I'm not sure if I fully understand the problem, but the first question I'll ask, is: Is it a mechanical hard disk? If so, I think you're having disk errors. I'm just guessing here, becasue I don't have your laptop in front of me, but if you're running win 7, and you didn't put an SSD in it at some point, you probably have a mechanical hard drive. And any mechanical hard drive from the win 7 era, is going to be running out of life. I think you're disk is failing. You could try pulling the disk out, and mounting it on another windows system via USB to SATA adapter. If the drive is working, you will get prompted for the bitlocker encryption key. After entering it, you should be able to access the drive. But if you don't get prompted for the key, or the drive doesn't show up on the other windows system at all, when you mount it via USB to SATA adapter, then the drive is probably in a state of partial failure. I wish I had better news, but I think that's what's happening based on the info you provided.

@@frankwestphal8532 yes

@@frankwestphal8532 in the bios option no tpm showing and main thing is i have recovery key and password both then why i can't unlock it

Thank you for watching. When it comes wired connections between routers or switches and computers, you just need CAT6 cables that are long enough to go from the router to the computers. All desktop computers will have an RJ45 port, which is wired ethernet, and home routers usually have 4 of these ports too. So it's just plug and play. If you have a laptop that doesn't have an RJ45 port on it, they make USB to RJ45 adapters and they cost about 15 bucks on amazon. For those you plug in the USB side to your laptop, and then plug a CAT6 cable into the RJ45 port on the adapter, and also to one of the RJ45 ports on the router. Windows systems will default to using a wired connection if one is available. I hope this helps!

Yes. That will work perfectly as well. Just know that it won't also be available for other random storage. If you decide to use a second disk in the PC for backups, it should be only for backups from that point forward. (well, that's unless you deleted your backups and reformatted the disk, which you could always do). I actually do backups on a second internally installed disk on my desktop. Also, if you don't use Google Drive or OneDrive, I highly recommend setting them up. Between local backups and file sync/online backup with online storage, there is basically 0% chance of ever having data loss. I did a video on Google Drive here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/moCQlYKbgMhrn7s And one on OneDrive here... same concept for both: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gIKWnJxpat6HmMU

Hi. I know what you're describing here. They added the option a couple years back to sync separate computers to their own respective GD online folders, which in my opinion defeats the purpose of file sync across all devices, which is how it's most useful, right?... hahaha. The way to resolve this is to first go into google drive online app, and consolidate any/all files/folders that are under both "computers" and move them to "my drive" if they aren't already there. That gets them all in the central location of "my drive". Then, on each of you computers, create a single google drive folder (single folder called "google drive" on each computer) if you do not have them already. Because you're doing a PC and a Mac, creating the folders on the root of each drive, would be easy to remember and locate/use. Next, on each of your computers open "preferences" in the google drive file sync app and what you will mostly likely see is that you're currently syncing to "my laptop" or "my PC" instead of "my drive". Click on "my drive" and then it's going to ask you what local folder you want to sync. Point it to the folder you created called google drive. And choose the "mirror" option (as long as you have enough disk space on each computer to store whatever is in your "my drive" in the online version of GD). Do this on both computers. Then both computers will be syncing a single folder on each computer, both of which will also sync with "my drive" in google drive online. The key thing here is that your files are in "my drive" online, and you choose the "my drive" option in "preferences" in the GD installed file sync app. That's how you get the app pointed to the same online storage location. Lastly, do a test sync of a single random file to make sure both google drive folders that you created on each computer, have the exact same data in them, and then verify that in the online GD "my drive" as well. If that sync works, what should simultaneously be happening, is that everything in "my drive" online, should be showing up in both individual google drive folders on both computers. At that point you should be fully synced with a single online storage location, instead of a separate one for each computer.

