Derek891

As mta has already stated, do not defragment a SSD drive, it is needless wear and tear. Trim and wear leveling are all that is needed. Here is a good article I found on the SSD Review website that explains how to optimize Windows 7 and 8 when using a SSD on your system: http://www.thessdreview.com/ssd-guides/optimization-guides/the-ssd-optimization-guide-2/ Please note: There are six pages in all to this guide, look for the yellow bar part way down the page.

Hello Brad - I was only curious if the BIOS version was current or not, I don't think it's a good idea to mess around with it now, especially if you are not sure about the motherboard's model or i.d. number. Using the wrong BIOS will brick your motherboard, so unless you are absolutely 100% sure you have the right BIOS version for your motherboard, don't do it, it's not worth the risk. Also, forget about looking on AMI's website, you should only use what is available from Asus, the manufacturer. And the last thing you want to experience is losing power during the flashing process, that is certain to result in failure. I think your priority at this point is using the USB stick to run a practice installation. You already know how to set up BIOS and boot from the USB stick, and you know it begins the installation. Since cloning has been unsuccessful, use the second Toshiba to test the installation from start to finish. I want to see that you have no problems with the installation hanging at a certain point, if there are any hardware drivers missing and where to find them, and if the activation key is valid and accepted by Microsoft. So to do this, plug in the Toshiba and format it using NTFS, so it appears to the system as an empty drive. Then power off the machine and disconnect the internal drive. Plug in the USB stick, then power up and enter BIOS. Set BIOS to boot from the USB stick. Your machine should recognize it as a bootable device. When the installer starts, it should recognize the Toshiba as the drive available for installation, since the internal drive has been disconnected. Run through the installation from start to finish. Do not enter the activation key during the installation, you can do this within 30 days afterward. When you get Windows up and running, enter the Device Manager to see if any devices have the little yellow triangle next to them. This will indicate a missing or incorrect driver for the device. Take note of what the device is, then explore the Asus support website to see what is available, or the first time you run Windows Update, Windows may find and install the drivers for you. After you solve any and all driver problems, check all the Windows software and applications to see there are no problems. Then you can use the activation key. When you're all done, put the USB stick somewhere safe. Then you have two choices: continue to use the Toshiba, or reconnect the internal drive and use it until it dies. When you get a new hard drive, you'll be all set to do a clean install and will know how to solve any problems you experienced with the test run on the Toshiba.

Out with it Alan! The suspense is killing me!

Hello login123 - In reference to the new HP laptop with Windows 8, HP allows you to make one recovery USB stick in order to do a clean reinstall of Windows 8. You will need a 32GB USB stick in order to do this. Go to the Apps Screen, then select HP Recovery Media Creation. Be aware that you can only do this once, after creating the stick that you are locked out of ever using this app again. Once it is created, it will give you three options for recovery from USB: System Recovery (C:/ drive only), Factory Reset (reformat the entire disk and install all partitions), and Mininized Image Recovery (no trial software or games, just Windows, the Cyberlink software, and several HP utilities). See here for more info: http://h10010.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c03489643&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en In reference to imaging software, I have installed and used the free version of Macrium Reflect with success on my HP laptop with Windows 8 64 bit. By success I mean I have already done one recovery without problems. You will need two USB sticks in order to create a complete recovery set, the first to create the bootable WinPE rescue application. This allows you to do two things: fix boot problems by re-installing the EFI partition, and to re-install any or all partitions that you created with the Macrium imaging software. This USB stick only has to be 1GB or more, since the rescue application is about 370MB or so. The second USB stick is used to store the partition images you created using Macrium imaging. The size of this stick will depend on the combined size of the partitions you are imaging. I have found that Macrium compresses the image by nearly 50%, so take this into account when planning which partitions to save. In my case, I image four out of the five partitions on my drive, omitting the Recovery partition (28GB) at the end. I end up using about 19-20GB out of the 29.7 formatted capacity of a 32GB USB stick. If I included the Recovery partition, then I would need to step up to a 64GB stick to image the entire drive. So in total, I have three recovery options: using the factory installed recovery partition on my hard drive, using the HP Recovery media on the USB stick, or using the two USB sticks I created with Macrium to restore my system to a recent state. This is the fastest and easiest of the three. If I wanted a fourth option, I could create a new partition on my hard drive and use Macrium to store images there. I hope this helps you out. - Derek

I pray that none of the deadly yellow snow went into the making of that thing. They might end up blind, or crazy, or both!

