Swithched on this morning, got as far as "Starting Windows" with the coloured window above, then no further progress,tried usual attempts, safe mode, repair etc, --- nowt. Tried putting in the Win 7 pro64 CD, that got as far as asking what language/keyboard but mouse and K/B inoperative, strange they worked when selecting boot options (safe/repair etc) and when going into set up to change boot order!
Any ideas/suggestions?
Yup, wireless USB mouse and K/B. Guess who binnned 3 wired K/Bs when he downsized on moving, think I may still have one wired K/B but think the only mouse with a wire is a USB one. Fingers crossed!
Quote from: Dorsetmike on November 29, 2016, 02:23:24 PM
Yup, wireless USB mouse and K/B. Guess who binnned 3 wired K/Bs when he downsized on moving, think I may still have one wired K/B but think the only mouse with a wire is a USB one. Fingers crossed!
USB mouse should be fine, ISTR that the drivers are loaded automatically. A mini DIN keyboard should also,be ok.
You do have backups......?
Exactly the same thing happened to my laptop a couple of weeks ago. Needed a new hard drive I'm afraid... I did get all my data off the old one though.
I checked all the things it looks like you've tried and have been suggested by others, and the new h/d was the worst case cause. Unfortunately that proved to be the thing!
Good luck. Sorry!
If it helps, my new drive requirement was less of a drama than I was fearing cos (a) the bloke got my stuff back and reinstalled the OS (b) I keep backups just in case (which I didn't need, but I still do them anyway).
Quote from: GroupC on November 29, 2016, 05:57:06 PM
Exactly the same thing happened to my laptop a couple of weeks ago. Needed a new hard drive I'm afraid... I did get all my data off the old one though.
I checked all the things it looks like you've tried and have been suggested by others, and the new h/d was the worst case cause. Unfortunately that proved to be the thing!
Good luck. Sorry!
If it helps, my new drive requirement was less of a drama than I was fearing cos (a) the bloke got my stuff back and reinstalled the OS (b) I keep backups just in case (which I didn't need, but I still do them anyway).
Just out of interest how did you retrieve your data off the old h/d if it wasn't working?
The thing I find wierd is that thew wireless K/B and mouse work when selecting start up options, but when I go into any of the repair options or boot from CD they stop working.
I've run memory checks, tried restore, none cure anything.
Quote from: Mr Sprue on November 29, 2016, 06:16:35 PM
Just out of interest how did you retrieve your data off the old h/d if it wasn't working?
When I had a hard drive go bad and refuse to let the computer boot, I retrieved the data on it by buying a SATA to USB hard drive adapter. Once I had the bad hard drive extracted and replaced with a new one and the OS and software reloaded, it was easy to use the adapter to let the computer (in my case a PC laptop) "see" the old bad drive as just another drive and let me pull any non-corrupted data off it. Not sure if that's what GroupC did, but it worked for me. The adapters go for under USD20 here, so the whole thing came to under USD100 (not counting the contributions to the swear jar :censored: ).
Jon
So the hard drive hadn't actually failed, just that the O/s section was corrupted in some way, probably the boot sector, and wouldn't load. Had you not needed/wanted the ordinary file data off it a clean O/s re-install via a reformat would have been possible on it.
Izzy
Quote from: Izzy on November 29, 2016, 10:04:40 PM
So the hard drive hadn't actually failed, just that the O/s section was corrupted in some way, probably the boot sector, and wouldn't load. Had you not needed/wanted the ordinary file data off it a clean O/s re-install via a reformat would have been possible on it.
Izzy
Pop the old drive in a £10 usb3 drive case, partition And reformat it And you have a spare backup drive.
