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The LangaList
Standard Edition

2005-05-30

A Free Email Newsletter from Fred Langa
That Helps You Get More From Your Hardware, 
Software, and Time Online

Please visit our sponsors and help keep the LangaList S.E. free!

1) Reusing An Old Drive In A New PC

The item "Delete Just the OS Files; Leave The Rest" ( http://langa.com/newsletters/2005/2005-05-26.htm#5 ) brought this related mail, which also lets us touch on the subject of reusing an older hard drive in a newer system:

I just built myself an Athlon 64 system to replace my "old" Athlon Tbird system 
 
I'm running WinXP Pro on both systems.  I'd like to take the hard drive out of the older system and put it in as an extra drive on the new system.
 
In doing so, I'd like to get rid of the OS on the older drive.  How can I do that short of just deleting the c:\WINNT and Windows folders?  ---Jack Lavelle

You don't say whether or not you want to retain the other files on that drive, but I'll assume you do--- and that's why you don't want to just reformat to clear the drive. I'll also assume that these are conventional, standard IDE drives.

First, you want to make sure the data on the old drive is safe: You need a good backup, of course. (This way, even if something goes wrong and you do have to reformat the old drive, you won't lose anything.)

If you don't have a practical way to back up the whole drive to CD or DVD or whatnot, you might want to use your local network, or a temporary lash-up, or a "direct cable" connection so you can use the "Files and Settings Transfer Wizard" to grab files and folders off the old drive and make at least a temporary copy on the new drive. (See references at the end of this item for more info.) Normal networking functions--- copy/paste from one system to the other--- will let you move whatever the Wizard doesn't.

Once the old drive is backed up, you can power down that system and remove the drive. What you do next depends on how the new system is configured, but in short, you have to figure out where the old drive will connect. The physical part is easy: If there's an empty drive bay in your system, the drive simply bolts or snaps in place. (Again, see references at the end of this item.) The real issue is how you get the data from the drive to the system, and back again. A system builder, like Jack, probably already knows the following, but let's include it for completeness:

Typical systems provide data connectors for four mass-storage devices--- some combination of hard drives, CD drives, etc. There usually are two separate connectors on the motherboard; these used to be called "primary" and "secondary" but that implied a prioritization that really didn't exist, so most vendors now simply label the connectors IDE1 and IDE2. Each connector accepts one cable that in turn can attach to two devices at the same time. Traditionally, one of the two devices is called the "master" device and  the other a "slave," although this terminology is fading due to a lawsuit claiming that this language is racially and historically insensitive. (I'm not making this up.) So, some vendors are recycling the older connector terminology and calling the devices on each cable "primary" and "secondary;" although you may run into the older master/slave terminology on your hardware. Thus, using this newer terminology, the four available device connections would be IDE1 Primary, IDE1 Secondary, IDE2 Primary, IDE2 Secondary.

In general, you may do better to put devices with similar speeds and throughputs on the same cable: EG, if you have two hard drives and two CD drives, put the hard drives on one cable, and the CDs on the other. Then, set the faster of each pair of devices to be that cable's primary, and the slower one that cable's secondary. (This is only a broad rule of thumb, but it usually works OK.)

You normally set a device to be primary or secondary via small switches or "jumpers" on the back of the drive. But some drives use "cable select" which is kind of an automatic way to handle the primary/secondary assignments. If both devices on a cable are set to employ "cable select" mode, it should work OK, but I prefer to do things the older, more certain way and physically set one drive to be primary, and the other to be secondary. This also helps in cases like the one we're discussing, where an old, bootable drive will be installed next to a new bootable drive. Setting the new drive to primary, and the old drive to secondary, will help ensure that the system boots from the correct (new) drive.

How do you set the drive priority? Many drives show you where the settings are and how they can be set via paste-on labels or engraved pictograms right on the drive housing. But not all do. In that case, visit the drive maker's site: All the major drive vendors have online information showing you how to set up their drives in a variety of configurations.

