Search results

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    Download vista for testing in a VM

    Is it possible/legal to get a copy of Windows Vista and run it in a VM? I have a thinkpad with Vista Home Premium preinstalled. I'd like to run Vista in a VMware Virtual Machine to test things before installing on my thinkpad. I saw some posts here on the subject, but they all involved having...
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    Vibration from treadmill - bad news?

    We got a treadmill not too long ago and are actually using it. The only place to put it was in my upstairs office, about 12 ft from where the home server is -- tower model sitting on the floor. There's definitely some decent vibrations in the floor when we're running. Given that we're...
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    Does anyone know if going back to old System Restore point will affect iTunes?

    I asked this on an iPod forum and got no response, but maybe someone here will know. I spent several hours this past week customizing ratings and tags in my iTunes library. Now I have a piece of software, which I installed shortly before the iTunes changes, which gives an error when I try to...
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    Convet CD-R ISO to DVD-R ISO, then add files to it?

    I'm using Ghost 11 (Save and Restore)... My goal here is to have a bootable Ghost CD and have the ghost image on that same disc. Ghost 11 comes with a Recovery CD ISO. I can boot that and restore from a separate DVD disc, but I'd really like to use one disc. Is it possible to convert that...
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    Automatically copy photos from card reader to HDD under XP?

    Is there a way to setup XP where pictures on a card inserted into an (internal) USB card reader are automatically copied to a folder on the HDD? There's that little Windows popup that sees the card has pictures, and asks what you want to do with them, but even the "copy files to folder on HDD"...
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    Hard Drive Temps - what are yours reading?

    I have cooling issues with my case. . Due to the cramped internal 3.5" drive cages, I can only fit 2 drives in each cage (meant for 3), and even then only one of those drives can have a HDD cooler. The other has to be turned upside down to mooch off of the circulation of it's mate's cooler...
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    OK to mount hard disks upside down?

    I can't imagine it's a problem to mount HDDs upside down, but I just want to make sure there are no stupid unofrseen issues that will create problems down the road. I have cooling issues with my case, and the only way I can keep the drives cool is with one upside down so it's "sharing" a HDD...
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    Mixing 1.5 and 3.0 Gbs SATA HDDs in RAID5 array?

    I have three 250GB Maxtor 1.5Gbps drives in a RAID5 array. I need to add a 4th drive for a hot-spare and there's a pretty good deal on a 3.0Gbps drive. Would there be any issues if the 3.0Gbps drive were to join the 1.5Gbps array? I emailed Highpoint, the vendor of the RAID controller...
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    Looking for help figuring out where my audio cables go

    My first time building a system.... Almost done but I can't figure out where to plug my 4-pin audio cables. I have at least one optical drive that I'd like be able to get audio when playing DVDs/CDs, and I have a system monitor cable that will trigger an alarm if temps get too high. My past...
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    Noob questions. Please help me identify these cables.

    I just got done building my first rig. I've gotten everything cabled except for the following, which I'm hoping you can help me identify (or reassure me that no harm can from from just plugging them in). I got a case with a front panel LCD temp gauge and fan control - the case also has LEDs...
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    Incorrectly mounted cooler the first time

    First time building a rig and, like a bonehead, I oriented my Arctic Freezer in the wrong direction initially. I pulled it off and replaced it in the proper direction, but do I need to reapply the thermal paste?
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    OEM Core 2 Duo at TigerDirect - 12 month warranty?

    Tigerdirect is offering a $50 rebate on a couple of Intel 965 mobos if you also buy a Core 2 Duo, and I just noticed that the rebate requires the OEM version of a C2D. I read that the main differences b/t OEM and retail are 1) whether it includes a fan, and 2) the retail has a 3 year warranty -...
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    OEM Core 2 Duo at TigerDirect - 12 month warranty?