Usb3 interface is more reliable than usb2 in my experience, even if your PC/. Portable has no usb3 ports.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TRIXES-USB-3-0-Sata-2-5-Hard-Disk-Drive-HDD-External-Aluminium-Case-Caddy-Box-/390671619396?hash=item5af5d7d544:g:txMAAOSwPYZU9I6- (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TRIXES-USB-3-0-Sata-2-5-Hard-Disk-Drive-HDD-External-Aluminium-Case-Caddy-Box-/390671619396?hash=item5af5d7d544:g:txMAAOSwPYZU9I6-)
Strange continues, I unplugged from mains last night, thought I'd give it another go about lunch time, lo and behold, after running repair/restore it worked, only message was concerning installing AMD quick stream, when I did so it said summat about not licensed. Still it's working OK now, except download speed is only 73M instead of the usual 90+, probably the busy time of the evening, upload about usual at 6+. Virgin were saying we should be getting "up to" 150M "soon".
Up to 150.....
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/5841580769.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/5841580769)
:claphappy: :claphappy: :claphappy:
I don't know if this will help, but here goes. For several months I had problems with my old XP system booting. Sometimes it would take several hard reboots (power-downs) before it would even get as far as a startup screen. Once it got past that and the system appeared to be working, it would then sometimes freeze within a few minutes, occasionally with a blue screen of death but usually just a frozen system.
I finally opened up the case and gave the innards a good hoover and twiddled the connections, and since then I haven't had the problem. So looks like it was a faulty connection or connections somewhere. Might be worth a try.
If it's a PC, check that there is no dust obscuring the PSU fans or the CPU fan
If it's a portable, blow hard down the cooling vents and see if any dust comes out the other end!
Overheating could be the underlying problem.
Try installing a CPU/fan monitoring utility. To check all is well.
Check memory chips are seated properly in their sockets (PC)
Nicholas Robinson
Pfft. I saw 4Mbps last week.
Happened again this morning. So took case off, attacked it with an aerosol duster can, not much dust; reseated all connectors and RAM, put it all back together, not cured; ordered new machine with no OS (got discs) from Ebuyer next day delivery.(did check local repairers, but price and turn round time did not appeal)
I'll load Win7 and do a quick test, if that works OK then I'll try the old hard drive, if that boots OK then I'll keep that, should save me a day or two installing software and copying data. I can then take me time to see if I can sort the old machine using the new drive, if that fails then add the RAM and hard drive from the old machine to the new one (which will make 32Gb and 4Tb!)
I'm not sure you'll get away with booting your new machine from your old disk as the BIOS will be different.
Quote from: Malc on December 21, 2016, 02:42:25 PM
I'm not sure you'll get away with booting your new machine from your old disk as the BIOS will be different.
Yes, I had that problem when I tried the old hard disk in a new computer.
Same make of machine, same AMD processor and same make motherboard but slightly faster clock, so I could be lucky! Failing that I'll just copy as much as possible from the old disc, I have all the downloads of software on a separate partition so I should be able to run them from that & not have to download everything again.
Photos, music, railway items and other data all on separate partitions too
Are you going to load a fresh install of Win 7 on the new machine if I understand correctly? On the new HDD and not just put in the current already loaded Win 7 HDD?
Could I warn that you may find difficulty updating/downloading/installing all the Win 7 updates issued to date. In the summer I did a clean wipe/re-install of my Win 7 laptop and found it impossible to update the machine as per normal means. Somewhere along the line Microsoft seems to have changed the update service - being cynical I think they just want to stop people using anything but Win 10 - and updates just will not download or install. You can leave the machine 'downloading and installing' the updates for hours/days etc and nothing happens. I discovered it is a well known problem.
Eventually I managed to get things working again by downlaoding and installing the relevent files of wsusoffline - this loads most updates and then the system gets back to downloading/installing them as per normal because the newer update regime is installed somewhere along the line.
However, if you have any older equipment that needs older drivers install them first before any updates.
The current updates overwrite driver files with the latest versions which in many cases don't work unless older driver files are already present. Because of this I now have a sprog 2 which will not work on the laptop as I was not aware of this situation at the time.
