zepper

I also recommend Crap Cleaner (CCLeaner)- you can DL it from majorgeeks.com (my favorite place for free software tools) et al. As another noted above, it is wise to uncheck the cookies item under each set of options. CC likes to wipe ALL cookies and lots of them really do aid in your surfing to regularly visited sites - you'll likely be unhappy if you let it wipe your cookies. Let your anti Ad/SpyWare programs take care of the few hinky cookies. .bh.

I've had mine up to SP3 for a good while with no noticeable problems, but I don't run any Symantec or Great Plains software. .bh.

There are lots of good AV programs out there. NOD32 has been among the top five for a long time with some of the best detection of new threats out there, but it is a commercial program. Kaspersky has been among (if not THE best) the best against known threats for about forever, but I don't think there is a free version any more. Norton is up there in both known and new threats and they claim to have reduced it's bloatware status in the latest version re. system resources and general slowing things down. IDK whether they have toned down their irritating arrogance yet though - that's a good part of why I haven't used it for years. Avira's AntiVir is also at the top and good on both old and new threats. I think it has been up in or near the top 5 for a while and it's still free. I've been using TrendMicro (like PC Cillin) that comes with VCom/Avanquest's SystemSuite and haven't had any infection's that I'm aware of, but that may largely be due to my knowing what to look for and avoiding same. . A good firewall and running a couple of the good anti-spyware utils out there as well as the one that comes with SystemSuite seems to keep my confuser clear. .bh.

OK, now it's better using Linux style sheet but still too much blue text. Here's hoping you get rid of all of the blue text in the forum update. Thanks all, .bh.

I didn't see anything different. .bh.

Anyone who knows about the eye, knows that blue is the hardest color for the eye to focus on while red/amber is the easiest, so why blue text on blue background on this site? Blue as a background is fine as the eye doesn't need to focus on that. I suppose that brown would be a good compromise color (or maroon) for text as they have some red and/or yellow in them. Kindly get rid of the blue text... From a new member who has passed the big six-oh and doesn't see as well as he used to. Thanks, .bh.

Make sure the hardware is set up correctly with the proper cabling and termination. I won't set up SCSI w/o active termination on my device strings. You can use the internal passive termination that comes with most 68-pin hard drives, but active is much better (be sure to disable any internal termination when an external active or passive terminator is used). I also set the Term.Power jumper on only the last drive (next to the terminator) to Enabled - it may not be necessary, but it won't hurt either. Also the Host Adapter card should be flashed to the latest Firmware rev - that comes from the Adaptec site as well. . See the SCSIFAQ link below for more tech info, software tools, SCSI spe[censored]t reseller links, etc. Most commercial partitioning programs and the utility boot CDs like the Ultimate Boot CDs for DOS or Win, Hiren's, or some Linux live CDs like Knoppix have partitioning tools and can set SCSI drives up. . For Win to recognize them, generally you want to have ASPI support installed (you can get the latest version of ASPI for your version of Win from the Adaptec web site along with a utility that will tell you whether ASPI is already installed in Win and its version. I recommend installing or up[censored] ASPI on all Win PCs (even though they say it's for SCSI only) as it has gotten rid of strange hard and optical drive behaviors for me (remember, most RAID controllers and SATA controllers are treated like SCSI internally to Windows) and I've not heard of it screwing anything up - if your storage system needs it, it will use it, otherwise it will just sit there taking up a very small amount of memory. You will also want to get the latest SCSI drivers specific to your Host Adapter card (often mistakenly called a controller card - each device has its own controller - that's partly why SCSI drives are more expensive) and the version of Win you have from the Adaptec site at the same time. Install the ASPI first if necessary, then reboot Win and install or update (as Win may have installed an older version) the drivers. Get lots of SCSI info here: http://www.scscfaq.org .bh. If you have further questions after the above, try posting them at the forums.anandtech.com in the Peripherals section. There is a real SCSI hotshoe there who usually chimes in on all SCSI questions (I'm basically a SCSI dabbler who has gone over to the dark side, SATA), so be sure SCSI is in your thread title. .bh.