Once both drives are in the new system, and you've booted to the new drive, you can then use your new XP installation to access the contents of the old drive, which will be "D:" or another letter, higher than that of the boot drive, which is usually C:. (Historical aside: Early PCs came with only audio cassette data storage, and/or one floppy, which--- being first--- was called the A: drive. As data needs grew, PCs got a second floppy, B:. Much later, when hard drives arrived, it was natural to assign them the next letter, C:. Today, PCs may not have any floppies, but hard drives still usually get called C:, a vestigial remnant of the early days of computing.)

You then can do whatever you want with the old drive, although it might be wise to remove or rename the system folders, just to avoid any possible confusion between the old and the new setups. In any case, you're free to shuffle the data around; move, resize, add or subtract partitions, etc, as discussed in http://langa.com/newsletters/2005/2005-05-26.htm#5 .

And yes, in XP, the \Windows and/or \Winnt folders, plus the \Program Files folder, are where most of the OS and installed software lives, along with some boot files in the C:\ folder itself. Removing or renaming these files effectively neuters XP, rendering it unable to function, while preserving the rest of the disk structure and contents.

Lots more info:

Installing A Hard Drive:
http://langa.com/u/9u.htm

Primary/Secondary (Etc) Assignments
http://langa.com/u/9v.htm

Cable Select:
http://langa.com/u/9w.htm

Physical Mounting:
http://langa.com/u/9x.htm

Transfer Wizard:
http://langa.com/u/0m.htm

Direct Cable Connection:
http://langa.com/u/0n.htm

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2) Asked And Answered: Display Question

One of the constant themes in this newsletter is self-empowerment, where we figure out ways to solve our own PC problems, and set things up the way that works best for each of us, rather than for some mythical "average user." So, I love it when this happens--- a reader sends in a question, but then keeps digging and finds his own solution:

Fred, I have a question which I'm sure has come up but whose answer I haven't been able to find. My monitor is dying and I'm preparing myself with the information necessary to replace it. I expect, one day, when I boot up my machine, to have nothing appear on its face. At that point, the system is up,  it thinks it's talking to something with a stated refresh rate and resolution, and it is humming away happily. However, if I then plug in another display in place of the failed one with another refresh rate and another resolution, how can I get to the "Display Properties"  "Settings Page" in order to set up something minimally acceptable to the new monitor? (I'm using Windows XP Home edition).

I've heard talk of a "Recovery Console," but have not experienced it nor do I know where to find it.

This in itself is amazing; as someone who met his first computer while in high school in 1958 as something one walked into as it filled and heated a room (great in the winter, massive amounts of air-conditioning in the summer), the reliability (and power) of today's machines is awesome. But, they do fail. My paranoia has me making weekly backups salted with friends all around Southern California, but short of completely replacing the machine, how can I replace a monitor? Thanks in advance. ---Bill Josephs

And a short while later:

Fred: Got my answer! Boot into Safe mode using F8 (actually VGA Mode) and just reset the resolution. Simplicity itself. There's a very good description of various recovery tools at  http://langa.com/u/9y.htm and of VGA mode and other recovery issues at http://langa.com/u/9z.htm . Thanks.... ---Bill Josephs

Glad you found it, Bill. Indeed, VGA mode is a very low common denominator that will work on virtually any monitor. You won't see a lot on the screen--- the resolution is low--- and the colors may be funky, but you'll at least be able to see enough to use the system and set up a new display.

BTW#1: Most newer monitors are more or less self-configuring, at least for all normal refresh rates and resolutions: If you connect a new monitor to just about any PC and boot the system, odds are the monitor will be able to work with whatever resolution and refresh rate the video card is pumping out--- at least long enough for you to change it to an optimum setting. So, although it's safer to start with a low resolution (like VGA) and work up from there, it doesn't have to be a show-stopper if you can't.