Here's a story I came across some time ago, detailing what it cost the government of Munich to switch from Microsoft based systems to open source software: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-munich-rejected-steve-ballmer-and-kicked-microsoft-out-of-the-city "Microsoft claims that, by its estimation, the LiMux project would have cost considerably more than Munich has said. The HP report for Microsoft put the project's price at €60.6m, far more than the €17m Microsoft claimed it would have cost to shift to Windows XP and a newer version of Microsoft Office. Munich stands by its assertion that it has cost the council less to drop Microsoft than it would have to have stuck with it, and says Microsoft's figures are based on bogus assumptions. The final cost will be released at the end of 2013, but in August 2013 Munich said it had cost €23m to shift to LiMux and OpenOffice. Munich says this is far less than the estimated €34m it said it would have cost to upgrade to Windows 7 and newer versions of Microsoft Office. Where does the truth lie? Well Munich makes a good case for why much of the work carried out during the LiMux project would have been necessary if the council had decided to opt for a newer version of Windows, and how it has saved money on top." On a personal level, my HP Mini netbook will soon be migrating from Windows XP to either Zorin OS7 or Linux Mint. Projected cost: $0.00 dollars. Timelime: about 30 minutes. Projected savings: about $95.00 dollars.

Thank you kroozer, as usual, you are correct. I did have it ticked on under Utilities. But solving the problem reveals a mystery. I downloaded and installed CCleaner v. 4.09.4471 on 12/20, the day after it became available. I went through all the settings, made my usual selections, and haven't changed anything since then. So from 12/20 until 1/1, no problems. Starting 1/2, the messages from the Action Center start popping up. I've unticked it now, so I'll keep my eyes on it and see if anything changes. BTW - I like the new avatar, a new look for the new year.

I think they have you by several years: http://www.netstate.com/states/symb/flags/co_flag.htm

Does anyone on the forum use Windows Defender as their antivirus protection? I've always had Real Time Protection enabled under Settings, and it never issued any sort of message about doing manual scans. However, since January 2 of this year it has started pestering me to do manual scans, sometimes twice a day. Did Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom, decide to alter something via one of their updates? I've searched for a way to disable this but no luck so far. I really hate it when they decide what's best for me instead of just leaving me to my own fate.

You'd better be careful making any comparisons Dennis. The politicians here in the states are all desperate for money. The ones in Denver might view this as some sort of trademark infringement by Piriform.

Hello David - In response to the first question, I think it stems from the fact that Windows and Internet Explorer are joined at the hip so to speak. They always have been. You cannot uninstall I.E., only upgrade, whereas Firefox is a separate application that can be installed and uninstalled by the user. In response to your second question, if you leave everything unchecked under Firefox then CCleaner will leave those items alone. The history, cookies, etc. for I.E. and Firefox are stored in separate folders.

That's the purpose of the test, to iron out any problems with either the USB image, the installation process, missing drivers, the validity of the activation key, or anything else. I'd like to solve any problems now, not later. If Brad gets a new hard drive sometime in the future, he will have the knowledge and experience gained from this exercise to guide him.

login123: Brad has the two Toshibas, one has all of his backed up files from the internal drive's D: partition. If he missed anything doing this, the internal drive can be used as an archive, so I don't want anything to be overwritten. You know how Microsoft Windows is, all your disk are mine. The other has been used to attempt to clone the other partitions, recovery and C: partition, from the internal drive. Due to the fact that cloning has been unsuccessful so far, I wanted him to try an installation using the second Toshiba. This is only a test at this point, the reasons for doing this are on post #63. I want to be sure the installation process goes without problems, since it is the only option left. Until we can figure out whether the internal drive actually has problems or not, there's nothing to be gained by doing a clean install using that drive.

I've gone back and read this thread for the fourth time in as many days. Here are some notes: Post #1 (12/15) Windows reports disk errors...backup immediately (after running CCleaner) Post #5 (12/15) AMI BIOS boot message: SMART reports disk condition BAD (first time seen during boot, never seen previously) Post #10(12/16) Ran error check in Windows - No errors BIOS reports SATA1 SMART capable and status bad Acronis reallocated sectors count - SMART attribute reported bad blocks on the drive - RAW value 4158 - Threshold 36 - Status Fail Everything else OK according to Acronis Post#47(1/2/14) Booting Windows with bad drive consistent - BIOS still sending message bad drive So at one time or another, Brad has seen error messages reported by three different sources - Windows, BIOS, and Acronis (using SMART data). I think this is something not to be taken lightly or ignored. The presence of reallocated sectors is not the end of the world, but does indicate the beginning of the end for this hard drive. Based on reading I did last night, I would place a higher value on what SMART is saying rather than what Windows is saying. This is because any remapping of sectors done at the drive's firmware level is not visible to Windows at the filesystem level. Windows only concerns itself with mismatches in the FAT or MFT tables and the filesystem itself. I believe that chkdsk is a useful tool in this regard, and probably was the only tool available prior to the development of SMART technology in the late 80's to early 90's timeframe. Also from last night's reading session, I found one thing that could affect the drive's firmware and trigger SMART to report errors regarding bad sectors: a loss of power during a write operation. So Brad, to your knowledge, has your machine ever experienced this? Have you ever lost power while the machine was on? I do agree with Alan as far as CCleaner having no way of affecting the drive's firmware or SMART. I also agree with Dennis, Brad should visit the support website of the drive's manufacturer and use any tools that are available, in order to verify what Acronis is reporting. A few questions for Brad: Early on, you received a message from BIOS about reflashing. I asked you to visit the ASUS website and find out what is the current version of BIOS for this machine and compare it to what is installed on the machine now. Did you do this? Is your BIOS current? If not, did you reflash it at the time? And again, any power outages while this machine was on? Edit: Brad, please read post #63. Forget about cloning, use the second Toshiba to do a test run with the installation USB you created for plan B. At this point, I'd like to be sure it works and you have no problems with it. Be sure to have the internal drive disconnected before doing this. If this succeeds, you can use the internal drive until it eventually dies.

