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Hibernation has been a real pain in the pants, since it first showed up years ago. It ranks right up there with Windows ME, as a great MS failure.

Luckily, some folks never have a problem with it, but for those who do, they will never forget it. Personally, Murphy’s Law will get me every time.

So in self defense, I just disable Hibernation on every PC I own, including my Acer Aspire ONE, Netbook.

In XP disabling Hibernate wasn’t all that difficult, but in win-7, that’s a different matter. So to speed up the process of disabling Hibernation, I wrote this simple little batch file.

Rem: this program will disable Hibernation in windows 7.

powercfg -h off

Echo: Check for presence of Hiberfil.sys file in root directory. pause

A welcome side effect of disabling Hibernation, is that the HUGE “Hiberfil.sys” file will disappear from your root directory. Look at it! It’s HUGE!!!

If you’re only going to do this once and you like typing, you can open up a RUN box, or CMD window and type in the powercfg -h off command. Press ENTER and the job is done and you’ll have regained a HUGE chunk of HD space.

Just a thought!

The Doctor

In a quick response to “I don’t want to buy Acronis”.
You don’t have to. That is, if you have either a Seagate or Maxtor hard drive.
Acronis comes FREE with the Seatools program from Seagate, and,
with the Maxblast program that comes from Maxtor. Other FREE versions
of the program may also be available from other sources.

Speaking of doing backups, in General, I offer this little tutorial.
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for thread readability, lengthy tutorial moved to

Happy New Year Everyone!
The Doctor

Sorry Mr Moderator, but I don’t get it!

Why would anyone want to install a 12 year old Office Suite on a Brand New, State of the Art OS?

It can’t read files made with the newer apps in Office 2007, for instance.

To this old tech, it sounds like an exercise in futility.

No one should be fighting with UAC. Turn it OFF and forget about it.

And, , , Have a Happy New Year!

The Doctor

Roland,
I’m some what of a Ghost guru, since I’m a PC professional and I’ve been using Ghost since it was first released by its originating company in New Zealand in ~ 1997. (Before Symantec bought it and turned it into “Norton’s Ghost”).

The original Ghost, even the 2003 version was written to be run from a bootable floppy disk.
That’s the only way you can run Ghost 2003 (to my knowledge) and get it to put itself on a Ghost backup CD or DVD, thus making it bootable.

Ghost will do a partition backup or a disk backup, either disk to disk or disk to Image, but will not do an incremental backup.
It was written to be a HD backup program, not a FILE backup program.

I back up my C: drive at least once every week, using the Partition to Image backup in FAST compression mode, to a second (storage) hard drive.
Then once every two weeks I do a Partition to Image with HIGH compression, to a DVD. Ghost Knows, that I’m booting from a floppy disk and it offers to put itself on the DVD, thus making it boot up exactly like the floppy did.

My Ghost boot floppy was formatted on a windows ME PC, which is a better DOS than windows 98.
I then set up a dos menu to give me several options in the way I run Ghost. I’ve even included several batch files, to clean out various JUNK files on the HD before Ghost actually runs.
I even run Windows XP on a FAT-32 HD, so I can have DOS control over every file on my HD.

Here’s the menu screen that comes up when I boot up my system with my Ghost 2003 boot floppy:

[1;33;44m

[41m GHOST 2003 Menu [44m

1. Run Ghost to make a new image. (Windows XP Only)
This program will delete all temp files, etc.
The Cleanup works only on a FAT-32 partition.

2. Run Ghost
This program runs Ghost alone, with NO cleanup being done.
Use this version to do Ghost Restores or Ghost image without cleanup.
You must use this option on any NTFS partition.

3. Run Ghost then shutdown PC when Ghost is done.

4. Delete all Restore points (Windows XP. Works on FAT-32 partition only)

5. Delete Windows “Pagefile” (Windows XP. Works on FAT-32 partitions only)

6. Do Full Cleanup and run Ghost (#5, #4, #1)

Type in a number at the DOS Prompt and press ENTER.

The weird codes are Ansi color codes to provide me with a nice colored menu screen,
so, the Ansi.sys driver has to be loaded via the config.sys file, during boot up.

I can boot up and Backup any OS, up to Vista or Win-7, with Ghost 2003. For those two OS’s, I must
use Ghost 11.5, booted from a Flash Drive or CD.
Version 11.5 looks and runs exactly like 2003, but is considerably larger so it won’t fit on
a boot floppy disk.
It also comes in a Ghost32.exe version that can be run from your Vista or Win-7 desktop shortcut icon.