@@frankwestphal8532 Thanks for the lengthy reply. Maybe you need to do anther video to explain it. Because I still cannot get it to work after trying your suggestion 😞 You mention about choosing "MyDrive", the problem is that I cannot see how to change this because the field is display only in the popup

Oh nice! And thank you for watching. Yeah, the thing I always consider when recommending systems is their overall stability, and compatibility with 3rd party software, and their ability to integrate into small and medium sized business systems if needed, all three factors of which, are directly related to operating system marketshare. As of July 2024, windows operating systems account for roughly 72% of the all desktop/laptop operating systems around the world, and of that 72% (about 65-70%) are windows 10. When software manufacturers make desktop or laptop software, the largest pot of potential users on planet Earth are windows PC users. So there are just more options with windows PCs, across the board. But I also understand running Mac OS, because Mac OS was the original platform for a lot of the original high capability music, image, and video creation/editing software. I did a lot of work in Pro Tools 6 myself (hahaha), and love that you create music. Cheers on that friend! With this information in mind, in my experience and opinion, windows 10 is the most flexible, and therefore powerful, OS ever created on planet Earth, thus far. I have yet to see an example of a any version of OSX, be able to something that Win 10 or 11 cannot. But I HAVE seen increased IT overhead, and difficulty with locally run business software with OSX. So, if you do end up consolidating at some point, Win10 or Win11 is going to get it done relatively easily, and you won't need 2 separate OS anymore.

@@frankwestphal8532 Sounds good Frank! Thank you for such a detailed reply. You make some great points for sure. I plan on building a PC gaming rig with some real high specs. I'm one of those guys that doesn't go budget as I like to "future proof" so I can grow into things and maximize my time of ownership. It's funny though, I really love my Macbook pro for what it's good for like music editing and such. I'm just so used to it that i'm afraid to make a complete switch! LOL, But for gaming, RC programming, and ham radio related activities, PC has Mac beat on every level. I'll just run both since I'm not worried about having everything under one computer. Right now I have two Macbook pro's (one old, and one new) and a Lenovo (WIN 10) laptop so all is working well for now. But hey, thanks again for the chat and suggestions. I just subbed to your channel as well. I know I will reference this video again when I do my next PC backup in 30 days. Thanks again! 👍

Thank you!

Yes, and 07:48 I show how to get any files from anywhere on your windows C: drive.

I see, thanks for your help♥️

I think thousands of livestock ranchers would disagree, and I would too. I am not a rancher, but these are very common fence types in the American west, and for good reasons. The materials are readily available, they are very sturdy, and relatively easy to build, and build at scale. It did the job very nicely for us.

I'm sorry I don't understand your issue. If you can explain more, I can probably help.

Thanks for pointing this out. I just read up on that a little bit and it sounds like in order to include a recovery partition, 32GB is required. Nice job!

Thanks for watching, and great questions here... A couple things in response: Disk defragmentation is done automatically by the OS starting in Win 7 and beyond. Also, SSDs don't' need to be defragmented. So you don't have to worry about it anymore. Disabling startup apps that you don't want running automatically, is good thing to do for sure. It reduces system resource consumption a little bit with each app that's turned off. Clearing browser cache and cookies certainly won't hurt, but the impact on system resource consumption would be minimal, so I wouldn't bother doing it. As far as anymore software tips, I would say periodically go through all your installed apps in "control panel > programs and features" and verify you recognize everything. If not do a quick search, and if you don't need that software, uninstall it. We just want to keep the software environment as clean as possible and know what's running on our computers. Also, Malwarebytes Free antimalware is an excellent periodic cleanup tool, to ensure you don't have malware. And as far as disk space goes, on your system drive "C: drive", you don't ever want it to have less than 500MB of storage left on it, but that is the bare minimum. I like to have at least 10GB available at any given time, but 500MB is the actual line that I've seen a number of times in my work, where the Operating System will start having serious issues running. And if removing data from the disk is not done, the OS will very quickly not be able to boot up anymore. I did a video on the system disk being full and there's a great free tool, WinDirStat, that makes it really easy to identify and delete junk data. Here's the link if you want to watch it: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mmS6eJxmpth_oKs NOTE: On any disk that is not the primary system disk (the one that's running the OS), you can max the disk out without having OS issues, but it's good to have some room on those too.

