-=PCTechTalk=- Re: Confessions of a S.........

Roger,
    You know where to find my replies.

Peace,
G

http://tinyurl.com/2de2nh
"The only dumb questions are the ones we fail to ask!"

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "RMB White" <roguer@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2008 10:29 PM
Subject: -=PCTechTalk=- Re: Confessions of a S.........


> GMan! (you need a Segway!)


I seriously doubt that anyone can possibly comprehend how truly profound 
that statement is at times!  Still, I LOVE the challenge of keeping up with 
the questions I get from all of the groups to which I belong.       :O)


> 1. Thank you for helpful directions; screenshot arrival imminent.
>
> 2. I am thinking of starting a "Dumb Questions Corner" ( if you prefer I
> will ask them separately, but I thought if I posted them all together it
> would get my                     inherent embarrassment over in one fell
> swoop, and not be at risk of "hogging" the List)      e.g .........


As I'm sure you're aware, we don't view ANY questions as dumb here.  As for 
me, I view my contribution to the whole of society as that of a teacher with 
the patience to take the time to explain the little details in as close to 
layman's terms as possible.  I judge my success and failure by how many 
questions I get in return (the more questions I receive, the stronger the 
understanding can be returned).  In other words, if you don't have any 
questions when you're presented with more advanced ideas, I have to wonder 
if you feel that the knowledge is worthless to you.  In that regard, you 
have proven to be an outstanding student.  As far as hogging the list goes, 
your questions result in answers from us that help teach other members, too. 
In many ways, this makes you our unwitting (but willing) accomplice in 
spreading the knowledge.  We thank you for your support!          :O)


> 3. My laptop starts up in BIOS mode showing  two options "Windows XP
> Professional" and "ditto # 1" and asks, "Please select Operating System
> to start".
>    If I choose #1>"Could not read from the selected Boot Disk. Check
> boot path and disk hardware".    I don't know where this came from and
> should like to delete it,     but HOW??
>    Could it be the reason my Acronis CD won't boot??


No.  The Acronis boot CD should boot up regardless of what is available on 
the hard drive.  The reason is that when you use a bootable CD, the BIOS 
accesses the CD INSTEAD of the hard drive.  If it's not booting properly, 
the most likely reason is that there was a problem when the CD was burned. 
Either the system burped during the burn or the CD itself has a defect.  Try 
burning a new one and see how it works.

The menu you get on bootup (called the Boot Menu, oddly enough) is actually 
the one you would get for a dual-boot system.  It's telling you that there 
are two copies of Windows XP installed and you can choose either one.  If it 
was set up properly, one of them would likely be installed to you C drive 
with the other installed to the D drive.  Unfortunately, we know that there 
isn't an OS installed anywhere other than your C drive, so the boot menu is 
pretty much worthless to you.  The way to 'fix' it is to first boot into 
Windows (if you're reading this, you should be able to safely skip this 
step).  then, Right click on My Computer and select Properties.  Once it 
opens, click on the Advanced tab and then on the 'Startup and Recovery' 
section's "Settings" button.  In the resulting window, click on the Edit 
button near the top.  Notepad should open with the boot menu code showing 
inside.  It should look similar to this:

*********************
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" 
/noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" 
/noexecute=optout /fastdetect /usepmtimer
*********************

The third line dictates the one that will load automatically if you do not 
chose one before the 30 second timer runs out.  Notice that in the above 
example it points to "partition(1)", which is the first partition of 
rdisk(0), the boot menu's way of referring to Drive0.  After it reads that 
3rd line, it looks through the list of possible operating systems (the 
available boot drives) and sees that line 5 is the one it wants.  It then 
unloads the rest of the booting duties to that drive's operating system.  In 
your boot loader file, the line that does not work needs to be completely 
removed (line 6 in the above example).  When you've done that, the entire 
file will only have the 5 remaining lines.

To discern which line to remove, you'll need to consider which line of that 
startup Boot Menu is automatically highlighted when you first boot up your 
system.  You have already mentioned that selecting the top line results in 
the error.  If that boot menu item is the one that's automatically 
highlighted, you'll want to delete the line (5 or 6) that is referenced by 
line 3.  If the second boot menu item is the one that's automatically 
highlighted, then you'll want to delete the line that is NOT referenced by 
line 3.  I do realize that the explanation here is somewhat complicated.  If 
you do not feel comfortable making the suggested changes, let me know.  I 
can make the directions more precise by asking a few relatively simple 
questions.

If you find that your copy of this file has more than 6 lines, don't modify 
it.  Instead, copy its contents into a separate email and send it in so we 
can see what else may be present so we don't go removing something you need. 
Just to give you an idea of a much expanded boot loader file, here's what 
mine looks like.

******************
[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="WinXP Pro [C]" /noexecute=optin 
/fastdetect /usepmtimer
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="WinXP Pro Safe Mode [C]" 
/safeboot:minimal
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="WinXP Pro [D]" /fastdetect 
/usepmtimer /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="WinXP Pro Safe Mode [D]" 
/safeboot:minimal
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="WinXP Pro [E]" /fastdetect 
/usepmtimer /NoExecute=OptOut
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="WinXP Pro Safe Mode [E]" 
/safeboot:minimal
******************


> 4. My "Quick Launch" panel has suddenly stacked itself into two vertical
> tiers, and the Task Tray into three tiers. When I hover the cursor over
> the upper limit the double arrow device appears but will not shift the
> limit down to ONE tier


Right click on the Taskbar and make sure that there is no check next to 
"Lock the Taskbar".  If there is, click on that line to unlock it and try 
again.


> 5. When I perform Acronis Backup do I need to Uncheck and Check the
> Folder options you reommended for Manual Backup?


If you are asking whether it should be limited to just the folders I have in 
that Zip file, the answer is No.  If you're running a backup where it is 
only copying the files from your C drive to a true backup location (as 
opposed to creating a bootable clone of the drive), then you should allow it 
to grab everything.  this will assure it of not missing anything and there 
will be that much less of a chance of you losing something you wanted to 
keep.  My experience has been that utilities like this will boot into a sort 
of DOS mode so they can get ALL of the files without Windows interrupting 
the process.  While I haven't had the opportunity to run Acronis yet, I 
expect it will follow that same routine.


> Roger W. 


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