    Tigerdirect is offering a $50 rebate on a couple of Intel 965 mobos if you also buy a Core 2 Duo, and I just noticed that the rebate requires the OEM version of a C2D. I read that the main differences b/t OEM and retail are 1) whether it includes a fan, and 2) the retail has a 3 year warranty -...
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    Can I use on-board SATS for boot drive and PCIe SATA RAID for data

    I'm building a fileserver. I'm leaning towards an Intel board that has on-board RAID1, but I'm planning on using a PCIe SATA card for RAID5. I'd like to be able to boot off of the on-board controller and use the SATA drives on the RAID card for data - to insulate my data drives from the OS...
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    Is this PSU adequate?

    I'm building my first PC. It's going to be a C2D (6400) system used primarily as fileserver/xvid encoder, no gaming. I'm going to have 5 hdds, using an Intel board with integrated video, a PCIe SATA RAID card, and a PCI PVR card. Trying to find out if this Cooler Master RS-430 400W PSU...
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    How much faster would C2D 6600 be vs. 6300 for Xvid encoding?

    I'm getting ready to build a C2D fileserver that also frequently be encoding to Xvid. Right now, my 2.8Ghz Prescott it's taking me about 5 hours to encode a 2GB file. Anyone care to ballpark what a 6300 might reduce that to, and would the extra cache of a 6600 buy me much over a 6300 when...
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    Any reason NOT to consider this board?

    Getting ready to build a C2D system primarily as a file server and video encoder. I won't be doing any gaming at all on it, so I was looking for a board with integrated video to keep costs down. TigerDirect has the Intel DG965WHMKR for $69AR (and with purchase of a C2D, which I will be doing...
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    Low end video card for build-your-own file server?

    I'm getting ready to build a core 2 duo system. It will be used primarily a file server, as well as frequent video encoding and casual photoshop use. I will not be doing any gaming on this system. I may want to load Vista on the system eventually, and would like to at least be able to run...
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    Advice on home file server

    I'm looking to build a home file server, and despite several weeks of reserch I still can't seem to find all of the right pieces. I think my goals for disk expansion are what's limiting me. Can you guys weigh in on the best way to accomplish the following: I have 2 goals for the server...
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    Cracking XP passwords - EBCD not working

    We had somebody in our company fired for stealing a while ago. My boss wants me to look at his laptop and see if there is anything else incriminating he should be aware of. I've tried the Emergeny Boot CD and Offline NT/XP Password Editor (which I think use the same routine), changed the...
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    Is there an easy way to migrate a profile under W2K3?

    I brought a test server home from work. By habit, I configured everything --apps, desktop, etc-- under the Administrator account. The rest of my home computers use a different login ID. I'd like to replicate the Start Menu items, desktop, and other customizations to this new "home" ID. I...
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    Battery died... do I need to get a new one

    I'm embarrased to even be asking this question, but I left a device plugged into my cigarette lighter last night and my battery is thoroughly dead this morning. The battery is only about 6 months old I know I can jump it and let the alternator recharge it a bit, but will it fully recharge...
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    USB hub -- powered or not?

    My Dad needs a USB 2.0 hub and I'm not sure if I need a powered one or not. Are there specific situations/devices that need powered hubs vs. passive? He has 2 printers, a wireless keyboard/mouse reciever, a PDA cradle, a card reader, and a zip drive (which he refuses to stop using). He's...
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    Generic XP wireless connection manager?

    When my parents come to visit, my Dad's laptop constantly gets kicked off of my wireless router. It's something on his end b/c other wireless clients can connect just fine. He's just using Windows to "manage" his wireless. As long as I've had wireless it's been with a Thinkpad, and I've...
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    How many CDs in SLES9 - x86/64? Latest service pak

    I'm a linux noob babysitting a customer who is installing SLES 9 on x86-64bit server. Unfortunately, he was given 32-bit version. There are some SLES9-x86/64 CDs laying around the lab, but I can only find CDs 1-3. The 32-bit version had 5 os CDs and 3 service pak 3 CDs. How many sles9...
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    What is this annoying XP sound?

    This sound pops up intermittently on my XP machines. At first I thought it was some wireless-detection annoyance, but I've noticed it on my home PC as well (which doesn't have wireless). I've also looked in the sounds-association folder and played all of them but can't find this...
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    Possible to schedule my home server to email its "real" IP address?