Izzy
I intend to load Win 7 pro on the new machine if possible so I can check the machine boots, then swop in the old Hard drive and relegate the new drive to back up.
I've got "never10" on all my machines, seems to be working.
I was of the same view Mike,never go to W10 after trying the free update on this machine before July,it locked up the machine so I reverted back to W7 straight away. Anyway after buying a W10 key online for about £24 and downloading W10 ISO from Microsoft's web site. I created a install disc and and a USB install, I have now got a nice clean copy of W10 on my main machine. It runs pretty good my games and programs all work ok. I built a new machine for my son, he bought a key too and we installed W10 on his computer has well. I have a friend who has Windows 10 on his machine it was a free upgrade from W8-1 ,but it run so slow you would not believe. I have now used the USB install to put a clean install on his machine, apparently once you are registered for W10 you do not need the key anymore Microsoft recognise you has a user.
Quote from: keithfre on December 21, 2016, 03:02:06 PM
Quote from: Malc on December 21, 2016, 02:42:25 PM
I'm not sure you'll get away with booting your new machine from your old disk as the BIOS will be different.
Yes, I had that problem when I tried the old hard disk in a new computer.
The main thing is whether the hard drive controller chip is the same. If not, you are very unlikely to get it to boot.
Win 7 has had difficulty upgrading since win 10 arrived.
Here is my recipe
Do fresh install ( 64 bit if possible)
Download Internet explorer 11 ( filehippo ) and install. A number of updates are installed automatically with this.
Follow instructions for new installation
http://plugable.com/2016/06/08/windows-7-wont-update-what-to-do/ (http://plugable.com/2016/06/08/windows-7-wont-update-what-to-do/)
http://filehippo.com/download_internet_explorer_windows_7/ (http://filehippo.com/download_internet_explorer_windows_7/)
Install browser of choice
This worked for me.
I have upgraded my PCs many times, with different motherboards, processors and memory - even changes between AMD and Intel processors. I have had no problem doing so, with the machines booting straight away and automatically installing various drivers. Following that up with manually installing motherboard chipset specific drivers has left everything running fine. Before the correct drivers are installed, video, disk controllers, etc. all still worked, but using Windows own basic drivers - so low res, lower speeds, etc.
I seem fated! New machine won't boot from old drive and won't install windows from CD, I've tried 7 pro and 7 home premium.
Swapped new machine drive into old machine, trying to install Win 7 from CD, it's got as far as "expanding files (2%)" and been there for over 20 minutes!
Getting just a bit P'd off!!!!!!!!!
Quote from: Dorsetmike on December 24, 2016, 03:21:32 PM
Getting just a bit P'd off!!!!!!!!!
Time to switch to Linux, perhaps?
QuoteTime to switch to Linux, perhaps
yep,then chuck on virtual box an the free legal windoze images to run anything that wine cant cope with,do a snapshop of the virtual box an you dont even need to worry about micro$hafts 90 day limit on the box images
Quote from: themadhippy on December 24, 2016, 04:58:36 PM
QuoteTime to switch to Linux, perhaps
yep,then chuck on virtual box an the free legal windoze images to run anything that wine cant cope with,do a snapshop of the virtual box an you dont even need to worry about micro$hafts 90 day limit on the box images
Best thing you could do. Linux Mint or Elementary OS are two great systems.
At 82 I'm not going to start climbing the Linux learning curve; last time I tried it I tried to find a driver for a new OKI colour laser, to find the comment "it's only good for a paper weight"; also most of the software I use, photo editing & plotter cutter driver among others won't run on Linux, so summat else to learn - always assuming there is software to do the jobs, I did look at the GIMP for photo editing, no thanks, what I'm using (not photoshop) does what I need.
