Computer Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread

[aimeeandbeatles]

LOL, thanks.

Noobiest question ever: How do you count the number of bookmarks you got in Firefox?

 

[lndm]

First with my fingers, and then with my toes (sorry )

 

[PeteAtoms]

LOL, thanks.

Noobiest question ever: How do you count the number of bookmarks you got in Firefox?

You can go to bookmarks->organize bookmarks
than go to the tab where all of your bookmarks are, and select all (right click or push ctrl+A)
In the panel below, it should say how many items you have selected, and thus how many bookmarks

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Thank you.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Question: Suppose you have some HDD cloning utility, and you backup an image of your HDD to an external one. Then your HDD dies and you replace it with a different model. Could you use the clone to put everything back without needing to reinstall Windows or all your programs?

Or another situation: your old HDD doesn't die, but you want to put everything onto a new one without doing a bunch of reinstalls. Is this possible?

If so, what would be a good (free) disc cloning utility? I'm worried my HDD might be on its way out, so I'm trying to convince mom to let me buy a new one.

 

[Ulyaoth]

The fan controller line on my PSU obviously died last night, so I put the fans on some wire coming off the GPu that the front fans were hooked up to, and now my fans are spinning really fast, my computer's cooler(cpu and GPU around 10C cooler now just from that, can really feel a lot of airflow coming out of the fans) but I'm worried that maybe this will blow out the fans, like it's overpowering it.

 

[lndm]

Question: Suppose you have some HDD cloning utility,

The first question I'd ask is: can the utility handle partitions of different sizes. A partition can otherwise be treated as just a partition even if it's on another drive. (I'm assuming the utility will deal with partitions singularly)

....but I'm worried that maybe this will blow out the fans, like it's overpowering it.

The chances are that the fan is a 12V unit, the power you've connected it to is 12V, and there is no/incorrect speed control on the new power line.

To confirm this, first look at the rating on the fan (on a sticker). Then check the voltage available at the terminals. If you don't have a meter, you might instead find the rating of the other fan that was plugged into it.

If the voltage is correct then you're OK. If the fan is too noisy you can quieten it by inserting a resistor in series with the red wire.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

The first question I'd ask is: can the utility handle partitions of different sizes. A partition can otherwise be treated as just a partition even if it's on another drive. (I'm assuming the utility will deal with partitions singularly)

Well, I don't know what utility I'm using yet, so I'll assume yes and then look for one with that feature.

 

[Ulyaoth]

Yep, 12v, the front fan is the same fan, the back on is the only different one but it's the same size so I guess it should be fine.

 

[lndm]

@aimee: Although I've never used an application for dealing with partitions, I guess I'd also want to know what it can do in the storage department. Does it compress the image to save space? Will it break it into smaller files? Can these save files be manually moved around? Is there a bootable CD in case you're left OSless one day? Can it deal with any kind of partition and content?

Not that each of these would necessarily be a priority to everyone


@Ulyaoth: I'd think so. If unsure, maybe you could plug the back one into another socket that works to see that it goes the same speed?

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I found a few lists of free ones:
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/09/05/5-free-apps-to-clone-your-hard-drive/
http://www.thefreecountry.com/utilities/backupandimage.shtml
Any of them seem good? (I'd be transferring everything to a bigger HDD, then unplug it and turn the new one into the C drive. Keeping the old one for backup because a lot of HDDs fail within the first few months)

Someone I know said "Norton Ghost" but that's a little out of my price range for a one-time thing.

 

[lndm]

I notice no-ones answered this. Hmmm, tough choice. There were some I liked the look of but they don't all do all the work for you. Some, for example aren't even clear as to whether they expect you to create the blank partition yourself on the new drive. Some fail to mention whether they will move to a larger partition, and some may expect you to know how to set a partition as DOS bootable. The ones that I might put the most faith in either don't do most of the work or are hard to use or don't run on windows.

There are a couple I noticed that looked like they might do the job: "DriveImageXML" and "HDClone". Simply suggesting a starting point. Without trying them, confidence is upper midrange.

HTH

 

[GoodGame]

Question: Suppose you have some HDD cloning utility, and you backup an image of your HDD to an external one. Then your HDD dies and you replace it with a different model. Could you use the clone to put everything back without needing to reinstall Windows or all your programs?

I've done that, but the original drive wasn't dead, just virus corrupted. Can't recall exactly if I did reinstall Windows, but I think I didn't.

I suspect you would have to re-register you installation if not outright reinstall Windows due to changing the hard drive configuration, but not sure if just changing the hard-drive model would be enough to trigger the change. Changing CPU/mobo should be enough to trigger the need to re-register Windows.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Someone did it with a Vista disc, but I have XP:

http://geekswithblogs.net/lorint/archive/2006/12/07/100596.aspx

 

[Atticus]

About internet connections: Around here (and probably everywhere else too) connections are always slower than they are said to be. And I don't mean that it's marketing thing. For example I have 330 kB connection, and can down- and upload 50 kB/s each. So what is behind this? What does that "330kB/s" mean if I can't achieve it?

 

[lndm]

Connection speeds are usually listed in kb/s not kB/s. Furthermore, there is a slight overhead (perhaps up to 20%)

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

sometimes it can be reduced due to hardware or software.

the "330 KB" is how high it can go in optimal settings. like when they do the mile-per-gallon thing for cars, they drive the cars on highways, not start-and-stop in cities, so it's actually less than it can be.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

divide the speed by 8 and you'll get your number in KB/s which is what browsers show download speeds in.

 

[Zelig]

Others covered the bit vs. byte thing already.

Connection speeds are usually listed in kb/s not kB/s. Furthermore, there is a slight overhead (perhaps up to 20%)

The 20% overhead is a marketing thing, if you get a good location with a good ISP, you'll get the fully advertised speeds.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Thing is, with the current infrastructure the way it is, the 20% overhead may not be too far off. You've got the last mile problem, where you have plenty of bandwidth for all the customers going to the final hub, but from there you're oversaturating your lines. ive noticed over the last two years, the number of wireless networks I can see has gone up from around 10 to around 35, and at the same time our 2.2mbit connection has become a 1.8mbit which is almost exactly 20%.