Are There Any Vista Pros Out There?

[HazelGod]

Irrelevant, troll-like post cum would-be witticism, so popular with some tiresome, tendentious, boorish, old bores on the site, especially in this forum, as follows

(snip)

:crackhead:

 

[HellsKitchenmanNYC]

Irrelevant, troll-like post cum would-be witticism, so popular with some tiresome, tendentious, boorish, old bores on the site, especially in this forum, as follows:

I think the OP perhaps should change his signature to Ain't I'm a Lapdog? Or perhaps Ain't I'm a Running Dog? Or Ain't I'm a Running Dog with a Laptop? Or...

Or could it be... Microsatan?

Isn't (ain't am? ain't be?) that special?

Please, excuse me, for farting in your face. No offence.

WHA???!!!

 

[Pendlum]

Well, since I didn't notice this asked, are you sure your drive is a DVD burner as well? Just because it can read doesn't mean it can burn.

Also, whatever program you are using, you should check for Vista compatibility issues. I think there is some run as administrator/run like XP option in Vista. That is usually the main 'fix' for things designed in XP on Vista. Just right click the executable and select properties, the option should be there.

An alternate, albeit more expensive, option is to buy a high capacity external hard disk in an enclosure. They are great for back ups and general storage.

 

[Mr. Snakey]

This is a really irritating problem. Vista laptops don't come w/restore discs you have to make them yourself. I keep trying and they keep failing. DVD+/- cd's keep failing. I can't use cdr's because it would take 11 discs vs 2 dvd's. Any ideas? Also the auto backup in Vista goes to a D drive. Mine is full and further backups keep failing. I keep trying to put this stuff on dvd's but nothing on the laptop will let me transfer the info to dvd's and them delete to clear the D drive. This is VERY irritating to say the least! I'm using Vista Home Premium.

If you want to back up your files ( music, movies, pics etc) burn them on cd ,dvd or put them on a flash drive. If you use flash drives, use one for music, another for pics and another for movies.Putting mixed media on flash drives sometimes isn't a good idea.

Recovery Discs - You have one shot at making them. If it dosen't work, forget about it.

Drive D - Do not delete or add or even touch it. It is there to recover your computer. Pressing F12 on start up should take you into the recovery mode. This is why they don't give you discs. F12 will recover your computer to factory settings. Try tapping or pressing F12 on start up.

Your Files - Burn all your music on cd's with windows media player (not dvds very important) You will be able to put them back very easy with Windows Media Player. Use cd's for everything, unless you have movies. Then you have to use a dvd. Back up everything you want to keep. Try hitting F12 on start up to recover. If it dosen't work, call your computer manufacture and order recovery discs. They don't cost much.

 

[biguy2738]

When I had to create my recovery disks, I used a double layer DVDR (8.5 gb) and I didn't have any problems (Vista and HP notebook, btw)

I hope that you're able to get things sorted. All of the best!

 

[B_Hamadim]

WHA???!!!

Ignore him , he is trying to share his sickness with the world.

 

[HellsKitchenmanNYC]

When I had to create my recovery disks, I used a double layer DVDR (8.5 gb) and I didn't have any problems (Vista and HP notebook, btw)

I hope that you're able to get things sorted. All of the best!

Everytime it fails it tells me dvd+R was used and to use it again yet all attempts fail. Drat!

 

[mitchymo]

Everytime it fails it tells me dvd+R was used and to use it again yet all attempts fail. Drat!

You need DVD-R i think, i reckon what is happening is that the disk fills up and then re-writes over the beginning so you lose what you put on, maybe, i don't know, i'm no expert but i used dvd-r with HP no problem

edit:- it was a while ago and i honestly can't remember whether i actually did it from the system or used POWER2GO software, my memory not the greatest i'm afraid.

 

[Pendlum]

You need DVD-R i think, i reckon what is happening is that the disk fills up and then re-writes over the beginning so you lose what you put on, maybe, i don't know, i'm no expert but i used dvd-r with HP no problem

edit:- it was a while ago and i honestly can't remember whether i actually did it from the system or used POWER2GO software, my memory not the greatest i'm afraid.

Wrong, DVD+R isn't rewritable.

Explain how it fails, does it start, get to a certain percentage and fail? Or does it fail from the beginning?

 

[mitchymo]

Wrong, DVD+R isn't rewritable.

Explain how it fails, does it start, get to a certain percentage and fail? Or does it fail from the beginning?

Oh right yea i get ya, R and RW, see said i was no expert :tongue:

 

[Pendlum]

Another great bit of info might be what laptop you have, exact model so we can look at the specs.

 

[D_Tintagel_Demondong]

My advice, buy a 150 GB USB drive for $60. These are just external plug-and-play disk drives that will work as soon as you plug them in. Dump ALL of your personal files (ie. Word docs, photos) and settings (ie. email contacts, bookmarks) onto the USB drive. You really should have them backed up anyway. Once you are sure that you have everything of importance on the USB drive, run the Win7 disk, which will reformat the disk and install win7 on it. Keep in mind that reformatting will get ride of everything that is on your laptop's drive before win7 is installed.

Good luck.

 

[HellsKitchenmanNYC]

Another great bit of info might be what laptop you have, exact model so we can look at the specs.

