Topic: Technophobia!!!!

[Palustris]

Last Friday my machine suddenly went haywire, turned itself off and when re-started said that Windows was missing. Tried to use the Repair facility on my Windows disk without success. Went to Dos and ran Dskck and about a third of the way through the disk it failed. Took it to our local shop, who ran their diagnostics on it and discovered that the fault was a physical one on the hard drive, unrepairable!. New Hard drive and everything on the old drive lost! (Unless I can find someone to 'lift' the Data for me.)
Brought it home, reloaded all the programs I had and went on the Internet to get all the Security updates from Microsoft and the upgrades for the Virus protection etc. Before I could even get that far, the computer was fatally attacked by so many viruses it was beyond help.
Had to format the new drive and reload Windows and go and buy a more up to date version of Virus protector (got Norton this time as the shop sold it to us for half price as a favour). Loaded all the progs in, ran Norton to check, no viruses. But no Modem either.
Back to the shop, the Modem which had worked before did not like the new drive for some reason so the shop fitted a new one (free) and set the machine up for me while I waited.
Back on to the Internet and immediately Norton screams about an attack which it stopped.
All last night and all today I have spent downloading the updates from Microsoft, Norton etc.(Broadband not available here yet.)
Trouble is I lost a lot of stuff which I had not saved (I know, I know, save,save save.) And I cannot remember half the things which I had on the machine.
I hate technology.
And finally, oh you experts, laughing at my silliness in not saving things, do I need to re-down load AVG now that I have got a fully working updated Norton etc? Or would that be gilding the lily, and or if I do are they compatible?
I reckon the old drive was stung by a wasp, just like the rest of us!

[Roy Bham UK]

I get bored very easily reading long text on forums and generally hop skip and jump through them, but I found yours nice easy reading and read every word. :)

And conclude I don't have a clue what you were talking about, ??? "Technophobia!!!! or what?" Apart from your computer broke. ::)
I hope it is better now. :)
I must take some lessons in I.T. ;)

Roy ;D ;D ;D

[eileen]

Palustris if it's any help I run both Norton antivirus and AVG 6.0 with no probs. I always like to have a back-up anti virus guard in place ......just in case!

Sorry to hear of all your troubles with your 'puter and hope that everything will be up and running properly again soon.

Eileen.

[rosebud]

Palustris i hope your probs will soon be sorted,  i am sure you must be well on the way to getting things put right. good luck .

[Palustris]

Thank you Roy, You think I knew what I was talking about? I have the advantage of children with extensive Computer skills.
One thing I have realised that has gone is the Crib sheet for posting Photos on here, oh and also the one for reducing photo size on Photomanager too. If anyone copied them down from the PM I may have sent I would be very grateful if they could send them back as a PM for me. Ta.

[Roy Bham UK]

There you go again, ::)

One thing I have realised that has gone is the Crib sheet for posting Photos on here,

to me that is a warm snug cover for a baby in its tiny bed, :-\ how can I possibly comprehend this IT language? ??? When you talk like this. Its like this stupid “Microsoft” that says you must hit the start button to stop your computer! The mind boggles. :P

The freebie I use for reducing photo size’s is Irfanview from downloads.com, but even that is giving me grief as the icon on the desk-top keeps changing to a (so I’m told) dos box, ::) what the chuffin hell is a dos box?(a cardboard dwelling for a tramp perhaps?) :o Anyway I found it easy to use but now I have to keep down loading it when I want to use it, but then that’s computers for you.

Roy ;D

[budgiebreeder]

TRy HPPHOTO manager Roy 'tis good easy and free.Even i can use it.
you get it from www.hpphoto.com

[Roy Bham UK]

Thanks BB I'll give it a go.

Roy ;)

[jo2]

Roy I used to run AVG and Norton at the same time with no issues so you might as well.  To be honest I found AVG easier.

[Palustris]

Sorry Roy, jargon is a pain, but Crib is actually a lot older than Computers. It comes from Public school of old and is short for Cribbing which means aproximately to copy or summarise.
Thanks Eileen and Jo2 I will get AVG downloaded again.
Computer language usage is a problem, but often is the only way one can describe a problem or an action, though I agree that the choice of words seems rather arbitrary and not logical. It is like many areas of expertise, knowing the language is half the battle.
Sorry to have confused you Roy. If you do download Photomanager from Hpphoto.com and you need any help in non jargon terms using it, I would be very happy to try to help. (Now how is that for a nice pompous statement eh?).

[Roy Bham UK]

Thanks BB I downloaded HP Photo and at first glance it appears I can cope with it, :D I used Ifanview mainly to reduce images and I noted that Ifanview is incorporated in HP Photo too. :)

Roy ;D

[Roy Bham UK]

Thanks for that jo2, AVG sounds good but have to say Norton so far has served me well, I am a little weary of having too much clutter on my PC.
Roy ;D

[budgiebreeder]

Roy a lot of us use PHOTOBUCKET to store our pictures in .THis also is free and easy.............also easy to xfer them from there to a4a.

[motherhenswebmaestro]

If your HD has failed then  you need a new one.
YOu should be able to retrieve information from it though - whether it will be in usable form is another matter, but worth a go.
Either.
1) set it up a slave drive ( move the jumpers on the end of the HD case - there is usually  a little picture) and plug it into someone elses and see if you can read data from it.

1) Download Knoppix  (www.knoppix.org) and burn it on a CD. This is an entire computer that will run from your CD ROM.
Put the CD in and start up your machine. It should churn away to itself for a while and then come up with  a desktop.
click on the start icon ( bottom LH corner) go to RUN & type konqueror in the box. once its started hit the f9 key. This is a program like windows explorer. Go to root/mnt/windows/ then it depends on your version
 in  win98 you will be looking at the files on your desktop. in XP its  user/Documents &Settings/ etc etc  Copy them somewhere (a file store eg yahoo on the internet, email them to yourself, a USB drive etc etc)

3) find some grunting adolescent  who  will do it all for you

[Palustris]

Thank-you. The local Computer shop tried to lift the Data for me, but failed so they fitted a new hard drive and various other bits. It is not a problem in that there was really very little on the drive that is not saved elsewhere or available as hardcopy. It is just annoying more than anything else. Especially as I have now been told I could have gone and bought the latest all singing, all dancing with bells on, machine if I had wanted to. Hummmmph!

[tim]

Eric - you're not serious about reducing size on photomanager?? HP, one assumes? Just go to the double 'resize' arrows? = Tim

[Palustris]

Eh? Don't follow you Tim. Must admit I usually use Adobe Photoshop these days, but never had any trouble resizing on Photomanager at all.
Just been there and resized one to see if anything has changed.

[tim]

Up the pole again, am I?

"One thing I have realised that has gone is the Crib sheet for ... reducing photo size on Photomanager" - seemed to indicate that you were missing something? Though couldn't believe that you needed a crib for that.
(When did you last play cribbage?? ) = Tim