Alternative to Windows

[Aggers]

Phew!!

Frank: You make me realise just how little I know about computers.

But at least I can't blame Windows now.

[Suff]

Frank has it exactly.

I just didn't have the time then to write it down.

Most USB keys/pen drives are in FAT32 format anyway. You can check this when you plug it in. In windows Explorer, right click on it and select properties. When the properties screen comes up, it will show the name and then in the next section below will say Type and File system. The File System should be FAT or FAT32.

If it is, you can skip the forwarding part.

BTW you can get to windows explorer by pressing and holding the windows key (the one with the flag on it) and pressing the E key. Saves time.

Once you have cut the files, rebooted and pasted the files back, the security should be removed.

This is Arcane file system stuff. Something you don't usually have to worry about with Windows as your own files always belong to you. It's when you copy files from another hard drive, from another system, that you start to have problems. Because it belongs to the "other" user and not you. Windows usually copies the security with the file, which then stops you from accessing the files.

I use two methods for this. One is to copy through FAT, as I'm suggesting now. The other is to use a Linux Live CD to do the original copy from the old drive.

Good Luck.

[Workingman]

John, all this folders and files stuff is what we once called "Housekeeping", or part of it, and it used to be one of the first things rigorously taught in colleges and good computing books. It was a bit like English of the 'old school' for document formatting:

1.
1.1.
1.1.1.

Then along came Organizer programmes with their own built-in tree structures and the "how to" of the old DIY methods got left behind. I can absolutely NOT get on with some of them, and I won't mention Picasa as an example.

[Suff]

Me neither Frank. All this folders everywhere just drives me nuts.

One good old command still survives in Windows today.

Do:

Winkey +R to get the run dialog.
type in cmd.exe and press enter.
type cd \
type

tree >%userprofile%\Desktop\tree.txt

when it finally finishes, open the tree.txt file on your desktop in a wordprocessor rather than notepad. You will see the hierarchical structure of all files on the system that you can access, in it's tree view. Of particular interest is your directory in c:\users\<your login name>. Also the C:\Users\Public...

A hard drive in any operating system is nothing more than a very large filing cabinet. You can put folders inside folders. Just as you can in a filing cabinet. Only on computers this can be nested to a degree which would be impossible to manage in a filing cabinet. As you can imagine, it all becomes hopelessly tangled when you don't follow a rigid set of rules to put your things in specific places. Imagine working over 5 or 6 different computers and putting stuff in different places on each computer.... A nightmare. I find I am nothing like disciplined enough to do this on each machine. For which I am eternally glad for Windows Explorer search.

[Aggers]

I love reading all this stuff.

It makes me feel that I'm not so thick as I used to be.

It's just that you two guys have been at it longer than me, and probably more often.

Thanks, anyhow. I do appreciate your help.

[Suff]

24 years as a profession Aggers. Plus as a hobby.

I still remember the first time I used a mouse attached to a computer. It was the GEM graphical operating system on an old Amstrad 1512 twin floppy machine. When I saw what it did, I immediately turned the mouse upside down and tried to move it. Of course I then had to work out why the ball did not move the mouse when it was upside down... Took a few minutes to do that...

It's a journey. We all have to do it, no matter how much or little we use them. Some of us are further down the road and have travelled more. Not everyone who has travelled more or longer knows more. Just travelling the same path every day does not give you an insight into the country around you. You just wear a deeper groove in the path....

[Aggers]

Just travelling the same path every day does not give you an insight into the country around you. You just wear a deeper groove in the path....

Words of wisdom, indeed.

[Workingman]

Just travelling the same path every day does not give you an insight into the country around you. You just wear a deeper groove in the path....

Words of wisdom, indeed.

He can be so philosophical when he wants to be.

[Suff]

Hmmm, I'll need to "want to" more then..

Just my long term observations and ruminations....

[Aggers]