Major puter crash

[44man]

I came down this morning and had a message on the screen that my computer could not find an operating system. Nothing I did would get it working so I had to change the hard drive. I am still downloading stuff----Slooooow!
Had to clean the gutters and go vote so another day shot.

[Bass Ackward]

I came down this morning and had a message on the screen that my computer could not find an operating system. Nothing I did would get it working.

44man,

Gotta keep the deer blood outta the key board. Wash hands before typing.

[44man]

Darn Mickeysoft is like a vampire, NEEDS BLOOD!

[454PB]

I have a less than one year old Dell computer in my shop that belonged to my grand daughter. Someone broke into her house and removed the hard drive and RAM. I did some investigative research, and found that replacing the hard drive, RAM, and operating system costs about $100 less than buying a new tower.

No that's a real crash!

[carpetman]

454PB---One time I was at a lake and someone had dumped a trampoline frame. Going to the lake,I had seen several billboards with a number to call for a trampoline for $199. So I loaded the frame and wrote the number down to call and get price of the mat and springs. $207.00. Could buy whole thing for $199.00. Guess the frame was a liability. I offered to haul off their frames for $8 each and rid them of the liability,but they didnt go for that either.

[44man]

Well, it was the hard drive that failed. I now have a larger one but it took a day and a half to download everything. Sloooow dial up! It took all night to get my Kodak Easyshare upgrade.

[mag_01]

If you have a virus in your system replacing the hard drive will not solve it----It may be good for a few weeks but Viruses are in the "system".---I hope it was caused by something else and your computer is ok----Mag

[Swagerman]

Is there a store bought program (Disk) that will clean up the adware crap that keeps infesting my computer.

I have dozens of cookies in my system, I mean dozens by the dozens. The big problem is they aren't identifiable by any name, they're in some kind of bizare code letter wording.

Spent an hour trying to safely remove what I hoped was adware crap...but its still coming in on me daily.

Jim

[mag_01]

Spycatcher by Terbenille (may have misspelled that) has worked for me ---Mag.

[XRING363]

http://www.ccleaner.com/

The C stands for crap. It works REAL WELL! I've been using it for a couple years and it catches stuff Adaware and Spybot don't/doesn't.

Good luck!!
Regards,
Jeff

[44man]

I use AOL and get McAfee anti virus, spyware and adware free. I never get anything on my computer. This was just an old hard drive and it could not access anything anymore. I think one of the lasers burned out. We hooked it to a USB port on another computer and it makes a funny noise as the arm moves back and forth, not reading anything. It could not swing to the center of the disk anymore either so the little motor was also gone.
Those cookies should be deleted on a regular basis. (They slow down everything.) You only want to save the ones for the shooting sites anyway so you don't have to sign in all the time. To find them, delete them ALL by clicking your mouse above them until you get a blue line forming, hold the mouse button in and expand the line down until all of the cookies are blue. Then go to file and click delete and they will all go in the recycle bin. Then use disk cleanup and get rid of all temp files. Then defrag.
Sign into all of your sites again and open the cookies once more. Those that are now on there are what you want to keep. Stack them in the top row and write them down so you know what they are. Next time you delete cookies just start the blue line under what you want to keep. ( You don't need ANY of the others!) You can do one at a time but it will take all day. If one slips into the top line with the good ones, just delete it alone.
Every single site or anything you open, generates a cookie---dump them!
A virus can't enter the mother board components, only the disks.

[C A Plater]

There is always the "L" word to make you immune to viruses, trojans and assorted malware. Browse with Firefox or Opera and it's no worries while web surfing.

[454PB]

If you have a virus in your system replacing the hard drive will not solve it----It may be good for a few weeks but Viruses are in the "system".---I hope it was caused by something else and your computer is ok----Mag

What "System"?

A new, virgin hard drive should have no viruses, spyware, keyloggers, etc. Once the old hard drive is removed, only the system BIOS remains in the "system". What may reinfect it is reinstalling files that were saved from the original drive.

What ticks me off is that the computer manufacturers are now putting the operating system program software on an inaccessible partition of the hard drive, rather than a CD like they used to do. When the hard drive fails, you lose the operating system.

I have I.E., Firefox, and Opera as browsers. I never use I.E. anymore......it's too dangerous! Dump your cookies every few weeks, use Spybot, a good anti-virus (I like AVG and it's free) and the previously mentioned ccleaner, and a good firewall like Zone Alarm (also free) for protection.

[felix]

You can always go to Unix/Linux, or VM which can be used to load Windows as an application. There are options with these systems that everything written to disk is eradicated at end of application because all sectors are virtual and not real. Only the VM will write the disk, and the application data is burried within an envelope. Virus technology today does not penetrate the envelope. ... felix

[44man]

Maybe some of you know what I can use for a project. I need a CHEAP sound recorder that I can plug into a USB port to download. Then I need a program to read the frequency spikes on the screen, sort of like you see on Ghost Hunter.
Any ideas?

[44man]

I want to test different frequencies on deer to see what really scares them. I also want to test the sounds that bows make. Be nice to have a sound generator that I could adjust in the field.

[dagamore]

While I would normally be the first to say BSD/Linux/OSX but thats not always an option. Since you already have MS I would do the following.

1> if on broad band (cable/dsl/isdn) get a good router (linksys WRT54G's are nice) since it will be using NAT you will be invisible to most of the nastiness on the interweb.
2> regardless of 1> get a good Anti Virus, I like avast (@ www.avast.com) or AVG (dont know web off top of head (posting from blackberry)) and keep it updated
3> run windows update often or set it to auto update
4> think about a better software fire wall (zonealarm or blackice) to monitor outbound network connections
5> if running XP get and install SP2 (service pack 2)
6> run any other web browser then IE, Opera is very nice, Firefox(RC2) is nice as well.
7> go to the wiki on hostfiles and download one of the add blockers.
8> download, install and update at least 2 anti spyware and 2 anti adaware programs, disconnect from the interweb and run them and the antivirus in 'safe mode' and remove all problems. (spybot search and destroy and adaware are nice)

pm me if you need anymore information.

Brad
MSCP, MSCE, CCNA, CCNP, CCSP, Linux+, N+, A+
Network security specialist
HPUX/SCO server administrator

[454PB]

Maybe some of you know what I can use for a project. I need a CHEAP sound recorder that I can plug into a USB port to download. Then I need a program to read the frequency spikes on the screen, sort of like you see on Ghost Hunter.
Any ideas?

I use this free program to convert analog recordings to digital. In my use, I connect a stereo patch cord between a tape player (or any sound playing device) and the stereo input on the back of the computer. You then open Audacity and visually monitor the sound waves as they are recorded. They can then be edited as you wish, and even converted to MP3 files.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows