New PC - advice & help with initial set-up & security settings needed

chaucer

Hello,

I am now the proud owner of a new Dell Vostro 400 with this spec:

Intel Core2 Duo E6550 processor (2.33GHz, 1333MHz, 4MB cache)
Windows Vista Ultimate
2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024]
Dell Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard and Optical Mouse
Dell 19" Value Wide Flat Panel (E198WFP)
Video Card 256MB nVidia GeForce 8600GT Graphics Card
320GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 8MB DataBurst™ cache
19-in-1 Media Card Reader
Integrated 7.1 Channel High Definition Audio
16x DVD+/-RW & 16x DVD Drives
Internal Wireless PCI Card
Microsoft Works 8.0 - English

I have several issues I would appreciate some help with.

A]

The machine is loaded with McAffee Security Centre, Tiscali Internet BT Internet software.

I get my broadband from BT via Hub and they also provide Norton security with their package. As such, I do not think I need any of these three pre-loaded items.
Am I correct?
How can I get rid of them fully and properly without causing problems?

B]

I have read the threads on free security but suffered information overload.
With Vista Ultimate, does anyone have some simple recommendations / advice about which additional security features to download?

C]

I read somewhere about turning on the Vista Ultimate firewall as the default setting is off.
I can access this through Control Panel but am unsure about which settings to choose.

D]

The Hard drive is more than enough for my immediate needs. I have heard of partitioning but don't know what it is. Is this something I should look at doing?

E]

I want to back-up to an external hard-drive (about half the 320gb of my PCs HD should be enough). Any recommendations that balance price / quality?

F]

What is the best way to transfer the approx 60gb of data (files, photos, music etc) from my old PC to my new?


Many thanks in advance ...

chaucer

further points and a bump...

chaucer wrote: »

E]

I want to back-up to an external hard-drive (about half the 320gb of my PCs HD should be enough). Any recommendations that balance price / quality?
...

been reading some threads on external hard drives ... seagate and western digital get good mentions ... have looked on e-bay and e-buyer ... some come with cooling fans ... is this an unnecessary expense?

hobo28

A) Uninstall the programs you don't want from Control Panel.

For most home users, the in-built firewall is perfectly adequate. Zonealarm Free is a better firewall. Also, try Antivir from https://www.free-av.com I use that and it recently won top marks from PC Pro review. Thats about as much as you need.

C) Vista, the default is ON not off.

D) Partitioning is basically splitting your drive into sections. So instead of seeing one big drive, you see two maybe three smaller ones. I would recommend not doing this. I don't see why most home users would need to.

E/F) If you can, borrow a portable USB hard disk drive from a friend/neighbour/friendly IT guy from work. Thats the easiest way. You could also buy a crossover network cable from a decent computer shop but you'd need to be able to network them together. Lastly you could simply take your drive out of your old PC and connect it to the new PC. This would involve opening up both PC's and perhaps if you are not IT literate not for the faint hearted. It is actually incredibly easy tho.

Hope that helps

hobo28

chaucer wrote: »

further points and a bump...

been reading some threads on external hard drives ... seagate and western digital get good mentions ... have looked on e-bay and e-buyer ... some come with cooling fans ... is this an unnecessary expense?

I'd advise getting one without a fan as this will invariably add noise. Silent is better in my opinion.

chaucer

hobo28 wrote: »

A) Uninstall the programs you don't want from Control Panel.

I thought this would / could leave traces of the unwanted stuff that required further work to remove .. am I mistaken and control panel-remove gest rid of everything?

hobo28 wrote: »

C) Vista, the default is ON not off.

Mine was off - possibly because McAffee was on ...

I did turn windows firewall on... there came a red warning bar saying "Windows Firewall is not using the recommended settings"

I'm not sure what settings to use...

hobo28 wrote: »

E/F) If you can, borrow a portable USB hard disk drive

sounds like good advice for short term

hobo28 wrote: »

E/F) Lastly you could simply take your drive out of your old PC and connect it to the new PC. This would involve opening up both PC's and perhaps if you are not IT literate not for the faint hearted. It is actually incredibly easy tho.

mmmm, I really would not know where to begin...

I did read this advice on another recent thread tho

BritBrat wrote: »

If you are keeping the old drives buy 1 or two USB caddies to put them in and then you can use them as external storage.

They don't cost very much.

Examples not reccomendations:

Dynamode Insixt USB Caddy For 3.5 Hard Drive USB 2.0

Ebuyer Extra Value USB 2.0 5.25 Aluminium Silver Caddy & Uk Power Cable & Power Adapter & Fan

would this enable me to transfer data, have a (small-ish) external hard drive and not have to open up (and possibly mess-up) my new PC?

chaucer

hobo28 wrote: »

C]
You could also buy a crossover network cable from a decent computer shop but you'd need to be able to network them together.

could you explain this a bit more please - is it a straightforward plug and transfer system?
thanks

Reluctant_spender

If you decide to remove either Nortons or Mcaffee use the proper removal tools to ensure all traces are gone

Nortons - http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039

Mcaffee - http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?id=107083&lc=4105&partner

chaucer

thanks for that


re: transferring data from old to new....I found this

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2b6f1631-973a-45c7-a4ec-4928fa173266&displaylang=en&Hash=6z30OrpX8McdfafU%2bC0J7NgNfMC5IU4%2bHBqCWLWiEr0q1yhWE2a9ER2A%2bVzNoNoP1JX4Ja28jGR5dmNqLYVE0w%3d%3d#QuickInfoContainer

and this

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928635/en-us


similar method to hobo28's croosover cable method

bookduck

virtually everyone (including me) I know has removed vista from thier PC and gone back to XP becuse of speed and everything sort of works. Also there is the incompatabilty with old s/w issue and vista.

Everytime my colleague uninstalled 2005 Symantec a/v the laptop would no longer work. The same happened the first two times I tried it too. To uninstall it sucessfully I had to turn of all the Symentec a/v settings by going through all the menus, and rebooted then it uninstalled perfectly. You probably have a newer version of a/v.

my hdd is partitioned into 3 pieces. the first part is the swap file ONLY which is 2 gb (a bit small-should have made it 3) but the fastest part of the disk, the second part is for system files - which is 8GB - getting a bit small too but lasted 2 years. All the software and data go onto the third partition. If you are not experienced with PCs I would not recommend this configuration though.

You might want to keep the cd drive as , as ther are some poorly written s/w items that will only install fron the d: drive.

chaucer

A bump and another request for more input on a couple of issues I'd like some help with please...

chaucer wrote: »

I did turn windows firewall on... there came a red warning bar saying

"Windows Firewall is not using the recommended settings"

I'm not sure what settings to use...

Any recommendations advice on these firewall settings?

I did read this advice on another recent thread

Originally Posted by BritBrat
If you are keeping the old drives buy 1 or two USB caddies to put them in and then you can use them as external storage.

They don't cost very much.

Examples not reccomendations:

Dynamode Insixt USB Caddy For 3.5 Hard Drive USB 2.0

Ebuyer Extra Value USB 2.0 5.25 Aluminium Silver Caddy & Uk Power Cable & Power Adapter & Fan

would this enable me to transfer data, have a (small-ish) external hard drive and not have to open up (and possibly mess-up) my new PC?

It looks like a money-saving option compared to buying an external hard drive...

So, is this easy? How do I take out the hard drive from my old PC safely?

Many thanks

chaucer

Also ...

My old hard drive is:

Maxtor 6Y08OLO

BritBrat's recommendations are for two sizes - 3.5" and 5.25"

which would I need?