’ve heard about it from your friends and family. Maybe your children. “Blogs.” “Blogging.” “Bloggers.” Heck, you’ve heard that people are actually out there making money from just talking about themselves and their lives. There are even a few who live off what they make from blogging.

Or maybe you have been faithfully reading blogs for quite a while now but have never taken the leap into writing your own.

But then again, it all sounds a bit complicated with all the different ‘platforms’ and things you can do with them. It can be a bit overwhelming to get a start on it all.

So how do you start? Where do you start?

First off, don’t worry about whether or not you’re too ‘late’ to start blogging. People all over the world are starting new blogs every day and many people have been blogging for years, so you’ll be entering into a massive huge arena with people both new and experienced with the world of blogging.

Second, don’t let other people overwhelm you with all the jargon and lingo surrounding blogging. Starting next week, I’ll be taking you through things step by step, and if you have any questions along the way – no matter how you feel about how they may sound – you can always ask in the comments or using the ‘comment me’ button under the site description on the right.

The most important thing to remember about blogging is that blogging is what you make of it. You reap what you sow, so to say and blogging can be a truly great experience if you’re willing to put the time into it.

We’ll get started next week with what blog platforms are and how you choose the one that’s best for you.

Have a great weekend!

I pretty much grew up with computers as part of my life. I had them at school and used typing, games, etc programs. I remember using dot matrix printers and planning the most basic version of Lemmings. I was introduced to the internet when I was about ten or so. (Funnily enough, I remember thinking, “Why would anyone want to use that?”)

Even with all of this, there is a lot about computers that I just don’t know. I have geared myself into the internet side of things with blogging, gaming, and other internet activities. When it comes to the bits and pieces of computers, there isn’t a lot I know.

Despite that, I took on this blog because I have a passion for computers and knew I could rely on my husband, Mr. JM, for guidance when it came to the nuts and bolts stuff about computers.

I’ve been thinking about it for a while and finally had a talk about it with the husband…

I think it’s well past time here on Home Computer Talk that Mr. JM had a bigger voice. I have been asking him about things and pestering him about so much that it no longer makes sense to keep on as I’ve kept on.

So, without further ado, I would like to welcome my husband and now co-blogger here to Home Computer Talk.

You’ll be able to identify his posts by the “By Mr. JM” at the beginning of each of his posts. (Until 451press resolves its other technical difficulties.)

This doesn’t mean I’ll stop posting, by any means. I’ll just be posting less as Mr. JM steps in to talk more about the technical side of things and his day-to-day work as a helpdesk person.

I hope you all join me in welcoming him to the site.

As you may know, I also write for the site Finally Getting Fit (among others) here on the 451Press network. On Finally Getting Fit, I talk about my weight loss journey and trying to make a healthier life for myself.

I have been overweight most of my life, but that’s not the case for everyone…

With the increase of convenience technology, humans have fewer and fewer reasons to be as active as they once were. To make up for that, some of us join gyms, make sure to get out and about on weekends, buy in home gyms…but not everyone does. And the more you get used to sitting in front of your computer (for whatever reason) the easier it is to pack on the pounds.

So what can you do about it? How do you lose the pounds without losing too much of your computer time?

*Get two tennis balls and (more…)

I guess the most obvious question about being a part of the internet is ‘Why?’ Some people may always be observers but not participants, using their access to read, view and download but never actually putting things out there for others to read, view and download.

Others spend their time playing online games – sometimes for money, which involves participation but rarely contributing to the morass of data that is the web. Yet if everybody felt this way, there would be no internet.

The web can be a safety valve, not just (more…)

In the previous post I used the example of the Hockey Stick graph used successfully by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control) to ramp up awareness of the warming trend caused (they say) by human industry and consumption.

Keep in mind, the above graph is what, until the IPCC got on the case, was an agreed record of global temperature trends. Agreed across Science, backed by historical records as well as things like ice core data.

So what happened? If you enter a search in your favourite search engine of ‘hockey stick graph’ you will find the main author was Dr Michael Mann. He was an IPCC lead reviewer who somehow got to highlight his own work as being most indicative of the AGW. (Anthropogenic Global Warming – the warming caused (more…)

For those who may have been exploring their Consciousness in a cave in the Andes, or perhaps have 5 children under five years old to look after, and thus may not know, for some time now there has been a controversy raging over whether or not Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) is occurring.

This graph is the major source of the problem

Keep in mind, in this argument, nobody is suggesting we haven’t had recent warm weather, nor even that the Earth isn’t getting warmer. Indeed, standard Science has said all along that, since an event called The Little Ice Age about four hundred years ago, the Earth has been on a steady warming trend. (more…)

Some time back there was a flurry of activity about a movie called The Secret. It claims to contain information used by sages and successful people down through the ages and to be informative of a way of thought that those ‘in control’ don’t want us to know. It is available now to download from such sites as www.torrentz.com as a movie, an audio book and even as a hemisync track.

The hemisync track uses binaural beats to get your brain into alpha mode while the message of The Secret is talked about. The idea is to have it almost like hypnosis so the message gets in.

Powaqqatsi and Koyaanisqatsi are movies by Godrey Reggio which tend to defy categorization. They stand, I guess, as works of Art rather than Hollywood style movies. Koyaanisqatsi is a movie with (more…)

RAM, or memory for your computer is probably the best upgrade. It’s been a while since there was a major change in the chip (CPU) that runs your computer apart from some tweaks in speed and the number of simultaneous operations it can perform.

Those tweaks can be important if you’re pushing the envelope of performance, such as high end video editing or creation or the latest in games. But for the average user, nothing adds extra ‘zing’ to the day-to-day as RAM. And it’s cheap.

You do, however, need to be careful about what memory you buy. There are different kinds (more…)

So… you’ve looked around, found your needs, discovered which ones suit your computer best, found a supplier with a good rep and a decent price and you’re wondering who you can pay to do the upgrade.

Relax, it’s not that hard. If you try not to worry about the complexities of what a computer actually does, there are only a few parts to see in the box and they are easy to identify.

But first, read and meditate on the following…

Rule number one – (more…)