I have an Hp pavillion dv9500 laptop

 

[HellsKitchenmanNYC]

My advice, buy a 150 GB USB drive for $60. These are just external plug-and-play disk drives that will work as soon as you plug them in. Dump ALL of your personal files (ie. Word docs, photos) and settings (ie. email contacts, bookmarks) onto the USB drive. You really should have them backed up anyway. Once you are sure that you have everything of importance on the USB drive, run the Win7 disk, which will reformat the disk and install win7 on it. Keep in mind that reformatting will get ride of everything that is on your laptop's drive before win7 is installed.

Good luck.

I got an external drive but need to get a plug for it soon. Am seriously thinking about Windows 7. Mr Snakey said not to delete info from drive D but how will I free up that disc w/o deleting the info after it's copied? This is confusing.

 

[D_Tintagel_Demondong]

I got an external drive but need to get a plug for it soon. Am seriously thinking about Windows 7. Mr Snakey said not to delete info from drive D but how will I free up that disc w/o deleting the info after it's copied? This is confusing.

Drive D is the recovery drive. You might need that if something goes wrong during the win7 install (and then you'll be stuck with Vista :tongue: ), so leave it alone. Basically, booting to this drive will allow you to reset your lappy, but you'll lose all of your personal data/settings.

Buy a USB cable or $10, save your data/settings to it and then install win7. It's a great OS.

Assuming that your system (windows) drive is drive C, then this is the drive that you install win7 on. I don't know if D is a disk partition or an SD drive, but it will definitely be the smallest drive on your computer. Don't install anything to that drive. The setup program doesn't give you drive letters, so what I do is just remember the size of the drive (or the brand name) to know which drive is which. The drive size and brand name is listed when it asks you which drive to install to.

Ugh, I over-explained and possibly made things worse.

 

[HellsKitchenmanNYC]

There is a fairly easy-to-use app called Partition Magic. It lets you divide the disk into parts. You can move your personal files/settings to that partition and then format the system (Vista) partition. This is just one option.

All things pc mystify me!!! It appears I have 4 drives. The one (D) that is the backup is full--totally. I can't seem to make backup discs or recovery discs. But if I could make buckup discs why should I NOT delete the back up info in D drive freeing up that space? Argghhhh and bangs head on keyboard!

 

[HellsKitchenmanNYC]

Drive D is the recovery drive. You might need that if something goes wrong during the win7 install (and then you'll be stuck with Vista :tongue: ), so leave it alone.

Buy a USB cable or $10.

On my laptop drive E is the recovery drive. Drive D is the backup.

 

[D_Tintagel_Demondong]

On my laptop drive E is the recovery drive. Drive D is the backup.

OK. Is D reserved for the USB drive? Another partition?

It's E that you don't want to install to. If D is your USB drive then unplug it before the install... just in case.

It's really easier than it sounds.

 

[Pendlum]

I got an external drive but need to get a plug for it soon. Am seriously thinking about Windows 7. Mr Snakey said not to delete info from drive D but how will I free up that disc w/o deleting the info after it's copied? This is confusing.

Unless windows 7's installer is a piece of shit, which is possible, it should give you partitioning options, as well as what partition you want to install the OS in, which would be the C partition. Again, if the installer doesn't blow, you should be able to install Windows 7 without touching the D partition, unless it tries to make its own, which is possible. Regardless it is somewhat moot since that back up partition is for your Vista backup. If you have an external HD, it's best to back up your personal files on that. Then reformat the whole HD, and let the installer do what it does. I'm pretty sure it will give you an option to partition your HD again, so you can have a backup partition. In my experience, a lot of backup drives don't hold a lot of your personal data because of size restrictions. It's basically an emergency recover that saves all the essential files to run the OS correctly. If it were to have all of your personal files, it would have to be the same size of your C partition. I have never personally used a backup drive either. I'm much more comfortable just doing a fresh install after backing up anything I want, but that is me.

 

[HellsKitchenmanNYC]

OK. Is D reserved for the USB drive? Another partition?

It's E that you don't want to install to. If D is your USB drive then unplug it before the install... just in case.

It's really easier than it sounds.

Unless windows 7's installer is a piece of shit, which is possible, it should give you partitioning options, as well as what partition you want to install the OS in, which would be the C partition. Again, if the installer doesn't blow, you should be able to install Windows 7 without touching the D partition, unless it tries to make its own, which is possible. Regardless it is somewhat moot since that back up partition is for your Vista backup. If you have an external HD, it's best to back up your personal files on that. Then reformat the whole HD, and let the installer do what it does. I'm pretty sure it will give you an option to partition your HD again, so you can have a backup partition. In my experience, a lot of backup drives don't hold a lot of your personal data because of size restrictions. It's basically an emergency recover that saves all the essential files to run the OS correctly. If it were to have all of your personal files, it would have to be the same size of your C partition. I have never personally used a backup drive either. I'm much more comfortable just doing a fresh install after backing up anything I want, but that is me.

Ok now I am COMPLETELY lost. I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' no partitions.:biggrin1: All I know is when I try to make recovry and backup discs I can't. The recovery discs fail and I can't find a way to copy the D (backup) drive onto a disc(s).
Stop speaking French! lol!