Re: Sticky Computer Problem:

On May 18, 3:13 pm, "Rock" <R...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"Robert" wrote

<snip>

Whew, you sure gave me allot on information. First off, I did still
have Live Update so I
uninstalled that. I also went to the Symantec site for their removal
utility and did that.
It's amazing how much faster my system is without Norton. I had no
idea.

Yes, even when Norton runs well it is a drag on resources. Universally,
people are surprised how much faster things are without it.

I still get
messages from Comodo now and then to allow this or that site such as
Symantec but
I assume this will quiet down after I have selected all my sites and
for Comodo to remember
my selections.

If all traces of Norton and Live update are gone you shouldn't be getting
any alerts from Comodo related to Symantec programs. Unfortunately
sometimes even with uninstalling those programs and using their removal
tool, it doesn't always get all the traces of these Norton home security
products. In the worst case scenario you need to reinstall clean to remove
all traces. Hopefully that won't be needed in your case.

I use to have Ad-Aware but it was only the free version since I'm
financially strapped and
so opted for A-Squared in it's place when I could no longer get it for
free.

I use the free version of Ad-Aware. That is what I was recommending. And
they are coming out with a new version in June. A-Squared might very well
be a fine program. I just am not familiar with it.

I think as far as
backups, I will end up buying an external hard drive, it sounds alot
easier. Any suggestions
for brand names or are they all more or less the same?

Sorry, I can't recommend any of the preassembled external drives. I don't
use them. But I do recommend you put together an external drive yoruself.
It is much cheaper. Just buy a bare drive kit (called a white box or OEM -
it's the same drive you get in a retail drive kit but it doesn't come in the
box and it doesn't come with a CD. Any utilities you might need can be
downloaded from the drive manufacturer's web site, but then you don't really
need these to set up an external drive.) And buy an self powered external
drive enclosure. These are in the $20 range. Unscrew the lid or end plate
on the enclosure, put the drive in, secure it to the enclosure with a few
screws (included), attach the drive cable and power connector, and reattach
the lid or end plate. Attach a USB cable to the case and attach that to
your computer. Takes about 10 minutes to put together. All you need is the
proper size philips head screwdriver. Most of these enclosures come with a
USB cable, and have a power switch to turn the drive on/off.

For example from Newegg.com:

WD 320GB Caviar 7200 RPM EIDE OEM drive $79.99http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144392

Kingwin KH-350U Black Aluminum hard drive enclosure $22.99http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817146307

What do you
think of thumb drives
and their uses?

Thumb drives are fine for temporary storage or for moving files from one
system to another. I have a couple, but I don't use them for permanent
backup, and they certainly aren't big enough to use as storage for drive
imaging.

I have heard of Acronis before so I will probably go
with that. I was going to
use Norton Ghost but after the recent events I don't think so.

Acronis True Image Home version 10 seems to be a bit more user friendly than
the current version of Ghost. I can understand your reluctance to use
Symantec products, though Ghost is one of their better ones. The products
you should not uses are NAV or NIS or Norton Utilities.

Don't get ATI from their web site, shop around at the various on oline
retailers for the best price which will be better than that from Acronis
which is $49.99. Newegg.com has it for $24.99 right now, which is a great
price.

Again, thanks for your help,

You're welcome. You are doing all the right things now to get your system
running well and protecting it properly.

I have included a copy of a post by Anna, with detailed, step by step
instructions on how to use Acronis True Image for creating images. Whatever
backup solution you employ, it is critical you test it under real conditions
to see that you can in fact restore either individual files, or the whole
system to a bare drive to you see how it works and that you have confidence
in it. When you need to restore because of a disaster is not the time to be
figuring out how it works or if it works.

"Step-by-Step Instructions for Using the Acronis True Image Program to
Backup
& Restore One's Hard Drive...

Using the Acronis True Image program there are two different approaches one
can take to back up the entire contents of one's day-to-day working HDD,
i.e., the operating system, all programs & applications, and user-created
data - in short, *everything* that's on one's HDD...

1. Direct disk-to-disk cloning, or,
2. Creating disk images

By using either of these strategies the user can restore his or her system
should their day-to-day working HDD become inoperable because of
mechanical/electronic failure of the disk or corruption of the system
resulting in a dysfunctional operating system.

In undertaking either of these two backup & recovery processes you're
dealing with two hard drives - the so-called source & destination disks -
the source disk being the HDD you're backing up and the destination disk
being the HDD that will be the recipient of the cloned contents of the
source disk or the recipient of the disk image you will be creating.