BTW#2: You said you couldn't find the "Recovery Console." Here you go:

Preconfigured Langa.Com Search re: Recovery Console:
http://langa.com/u/0b.htm

Preconfigured Google Search re: Recovery Console:
http://langa.com/u/0c.htm

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3) Nightly Scans Worthwhile?

Fred, I run an automated nightly scan of my hard drive using Norton Antivirus 2004, Spy Bot Search & Destroy and MS Antispy. Late at night I hear the drive churning away during the hour+ long scan process and wonder if all this disk activity is not detrimental to the life of the hard drive. Is the scanning process the same as a "read", as when the drive is actually accessing files? Does this affect the MTBF [Mean Time Between Failures] for a hard drive? Is a nightly scan necessary? I use my PC for several hours daily, primarily for email, banking, shopping and web surfing. I do not run an e-business or commercial website. Am I any less vulnerable than a business user? Your thoughts on this are appreciated. ---Mike Harms, Langalist Plus! Fan

A scan is indeed a long series of read operations, and the wear and tear caused by scans counts just as much--- no more, no less--- as any other drive operation.

I don't think full nightly scans are necessary in most cases, especially if your security tools are active and engaged while you're actually using the system: If no malware gets onto the system while you're using it, there won't be anything there to find in a nightly scan.

Here's what I suggest:

First, if your nightly scans are turning up trouble, you need to shore up your daytime defenses. Make sure you're running a good selection of current, up-to-date security tools, like these:

A firewall ( Sygate: http://www.sygate.com/, Zone Alarm: http://www.zonealarm.com/, etc.); antivirus (Symantec/Norton: http://www.norton.com/ , NOD32: http://www.nod32.com/home/home.htm , AVG: http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_index.php ); antimalware ( MS Antispyware: http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx , SpywareBlaster: http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html , StartUpMonitor: http://www.mlin.net/StartupMonitor.shtml , WinPatrol: http://www.winpatrol.com/ , AdAware: http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ , Spybot S&D: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html )

When everything's working right, your system scans will come up clean every time, or nearly so (low-risk things like some "tracking cookies" aren't anything to get worked up about). Once your system is clean and staying clean, you can dial back the nightly scans.

For example, the most intensive scan on my PC is the antivirus scan--- it takes quite a while. But because I have active, always-on, real-time virus protection running constantly, the scans are mostly redundant and almost never find anything of import. (In fact, I can't remember the last time a virus scan found anything bad on my PC.) So, I run a full AV scan only once a week, just for safety's sake; and to tell the truth, I probably could go longer than that between scans.

Similarly, because my AV tool is always on; and SpywareBlaster and Spybot have "inoculated" my registry against many mail- and web-borne infections; and StartupMonitor and Antispyware are constantly looking out for other attacks; and my firewall similarly helps to block many infection vectors, including hostile email attachments; my scans with AdAware usually report nothing but a handful of so-called "tracking cookies," which in turn are almost never anything harmful. So I run Ad-Aware once every week or two, and that's that. No need for anything more frequent.

I currently do let Antispyware do a "quick scan" every night, mostly because it's a beta and I want to see what it can do; and the quick scan truly is quick--- just a minute or two. But that too is coming up clean every time, so if I wanted to reduce drive wear, I'd set that to scan once a week or so. In fact, I'll probably do that when the final version comes out in about a month.

In short, with good security tools running live and in real time, all the time, the need for comprehensive deep nightly scanning goes way down. But conversely, if you can't run security tools in real time (perhaps due to performance issues), then a full nightly scan would make more sense.

But either way, it's probably overkill to have your security tools running in full-time, always-on mode AND to do full, comprehensive nightly scans.

