sukibabe
Games Junkie
Getting the MicroMoney updates this week, I have my computers set for most critical updates only!
They are trying to install XP Service pack 3,and telling me to backup my computers.
I would like if anyone could answer if this update is stable yet?
Also are they asking me to create a restore point?
I am not a geek,lmao!
Thanks for any help, Suki
haalam
Member
I have been to a lot of the links found here to read about the hazards and the possible prep to be done before installing SP3. The most important ones I came away with are:
- ATI driver 8.432 will screw up the SP3 installation... must get later/latest driver. (There was something about nVidia as well, but I didn't read it since I have an ATI.)
- Uninstall IE7 before SP3 is installed, or you won't be able to uninstall IE7 as it removes the IE7 uninstall directory (that goes for beta IE8 as well).
- At least shutdown or uninstall any malware suite (such as Norton's) prior to install.
- Turn off any VPN prior to SP3 install
- Heck, I may as well shut everything down including the firewall.
For some reason, SP3 attempted to download several times about a month ago. It never finished nor said it was ready to install. Later, it did download and I got the install ready balloon, but when I said ok, the shield simply vanished. Then a couple of days ago, it actually finished the download, and started its "system inventory" check when I told it to install. It was taking so freakin' long, I said screw this, and canceled it. Glad I did since there is definitely preparation to do beforehand. That is, if I ever get to anything but the video driver update...
Why can't this be easy? Isn't life hard enough without M$ causing MORE grief for us?
sukibabe
Games Junkie
By the way this sounds I'm putting it on my do not call list!
I don't and won't have IE 7 on my computers, I like the Fox......
In fact I have IE 7 in Jail(hidden)! When I manually check for updates they want me to restore it, they say it's critical,lmao no way!
haalam. I didn't understand hardly anything you said,could you send SP3 for Dummies please,lol? Also is a backup and a restore point the same?
Thanks, Suki
suzzyqz
Member
sukibabe..a restore point is in your system properties. M$ gave you a way to roll your computer back to a previous time. A back up would have everything you set it to have & be done manually by you. If you want to just let the computer do it set a restore point..but, as I have said, I haven't had any problems from the update. I uninstalled IE7. I use 6 (whether M$ wants me to or not!) only for things Firefox cannot open or run..unfortunately, there are still a few sites that work correctly with ie only. I just set the page in FF to open with ie.
sukibabe
Games Junkie
sussqz
Thanks! I understand what a restore point is and I have FF set to open in IE, the thing I'm not understanding is the backup thing.
haalam's driver thing and what the heck is "turn off any VPN", has got me, lol !!
I think I need How to back up your Computer 101........
Suki
suzzyqz
Member
sukibabe..you are welcome to PM BuBBy to get my email & I will help what I can. VPN is virtual private network. The restore point should be enough for you..if you do a restore point, you shouldn't need to worry about a backup for this..although you should be doing regular backups. The driver thing?? I think people are just looking for & expecting things to go bad.
suzzyqz
Member
copmom..with a backup
you decide what to back Up..you decide where to store your backup files
•
Your computer's hard disk. The ideal backup location is a separate partition from the one you're backing up. If your hard disk is partitioned into drive C and drive D and your data is on drive C, you can safely back up to drive D.
•
you can save files directly to a CD-RW drive.
•
A shared network drive. You're limited only by the amount of free space on the network share.
•
An external hard disk drive. USB and IEEE 1394 or FireWire drives get a 40 GB or larger drive and dedicate it for use as a backup device.
With Backup, you can create a copy of all the data on your hard disk, and then archive it on another storage device.
If the original data on your hard disk is accidentally erased, overwritten, or becomes inaccessible because of a hard disk malfunction, you can restore the data from the disk or the archived copy by using the Restore Wizard in your restore program
With the option to restore your entire hard drive in case of a crash..Drive imaging tools can take a virtual snapshot of your disk, compress it to a single file, and save it for quick recovery later.
To me using the imaging tools to me is faster and more accurate and doesn't take as long.
System restore rolls your computer back to ..let's say you made a restore point today and tomorrow you go haywire..set it to roll back to your point today..it is also quicker than backups..to me anyway.
copmom
Member
Thanks suzzyqz. So I'm better off making an image, as opposed to a backup. The main program that I backup constantly is my invoicing program! I have that on my C drive and my F drive, and that one has really bailed me out a few times already. Have all my customer info. in that one so can't afford to lose it! What I might do with that in case of a total computer failure/crash, is also backup my invoice program to a CD/RW and periodically back up to that perhaps monthly!
Heck, I have pulenty of space, an external 300GB HD that I totally forgot about, stuck away in my workstation, there's 2 HD's, always get 2, inside the tower..the F: drive is also 300GB, so can always pull that one if needed and pop into the new one.
I think on the new computer I ordered 2/250GB internal HD's. I've never partitioned my HD's.
As for system restore, I have had to use that many, many times over the years... especially when I accidentally downloaded something that wasn't quite "kosher" and caused me nothing but aggravation!
suzzyqz
Member
copmom..yes..for me imaging is much easier! We never have too many HD's or GB!!! I probably shouldn't admit this..but I have 5 in a filing cabinet drawer I have pulled out of other machines! I saw the other day you could get 1T (terabyte) HD for only $179. That is realllllyyy tempting me!!LOL..enjoy your new computer..I am not planning on Vista any time soon either!!
goodgotd
Member
imaging gets everything including boot and os, takes longest and the most space- backup can be useful for in between.
after a full backup, you can set it to differential backups- that only makes copies of what changed since- so you don't have 20 copies of a game, just the file that holds the scores and where you left off.
copmom
Member
Then another question.. if I have XP home edition on here, and the new one will be XP pro, when I 'ghost' this machine to the new one, will there be a conflict with drivers, etc. since 2 different versions of XP! And the ghost would overwrite the new system settings too, wouldn't it?
suzzyqz
Member
copmom..I didn't know the answer to your question...I was assuming one of the guru's would jump in here for you. I was at work so didn't have time for a search. Here is something I found about it. Maybe it will help??
If the Hardware is not exactly the same, ie. HAL and APCI layer, it won't work anyway. If the Hardware is very simular you must run sysprep prior to ghosting. Sysprep Tools can be found on your XP installation CD or download the latest Sysprep tools from Microsoft. If you don't have Volume Media and License you only can sysprep your machine six time. For more information on how to use sysprep go to Microsofts Tech Net Website and search for XP Deployment.
Anonymous
Unregistered
sp3 update no good try 3 Time's get regisity key Access is denied > Abort > Retry > Ignore, Fist try Retry next Ignore then Abort & I get the undo update may not work so no sp3 for me seting on don't up date sp3,on dial-up it take long time 66.9 MB kb936929 this on new XP with sp2 Windows XP Service Pack 3 installation failed.
Access is denied.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Yes I did look no help to me.
GSM
Member
I also could not install sp3 using windows update. I had to d/l the actual full .exe from microsoft. This is the english version.
The file is 316 mb. so if you are on dial up, you may want to get someone you know that has high speed to d/l & burn it for you. It's also good to have a copy of sp3 on a disk just in case you have to re-install XP.
Also. I believe MS will send you a disk of sp3 if you request one.Quote from MS below.
"The SP3 CDs cost $3.99, plus $5.99 shipping.
Telephone MSFT (USA only telephone number at the moment) at 1-800-360-7561, and choose the prompt for help/info about service packs."
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