    I often use remote desktop to work on my home server when I'm travelling. Unfortunately, I don't have a static IP so my address changes every so often -- usually at inopportune times. Is there a way to periodically have my server email me the current external IP address? Or any other way I...
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    DOS based ISO mouter?

    Does anyone know of a DOS-based tool that will mount ISOs? I do server support and have made a bootable memory key with a bunch of floppy images for firmware/driver updates --I just copy off the batch files and binaries from floppy to different directories on the key. It's nice b/c I don't...
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    MS Money... safe?

    I've been doing online banking for a couple years. Basically just checking balances and transferring funds b/t accounts, etc. Now my wife has setup MS Money and wants to use it to cramp my styl... err... put us on a budget. I didn't have a problem with that until I found out that she wants to...
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    How important is having the latest version of AV sfw?

    Long story short... I bout McAfee v4 several years back with a lifetime subscription to updates. McAfee renegged on thier update guarantee and as a result of a class-action suit I now have a "perpetual" version of McAfee v8. It appears I can continue to get updates for v8 indefinately...
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    Increasing wireless range

    I'm looking for the simplest option for increasing the signal stregnth in my 802.11G network. My WRT54G router is in the complete opposite side of the house from my wife's office. Her laptop keeps dropping the connection, even though the signal stregnth appears strong. The only way to get the...
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    Laptop won't auto-suspend

    I bought my wife a Thinkpad R51 recently. She has a bad habit of leaving it on all night, so I set the power settings (XP Pro) to automatically go into suspend after an hour, and then to hibernate after 2 hours. Unfortunately, it fails to do so. I can manually suspend it, and after it's...
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    Ghost 9.0, diskcopy to larger drive, do not get login screen

    I'm trying to upgrade the hard disk on my wife's laptop (XP Pro, SP2). I have Ghost 9.0 installed on XP, and attach the 2nd hard drive through an atapi pcmcia card. I use Ghost's Disk Copy command and it takes about 2 hours to copy her 40GB drive to the newer 60GB drive. After the copy is...
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    Backing up XP configuration

    I recently had a hard drive failure and had to reformat and reinstall XP pro on one of my systems. It wasn't that big of a deal, since the only thing on the primary drive was my OS and recordings of TV shows from my PVR card. But it was annoying to have to reinstall all of my apps and...
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    XP setup hangs, but only when "bad" hard drive is in system

    I had a hard drive stop booting on one of my computers yesterday. There are a lot of weird, conflicting symptoms that have me stumped (the full description of my problem is here if anyone is interested). I'm resigned to FFRing my drive, but I'm still very curious if anyone knows why XP setup...
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    Hard drive failure. Odd symptoms. What is causing this?

    I rebooted my system earlier today and got the following error "Disk read error occured. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart". I had not added any apps or hardware recently. I was able to pop the drive into another system as a slave and back off my files, and figured the OS (XP Pro) just needed to...
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    File mirroring/replication software suggestions

    I'm looking for some software that will mirror multiple directories on one drive to anohter. I'm backup up all of our family photos and movies, as well as our growing MP3 collection. I have two 250 GB drives, but the folders in question only add up to (a projected) 60-70GB so it seems a...
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    How to view data on DLT tape

    I got a DLT drive on the cheap, and it came with a tape in it. How can I view the data on this tape (or any DLT tape for that matter)? Part of me is nosy, but I would also like to know for future reference for my own tapes. I guess I knew the tape wouldn't have a Windows drive letter (I'm...
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    IDE RAID solution for home?

    I keep filling up my hard drives and getting bigger ones, so I now have four or five 40-80GB disks laying around. Is there an IDE RAID solution, or even an enclosure without RAID, that will allow me to utilize these? I remember seeing an IDE RAID enclosure at PC Expo in the late 90's, but...
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    What are the advantages to running application as a service?

    I'm installing an app on a test server here and it's giving me the option to install it as a service or not. I've seen this question a few times recently in different sfw packages. What are the advantages and disadvantages to running an app as service?