Mike, I am not trying to tell you how to suck eggs, but when I tried to load w10 on my friends computer and it was not having it I realised there was something wrong with the dvd drive. It was showing in the bios but even though I changed boot order in the bios it would not load. I ended up going home for another dvd drive but I also had a USB with W10 install and I used that. Pity I am not near to you, I have a iso of windows 7 and could put it on a usb for you to try, it is a lot quicker to install if you can from USB. I do not understand why you are having trouble trying to install on a new machine with a clean drive. The only thing I can think of is the way the new drive is formatted, I seem to remember having a similar problem once with a new drive I bought,can you try formatting the new drive before the install or do you not get that far.
Tried all of your suggestions yesterday, DVD drive is first on the list, USB is not available as an option, the drive from the old machine won't boot (that's what started all this!).
I'm going to check if one of my older XP machines will take a SATA 6Gbs drive, if so will try and reformat the new drive and create a larger partition. I think that may be part of the problem, I had formatted and partitioned and installation had started on the new drive but hung at 2%, maybe just enough to make the bios think it's a viable drive?
I've never had problems like this in the 30 years I've been using PCs. When shops reopen if it's not sorted by then i'll buy a cheap drive install Win7 on it then try reformatting the new drive (the external drive in the USB adapter is a 2.5" from a laptop so can't use that, I also have older drives but none SATA)
Update, dragged out a Gateway with XP, not used for about 3 years, can't find a PS2 mouse and rthe K/B arrow keys ain't moving the cursor so it's stuck with a few error messages which, without being able to move the cursor, won't go away. I've tried USB and wireless mice, put a Logitech driver disc in the drive, won't run without being told.
After a bit of nosh and a rest I'll continue the mouse search, probably in one of the many boxes in the spare room, buried under bits of dismantled baseboards, backscenes and associated railway paraohernalia.
What a way to spend Chrimbo! At least no screaming kids or family to bother me, have to remember to put the turkey breast in the oven though!
Mike, I had similar problems with windows install hanging at a few percent and it turned out to be the hard drive. The first bit of the expansion is into memory, then it starts saving on the hard drive. I hadn't enabled the HD in the bios.
i've now managed to put 7 home premium on an old Gateway machine - upgrade from XP, next will be to format and partition the drive that failed at 2% yesterday then have another go at installing, after all that is accomplished (crosses fingers) I'll have another go at the machine that started all this by not booting after a Win update.
What a way to spend Chrimbo!!!!!!!! (at least I remembered to cook the turkey breast, small ham joint and xmas pud - can't move now!)
Bad move, the old machine formatted in MBR , the new machine wants GPT and refuses to install windoze, so now I'm trying to either "repair" the old drive or if that fails then looks like I'll have to go the whole install everything route, BUMMER!!!!!!!!
@Dorsetmike (http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?action=profile;u=2855) Mike try looking up the diskpart utility, you might be able to use that to convert the partition.
Hi Chris, at the moment even the install CDs just sit there with the Starting Windows screen, the only things currently working are 2 ancient Dual core pentium Gateway machines and this Panasonic Toughbook. The Gateways partition in MBR, the new ones GPT (I had to WIKI that), I've tried to run the CDs in safe mode and command prompt but they don't even get that far, just hang.
USB is not available as a boot option in the BIOS, I did try with an 80Gb disc from a laptop, no joy. I may resort to going to a local computer shop and see if they can work any miracles, although I hate to admit defeat!
Hi Mike it sounds to me like you have a faulty drive.if you load w7 from a dvd nowadays it installs pretty quick,w10 even quicker.you can buy a dvd drive for a tenner and get a new cable at the same time.if you have access to a dvd burner download w7 iso and burn it to a dvd.I take it you are using the sata interface not the old type connection.
Problem is the same on both machines, unlikely to be two duff drives. Also if drives were duff I wouldn't expect any action, they both get as far as the Starting Windows screen then hang, ,same with both win7 pro and win7 home premium CDs.
