COMPUTER HELP!!

“Not if they have backups. But they need to strengthen their security past what a script kiddie can break.”

“Actually I'm surprised it hasn't happened before now. They have a lot of people who don't care for them much. (understatment)”

“In printing up a list of member names with their reported bag nights to date, it was a surprise when the post on TT was double spaced between the names. Do you know how I can get this down to single spacing?

I used DOS in the Windows '98 "Sort" instruction and the "Type list | more" instruction in the program:

/*
@echo off
type testlist.txt | more
sort <testlist.txt > newlist.txt
pause
echo.
type newlist.txt | more
pause
echo.
sort /r /+20 <newlist.txt>list20.txt
sort /r /+19 <list20.txt >list19.txt
sort /r /+18 <list19.txt >list18.txt
type list18.txt | more
echo. */

I then copied the results into the post and used the pre and /pre tags around it in order to keep the integrity of the columns..

An interesting thing is that the numerical data is in columns 23-25, but the sort program on columns 18-20 works.

Thanks for any help.”

“so I installed my new internal DVD-R today. I removed the external DVD-R (it's for the kids now). anyway... I wanted to make a copy of a DVD but...it's over 6GB large. I know I can buy double layered DVD-Rs, but they cost a lot compared to the regular DVD-Rs. (3 for $30)
Shoot...way too much $$$$$

Is there another way to copy a DVD to a regular 4.7GB DVD-R??

last edited: 3/08/05 8:14:33 PM”

“bumpn' it”

“You can find software on the net that will increase the compression of the video, but you loose some quality that way. And it usually takes many, many, many hours of number crunching by your computer just for the one DVD.”

“Thanks!! i guess it's not worth it then. pfff... oh well.

THANKS!!! It took 2 hours for one movie on to the hard drive, so I can imagine how long it will take if it compresses the movie and puts it on DVD.”

“well...not really but how do you type 68°F?? I am talking about the "°"

Before you say anything....I copied and pasted it. Brain cramps...I should know how to find it, but I can't....”

“Go to Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Character Map, then find the character you want, click on it, then press the Select button, and then the Copy button. The character is now in your paste buffer and you can happily paste it into the box here, like so: ˚.”

“oh #&%!$...ehmm I mean shoot...I knew that!!! Thanks bit!! Sometimes I wonder about myself...I really, really wonder...

NO other way though without copy and past? I wanted to use it in my yahoo status message and it won't let me copy and paste.”

“here's a shortcut you might enjoy. This assumes you are using windows and have Times New Roman as you default font (this is a default for Windows).

hold down Alt and type 0176 (on the Num Pad). Then just let go of alt.
you get this: °

welcome to the world of manual character entry.

Sam”

“You can use this code: & deg; or & #176;

Remove the space following the "&" in both cases.”

“lol...I knew there was some strange hold down alt thingy...heeheehee... it neve worked for me. Not sure why. I'll try again.

bit...I will try this one too. ya think it will work? hope so...I am gonna try both right now...

answer to bit's question below: dammit, it didnt' work in yahoo. not html i guess. it's okay...I'll survive without it I guess.
but I am not going to practice this. lol

I'll now try Sam's approach, but I don't think my windows is Times roman.
last edited: 3/30/05 8:57:07 AM”

“Crap, I just wrote the alt0176 shortie but SAMe beat me to it.

Gem, it must be done on the num pad, make sure your num lock is on. Hold down the alt key, type 0176 on num pad, then let up on the alt key, presto -

°°°°
last edited: 3/30/05 8:57:34 AM”

“Well, the codes I gave you work in HTML...is your status message interpreted like HTML?”

“That status message may use a limited character set.”

“yeahh....the "alt" thingy worked!!! thanks! LOL”

“my mouse doesn'te work? wy can't i makek my mouse work? I mean... It's plugged in and everything but it doesn't work... I don't get it.”

“reboot, thats always the answer”

“Didn't help... part of the problem might be that the dog chewed through the cord...

Not forest, my parents new little dog...”

“seriously... I have 2 mice, neither of them work, I'm not sure if it's the computer or the mice themselves, one has been chewed through - I twisted the wires together a while a go and it worked until yesterday, the other one I haven't used for a long time, it's the original that came with the computer, and I'm not sure if it works any more or not...

But, navigating the computer using keyboard shortcuts is getting old very fast... help?”

“USB or PS2 connection?”

“some you can plug in and play, the one i have now i had to load a driver for. check the website of the company it's from, they likely have a driver available for it. otherwise, delete everything to do with "mice" and reboot and your pc will search for new hardware and install it.
not that i know what i'm doing....but i try :) good luck!”

“USB or PS2? One of each”

“If it's USB try disconnecting all other USB deviced and reboot.”

“hmm, I could try that. right now I just got the original mouse to work... but it works like #&%!$, a good cleaning would probably help, and I really would like my optical mouse to be working, I'd rather use that one any day.

We'll see what happens, my optical mouse is USB.”

“yeah... that didn't help. I don't know what else to do on that one, I probably just did a #&%!$ty job repairing the wire...”

“arghhh I think it's about time for a new mouse”

“DeoreDX and Buddy System both had good points. I'd look for the mouse drivers to download or try unplugging the other USB devices and reboot. If their suggestions didn't work, try what I suggest below.

Are you using Windows XP?

For the USB mouse, do you have any alerts under the Device Manager?