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4) Let Your PC Breathe Easier

Hi Fred: As a result of your articles on "Dirtiest PC's" ( http://langa.com/newsletters/2005/2005-02-28.htm#1 ) , and "Cooking your hard drive" ( http://langa.com/newsletters/2005/2005-02-24.htm#2 ), "Quiet Your PC" ( http://langa.com/u/0d.htm ), I took up the "quest" to make my PC quiet and cool.  Thanks to the information you provided my machine is now running with the case temp at 27C/81F, CPU at 30C/86F and hard drive at 32C/90F.  Full fledged running of burnmax raises my CPU to 41C/106F.  AND...on top of all that, my machine is now whisper quiet!  THANKS!
 
In the course of this exercise, I did learn one *REALLY* important thing that I suspect most of your readers don't know.  It is really important to get the PC case off the floor.
 
Raising the case about a foot off the floor will dramatically reduce the amount of lint, dog hair, dust, etc. that is sucked in by the case fans, especially if the unit is sitting on a carpet.  Additionally, I found that my case had several air intake holes in the front, bottom of the case.  When the PC was sitting on my carpeted floor, these intake vents were essentially closed by the carpeting.  I found that by simply raising the PC a few inches off the floor, thus exposing and opening up these intake vents, I was now able to draw additional air into the case and across my hard drive (my disk drive is located at the front bottom of the case and there is no way to put a fan there).  Doing this 1 thing alone lowered the disk drive temperature by almost 5C!  Adding an additional case fan at the top rear of the case really drew the air through the PC case and lowered the case temperature significantly.  I didn't even realize these case vents were there until I started talking to some folks at http://www.endpcnoise.com .  BTW, these folks are really knowledgeable about PC cooling and noise reduction.  I highly recommend them!

Thanks again for a great newsletter -- I just renewed my PLUS subscription and intend to always be a faithful reader! Cheers, Jim Gutman

Thanks, Jim. You're right--- carpets can block off air vents. Carpets also are a source of fibers and dust in themselves, which, along with the dust falling to the floor by the normal action of gravity, provides a PC's intake openings with a never-ending supply of, um, stuff to suck in and coat all over the interior components. Raising the PC even a few inches off the floor really can help!

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5) Troublesome Windows Update KB890859

Hi Fred, I've had problems with Windows update kb890859 ( http://langa.com/u/0e.htm ) and I'm not alone. It can keep an XP system from booting, cause a BSOD and/or endless reboot. In many cases the Last Know Configuration and Safe Mode will not work. You have to uninstall it from Recovery Console. I don't why it only affects some XP computers and not others. I suspect only a small percentage of computers are affected, but there are plenty of people who have had problems with this update. Here are some links about the problem. See [these discussions of the problems]:
http://langa.com/u/0f.htm and http://langa.com/u/0g.htm and http://langa.com/u/0h.htm and http://langa.com/u/0i.htm and http://langa.com/u/0j.htm and http://langa.com/u/0k.htm

I don't know why MS had not acknowledged this problem yet, or why it has not been made more public. Perhaps you should warn your readers.--- Steve Smith

You just did, Steve. Thanks.

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6) Last Days To "Recommend And Win"

On May 31st, I'll choose three more monthly winners who each will get a FREE ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTION to the LangaList Plus! edition. (If your name is drawn and you're already a Plus! subscriber, your current subscription will be extended by a full year.)

To have a shot at winning, just use the following link to recommend the LangaList to a friend. Your friend just may find a new source of useful information; I just may gain a new subscriber; and you just may win a FREE ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTION! (Full details also available via this link): http://langa.com/recommend.htm

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7) Portable Freeware Collection

Hi, Fred! Love the Plus version, which I am a charter subscriber to! I ran across this site, and it is awesome. It has a ton of freeware programs that can be run without requiring installation. This is great for consultants who want to run stuff on client's machines without having to go
through an uninstall when finished:

Portable Freeware Collection
http://www.portablefreeware.com/

Enjoy!--- Matthew Brock

Thanks, Matthew! Small-footprint, self-contained software is a boon for everyone! <g>

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8) And *Another* Code Load Success Story

