Preparedness for when

GreyQueen

Hi craigyw, hopefully nuatha or someone else knowledgable will come by and post but my (half-witted) pooter comprehension is that the hard-drive is where the operating system (windows or whatever) plus all the programs live.

When you turn it on they come out to play. If it's gone, it's very bad news. You lose everything installed plus everything you have saved onto the pooter, unless you had also saved it to a removable format like CD/ USB.

They're purchasable but they're empty when new, so you still have to get all your stuff back, like the operating system. I still have the original disks for XP and Office Pro, but the XP has acquired so many tweaks in the past 11 years that it wouldn't be the same at all if reloaded from scratch.

Never owned a lappy, can't stand the things, but did you get the operating system separately so you could install it onto a new hard drive? What was the lappy running, anyway?

craigywv

hi GQ even your post sounds all technical to me lol. we have windows something or other sorry I so blas! about it but I REALLY haven't got a clue about computers.Now give me a retail limit to sell for a month and ill beat anybodies sales but computers nada! we all have our specialties in life that we are good at and im !!!!! at this! I would love to understand them but tried and failed. all I go on is this site and the usual google things and son does homework etc...I can buy online and enjoy preppers sites and that's it. I was sent into a blind panic last week when son camehome with a note saying they all to bring in a pendrive for work in school, so I googled pendrive .............all different prices and memory and after MUCH questioning everybody I knew I got 1.felt like Bill Gates I still cant get head round I type something and it flies around the world in nanoseconds im showing my age all 41 yrs of it. my mum knows more about it shes on facebook! anyway thanks for helping.xxx

GreyQueen

craigyw, I take comfort in there being people around who know even less about pooters than me. I try to understand what my pooter Wizard says and have even been known to take notes, but it still makes my head hurt. Trouble is, didn't do this stuff from young childhood so still falling across stuff I didn't know I didn't know, IYSWIM.

But I cooked a lasagne from memory tonight (bliddy BBC Food website wouldn't let me on again) and have you seen how many different lasagne recipes there are online?! Gadzillions, I tell you.

Read several, got exasperated and said S*d it! and went off-piste with whatever was in the fridge. I don't think lasagne is meant to incorporate half a jar of sweet-and-sour sauce, along with tomatoes, but mine did. And oats.

And, with the grace which sometimes attends us Cookin' Fools, it really worked out well. :rotfl:

If at first you don't succeed, chuck some seasonings in it and offer up a small prayer to which domestic goddess you aspire to be.

craigywv

im Nigella................wish I had her figure!

GreyQueen

She's a beautiful woman but that OTT lechrousness makes me want to smack her, it annoys me so much. Marguerite Patten, now that's a woman to emulate.

Or F a n n y Craddock:

maryb

I love computers and tech gadgets, always have. I'm pushing 60 (only 5 months to my bus pass yeehah!) but I'm IT support in this family. Reinstalling Windows - do it regularly (it is the easiest way to get a sluggish computer running well again) though I do draw the line at editing the registry. I don't know why, since I could always reinstall Windows if I make a mess of it but it's just a bit outside my comfort zone.

My role in the family has always been the one to read instructions. And because I read instructions I learned how to tackle sorting out computers. Take it slow and it's not that daunting - really!

nuatha

GreyQueen wrote: »

Thanks, nuatha, I think I almost understood that.

I [STRIKE]may[/STRIKE] will come back with stoopit questions later when I actually do it. Have bookmarked that for now.

