The Digital Surgery (computer questions/problems here)

[sargeant]

I still use my HP only for skype because the picture and sound quality at my BinL end is better

The only probs i had was the useless vista it came with if i do as you are advising will it possibly give me even better connection to the UK

i am clueless at this geek thingy stuff

[Big Boy]

Kill it all except the HP Connection Manager which looks like it governs your wifi - the only other HP software you need is if you have a HP printer.

OK, here goes......... if you find youself a moderator down, you know why

[dtaai-maai]

Don't worry, BB - any problems and all you have to do is 'restore'. Even I can do it!

[Big Boy]

I wasn't worried - buksi has never let me down before ........................ I'm back

[lomuamart]

When downloading stuff through Bittorrent and it's finished, normally there will be the message "seeding".
Just occasionally, however, I get the message "flushing to disk". What does this mean?
I'm pretty sure that when it's happened before, at some point, maybe a day or so later, I'll get the pop up "download complete".
I'm just wondering what this occasional message means.

[buksida]

Hard disk isn't full by any chance is it?

Also try upgrading uTorrent to the latest version, see if that clears it.

[Big Boy]

Also try upgrading uTorrent to the latest version, see if that clears it.

An interesting comment when lomu asked about Bittorrent. I've always niticed the 2 programmes look almost identical apart from the badge. Are you saying that they are one and the same? In which case I can remove uTorrent.

I currently tend to use uTorrent only when Bittorrent stops working, which isn't very often.

[buksida]

Bittorrent is the name of the overall technology/sharing system, uTorrent is the name of the software/client.

[Big Boy]

OK thanks, I had them as 2 separate downloads at different times - I've just zapped uTorrent as being superfluous.

[lomuamart]

Thanks for the replies.
I've been away from the computer for a few hours and have switched it back on. The bittorrent thingy flagged up immediately - "all files downloaded". As said, almost all downloads go straight to seeded and are on my hard drive. Just occasionally I get the second message but switching off and back on seems to do the trick.
Good idea about upgrading. I've been offered it a few times but just havn't done it yet.
And no, the D drive isn't full yet. I've still got 8 odd gigs left after binning a bit of old stuff. I must get the external hard drive looked at or returned to the shop I bought it from before the warranty runs out!!

[Pleng]

Bittorrent is the name of the overall technology/sharing system, uTorrent is the name of the software/client.

That's not entirely accurate. Yes BitTorrent is the name of the protocol, however there is a client called "Bit Torrent", which is the one you get from BitTorrent.com. uTorrent is a fork of the Bit Torrent client. As far as I'm aware they're pretty identical these days (I think uTorrent was meant to be a streamlined version of BitTorrent, but from what I read it's padded out pretty much as well as BitTorrent)

It sounds like Big Boy had 2 clients installed at the same time. Which is not necessary.

[pharvey]

I've recently downloaded a batch of language files to use with "Rosetta Stone".

The files are "Disk Image File" format and to be honest I've not got a damn clue what to do with them. Rosetta Stone will not read them in this format, so obviously I need to convert them somehow. I've had a brief look on the web, but am not really any the wiser. Has anyone had experience with this format?

Any help/advice would be much appreciated.

[buksida]

Disk Images are usually ISO files, you need to mount them using virtual drive software such as Daemon Tools which can be downloaded for free here:
http://www.daemon-tools.cc/eng/products/dtLite

[pharvey]

Cheers buks...... unfortunately I'm still fairly lost as to what to do

Oh to know what the feck I'm doing........

[J.J.B.]

Cheers buks...... unfortunately I'm still fairly lost as to what to do

Oh to know what the feck I'm doing........

You need to get the disk image file onto a disc, so that when you put the disk back into the computer, it is recognised and treated like the original disc from which the file was made (ripped). If you don't want to create virtual drives - as Buksi is recommending - you will need to burn physical discs.

If the files are less than 700MB, you can create CDs with the files, if they are over 700MB each, you will likely have to create DVDs. If you right click on the file and scroll down to properties, you will see how big the files are and can make your decision accordingly. You will need either a CD writer or a DVD writer, which your machine may have - you will need to check - and some blank CD-R or DVD-R discs that you can pick up at Tesco for a few hundred Baht for 10.

Provided you have all of these things, when you place a blank disc into your disk drive, the machine will recognise it as blank and a window should appear asking you what you want to do; choose 'burn a disk' or equivalent. It will then open a blank window and you can drag your file, one per disc, over to the burn window and then choose 'Burn' from the menu bar or other available place.

Rosetta Stone's software is very picky about where it reads data from and this is likely why you were supposed to download the disc image and not simply the content on the disc, which RS won't recognise. Each disc image contains all of the information that is needed to create a 'clone' of the original disc and so you should only make one at a time, even if you can fit more than one image onto a DVD, which is most likely. What you will end up with is a series of physical discs and when you pop them in your drive, RS should recognise them as the data it needs to have you fluent in next to no time.