Tasgandy

Agree, Agree and Agree. Not only should one "check your Restore CD", remember to "back up on a regular basis". I have set a schedule to back up my drive "C" every week, close of business Friday night just before I leave the office hell it's only 30gig, takes about 25 minutes. (I also wait to see that the back up completed)

Thank you Redhawk, I shall take your advice and use BCDedit. I have visited Neosmart.net forum, read all available info, joined the forum, downloaded EasyBCD build 2.0.0.79 (latest) collected some good info from "Saltgrass" who has completed exactly what I require to do, except he installed build 76. All good info. Re disconnecting the Win 7 HD, a good & basic suggestion, many thanks once again. I shall give it all a go in a couple of weeks, shall report back.

Thank you rridgley & CTskifreak, I shall try the simple separate partition install as I do have 3 physical HD's, however Win 7 is already installed, will this matter? Also I had a good read on Techspot, thanks.

1/2 an hour ago I had a RIP round on the blower, spoke to 9 IT tragic's like me and we all refer to the app as CC Cleaner................Hey we're strange down under they say.

Many thanks for the observation and advice, I shall stop the services of MSE & MS Defender for the time being. I have found by description both MSE & MS Defender perform the same function, "helps protection from spy-ware & other potential unwanted SW" end quote (from Local Services). Interesting that to date the anti-virus module of Returnil (service name not known) has caught 2 Trojan's and Avira not a peep. Will keep Returnil running though.

Saying CC Cleaner for me is much easier than talking about my video editing SW.....try saying "TMPGenC4".

Does anyone have a suggestion for a "simple" easy to install, configure & run a Windows only boot manger software? I have a need to Boot Win Xp Pro and Win 7 from the same PC several times a week, dual booting would save me 1 PC which I can use elsewhere. The PC that I wish to use as a Dual Boot unit already has Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit OS installed. Hardware spec's are: 5 year old P4, 2.8Mhz Hyper thread, 1.5gig DDR2 RAM, 3 IDE hard drives + 1 SATA HD, IDE DVD/CD, AGP 8X Video card with 256MB DDR2. Any and all suggestions will be appreciated by the old bloke in Tassie.

LuLu, sorry to hear about your situation. I to do not agree with "squatters rights" often used here in Aus. especially as your relatives own the house, I guess they were charging you a "cheap" rental over that many years with not to many rental increases as would be the case in a commercial rental contract. Have you tried the "bucket and window cleaner" trick at traffic lights, a Mate of mine in Sydney did that, offered front windscreen wash & wipe for $2.00 a car, he normally worked from 7.00am to 6.00pm each business day (5) and racked in an average of $200.00 + per day. Work it our, that's only 100 car windscreens @ $2.00.......man that's $1,000.00 per 5 day week. He then teamed up with a Mate, each Guy did a street, swapped over when the traffic lights turned green, these two Guys did it for 6 months and then took of on a OS trip (haven't come back home to Aus. yet either). Only cost you several plastic buckets, detergent and a windscreen washer from your local Auto Accessory shop. In Australia you could would try the Salvation Army, Vinnie's, Red Cross, local churches etc. for emergency housing and advice should the need arise. Try contacting your local Salvation Army at least, you will find them very helpful. Let's hope your Uncle will give you and your family time to organise alternate accommodation. If it was me I would front him and plead my case and ask him for more time, like another 6 months. I wish you all the luck, stay in touch if you can.

AntiVir on my Win 7 32bit unit looks like this: Processes / commit / working set / shareable / private avgnt.exe / 7812kb / 1496kb /708kb / 3852kb avguard.exe / 76236kb / 4704kb /748kb / 1232kb sched.exe /2953kb / 864kb / 436kb / 428kb Can someone please explain: commit, working set, shareable & private and why these values constantly change? I did have Macrium Reflect performing a scheduled drive C back up running in the background - 32gig about 26 min on a P4 2.8Mhz (hyper thread) 1.5gig of ram 5 year old Unit. Also is it good or questionable practice to also be running "Microsoft Security Essentials", "MS Defender" and "Returnil" which also has a anti-virus module running at the same time? No problems to date, each app has reported/found/located and repaired/cured or quarantined various viruses over the period of the installed OS. The only issue I have picked up on is that the MS Defender service is stopped by default if it detects another AV app running (according a system dialogue box that appeared) So to run MS Defender I had to start the service manually.

Yes Ishi this is the place where one can get information, help, guidance, direction etc. however we do need as much information (input) as possible to be able to diagnose/assess then provide an exchange of ideas, assistance and possible solutions. Perhaps there is still time to do this, what say you?

