What is Windows XP Safe Mode?

What is Windows XP Safe Mode and why is it needed? Windows XP Safe Mode is a way for Windows XP to load when there is a problem that prevents it loading normally. It allows you to trouble shoot Windows in order to determine what is preventing Windows XP to load properly.

When windows XP cannot load properly it may prevent you using some of the utilities such as System Restore that will return the system to a previous state. Booting in Windows XP Safe Mode bypasses the loading of a lot of programs, one that may be causing your problem.  You may have just installed a program that has caused you windows to load incorrectly. Booting in windows xp safe mode gives you the opportunity to recover from this by de-installing the program.

So how do you get into Windows XP Safe Mode? To get into safe mode reboot your computer. As the computer is booting keep pressing the “F8 Key”. You should find this usually in the top row on your keyboard. Doing this should eventually bring up the “Windows Advanced Options Menu” as shown below. You will find your mouse is inoperative so you will have to use your keyboard arrow keys to move to “Safe Mode”. Press the enter key on your keyboard to invoke Windows XP Safe Mode.

Windows Advanced Options Menu
Please select an option:

Safe Mode
Safe Mode with Networking
Safe Mode with Command Prompt

Enable Boot Logging
Enable VGA mode
Last Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked)
Directory Services Restore Mode (Windows domain controllers only)
Debugging Mode

Start Windows Normally
Reboot
Return to OS Choices Menu

As your computer is booting up in Windows XP Safe Mode, you will get the option either to go to the System Restore menu, or continue to boot to the safe mode of windows xp. To exit Windows XP Safe Mode all you have to do is restart your computer.

There are a few options for booting up in Windows XP Safe Mode, they are:

Safe Mode

This is the basic Windows XP Safe Mode option and is what most users will want to choose when troubleshooting their computer. In this mode you can perform basic Windows operations such as using the control panel.

Safe Mode with Networking

There are times when you may need access to the Internet to download drivers to replace one that is causing problems or other software.

Safe Mode with Command Prompt

This Safe Mode boots and allows you to use the command prompt. (MS-DOS prompt). This should only be used by advanced users.

You should practice booting in Windows XP Safe Mode so you get familiar with it. You do not want to be caught short if something happens to your system and then find you have problems entering it. Don’t worry you can’t stuff anything up practicing this.

Now you know how to invoke Windows XP Safe Mode and have fixed your problem you may want to learn how to defrag your hard drive.

What is hard disk cloning?

 We have all heard about cloning animals and somewhere even humans have been tried. But what about cloning the hard disk drive of your PC. Cloning is creating an exact copy of your hard disk onto another hard disk. With hard disk cloning you can copy your PC's hard disk, every last bit of it, and then use that disk as if it was the original.

Hard disk drive cloning is something that you need to do to safeguard not only your data but your complete operating system as well. Hard drives go bad sometimes, and other times you may want to upgrade to a bigger hard drive or even move to a more powerful PC. Either way, wouldn't it be nice to be able to get a new hard drive and make it an exact replica of your old one. Cloning your hard disk drive will do this for you.

The easiest way to clone a hard disk drive is to use a good hard drive cloning software. If you use cloning software, all you have to do is install the disk, follow its instructions and then it will start the cloning process.

Your other option then is to store it on a DVD, if it can fit, or the hard drive you actually plan on copying it to. To do this you need to have the disk in a disk USB enclosure or actually installed in your PC.

The hard disk drive cloning procedure is preferable to just a simple backup of your data. If the disk fails and you only have a data backup you would have to reinstall Windows and all the applications you had installed. With a cloned disk drive you not only have a replica of you original disk but you can even retrieve individual data and files from it if you have accidentally deleted.

Periodically cloning a hard disk drive means that you would always have an up to date hard drive clone. So if anything should happen, you can just boot from your other hard drive.

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Ultra-slim notebook power adapter from Cooler Master

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YouTube Down

It seems that the issues were resolved, and that YouTube is once again fully operational.
YouTube is currently experiencing some downtime issues, reporting a “Http/1.1 Service Unavailable” error or a a 500 Internal Server error. It’s been going on for approximately 20 minutes, and Twitter is already abuzz about the downtime.
Currently there’s no word from Google about the issues, but given its recent troubles with Chinese hackers, as well as hacker attacks on Baidu and other large web services, it’s not too far-fetched to think this downtime is a result of a cyber attack. We’ll let you know when we find out more.