Saturday July 27, 2013 Last week, one of my computer programs wasn't working right. Short form, is that I find out MS doesn't support XP anymore, and I can't get the computer working the way it used to. The way I liked. This new Thunderbird isn't very easy to use, at least compared to OE. I tried downloading a service pack from a non MS website, and got some kind of malware, that really made a mess of my drive, and my slave drive. Ended up buying a new drive, and I'm in the process of reformatting the drive I'd been using. Still can't get Outlook Express to work. Lost a lot of files, data, and thousands of old emails that were either not backed up, or can't be read with the new email program.
Just reminding y'all to make CD, DVD, and external drive backups of anything you consider valuable.
You can download lots of stuff from Microsoft for Windows XP. Not long ago I installed XP off a CD. I did need the COA number for the computer to regisiter it. About a month ago I donwloaded something for XP from their web page. Forgot what it was, but it was an update for an older XP part.
I was dilligent about making backups from the days I had a Radio Shack TRS3 computer and the 5 inch floppies.
Now all pix go on a dvd and an external hard drive that plugs into the usb port backs up the whole computer.
I also have two computers and they both have many of the same files. .
Or use old technology like real photographs, pencil, paper, and real books. Seventy five percent of adults prefer real books according to this:
formatting link
Old story, possibly even true. Supposedly NASA spent a lot of money creating a pen that would write in the almost zero gravity of space. The Russians gave their cosmonauts pencils.
There is a ton of XP information and support on the web without needing Microsoft. Win7 and up are very much Android copy cats for social networking and entertainment media. They are not very friendly to commerce and industry which is hanging on to XP. Lots of info out there.
Wipe the disk (I assume you have your data backed up), and reinstall XP. Outlook, sad as it is, is part of that. It will be just as it was the first time you opened it. If MS has stopped authenticating new XP installs (I'd be surprised) there are quite a few pirate applications out there that will do it without even going on line. You did realize your XP would be obsolete some day and make provisions, didn't you?
======
The process going forward.
Get two hard drives. Either new or toughly wiped. XP stashes stuff in a small hidden partition at the end of the drive and format doesn't touch that. You can delete all the partitions (FDISK) and recreate them which will kill Gate's little stash.
Put one as your system hard drive.
Partition, format, and install your OS as per normal. Probably your install CD will do all that for you.
Install and configure all your applications the way you want it. Not your data, just runable applications.
When that is to your satisfaction, clone it to the second drive and put that away. HD Clone is one of several applications that do this. The free version is intentionally slow, it's an overnight or next day project, but it gets the job done and the price is right. You can run it from a floppy (or I think, a USB stick) so you don't need to put it on your computer. There are other similar programs.
If your drive takes a dump just put in the back up. Replace - don't add- or the infection might spread. If the old drive if physically good - just logically screwed up - go through the process to make it the backup clone. If it's physically toast, buy a new drive and do the same.
You always have a hot spare ready to go.
======
If you want a modest sized system there are several pages out there telling how to install XP to a flash drive. It's not simple because XP doesn't want to allow that, but the instructions are clear. That lets you plug your stick into any computer that boots from USB and run it like a "live CD". And your apps will look and act the same way regardless of computer. USB sticks are getting cheap enough, several can be your second and third backup.
Why? You can still get service packs from MS.
formatting link
Good idea to have them stashed locally too. Think EMP event (or terrorist hack) that takes out the internet for a year.
Each of my computers backs up a different computer so I can always get at what I need to fix the one in trouble. Which hasn't happened in lots of years. Another thing I do is all my install files are on both a set of DVDs and a backup drive that normally lives in a drawer. Complete with text files with username, S/N, and various other things the install will ask for. I can install my whole suite to a virgin computer from either without recourse to the network.
See above. Good advice but I personally have everything covered with a triple backup. I learned my lesson long ago when the computer took a dump.
That was long before the last time you told us about losing everything to a virus problem and advised us to backup. Don't read your own posts, I assume.
By the way, that virus you got a couple years ago was from a website that someone had posted a link to and it turned out the website was compromised to push malware. I got the same thing you did and fixed it manually after about 15 minutes googling for info. You claimed it physically destroyed your HD and bought a new one. Stop bitching about MS (as much as they richly deserve it) and practice safe computing.
