Everybody knows that the majority computers have the OS on the C: drive and most people are used to this configuration.  Although, in most situations, it really shouldn't matter on what logical drive your OS resides, it might be annoying or confusing to some users to not find Windows in the "usual" place.  Most of the time when you install windows, it will correctly resolve to the C: drive. However, if the computer comes with removable media drives for memory cards, depending on many factors, Windows might install to a logical drive letter that comes after the removable media drives.  If this configuration is undesired, then simply disconnect the removable media drives from the motherboard and redo the Windows installation.

If you decide to stay with your OS on a logical drive other than C:, then you shouldn't experience problems as most programs use environment variables to install. An environment variable is a special DOS level variable used to store useful system information.  You can see your systems environment variables by getting to a Command / DOS prompt (start/run/cmd) and typing "Set".  As you can see there are variables like "System Drive" that point new programs to the correct logical drive for default installation. 

Should you ever run into any suspicious problem during install as I did recently while installing the Flash Player for internet browsing, there is a simple workaround.  You'll recognize a problem with the unorthodox drive letter assignment, because programs will pop up error messages that sound like they are talking about your removable media drives.  Messages like "not enough free disk space" or "disk not found" or "cannot read from disk" or "insert media / disk now" or "disk not ready" are typical.  If you get messages like these during application installation, upgrades, or operation, try the following "trick":  share the root of your primary drive and then map the c: to this share. 

To do this procedure, take the following steps:

1. under my computer right click on your primary drive and choose "sharing and security"... choose to share the drive at the root... windows will contest, but stay the course and get the drive shared with full write rights.. make sure to note the share name as you'll need this info for step 4

2. under control panel>administrative tools>computer management>storage>disk management,  right click on the "C:" drive and change the drive letter assignment to something else..

3. reboot your computer...

4. open any folder and go to tools>map network drive and map the C: drive to //computer name/share name where "computer name" is the name of your computer as displayed when you right click on "my computer" and go to properties>computer name tab  AND where "share name" is the name you noted in step 1...

 5. retry the offending operation and it should work if the non C: drive letter assignment was the issue

Amazing what can go wrong with a computer, here's another couple of memory issues.

Laptop number one was infested with viruses, and we needed to reformat it and install a fresh copy of windows on it. However, once Windows setup had loaded the necessary files onto the computer, we constantly got an error message stating "process1_initialization_failed" and would then shut down the installation. We tried several fixes, and then went back to the old memory drawing board! On a hunch I checked the specs of the computer, a Compaq Presario 2200, and it turned out that the memory upgrade that had been installed was one grade faster than the motherboard was designed for (runs on DDR2-400 PC3200 RAM, and had been upgraded with two 512MB sticks of DDR2-533 PC4200. DDR2 RAM in general is backwards compatible, meaning that faster RAM can be used in a computer with a chipset designed for slower RAM, it just runs at the slower clockspeed. However, when it came to actually installing and setting up Windows for that particular laptop's configuration, it couldn't handle it and was bombing out. So I reached into the memory drawer, got out a 256MB stick (the minimum to run Windows XP) of DDR2-400 PC3200 RAM, installed Windows XP with no problems, and then reinstalled the faster upgraded RAM, and the computer worked like a charm!

Laptop number two (an ASUS) was only a few months old, but had no guarantee here in Hungary. It had suddenly developed the habit of displaying the dreaded BSOD (Blue Screen of Death), and once again after checking the drivers/software and any recent installations/updates, the only thing remaining to troubleshoot was hardware. At this stage it wasn't looking good for the laptop, as the Blue Screen of Death can often be an issue on the motherboard, particularly with a new computer. Just to check, I removed the 1GB memory stick from the expansion slot (this model supports 2x1GB stick and had been fully upgraded), and checked that it was the correct RAM for this model. It was indeed the correct specification RAM, and so I tried to boot the laptop with just the 1GB remaining in the system slot, and hey presto, it booted up and continued to run without major issues. I installed another stcik of RAM in the slot in place of the old one, and this didn't work either - not only was the RAM fried, but the slot itself was dead, and had probably caused the issue. Another one solved, even if the laptop was a bit downgraded now, it works fine.

You have been served by:

El Presidente

Now, would you call that a DOWNGRADE? Popular opinion says no, as it seems a majority of computer users prefer the XP platform to Microsoft's latest version of Windows, Vista. The reason is that to date XP has been the most stable of all the Windows OS releases, having the greatest amount of compatibility with a wide variety of software. And it also afforded you a modicum of control over the settings and operation of your computer, unlike Vista that hides everything behind it's "user-friendly interface" and flashy buttons.