After his site was listed in the last "Load The Code" section, code-loader Ian wrote:

Hi Fred, I have been a subscriber to your excellent newsletter for some years now. I recently "Loaded the Code" around mid March for my home grown website www.tourofkeith.co.uk and waited for results. On the 18th April the site received an astounding 38,000 hits in one day and numerous Emails were received from all around the world. Various Emails are still being received a month on. This has certainly boosted my enthusiasm to continue expanding the site and shows the enormous power of the "Internet" as a communication medium. Thanks Fred. Ian, Scotland

Do you have a home page or website? (It doesn't matter what size.) Please click over to http://langa.com/code.htm , and maybe you can join the thousands of LangaList readers who have "Loaded the Code!" (If you've already "Loaded The Code" and are wondering if your site will appear here or on the Langa.Com web site, please see http://langa.com/link.txt )

Speaking of which: Here's another eclectic sample of reader sites--- some professional, some very personal:

View A Randomly-Chosen Reader Site
http://langa.com/randomlink.htm

Manually Browse All Posted-to-Date Sites Starting At
http://langa.com/readersites.htm

AlaskaTechs
http://www.alaskatechs.net/default.htm

computer consultants secrets
http://www.computerconsultantssecrets.com/

Retirement Plan Resource
www.peregrinepensions.com

John Blair Moore Illustrator/Cartoonist
http://www.nuerble.com

Karl's Forums
http://www.karlsforums.com/forums/

Mrs. Mitchell's Virtual School
http://www.kathimitchell.com/

YellowSurveys
http://www.yellowsurveys.com/

Trainplayer
http://www.trainplayer.com/

e-cards
http://www.cardsfrom.ogdenpoint.ca/

Next Window
http://www.thenextwindow.com/

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--- ( Your Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList S.E. Free! ) ---

"Fred, I relish finding useful tips in your LangaList even after
many months have passed, part of the reason I immediately renewed
my Plus! subscription (and thanks for the discount)." ---Brian

Thanks, Brian!

The LangaList Plus! Edition is ad-free, spam-proof,
and contains even more content--- tips, tricks, advice, downloads....---
than the Standard Edition you're now reading, and for just pennies an issue!

Once joined, you can renew your annual subscription for even less!

Get all the details:

http://langa.com/plus.htm

--------------( the above is an advertisement )--------------

9) Firefox Backup Tool

Hi Fred - I'm one of the many who's switched to using the Firefox Browser and Thunderbird e-mail client.  I recently opened the browser and found, to my dismay, that my profile had completely disappeared - no bookmarks, and all settings had reverted to the defaults.

Now, I HAD backed up the bookmarks - but didn't realize that my backup consisted of an HTML document with a list of my bookmark links, so I had to navigate to each of those links and restore them.  I figured there had to be a more effective way of doing this .. and after some searching, found a program called Mozback.

It backs and restores profiles for any Mozilla-based browser or e-mail client.  Good to know that if anything disappears I'll be able to restore it in a few clicks.

I found it at http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/.

Hope this helps someone! ---Peter Schacknow

I'm sure it will, Peter. Thanks!

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10) Just For Grins

Remember "The Meatrix?" The same folks are at it again, but with an even more elaborate parody-with-a-point: http://www.storewars.org/flash/

OTOH, maybe the director is simply working out a childhood conflict with his mother when she once said "Stop playing with your food."  <g>

(BTW: http://www.themeatrix.com/ )

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11-13) Plus! Edition Highlights:

Today's Plus! edition contains the following additional content:

• Subtle Problem, Easy Fix
     (eliminates 1.5 minute boot delay!)
• $250 Network Tool Released As Freeware
     (for small to medium networks--- free!)
• Which Port Does What?
     (sorting out your PC's 65,535 ports)

The Plus! edition is only pennies per issue, and comes with a MONEY BACK GUARANTEE from Fred. How can you lose?

Plus! Edition info: http://langa.com/plus.htm 

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