O/T computer help desk thread - Page 15 - Cut-Weld-Drive Forums

**Unkl Ian** · March 24th, 2007, 10:31 AM

The only thing I don't have backed up on my USB drive
is over 400 fonts I'd collected.

So I'd also need the CDs to reinstall XP right ?

Cobey · March 24th, 2007, 10:33 AM

Yeah. The XP CD should be able to do the partitioning and formatting for you, so, no worries there.

**Unkl Ian** · March 24th, 2007, 10:42 AM

I got the laptop in a trade,so it didn't come with any extra CDs or anything.

Is XP on one CD ? I'm sure I can get one,if I know what I'm looking for.

Cobey · March 24th, 2007, 10:57 AM

Yeah, XP is on a single CD.

**Unkl Ian** · March 24th, 2007, 11:08 AM

So unplug the old hard drive,plug in the new hard drive.
Power up,and insert CD.Follow the on screen prompts.

Sounds simple.What am I overlooking ?

Cobey · March 24th, 2007, 12:15 PM

That's about it, assuming the system knows to try and boot from the CD if it can't from the HD. :)

**Unkl Ian** · March 27th, 2007, 07:04 PM

One problem I had,was the laptop would grind to a halt
when I had Corel,Photoshop and Illustrator installed.
Took forever to open anything.Obviously I'm not that patient,
so they all got uninstalled.

If I got a larger disc drive,would that solve that problem ?
Since I need a new one anyway ....

No idea what size is in there,but the machine is old,
it's only 750mhz,so it's probably not that big by todays standards.

Will they use a larger drive,or is there something
that limits how much it wants to use ?

Flea · March 27th, 2007, 07:09 PM

ok the main reason the old laptop would grind to a halt .. was the speed of it ... most of the programs you are trying to use ... use up a lot of the processor and ram when opening and managing files ...

with it being an older laptop it may not fully support some of the largesr laptop hard drives that are out on the market now ...

using a larger disk drive .. and adding as much ram as possible (if the laptop can be upgraded that is) ... are about the only two things you can do to make it work a little better ...

honestly tho .. for the price of a laptop hard drive .. and more memory .. you can just about get a new laptop which would come with a full copy of windows OS and other stuff .. (on average about 500 and up for a decent laptop)

the main thing on old laptops that limits the size of drive it can use is the BIOS ... on older ones it is only made to support up to certain sized drives .. larger then that and it may not fully read the drive .. or only see some of its total storage cap...

Cobey · March 27th, 2007, 08:07 PM

Agreed with Flea, with some exceptions.

Typically, you can get a BIOS update for the older laptops that removes the drive size limitation. Personally, I would use Google to hunt down the support page for your laptop and go from there.

As for price of HD and memory, it depends on what you get. Again, it will help to find the support page for the laptop. That should tell you what type of memory it takes, what the max capacity is, etc. Then go shopping. A laptop HD is more expensive than a dekstop model, but, it isn't as high as $500 for the pair. I would guess less than half that. If you hit eBay, probably even cheap, especially if you get used parts.

If you're REALLY adventurous, you take take the laptop apart and see if it has a removable CPU. If so, again on eBay, you may be able to locate a fast one of the same type and drop that in. (e.g. The one I am typing on was a 1.4GHz, but is now a 1.7GHz via a CPU swap.)

Nick · March 28th, 2007, 12:18 AM

If you partition with Fat32 (Win98), you're limited to 64gb. You can make more then 1 partition but each partition will only see 64gb each. But if you're running XP, that can handle an NTFS partition fine so they can handle alot more GB then your pocketbook can handle.

Also older motherboards can't see the super huge harddrives they have now (ie: 300gb+). I think they can only see up to 137GB and cannot go any further without an upgraded BIOS, if there's a new BIOS out there to begin with that'll fix the HDD size.

So in short, to be in the safe side, stay 130gb or less.

**Unkl Ian** · April 11th, 2007, 10:54 AM

Latest disaster:Word doesn't work,so I can't open my Resumes.

And the lap top hasn't been fixed yet.

Of course,this would only happen when I find a job I want to apply for.

It says Reinstall Software".
Is Word,for Windows ME,available online ?
Or is it on one of the 12 discs that came with the machine ?

Flea · April 11th, 2007, 10:57 AM

if it came on the computer when purchased then you should have the disc for it ... sometimes it will be a seperate disc .. other times it will be one that is part of the 'recovery' set of discs....

if all else fails you can use wordpad .. it will open up word documents but the formatting will be off a little bit.

Cobey · April 11th, 2007, 10:58 AM

http://www.openoffice.org/

Cobey · April 11th, 2007, 11:00 AM

Okay, maybe you don't want to get a free office suite. Here is just a Word viewer:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

Flea · April 11th, 2007, 11:32 AM

open office is good ... i have used it on numerous occasions.

Nick · April 11th, 2007, 11:43 AM

try open office, it's an open source (free) version of Microsfot Office. It can do anything Word, Excel, etc can do only free.

There's also a new movement to online programs, where you can edit/type, etc office files through your internet browser w/o needing to install any office programs on your PC. So the program you're using is installed online. I've never tried any but it maybe worth a try for you. Here's some:
https://www.google.com/accounts/Serv...homepage&nui=1

http://writer.zoho.com/jsp/home.jsp?...RL=%2Findex.do

Cobey · April 11th, 2007, 11:46 AM

You forgot to mention, it can open and save MS Office files too. :)

**Unkl Ian** · April 11th, 2007, 11:55 AM

The good news is I'm getting a 1 yr old Dell with XP Media Edition.
The bad news is I have to use this old POS for a few more weeks.
And I NEED to apply for this job ASAP.

OK,found the Works Suite discs.#1 has Word on it.
Just drop the disc in and follow the prompts,right ?
Or do I have to uninstall something first ?

Cobey · April 11th, 2007, 11:56 AM

Follow the prompts. It will probably ask about reinstall or repair. Got that route first.

**Unkl Ian** · April 11th, 2007, 11:59 AM

Which one do I want ?
Reinstall or Repair ?

Cobey · April 11th, 2007, 12:03 PM

Try Repair first. Reinstall second.

**Unkl Ian** · April 11th, 2007, 12:58 PM

No luck,Word still doesn't work.

Microsoft sucks.

Nick · April 11th, 2007, 01:40 PM

Since it's only a temporary fix, try to use the Google online Office thingy. Upload the file you want to edit, save then download it back to your laptop.

Flea · April 11th, 2007, 01:51 PM

yeah use the online part or open it up in wordpad ... and save it as a .rtf file ... and send it that way ...

or if you absolutely need to .... send it to one of us that has a working copy of it ... with what changes you need made ... and we can send it back to you ... (i can offer, but i can't do it till i get home, dont have word on any of my work computers) ...

Flea · April 11th, 2007, 01:51 PM

what kind of message is it giving you when you say 'word doesnt work'