Mickey Way

Login...you've created a monster... Stop me before I boot again!

For anyone still reading this post, hard drives are typically identified as IDE, Intigrated Device Electronics. SATA is the method of connection to storage devices such as hard disks, solid-state drives, and CD-ROM drives.

Hi login. I just checked the Acronis Disc Director site. Do you have version 10.0? http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/diskdirector/partitioning.html This page addresses version 10.0 and the list gives you all the details about what you can do with DD. I looks like it should be able to reformat Linux partitions. Just briefly reading about DD, it looks like a pretty good program. I tried Easeus many years ago on a W2K system and had bad results. After that, I haven't used any partition programs other than Win 7 (which is istalled with 7 and works great), and the Linux partitioning tools on the Ubuntu and Mint install discs (which worked great for me). Keep us updated on how things go.

Why would you have to post a screenshot of your OS and installation date? You shouldn't need photo proof of your OS. If you are posting a question on a tech support site or forum, no one is going to challenge your system reference. MicroSoft is the ONLY site that cares about this information, and I can tell you with 100% confidence, THEY don't need a screenshot of your system information. Irregardless, the Speccy team has already initiated my suggestion, which is why I came back to this post to tell them "Thanks". I just did a reinstall and downloaded Speccy, not realizing the version now says "spsetup102", and got a nice surprise when I saw the key listed! COOL! Thanks Speccy! P.S. Just for you, Jihaad Why screenshot this... ...when this would be even better.

I'm as old as my nose and a little older than my teeth.

What is your internet connection type? Dial-up modem, cable, DSL? I don't know what your computer "habits" are, but rather than pausing or stopping the download, what I do is start a big, slow download an hour or two before going to bed. Depending on your download speed, it should be complete when you wake up. Also, I'm not sure about Win 7 having an image burning tool, but the best alternative is a simple little one-window tool called Astroburn Lite. Take a look at their home page here; http://www.astroburn.com/products/abLite (Don't be confused by the "Buy Now" button. It is a free program.) I just burnt an ISO of CrunchBang using Astroburn Lite on a 12 year old CD burner and the disc came out perfect.

OUTSTANDING reference ishan rulz! I never heard of him before. I Googled and went for the Wiki ref; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Hotz It's people like George that guarantee Big Business will never have app-solute control!

I see this every day. But the point you are missing is that these people are part of the human race that can't own anything that ISN'T the latest trend/fad/fashion, etc. Ipods especially are nothing more than a "label" to "fit-in" with the crowd. I have a $10 2GB off-brand MP3 player that sounds just as good as an Ipod, but try and convince one of the "fashion dictates I MUST own an Ipod" people to be happy with a player like mine. Their ego would not allow them to be seen in public with such a "vulgar" accessory like that. I actually encountered a WalMart employee in the electronics department that falls into this group. I was looking for a pair of headphones, not earbuds. He said that he would like to have a pair because they are more comfortable, but it's just not the style everyone else has these days. Well, to each their own, but I'm not about to play that game. I'm after comfort. This statement is true as well. Take a good look at some of these folks. I'd bet you could find a high number of them has never used a screwdriver. Someone at Apple has also seen this and has successfully found a way to exploit it. Good for them. (They aren't ever getting any of MY money.) Bottom line: I don't think anyone here should panic about freeware disappearing anytime soon. The push for freeware and shareware these days is ENORMOUS.

I understand not wanting to install it just yet. I did the same thing with Ubuntu for a couple of months just checking it out live. The big thing is: if you install it on XP, it's there to stay unless you either download a partitioning tool to help remove it, or do a complete reinstall and start all over...CLEAN. (Either way can be a headache for alot of people.) If you have Win 7, you can just go into the Disc Manager and delete it! POP! I kinda lucked out when my neighbors parents computer died. They gave it to me and all I did was spend $45 on a mobo. It's perfect for trying ANYTHING new, like Ubuntu and Mint. (I'm writing this on Mint 9 using their old computer, now dual boot with XP and Mint 9.) If something fowls up, no big loss. All the important stuff is on my other computer.

OOPS! I forgot to thank Hazelnut for giving me a new toy to play with! THANKS HAZELNUT!!!