In the BIOS screen both hard drives show as having Windows boot manager which suggests to me that a partial install has ocurred on the new drive and the old drive still has whatever problem stopped it booting; until I can get the new drive formatted in a GPT machine I doubt I'll make any progress.
One suggestion i had was to get an SSD drive about 240G or 320G, enough for a C: drive and use the hard disc for other partitions.
Hi Mike make sure your motherboard supports AHCI before you get a ssd drive,if you do you will be amazed how quick it installs windows, in mins.
Like I said in my previous post use the diskpart utility to convert and format your drive to GPT, it is command line based and it works from a floppy or usb I think, that is what I had to use once when I bought a new drive. It sounds like your windows cd's or something is faulty although it can take a while to install using that method and sometimes you think it is doing nothing when it actually installing. Installing from a dvd is better than cd and it will be a lot quicker,have you got access to a dvd burner.
Are the windows cds full commercial releases or cds that came with a specific machine? If there manufacturers discs then its possible there locked to that machine or require extra software stored on a hidden partion of the machine.
QuoteI use, photo editing & plotter cutter driver among others won't run on Linux
Hence my suggestion to run a virtual windows machine within linux.
Also if you run a live linux disc it will run without installing anything so you can get to your hard drives and back up anything important,see exactly how the drives are partitioned and format them in a flavor to suit
Commercial CDs.
I repeat I DO NOT WANT LINUX with or without a virtual windows machine within Linux.
I am currently doing a full format (not a quick one) but 2TB obviously takes a while, it's been running for nigh on an hour and still barely 10%! Did a quick format earlier, no change when trying to install.
Quote from: Railwaygun on December 22, 2016, 01:53:55 AM
Win 7 has had difficulty upgrading since win 10 arrived.
Here is my recipe
Do fresh install ( 64 bit if possible)
Download Internet explorer 11 ( filehippo ) and install. A number of updates are installed automatically with this.
Follow instructions for new installation
http://plugable.com/2016/06/08/windows-7-wont-update-what-to-do/ (http://plugable.com/2016/06/08/windows-7-wont-update-what-to-do/)
http://filehippo.com/download_internet_explorer_windows_7/ (http://filehippo.com/download_internet_explorer_windows_7/)
Install browser of choice
This worked for me.
I've been following this thread and another similar one with much interest until the last few posts between Mike and Chris. You are both obviously far more knowledgeable and competent than I will ever be when it comes to computers. However my problem is the one that Railwaygun offers a solution for and I think the common link is that Microsoft have stuffed all of us who are quite happy to continue with Windows 7 and do not want Windows 10 at any price. I have previously commented on what an attempted update to Win10 did to my PC last year and the lengths I had to go to rectify that situation. I will not go over old ground. The lesson I learnt then was that we would not allow Win10 on my wife's PC and even had to call Microsoft for assistance when it attempted to install all by itself. Fortunately it was stopped in time and the Microsoft representative promised that it would never happen again.
After the free period ended we became very smug in the knowledge that MS would never attempt to install it automatically as they would now want to be paid for it. However, about a month ago I was checking my wife's PC and discovered that there had not been a Windows Update since early July. I check the settings and it was set to do this automatically. I tried a manual check but it just sat for hours "checking" but never doing anything. I then realised that every time I opened the update there was a message that Win10 had been reserved and was waiting to be installed. I kept trying to ignore this but it kept coming back. I searched for ages for a solution and eventually came across a propgramme which would remove all traces of Win 10 and then track any suspicious activity in the future. This successfully removed the message and some other traces of Win 10. However I could not get Windows Update to start. Railwaygun's post filled me with hope coupled with some other advice from a forum in the MS website.
Thanks to Railwaygun's advice in particular I have today resolved the issue. We had SP1 installed so I didn't want to try messing with that. I did try to download IE11, even thought she had been using Chrome for a long time, but I was told that the one already installed was more up to date. So I then decided to download the individual updates one by one. The first three all seemed to be part of a standalone update installer. Once these were installed Update suddenly sprung back into life and found a stack of updates. So far it has done that three times this afternoon and now seems to be very update.