When using either process it's usually best for most users to use an
external HDD as the destination drive, i.e., the recipient of the cloned
contents of the source disk or the recipient of the created disk image. This
can be either a USB or Firewire or SATA external HDD. While another internal
HDD can also serve as the destination disk there's an additional element of
safety in using an external HDD since that drive will be ordinarily
disconnected from the system except during the disk cloning or recovery
process.

One other suggestion. After you install the Acronis program on your computer
it's a good idea to create what Acronis calls their "Bootable Rescue Media"
(CD). In most cases the recovery process (described below) will utilize that
Acronis bootable CD to restore your system. This "rescue" CD is easily
created from the program by clicking on the "Create Bootable Rescue Media"
icon on the opening Acronis screen and simply going through the screens to
create the bootable CD. The following are step-by-step instructions for
using the Acronis True Image 9 program to clone the contents of one HDD to
an external HDD. (The steps are essentially the same using the newer ATI 10
version):

1. With both hard drives (source & destination disks) connected, boot up.
Ensure that no other storage devices, e.g., flash drives, ZIP drives, etc..,
are connected. It's also probably a good idea to shut down any programs you
may have working in the background - including any anti-virus anti-spyware
programs - before undertaking this disk-to-disk cloning operation.

2. Access the Acronis True Image 9 program and under "Pick a Task", click
on "Clone Disk". (In the ATI 10 version click on "Manage Hard Disks" in the
"Pick a Tool" area and on the next screen click on "Clone Disk").

3. On the next "Welcome to the Disk Clone Wizard!" window, click Next.

4. On the next "Clone Mode" window select the Automatic option (it should
be the default option selected) and click Next.

5. On the next "Source Hard Disk" window, ensure that the correct source
HDD (the disk you're cloning from) has been selected (click to highlight).
Click Next.

6. On the next "Destination Hard Disk" window, ensure that the correct
destination HDD (the disk you're cloning to) has been selected (again, click
to highlight). Click Next.

7. On the next window, select the option "Delete partitions on the
destination hard disk". Understand that all data presently on the disk that
will be the recipient of the clone will be deleted prior to the disk cloning
operation. Click Next.

8. The next window will reflect the source and destination disks. Again,
confirm that the correct drives have been selected. Click Next. 9. On the
next window click on the Proceed button. A message box will display
indicating that a reboot will be required to undertake the disk cloning
operation. Click Reboot.

10. The cloning operation will proceed during the reboot. With modern
components and a medium to high-powered processor, data transfer rate will
be somewhere in the range of about 450 MB/min to 800 MB/min when cloning to
a USB external HDD; considerably faster when cloning to another internal
HDD.

11. When the disk cloning operation has been completed, a message will
(usually) appear indicating the disk cloning process has been successful and
instructs you to shut down the computer by pressing any key. Do so and
disconnect your USB external HDD. If, however, the destination drive (the
recipient of the clone) has been another *internal* HDD, see the NOTE below.

12. Note that the cloned contents now residing on the USB external HDD take
on the file system of the source drive. For example, if prior to the
disk-cloning operation your USB external HDD had been FAT32-formatted and
your XP OS was NTFS-formatted, the cloned contents will be NTFS-formatted.
There is no need to format the USB external HDD prior to the disk-cloning
operation. Similarly, there is no need prior to the disk-cloning operation
to format an internal HDD should you be using an internal HDD as the
destination drive .

13. Restoration of the system can be achieved by cloning the contents of the
data residing on the external HDD to an internal HDD through the normal
disk-cloning process as described above.

NOTE: Just one other point that should be emphasized with respect to the
disk cloning operation should the ...

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Hi Rock,
Thanks for all the good advice. The system is running alot cleaner,
and faster now. The messages I have been getting to allow sites on
that I spoke aren't from Norton they are from Comodo. For example, it
asks if I should allow svchost, and MSN for example. Or if I copy/past
something it asks if I want to allow it(symantec utility removal
instructions).
I think I will go with building my own external hard drive as you
suggest. I think no matter which backup software I choose I'll use my
DellB110 to practice on and make sure it's running properly before
trying it on my Dell 8200. I'll check and see if I can download a free
version Ad-Aware Se but as you say they will be coming out with a new
veresion soon.
One last question, when your running AVG do you run it at high or low
priority? It recommends low priority which is what I did but am
thinking maybe I should change it to high priority. I had my Norton
set up to run automatically everyday but sometimes it would come on
while I was in the middle of something. Should I set up AVG and Comodo
on a schedule or run manually? how often? When I logged today Comodo
update came on without me doing a thing. I suppose I enabled that when
I set it up but I don't remember doing so.


Robert


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