@@frankwestphal8532 Wow! Thank you so much, Frank :) What a comprehensive response. You made my day. There are still nice people out there :) My computer is 2T and I have 150 GB left however I am in the red. I have always thought that you are not supposed to be in the red that this is when the computer slows down but I guess the red is just a warning that you are nearing your capacity and not that you are pushing your computer to its limits. Good to know. Also, it looks like that the other things I worried about are not really that important when it comes to the longevity of the computer or how fast it is. What about shutting the computer down? I could not find any consistent advice on that. My computer is always on unless I go on holiday. At night I put the lid down. I don't know if it sleeps or hibernates during that time. Is it Ok what I do? Should I shut it down more often? How often? Thank you!

Hi. I usually get to reply to comments in about a day or 2. Let me know if you have a question.

@@frankwestphal8532 i have nothing to ask to be honest , but i was wondering like the last video uploaded is one year ago ig I'd like to see you uploading about what you love again :-)

Hi, and yes I probably can. Can you describe exactly what's going on?

It won't matter for a BIOS update as long as you have acquired the BIOS update directly from the manufacturer of your PC, and you know for sure that the BIOS version you're updating to, is for your specific model of computer. All a BIOS update does is overwrite the motherboard ROM. A system reserved partition is on the system disk, which is completely separate than the motherboard ROM.

Thanks for watching.

I've had this happen in the past becasue the google drive file sync application became corrupt. There could be a number of reasons for this, but the easy way to fix it is to completely uninstall the file sync app, restart the computer, and then reinstall it, sign in to it, and point it right back to your local google drive folder, in mirror mode... Exactly like I do in the video. Uninstalling the file sync app will not remove the local folder, or delete any files. After doing these steps, it should sync properly again.

I'm sorry to hear this. Did you download a hardware driver, or the system BIOS? And did you get the download directly from dell.com, or a 3rd party source? If you can still boot into BIOS, (by hitting F2 immediately repeatedly after hitting the power button), then you can reinstall the operating system, or try operating system advanced recovery. If you can do this, it means your hardware is most likely still perfectly fine, and it's just the operating system that is broken. If hitting F2 works to get you into the BIOS, then power it completely off again by holding down the power button, wait about 15 seconds, then hit the power button again and this time hit F8 repeatedly. This will bring you to windows operating system recovery options. You may be able to repair the existing OS. And if that doesn't work, you can do a clean install of the windows OS. If it won't power on at all, it wasn't the download that made this happen. Hardware can fail as well, as software can fail, and if you get absolutely nothing when hitting the power button, it's usually a power supply failure or motherboard failure. Both can be replaced pretty easily and cheaply on an OptiPlex 7010. I hope this helps!

I think this is becasue the older files in the google drive online storage (browser version) were uploaded before the google drive file sync app was installed and configured. Most online storage will error on the side of having more data, than less data. You can clean that old stuff up directly from the online storage version (browser) if you want.

Glad it was helpful!

@@papa7745 Hello, and yes this is actually one of the next videos I'll be making.

@@muzogul Glad it helped!

@@Brianb153FN When you re authenticating to the other PC, you need to also specify the domain of the other PC, which if it isn't part of a domain environment, then the domain is the PC name. So, your credentials when authenticating to the other PC should look like this: Other pc name\other PC user Other PC user password What's happening when you don't specify the domain, Is that the authentication is being attempted on your pc instead of the other PC where the shared folder is. Another way around this is to create the exact same username with the exact same password on both PCs. Then they will be able to talk seamlessly with shared folders, mapped network drives, and remote desktop connections.

@@frankwestphal8532 Thanks So Much! Its Working now.

Power it completely off (not sleep mode or hibernate mode). Then hit the power button, and immediately start hitting the F10 key repeatedly. You should then see the BIOS setup option, and you can click that and go into your BIOS.

Actually, I demonstrate the restore process in the video. Did you see any errors? No. That's becasue you didn't watch the video. "LOL".

Hi, if you're running Win 11, it means that your BIOS is already in UEFI boot mode, because Win 11 cannot run on legacy boot mode. You're good to go!

