I need Windows 7 help

[PalleP]

Off-topic:
Yes, backup's on external hdd is the only way to go. Yet, this may also give problems, so a few things must be observed.
Always back up the entire hdd where the C: partition is located. I have bad experience with only backing up the C: partition.
Buy a hdd of a different size than your existing, and test your backup program very thoroughly. There are so many poorly written backup programs out there...
Besides being absolutely reliable,the program must be able to resize the backup to a different size hdd, and should also be able to copy mbr, hdd id, ect. if an identical hdd is used.
Never use incremental backup.
I use a bootable backup program because I find it more reliable.

[TwoTankAmin]

Moonchikd hit the problem for me right on the head when he said. "and everything else you don't want to lose."

I have no clue what and where that stuff is. I can describe it as I have in this and other threads. I would be hard pressed to do a proper back-up of Pale Moon. Where are the add-ons stored? Where is the about:config stuff stored? Where is the stuff I need to backup and do not even know it iexists? Now extend this to Office, to Windows, to the software I have bought or downloaded what runs in windows?

If this stuff were simple or easy, I would not be here dazed and confused. I have to do real life things for a while. *sigh*

[CraigPD]

I doubt Moonchild or others were aware that you have full system backup(s) available based on previous discussion. The intricacies and convolutions of system configurations are rendered nearly meaningless when you have that avenue to restore everything. Or is that not the case?

[satrow]

Give him a break please.

I have to do real life things for a while. *sigh*

He's also waiting for a response at Sysnative: https://www.sysnative.com/forums/window ... s-o-s.html where it's the weekend, just as it is for me.

[Thehandyman1957]

Man, I can remember the days when supposed back ups were used; only to find out later after a
format, that it did not do the job it was supposed to to do.

After a couple of those mistakes, some on my computers, some on others. I learned
where programs put stuff and pointed them to a new hard drive instead.

And now, I have a back up of my back up drive just for insurance. I feel for ya,
losing years of stuff is gut wrenching.

Perhaps, you could give us a list of the programs you use that are critical for you.
Some are very basic in their place of stored stuff like "my documents". Others
will have their own location. I know that one of the reasons I first moved to FF
way back in the years was the ability to simply copy my app data file and keep it
in a safe place in case of some failure. Same with Thunderbird as it allowed me
to safely back up all my emails off line.

One thing I do now, is periodically back up my entire App data file just to have
a hard copy of it in case of failure. That way if I had to reformat, I can pick and choose
the programs app data and simply copy and paste back to the C: drive. A lot of
programs store their settings info there. Just a thought.

[yereverluvinuncleber]

Help re: Backups:
I use this method and it has kept me secure throughout years of computer use/hard disc failures.

Buy a new drive. Use it to clone your hard drive yearly, place the newly bought drive in its stead and place the older drive in a secure box preferably in safe in another building. You will benefit from years of backups and the latest in drive technology space/speed and it will only cost £70 or so per year. If you are ever in trouble you can take the backup drive and put it back in your system and it will boot immediately and you'll have access to all your old data in minutes. Your machine will often end up faster too as drives improve.

Then buy some 32gb USB sticks and copy your data to that each and every month. Ensure the USB sticks have holes so they can hang from hooks somewhere useful, mark them month 1-12, don't re-use them until the year ends. 32gb is normally enough for the majority. You may be able to buy smaller, cheaper sticks depending upon what you do, possibly 8/16gb. They are so cheap nowadays. You obviously only need to backup your data and not your programs.

Buy four others, mark them 1-4 and do the same weekly.

If you are really keen on backups and you can be relied upon to take backups then you could do the same daily on sticks marked 1-7 but for most that would be overkill.

This is important - Never trust Microsoft and never store anything under the windows profile (my documents &c) - as a profile corruption can occur just due to usage - and you can lose the lot all in one go. Create a single folder in the root with your name and put everything there. You can move your Firefox profile folder to your chosen location and the same for your email program (thunderbird &c) that way it will all be backed up.

I use dropbox to synchronise my most important folder where all the creative work I make goes. 5gb is the current free size and it is enough to give me a daily/hourly copy. It is a copy however and not a backup so it cannot be relied upon to resolve corruption/overwriting.

Note: Google drive is incredibly slow so avoid it, onedrive is a Microsoft offering and cannot be relied upon - proven. Check the web for verification of these facts, don't ask me! Use at your own risk.

Note: Don't put your photos on your hard drive, keep them on SDcards/ USB sticks separately. Print the best professionally on 100 year ink/100 year paper and put them in an album. This last act is the only way to preserve your photos for future generations. All hard drives will fail and all family photos will be lost if stored this way - it is just a matter of time. You'd be amazed how many collections of family photos have been lost because they were stored on a drive. Gone forever.

This is a relatively simple method of backing up your data. Recommended and taken up by many. Saved lots of data, many times. Best of luck.