I have heard the politicians in Colorado want to adopt a new state anthem in the near future, what do you think? Here is the current state anthem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SH40IMQBV1M And this is what would replace it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGQUs6JG_fU

After typing into the wee hours last night, and after rereading large parts of this thread today, I realize my intentions were good, but my priorities were at fault. The cloning/imaging process has proven to be unsuccessful so far, and to try to image and rearrange the drive's existing partitions in an attempt to save them is both too complex and too risky. In the end, it's like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, when the ship is going down anyway. I think Brad should minimize the use of this drive in order to save it as an archive of sorts. If he finds that something is missing from the data backup he made in the beginning of the process, he can go back and retrieve it from this drive. I think doing a clean installation should be the priority at this point, and steps should be taken to ensure it's success. I think as a test, he should disconnect the internal drive, connect the second Toshiba that he has been using for cloning, plug in the USB stick with the Windows ISO, boot it, and do an installation to the external drive. This will verify the integrity of the ISO, reveal any installation issues as far as missing drivers are concerned, confirm that the activation key is valid, and let him practice doing an installation if he has never done one before. When he gets a new drive he will be aware of what to do and confident in doing it. I'm sorry this has dragged on for so long, and I'm somewhat disappointed that Macrium did not produce the results I had hoped for. There were too many variables and unknowns to overcome. Remote troubleshooting has always had this problem. At least Brad has learned a lot from this exercise, and maybe others as well. I'm thankful he had the opportunity the create the installation USB prior to the drive failing, and it's probably best to have a new installation to go with his new hard drive.

I thank all of you for your input on this topic. I have just finished reading this thread in it's entirety for the second time today, and have gone back to some of the bookmarks I have made while researching and planning what to do. I came up with the plan I described with three objectives: First, to use the hardware Brad has available to him. Second, to allow him to continue using his machine if the hard drive failed. Third, keeping the whole process simple to understand. At the time, and according to what I read, cloning seemed to be the easier to understand and to use. I also read that the master boot record was copied as a part of the cloning process. It seemed ideal for what I was trying to accomplish. Perhaps I have put too much faith in using the cloning process versus the imaging process, it's hard to say with all the variables involved. So now, what to do and where to go from here. In reply to Hazelnut, Nergal, and login123, I did a lot of reading prior to having Brad download and prepare the Windows 7 ISO in order to do a clean install. I believe the images from Digital River are made available for three reasons: 1.) For people who have a valid activation key but have lost their installation media. 2.) For people who wish to do a clean install of Windows minus the factory installed bloatware. 3.) For people who have had a hard drive failure and have lost the recovery partition along with it. In the event that the activation key is not accepted online, it is a matter of calling Microsoft and explaining the situation to a representative. In the event it is an OEM key, I have read that they will accept it as long as it is a valid key from a COA label. The disadvantage here is that any software or drivers that are on an OEM recovery disk are absent and are your responsibility to install. Also, the manufacturer may or may not honor any warranty claims in this situation. In Brad's case, this does not apply to his 2009 machine. If anyone disagrees with this, or has something to add, please speak up now. Also, I read just this evening that these images will not be available to download after March 2014, that is when the contract between Microsoft and Digital River expires and is not being renewed. In reply to Alan, I always respect your ideas and opinions regarding what will work and what will not. And I know you put a lot of time and effort into your post. I had to read it twice, the second time very slowly. It is a good idea as far as getting the data away from the bad sectors and onto the less used part of the drive, provided that is where the problem exists. But it is complex, something I have tried to avoid so far. If you were doing it yourself, then you would probably have no problem, because you fully understand it. But you're not the one doing it. And using Mini Tool Partition Wizard is like a double edged sword: powerful in the right hands and hazardous to the inexperienced. One slip could be fatal. All along I have tried to keep this as simple as I could, but maybe your plan should be considered if Brad understands it and feels comfortable trying it. A very good question in regards to the USB ports being used and the Toshiba. Brad will have to look into this, it is something only he can answer. I'm glad you brought up using chkdsk, it is something that has been bothering me. Are the bad sectors located in Recovery or C: or D:? Or all three? We have no idea. If they are in C:, it might be the reason the cloned image has begun to boot then failed, except this contradicts the fact the hard drive itself continues to boot. I realize I advised Brad not to do it if he thought it was putting the drive at risk of failing, but now think it is something that must be done first, before going any further. Also, running sfc /scannow would reveal if any system files are missing or corrupted, and restore them from the .cab files. If these two things are not done, then any further effort to image or clone C: is a waste of time. There is one other thing I considered, but it also depends on where the bad sectors are located. If the Recovery partition has no bad sectors, isn't that all that would be needed to do a clean install? Especially if C: is riddled with bad sectors or corrupted files, is it worth saving? Maybe imaging or cloning that one partition is the simplest and easiest thing to do, I don't really know at this point, just throwing the idea out there. It's late here, and maybe I'm not thinking too clearly, I'll read this again tomorrow and see if it makes sense. Edit: I had no idea Hazelnut posted while I was typing this, I'm glad she agrees with me concerning the activation process, even though it makes a large part of this post look redundant. Edit #2: I just realized Alan has reached 4000 posts and Hazelnut has reached 12000. Congratulations!