I like XP and I ain't changing come hell or high water until it's unavoidable. I assume computers will divide into personal entertainment machines and server based commercial operations. That means the generic desktop will likely cease to exist. Word to the wise.
I assume I will be abandoned and on my own by MS and all the applications vendors and have provided for that. It has to happen someday.
I dunno what universe you're in , because I still get automatic updates for a multitude of MS products , including Windows XP - both pro and home versions . They keep saying they're going to stop support , but too many large businesses use that OS . On your OE problems , there's a folder in your "my documents" folder that has all your contacts and old conversations . I have successfully transferred that data to a CD , then to the new OS when I had to reload XP .
Hi, My small business accounting machine is still on Dell XP server. I am still getting automatic system update from now and then. Back up is automatically done, daily incremental and monthly whole back up onto my NAS drive with RAID set up. And then Once a year I back up important files again on external USB 3 drive which is stored at other place.
When I was working I kept a copy of the important stuff such as pic, downloaded PDF that is hard to locate,and other things at work. Either on a cd,dvd or the thumb drive depending on the years past.
It is always a good idea to have off site storage if possiable. I would have it if I was in business. Probably in a safty deposit box and maybe one at home and one at the office..
One thing I would not do is to put any info on the web that I did not care who knew I had it. I think there are several places you can use for storage on the web either small ammouts for free, or pay for large ammounts.
They may. There are still a lot of comercial places using XP. No need for them to upgrade and seems that the newer systems are not really for business, but social networking.
To top it all off, there is a lot of equipment still out that need DOS and a slow computer to run it on. Anything past windows 98 will not work and if the computer is very fast, even that will not work.
You should have seen our IT department looking around for an old 3 inch floppy that was a special kind that I think was used mainly in some IBM machnes years ago. That drive was part of a $ 40,000 machine and needed to load some programs on.
I have a better way of dealing with viruses than antivirus programs.
I have two computers connected with a KVM switch.
I run my business with one computer and do all of my internet surfing on my other older computer.
If I ever get a bug on my internet surfing computer, I just format the hard disk and reload Windows XP. I have very little software that I use on that surfing computer, so once XP is reloaded the rest of the software is loaded from a memory stick in just a few minutes. And, I really don't care if I lose my favourites list or all my cookies.
I think buying a KVM switch and using a second (older) computer for surfing and internet stuff is a better option than running antivirus software cuz it doesn't slow your computer down. And, nowadays you can buy refurbished desktop computers from Staples for like $250 or less.
On my business computer I have all my business files on a 128 GB solid state drive. Solid state drives are like one big memory stick with no platter or head to crash or motor to burn out, so they're very much more reliable than conventional hard drives.
Hi, Oh, No, I won't put out anything on web cloud storage. Once in my working days, a university campus mainframe system took a direct lightning hit wiping out all data to a point of uselessness. It had dozens of monster size mass storage subsystems occupying a large floor space. For an example operators used to move around on roller blades. Realizing the extent of system damage we decided to whole system image restore from a weekly backup kept at off site vault. It took 3 whole days(72 hours) non-stop rstore operations. The system was UPS battery bank with MG set up. LIghtning strike came down on main AC power buss.
Hmmm, Linux all the way. Almost all apps. are free. All my desktops and laptops has dual boot. Linux of some flavor plus XP, Vista, Win7, Win8 all 64 bit Pro or Ultimate version. My favorite Linux is Ubuntu and Mint. Pretty easy to use with minimal hardware.
They were going to cut it off in 2010, then 2011, then 2013.....
Way too many computers out there that simply arent ballsy enough to run Win 7/8 in any sort of manner. And few really want to change to yet another Windows money pit.
Which is why there are a gazillion types of Linux out there and its getting stronger and stronger with each passing year. I stopped paying for Windows after Xp SP3. Now most of my boxes run Linux in one flavor or another.
And why most commercial websites use Linux in one form or another
Its been called Winblows for a decade or more..for a number of really good reasons.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.