[billmcct]

Buy a new drive. Use it to clone your hard drive yearly,

I do the same except as long as the system is working fine, I reclone the C: drive every month.

[yereverluvinuncleber]

Buy a new drive. Use it to clone your hard drive yearly,

I do the same except as long as the system is working fine, I reclone the C: drive every month.

In my time doing this, my HD has upgraded from a 330gb 5400rpm to a 500gb 5400rpm, then to a 500gb 7200rpm, then to a 500gb 7200rpm hybrid drive then to a 1TB hybrid 5400 (bigger cache), next is a 2TB hybrid 5400rpm. The machine I am backing up is a single drive laptop and the space increase/ decrease in boot times due to the HD upgrade has been astonishing. All this whilst backing up...

And the total cost including the USBs?

A couple of £ per week.

[Night Wing]

I've been watching this topic thread and with the problems TwoTank is running into with Windows 7, this is why I own 4 computers (2 desktop towers, 2 laptops) and also 10 thumb/flash drive sticks. This is how I do things since I dual boot linux and windows distros. Basically the linux and windows hard drives are mirror duplicates of each other.

1) 2010 year model desktop tower- 2 hard drives "in" it (1 TB, 64 bit Linux Mint 19 Tara Xfce) (1 TB, 64 bit Windows 7 HP, SP1)
2) 2013 year model experimental desktop tower - 3 hard drives "in" it (2 TB, 64 bit Linux Mint 19 Tara Xfce) (1 TB, 64 bit Linux Mint 19 Tara Xfce) (2TB, 64 bit Windows 7 Ultimate, SP1)
3) 2012 year model experimental laptop - 2 hard drives "for" it (1 TB, 64 bit Linux Mint 19 Tara Xfce) (1 TB, 64 bit Windows 7 Ultimate, SP1)
4) 2013 year model laptop - my wife's laptop - 2 hard drives "for" it (750 GB, 64 bit Linux Mint 19 Tara Xfce) (750 GB, 64 bit Windows 7 HP, SP1)

Anytime I change something in my desktop tower computers, I always change things in my experimental desktop tower "first". So if something unforeseen happens, nothing goes on the daily driver desktop tower whether it be updates, installing new programs, backing up files, copying drivers, etc.

The same thing happens with my laptop computers. I always change things in my experimental laptop "first". Again if something unforeseen happens, nothing goes on my wife's daily driver laptop whether it be program updates, installing new programs, backing up files, copying drivers, etc.

As for my 10 thumb/flash drives, they are broken down by use such as:

1) 5 sticks are for linux
2) 5 sticks are for windows

If there is one thing which I've learned while volunteering at the computer repair shop which I hang out, "stuff" happens so be prepared for it if Murphy's Law makes an unexpected appearance. And if something does happen with my experimental desktop tower or experimental laptop, it doesn't affect my other two daily driver computers.

[TwoTankAmin]

I really appreciate people trying to help. The problem is folks do not seem to grasp that a lot of what gets suggested goes over my head. So let me try and say it again.

Night Wing's post may as well have been in Chinese since I would have understood it as well in that format. I am a basic user. I do maybe 10% online of what the average user does. I have always run as lean a c PC as possible. I believe the more software I put onto my box, the greater the potential becomes for things to go wrong. By go wrong I do not mean just the functionality of the computer. i also mean that I can protect my privacy. So I do not download/install a lot of stuff onto my box.

If at any time you wonder what motivates me to do things as I do, just refer to the KISS theory, to Murphy's law. if it ain't broke don't fix it. My online and computing needs are pretty simple and my preference is not to have things on my box I do not use. This is my definition of bloatware.This is why Outlook Express is still the best version of Outlook to date.

So, I need simple solutions. Telling me to go into the registry and make changes results in my looking for help elsewhere. Giving me paragraphs og suggestions which refer to things I know nothing about only leaves me more not less confused.

Proton Mail turned out to be a huge mistake. They claim things work in Outlook but not for me and their support is non-existent. If you have the need to move away form data mining email services, look anywhere else but Proton, IMO. To use them I had to upgrade from Office 2007 to 2010 and that has been awaful and i have no way to get back to what worked well. I am stuck with more bloatware from Microsoft.

I need to focus strongly on two things from here. The first is repairing the sfc related issue. I think I will move to FastMail. They claim to work in Outlook and Thunderbird. Much as I am not a fan of Mozilla, how bad can it be compared to Outlook? So first fix win 7, second, move to FastMail on Outlook, third go full speed ahead in moving to Linux.

I am normally a one device person. There are a number of reasons for this. I cannot use smart phone keyboards. Between inflammation from use, I also have mild arthritus in fingers/thumbs. Using a teeny keyboard is not an option. Also, I have a lot of trouble seeing things on small screens. And it gets worse. From day one when touch screen appeared on ATMs, they have hated me. No mater what I touch, something else I did not runs. And then there is the fact i prefer typing on a traditional style keyboard. I hate laptop keyboards and touch pads even more. I am great with a mouse. I am fine with my PC.