You're more than welcome to ask questions, I'm generally not far from MSE, even if I'm not posting regularly.

craigywv wrote: »

good evening all hope your all well and fine. may I pls ask a bit of advice regarding the old computer. last yr mil bought son a laptop...............1 year later not working and place bought it from is in liquidation! anyway got friend to look at it as we are no computer buffs in our house and he said the hard drive is away with it! ...............might as well talk in Burmese as I don't understand what it is. now reading some posts on here tonight would I be right in saying it can be fixed as we were told that's it away to the big computer chip in the sky! ended up getting a third hand laptop for 50 quid off site on face book that's what I on now but would be delighted if newer one could be fixed thanks in advance xxx

Hi Craigywv, the odds are that its repairable.
Was it new when MIL bought it? It may still be under warranty, in which case the manufacturer will repair it.
If not you'll need a friendly geek. Generally replacing a hard drive is a simple matter of undoing a few screws, removing a plastic cover and a couple more screws, then unplugging the hard drive. It sounds worse than it is, and there's a lot of youtube videos that show how to do it for various laptop models.
The harder part is installing an operating system, device drivers and applications, which is generally just a case of feeding disks or pen drives into the laptop and following simple instructions.

The hardest part is diagnosing what is actually wrong with your laptop - it may be a hard drive failure (needs replacing) the hard drive being corrupted (re-install the software) or it may be a different fault entirely (may or may not be repairable).
If you look on the bottom of the laptop there should be a plate with a make and model number, if you let me know these I'll be better placed to advise.

craigywv wrote: »

hi GQ even your post sounds all technical to me lol. we have windows something or other sorry I so blas! about it but I REALLY haven't got a clue about computers.

Hopefully the above makes some sense.

Now give me a retail limit to sell for a month and ill beat anybodies sales but computers nada! we all have our specialties in life that we are good at and im !!!!! at this! I would love to understand them but tried and failed. all I go on is this site and the usual google things and son does homework etc...I can buy online and enjoy preppers sites and that's it. I was sent into a blind panic last week when son camehome with a note saying they all to bring in a pendrive for work in school, so I googled pendrive .............all different prices and memory and after MUCH questioning everybody I knew I got 1.felt like Bill Gates I still cant get head round I type something and it flies around the world in nanoseconds im showing my age all 41 yrs of it. my mum knows more about it shes on facebook! anyway thanks for helping.xxx

I went from retail to IT a couple of decades ago (though I acquired a sideline in hotel management along the way) there's still things about IT that amaze me.

VJsmum

GreyQueen wrote: »

She's a beautiful woman but that OTT lechrousness makes me want to smack her, it annoys me so much. Marguerite Patten, now that's a woman to emulate.

Or F a n n y Craddock:

Naah, got to be St Delia of Norwich "lessss be 'avin yooo"

craigywv

nuatha wrote: »

You're more than welcome to ask questions, I'm generally not far from MSE, even if I'm not posting regularly.



Hi Craigywv, the odds are that its repairable.
Was it new when MIL bought it? It may still be under warranty, in which case the manufacturer will repair it.
If not you'll need a friendly geek. Generally replacing a hard drive is a simple matter of undoing a few screws, removing a plastic cover and a couple more screws, then unplugging the hard drive. It sounds worse than it is, and there's a lot of youtube videos that show how to do it for various laptop models.
The harder part is installing an operating system, device drivers and applications, which is generally just a case of feeding disks or pen drives into the laptop and following simple instructions.

The hardest part is diagnosing what is actually wrong with your laptop - it may be a hard drive failure (needs replacing) the hard drive being corrupted (re-install the software) or it may be a different fault entirely (may or may not be repairable).
If you look on the bottom of the laptop there should be a plate with a make and model number, if you let me know these I'll be better placed to advise.


Hopefully the above makes some sense.


I went from retail to IT a couple of decades ago (though I acquired a sideline in hotel management along the way) there's still things about IT that amaze me.

thank-you for helping me. its not under warranty worst luck but I do know a geek who I shall hunt out and hope he can help me. thanks again

craigywv

mrs craddock..............I watched her recently on some programme from the 70s was mildly surprised as I thought she was the woman who burnt her bra in public! ....................obviously not! lordy I need to be committed my oh deserves a medal living here with me. I don't like that picture of f a n n y craddock in a top hat too /2tales of the unexpected " for me. sorry about this post sounds like I am insane. anyway I got the wrong person im sure shes a lovely lady.............im away before I get barred from here.xxx