So it's no wonder that a lot of people who have purchased new computers and been "force-fed" Vista as their operating system are choosing to switch back to the familiar and relatively easy to use Windows XP.

Depending on your particular model of computer, and in particular laptop, this may not quite be as simple an operation as you may think. Getting anything running on a computer is always a complex marriage between hardware and software and various settings from the CMOS to the BIO, and this case is no exception.

It has turned out that Windows XP SP2 installation disks don't necessarily have the correct drivers for certain SATA hard drives running on certain motherboards (don't ask me which ones exactly, this is a matter of experience!). If you try installing XP on your new Vista computer and after it loads the installation files you get told that "Setup didn't find any hard disk drives installed in your computer", then you know you have this particular combination. In a nutshell your new computer has a storage controller that isn't supported natively in XP, and this is usually a SATA (Serial ATA) controller.

There are a couple of ways around this. The first is the quick and dirty, and it depends on the BIOS you have running on your computer. If you are lucky enough to have a more comprehensive BIOS allowing you to do more than just change the boot device order on your computer, you can do the following. Either disable the "Native SATA Control" or if that option is not available to you in your particular BIOS, then change your "SATA Device Operation" to ATA instead of AHCI, or try to disable the SATA SCSI setting, and then go ahead with your installation.  

Unfortunately, most "consumer PCs and laptops" sold today have idiot-proof BIOS' installed in them, and will not allow you to change settings such as this. Additionally, this has the side effect of slowing your computer down, as you don't have the benefit of running your hard drive in Serial ATA mode. The best solution is to use a process called slipstreaming to integrate the missing drivers on your XP installation CD so that these get installed when you setup XP on your computer.

That particular task is beyond the scope of this blog, happily there are a couple of great references on the web giving you detailed step by step instructions. Go to HowToGeek or Softpedia and follow their instructions carefully on how to do this using a nifty little application called NLite.

Handy Hints - make sure you get the correct SATA drivers for your chipset from either the computer or component manufacturers website, use the textmode in nLite, make sure your nLite install removes the stock xp SATA/RAID driver entirely, and burn the .iso as an image on the CD. And enjoy using XP once you're done!

You have been served by:

El Presidente

Never heard of XP Antivirus 2008, or it's cousin Antivirus 2009? You haven't gotten constant popups claiming "Your Computer is Infected!"? Well you've been lucky so far, and if you don't know what I'm talking about, read further on about the world of RansomWare.

The typical characteristics of RansomWare is that they masquerade as either a virus alert, scanner, or removal tool for your computer. You will get various popups and browser windows opening up unsolicited on your computer, with messages telling you about various problems it has identified on your machine, usually with a "click here to fix" attached to it.

Clicking on these is about the worst thing you can do, at best you will be taken to a screen giving you the hard sell to buy a product you don't need, and at worst you will be downloading the virus, trojan or worm itself onto your computer.

You can get infected by these things mainly through downloading files or visiting suspect sites. Which is why it's important to always have robust and credible antivirus protection software on your computer, that not only checks downloads and websites you visit, but scans emails as well. At ExpatTech we recommend either NOD32 or ZoneAlarm among the paid products, or the free version of AVG if you don't want to have to shell out for this. My recommendation - there's a lot of free stuff on the internet that you can take advantage of, but AntiVirus protection software is one thing that it's definitely worth paying for.

If you're unlucky enough to be reading this because you HAVE been infected, don't worry, ExpatTech has considerable experience with virus and spyware removal - we can save your computer. Call or email us now for advice on how to get your machine up and running smoothly again.

You have been served by:

El Presidente

Sometimes when you purchase a new drive (sata or ide) and try to mount on an XP machine via a USB, nothing will appear under "my computer".  This absence isn't necessarily a problem, it just means that your new drive must first be initialized using Windows Disk Management.

To access Disk Management go to Start>Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Mangement... Inside of "Computer Managment", on the right side, you'll see the Disk Management option near the bottom.  With your new drive plugged into the system, click on this option.  The drive should appear on the right half at the bottom of the screen.  Right-click on the drive and use the wizard to initialize the drive.  After this step, the drive will now appear with some unformatted unpartitioned space to the right of the drive.  Right click on this space (not the drive name) to create partitions and even a logical drive.  After finishing these steps, the drive will appear and will be accessable under "My Computer."