The Technology Help Corner.

[Extra-Ordinary]

In your place I'd just start over with a new HDD. You said you cloned the drive, can you look at the contents? Just take all your personal files. But with windows, start fresh.

I've done exactly that.
It turns out I didn't need a new drive, the old one works once I got rid of everything and started fresh with it.
But of course this couldn't be the end of it, I ran in to two problems, not crises but I'd love some more help. Before I go on, I just want to say that you've been very helpful, thank you so much, I'm sorry I keep crawling back, I just want to get most of the kinks out.
Anyway.

Some premise. To be doubly sure I had all my data, I cloned and imaged my drive to my external then moved it all back when I could. As you probably guessed, this means I now have a HDD that's twice as full as it needs to be and I'm not sure what to delete, some guidance would be a major help.

That's problem one, the other is not all my pictures made it back. I did some digging when I moved everything back over and found the files I wanted, my music, my documents, almost everything made it back. But my picture folders are empty, all of my pictures that were just hanging around in the pictures section, they're fine but my folders (like all of my PAX pictures from 2015 are in a folder named PAX2015. This PC > Pictures > PAX2015, they would be in there) are all empty.
I know they have to be somewhere and it might be weird answering these questions without the computer right in front of you but any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

 

[Living_Brain]

Some premise. To be doubly sure I had all my data, I cloned and imaged my drive to my external then moved it all back when I could. As you probably guessed, this means I now have a HDD that's twice as full as it needs to be and I'm not sure what to delete, some guidance would be a major help.

That's problem one, the other is not all my pictures made it back. I did some digging when I moved everything back over and found the files I wanted, my music, my documents, almost everything made it back. But my picture folders are empty, all of my pictures that were just hanging around in the pictures section, they're fine but my folders (like all of my PAX pictures from 2015 are in a folder named PAX2015. This PC > Pictures > PAX2015, they would be in there) are all empty.
I know they have to be somewhere and it might be weird answering these questions without the computer right in front of you but any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

That's such a strange thing to have happened. I don't know. It would be strange but possible there was a bad sector that just so happened to corrupt the data Windows uses to identify the bytes on the drive. And it really is only that one folder?

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

That's such a strange thing to have happened. I don't know. It would be strange but possible there was a bad sector that just so happened to corrupt the data Windows uses to identify the bytes on the drive. And it really is only that one folder?

Yeah, I know it's strange so I'm not gonna hold you to anything, just thought I'd ask.

No, it's not just the one folder, nearly all of my pictures folders. Every Con I went to, a couple of goofy ones that I saved funny pictures to, a couple of vacation folders, they're just empty, the folders are there, they're just empty.
But notice I said nearly and that's because there's two of note that saved everything. One is a folder I made to save my sister's photos from her camera when I borrowed her SD card; that folder opens into two folders and both of them made it through with all their contents. The other is a folder I made when I went to a concert with a friend. She took all the photos and sent them to me over facebook messenger and I just saved them.
I can't imagine the reasons these two made it, like you said, it's super strange. Everything that I moved from my phone or a camera SD card or folders that some of my programs made (like my webcam or Raptr screenshots) are empty.

Huh, I didn't think of this until now, but maybe they're still on that SD card, I can live without most of my photos but I kinda liked my Con ones.

I'll do another dig through the external drive; the way I see it, between the two drives they have to be SOMEWHERE I just have no idea where.

Like I said, not gonna hold you to it, it's a weird problem.

 

[Living_Brain]

snip

Does it follow a timeline? As in, pics put in after whatever arbitrary date were gone but before that date stayed?

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

Does it follow a timeline? As in, pics put in after whatever arbitrary date were gone but before that date stayed?

Doesn't look like it, for a second it looked like the cutoff was Jauary of 2016 but there's a couple straglers that prove that wrong.

 

[Alitoosi]

Thanks for The Help
here's some tutorials for how to update Graphic cards
http://brouz.ir/how-to-update-nvidia-graphic-cards/

 

[Living_Brain]

Does it follow a timeline? As in, pics put in after whatever arbitrary date were gone but before that date stayed?

Doesn't look like it, for a second it looked like the cutoff was Jauary of 2016 but there's a couple straglers that prove that wrong.

Hey, sorry I was out so long. Any update or clue into what happened?

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

Doesn't look like it, for a second it looked like the cutoff was Jauary of 2016 but there's a couple straglers that prove that wrong.

Hey, sorry I was out so long. Any update or clue into what happened?

Don't worry about it, man, (or not if your... not) I'm not gonna worry about you having a life outside of helping online strangers find their digital pictures.

In truth, I haven't looked into it much, I've been pretty much living with it.
I mean to take another look in my external drive because like I said, they have to be somewhere and I think they might be there but that's kind of fellen into the "I'll get around to it" pile.

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

Doesn't look like it, for a second it looked like the cutoff was Jauary of 2016 but there's a couple straglers that prove that wrong.

Hey, sorry I was out so long. Any update or clue into what happened?

Don't worry about it, man, (or not if your... not) I'm not gonna worry about you having a life outside of helping online strangers find their digital pictures.

In truth, I haven't looked into it much, I've been pretty much living with it.
I mean to take another look in my external drive because like I said, they have to be somewhere and I think they might be there but that's kind of fellen into the "I'll get around to it" pile.

I don't know if you're still there, old pal, I wouldn't blame you if you got tired of me but I took another look on my external drive and the pictures are there, I just can't see them.

The short version (to the best of my knowledge) is that my currently running PC doesn't have permissions to view the pictures and it can't verify the original owner (me) so it won't open 'em up when I go into Security or Permissions or anything like that.

We're so close, man, and you've been a big help so far and they're right there I just can't see them. I'm thinking screw it and just getting professional help but I want to see if I can fix it myself first.

 

[Felix the Human]

Hi I'm Having Trouble sending email from my account, when i try to send some i get this error message.

Sending of the message failed.
The Outgoing server (SMTP) smtp.west.cox.net does not support the selected authentication method. Please change the 'Authentication method' in 'Account Settings | Outgoing Server (SMTP)'.

what does this mean and how do i fix it?

Edit: My email Client is Cox and the Program is Mozilla Thunderbird.

 

[prigdishnak]

Greetings. I'm having a little issue. My 'main hard drive' is an older HDD drive, I recently had an External Hard Drive die on me completely and this made be go 'Ah! What if my main dies next?'. My cd drive is also broken but I haven't had any reason to use it in ages, the door won't open I've no idea why. So here's my question.

If I bought a new hard drive to replace the old one, how would I go about installing my copy of Windows 7 to it without putting the disk into the drive? And, would replacing my old drive erase anything on my single other internal hard drive? Would the other internal hard drive need to be reformatted to work with the new replacement main drive under all situations?

Currently I'm thinking of just buying a whole new computer but I don't really have the budget for it I think. Here are my current specs. Would anyone be able to steer me towards something that is just one or two steps above what I've got that isn't to pricey as a pre-built package? I don't know if I could build my own from parts. Anyway, thank you, be well everyone.

Operating System
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1
CPU
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Deneb 45nm Technology
RAM
12.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 (9-9-9-23)
Motherboard
ASUSTeK Computer INC. M4A88T-M (AM3) 25 ?C
Graphics
HP 24wd (1920x1080@60Hz)
2048MB ATI AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series (Sapphire/PCPartner) 39 ?C
Storage
232GB SAMSUNG SP2504C ATA Device (SATA) 21 ?C
931GB Seagate ST1000DM003-1CH162 ATA Device (SATA) 21 ?C
Optical Drives
ATAPI DVD A DH16AYH ATA Device
Audio
AMD High Definition Audio Device

 

[Marik2]

I have an old acer laptop that has a black screen. I already took out the battery and put it back in, but it still doesn't work.

It just shows the logo and the screen turns black soon after. I can still access BIOS, but I don't know what to do.

 

[Drathnoxis]

I have an old acer laptop that has a black screen. I already took out the battery and put it back in, but it still doesn't work.

It just shows the logo and the screen turns black soon after. I can still access BIOS, but I don't know what to do.

Did you ever work on this any more? The biggest thing to check for is bad capacitors. Like 8 times out of 10 this has been my problem with electronics. It would require complete disassembly, but then it's really easy to check for.

Bad capacitors bulge at the top, rather than being nice and flat:

If you find some bad, then it's as simple as matching the voltage and capacitance and soldering in a new one, making sure to keep the polarity in the same orientation. You can usually buy a pack of new ones on Ebay for a couple bucks.

One thing you need to watch out for is that capacitors can hold a charge after an electronic has been unplugged. They are basically batteries, so you can get a shock if you touch them. I read a story once about a kid dying when messing around with the power supply on his computer, so be careful with the larger ones.