Need Tec help w/my pc

[Iggy]

Then again, it could be...

In our house in Arizona it easliy could have been HUGE, fat, furry spiders and finger long scorpions.

In this house the computer is sitting on the top of a two drawer, extra deep file cabinet to my left, my desk is snug up next to it. Fred, my boy cat, pushes up between me and my chair and leans against me. If I don't lean back, then he shoves his head between my side and the arm of the chair and nips my elbow so I will leand against him.

Hubby used to put him on the desk in front of him, and rest his left hand on his head. Me, I need that space for my keyboard. Hubby doesn't use his keyboard, he prefers to use the mouse for everything, including "typing" on a keyboard that pops up on his monitor. Too much mouse for me.

[Mahone]

Some quick advice for the future:

If losing something on your computer would upset you, always back it up.

I know from countless situations ive been involved in or witnessed that resolving problems caused by a disaster go far more smoothly if data was being sufficiently backed up before everything went wrong.

When it comes to storing information on a computer, bear in mind that the medium it's stored on is, without a doubt, going to fail at some point. In this instance, without professional (and expensive) help, you'll lose everything stored on it, not just bookmarks and passwords.

[Sunnysprite]

Help,

For a bit now I have been having problems navigating some web pages.

An example would be, some one posts a link, I go there, and once there, I can not make the page scroll, or even click on another link. Refreshing does not help.

Or I click on EReader News Today on my FB page, once at their webpage it either does not come in totally, or I can not scroll.

At first I thought my mouse battery was near dead, so put in a new battery. Not the problem, though the battery was low, just not real low.

Then I thought I needed to clear the temp internet files/cookies - so did that. Not the problem.

Because I don't always turn my pc off - I let it run for weeks at a time before I shut down- I shut it off overnight, then turned it back on - had some updates that downloaded - but again Not the problem.

I have Windows 7, Google Chrome. HELP Please.

Just last week, had an incident where somehow chrome was partially uninstalled. So yeah, the forces of darkness are at work on the internet.

[slamjet]

Okay, I uninstalled Chrome, am now using IE, and lost ALL of my passwords. ALL of them!

I even lost half of my favorites on the favorite bar- Rats, Drats, Dang and then some.

I'm a little late to this one, but If I may give a way you can never have this happen again.

LastPass - Password Manager, Form Filler, Password Management

Xmarks | Bookmark Sync and Search

They have free versions and are lifesavers. I use them all the time and by golly, they're great!

[Iggy]

Some quick advice for the future:

If losing something on your computer would upset you, always back it up.

I know from countless situations ive been involved in or witnessed that resolving problems caused by a disaster go far more smoothly if data was being sufficiently backed up before everything went wrong.

When it comes to storing information on a computer, bear in mind that the medium it's stored on is, without a doubt, going to fail at some point. In this instance, without professional (and expensive) help, you'll lose everything stored on it, not just bookmarks and passwords.

Back it up on a disc or a flash drive? Way back when I had backed everything up on floppy's- lot of good that did when my new computer didn't accept floppy's and my old didn't accept discs.

Just last week, had an incident where somehow chrome was partially uninstalled. So yeah, the forces of darkness are at work on the internet.

Thanks for the smile ~ forces of darkness ~ yep, that is just what they are!

I'm a little late to this one, but If I may give a way you can never have this happen again.

LastPass - Password Manager, Form Filler, Password Management

Xmarks | Bookmark Sync and Search

They have free versions and are lifesavers. I use them all the time and by golly, they're great!

Thanks Slamjet, will check it out. Also I will write down all my passwords and usernames so that I don't have to reinvent the wheel each time!

Oh, Question ~ is there a difference between CD-RW audio and CD-RW? And how does one back up the entire computer? Or is it down one thing at a time. I back up my PAF each time I exit and it asks if I want to. I have yet to figure out how to back up my Personal Journal program, even though when I bought it, it said that you could.

But how do you back up all of your internet bookmarks and passwords?

[slamjet]

CDRW Audio vs CDRW Data, no real difference to worry about. But CD-RW are really slow and only hold 700 MB or so. DVD holds 4 GB or so and Blu-Ray golds around 20 GB. But backing up to CD is not the most efficient way to do things. I back up to an external hard drive and also to the cloud (I use justcoud.com, but there are others).

As for backing up your passwords and bookmarks, that's what I use lastpass and qmarks for. It saves it off of my computer and I can sync it with my laptop and other devices. Good stuff. That way you don't have to go digging around and making sure you back up your profiles, favorites, etc. Besides, with IE, you can't backup your passwords.

[Iggy]

Thanks Slamjet, ~ ~sigh~~, I have only been back to using IE for a few days and I really hate it! Though the problem I had is gone. Do I instal those apps you suggested before or after I go back to chrome?

Lost my spell check program too, no sense in downloading before I put chrome back on. So forgive any misspelled words.

I'll have Hubby do the external hard drive, he understands all that better than I do.

[Dravin]

Back it up on a disc or a flash drive? Way back when I had backed everything up on floppy's- lot of good that did when my new computer didn't accept floppy's and my old didn't accept discs.

You could have installed the appropriate drive, or used an external one (if the idea of installing a drive makes one balk) on the new one. I can't vouch on the reliability differences between flash memory and optical storage but USB will be around for a while. The nice thing is that media generally don't disappear overnight and one can transfer over one's back-up to an newer medium before it becomes to difficult find a way to read the old medium.

And how does one back up the entire computer?

