thanks its working now,i played about with nortons firewall and refreshed and it opened,then put back to origonall setting and still works,
so i dunno what it was but its working,

thanks
steve

Just got my main lap top back from the shop, worked for an hour then crashed. To cut a long stor short anone know where my device manager is? Also I have a new hard drive that I would like to transfer all my data to, in fact I would like to transfer everthing, data, desktop, programmes, settings, everything - is there an easy way to do this?

Thanks.

Right Click on My Computer
Properties
Hardware
Device Manager

Check out http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/index.jhtml

Look for 'Bootcamp' and then find the 'Bootcamp Archive'

NB. Access to this requires a Subscription (FREE) to Telegraph.co.uk but once there, it will have everything you are likely to need.

thanks Doc

Mr E

Is it your laptop or a normal computer that you are putting the new drive in?

Laptop Optimist. I actually have two laptops which are identical, one in bits (screen went), which the insurance company replaced with the latest model. In fact they gave me the money and I purchased the same make so I could use my old hard drive in the new machine (seemed easier than trying to swap data, settings, programmes etc..). Now I am having all sorts of problems with the new machine and want to replicate my old hard drive onto the new one (and try to use that in the new machine!).

Also can I put the RAM from the old machine into the new one (to double RAM)? It seems as if all the slots are taken? I am correct in assuming to increase RAM you need to buy bigger RAM blocks rather than load up with normal size?

Mr Euro, laptops have drivers for display, sound card, network card, etc. that are specific to the model, even within the same make of laptop. I don't know exactly what problems you are having, but if you have merely put the old disk into the new machine you will be running with drivers for the wrong hardware which might well cause problems. That's if the models are different, you also say they are identical which is confusing :-)

Yes on the RAM, subject to the machine being able to take bigger blocks.

Kayak, brand is identical, model is one up from the old machine :-)

Mr E

If the machines are identical then why not just swap the hard disks over?

If you don't want to do that then you need to use a program such as partition magic or similar. You can buy a connector that would allow you to mount a Laptop hard drive on a normal machine then you can take a copy of the disk and then copy it to the hard disk of your other machine.

As regards the memory, you can now get notebook RAM up to at least 512MB / card so you should be able to increase your RAM but check what your machine will take.

Even if your two machines are the same model there will probably be differences at BIOS and component level so your old settings may not be right for the new machine.

Mr Euro, unfortunately drivers are often different between models, because the display/sound/network card can be different... I'm afraid that to be sure the only way is to use the disk provided with the new machine and load your data from the old disk.

Thanks Optimist. I could just chnage hard drives but there is nothing on the new one, well, apart from the basics; XP etc.. it will work but to rebuild my programmes, data, etc.. would take me weeks.

If I understand you correctly I need to go through a desk top? Problem is the only one I have is 10 years old ! I have 3 notepads and about 10 monitors :-)

Thanks.

Mr E

Mounting the disk in another computer is certainly the easiest way. On some laptops (not many) you can fit a second hard drive.

Perhaps someone who is more familiar with drive imaging programs can suggest another way.

Win XP pro has a facility to export programs and settings. I only tried it once (from W2K) but was less than impressed with it.

Before you start transfering data, make sure that you can restore your new machine to its original state.

Help please. Outlook Express stops responding everytime I try to open my Sent Items box. Everything else works fine. Any ideas?

kernow, do you have a very large mail in your sent box or in the outbox? OE might just be trying to send it and taking a long time?

Spaceman - nothing in outbox and only 39 routine items in sent box - nothing large. I cleared it of junk last week. Strangely I can search for items in sent box and they display - but not the whole box contents.
Can I delete Sent box then recreate it perhaps?

Kernow, I would not delete sent item, can you move all the mail out of it and put it somewhere else than see if you still have a problem?

I dont use OE but I would try an "clean up now" from the maintenance tab, its probably worth saving any important mail.

Spaceman - already did the Clean up. I think the problem is now solved - I renamed the sent items folder then restated OE which created a new sent items folder I can access. I've lost all the old sent items though. Thanks for your time/advice.

Spaceman - you were right - sent items totalled 49mb!! Downloaded a .dbx reader and weeded it.

whats the best way to copy music CD's to keep them on my hard drive,
then i can make copies of my fav tracks etc onto one disc,or two for my car,
i want to sort of make a juke box on my PC,(back-up PC with 160 gig hardrive,1024 MB mem)

steve

Use Windows miedia player and select copy from CD (or RIP if you have WMP10)