Replies

@ Clive Pugh; just 2 points that spring to mind …

a) The thread’s a little old now, the OP hasn’t even responded to the questions raised in the first reply; if they had been answered, there may some substance for a suggestion like yours ;).
b) If the PC was taken in because of “problems with my computer running extremely slowly”, there would be no reason for a tech to even connect it to speakers unless the Device Manager was flagging an error on the sound card.

The only exception to the OS first rule is when you need to load RAID or SATA drivers so that the Windows installer can access the HDD, F6 and insert the floppy disk; thankfully becoming rarer now but was very common with the early SATA ‘boards and older Windows.

A and B are usually reserved for floppy disk drives, but if your computer does not have floppy disk drives, you can assign A and B to volumes.

Live Messenger was one of the programs that I had to install as Administrator to get it working fully in the beta of 7, otherwise the tray icon wouldn’t show for me – maybe you need to reinstall it that way (right-click the installer and select Run as Administrator)?

@peterg, NTFS (and ExFAT) is not as limited in terms of file sizes as are FAT, FAT16 and FAT32 (500Mb, 2Gb and 4Gb), as ReadyBoost can then use the full space on the USB or SD card.

My experience installing 7 on netbooks shows that the install is much faster from a USB drive formatted with NTFS than on the same stick formatted with FAT32. I’ve also formatted non-ReadyBoost sticks from FAT32 and found them to work fine with ReadyBoost afterwards.

I think that NTFS has changed slightly in the last few years, perhaps also the drivers used by 7 are better, too.

You should not need to do any assigning, as on reboot, the new partition should have been assigned by the BIOS the D drive and the your DVD/DC would have been E.

That’s roughly my experience too, DaveA except that the assignments are done by Windows not the BIOS.

Since Vista (at least), it should be possible to assign A and B to hdd volumes, provided there are no floppy drives attached to the system (I’d disable the floppy controller in the BIOS and in Device Manager if it shows there, just to give it the best chance).

You can’t change a drive letter if the drive is either a system partition or a boot partition.

On a single drive/volume installation from CD/DVD, Windows will assign the boot drive (Windows drive) as C:and the CD/DVD as D:, perhaps you could try to disable or remove the CD/DVD drive before attempting to assign D: to another drive/volume?

Are all the drives using the same connection – all PATA or all SATA? Any PCI PATA/SATA controllers?

Hmm, never seen it, must be something to do with IE8 or something in Windows Live?

Perhaps you didn’t finish the IE8 Add-ons/Accelerators/Search engines wizard on first use? I have Google set for my default search provider and removed Bing then set IE to lock the setting.

Open IE > Alt > Tools > Manage Add-ons – from there you should be able to fix it to your liking :).

As tested, the card cannot reach the sustained transfer speed required to make ReadyBoost benefit your system. If you format the card to NTFS (if it’s currently FAT32), you may find that on retest Windows will allow them to be used.

Be aware however that you may not notice an improvement in speed; some people find a performance increase (often with slow PC’s), others say they find no benefit from using ReadyBoost.

You may want to checkout Brink’s tutorial on extending partitions and volumes in Win 7.

Historically IMHO, some backup/restore software has been hampered by the built-in drivers not working well with different chipsets on the external side. Transferring the drive into an external case with a different chipset (or switching to Firewire) may lead to a successful restore. If the backup needed is a standard type, changing the backup/restore software may also work on the existing hardware.

Hey stuck, which drivers are you using on the 2200bg? I find that the Intel ones are usually much newer and often have more features than the ones available from the OEM’s, HP, Dell, etc.

Have you looked for updated firmware for the router?

Hi Bruce, just a check, are you sure your PC supports running XP Mode?

You should have said that each time the wireless connects to a NEW router, the user will be asked about THAT connection, for which setting will be for that connection.

Sorry Dave, I was trying to answer Wayne’s questions. There was no mention of wireless, only a cable router.

… Tomorrow, my new Dell arrives without a security program on it. I’ve got a boxed one to install. It says to connect to the internet prior toinstalling, but since you shouldn’t be on the internet without protection, I’m leery of connecting my cable modem before installing security.How much damage can happen in that minute, or ten, or however many it takes to get up to speed? What would you do, in this case?

StuartR, thanks for clarifying the Public/Private part

I brought it up specifically because Windows should ask you soon after you boot it up for the first time what setting you want to use for your network connection(s); until you are fully updated, I suggest you stay with the higher security offered by the Public setting.

Just set your connection to “Public”, connect and update, you should be ok. Don’t surf around :).