Computer Problems???

[toypusher]

I know that a lot of members here have had some serious computer issues and asked for help.

I am a strong advocate of cloning your HD when it is work fine and being able to use that cloned image later if you have problems that can not be resolved. Serious infections, bad HD or whatever.

Anyway, until now I have not been able to recommend a good program for this that was also FREE.

Here is a cloning (or imagining if you prefer) program that is free and lets you create an image of your HD (or just a partition if you want) on a local drive, a networked drive, or a CD/DVD burnner.

www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp

Should give you more info and also has the download.

[starleen2]

. . . .and Not have to buy a Mac computer???? Thanks kerry for the info

[Dale M.]

Two things people should do that they do not do ( or not aware of ) and it saves lots of headaches is...

Defragment Harddrive..

http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/

And ...

Run a Registry Cleaner...

http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/registry-cleaner/

Also with decent anti virus software these two tools goes a long way to keep computer happy....

And yes with the new USB drives with 2TB (terabyte) of storage at about $100 to $130 it is really a good idea to do backup or disk image since we are depending more and more on computers...

Dale

[Wolffarmer]

Bah humbug

I use Opera or Chrome instead of IE. Internet Explorer is the biggest port to get crap in your system. Sometimes I use the free AVG for anti virus but usually to hard to find it so i run with out it. I really do not believe in registry cleaners, they will still leave bits and pieces behind. I keep the OS up to date. Don't you love incomplete Microsoft software?

When my XP gets a bit dodgie I do an "L" re-install of XP. That just deletes the Windows folder and reinstalls XP to that folder. Data does not get saved to that folder and I usually have it on a different drive anyway. Then I run updates and reinstall the software I really use. Every thing is then nice and clean and properly installed. I also have my hard drives partitioned or run the OS on a small one and data on a different one.

Just my way of doing it. But then I am suppose to be some kind of computer person. Not saying what kind.

Randy

[mikeschn]

I had a serious issue with my Mac Mini. It seemed slow compared to my CAD workstation.

So we built a new Hackintosh this weekend, with an i7 950 CPU. It has a CPU Benchmark of 6353 compared to a CPU benchmark of 1193 on my mac mini. That's more than 5 times faster. (CPU benchmarks from passmark.com)

But the real question was, how much would I lose? Programs? Data? Well, Chell plugged in a firewire cable, and 30 minutes later all the data was transfered. All the programs and all the data. Everything was there. It even looked the same, right down to the wallpaper on the desktop.

Even more importantly, Chell said that if I use Timemachine for backups I could restore that to a new machine, just like I restored my old Mac Mini to my new Hackintosh. So we are going to set up Timemachine today.

Bottom line is, I don't need to clone my harddrive. But for you folks on a Wintel, yea, you better find a way to clone your harddrive. I've tried several cloning programs, and never had much success.



Mike...

P.S. Randy, I keep most of my data on the fileserver. I use FreeNAS and map it to the Z: drive

[myoung]

Mike,

Time Machine is probably the simplest backup software available on any platform. As you know it comes standard on all Macs; it takes only one button click to implement; it works entirely in the background continuously or periodically as you choose; and restores individual files or an entire disk drive with a single button click. With a 1 or 2 terabyte Time Capsule you can even have a combination router and wireless backup of multiple computers simultaneously on the home network. It just works!

[mikeschn]

Yep, you're right Mike. It was really simple.

I have to run out later and pick up a new firewire enclosure. The old one I had doesn't work any more. But I'm currently running time machine on an enclosure I borrowed from Chell.

Mike...

[toypusher]

If you are going to pay for a backup/cloning package, then the Acronis TrueImage is one of the best and now allows backups to be restored to dissimilar hardware. Not sure if it will do continuous backup, but it does all the rest - incremental , differential, full, and does have scheduling.

My point in posting this was that there is now a decent FREE program for cloning an HD and saving megatime and trouble on a reinstall, etc.