Hello Folks from Norway...
I am actaully English,for the time being...until my citizenship comes through.I am 54 married..and have a lot of health issues..which makes many basic things difficult.
Ok,I will try to be as brief as possible and to the point.
I am in the process of buying a 350GB external 2.5" portable lacie Hard-drive,at first i just wanted something to store Giga Bites of Music,Audio book,Photo`s,& documents..I do not wish to have to expalin..but for very valid reasons i am forced to give up my Laptop (dell studio)
and try to work at least once a week on another PC?
I am not allowed to store any thing what so ever on that PC for good reason again..so it was suggested Get Portableapps! and here i am.
I am house bound..so i can not just pop out to an internet cafe e. t.c I require the simplest of set ups..and very user friendly. As it stands i am just about to purchase the External Drive..
so i need to ask you guys for some help..so to help you help me..i will list waht i need and what i don`t and hopefully some kind folk will work out the best options for me.Please excuse the green questions i was never really computer geeky.
1. I will be storing the following 150gb music,Film Video & audio books:also 15-20 Gb photo`s + word Docs but these will never add up to much;
Q,I currently use exclusively YAHOO MAIL
can is till use it with apps?
2. I would like to continue to download Music & Film from the net
Q. Can i do this through my external drive.from the PC i will be using..without causing any interferance to that PC..its speed.,stabilty e.t.c.?even when i am not actually physically using the PC my self.IE just letting it run and downloading from the net?
3: I suspect i alread have guessed how some of this may work..for example documents..i think i can write the docs to the Apps on the Ext drive and save,print e.t.c without it going near the PC..other than it allowing me to view what i am doing e.t.c.on the monitor?
4.Difficult question the next one...i have all this music and film how do i listen to it..view it e.t.c. without a pc or laptop??? i thought i could possibly burn everything to DVD-R or similar would really appreciate im put on this as i think this is the only way..unless you tell me different.I can then of course view film,listen to music,look at pics all on TV is this a possibility
I think i better stop now.sorry for bring you all...
I would ideally like to keep all this as basic as humanly possible..only downloading/ using what is nessercary todo the above functions..if i have to much to look at or think about i have great difficulties...so help here is crucial
i am not to great on forums
all the best many thanks Steve
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Yahoo Mail: When you say you use Yahoo Mail, do you mean in your browser? or have you some special program you use? You can use Yahoo Mail in any standards compliant, JavaScript enabled browser (which is most of the modern day browsers)
Downloads: You should be able to continue to download music/video/files directly to your external drive. You may notice a slight descrease in computer performance but it should not become unusable to do other tasks. One thing to note though, if you are downloading large files, then you may not be able to use the Internet temporarily, as you can only download so much information at one time. (think of a garden hose, only so much water can flow through it at once)
Documents: As above with downloads, there's no reason, unless the drive is extremely slow (doubtful) that you can't store/retrieve/edit all your documents directly from your external drive.
External Media As you summized yourself, the only way I see of playing computer media files without a computer is to burn them to CDs/DVDs or buy a media player such as an iPod that you can copy them too. MP3 files can be made into regular audio CDs, or in some cases stereo systems will play data CDs with MP3 files on them directly. Movies can be converted to DVD format, VCD/SCVD format, or again, in some cases the DVD player will play discs with video files of certain format such as MPEG4. This would be a case of trial and error, and/or read the manual of your DVD player.
As a final suggestion, if you are really weary of messing with the computer, then you might consider running a separate operating system directly from CD (a so called LiveCD). The advantage of these is that nothing ever needs to be touched on the original computer, you don't need to install anything. There are a number of these available that although NOT Microsoft Windows, are equally as friendly and should contain most of the day-to-day applications that you need (such as Web Browser, Word Processor, Media player etc.)
Of these Puppy Linux is not too demanding of computer resources and contains all the applications need for everyday use. Ubuntu is bigger and really designed to be installed although you can run it from CD. It's comparable to Microsoft Windows.
