How to use HP Recovery CD/DVD Creator

It is presently common practice for computer manufacturers to (what I consider) fail to include recovery CDs or DVDs, claiming it adds to the bottom line. In any case, here is something important to know about HP’s Recovery CD/DVD Creator software: In order for the software to work and for recovery disks to be created, DVD+Rs must be used.

DVD+R. Not http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD-R. Not DVD+RW. Not DVD-RW. Exclusively and only DVD+Rs. Here is the reference at HP. It is less clear than one would hope (particularly to those of us with only limited experience with blank DVD media).

ALSO: It is worth nothing that 1) the Recovery CD/DVD Creator creates only one single set of recovery disks—be they the 18 CDs or the 3 DVD+Rs—and 2) that if the creation process is stopped mid-stream it will not restart at the beginning but at where it was left off. In other words, one shot is all you get.

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Adaware

For goodness sake, use adaware!

There are alternatives, yes, and some even work. But for every minute I have spent using adaware preemptively, I have saved hours of clean-up and recovery. Installing and running adaware is the first thing I do after creating a system restore point on a new client’s computer.

The free version has to be run manually, and that’s all it takes to have one of the best guards against malicious software being installed on your computer.

Somethings I have noticed about adaware. One, after installing you should check for updates even after it says it has updated the program. That’s important. Then run it for the most current version and use of spyware definitions.

Next, on the average, I find about 300 “infections” are discovered on the average first run. The lowest I have discovered is around 8 for a first running of adaware. The most is over 3000. (It took 45 minutes just to boot that computer—the price of free porn being available on a 24-hr basis to 23-year old males.) Yet for the most part, these so-called infections are just cookies. It is the “critical items” which are more worriesome.

Critical items are genuine threats to a computers functioning and well-being. I’d say the number one I come across is MyWebSearch. I love seeing adaware pick that off. And getting rid of MyWebSearch is by far one of the most satisfying quick-fixes I know of. It’s like a miniature version of the awesomely troubling AOL software. (Getting rid of AOL software is no small task. Of course, it’s nothing compared to getting rid of McAfee anti-virus software. That’s practically Herculean.)

Lastly, when you check off the items for adaware to get rid off, some items will be declared to be in need of a computer restart to completely eradicate. So when you finish, it will appear they are still in place. Restart the computer. If you want, rerun adaware again. They’ll be gone.

Computers, Astronauts, Key West and you (and me)

It’s only been three years since I started HowToRockstar but much has changed. For one, I am in Key West full-time now though I have branched out to Jamaica recently. Next, I work on computers full-time, as well. Lastly, Humannaires has taken off into the most natural direction possible, meaning it was that astronautics and working with developing human beings (ie kids) was the right direction for me to go in.

All this means is that it was long past due time to change H2RS.

Since I live eat and breathe cpus and networks now I have to write about them. There is so much I do not understand but everyday there are one or two thing I discover that were a bear to discover recover or find and from which others might benefit.

My coding skills are bare minimal I understand enough to listen and that’s about it. My google skills however are formidable. People pay to Google, that’s how I look at it.

Since I spend so much time with Peter Downie (aka DJ Peter Worth) you would think I’d be into DJing more. But the whole dj thing seems played out. I seem more like and EJ—electric jockey: Electricity and sounds electrical in nature, and showcasing these, this keeps me interested. And making happy noises!

When I arrived in Key West in 1965, who knew that even while I had left at an early age (before I was 2) the region would imprint upon my open and impressionable soul. Yet it did. Subsequently, this is where I am from. This is who I am.

I am glad we left then, and I am glad I came back. But in truth, in the end in order to be true to myself I had no choice: My soul literally screamed for this saltwater backcountry, these shores, and this side of the Gulf of Mexico. It had for as long as I can remember remembering.

(Undoubtedly this was at least partially because the entire time I was here, as first-born I had my (then-ecstatically) happy new mother and her mother—my adoring Nana—entirely to myself. My first memories are all of the two of them and I on the seashore of Marathon and the lower-Florida Keys. )

So I’m here, it’s good, and I have things to say. At the end of the day, this is HowToRockstar.