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Back in the day, say mid to late 80’s, I ran a customer support unit just at the dawn of PCs coming into the office space. Too often these newbies (which we all were really) would format or erase floppy disks (which were actually floppy) with important data. A couple of times even those impossibly huge 10 MB hard drives (connected into IBM PCs via a ribbon cable from the HD box sitting on top of the PC) would get “the treatment.” What a wonder was the MACE software. I got MACE for all my visiting support folks and they did magic to save the day, or week, or month even.

I’ve crossed Drake off my list of any potential purchase. My data is MY data; my computer is MY computer. Yes, three are generally accepted and necessary formats and procedures for applications (although these are becoming more flexible) but NOT data. Does Drake support Cloud storage? What about small office and home networks? If not, they probably aren’t long for this world any way.

Believe it or not, check out this short piece from PCWORLD which I just got today. The last paragraph on page two sums up this reviewer’s view on our topic: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2047513/fragging-wonderful-the-truth-about-defragging-your-ssd.html?page=2

Amen, Kevin. Couldn’t say it better myself.

I certainly agree with a having robust backup scheme being up to the minute before tinkering with application (or the Registry for the matter). Images are great if you can make them and if you can run them after the problem presents. Still having a crash which corrupts data is way worse.
I figured everybody had already addressed ‘betting started”.

Sort of, Paul, but several SSD manufacturers specifically advise against going that route. What they do recommend is making sure that AHCD is selected in the BIOS and that TRIM is enabled in the OS. That should address whatever generic frag prevention is needed.

Plus: A reader’s results after a year of automated PC maintenance; a missing Group Policies Editor

But you might not want to set up automated defrags of SSDs!

Amen, all. Been there. Done that. Mass WU is fraught with hang-ups, Do everything possible before starting WU to ensure you have a workable Plan B.
This year I built a new machine and got caught installing fresh Win 7. Simply put something fought with my video and that got sticky fast.
Also remember that you might want to include updating BIOS, mobo firmware, drivers, etc. in your preparation phase.

Just some experience talking. How you do it is up to you but…
*OS should definitely be on the fastest drive you have and it has to be called C: drive to avoid hassles with some applications)
*If you have programs with databases, which call for lots of hits on large chunks of data, they should definitely not be in the same partition or even drive as the OS. But should be on the fastest or at least as fast possible drive(s).
Both of these sets of applications have thousands and thousands of ‘moving parts’ so to speak and so kick off more errors than far simpler data files.
*Data files should not be stored on drives or at least partitions which contain either the OS or the major applications. Simply put, you want to protect your data most and keeping it as far from the apps and the OSes as possible is where you want it to be. Also, data is typically called on the perform on a ‘retail’ basis: the OS or, more likely, an application will call for one data file or a selection of data files, rather than ALL your files at once for a modification.

This technique also really helps focus you on your back-up strategy.
*The most important is your data. Much might be irreplaceable or at least inconvenient to replace — but also has fewest changes over a days or week’s time.
*The next most important are your applications which might cost you big bucks and time to replace and configure.
*Least important are your OS(es) which can be restored rapidly over the internet likely for free.

So on my systems c: has the OS; D: has all the apps including things like my e-mail client; E-H have all the data (photos 60,000+) and emails themselves and downloads. You want to consider downloads as data files because you might need some day to re-install what was working for you and not be able to find it on the net and, heck, it is easier & faster just to double tap an EXE file.
Have fun!

RE: CCleaner
I too have used CCleaner for years on WIN machines and without any deleterious effect — until this Summer. After building a new PC using the ASUS Sabertooth X79 mobo and getting all the essential drivers & WIN 7 PRO 64 installed and fully updated I ran CCleaner as I’ve done often. It picked up the usual few issues and I let it go. I imaged the CCleaner page with the list of issues. And then I started having problems with stability and started working through the CCleaner list. After doing a lot of checking I circled around a couple of files in a temp folder. I called ASUS support and they had me re-install two drivers and told me that CCleaner was the cause because it cleans out a temp file — which has an essential file! Who’d a thunk?

The WIN7 + SP1 or the WIN7 Refresh? Does it matter?
I’m being very linear at this point. Thanks for the lead.

Willing to try. But I’m going to be really, really linear. Please bear with me because this ain’t no fun any more. Pity.
I can download the ISO. And burning the ISO will leave me with executable files & what not. Will this DVD then be bootable on its own? I have already made one of the optical drives a first choice boot drive & the system does ask if that is the proper boot device.

I can load the drivers in the order you specify. No problem. But I will need at some point to load nVidia drivers for my two HiRes monitor setup (I do a lot of Photoshop work). When can I do that?

There are also other ASUS drivers & utilities. Since I don’t do gaming, etc., most I do not load but some are of interest. When do I factor them in?

How/when do I approach all those other Windows Updates?

If there are still more Updates, how does one go about “manually” installing? I’ve always let Windows Update do its thing and, except once tangling with a Net update, everything has been straightforward. Thanks.

Two of the Support.Microsoft.com URLs. But they are now back up. These are stored URLs on my browser and so I’m certain there wasn’t any fat fingered business here.

Net Neutrality is a major issue and you have brilliantly described the situation. I thought that testing the White House’s own web site for aggregating citizen comments might be a place to go to add my name to those who would like to have the President’s views on the issue. Surprised was I to find that there was no pending petition. Well there is now.

Will you add your name to mine? If this petition gets 100,000 signatures by September 20, 2014, the White House will review it and respond! FYI: The FCC is supposed to discuss Net Neutrality on that same date.

‘We the People’ allows anyone to create and sign petitions asking the Obama Administration to take action on a range of issues. If a petition gets enough support, the Obama Administration will issue an official response.

“You can view and sign the petition here:

“http://wh.gov/lS8LM

“Here’s some more information about this petition:

“To make the Internet a public Utility under FCC and commit to a Federal program like Rural Electrification for it

No one can argue that the internet is essential to future well-being, innovation, safety, enjoyment, etc., etc. of just about every person, company, and organization in the USA and most of the rest of the world. We cannot give Internet Service Providers (ISPs) the right to choke the internet of those ISPs do not make an affirmative judgement to favor. In fact the internet in the US is the perfect example of what one would call a “Public Utility” and is ubiquitous. Hence FCC Tittle II status is called for. Plus, the Administration should make building a robust, open, world class speedy Internet its Rural Electrification and Interstate Highway Landmark work. The infrastructure should be via buried fiber optic cable to help protect it from storms and other disasters. EVERY school, library, 911, fire station, hospital needs wide & fast internet.”

Thank you for your attention. I hope that you and “Windows Secrets” can help get the President’s attention!

Nothing is restricted — but you can only use it for a few, rather small, searches before it freezes with a pitch for cash.

That said, yesterday I downloaded Easy Duplicate Finder, because it has been upgraded to handle the extensions I need plus it still allows for the designation of a MASTER folder(s). (These folders are not to be deleted), they are in my case the photos actually in my primary database which I really don’t to risk getting zapped by error but definitely do want to be the standard of comparison for many of the gobs of pix floating around.

First comparison set at bit by bit comparison ran about 4.5 hours (WIN7 64 with 32 GB RAM) files scanned: 305590, original files: 49632; duplicates: 49800. One troubling lack is a means of selecting all those duplicates which are not inn the master set. That means whole bunch of clicks coming up.