Computer Questions (formally Your Desktop)

Do you know what the actual difference is between them?

WordPress.com and WordPress.org

WordPress is a publishing platform that makes it easy for anyone to publish online, and proudly powers millions of websites. It comes in two flavors: the fully hosted WordPress.com, and the self-hosted version, whose software is available for free at WordPress.org.

https://en.support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/

-Erik-

Yes, wordpress.com does deal with backups automatically, though I am free to export my blog's content as an XML file.

https://en.support.wordpress.com/export/

I have a PC-related conundrum that I'd like some help on.

My second computer - an HP desktop - was taking ages to boot up so I decided to use Defraggler to defrag the HD to see if that would help. I'd already moved all the PC's data to a separate partition on the HD as there was only 35GB left on the 500GB "C" drive, with hardly anything on the "D" data partition.

The data move was fine but the defrag was taking ages to do and seemed to get stuck in a particular part for up to 24 hours. Even though I knew that the defrag of a 500GB (with 25% fragmented files) would take a while, it didn't seem like Defraggler could do the job.

I installed IObit's Smart Defrag 5 and this worked much more speedily. Defragging the large files (one of the options) progressed normally and the disk was defragged ok. I also chose an option to do a Boot Time Defrag. That seems to have progressed to completion ok. But, this seems to be where things have begun to go wrong.

When I do a normal shut down of the PC or do a restart, the PC shuts down okay but when it reboots I get the following: the PC's fan starts up (and doesn't stop), nothing appears on the monitor and there seems to be no activity from the indicator light that flashes when the PC's HD is active. But, I think that I can hear a slight "murmur" from the PC's innards as though there's some HD activity.

I thought that that was it - that perhaps there had been a change to the boot process that "hung" the PC in a perpetual loop. However, when I restart the PC and press F11, the PC boot as normal and gives me the Windows 7 account option screen. I've tried rebooting a couple of times and it's the same thing: without pressing F11 it doesn't boot and I need to press F11 for the PC to boot.

Really, I'm trying to understand what may have happened and perhaps use some diagnostics to see what the problem is with the normal boot.

Any suggestions?

Your a star Gilles!

Fixing the MBR seems to have done the trick. I wasn't sure whether I could create a System Recovery Disc since I already had problems. But, I could and it seems to have solved my problem of not being able to boot the PC normally.

Thanks again!

But, it's knowing what question to ask and filtering out all the rubbish answers to find the one that's valid for the problem at hand that's the good thing.

Perhaps something like the MBR that may be obvious to some as a possible source of the problem (and/or solution) but in all the searching I did, I didn't see the MBR fix as a possible route to ending my current problem.

yeah i too have these excellent commands saved, for such problems, from google search:

boot from windows disc
go into recovery / repair mode

CHKDSK c: /f (faster)

then

Bcdboot C:windows

NOTE: Replace C with the drive letter where the system is installed.

BOOTREC /FIXMBR

BOOTREC /FIXBOOT

BOOTREC /REBUILDBCD

BOOTREC /SCANOS

Diskpart LIST DISK SELECT DISK (followed by the number of the disk . most likely 0) LIST PARTITION SELECT PARTITION (followed by your partitioned number. most likely 0) ACTIVE EXIT

My computer has problems and it is time to get a new one. I ordered a unit with Linux which I think will be a better operating system than windows. The price was less than a windows unit so we'll see.
Tom

I have a friend who swears by it and he feels that it will take care of my basic needs

Friends of mine are using Linux and they are well pleased. It depends on what you actually want to do with it because you won't get applications for special needs in the same quality (or variability) that you are used to from the Windows counterpart.
The basic philosophy of Linux differs from Windows. Even customer oriented distributions like Ubuntu don't spare you the command promt entirely. It needs some getting used to.
You will not be prone to hacking attacks as much as with Windows.

Volker

The Windows Update did seem to find updates to download but it just seemed to take a lot longer that it usually does.

I've downloaded a number of things through Sourceforge throughout the years, and never had an issue. But that's me.

I don't need anything as fancy as equations or structures. Just blocks of text and images - which was why PowerPoint was fine to do the job. I just feel something like Scribus would be better for layout and formatting needs.

Sourceforge, as far as I used it, never included any "evil" software additions to its download. Just make sure that, should they offer one, you refuse to download their installer, and then it's fine.