# computer rant



## robert flynt (Feb 4, 2014)

Been out of commission for a week. I let my virus protection lapse and the darn thing started to act up so I took it in to get new ( different) protection. Asked them to check to see if it needed to be cleaned up. When I got it home it really started to act up ( kept locking up ). Took it back and they kept it until today. Said that when they got rid of some MALWARE the nasty virus took some of the windows program with it, thus the lockups. Because dummy me didn't have my files backed up they couldn't couldn't dump everything and reload windows. In order to save my files they had to figure out what had been removed. I now have an external hard drive to back my stuff up!!! Really didn't realize how much nasty stuff there was out there. Computer guy told me to key alt 4 to get rid of any thing that pop up in front of the page I was in and to not click on the little x or he was going to cut my index finger off. He said when you click on the x you invite the bug in.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Kevin (Feb 4, 2014)

Bummer. Our internet service went down sometime early Sunday morning. My last email came in around 3am so I know it was around that time. The service tech did not make it here until this afternoon. All it was, was a bad POE (cheap power unit).

I have 3 separate HD I back up the site to and my files also. It's a hassle but I have not found an automated service yet that meets my needs so I still manually backup the site at least every other day and my local files at least once a week. Ideally I should be able to have automatic daily backups that overwrite the existing ones but I can't find any such service that does the other things I need.

Glad you got your computer fixed - sucks not being to able to use the resources we're used to having.


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## davebug (Feb 4, 2014)

Malwarebytes is a great program, not only will it search and get rid of anything on your CP but also does a good job at blocking pop ups and bad sites, get yourself a pop up blocker for your browser too. I like ghostry with some others to help keep me a little safer. Most externals are not ment to be powered on and used non stop they are a closed box with little to no air flow to keep things cool so be careful.


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## robert flynt (Feb 4, 2014)

davebug said:


> Malwarebytes is a great program, not only will it search and get rid of anything on your CP but also does a good job at blocking pop ups and bad sites, get yourself a pop up blocker for your browser too. I like ghostry with some others to help keep me a little safer. Most externals are not ment to be powered on and used non stop they are a closed box with little to no air flow to keep things cool so be careful.


Thanks for the tips, I'm a computer dummy but I'll check those program out. I was going to use the external drive like a flash drive because it's cheaper when you compare capacities.


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## davebug (Feb 4, 2014)

No problem happy to help if you have any questions. Yes for some reason external drives are cheaper then internal and have a shorter warrenty. My last couple 4TB drives have been external that I take apart and then install the drive. For most manufacturers they are the exact same drives in the housings as the external drives, Toshiba has a tendency to sodder them in place. I have had the best luck with Seagate externals pop them out and register them like you bought them as externals.


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## Mike Mills (Feb 5, 2014)

For general backup Carbonite has worked well for me; it’s about $50 a year for general backup of all of your files. They do have a more expensive service that makes a full ghost backup of your entire hard drive. I had one instance where everything went caput and I had to reinstall the operating system and other programs but all data was there for download. Another time was user error and I deleted some important company file; just logged on and downloaded the particular files I needed to restore.
My main anti-virus program is ESET and Malwarebytes is my backup. I also have Hitman Pro when in an emergency you can open via Safe startup and run from the cloud.
For general cleanup (non-malware or virus) I use CCleaner to delete temp files, cookies, etc on a daily basis.

I did use an external drive but Carbonite is a lot easier and in the case of fire the external drive would be toast also.

Reactions: Like 1


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## ripjack13 (Feb 5, 2014)

Most people don't know that *Alt+F4 closes the current window*.


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## Molokai (Feb 5, 2014)

Why not setup two hard drives in RAID mode?

Reactions: Agree 2


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## Kevin (Feb 5, 2014)

Molokai said:


> Why not setup two hard drives in RAID mode?



What does that mean?


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## Molokai (Feb 5, 2014)

Two hard disks connected together on one mainboard using a RAID controller. They write the same data and if one fails, there is always a second with identical data.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Molokai (Feb 5, 2014)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID

Reactions: Informative 1


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## Cody Killgore (Feb 5, 2014)

I'll agree with Molokai, RAID 1 (mirroring) is definitely a great option! They have that setup in data centers. 1 hard drive fails, other kicks in. Then they just slide that one out and slip in another. As long as both don't fail at the same time, life is good.

I think the main problem with setting up a RAID is... it's a little more advanced than most people want to deal with. It's really not that hard but it can be scary if you don't know what you're doing.

Reactions: Agree 3


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## robert flynt (Feb 5, 2014)

Before retiring I set the cooling up for the 2nd. most powerful computer in the world. When they first started up it would could do 27 trillion symontanous function per second! Now they have added so many processors to it there is no telling what it is capable of, other than it is the most powerful in the world. It is also in one of the most secure locations in the world. I couldn't even scratch my but with out some one seeing me. One of the staff told me to put my hand where he directed and then told me I had just touched the most powerful computer in the world. It didn't make me any smarter though, I'm still a computer dummy.

Reactions: Like 1


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## brown down (Feb 11, 2014)

now I don't know about microsoft but you should def be able to partition your hard drive in half. i have multiple hard drive backups. learned the hard way just as you have.

now I own a MAC, anytime I add something new to the puter " address, phone number, picture ext", it automatically backs that up onto my hard drive as well as my external drive. I would bet you able to due the same thing.

memory is cheap now a days, also one thing to remember when you have an external drive attached to your puter, it will slow it down a little, may not be much but it can bog it down a bit especially if your running programs that use a lot of your RAM!

now even tho I have it set up automatically, If I add a lot of new data, once a month I drop each folder individually onto the drive . this takes away any corrupted data that may be backed up with the precious automatic one. so if your computer crashes doing a restore from a previous backup will prob just put whatever glitch back into play causing you to not be able to get whatever data back. dropping each folder creates a secondary backup where you or someone can sort through the files to find where the issue is. 

hope this helps
jeff

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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