restoring OS on GW GT5408

[Frank.Logullo]

Computer was slowing down and now I can't get into Windows.

Hard drive seems OK as I can get the Windows restore options but they
will not work and all I get is a blank screen with the mouse pointer.

Reticent to use OS restore disk as it is quite old and will wipe old
files. Is this something I should not be concerned about? I do have
two months of Carbonite left and am going to drop it for a back up drive.

Is there something better (I saw some restore software at Best Buy).

Don't want to expend lot of money or effort as I was thinking new pc
next year. Also open for suggestions on that.

Frank

[BillW50]

Hi Frank! You don't have to purchase any backup software. There are
plenty of free ones that work just as good as the expensive ones. I
know, I have both. And no need to wipe that hard drive if you don't want
too.

Yes you need some sort of backup drive. While external USB drives are
much slower than internal drives, external ones are easy to remove from
the system once you are done. Which is generally a good idea to keep it
isolated when it isn't needed.

My favorite backup method is disk cloning. What is nice is that you can
always pop the clone in when you need it. So you can be up and running
in seconds. Although of you want more than one backup copy, you need
more clone drives. But this is the safest of all backups.

What most do is to use a larger external (or second drive) and keep
multiple backups there. I don't like this method myself, because if that
one drive goes, all backups are gone except for the original drive in
your machine.

Your machine came with Vista right?

XXClone (free version) is my favorite cloning utility. Must be ran from
a working Windows though. So it is useless if Windows can't run.

Paragon is just as good as Acronis True Image and sometimes better. I
have both. Used both many times. And Paragon also has free versions that
are also very good. And there are many other wonderful ones out there too.

--
Bill
Gateway M465e ('06 era) - Thunderbird v12.0.1
Centrino Core2 Duo T5600 1.83GHz - 4GB - Windows XP SP2

[Frank.Logullo]

Thanks for response. Yes I have Vista but Windows won't run so I can't
get these programs or run them.
I have a new backup drive that I was going to use in a couple of months
after I give up Carbonite. Right now, thankful for Carbonite as I'm
getting files I need to work on. Giving up Carbonite as it costs twice
as much to backup whole computer and seems to slow things down. Took
nearly a day to up load my files when I first bought it.

[Frank]

I'm putting machine in Frank Jr.s hands.
Was hoping for a simpler solution but need to give him the machine and
he expects a couple of hours work over several days. He's done this for
Mom a couple of times. At least it won't cost me. Best Buy would have
taken it for diagnosis and repair but I did not want to spend a couple
of hundred dollars on a 6 year old machine when a new one costs ~$500.

[hmmstef...@gmail.com]

I have used a free software before. It can do backup and restore excellently. That is AOMEI Data Backuper. Moreover, it also can do disk/partition clone as well. You can know more about it by reading this article. http://www.aomeitech.com/res/backup/best-and-free-backup-software-for-windows-7.html?id=hmm

[Frank]

Thanks. Mentioned in other thread that son wiped machine and replaced
OS with Linux. He had recovered Vista but Windows updates slowed it to
a crawl. Having wifi connection problem, I put it aside and just bought
a new GW. Hard to tell what recovery systems are in place.

[BillW50]

In news:kahnot$87m$1...@dont-email.me,
Frank typed:

> Thanks. Mentioned in other thread that son wiped machine and replaced
> OS with Linux. He had recovered Vista but Windows updates slowed it
> to a crawl. Having wifi connection problem, I put it aside and just
> bought a new GW. Hard to tell what recovery systems are in place.

Different strokes I guess. I am hooked on the year 2006 for computers. I
have 16 of them from that year alone. What is nice about them is the
better ones comes with dual core CPUs, and supports 64 bit, 4GB or more
memory, has XP drivers, can run XP through Windows 8, etc.

Heck I just bought two new Dell Latitude ST machines. And they are
terrible! As they are so slow you can't even play most youtube videos on
them. I am so sorry I bought them now. I can't believe Dell would even
sell these thinking people would be happy with them. :-(

--
Bill
Gateway M465e ('06 era) - OE-QuoteFix v1.19.2

[Frank]

On 12/29/2012 3:29 AM, BillW50 wrote:
> In news:kahnot$87m$1...@dont-email.me,
> Frank typed:
>> Thanks. Mentioned in other thread that son wiped machine and replaced
>> OS with Linux. He had recovered Vista but Windows updates slowed it
>> to a crawl. Having wifi connection problem, I put it aside and just
>> bought a new GW. Hard to tell what recovery systems are in place.
>
> Different strokes I guess. I am hooked on the year 2006 for computers. I
> have 16 of them from that year alone. What is nice about them is the
> better ones comes with dual core CPUs, and supports 64 bit, 4GB or more
> memory, has XP drivers, can run XP through Windows 8, etc.
>
> Heck I just bought two new Dell Latitude ST machines. And they are
> terrible! As they are so slow you can't even play most youtube videos on
> them. I am so sorry I bought them now. I can't believe Dell would even
> sell these thinking people would be happy with them. :-(
>

My new GW is great. Came with 6 gigs memory with potential upgrade to
32, 64 bit and terabyte HD which I will never fill. It is also very
fast and extremely quiet. Very fast in loading. With my old Vista
machine, I'd be playing games for 5 minutes while it fully loaded. Now
it is ready to go in maybe 15 seconds.

Cannot say I am real happy with Win 8 which is more designed for phones
and touch screens. High learning curve to get it to operate on my
desktop like I want. For example picture viewer and pdf viewer are what
you might expect on a phone and only view with no file manipulation.
You have to default to desktop programs. Classical card games are not
there and must be downloaded as aps - also a PITA.

Might also mention that the Carbonite backup was disappointing as it did
not back up my music, videos or Thunderbird profile. I was ditching it
anyway for a portable HD as it seemed to slow down machine, sometimes
not allowing it to be shut down. It did save all my important business
documents and photos.

[BillW50]

In news:kbto4s$gc0$1...@dont-email.me,
Frank typed:

Ah yes... Windows 64 bit. Just amazing support for gobs of RAM. Although
the big tradeoff is you can only use 64 bit drivers, some 32 bit
programs won't run, and no 16 bit programs will run at all. If you can
live with this, all should be fine. ;-)

Ah Windows 8... yes I have been running it here since March of last year
on a non-touch screen. I only recently started playing (in the last
month) with it on a touch screen tablet. And it doesn't matter much to
me whether I use 8 on a touch screen or not. As you can do everything
well with a mouse and keyboard too. The cool thing about touch is
scrolling and zooming. But you don't need touch for that either.

Sorry about Carbonite... Kim Komando talks highly of it all of the time.
Although it is also one of her sponsors.

[Frank]

Have yet to have any programing problems.

Carbonite had sponsored Limbaugh which is where I heard about it.

He and Kommando are Apple people and probably just use the icloud
themselves.