Hi login. I can't tell from your last two posts if you have installed 9 or just running live. Well, I just finished installing Mint 9. I'm downloading updates right now. (I'm on another computer to write this...KVM's sure are handy!) Last night after posting here, I downloaded the i386 standard version via torrent, checked the MD5 with HashTab, then burnt and verified the disc with Astroburn Lite. (I chose the standard version because the additional software on the DVD version can be downloaded at any time later.) Then booted from CD. The list that comes up has a "check disc" option, so I ran that and it came out with flying colors. Then I ran it live for awhile just to see what's what. At first glance, it's just a green-color version of Ubuntu 9.10 with the exact same features, but built in a Windows-like configuration. Today, I backed up the XP and started the Mint 9 disc. The partition set-up went perfectly. (320GB HDD. I gave Mint 65GB.) Then after full install, I rebooted and the GRUB worked perfectly. The ONLY bugs I encountered were on one of the install screens; the text was cut-off on the bottom and you couldn't see the other options, but since I chose "log in automatically" (same screens as Ubuntu), it didn't matter. The other one is during the install, the progress bar gets confused. It was at 88%, then dropped to 84%, did the same in the 90% range as well, then it appeared to be stuck/locked up at 94%, but after a long while, it does finish. If you haven't done this before, it's a piece of cake. Just remember to reboot and run your Windows OS because it has to make some adjustments as well. (It will automatically check the file system because it knows something has changed.) Well login, I hope this helps. It's now just a matter of feeling out everything and finding tweaks. I've been causally playing with Ubuntu 9.10 for the past few weeks, and since this is quite simular, I can bounce back and forth between the two for testing.

WOW! Thanks Hazelnut! I never heard of Mint. I just finished checking out their web site and will start trying this OS pretty soon. I'm slowly dabbling with the idea of weening myself off of the M$ teet, and have installed Ubuntu 9.10 as a dual-boot on one of my computers. Ubuntu is a good OS for what I would need beyond XP, but it doesn't hurt to check out other options. XP is still my workhorse, and will be until, as the gun-guys say, "you can have it when you pry it from my cold, dead hands".

I just discovered Speccy. It is GREAT! Of course everybody and their uncle are going to say "add this" and so on, so why should I be any different. Under the Operating System section, it would be nice to list the Product Key. It would be a simple way to recover the key if you have misplaced your original key and are stuck when you want to do a re-install of the OS. MS Windows XP Home 32-bit SP3 Installation Date: 31 December 2009, 11:36 Product Key: xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx Cheers!

Well, I'm not that fussed about it. It's just a "nice-to-have" idea. The Windows method of deleting the old restore points is still the best way to clear out some space on the harddrive. I would prefer to have about five points on-hand...just in case there is something boogered-up with the only remaining restore point. With computers, you never know. As for finding the actual restore points in the System Folders, I tried a few years back, but I had a moment of clarity when the phrase "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." kept running through my head. Nuff said. As far as the TuneUp Utilities program goes, their "delete system restore points" is nothing more than a shortcut key to the Windows program already installed with the OS disc...everybody already has this on their computer, so that would be a waste of money. The TU program is a really good way to keep your system at top performance, but I don't like their license agreement, that and the fact it costs 50 USD for each computer...no thanks. Any way, that should do it for me. I'm content with the way CCleaner works as-is. Nice to meet ya Augeas, and thanks for your help.

Hello Augeas, and thanks for the reply. (I'm about 7 hours behind you near four VERY famous stone faces. I'm an overnight trucker, so 4:50 AM is actually middle afternoon to me.) I guess in my experience over the years when it comes to keeping your system "healthy", one of the most common actions is to delete unnecessary old restore points, among other things, to free up disc space. As with the format provided by Windows, you can delete all but one. When I saw an article about CCleaner and selective deletion, I just took it for granted it would actually remove the data from the disc, which is what I wanted from the program. So, I take it from your reply, CCleaner is doing exactly what it was written to do. I thought it might have been a fluke, so that is why I posted this thread, hoping the program developers would look into this. I'm still going to keep CCleaner, it does a great job of kicking out some sneeky unwanted cookies! Thanks again.