I have a few USB sticks. One runs P M portable. I have an external hard drive for backup needs. The problem, as pointed out, is the windows back-up is apparently not reliable. So I am going to look for a program that is user friendly and which will back up what I need. part of the problem recently is that I have been fighting to make changes and when they are done I cannot revert or I nay lose them. I would have have to do several back-ups in a day.

All of this stuff is becoming a royal PITA. After almost 30 years of owning a PC I can say that it was not this much of a hassle even back when I was using DOS. That experience sure helped with the command prompt stuff.

Where I am now is that I am thinking I need to buy a new PC with whatever flavor of Linux I want pre-installed. At least if it starts out properly configuresd I can avoid that fight. I built my box and loaded XP, then I built this box and loaded Windows 7. I had lifelines, but I mostly did it all myself. I am not sure I can do this one more time. I feel like an old soldier who fought in both world wars being asked to head to Korea. I am running out of fight.

I can probably list all my software in about 3 minutes- WIndows 7, Office 2010, Advanced System Care (and other Iobit apps for PC maint), Poker Stars, Pale Moon, Proton Mail Bridge, Axis & Allies (a game that is ancient and I have not played online in over 10 years), Turbotax, UltraSearch (I could not figure out how to work the Windows 7 search). There are a few programs not used in years and one for music which I believe came with WIn 7, an accounting program I used when guardian for my mom to create the required reports the court required. That is about it. Oops, I also have editing software for my camera. I find the software for my original digicam is easier to use for editing than all the junk that came when I got a new camera. About half of that list doesn't ever phone home unless I do the dialing. Windows update is set to never check- i do that all manually.

Hopefully, all of the above will end up with my getting mostly suggestions i am able to implement. Right now I am off to research a good program for backing up Windows. More time I need to be doing something else

Edit: I may have gotten lucky. my first search turned up this on PCWorld which looks perfect for me: Aomei Backupper Standard 4 review: A versatile free backup program Backupper is powerful and free, though its folder backups are a bit slow.
https://www.pcworld.com/article/3203247/software/aomei-backupper-standard-4-review.html

[PalleP]

I tried the Aomei backupper a while ago. It was a useless piece of shi*. I doubt it has become much better, so that is probably why the Chinese developer gives it away.
If you don't want to make proper tests of backup programs, you should certainly not use one. Then use the clone disk methode instead.
I also understand that you actually have a backup, why don't you use it

[TwoTankAmin]

backing up will not help. If the problem I am seeing is related to the back up and restore system, I doubt the system backup would reload. Over the last week I have struggled to make Protonmail work. Almost no folder will sync except their All Mail folder. I need to do things in Outlook. So here is what I now do- When the all mail email download, both sent and incoming into that one folder, I then select work online, I must do this to the next step fails. i manually move to my personal inbox and sent folder all the new things from the All Mail to where they belong. If I wish to delete anything from the All mail folder, this must also be done offline.

Working from their site is possible but then I cannot use my system in outlook for filing things becuase they wont be on my box.

If I must I will find out how to back up everything in Windows 7 i must and will do a clean reinstall of 7. Then I hope I can put the stuff back. My other options is to take my box to a local computer store or to Staples and pay them to do it. This is the most likely way I will go. I do not think I have the time or the will to try doing this myself.

BTW- the inability not to have any restore point work has been with me for a very long time. So i doubt I have a back-up old enough to help. In my 30 years of owning a PC I have never lost my data, had a HD failure etc. I had automatic backup for incoming emails because they were saved on my provider's server as well as my system.

Also- it appears as if my email problem in Outlook 2010 is not so rare https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_outlook-mso_other-mso_2010/in-outlook-2010-receive-error-0x800ccc0f-when/3f89c3f8-6f74-4ce7-add9-9e9c735aca54

[Night Wing]

@ TwoTankAmin

Where I am now is that I am thinking I need to buy a new PC with whatever flavor of Linux I want pre-installed. At least if it starts out properly configuresd I can avoid that fight.

I don't want to be a kill joy here, but if you go to a computer retail dealer where you live, if you buy a new computer, it is not going to come pre-installed with linux. It will come pre-installed with Windows 10 if the store is a Windows dealer and/or Mac OS/X if the store is an Apple dealer.

At one time, Dell used to sell computers which came pre-installed with linux Ubuntu. Dell may not anymore. Even if Dell still sells a computer with Ubuntu pre-installed, it will "not" be pre-configured for you. Why? Because Dell is not the end user. The end user is "you" so you will have to configure the settings for Ubuntu. And the settings take about 15 minutes to do for an absolute linux novice.