Once again this forum this forum has come up trumps and restored my sanity. Many thanks to all who have contributed and particularly to Railwaygun. I'm sorry I cannot offer any assistance to you, Mike, as your problem seems much more serious but don't give up, there must be an answer out there somewhere. Thanks for starting this thread anyway which eventualy sorted out my problem. The sad thing is that MS will always have the upper hand as computers don't last for ever and sooner or later we will have to invest in a new one with Win10 on it (unless we change to another product.)
Ron
Glad to be of service
NIckR
When changing my pc to ssd I forgot when formatting the disc to put the system mark on the drive everything seemed okay but it wouldn't work. Most drives come with the partition(s) pre set up in this case the partition might be incorrect type and not be recognized as a primary partition with system. I used partition magic to set the partition correct followed by acronis true image cloning tool to clone the previous disk.
The new disc seems to have picked up windoze boot manager, presumably from the install that failed at 2%, so I tried a quick format - no change so last night I started a full format before going to bed, it's now been running about 12 hours, and still short of 50% done! Wotta a lotta bytes!
Also ordered a 240Gb SSD, could be a toss up which is available first, the format or the SSD!
Managed to install Win7 pro 64 on an 80G laptop drive in a 3.5" dock, still have not managed to get anywhere withh the new drive, the 80Gb drive doesn't run in the new machine either, currently formating the system portion of the drive that failed to start all this, now at 60% and ongoing, hopefully be able to put Win7 back on it when format is done, it seems there is enough difference between the new machine and the old that a drive formatted in one won't work in 'tother.
Fingers crossed.
@Dorsetmike (http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?action=profile;u=2855) Pleased you are getting somewhere Mike if it is a bit slow.Like I said before in my previous post, make sure your mother board chipset supports AHCI otherwise you will not be able to get the ssd drive to work. That is what forced me into upgrading one of my machines, this one used to be a old chipset and a spare smallish ssd drive I had would not work.I intended to just install windows on it then the rest of the data on a older drive, NO AHCI NO SSD.
@Lankyman (http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?action=profile;u=2088)
Lankyman I had a similar problem to you when I tried the free W10 update on this pc it crawled to a stop, I took up the offer to wind it back and it has been ok ever since. On my newer machine downstairs I have done a clean install from a dvd I burned from a W10 iso downloaded off the Microsoft website. I bought a legal key off the internet, there is no way I was paying £80+ for it. I have also built a new machine for my son and used the same install disc for his new machine. If you have previously tried W10, Microsoft should have you down has a user, there is nothing to stop you doing a clean install and you will not need to buy a key, it would be free for you. If you want to buy a key message me for the website.
Quote from: lil chris on December 29, 2016, 10:45:56 PM
NO AHCI NO SSD.
I guess it depends. Several years ago I installed a Samsung SSD on my old XP computer, which as far as I can see doesn't have AHCI (it's certainly not using an AHCI-enabled driver), and it's always worked fine.
QuoteNO AHCI NO SSD.
you sure on that,thought ahci was to do with sata buses,a pata ssd or ssd raid array dosnt need it
Most ssd's require AHCI setting in the BIOS in preference to IDE, some early motherboards do not support it.
I think MS implement AHCI in version of Windows after Vista. However, it is obviously better if your BIOS supports it.
Finally sorted via phone to tech support; had to enable CSM support and disable secure boot in BIOS. Seems recent motherboards do not normally support Windoze earlier than Win8, the above BIOS changes overcome the problem.
Now have Win7 pro 64 bit on an SSD in the new machine, probably spend tomorrow transferring stuff from the old disc then reinstall Windows on that, hopefully I can get contact lists and bookmarks and passwords etc off as well.
Well done Mike glad you got there in the end.
Now that I've got a machine running, has anybody got experience of file recovery software? From a quick Google it looks as though "Recuva" gets good reviews.