I know that now. I learned that lesson the same way I've learned many other lessons in life: the hard way.

I think a recap of everything done so far is needed so everyone is on the same page. Brad has found some bad sectors on his current internal 1TB drive, but it still works for now. This drive has the following partitions: 1.) Recovery - NTFS Primary - 8.01GB, 5.65GB used 2.) C: Win 7 - NTFS Primary (Active) - 280GB, 50.6 used 3.) Unallocated - resulting from shrinking C: from it's original size 4.) D: data - NTFS Primary - 550GB, 252.8 used Brad stated he does not have the resources for a new hard drive and does not have Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit installation media, but has a valid activation key from a sticker inside the case. He has two external Toshiba 320GB USB drives available to him, and early in the process he had copied the contents of D: partition, his data files, to one of these drives. The original plan has two parts, and one is completed. Brad has downloaded a copy of the Windows 7 ISO and installed it to a USB stick using Rufus. He has tested it, it boots, and prompts him to start installation. This was a backup plan in case the other plan failed. That plan was to copy his current operating system to the second Toshiba and allow him to keep using his computer until he can get a new internal drive. I suggested using Macrium Reflect to clone both the Recovery partition and C: partition to the Toshiba, as well as clone the contents of the Toshiba to the replacement hard drive when it is available. So far this has failed, because the Toshiba will not boot to Windows. So he is not completely dead in the water. His old drive continues to work, and the USB stick is available if he wants to do a fresh install on his new drive. I was only concerned about his old drive failing and leaving him without the use of his computer, and that is why I devised a two part plan. So that is where we stand now, if any member can add to this, I'm sure it will be appreciated.

Hello Arsenalphan - I had a similar problem with Cyberlink Power Director on my HP DV7 laptop. When you tried to update Power DVD, did you do it using HP's Support Assistant? This was what caused me problems, either the installer would crash before finishing, or it would finish but the application would not start. I found the solution on HP's support website, and that is to run the installer directly without using HP Support Assistant. Follow the path C:>SWSetup. This folder contains the setup and installation software for all HP products installed on your machine. Look for the folder "sp58764", this is for Power DVD. Then find the setup application, it is near the bottom of the list. When you run it, it should uninstall then reinstall Power DVD.

I think it's only a matter of time before the politicians in Colorado will come up with an even more brilliant idea: if you turn in your gun, you get a free bag of marijuana. Note: Using the words "brilliant" and "politician" in the same sentence is considered to be an oxymoron here in the U.S.A..

Hello Twurtle - The only thing I can think of is that a previous version of the registry containing those extra entries was somehow restored. Have you used system restore recently, and if so, was it an old restore point and not a recent one?

Hello bmoag and welcome to the forum. Just so I understand this completely, you are blaming CCleaner for not being able to deal with a problem that was created by the use of another application, Ma;warebytes,? And in turn, this problem was originally created by you? Here, I took the time to do a Google search for you: https://www.google.com/#q=how+to+remove+msi+entries I suggest you take the time to read the information I provided, learn something, and take care of the problem yourself.

If I had no knowledge of where that picture was taken, I would have guessed somewhere in Pennsylvania, Vermont, or New Hampshire here in the U.S.. It looks like a nice, quiet place to live.

logon123 - Thanks for the link. I've always meant to try Puppy, am burning it to USB as I type. Should run very well on my Lenovo.