This conversation could easily get into the ‘forbidden’ area, by the strictest application of Forum Rules, so if you need to,
just drop me a PM.

Do you have a floppy drive on your computer, or how else do you run Ghost 2003?

Happy Holidays!
The Doctor

I refuse to buy HP printers today, especially the multifunciton printers. I installed drivers for a wireless HP all-in-one. On a laptop that wasn’t too fast either (mostly in the HD department…). I wasn’t happy after 15 minutes it finally uncompressed what it was trying to install, then the 3 minutes it took to install, and then another 15 minutes to decompress the next part. About an hour later, it had finally finished! It takes me 10 minutes to install everything for my Epson Artisan 800.

I’m sorry, but I didn’t even read to the very end of this thread.
I just had to reply to this very good post.

I’ve said this for years, that HP Printer software must be written in some foreign country that hates us, (maybe N.Korea or Iran) because it’s absolutely the worse software I’ve ever seen in 29 years as a computer tech. When anyone complains about problems with HP printer software (drivers) I have a one word solution for them, , , , “EPSON“.

I have four Epson printers (two AIO’s & two CD Printers) in this house and I’ve never had one moment of trouble with any
of them. For Windows 7, the Epson Vista drivers work just fine.
I get all my ink carts from http://www.InkSell.com at way below store prices. I’m just sayin’ …….

Cheers Mates and Happy Holidays!

The Doctor

Likewise, I installed Windows 7 Ultimate, X86 on my Acer Aspire ONE Netbook.
I have an upgraded version with 1.5gigs of ram and a 160 gig HD so Win-7 actually ran pretty good,
and the installer even came up with ‘workable’ drivers for the video, lan, etc.
But it was just a “Test” and after a week or two, I wanted my Windows XP back.

Well, I’ve been down this “I’m just testing” road a time or two before, so,
before I did anything else, I repartitioned my little Netbook HD with
Partition Magic 8 and I made a “Partition to Image” copy of C: to D:
using Ghost 11.5, booting from a Flash Drive.

So now, with XP safely backed up to D:, I set about installing Win-7 from a DVD
in an external DVD drive.
When I finally got sick of Win-7, a six minute RESTORE of my XP image, put
me right back in business with Windows XP. I don’t think I’ll be doing that again.

Now, I’ve also got XP (two different versions) and Win-7 installed on my desktop.
BUT, each OS is on its own HD. So with three OS’s and one storage drive, I’ve got
four SATA II drives in my Desktop PC.
Unlike the factory made PC’s like HP, Dell, etc., many home made PC’s have a much
more versatile BIOS on their motherboards.

I have two PC’s that I built, , one is almost nine years old now with an Asrock mobo and
the other one is only about three years old, with an MSI mobo and they both give me a
nice little boot menu when I press the F11 key during the boot process.
It’s F12 on my little Acer Netbook.

This is just a sample, of the F11 boot menu on my MSI motherboard.
http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g90/DrWho1943/NewBiosBoot.jpg

Appologies! I wanted to show you the boot menu right here in the thread, but,
the forum software would not accept the Image file from Photobucket.
Click the above link to see the picture.

If you have a home made PC, check and see if you maybe have your own boot menu.

Changing OS’s is so much less traumatic, if you don’t have to trash your previous OS.
Then if the new OS doesn’t pan out, just reformat that drive and use it elsewhere.

Cheers Mates and Happy Holidays!

The Doctor

If you’re an old and happy Outlook Express user, like I and millions of other people are,
you will find Windows mail, nothing more than O.E. on steroids.

Now, along comes Windows 7 with Windows mail fully installed, but hidden and somehow
disabled. “Hey Bill, what’s up with that?”

Well, O.E. fans, not to worry!

First off, UN-Hide your hidden files.
Then “Take Ownership” of the files in the Windows Mail folder and Delete them.
Then replace them with the Windows Mail files from any version of Vista,
(many folks are offering those files for download, or get them from a friend who has
windows Vista. A flash drive makes a good transfer medium)
make a desktop shortcut to the WindowsMail.exe file and your done. (almost)

You still have to go through the setup routine in Windows Mail, but it’s only a little bit
worse than setting up O.E.
I’ve done it several times already and it gets easier every time.

Cheers Mates and Happy Holidays!

The Doctor

Well, first off, you need to make a Desktop shortcut to shutdown.exe.

Here’s the “Quick Shutdown” shortcut that works great for Vista and Win-7.
Just copy and paste this line into a desktop shortcut and you’re almost done.