I've blown out the integrated USB ports on one of my mobos as well (heard some kind of electrical click or pop and they were gone). I just disabled them in the BIOS and plugged in a new USB ports card. May be a chance to upgrade her USB to high speed USB 2.0 if the mobo in question lacked that and her OS supports it. I look for a USB card with the NEC chip on it. If she has front-panel USB jacks, also look for a card that offers pins on the internal port(s) (some only have the external type jacks on them for the internal port(s)) - the cards usually have both internal and external ports on them. The last one I bought I got off eBay for under $10. shipped. Of course one can buy from a more reputable online reseller if s/he is more risk-averse... You can also get USB cards with other types of I/O ports on them too like Firewire or SATA/eSATA or PATA and add another desired feature or two with one stone. So don't look at it as a loss, see it as an opportunity... ;-) .bh.

Sounds like a form of the "click of death" - a new mechanical noise like that is almost always BAD and the drive should not be powered up once such sounds are heard as further mechanical damage to the platter(s) may occur - once platter damage happens there is no chance of data recovery from where the platters get damaged. . If there is critical data on the drive, then you will have to send the drive off to a data recovery outfit where they disassemble the drive in a white room, remove the platters and put them into a special recovery jig that has it's own platter motor and heads for attempting data recovery. . As you can guess, such isn't cheap (can easily run into the four figures on some drives). The owner needs to assess the cost/benefit ratio and then call or email for an estimate. Kim Komando recommends a data recovery service on her site (komando.com) - I've never used one nor do I know anyone who has, but I can say that OnTrack has been in that biz for nearly as long as there have been PCs and have regional white-room recovery sites in most parts of the country. If you call the drive mfr's tech support (would be my next step at this point), they may also recommend one or more services with which they have had good results. . If any readers here are still not doing proper backups, please get a clue from this example. You may be one of the lucky that never needs to recover critical data from a mechanical drive failure, but when the Click of Death knocks, there's usually no second chance that isn't also VERY expensive. .bh.

I ran across a system the other day that was using a laptop processor, so why not laptop RAM too? It is all in the way of lower voltages and lower power usage for cool running. IAC, when ordering by mail or Web, the buyer should know what s/he needs and order it - don't depend on some disinterested order-taker to get it right. If you have a prepackaged system like Dell, Gateway, your system will have a specs list on the site. Otherwise the brand/model of the motherboard will get you to the same info on the mobo mfr's site. .bh.

Sometimes you have to run CheckDisk from Safe mode as win often gets in its own way for low-level functions like that. There is also a way to set up CheckDisk to run during boot rather than in Safe mode which runs before a lot of Win is loaded up, but I've forgotten how to do that. As suggested above, use your drive mfr's diagnostic disk to scan for hardware errors as that boots separately so Win can't get in the way. There are also third party scanDisk type programs that boot separately so win won't get in the way. Perhaps the best disk hardware checker is SpinRite, but it can take forever on a deep level on today's huge drives. It's lowest level of testing approximates the mfr's integrity check. But S-R isn't cheap and I don't think it checks for file structure integrity like scanDisk or checkDisk does. So you'll need another program to do that as well. http://www.majorgeeks.com is where I go to find free diagnostic tools. .bh.

Working with the C: partition when you are booted to it is not easiy done from Disk Management. Like the above poster said, it is easier to mess with the C partition from a separately booted tools disk: either the Win install CD or one of the other tools disks like the Ultimate Boot CD for DOS or Win, Hiren's, a commercial partitioning program e.g. Partition Magic or Partition Commander, or one of the live Linux CDs like Knoppix. . I like to use Eraser or similar to wipe my partitions as there will be no reasonably recoverable data left on that partition. It takes a good while because it overwrites all the data several times (and can be set to overwrite the "empty" space as well because data from previously deleted files can remain in the so-called "empty" spaces), but any personal info won't be available afterwards. Some may still be surprised to know that lots of the old data could still be recovered after a delete partition, re-create partition and reinstall Windows cycle. The professional data recovery outfits like OnTrack do it every day. And there are end-user tools for data recovery as well like Get Data Back or R-Studio. .bh.

Hello Site Admins, . I've been wondering why the reviews done at Anandtech.com never seem to appear in your Daily Reviews list. I go to MajorGeeks.com every day and click on the link to your "Daily Reviews" summary whenever one is available (mostly hardware reviews) - here is the link they use: http://www.ntcompatible.com/Daily_Reviews_Summary_061308_s113700.html and I don't recall ever seeing a listing for any review from Anandtech.com. Why is that? Thanks, .bh.