There are a couple of online places (Think Penquin, ZaReason, Eight Virtues) which sells computers which come with a linux distro and they might configure the linux distro for you, but there are no guarantees they will. They are listed below at the following links:

https://www.thinkpenguin.com/

http://zareason.com/

http://eightvirtues.com/

[TwoTankAmin]

While waiting on a response from Sysnative, i did some poking around relative the problems their scan found. As far as I can tell there are two issues. One is in the registry:

Causes of Prnhp002.inf Errors

Prnhp002.inf problems can be attributed to corrupt or missing files, invalid registry entries associated with Prnhp002.inf, or a virus / malware infection.

More specifically, these prnhp002.inf errors can be caused by:

Corrupt Windows registry keys associated with prnhp002.inf / Windows 7 Home Premium.
Virus or malware infection that has corrupted the prnhp002.inf file or related Windows 7 Home Premium program files.
Another program maliciously or mistakenly deleted prnhp002.inf-related files.
Another program is in conflict with Windows 7 Home Premium and its shared referenced files.
Corrupt download or incomplete installation of Windows 7 Home Premium software.

The site suggested running WinThruster which would find and repair this registry related orror.

Also, there is another thread similar to mine on Sysnative. it to the helper a while because the user made a few mistakes. But based on that thread I could have done the fix given. However, that fix was specific to the user who had a couple of more errors I don't. So I will wait patiently for a reply. My bet is they will have a fix for me and it might solve both of my issues- email and restore. I may then have to back up my emails and delete Office 2010 and install it again. I believe my SFC issues may also impacting new installs.

From what I have read looking into this, one cause of the problem can happen during an install. I have installed both ProtonMail's Bridge desktop app and also Office 2010. Both were done within the last 2 weeks. I also installed 27.9.4 twice.

[Phantom]

Repair installs aren't too difficult, there's a decent guide here: https://www.pcworld.com/article/243190/ ... ation.html

The first bit is just cleaning stuff up, you can probably skip that. In short, it involves booting into Windows (just as normal), popping your Windows 7 CD in, launching setup and selecting "Upgrade". This will essentially re-install Windows, but should keep all data and applications. Of course, backing up your important data first is a wise idea. Once done, run Windows Update to re-install any updates, and you should be good to go.

I was going to mention just this. I used it before on a couple of occasions.

[TwoTankAmin]

I received an initial reply to my post on Sysnative. I was told to expect the fix tomorrow.

Many years ago I began with Windows 3.0. I trusted Microsoft. As time passed I became smarter. I felt Microsoft was not "bad,"they just released buggy software and then spent the next years or two (or more). So I learned only update to the windows version about to be replaced by the new one. After Win 98 I started building my own boxes and loading my own desired software. This was the height of the plug and play era. Windows 8 was clearly a cluster fork and my move was to 7 in 2013. I am a desktop person (a PC not a laptop).

The release of Windows 10 was the last straw for me. I realized my time using Microsoft software was coming to an end. I finally understood that they could no longer be trusted. Before 10 I had already set updates to notify but let me diced. With the crap pulled with 10, I went to never check- I do it all manually and only the security only updates for 7 from the catalog.

My point is I have read about the "upgrade/repair" route. I do not trust it. Anything I have ever read about it warns it may blow things up. Buggy software! So the chance I would go this route are somewhere between slim and none. I prefer to see what Sysnative suggests. Just from spending a few hours on that site I can tell you I trust them way more than Microsoft. I trust the advice from a lot of the people on this site more than Microsoft.

I could use one suggestion. I had to upgrade to Office 2010 from 2007(which worked fine for me). I only enable Word and Outlook. It did some updates when I installed. I know there are other updates in the catalog. I am not sure whether if should seriously consider doing them or leaving it alone. I am having issues with ProtonMail in Outlook, but I still had both of my Verizon emails in 2010 and they worked great. I have cut the cord with them. Would folks advise I do some/all/none of the updates in the catalog. Also, I believe Office updates are not the same as those specifically for Word or Outlook? My best guess is my Proton issues may be related to my sfc issue and I should hold off doing office related updates until I see how things work out with Sysnative.

[TwoTankAmin]

I am very happy to report that Sysnative seems to have fixed my problem. I left them a thank you donation. I have not tried to verify what now works. I cannot risk any restores from prefix times so that means any of them. I think my next step is to DL a Windows backup program. I am not sure what to do to fix my Email issues. But I have two thoughts. One is to delete all the proton stuff (the account from Outlook and The Bridge App from Proton) an start the set-up process from scratch. the other route would be to remove office 2010 as well and reinstall it. The problem is it was an upgrade from 2007 which is now gone. I do not want to risk losing my 12 years worth of emails. I normally rely on myself and my email provider for backups.

I am not going to reboot the box and see what works and what might not after the fix,