-Start
-Control Panel
-Administrative Tools
-in the left panel, Computer Management/System Tools/Device Manager
-in the right panel, expand USB Serial Bus Controllers...any alerts?
-also in the right panel, expand Mice and other pointing devices...any alerts?

If you have alerts, you can try getting Windows to recognize the device again by Start/Control Panel/Add Hardware. Go through the troubleshooting questions.

On another note, I've got a wireless USB mouse that I love. The cord on the old one kept getting stuck on the back of the desk and I replaced it with a wireless mouse. It's great. Next time, I would get one that you can place in a recharging cradle instead of using AA batteries, though.

Good luck!
last edited: 4/23/05 5:12:16 PM”

“What's the verdict, simer? Did you get your USB optical mouse working?”

“The USB optical mouse never worked, the PS2 roller mouse worked like #&%!$, I bought a new mouse and it works Great!! Lol, that solved the problem.”

“ok, so an old Dell Latitude c600 PIII laptop has come into my possession, problem, only a 5gb harddrive, which is virtually full. I figure I should be able to pop a new harddrive in there, but I'd like to keep the contents of the old one. There's plenty of ram in there, so it's fairly speedy with XP running. I have a desktop with plenty of room, but no other backup device. How am I going to get the contents of the old hard drive onto the new one once i've changed drives over huh? huh?”

“How many open IDE ports do you have in your desktop?”

“what's a ide port? not sure, but if it's what I think it is then I've not used any other than what came with the desktop.”

“That's where you hook up extra disk or cd-rom drives. They have another name now...ATAPI, that's it.”

“They're on your motherboard usually, most desktops have 4 2 now.
last edited: 5/25/05 1:10:05 PM”

“so this will involve taking my desktop apart huh?”

“ok, well I guess I can do that”

“Well, at least taking the cover off.

You may not have any open, but you will have unused connectors on the cables for your hard drive and CD-ROM.”

“y2 you can pick up a CD/DVD combo drive off ebay for around $65. Burn CD's of your data,
load your programs to the new drive then re-install your data...
go buy a copy of GHOST and ghost your hard drive. Then restore it to the new drive you install.”

“Oh wait, I've been thinking about this the wrong way. You want to replace the old drive in a laptop. Yuck. You could probably go to a computer service place and have them copy it for you, for a fee. They may give you a price break if you buy the new drive from them.

When I needed to do this, the IT people where I work took care of it for me, even though it was my home computer. Are the IT people where you work as friendly, y2?”

“Also, with it running XP, you may have trouble when you copy it to another harddrive. I think it reads the disk signature when its installed, and knows if it's been copied to another drive.”

“Aha!

Found a tip to get around this, at least for a reinstall”

“I had a heck of a time making a copy of an XP hard drive with Ghost and it had nothing to do with reactivation. I couldn't even get it to boot.”

“Hey y2, What you are wanting to do is something I do on a daily basis at work.

There are a few methods that can be used, some more costly then others some very cheap but a little more difficult.

I need to do some quick research to get you some links to this stuff then I will post back.”

“Ok One thing I thought of that will help me guide you is, What type of internet connection to you use at home? and do you have a hub/router?

I am working on the rest of the options for you now.”

“Ok y2, this turned out to be cheaper then I expected it to be. It is called a 2.5" External Enclosure.

Here is a link to one on tigerdirect for $18
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=705443&CatId=1204

basicaly this device will turn that hard drive into portal storage that is connected to your laptop and or desktop via USB. On the Dell c600 I believe you should have atleast 2 USB drives but they are only usb 1.0 if I remember correctly so it will be a little slow to transfer the data over but it should still be quicker then using a hub/router to connect and cheaper if you dont have a hub/router already.

How you use it: You will take the hard drive out of the laptop, you will have to remove the peice that connects the hard drive to the laptop along with the adaptor on the end of the hard drive. Save these peices because you will need them for the new hard drive to work in the laptop. Then you simply slide the old hard drive into the board that coems with the enclosure device. Once you are done all you will have to do is plug it into the USB drive and winXP will see it and automaticly install it as a Mass storage drive.

Once that is done you will go to windows explorer and access the drive under which ever drive letter it used in order to transfer the files over.

The best part is once you get all the data off you can format the hard drive and turn it into extra storage and a means of copying large amounts of data from your laptop to your PC.

I see this as being one of the simplest ways to do what you are looking to do.

If you need further help on this feel free to send me an email to teith@oscarpie.com”

“cool, thanks for that. I'll give it a go.”

“I use one of those at work and I work on Dell C600s and D600s alot. That is my perfered method of getting info off of crashed operating systems that wont boot up.

Which is also another advantage of having that. If your system fiels get corrupt and you cant repair it you can put your hard drive into the device to get your data off of it. Also works when the hard drive starts to fail, it might not boot up but you can usually get into it long enough too get data off.

Use this next tip at your own risk.....Ok When you go to transfer data and you decide it is going too slow then instead of doing a copy and paste, you can do a cut and paste. Cuting data is always faster but the data is removed off of the hard drive you cut it from. There are also freak cases where something can happen during the transerfer that could cause it to bomb out and possibly lose the cut data. I personaly use cut over copy in most all cases, but I am brave and cocky when it comes to data tranfser...LOL

Good luck”

“Get a cross-over cable and hook your laptop to your desktop via the NIC cards. Enable file sharing on both and you should be able to transfer the data contents of your laptop to the desktop. Once the larger hard drive is in the laptop, you can use the same procedure to transfer the data files onto the larger HD on the laptop.”