Other users here may have some other suggestions.
hello
Must thank you for a really super reply..much appreciated i undertood it..which is a step forward for me..
all seems as i imagined ..i even realised i had made the mistake re-Yahoo of course i can use the e-mail anywhere..nothing to do with apps e.t.c sorry about that i think the only bits i am stuck on are at the end LInux puppy from Cd and disc? what does this mean sorry again..am very slow..i will not have any form of PC or monitor...otherwise i could have stuck with Laptop..but maybe i have got this wrong?
what do i do buy a disc with,ehat? lots of storage upon it..put in in disc drive (host pc) and off i go
would like to learn more on this please
all the very best Steve
What exactly are you going to use? You have a complete PC system (the desktop/tower part, the monitor, the keyboard, the mouse etc) that you are allowed to use? But you are not allowed to make any changes to it? Or you have a system but no monitor? If that is the case then you can sometimes plug the PC into a TV (but this is dependent on the graphics card included with the PC, and if it has the necessary connections. Usually I believe this is an "S-Video" cable).
I feared that I might confuse you talking about Linux and LiveCDs. Sorry for that. It is not a necessary step, it is an alternative to PortableApps. I mention it only because of your particular situation with not being to modify anything on the PC you will be using.
Linux is an operating system, just like Windows is an operating system. However, unlike Windows, Linux comes in many different "flavors". Each flavor can have different applications and different uses, tailored for particular uses.
Normally, you would install the Linux operating system to a hard disk drive (inside your PC) just like Windows. However, some Linux "flavors" (or Distributions) are small and compact enough that they can actually run entirely from a CD-ROM, without the need to install them anywhere. This act of running an operating system from a CD is know as a "LiveCD". Puppy Linux is one such distribution of Linux that can be run from CD, without the need to ever change or modify anything on the PC on which it is running (so Windows is not touched).
Puppy Linux, like most other Linux distributions is completely free. The difficult part I guess it getting it onto CD. Normally you would have to download a disc image file, that you then later burn to a CD. The Puppy Linux disc image is about 100 megabytes, give or take.
To keep things simple, just assume that you will only use the CD to load your PC, you will never store anything on the CD. All your data you will keep on the external hard drive, and you should be able to access through Puppy Linux, just as you would Windows.*
Sorry to confuse you, again Puppy Linux is an option or an alternative, not a necessity. You could run all the portables apps from this site you need in Windows, directly from your external hard drive. That is certainly a legitimate and valid possibility.
*For all the technical users out there: Do you know if Linux/Puppy has write support for NTFS yet or is it still read-only? Guess the external drive would have to be formatted FAT32 if not, which is a bit of a bummer, but not the end of the world.
I only know for sure that my Kubuntu can write to NTFS. I guess other distributions can too.
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
anything with ntfs3g should be able to. I know I can view my windows partition on my laptop, but I haven't tried my next experiment, which is to run vm's from it.
Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
Don't wanna live my life in the real world
Norsk, you might read this Puppy Linux thread and download Puppy Linux as a big .EXE file that you can just click on once and install to your own 256Megabyte or larger USB Flash Disk.
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=49077
You can click here to download this big 100MegaByte .EXE file
http://scabz.homelinux.com/win/pup431-on-WinXP-install.exe
With Puppy Linux installed to a USB Flash Disk coupled with the use of your Large External USB hard drive, you will be able to borrow the business PC, surf the web, download files, play your music, play your video, and burn audio to CD-R disks and video to DVD disks. Yes there is a writer program ABIword to read MS Word documents and write your own files, too. Seamonkey or Firefox web browsers to read your Yahoo Mail.
Benefits:
1.) you won't have to update anti-Virus software because Puppy Linux is immune to Windows Virii!
2.) You won't change or affect the function of the Windows PC or leave traces or your files behind.
When finished using the borrowed PC, click on the PuppyLinux shutdown icon, wait a few moments till the PC turns off, then pull out your Flash USB Disk and disconnect your external USB Hard Drive.
3.) It is very easy ( & simple) to just try out Puppy Linux now with a single .EXE file download NOW. See if it works for you, Norsk. I believe it has the functionality you requested and need.
4.) The price is right, free! Just buy a USB FLash disk and give it a try.
Norsk, Really intereted to hear the results of your using Portable Apps. Are you able to perform the work that you want to do on someone elses PC with the Portable apps? Good luck with either method you work out for yourself. Portable Apps or Puppy Linux ( which already includes most of the apps your requested)
DarkBee, could you try installing Puppy Linux 4.3.1 from windows to a USB FLash disk as a test?
Your seem to already have experience using a puppy linux or ubuntu. Thanks for your organized and thoughtful comments.
Fred
Does this version of Puppy run as some kind of virtual machine (a-la VMWare)? Because, if not the problem with installing Puppy to a USB flash drive is that many computers do not support booting from USB devices.
If you're not installing to a flash drive but simply creating a frugal install on the Windows partition then although it (probably) won't harm anything, it's still technically modifying (by adding files that weren't there to start with) the host PC. It would be too much of a pain to install Puppy every time, reboot the computer, do your work, reboot to Windows and uninstall Puppy.
In either of those two scenarios, for this particular case (this thread), I think the instance of Puppy you are proposing is just to intrusive. You'd be better off running it from a LiveCD, that way you wouldn't touch the host PC at all and you'd have nothing to uninstall after you're done.
Other than using a liveCd, I'd just go with windows and user our Apps. They are built to be run from an external hard drive and leave no personal data behind on the PC.
You can use Firefox Portable to access your Yahoo EMail, OpenOffice Portable to write and read documents and I suggest VLC Portable for media. It lets you open almost everything you want.
Hope that helps.
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
For the record, I'm not trying to push users away from PortableApps. I'm just not naive enough to think that's the answer to world peace (although it might be close).
I would thoroughly support Simeon's assessments of portable apps to use, those are the one's I use myself.
hello again
many thanks for explaining Puppy e.t.c.
me thinks Portable apps id the way to go..keep it simple
everyhting on the ext drive
I will only have use of a PC once a week for a few hours ,as it is a business PC they do not want anything on it..for insurance- security e.t.c which is fair enough.other than this once a week i will have no other PC or monitor..
I'd just go with windows and user our Apps. They are built to be run from an external hard drive and leave no personal data behind on the PC.
Quote from Simeon-
You can use Firefox Portable to access your Yahoo EMail, OpenOffice Portable to write and read documents and I suggest VLC Portable for media. It lets you open almost everything you want
does all these opening functions come with the apps suite? sorry if i sound slow..but there lies the problem..brain..without ellaborating to much
anyway we will go with Portable apps;
so as i see it WORD FOR DOCS/ THE MEDIA PLAYER/ FILES FRO DOCS.PHOTOS E.T.C..
so now if you could be kind enough to give me the correct download options taking my needs in to account i would be very obliged to you all.
Question why do i need Firefox to look at my Yahoo mail? please explain..is it because i could leave things on the PC i am thinking of the several bits currently on my laptop..Yahoo manager..this that and the other...can they be used from the ext drive also?
all help appreciated
cheers steve
No offense to you but I agree that PortableApps is the far simpler (read: intuitively comfortable) solution and should probably suffice for your needs. I'm probably just stroking my own ego or something!
You pretty much answered your own question. Yes, by using PortableFirefox (from your external drive) as your browser to check Yahoo Mail, you will ensure that you don't leave any traces behind on the PC that you are using. You could use the browser that is installed on the PC you are using but then you have to make sure you clear the history and temp files etc. It's just one extra step to remember and it's easy to forget.