@frankwestphal8532 OK, I think I'm cooked. This is a copy of Win11, not from Microsoft

Hi and thank you for watching. Win 11 Home does not have the bitlocker option, so I think you're absolutely right that "device encryption" is turned on. You can verify that here: Select Start > Settings > Privacy & security > Device encryption. What I would do is turn off device encryption, then make the system image, then turn it back on after the image is created. This will avoid any issues with restoring if ever needed. Or... leave "device encryption" on, create a system image, but then test a restore. I'm not sure how "backup and restore" will handle restoring an encrypted system image. It would probably ask for the decryption key during the restore. Great question here, and I hope this helps!

​@@frankwestphal8532 Thanks for that tip you gave to verify - it did show that "device encryption" was indeed turned on. And following the recommendation to decrypt then make the image worked! To try find a potential recovery key for that encryption, opened powershell with admin privileges (task manager, open new task, powershell, tick "create with admin privileges") and then typed "manage-bde -protectors -get C:" (with those spacings and without quotations) and it indicated that there wasn't any key for the "device encryption". Found that command on this site: 'AskWoody' under the topic of "Windows 11 device encryption recovery key". After that, disabled the encryption and made the image like in the video. The channel 'ClearfundaTech' posted a video showing that you can see the status of decryption by opening command prompt with admin privileges and typing "manage-bde - status". I'm not too familiar with tech, so appreciate the time you and others take to make these videos. Thank you for your help. Remember, God proved His love for you at the Cross. Christ, the Son of God, died for our sins and rose again so that all who repent to receive Him as their Lord and Savior by faith are reconciled to God and saved. No secret code needed :)

The full length video is here. The shorts are just compressed versions of the full lengths. kzbin.info/www/bejne/q3TLf4x4fdyChNE

Hi, and thank you for watching. I just did a couple quick tests to see how much RAM (random access memory) Google Drive uses while syncing. It was actually very low... about 50MB total, even while syncing. Do you have a solid state drive (SSD), or a mechanical hard drive in your computer? If you have a mechanical hard drive that could explain the slowness of the computer while Google Drive is syncing because the disk is doing a lot or reads, or writes, or both. Here's a quick test you can do to find out: Type in "task manager" in the search/run box, run task manager, and look at the processes tab. There is a column for disk usage. Now, with task manager open, sync a large file or group of files by putting them in your Google Drive folder. Then look at that disk usage. I'm only guessing here, but it probably spikes and if that disk usage is getting in the 70-80% range or more, that's probably the bottle neck slowing down the operating system responsiveness. You can also watch your Google Drive RAM usage here and see if that's spiking for some reason. But RAM shouldn't be spiking, because once the sync is queued up, it's the disk and the network doing all the work. And in task manger you can also look at your network usage while that test sync is happening. That could also be the issue if what you're doing on your computer needs the network, and you have low bandwidth available. In my test that I just did, the Google Drive sync was using about 10Mbps. I don't where you live, but on rural ISP networks 10Mbps is very often the entire available network bandwidth. You can run a speed test by typing "speed test" into a google search, then run it. If you do this test and see your disk usage spike, and you have a mechanical hard drive, that is most likely the bottleneck. An SSD will solve it. Crucial MX series and Samsung EVO or Pro SSDs are VERY fast and reliable, and they are what I use, and recommend. But don't rule out the network unless you have above 25 or 30 Mbps results in your speed test. I hope this helps!

Hi and thanks for watching. Good question... Yes, but ONLY if you don't use it on another computer in the meantime. If you plug the backup drive into another computer, the NTFS permissions for the system image and backup files on the external disk will be rewritten. The new set of permissions will not allow the original computer to see those files when you want to restore them, unless you modify the NTFS permission back to the way they were on the original computer, when system image and backup files were created. The latter can be done, and I have done it, but unless you want to take the time to fully understand NTFS permissions, users and groups, the easy way is to simply not ever use the backup drive on any other computer. We want one drive, dedicated only for backups, for each windows computer we are running. Also, if you're not using Google Drive, I highly recommend doing so. It's free, and basically eliminates the need to do backups. Same thing with OneDrive. I did full length videos on those if you're interested: Google Drive: kzbin.info/www/bejne/moCQlYKbgMhrn7s OneDrive: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gIKWnJxpat6HmMU

Thank you! I'm glad it helped, and nice work using the windirstat tool! It's a great free tool to have around.