%windir%System32shutdown.exe -s -t 00 -f

Then in the shortcut’s Properties you need to set up a Keyboard shortcut.
Pick a key combination that’s not used for some other purpose.
Finis!

I use the desktop Quick Shutdown shortcut exclusively to shut down my
own PC and I share it with all my friends and customers. They love it!
One click + eight seconds and the PC is OFF!

Good Luck and Happy Holidays!

The Doctor

It seems like I’m talking about doing backups, at least once a day, on one forum or another,
so to keep my fingers from bleeding, I’ve typed up a little “Backup Tutorial” to hopefully answer
some of the questions about doing backups.
Or to at least express some of my own thoughts on the subject.
***********************************************************************

Some basic answers to questions on doing backups: A Tutorial

A data backup or even a whole drive backup can be as easy or hard as you
want to make it. So for the sake of this tutorial, lets Keep it Simple.

First off, there are several failures that can happen within a PC that can take out every drive in the system.
So you won’t want your data or the program that backed it up, anywhere in your computer.
The data or drive-image, if you’re doing a whole-drive-backup, must be outside the PC, somewhere,
either on an external drive or on DVD’s.

Experience tells me that external HD’s are very prone to failure so that’s not
my most favorite backup media. DVD’s on the other hand, are impervious to EMI or magnetic erasure or even power supply failure and are supposed
to be good for 30 years or so.
The very best backup you can get would be a whole drive backup to DVD’s, stowed away in a fireproof vault.

Likewise, the backup software must NOT be on the internal hard drive.
It’s only going to be useful if it’s on a bootable media, either a Flash Drive or CD.
I have my own backup software (Ghost 2003) on a bootable Floppy,
bootable Flash Drive and a bootable CD.
If one should fail, I have the others as a backup.

Using Ghost 2003 as I do, from a bootable floppy disk, to backup my Windows XP (C: ) drive, to a DVD, Ghost will offer to copy itself to the backup DVD, thus making it boot up my system just like the original floppy did.
So every one of my backup DVD’s is also a copy of my Ghost boot disk.
After making my Ghost backup DVD, I take it into town and store it
in a fireproof vault in a friends office.

A backup sitting next to your PC, in case of fire, theft or natural disaster
is really NO backup at all. It MUST be somewhere safe.

If you cannot put your backup software on your backup disk to boot your
computer, then a boot CD should be stored along with the backup disks.

Setting up a foolproof backup system isn’t rocket science, but does require
a certain amount of forethought and planning.
All the “what if’s” must be addressed.

So that pretty much covers the whole-drive or at least the C: drive backup.
But what about your daily data? That can include new documents, pictures, saved emails, etc.
Those things can be copied to any media like a flash drive or second HD (or partition) quickly and easily with a simple batch file, using the old DOS XCOPY command.
If set up properly, it can do a quick and easy “Incremental backup”.

Such a backup batch file can be put on your desktop for quick and easy
access, or it can be put in your startup folder for a backup on every boot,
or it can be added to a shutdown routine, for a backup before shutdown.
Since it backs up only files that are new or have just been changed, it takes
only a few seconds to do the backup with the batch file.
Here’s a sample line from my own daily backup batch file.

Rem: Back up my WordPerfect files.
xcopy “C:MyFiles*.*” “F:MyFiles” /s /y /H /R /D

For this type of backup, NO external software is required. Everything you
need is already in Windows. Even a whole drive can be backed up to another drive, using this same technique. This would do it:

XCOPY “C:*.*” “D:” /s /y /H /R /D

With so many good options available to every user, it’s not required for
anyone to ever loose their data.

I’ve been setting up backup systems for computers for home and industry since the days of the 5.25″ floppy disk. (more years than I want to admit to)
Never before, have we had so many good options for data storage,
available to the home computer user.
The large flash drives that we have today are excellent for data backup.

I hope this has been helpful.

Happy Holidays Everyone!
The Doctor

If you were able to access all the complaints on the internet concerning Windows Backup, you’d have reading material for the next year.

In a nutshell, “it’s just not reliable”. Use something else.

Acronis True Image was already mentioned and it’s a pretty good backup program.
There are ways that you can even get it for free, like with Seatools, from Seagate or MaxBlast from Maxtor.
You’ll need at least one Seagate or Maxtor drive somewhere in your system to use either of these.

Personally, I’ve been using “Ghost” since 1997, way before Symantec bought it, and don’t intend to use anything else. You’ll need Ghost 11.5 or
better to back up Vista or Win-7.

Good Luck and Happy Holidays!

The Doctor