Yahoo manager probably isn't portable. I don't know exactly what it is or does. Perhaps you meant Yahoo Messenger? You can use Pidgin Portable in place of Yahoo Messenger for instant messaging.
If you list here the activities you need to do on any PC, then I or someone else can guide you on what portable app you would need (assuming it exists and there's a good chance it does for most day-to-day stuff). As for tying them altogether, you can download the "portable apps suite" which is a custom built menu and some of the more popular portable apps that we've mentioned, all in one bundle. I'm thinking that the "light" edition will work for your needs unless you need Portable OpenOffice which is akin to Microsofts Office suite (and as such includes word-processor, spreadsheet, database, powerpoint-esque and drawing applications).
Apparently though, VLC Portable is not part of the suite, so you'll have to download and install that separately (which isn't a big deal). Once downloaded and installed though, it will (as do all portable apps) integrate with your portable apps suite menu.
Sorry if I'm being verbose.
Portable Apps do need a PC or Laptop to work. You can take your drive with you and attach it to a computer. Without access to a computer or laptop you will not be able to use Portable Apps. Portable in this case just means you can take these applications with you to use on any (Windows) computer.
Hi
Yes i guessed that bit...but many thanks anyway
cheers steve
How about if i were to change from YAHOO MAIL & BOOKMARKS to one of the apts available in the list i have just being reading woudl this make sense? would be a bit easier to use...with what i have in mind
your thoughts on this and other apps
valued
cheers steve
ps can i download all my Yahoo-book marks to one of these Internet apps?
You can store your bookmarks in FireFoxPortable. I'm personally not a huge fan of that, but that's purely a personal choice. If you're going to use FirefoxPortable to access your Yahoo mail, then I don't see why this would be a bad option for you. Of course, if you're going to be accessing Yahoo Mail, then equally you'll have access to your Yahoo bookmarks, so you could just leave them where they are.
As to your question of whether you can export the bookmarks. Yes you can, you can even export them in a format that is specifically for Firefox. This page explains how: Exporting Yahoo bookmarks
Again, really there doesn't seem to be any reason to change the way you are using Yahoo mail and bookmarks currently. I see no reason to stop using Yahoo Mail, if that is what works for you. None of these apps provide you with an email account, merely the ability to read email from an existing account in some form or other.
This reply is only in relation to you being able to enjoy your media, videos, music etc.....
SOME televisions now have a usb port and can read and play music and video from USB devices, however you may not have this option available to you.
Another alternative to allow you to enjoy your media collection is to use a media player connected to your tv, there are more of these appearing on the market and one example which might suit your needs is the Western Digital "WD TV HD Media Player".
It is one of the cheaper options as it does not have any storage available but relies on the user connecting their own hard drive.
(I feel I should not post a direct link in case it contravenes the forum rules).
You would connect the media player to your television and then connect the external hard drive to the media player. The media player will then take care of delivering the videos and music to your TV screen.
There are many different similar options to enjoy your media, even the Xbox 360 games console can be used with an external hard drive to play media.
I hope you find a good solution,
Regards NMC
This is a reply to everyone
i am bowled over by all the kind assitance and very good advcie...am close now to setting all this up as soon as i buy the disc drive.
Yahoo mail: there are a few items that Yahoo use on your pc like manager,pictures.and stuff i`m not sure of a few files anyway..and i would prefer not to have these files left on other folks Pc`s?
so i need somehow to keep using Yahoo through any old browser? book marks as you rightly said are also online..at yahoo so can access them from anywhere..so could just carry on..toolbar is useful but can not take that with me...anyone not familar it is just your standard do it all toolbar that you download with your own bookmarks(custom) and lots of other s to choose.