You can create system recovery image in Windows 7 (or you can do similar with a third party program): Use Windows 7 System Image Recovery to restore a hard disk | TechRepublic. Keep in mind if you don't update regularly you can find yourself in a bit of bind in having to decide if restoring is worth losing what's new since the last image.

Edited August 27, 2012 by Dravin

[slamjet]

Thanks Slamjet, ~ ~sigh~~, I have only been back to using IE for a few days and I really hate it! Though the problem I had is gone. Do I instal those apps you suggested before or after I go back to chrome?

Lost my spell check program too, no sense in downloading before I put chrome back on. So forgive any misspelled words.

I'll have Hubby do the external hard drive, he understands all that better than I do.

I would install after installing chrome. That way its easier for it to picks up that there is a new browser in town.

[Iggy]

Have re-installed Chrome, WOW things are faster now. ~ ~ happy happy dance ~ ~

Am now going to install LastPass and Xmarks ~ Oh, joy, spell check is back, Super Happy Happy Dance

Thank You Everyone

[jerome1232]

Am now going to install LastPass and Xmarks ~ Oh, joy, spell check is back, Super Happy Happy Dance

IE really doesn't have a spell check built in??? Yeesh.

I just wanted to 2nd Dravins suggestion of getting a big external drive and keeping a full blown backup on it. Bad things are much more tolerable when you know your family pictures are safe and sound on a backup drive.

This is coming from a guy who once accidentally formated a drive which had the only copies of every picture we had, including wedding stuff.

[Vort]

I hate spell check. Hate it. I never, ever turn auto-correct on.

[jerome1232]

I hate spell check. Hate it. I never, ever turn auto-correct on.

Spell check and auto-correct are two very different things. One highlights spelling mistakes it thinks you've made, the other makes you want to do this

[slamjet]

I hate spell check. Hate it. I never, ever turn auto-correct on.

I bow to thee and can only wish to reach such level of text perfection so as to one day dispense with the word-error-checker-and-corrector

[Iggy]

IE really doesn't have a spell check built in??? Yeesh.

I just wanted to 2nd Dravins suggestion of getting a big external drive and keeping a full blown backup on it. Bad things are much more tolerable when you know your family pictures are safe and sound on a backup drive.

This is coming from a guy who once accidentally formated a drive which had the only copies of every picture we had, including wedding stuff.

Yeah, we have lost pictures twice - each of us twice! I had mine all on floppies, but no longer had a computer that had both. Hubby took them to work and his Tek friend there transferred them all to disc for me.

To use the spell check on this forum you have to download iSpell. Once it is on your computer, it works on all other forums. I love it.

I will talk with Hubby about the external drive. Who knows he just may have one floating around somewhere in his Den/Office. There are boxes of computer things that have yet to be revisited since this last move to Oregon. Boxes that he packed up in Calif in 1992 when he moved to Arizona, and that have not been looked into for 4 more moves. I did fix a bankers box full of those 5 inch floppies - I would love to toss them, but they are his. I have tossed about 1/2 of the power cords that have nothing to power. I will leave his 'Ancient' floppies alone.

When my EX tossed my LP's I was extremely pissed. Just because I didn't have a turntable didn't mean I wanted them gone. I was looking for a turntable. Had to toss the speakers cause the mice got in them and chewed up ALL of the wiring and made a real nasty mess in them. Now there is no need to look for a turntable and speakers. Dang anyway!

[slamjet]

Oh, joy, spell check is back, Super Happy Happy Dance

Well, haven't we gone from this:

to this:

[Iggy]

Well, haven't we gone from this:

to this:

Yep, sometimes simple things make me real, real happy. That and taking my HiBloodPressure meds on time!

Vort, I don't use the auto correct. When I want to use the misspelled version, I don't want to have to keep going back and redoing it.

But I openly admit that I am addicted and dependent on Spell Check. And no, I really do not want to go through any 12 Step program to get un-addicted/un-dependent on it. I got really, really tired of lugging around the Unabridged Dictionary that my family got for me as a Christmas gift back when I was in the 5th grade.

And yes, I do have Dictionary.com bookmarked

If I haven't already said so - - -THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR HELP

[Dravin]

IE really doesn't have a spell check built in??? Yeesh.

I just wanted to 2nd Dravins suggestion of getting a big external drive and keeping a full blown backup on it. Bad things are much more tolerable when you know your family pictures are safe and sound on a backup drive.

I'm less inclined to suggest someone keep an up-to-date comprehensive back-up than I am to suggest a two pronged approach:

1) Next time you need to install windows from scratch install the programs you always use (Chrome, Anti-virus, PDF Reader, and the like), update your drivers, and do what Windows updates you can and make essentially a fresh install system recovery image of your machine in that condition. Each time you have to use it make sure to update Windows and other programs and update your image before you start restoring data or installing less core but used programs (say the recent game you are playing).

2) Back up your data on a regular basis.

I have a couple reasons for such. One of them may just be old fears, namely that Windows install inevitably bog down as time goes on, if my hard-drive dies or Windows starts bogging down it's nice to have a 'fresh' version to fall back on, and such a core program and partial up-to-date version is nicer to have come up than a stock install. The second is most of my HD capacity is taken up by easily to redownload programs. Such a 'fresh' install + data lets me get away with lower storage requirements.

I hate spell check. Hate it. I never, ever turn auto-correct on.

Spell check I like, auto-correct I'm less of a fan of. Particularly on something with a keyboard (be it virtual or physical).

Edited August 27, 2012 by Dravin