Computer Slow, videos/audio choppy

[DomHennig]

Hey Judy,

I just got my CD today in the mail. We are playing our rival Western Michigan University tomorrow (Friday) and Buffalo Wild Wings (Bar&Grill) is using my laptop to stream the game video over their T.V.'s, so I am pretty sure I do not want to reformat my computer today, juuuust incase I screw something up and then the bar has nothing and a lot of people will be upset.

I have a question, am I able to use this same CD on my other computer as well? Or is that illegal, and I cannot do that?

[DomHennig]

P.S. ~ What's the best/safest way to back up some files? I have some pictures and audio clips of the players that I need to save.

Burning them onto a cd? E-Mail? Lol

[jholland1964]

Not sure about using it on another computer. I know you CAN but otherwise as far as legalities go, I don't know. Somebody else can weigh in on that. As far as backing up, CD would be good for pictures and music. Emails? I know I back up emails I don't want to lose by sending them to myself at my gmail account and then putting them in a Saved Folder so I don't accidentally delete them.

[DomHennig]

What do you reccomend I back up my pictures/audio files on then?

I wasnt asking E-Mail, as in backing up my E-Mails, I was asking, E-Mail the pictures and stuff to my gmail account?

[DomHennig]

Judy, can you walk me through step by step instructions on how to Reformat My computer, so I do not completly screw it up?

Any precautions, or steps I need to do?

[cauzomb]

By chance do you have disk compression enabled? this will slow the WHOLE comptuer down..

I wouldn't count on emailing yourself the photo's/files to an online mail box; unless your online mail account has anti-virus, to have them scanned. If you are talking about saving or backing up emails.. depends on what application you use for email..

For email backup, best bet is to search google for "how to back up emails from (put in your email program here)"

You are correct, burn them to a disc, or two, or however many it takes..

It's not a bad idea to burn your disc's at speeds below half of the maximum write speed of your burner, it takes longer, but it ensures that you do not burn coasters, or dangerous frisbee's.

If you have a 24x burner, burn 8x or 16x if you are burning a cd.. If you got a 8 or 16x dvd burner, use like 4 to 8x for DVD.

You can use your new media, on another computer, but only if that computer has the exact same version of windows "xp" or "vista" etc.. and the other computer has it's own windows product key "matching opperating system" and Certificate of authenticity.. You use the product key from the certificate of authenticity that is on/with your old computer to install the computer with the new media.

If the other computer doesn't have a valid product key, then no, just one computer...

If you use ONE CD key from the new media, on two computers, that might not be legal.



I remember reading something about some software versions being legal to have it installed on two computers with one CD key, for instance you own both of those computers and one computer is a desktop PC and one computer is a laptop, the text said something like: if you are not using them at the same time for reasons other than updating work files between computers, IE you use the computers for the SAME tasks and applications, and have to keep your files the same on both computers, you synchronize them. That way you can do the same work at home/at the desk and on the laptop/mobile off-site.. This does not apply to the opperating system, only certain applications have that in the user/license agreement, you will have to look through your application or opperating system's license agreement to see what is legal

RE backing up.. getting ready to restore you PC to factory spec..



My recommendation: "remove the hard drive" connect it to a clean/already booted computer via a USB drive adapter/enclosure thingy.. Then scan all the files for viruses via a non infected computer, then open disk managment on the new computer, right click on the USB mounted hard disk, then select delete volume, then create new volume, then format/uncheck quick format to perform a complete reformat of each sector, this helps clear possible infected data that might remain on the disk without a complete format. Otherwise you may wind up with viruses on your backed up data, and may leave virus code on the drive, waiting to be picked back up by ad banners, or other malicious scripts/browser helpers.


Consult Dell.com support for backing up and restoring your files and PC OS.

[jholland1964]

What do you reccomend I back up my pictures/audio files on then?

I wasnt asking E-Mail, as in backing up my E-Mails, I was asking, E-Mail the pictures and stuff to my gmail account?

Pictures and music I would put on a CD. Emails you want to save send them to yourself at a gmail or online account if there are some that you cannot afford to lose for whatever reason. Documents you need, you can also save those to a CD if you need them for later. Just remember to reinstall all the software needed to view pictures, music, and read or edit any documents you have.

Judy, can you walk me through step by step instructions on how to Reformat My computer, so I do not completly screw it up?

Any precautions, or steps I need to do?

You need to find out what drivers you need for one thing. If you can go onto Dell and type in your service number it should give you the info on your computer as it came from the factory. That will tell you what hardware was installed. If you can, print all that out so that you know what you need once the new XP is installed.
Basically you can follow the steps given for reformat/reinstall on this Dell Page.
http://support.dell.com/support/topi...7E3&l=en&s=dhs

Then you can get driver information on the page below.

http://support.dell.com/support/topi...68C&redirect=1

It really ISN'T hard reformatting, takes a couple hours probably to do the reformat and reload. Then you of course have to do all the required updates for Windows, etc.
Install an anti-virus program, your printer, etc.

[cauzomb]

FYI, if you are doing streaming often, or need better quality, you will want to do this NOW http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/fo...22&postcount=7

Allign your partition by having someone with windows vista or windows 7 Format your hard disk in their computer for you; that way you get partition starting offset alligned to sector boundry; to prevent disk fragmentation, slow access to data etc.. You want a starting offset of 2048 sectors; windows vista and seven do this automatically when creating a partition.. when formatting etc... the disk must not be re-formatted when re-installing windows xp, windows xp cannot format a partition to the sector boundry. it's STUPID, or it's one of those consumer/and professional IT sector "slight of hand tricks" to keep consumers or small private sectors from competeing in the professional IT market, cause they could not keep their default factory installed servers working as fast as their competition, or as efficiently, they had to keep buying bigger and bigger hard disks and had extreamly slow I/O performance for a certain number of years, before actually learning that disk allignment would have allowed them to provide the better "service and support" compared to the outsourced off-shore people.. So they were unable to compete fairly in the free market... MONOPOLY.. :P ok on with the show...

[DomHennig]

RE backing up.. getting ready to restore you PC to factory spec..

My recommendation: "remove the hard drive" connect it to a clean/already booted computer via a USB drive adapter/enclosure thingy.. Then scan all the files for viruses via a non infected computer, then open disk managment on the new computer, right click on the USB mounted hard disk, then select delete volume, then create new volume, then format/uncheck quick format to perform a complete reformat of each sector, this helps clear possible infected data that might remain on the disk without a complete format. Otherwise you may wind up with viruses on your backed up data, and may leave virus code on the drive, waiting to be picked back up by ad banners, or other malicious scripts/browser helpers.

Alright, that just confused me right there. I thought that if I put this "Operating CD" in my computer, and "Reformat" my computer...EVERYTHING get's wiped off? Why would I have to connect my hard drive to another computer and clean it out? Is that if I want to keep everything I have on my computer now?

Because, all I want to keep is a few pictures, songs, and documents. I want to WIPE EVERYTHING off my computer.

[DomHennig]

FYI, if you are doing streaming often, or need better quality, you will want to do this NOW http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/fo...22&postcount=7

Allign your partition by having someone with windows vista or windows 7 Format your hard disk in their computer for you;

How do I do that? Do I put my Hard Drive in someone with ANY Vista/Windows 7 computer (I say any because I thought there were a lot of problems with Vista computers) so if I put my hard drive in ANY computer that is clean, running fine and has Windows Vista on this, I should be fine?