Moving on to music..well i am going to burn everything..audio books..my Music and the films..and watch lsited via TV & Hi Fi..so that covers that.
but will need ability to download music? think we covered that earlier..sorry.and in between i can try and get my downloads burnt to CD & DVD..can someone tell me do i need CD-R for docs e.t.c and DVD-R for music & film..?
the other stuff i need is just WORD I don`t need the full suite..just need to write stuff now and then.
so we have covered e-mail/docs
music/video/audio books/Film
of course files to sort them all in to
all seems to be coming together but look forward to seeing what you can assemble for me...
all the very best Steve
please xcuse dodgy spelling..e.t.c.
Yahoo Manager: Sorry, at a loss here. I would hope that Yahoo is smart enough to recognize that not everybody wants to install things to their PC and so offer you some kind of alternative way (i.e. using the web only).
Bookmarks: Firefox has many add-ons that expand the capability of the browser and enable you to have it functioning the way you want it. Although I don't use them myself, I'm sure that are very much add-ons that can help you in having easy access to all your bookmarks (either imported from Yahoo, or maybe even direct access to Yahoo bookmarks).
Apparently there is actually a Yahoo Toolbar add-on for Firefox but I don't know if it will run portably (i.e. It might write stuff to the local PC you're running portablefirefox on).
Music Downloads: What do you use currently to download music? I personally listen to music online at GrooveShark.com. It's free, I've got playlists set up and it features all different types of music. You can even upload your own MP3s!
I'm not really sure that PortableApps currently has anything that supports downloading media like music and video, other than perhaps µTorrent Portable but that is specifically for torrent files. If don't know what those are then chances are this app isn't for you. That is to say that it's not what you're currently using/doing.
Burning Media/Discs: This is not really my area of expertise, so I defer to someone else. In my limited knowledge there are not very many great, free tools for burning video/DVDs. You can use InfraRecorderPortable to burn data and standard audio CDs. It can also burn data to DVDs I believe but that isn't exactly the same thing as authoring a DVD movie. Audio CD, AFAIK, must be on a CD-R or CD-RW. You cannot create a standard Audio CD on a blank DVD disc, it simply won't work (to the best of my knowledge).
Hi again
No worries re-yahoo it will work fine without the files Yahoo downloads to pcs..others on here will know excactly what they are for i am useless..
Music at present i have Roxio for burning not that i have ever done it...but again i can get around that will not bother the Port apps..situation..
Musically i am quite sophisticated i do use Utorrent very much indeed..I will check out the link you gave and see how the portable apt utorrent works?in this contect. also have spotify with thousands of tracks saved.I already have 60 gb of saved music files..about quite a lot of audio books..(audible.com)
and 80 gb of film already downloaded...
I will sort out which discs are best for each application i see there are double layer discs now?
so it is CD rom for data and similar
CD for audio
and of course dvd for the films
think we are really getting there
once again many thanks cheers Steve
I don't think you're useless, you just have no reason to burden yourself with such knowledge!
I had a big long reply prepared but I think it's just clouding the issue.
CD-ROM refers to read-only discs that contain computer data. They are for all intents and purposes physically the same discs that are used to make audio CDs, only the way the data stored is different.
If you want to burn data or audio CDs, then you use the same media either CD-R (write/burn once only) or CD-RWs (write/erase many times). Your CD drive must support re-writable discs to be able to use them (which most do these days). What makes audio different from data is the way in which the data is burned and stored on disc, as stated above. There is a way to combine the two on one disc (data and audio) but I wouldn't worry about that if I were you.
DVDs come likewise in writable and rewritable forms, as well as single and dual layer as you have observed (where single layer has about 4.7gigbytes capacity and dual is slightly less than double that). DVDs CANNOT be used to create audio CDs (at least not standard Audio CDs) but they can contain DVD Video OR data.
The only additional thing to note about burnable DVDs is that there are many different types so make sure your CD/DVD burner is compatible with the types you have.
Honestly, I'm assuming that most of your data you can download again if it's ever lost so you shouldn't need to backup your entire external drive, just the critical data that cannot so easily be replaced. (360GB of drive space is a lot to backup even to dual layer DVDS!!
)