Thanks for watching. I disagree. I have 10 years professional IT experience and formal IT education, including networking. This video is simply an explanation of the most common issues people will face with network profiles (which are different than network interfaces and active connections), why network profile issues happen, and how to change them. To answer your question, here it it is: In Windows OS (including Win 11 and since Win XP), you ALWAYS mange network connections here. Everything else is an application overlay, in an attempt by Microsoft to make it easier for people who do not understand networking, and network interfaces, to navigate in the graphical user interface: "Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network and Sharing Center" And to specifically mange multiple network interfaces, and whether or not they are active simultaneously, you do it here: "Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network Connections" This response is just a quick dive into Win OS network management. It goes WAY deeper than that on the back end. If you want to deeply understand networking, I suggest that you get a CompTIA N+ certification, or even better, a Cisco CCNA certification.

Good question... If you don't recognize the file type, you can right click it and then chose properties. Then look at the file extension on it. For examples: .mp4 .psd .txt .png .wav... etc. Then google search for what type of file it is, based on the extension. For example; "what does .psd file do?" This will give you a decent idea of whether or not it is safe to delete it. If you're unsure, it is worth a quick couple minutes to learn what the file(s) you're thinking about deleting do, and why they are there. Some files are junk, and others are highly important/required. And if you do search for details on what type of file it is, and what it does, but are still unsure, I would error on the side of safety and not delete it. Then look to clean up disk space in another area. Generally speaking though, the large files taking up disk space will very often be files you do recognize, like image files, audio files, and video files.

@frankwestphal8532 i did that after posting my original comment, and i deleted some Outlook and Skype files that have been filling up my storage (i don't use skype or outlook.) I also deleted some huge zip files because when i tried to extract them, it said "file might be corrupted or unknown" or something like that. I wanted to ask you if there are any better ways to know if a file is more important than others instead of searching every file type because that's efficient. I stopped deleting my unnecessary files when my free C storage was 20 gb, but i still have lots of pretty big files cluttering my system, and I'm honestly too lazy to search for every file type. I'm sorry if i took too much of your time it's just that my storage problem limits my uses for my device.

You're welcome, and thank you for watching as well. I'm happy it helped you clear up unnecessary disk usage.

Hi, and thanks for watching. You have just identified one of the most important concepts for all of us to understand regarding tech, in general. I want to go deep into this because there is a lot to say. But to (try) and keep it short and simple, I will say these things: 1. A lot of it is marketing, and perceived relevance, to the consumer. A different user interface (perception of "newness"), and an attempt to consolidate existing Windows OS deeper functionality in a way that is more easily accessible to everyday users (ease of use and decrease of learning curve, is what I believe Microsoft was/is shooting for with with Win 11 (and in previous versions of windows OS). In some ways, that objective as been been accomplished. 2. With number 1 said, there are fundamental security improvements in Win 11, (TPM 2.0 requirements and UEFI boot requirements). These improvements absolutely DO matter regarding overall long term security, particularly in business environments. 3. Although there is always a public beta testing timeframe of couple of months, or even a year/years, (that no tech company will ever admit to), Win 11 was highly functional, even before it was publicly released. For me, Win 11 was the first Windows OS that I could use a pre-release version of, and still got the job done as a daily driver computer, handling everyday workloads. The long story short here is that Win 11 does have significant security improvements, which DO matter. But Win 10, still absolutely dominates world desktop/laptop OS market share with 70% (as of May2024).

@@frankwestphal8532 My win 10 had a folder named "One Drive" within file explorer. Win 11 doesn't have a "One Drive" folder it was changed to "Edwards Personal" Microsoft has this new laptop locked.

Hi. And no... A BIOS update will not change any of the data, on any of the disks, on the computer. The BIOS (system firmware) exists on a ROM chip on the motherboard.

You're welcome!