Yes Ishi there are many XP users out there and will be for several years to come which includes me. 3 - XP Pro and 1 Windows 7 (non critical environment). My XP Pro SP3 units show: Name, Publisher & Version My Win 7 Home premium 32bit unit show: Name, Publisher, Install date, Size & Version Why not get the best of both worlds by using CCleaner and Belarc Advisor (shows all of the above) Belarc Advisor PLUS New to Belarc current Version: Software versions, usage & size and Network Map. Both apps are great when purchasing second hand PC's for hardware & software auditing before you hand over the cash (assuming their in working condition).

We still do not know what hardware is being used as asked by rridgley. So we need: CPU? RAM? Video card & RAM on board? XP Pro? or Home? SP? what apps? and which apps are running slow? A Belarc Advisor report will tell us about 90% of what we need to know to advise / assist.

Thanks for pointing that out, I feel like a dill, a soon as I read your reply I said "what the".........I shall put brain into gear first next time before putting keyboard into gear.

In the case of an iMac it's iSee, just above the iCup holder.................forget it.

Yes Marmite you are correct I now use Macrium Reflect for my 4 personal PC's. I use 2 boxes, the wife uses 1 and so does my son. I also run an old Dell laptop which synchronizes with my own PC whenever I connect to the home LAN (using AllwaySync). For business use we have had an arrangement with Paragon for several years, we have just upgraded to Paragon Drive Backup 10 Server, well the network administrator has, I just wrote the cheque; $499.00 So we have a foot in both camps, will be interesting to see the outcome in 12 months time.

Only if you can SLIDE the cheque into the narrow slot above OR below the DVD burner! Yabba Dabba DOOOOOOOO

Given the fact that I consider all you folk much more computer wise than this old bloke and one of you (can't remember just who) recommended "RETURNIL" Virtual System, and ever since when it comes to a new software app or new version, be it upgrade or not I take the RETURNIL precaution and turn on "System Safe" - then run the install just to make sure the new app does not break my system. Can I ask why did know one take the above action? or am I being to cautious.

tommyk I have just spotted MS Pub 2002 Bid is up to $20.00 AUS or buy now for $35.00 AUS..........go to: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Microsoft-Publisher...=item1c0fde1d00 Good luck

OPPS! Sorry Hazelnut, I did mean to do just that, so thank you.

I am not only glad to have moved far from Canberra ACT (spent 10 long years there) to Hobart Tasmania, I am constantly looking for the big chain that connects us with mainland Australia so I can cut the B%^$%^ thing and put more distance between us.

As a satisfied user of Paragon Backup & Recovery Ver. 10.0 SW on 2 of my other PC's (the other 2 use Macrium Reflect) I recommend looking at the following: Enjoy New Free Edition of Paragon Backup & Recovery Paragon have just released Backup and Recovery Free Edition 10.1 (available in 32bit and 64 bit), which is not a time-limited offer, as it has been in the past. It has many new features, including support for Windows 7, cyclic backup - complete infrastructure for establishing a self-acting data protection system, support for the latest hardware and back up and restore of GPT entire disks.

Kalirion, I am not sure what's happening but I am equally sure someone will come up with the correct answer. BUT........I gotta say...............if it ain't broke.................don't........ I just get up every morning, turn the PC's on and when it's time to Defrag..................Hey it just happens the Piriform way............without any fuss.

Hazelnut, I agree with you so thanks to DennisD and all. By the way it was a reasonable size restore 29.7GIG, remembering it was all system & apps no data. I have now been using the PC constantly for the last 27 hours and all is well.

Yesterday saw me try a Graphical Boot Manager (GAG) on my Windows 7 home premium PC and following the installation procedure all that was left was to reboot. Well my world CRASHED.....MBR missing!!!!!! would not boot obviously. Bloody hell it's Sunday here in Tasmania Australia, time to relax. Ah well, another re-build. Better cancel the BBQ with the Wife and the neighbours. NO...wait, I took the advice / recommendation from Hazelnut (many thanks) and installed Macrium Reflect (ver 4.2 Free Edition 32-bit) and scheduled a "weekly" drive C image backup to another physical USB hard drive. I also remembered to create the "rescue disc" (surprise surprise). Well, now lets see if this little puppy works the way it's supposed to work. (I have been accused of being very cynical at times.......they're probably correct). Loaded the rescue CD, booted the PC, followed the prompts and......................it all worked as it was supposed too. Replaced the MBR (which was not there anyway, but it was a tick box available during the rescue procedure) only took about 3 cups of coffee and about 47 minutes (I like coffee at stressful times) to see an invitation to "reboot". And there you have it, all back to "square one" as we say in the penal settlement. Because I followed Hazelnut's suggestions of regular backup's, I only had to perform one SW update, data was OK as it is stored on a separate physical HD, all OK. So, Hazelnut................many.......many.......many thanks for your original post / comments re Macrium Reflect, both of you saved the day. FREE software (like Piriform suite) that delivers what it promises.....Thank you. PS: I then proceeded to light the BBQ with beer in hand.

Read the the comments, thought I would take a look back...............SCARY...................but true Hal. NOW BACK TO 2010