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Posted: |
Mar 7, 2016 - 6:28 AM
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By: |
dragon53
(Member)
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This is a continuation of my earlier thread about my pc's hard drive problem.
I replaced the hard drive, but with the new hard drive, the pc has new problems.
My pc is a Dell C-521 with Vista, 1 GB ram, 160 gb hard drive.
Here are a few new problems:
1. After I downloaded Ccleaner and Superantispyware files, the files won't launch. How do I get the downloaded files to launch?
2. The Recovery (D) drive is in the red with 3.76 mb free of 9.99 gb. I was trying Disk Cleanup on the Recovery (D) drive and got the following (I usually run Disk Cleanup on the C Drive) results:
"Previous Window(s) Installation---811 MB"
Can I safely delete the D drive's 811 MB?
3. With my old hard drive, when I downloaded photos, they would appear as thumbnail icons on the desktop. But now with the new hard drive, downloaded photos appear in a single desktop file. How do I get downloaded photos to appear as individual thumbnail desktop icons?
4. The old hard drive would defrag in 45-60 minutes, but the new hard drive defrags for 3 hours and still won't finish. How do I solve the lengthy defrag time?
5. Desktop icons keep changing size. It's not a major problem, but it may part of a larger problem.
6. Log-off/shut-down takes more time than on the old hard drive.
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Posted: |
Mar 7, 2016 - 10:52 AM
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By: |
Grecchus
(Member)
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That's the one with the Western Digital reconditioned drive, right Dragon?
Did you, or did you not load that 160gb disc with the OS yourself, because I can't remember? Normally, hard-disks containing proprietary software are preloaded from the vendor and/or their tributary stores. If they don't supply any OS DvD or CD with the PC it's because there is a recovery partition on the disc. This is basically the OS held latently on the hard-disk in a compressed format. They normally give you a once only attempt at copying the OS as it stands in the recovery partition. It is up to the user to ensure the information copies successfully to their choice of DvD/CD for backup purposes. The software is usually proprietary, which means if you bought a Dell of a certain make, the software can only ever be loaded on that machine. Try and load it on another make of machine and it will probably fail.
But you've said you already had the Vista OS on formally licensed Microsoft discs, which would require you to load the OS as a clean install with no dependency on Dell? Or, were the discs you received only registered to be used on the build of machine you bought?
I think your cleaner might be incompatible with any compressed file format exclusively associated with the D: drive.
The XP machine I'm using was originally a bundled PC. It came with a recovery partition and no set of OS discs for use in any possible emergencies. In fact, I used the machine for some time until I realized it was probably a good idea to initialise the recovery partition to store the proprietary OS on a backup DvD, just in case. Sure enough, there was an emergency in which all the data and the MBR got corrupted. The hardware itself was fine, but I had to reload the XP system from the backup I'd made. All the screens that show when the OS installs are not the same as is the case if you use actual licensed Microsoft software. When the machine OS first loads after installation, however, it looks exactly the way XP would on first running it, with the exception the software can only be run on that make of machine.
The question is: is the version of Vista you're currently using of the preloaded variety from the vendor, or did you load the OS from Microsoft's own source disc; or was it from discs you received exclusively from Dell?
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Defrag time depends on the amount that has to be defragged.
I deal with hundreds of megabytes of data, sometimes over a gigabyte, each day on the computer I'm using, as well as editing and deleting older files. This can lead to an hour or more of defragging.
Also, if one or more programs are trying to access the hard drive, if can slow down defrag.
My advice, aside from also running disk cleanup, is to get Temp File Cleaner:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/tfc/
Run it as an Administrator, restart the computer in Safe Mode, and disable anything in Safe Mode that may actively try to access the hard drive, then disable Sleep and run defrag until finished.
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That sounds suspecious. I'd seek help from the BleepingComputer.com forum members.
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You have expended a lot of time, irritation and money on the wrong solutions for a piece of outdated junk. You do not have sufficient ram. Your computer model will take 4 gig. Buy new and DO NOT USE the old one. Very easy to install. If this doesn’t help, then dump the machine.
I've heard that sometimes a failing RAM chip will cause problems that people naturally mis-attribute to things that fail more commonly. And I agree that the computer in question would need more RAM regardless.
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Posted: |
Mar 22, 2016 - 9:05 PM
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By: |
edwzoomom
(Member)
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In Safe mode, I went to the desktop folder for downloads and clicked on the downloaded files for CCleaner and Superantispyware----as usual nothing happened.
I then clicked on the downloaded files for Avast and Malwarebytes (which already run with no problems) and got popups asking for permission to run.
So, my pc will run Avast and Malwarebytes, but it won't run the downloaded files for CCleaner and Superantispyware---but my old hard drive ran them with no problems.
As for restoring to an earlier point, assuming I understand this correctly, the new hard drive has never run CCleaner or Malwarebytes---they only ran on the old hard drive which I replaced after it died.
So if I restore the new hard drive to when I first installed it, won't it have the same problem?
If you restore back to factory settings, you should be good to go, provided you won't lose anything valuable. You may have conflicting software with all that stuff on there as well. I am not sure you need Avast and "Superantispyware."
I have saved 2 laptops in the last year using something called Combofix. It is tricky to use but if you follow directions carefully, it can work miracles. Do some reading and try it if you feel comfortable. It may do the trick.
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