I'm hoping to recover things like Email & Skype contact lists, Firefox bookmarks and saved passwords. I should be OK for software, downloaded .exe installation files are on a separate partition which looks to be intact and other stuff is on original CDs.
emails may depend on your email provider, in that you might be able to re-download them
skype contacts should definitely be in skype when you log in :)
Another query, now that I have two PCs running, I'm thinking to use one mainly for on line work and the other for things like photo and video editing, music and modelling projects, the offline PC I would like to have connected to a home network but not able to connect to the internet. The reason for networking is so I can transfer files such as downloaded items and items to upload. I just do not want the "offline" machine to suffer windows updates, I'm sure that's what started the original problem. The laptop I'm currently using has a switch to disable the wifi connection so I switch that off before starting shut down. Although I have updating disabled I've still had microsloth try to send updates
The alternative would be to do file transfers etc by USB memory sticks or is it possible to connect PCs directly via USB cable.
I also intend to save a mirror image in case of future crashes, should I use a DVD or an external drive?
If you treat yourself to one of the small portable USB3 drives then files of any size can be transferred between machines quite quickly as well as being used as a backup device. I have several on which all sorts of files are stored/backed up, Movies/Music/Photos etc.
Just recently got another basic WD 2TB from Argos for £75 as I was running short of space: http://www.argos.co.uk/product/1678967 (http://www.argos.co.uk/product/1678967) Being small they are easy to store and move around.
As so many machines are now without disc drives it's probably a safer bet as even Macs can read NTFS format files if needed (they can write to them too with the right software loaded).
Mind you if you have any spare/old 2.5" drives then USB enclosures are cheap and easy to find - though USB3 less so than USB2.
Izzy
Quote from: Dorsetmike on January 20, 2017, 11:17:14 AM
the offline PC I would like to have connected to a home network but not able to connect to the internet.
In the past I've connected two PCs via the serial or parallel port. For the serial port I used a null modem cable. There's a good explanation on
http://www.ghisler.ch/help/totalcmd/direct_cable_connection_through_parallel_port.htm (http://www.ghisler.ch/help/totalcmd/direct_cable_connection_through_parallel_port.htm)
It uses Windows Commander, which is an excellent Norton Commander-style file manager (no connection, just happy customer!). I find it indispensable when copying or moving files to have the two directory windows side by side and a hotkey copy or move command.
Not doubt the connection could be accessed in other ways, but the Commander approach is fairly simple.
I haven't used PC-to-PC since moving to XP, though. For info google:
connect pc via parallel port
or
connect pc via serial port
I've ordered a 64Gb SSD from Amazon £35.25 and already have a caddy. I also have some USB memory sticks up to 32Gb which I can use (if I can find where they're hiding)
On the machine you want to be internet free go into the network settings ,right click the ip4 settings then propertys, in the new window set a static ip adress and leave the defualt gateway address blank.
Still having problems, I now have SSDs for both PCs amd installed Win7 pro on both SSDs, now when I swich on I get a screen asking me to select operating system and gives me 3 options for Win 7, no matter which I select boot hangs at the "Starting Windows" screen.
I can boot fine with only the SSD connected but not with a conventional drive also connected.
If I put he conventional drive in an external USB caddy and go to Control panel partitioning screen the external drive shows a 100Mb EFI system area which is not accessible to format or do any other actions, I suspect that has Windoze boot manager in it which is why I get the boot problems.
Any suggestions for removing it????
qparted would be my goto tool,use the live version,boot from it and play with your partions,but do make sure youve a back up as its very easy to wipe the entire drive.You could also try disabling uefi in the bios
Think I have it sorted now, had a brain fart and did a Google, found a few hints and tips. Mostly involving various functions in diskpart, quite a few options in it. Got one booting properly now, so maybe I can start loading some software now.
Now to try the other one, fingers andf other extremities crossed!