My Chats in the hat...

Stick with Firefox, but when you're feeling up to it, run the system updates and let IE upgrade to IE7. Firefox can booger up to, so it's nice to have a solid working backup browser.

If your Internet Explorer is messing up too much for system update to work, go here for the IE7 installer.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/ie/getitnow.mspx

 

By any chance, would you happen to know if all the patches/upgrade and service packs are available on CD? I think I'd rather have them on-hand, if I could. My current XP CD is the one supplied by Dell, and it is an older version. I could got to the website and check, but I'll try the lazy way first... Thanks, SLOav8r!

PS Is it a major breach of etiquette to abbreviate user names? I do it occasionally, and wonder about it afterwards...

 

If your Dell install CD is Windows XP Service Pack 1 (which I'm guessing is what you mean by "older version"), you can make a CD that will have Service Pack 2 on it so you won't have to redownload if you ever wipe the machine again. However, periodic updates are a slightly different bag, you couldn't really just download all the updates for let's say XP Home edition SP2 and put those on a CD. It'd be a headache to find them all or even be sure which ones are appropriate for you machine.

What I would do is use Windows Update to automatically find and install all the latest updates up unto current. Then, when you view your Add/Remove programs list you can see which Updates are necessary/current for your machine. (you may need to check the box that says "Show Updates." on the top. Write down all the "KB******" numbers and type those into the MS support site and download the individual installers (MS is retarded in this aspect, when you download updates automatically it doesn't save the update installer). Then you can use a CD with these installers to perform updates instead of Windows Update upon format.

Now, if you're feeling particularly brave. It is possible to make your own windows installation CD WITH all the service pack and security updates that will install automatically when you pop the CD in. This process is called "Slip streaming" a Windows CD.

http://smithii.com/slipstream_xpsp2

But in all seriousness. You shouldn't be reinstalling frequent enough to warrant all that work. Unless you're on a 56k connection or a horrible computer, downloading and installing current updates shouldn't be a big deal at all.

It would probably be easier to make HDD back-ups to an external HDD, so you'll have an 'image' of what your computer looks like when you get it how you like it. This process is not only faster but guaranteed to to restore your computer to exactly the same state as the back up (Documents, web page favorites, programs, etc.). Even if you don't choose that route, every computer user NEEDs to have a back-up solution like a FreeAgent drive by seagate, you can get a 250gig on sale for about 70 dollars.

 

Hi, VFRide. Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm an old DOS user, and have not been completely assimilated by all of the Windows stuff...

The O/S version I have is XP Home 2002, and I do have a dialup. So that means lots of very large downloads, just to get this dinosaur to the point of being SP2 ready. I'm out in the boonies, so my only option is Comcast cable, and I am not too fond of Comcast :evil: .

I like the idea of the external drive image. Currently, I occasionally backup to a CD-RW every once in a while, but obviously not often enough...:redface:

I have not used this machine much, it has been in a box; long story. The HD failure was completely out of the blue, considering the low hours of actual use. Be that as it may, is there a piece of software that actually creates a usable image that can be copied onto a new HD successfully? That never used to work with Win95 or 98 because of all the nonsense with open files and registry entries regarding hardware, etc.

Thanks!

 

Absolutely.

Backing up just the files from a HDD will not copy the various registry/boot information necessary for the computer to run. If you want my suggestion I'd go to anywhere near you that sells software that and get a copy of Acronis. It'll do everything I think you need and then some.

Since you're familiar with DOS I'll assume you know FDISK? Well, on newer machines there is almost always a partition on the HDD that is dedicated to computer recovery. In essence, the partition contains a bootable image of the factory setup so that you can restore the computer to factory defaults. Acronis allows you to do the same, except the back-up will be along parameters you specify.

Hope this helps!

 

Thanks! Old guys need all the help they can get!

 

Young guys that have no idea what the hell they're doing on a motorcycle need all the help they can get too!

I'm going outside to get intimate with my bike. :frusty: