# Damage done to Windows by Malware



## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

Greetings Windows 10 Support Forum. As per instructions of "chemist", Mod/Analyst from TSF security Team, I am posting this thread as a follow-up to his support for malware removal & verification. The issues to be addressed in this thread are incidents of changes made by the malware and damage done to Windows components & programs. I confess, this is all new to me. I have reasonable pc use literacy but I have never observed changes made by malware and damage done to Windows components & programs like this. The best I know how to do is simply describe the issues one at a time. I will begin by posting my system specs, per Speccy, as recommended previously. After that, I will post what malware was removed. Then I will post the first of the issues caused by the malware attack.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

Now for the first issue. Subsequent to the malware attack, my user defined RTF template now opens with a new message, ostensibly from Windows. I don't know if this is a problem or not because I have never seen such a message & don't know what it means...will post screenshot.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> Now for the first issue. Subsequent to the malware attack, my user defined RTF template now opens with a new message, ostensibly from Windows. I don't know if this is a problem or not because I have never seen such a message & don't know what it means...will post screenshot.



That message simply means MS Word is not the default application for the file types that it supports. It's common for Office programs to issue this type of message if they are not the default programs for the file types they support. This may or may not be a result of the infection you had. To resolve this and to make sure that ALL Office applications and not just Word are associated as default for file types that they support, I strongly recommend you run a repair of your Ms Office installation. Go to Control Panel, Uninstall a program and select Office from the list of installed programs. On the command bar at the top of that list, select *Change* as shown on the image below:








The Office setup wizard will appear, select the option to Repair.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

3:30am GMT + 10 hrs, 6-6-2018: Greetings Stancestans: Thankyou for the instruction. I will follow it and then report back here. There is no other plausible explanation for the new messages and changes and malfunctions in my Windows programs. I certainly did not change anything and the messages, changes and malfunctions started immediately pursuant to the malware attack. There is no other plausible explanation within the scope of my understanding. I changed nothing.


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

The Malware or more so, the removal of the Malware reset some of your file associations. Repair Office as suggested, and any other programs that are not your normal Default programs. Then all will be right with the world.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

10:20pm GMT+10hrs, Thur.6-7-2018: Thank you Stancestans & spunk.funk . Sorry for the delay. Old & slow here. I repaired MS Office as instructed. screenshot attached. May I proceed to the next Windows issue?


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> 10:20pm GMT+10hrs, Thur.6-7-2018: Thank you Stancestans & spunk.funk . Sorry for the delay. Old & slow here. I repaired MS Office as instructed. screenshot attached. May I proceed to the next Windows issue?


Yeah sure.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

9:40pm GMT+10hrs, Fri.6-8-2018: Greetings Stancestans : YIKES! When I opened my first Word document after the Office repair, the same old message came up like before, "Microsoft Word isn't your default program... bla, bla, bla".(screenshot attached). Then I clicked X to close the message. When I did that, a Windows popup required me to "authenticate my account". When I entered the user ID of my Windows account associated with this computer & this copy of Windows 10 OS, an even more weird message appeared, "We did not find any Office Products for this account" (screenshot attached). Now my MS Office is behaving even more weird than it did following the malware attack.:facepalm:


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> 9:40pm GMT+10hrs, Fri.6-8-2018: Greetings Stancestans : YIKES! When I opened my first Word document after the Office repair, the same old message came up like before, "Microsoft Word isn't your default program... bla, bla, bla".(screenshot attached). Then I clicked X to close the message. When I did that, a Windows popup required me to "authenticate my account". When I entered the user ID of my Windows account associated with this computer & this copy of Windows 10 OS, an even more weird message appeared, "We did not find any Office Products for this account" (screenshot attached). Now my MS Office is behaving even more weird than it did following the malware attack.:facepalm:


I believe that prompt to authenticate your account was actually requesting for your Microsoft account credentials and not your local Windows user account credentials. Open Word, go to the _*File*_ menu and click on *Account*. What does it say under _User Information_? Is an account shown to be logged in? If so, there will be options to sign out of that account, switch to a different account, etc.

You can always manually set file associations for Word via the Settings app. Open the *Settings *app, go to *Apps*, click on *Default apps* then scroll to the bottom and select _*Set defaults by app*_. Find Word on that list and click on it. I hope the Settings app doesn't crash on you because mine does. It's a bug that some Windows 10 users experience and others don't. From there I believe you'll be able to set Word as the default for the file types that it supports. Let us know how it goes.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

3:35pm GMT+10hrs. Sat.6-9-2018: Thank you Stancestans . When I followed your instruction to open MS Word, I closed the "MS Word not default program…" message, in order to be able to access File. Immediately when I did that, a message came that 'most of the features of my Word program have been disabled' (screenshot attached). This just keeps getting worse. 'The more I fix it the broker it gets' LOL.:facepalm:


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

P.S. At this point, I should confess that I do not clearly understand the (Stancestans quote) "Microsoft account credentials and not your local Windows user account credentials". I further confess that I have never confidently understood the whole 'global login' vs. 'local login' thing. That is the exact issue caused me to be locked out of my Win8.4 HP Pavilion laptop back in 2014. It kept me locked out for weeks while I went through some tedious hoop jumping with Microsoft. I didn't understand it then and evidently still don't. Also, as you can see here on TSF, neither do I know how to properly add a quote to my reply. I do use add quotes in my LinkedIn posts. I know how to do it on LinkedIn software platform, but not TSF platform. Adding a quote is what triggers a notification to you, right? :banghead:


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> 3:35pm GMT+10hrs. Sat.6-9-2018: Thank you Stancestans . When I followed your instruction to open MS Word, I closed the "MS Word not default program…" message, in order to be able to access File. Immediately when I did that, a message came that 'most of the features of my Word program have been disabled' (screenshot attached). This just keeps getting worse. 'The more I fix it the broker it gets' LOL.:facepalm:


You need to activate Office to unlock all features. Until then, it's gonna remain in that limited state. How did you acquire your version of Office? Did it come pre-installed on your computer? Did you purchase it, say online or from a physical store, and used the DVD and included product key to activate it the first time? Are you using a subscription-based version of Office, say Office 365, which requires periodic payments to use, e.g monthly payments, which are tied to your Microsoft account? If you are not sure which version of Office you have on your system, open Word, click on File menu then Account. Under Product Information you'll get details there. If yours is a subscription-based version, you simply need to sign into (authenticate) the Microsoft account that is tied to this product and it's activation status will be validated and restored.



englishtutor said:


> P.S. At this point, I should confess that I do not clearly understand the (Stancestans quote) "Microsoft account credentials and not your local Windows user account credentials". I further confess that I have never confidently understood the whole 'global login' vs. 'local login' thing. That is the exact issue caused me to be locked out of my Win8.4 HP Pavilion laptop back in 2014. It kept me locked out for weeks while I went through some tedious hoop jumping with Microsoft. I didn't understand it then and evidently still don't. Also, as you can see here on TSF, neither do I know how to properly add a quote to my reply. I do use add quotes in my LinkedIn posts. I know how to do it on LinkedIn software platform, but not TSF platform. Adding a quote is what triggers a notification to you, right? :banghead:


No, quoting is NOT needed to trigger email notifications. I receive email notifications for replies to all threads that I'm participating in and those that I'm subscribed to (those that I follow, even if I'm not participating in). Quoting just adds an additional email about the same. If you're referring to the Your Notifications: part of this website, then yes, quoting does trigger a notification there, although I rarely pay attention to that area since I get instant email notifications.



To quote a post in your reply, use the button labelled "Quote", located at the bottom-right of the post you wish to quote, shown in the image below.










To quote multiple posts, like I've done on this reply, use the button that follows. You click that button on every post that you want to quote and they'll turn to green. That button acts like a check-mark, so you use it to select each post that you wish to quote in your reply. After you've selected the posts to quote, click the Quote button and the reply window will open showing the posts that you're quoting. Each block of quoted text will be enclosed in QUOTE tags. You'll know what I mean when you see it. 

I tried using a Microsoft account to log into my Windows user account when Windows 8 came and encountered unbearable problems with it too. I have since then stuck to local accounts, and only sign in individual apps when needed. I wish I could give you a good explanation of local account vs Microsoft account and how to distinguish between them, but since I stay away from using an MS account to log into Windows, I'd rather advise you to do a Google search of *Microsoft account vs local account* and explore the numerous sources that do a better job to differentiate between them. Perhaps even watch some Youtube videos about the same.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

8:35am GMT+10hrs. Sun.6-10-2018:Greetings Stancestans : Today is my birthday. We are having all day cookout/B.D. party so I will probably not have more time to devote to computer issues until tomorrow. Now I will bring you up to date and give you all the info I have about my computer & copy of Win10. I got the computer for my birthday one year ago today. OF COURSE Windows was activated. I have been using the FULL features for one year. But now, it has locked the OS and is requiring me to "activate" windows AGAIN. Every time I open Word, now it shows the same message (*screenshot attached*) requiring that I activate Windows *as if* it is new and has never been activated before. I don't have any OS installation disk or ownership documents to use to "*activate*" this *already activated* OS. I will provide you with details of purchase in a separate subsequent post. :facepalm:


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

9am GMT+10hrs. Sun.6-10-2018: Greetings Stancestans : So you do not think that I am a complete idiot, I need to provide some background info pertaining to the purchase of this computer with its Win10 OS. First, I am an American "ex-pat" living on the tiny, isolated tropical island of Tinian, located in Micronesia (far western Pacific) with very small population, less than 3,000. Technically this island is U.S. territory (Northern Marianas Islands) but conditions here are 3rd world. There is no computer store of any kind and only ONE really computer literate person on the island other than myself. That person is the one who built this computer (one-off custom), originally built for a gaming computer but sold to me for my birthday one year ago today. The nearest place with any real computer resources is Guam island some 200 miles away. Travel to Guam is via small propeller plane and is prohibitively expensive. Technically we have an official U.S. Post Office here (private contractor) but very few companies will even try to deliver anything to here. When they do try, either the shipper or the P.O. usually screw it up & delivery fails. The person who built & sold the computer to me is a young Filipino. He promised tech support for the computer but, being the only tech on the island, he has oversold his time many times over & is NOT really available in fact, only in theory. This is really just a big kid in a big hurry who makes big promises that he cannot keep. I don't think he is deliberately dishonest, just in deep denial, his alligator mouth making promises that his parakeet butt cannot keep. I should have been warned off by the kid's cyber-moniker "Shabu". That is Filipino language for methamphetamine but he was my only option. :facepalm:


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

This big kid is the one who installed & set up my computer a year ago. He told me that he registered the Win10 OS to *ME*, in *MY* name. However, upon beginning to use the computer, I immediately began to experience problems related to USERs accounts. I stipulated only *ONE user*, *ME*. The kid told me that was how he set it up but the username "Shabu" kept coming up & causing problems, actually denying me access to some things even though it was showing *ME* as the *sole admin*. So, after wasting hours of my time trying to email & phone the kid with no response, I resorted to walking across the island & stalking him out in the hot sun (68 year old heart & lung patient here). After I harassed him persistently, the kid finally showed up to "fix" the computer issues. He claimed that he would "re-format" the primary hard drive (SSD), but when he showed up, in a big hurry as usual, he did not actually reformat, only RESET it. That worked well enough to use but the username "Shabu" still shows up and causes problems. I know that I should not be dealing with dubious, flaky island boys but I desperately needed a computer and he is the only source there is here and was my only option. :facepalm:


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

Press the* Win *Key+*R*. In the _Run _box type *lusrmgr.msc* and press enter. 
In the Center panel, double click the *User f*older. Double click your User Name, go to the _Member Of_ tab. Make sure you are part of the *Administrators *Group. If Shabu is a separate user. in this list, you can Remove it.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

7pm GMT+10hrs. Sun.6-10-2018: Thank you spunk.funk . As you can surmise from my posts, I am exactly the kind of site user who needs this TSF most. Today is my birthday. Thanks for the birthday gift. I have been wanting to get rid of "Shabu" for 1 year, ever since my last birthday. Instructions - Rodger, will do. T.Y. LOL. :dance:


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> 9am GMT+10hrs. Sun.6-10-2018: Greetings Stancestans : So you do not think that I am a complete idiot, I need to provide some background info pertaining to the purchase of this computer with its Win10 OS. First, I am an American "ex-pat" living on the tiny, isolated tropical island of Tinian, located in Micronesia (far western Pacific) with very small population, less than 3,000. Technically this island is U.S. territory (Northern Marianas Islands) but conditions here are 3rd world. There is no computer store of any kind and only ONE really computer literate person on the island other than myself. That person is the one who built this computer (one-off custom), originally built for a gaming computer but sold to me for my birthday one year ago today. The nearest place with any real computer resources is Guam island some 200 miles away. Travel to Guam is via small propeller plane and is prohibitively expensive. Technically we have an official U.S. Post Office here (private contractor) but very few companies will even try to deliver anything to here. When they do try, either the shipper or the P.O. usually screw it up & delivery fails. The person who built & sold the computer to me is a young Filipino. He promised tech support for the computer but, being the only tech on the island, he has oversold his time many times over & is NOT really available in fact, only in theory. This is really just a big kid in a big hurry who makes big promises that he cannot keep. I don't think he is deliberately dishonest, just in deep denial, his alligator mouth making promises that his parakeet butt cannot keep. I should have been warned off by the kid's cyber-moniker "Shabu". That is Filipino language for methamphetamine but he was my only option. :facepalm:





englishtutor said:


> This big kid is the one who installed & set up my computer a year ago. He told me that he registered the Win10 OS to *ME*, in *MY* name. However, upon beginning to use the computer, I immediately began to experience problems related to USERs accounts. I stipulated only *ONE user*, *ME*. The kid told me that was how he set it up but the username "Shabu" kept coming up & causing problems, actually denying me access to some things even though it was showing *ME* as the *sole admin*. So, after wasting hours of my time trying to email & phone the kid with no response, I resorted to walking across the island & stalking him out in the hot sun (68 year old heart & lung patient here). After I harassed him persistently, the kid finally showed up to "fix" the computer issues. He claimed that he would "re-format" the primary hard drive (SSD), but when he showed up, in a big hurry as usual, he did not actually reformat, only RESET it. That worked well enough to use but the username "Shabu" still shows up and causes problems. I know that I should not be dealing with dubious, flaky island boys but I desperately needed a computer and he is the only source there is here and was my only option. :facepalm:


No, I don't think you're an idiot, but the ownership information helps us help you. This being a custom built PC, it would have required purchasing a new Windows 10 license. Office also requires licensing *separately*. Your Windows and Office products do not share a single license, and from the prompt that you saw in Word, it's clear that your copy of Office is not activated. All that you've described at length regarding the acquisition of that computer reasonably puts the authenticity of your copy of Office and Windows into question. Some computers come preinstalled with a promotional 1yr free license for Office, especially the Home and Student edition. If he somehow acquired such a license and used it on your pc, then it must have reached it's timely expiry, which means you now have to purchase a license to continue using its full functionality, or switch to a free alternative.


From the Speccy output in post #1 and from the data in your other malware removal thread, I can see that your user account resides in *C:\Users\Shabu*. This means your user account was originally named Shabu, created by him of course, and he most likely just renamed it to whatever you see at the login screen. As long as you have access to this account and it is an administrator account, you have full control and can manage all the existing accounts as you wish. Do as spunk.funk directed and report back.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

4:45pm Guam Pacific time, Tue.6-12-2018: Greetings Stancestans & spunk.funk : Thank you both for continuing instructions. Again, sorry for delay. Old & slow here. Following spunk.funk's instructions, I opened lusrmgr [Local Users & Groups(Local)]. I do not pretend to understand what I see there so I made the following 4 "screenshots" [actually phone pix...my computer refuses to make screen captures when any "system directories" (I guess that's what they might be called) are open].


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

In lusmgr, I don't see any User named "Shabu". However, it seems that almost any important file I save gets saved under a directory named after User Shabu. Does that mean that I am working under the username "Shabu"? I don't want to be Shabu. Shabu is Filipino slang for one of the most harmful substances on earth, that being methamphetamine. Why are files that I save going in a directory named "Shabu" when, as far as I can see in lusmgr, there is no such registered user as "Shabu". Can I ever get totally free of that sickening name?


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> In lusmgr, I don't see any User named "Shabu". However, it seems that almost any important file I save gets saved under a directory named after User Shabu. Does that mean that I am working under the username "Shabu"? I don't want to be Shabu. Shabu is Filipino slang for one of the most harmful substances on earth, that being methamphetamine. Why are files that I save going in a directory named "Shabu" when, as far as I can see in lusmgr, there is no such registered user as "Shabu". Can I ever get totally free of that sickening name?


As I said before, your current user account (named Jerry) was originally named Shabu. Renaming a user account does not rename its profile directory (C:\Users\Shabu). If you were to rename the account from Jerry to something else, it's profile directory will still remain Shabu. There is a way of renaming the profile directory of a user account, but it is messy and I wouldn't recommend it at all! Instead, I'd recommend you create a new local administrator user account. You could call it Admin. It is just a temporary account that you'll use to transfer your data from the current account to another new account named Jerry or Averrit, whichever you'll prefer. Some of us may advise enabling the builtin Administrator account for this job, but I prefer using a newly created temporary account because there are certain programs that cannot run using the built-in account, and the account is super powerful, so I treat it like nuke launch codes, especially since your system has just had a recent malware attack. I'm currently on mobile, so I won't be able to give detailed instructions, but I'll do that as soon as I'm on the pc.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

10:45am Guam Pacific time, Wed.6-13-2018: Greetings Stancestans & spunk.funk . I had to sleep. America's day begins in this time zone so "now" here is "tomorrow" on the mainland. Hassled what to do about this MS Office registration issue. What I have decided to do is what I hate most. I have to hike through the jungle heat, across the island, to the Flip kid's store (since he won't answer phone or email) to try to get the PRODUCT CODE KEY. I feel that I have to do this because of the following: I do remember that during the initial installation of this pc the Flip kid did "activate" this copy of MS Office. I remember that because, at that time he told me that Microsoft had changed their deal about Office that nobody can "own" a copy of Office any more, that they all have to basically rent it. He told me that this is one of the last few copies (as of a year ago) available to actually "own". It is not reasonable that any kind of "1 year expiration" happened to coincide exactly with me repairing the program day before yesterday. ONE YEAR EXPIRATION is also not reasonable because it was not one year to the day anyway. The Flip kid had been using this Office, WITH ALL OF ITS FEATURES, for about a year, before selling the computer to me. All of this compels me to think that this MS Office OWNERSHIP issue deserves to be a TSF thread by itself, severed from the rest of this present thread. There are many details left hanging unresolved. I have not even begun the issue of ONE DRIVE. OneDrive is where the most damage occurred from the malware attack. Some files will not open FROM there and some files will not save TO there. There appears to be some 'structural breakage' of OneDrive, if I may use that phrase. Now I go to hike through the jungle heat to Flip kid's store to attempt to get from him the product key code for Office. I hate this double because, in my mind, it is a 99.9:% certainty that this so-called "product activation" has already been done a year ago. :banghead:


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

Or you could go to Office 365 and purchase your own license https://products.office.com/en-us/c...B_NI&msclkid=8c1c1bfa52e019a13be740da82ffed18
If you don't like that idea, then buy a license or a disc with a license from Ebay https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr..._TitleDesc=0&_osacat=0&_odkw=microsoft+office


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

5pm Guam Pacific time, Fri. 6-15-2018: Quote myself from last previous post: "All of this compels me to think that this MS Office OWNERSHIP issue deserves to be a TSF thread by itself, severed from the rest of this present thread. There are many details left hanging unresolved. I have not even begun the issue of ONE DRIVE. OneDrive is where the most damage occurred from the malware attack. Some files will not open FROM there and some files will not save TO there. There appears to be some 'structural breakage' of OneDrive, if I may use that phrase." …...Sorry for delay again. old, slow & TIRED here. I did hike to Flip kid's store and he did corroborate my memory of the computer setup a year ago. He did register the copy of Office to me, to the same Outlook account, same email address, as the registration of Windows 10. He did activate Office (of course he did, it had been running with full features for over a year). To those corroborations, he added that, at that time, following the setup, he then wrote the Office product key code on "something" and gave it to me (probably when I was dead tired, way past my bed time). Whatever and wherever that "something" with the key code on it, got removed from my desks or file cabinets, boxed up, and stored in a storeroom for my office furniture to be spray painted. Then the Indonesian monsoon rains hit and flooded the storeroom. The boxes were saved but broken up, mixed up, and re-boxed. Now, of course, finding "something" with some numbers scribbled on it would be like searching for a needle I a stack of needles. I have not resolved yet what to do about this fiasco, just too tired right now. Please do leave this thread open because of the remaining 'structural breakage' to OneDrive referenced in the opening quote of this post. Thank you TSF. :nonono:


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

You may not need the product key to activate Office. Visit https://support.office.com/en-us/ar...45c-4685-8c95-a44500213759#bkmk_installoffice


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

6pm Guam Pacific time, Fri. 6-15-2018: Thank you Stancestans : Regarding the broken OneDrive, please view the screenshot below. 
The instructions at top of page say "Uninstall, Change or Repair". But there are no options to "change" or "repair", only to "uninstall".


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> 6pm Guam Pacific time, Fri. 6-15-2018: Thank you Stancestans : Regarding the broken OneDrive, please view the screenshot below.
> The instructions at top of page say "Uninstall, Change or Repair". But there are no options to "change" or "repair", only to "uninstall".


Not all programs have the repair or change options. In this case, you can Uninstall OneDrive and then download and reinstall it.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

3:20 Guam time, Sun.6-17-2018: Thank you Stancestans . _*If I uninstall OneDrive & reinstall it, will it retain the files that are in it? *_In the aftermath of the malware attack, there are some files that exist in local OneDrive but do not exist server-side. Likewise, there are some OneDrive files that exist online that do not exist in my local OneDrive. Some files are saving changes to the server while others are not. And, as I mentioned before, some of the local OneDrive files will not open and others will not save to there._* What a mess! *_


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

5:20pm Guam time, Tue.6-19-2018


Stancestans said:


> You may not need the product key to activate Office. Visit https://support.office.com/en-us/ar...45c-4685-8c95-a44500213759#bkmk_installoffice


 Thank you Stancestans. I went through that link and read the little tutorial. Then I went through the link provided by MS to RE-activate Office. There is a series of steps and I documented every step with screenshots. I will post those in sequence in a separate post below. Where I am stuck now in that process is I selected Office 2016 because I think that is the version I have. However, it is redirecting me into the RE-activate Office 365. I don't think this version is Office 365. I think it is Office 2016. Stuck. :banghead:


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> 5:20pm Guam time, Tue.6-19-2018 Thank you Stancestans. I went through that link and read the little tutorial. Then I went through the link provided by MS to RE-activate Office. There is a series of steps and I documented every step with screenshots. I will post those in sequence in a separate post below. Where I am stuck now in that process is I selected Office 2016 because I think that is the version I have. However, it is redirecting me into the RE-activate Office 365. I don't think this version is Office 365. I think it is Office 2016. Stuck. :banghead:



When I shared that link, I was hoping you would see for yourself that you only need to sign into the Microsoft account that was associated with your Office product during the initial activation process. Once Office is activated using a product key, the product is tied to the Microsoft account that was specified during the activation process, and subsequent reactivation of the same product does not require the product key.


Office already stated that there are no products associated with your Microsoft account, didn't it? To me, that message is as clear as day and it means your Office product was not activated using your Microsoft account, or the Microsoft account that you provided is different from what you're using now. Just because Shabu insists that he registered Office to your name doesn't mean he actually did that. Did you give him your Microsoft account credentials so that he could activate Office using your account? Did he create a new Microsoft account on your behalf, and if so, do you have exclusive access to that account? At first he tells you that no one can really own an Office product anymore, and then he goes ahead to activate Office and claims he did it using your account? You see, that just doesn't add up. If you cannot really own an own an Office product as he claimed, then who's the owner of the product key that he used to activate Office with? I think you were duped here and he knows it, so he's not really interested in helping you out.


You may have no choice but to purchase a license for your Office product, unless you use the exact Microsoft account that was used to activate Office or the product key that he supposedly scribbled somewhere and gave it to you. If you paid for the Office product and he bought it online on your behalf, then the product key should be in the inbox of the email that he used to purchase the product key. If he was stocking physical copies of Office and that's what he sold you, he should have given you the DVD with its original packaging and contents.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> 3:20 Guam time, Sun.6-17-2018: Thank you Stancestans . _*If I uninstall OneDrive & reinstall it, will it retain the files that are in it? *_In the aftermath of the malware attack, there are some files that exist in local OneDrive but do not exist server-side. Likewise, there are some OneDrive files that exist online that do not exist in my local OneDrive. Some files are saving changes to the server while others are not. And, as I mentioned before, some of the local OneDrive files will not open and others will not save to there._* What a mess! *_


Uninstalling OneDrive does not remove the OneDrive folder and its contents, it only removes the program, but you can never be too careful, so you can move its contents to another folder for backup before Uninstalling it.


If the local OneDrive files were corrupt by malware and the program synchronised these files with the remote ones, then I'm afraid the remote files are also corrupted. I would quit OneDrive to stop further syncing of possibly corrupt files, then move the local files to another folder, uninstall the program then reinstall it, and let it synchronise them afresh so that you have freshly downloaded files from the remote server. After that, you can compare the files for corruption. It's gonna be quite a task.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

1:30pm Guam time, Thur.6-21-2018: Greetings Stancestans : Thank you for your time and especially for your patience with the old & slow. Now my efforts are being further frustrated by sickness. Please do not close this thread yet. I am ready to accept that I may have been lied to and cheated by the store owner from whom I bought this computer. Anyone whose screen name is "Shabu" should be automatically suspect. His evasive behavior may be evidence of more than just denial. It may be evidence of actual fraud. This computer & cellphone vendor (the only one on island), "Shabu", is not really a kid (anyone under 40 seems like a kid to me at 68). He is over 30 and owner of a licensed business open to the public. That makes it overtly illegal fraud if he deceived and cheated me. My main concern now is to examine the evidence in order to try to understand exactly what happened. I have so many screenshots & notes now that this case is becoming complicated almost to the limit of my ancient antique analog brain to comprehend it. That is part of the problem. I come from a distant past time where ownership was a simple concept. If you bought something, then you owned it outright, along with everything in it, on it, or attached to it, even an early Win95-98 computer. This new generation technology has turned the simple ownership paradigm on its head with so many 'booby traps' & 'gotchas' & hoops to jump through. I am sincerely trying to sort all of this out in my head while studying the tutorials on 'global vs. local sign-ins, global vs local admins etc. Please do not close this thread yet. If I do not understand exactly what happened and why then my condition has not materially improved. Then I would just stumble on to the next crisis. If my understanding is accurate, then one of the purposes of TSF is to function as a kind of academy for tech support students. If so, then this particular thread should be very instructive because it goes to the heart of some critical basic issues. That is why I suggested making the ownership issue its own thread. Not my call. I am just grateful for a way to deal with problems & tech issues that are WAY over my head. Thanks Stancestans & thanks TSF. I go to study the tutorials now. :blush:


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

Did you explicitly pay for the Microsoft Office product? Your answer to this question is important because MS Office is not free software; a license purchase is required in order to use it with your computer. Like I said before, sometimes a limited-period promotional licensed copy of Office comes with a new computer purchase. Once that promotional licence expires, you are supposed to either purchase your own license or continue using it in its limited functionality state. 



More often, a computer purchase does not include Ms Office, so if the buyer wishes to use Ms Office with it, they have to purchase a license for Office separately. So, what was the agreement when you were being sold this pc? Was Ms Office part of the bargain and it's included in the sales receipt that you were given? You cannot assume ownership of everything that comes with the computer you purchased, you only own what you paid for.


I've had clients who demand all kinds of software to be installed on their newly purchased computer, and MS Office is a common one. Some of them have this misconception that their new purchase should have included a copy of Office and I immediately inform them that MS Office is not free software and they have to buy it. Some do not take this well and there's one who even called the police on me, claiming to have been conned. Quite an entitled lady she was. All that she had to do to disprove her claims was to produce the receipt of her Office purchase, which of course didn't have Office anywhere on it. So, if Office was part of the bargain, and you paid for it and your proof of purchase does indicate so, then by all means you do own the licence to use that Office product and everything that pertains to that purchase should be in your possession, surrendered to you by the seller.


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

Most new computers come with a _*Trial*_ Version of MS Office. It is good for 90 days or so, and then you have to pay for it.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

3:30pm Guam time, Fri.6-22-2018: Thank you Stancestans & spunk.funk. I have watched YouTube tutorial vid on "difference between Local VS Microsoft accounts" ( 



 ). My understanding is somewhat improved but these issues are still somewhat complicated & confusing for me. 

I have been asked pertinent questions by both of you. For my own sake, in order to keep my own organization and understanding clear, I will forego the platform quote function and simply break down questions with short, direct quotes. I will set these quotes in red font. In this case the color red has no connotation at all. I'm afraid that, in addition to all my other disabilities, I am also losing my eyesight. The red font helps me to organize my answers without getting a migraine headache due to eyestrain. 


1. quote spunk.funk: "Most new computers come with a Trial Version of MS Office. It is good for 90 days or so, and then you have to pay for it." This computer was not purchased new. It was a one-off, custom built gaming pc that "Shabu" built for his own use. He used it for a year or so. Then he built a bigger, stronger, faster one for himself and sold this one to me around the time of my birthday, in June of 2017. Of one issue, I am absolutely certain: This is *NOT a trial version* of MS Office. I have been using MS Office since 1998. I have used most of the new versions over the years as they came out. I know very well what "full features" means. I used this Office for over a year with *ALL of its features*… not 90 days. Then, on or about 6-8-2018, immediately pursuant to my repairing the MS Office program, the program became locked, not just reduced features. MS Word is completely locked. It will do nothing other than open a document read-only. 

This has been a recurring issue of mention throughout this thread so let's put this one to bed and get it off the table. If there is any way possible that this is a trial version of Office then please explain to me how that is possible. I will stop everything else and pursue this single issue to resolution.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

quote Stancestans : "Just because Shabu insists that he registered Office to your name doesn't mean he actually did that. Did you give him your Microsoft account credentials so that he could activate Office using your account?"


When I took delivery of the computer around the time just before my birthday in June of 2017, Shabu did the setup at that time. He told me that the computer had Win10 and MS Office (I think version 2016 but not certain) already running. He asked me what email address to use to register the computer, Win10 OS & MS Office to. I already had a couple of Gmail addresses and a couple of Microsoft email addresses (Hotmail) as well. However, because of the ordeal I went through, in 2014, with my new HP Pavilion laptop with Win8.4, where I got locked out for weeks of hoop jumping with Microsoft to get it unlocked, because of that, I insisted on registering a brand new Outlook email account to use to register the MICROSOFT ACCOUNT to register the computer, Win10, & MS Office to. My new understanding is that that account is the "global account" to which this computer, Win10 OS & MS Office are registered.


I confirm that I did sit by and watch Shabu registering the products. At this point, I should disclose that I did not poke my head over his shoulder, only looked on from one side. Also, again what I already disclosed above; that is, I am gradually losing my vision due to age deterioration. Now I have a larger monitor but, at that time, I think we were using perhaps a 15 in. or maybe 17in. monitor screen. Therefore, the only thing I can confirm with certainty is what Shabu SAID he was doing, not the exact content that he typed into the registrations, if they even WERE real registrations.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

*cont. from prev. post above... Yes, it was a 17in. monitor screen. 

quote Stancestans : " Did he create a new Microsoft account on your behalf, and if so, do you have exclusive access to that account? " 


*Yes*, at the time of installation, previous to my birthday in June 2017, *WE* did register a new Microsoft email address (****@outlook.com) to use for the "MICROSOFT ACCOUNT" (my current understanding is that is a "global account"). *Yes*, I do have exclusive access to that email account. That email address is what I see on the Windows sign-in screen that is the first screen to appear after boot up. That same email address automatically opens when I click the Outlook icon at the top of every "new tab" page in Edge browser. I did nothing to make that happen. Edge browser automatically read that information from _*somewhere*_ in the computer itself, I am hypothesizing that Edge reads that info from the "System" or perhaps from the Windows registration itself ????


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

quote Stancestans " At first he tells you that no one can really own an Office product anymore, and then he goes ahead to activate Office and claims he did it using your account? "


Okay, perhaps a bit sloppy reconstruction on my part. Since this sub-issue seems to be probative in determining whether Shabu committed outright fraud, I will reconstruct again, perhaps more accurately. An American 'ex-pat' had previously told me, around that time, that Microsoft was phasing out outright ownership of WINDOWS *OS* products, that, in future, no one will be able to actually "own" a copy of Win10, or any future MS *OS*. 


That was the background for the scene at which Shabu set up the computer. Now, I confess, I am not certain whether, at that moment, we were discussing specifically Win10 OS, or the MS Office Suite that was already running on the computer along with the OS. So, I cannot confirm with certainty whether Shabu was referring to Win10, MS Office 16, or both, when he said what he said about ownership. Whichever one it was, or both, Shabu did mention that he was "doing me a big favor" by providing me with "one of the few last remaining copies available for outright ownership", and registering that/those programs to MY NAME via the new Outlook email addr./Microsoft account/"global account".


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> quote Stancestans : "Just because Shabu insists that he registered Office to your name doesn't mean he actually did that. Did you give him your Microsoft account credentials so that he could activate Office using your account?"
> 
> When I took delivery of the computer around the time just before my birthday in June of 2017, Shabu did the setup at that time. He told me that the computer had Win10 and MS Office (I think version 2016 but not certain) already running. He asked me what email address to use to register the computer, Win10 OS & MS Office to. I already had a couple of Gmail addresses and a couple of Microsoft email addresses (Hotmail) as well. However, because of the ordeal I went through, in 2014, with my new HP Pavilion laptop with Win8.4, where I got locked out for weeks of hoop jumping with Microsoft to get it unlocked, because of that, I insisted on registering a brand new Outlook email account to use to register the MICROSOFT ACCOUNT to register the computer, Win10, & MS Office to. My new understanding is that that account is the "global account" to which this computer, Win10 OS & MS Office are registered.
> 
> I confirm that I did sit by and watch Shabu registering the products. At this point, I should disclose that I did not poke my head over his shoulder, only looked on from one side. Also, again what I already disclosed above; that is, I am gradually losing my vision due to age deterioration. Now I have a larger monitor but, at that time, I think we were using perhaps a 15 in. or maybe 17in. monitor screen. Therefore, the only thing I can confirm with certainty is what Shabu SAID he was doing, not the exact content that he typed into the registrations, if they even WERE real registrations.


 Please avoid posting your full email address(es) in public forums for security reasons. You could mask it so that it's only partially visible, for example, engl****@outlook.com. I don't have the permission to modify your post, so perhaps a moderator will be kind enough to mask your email address or erase it altogether.

Open Word, go to File, Account, and sign in to this global account. If Office is already signed into a different account, there will be a sign out option as shown by the red arrow in the image below.











 If your Office product was activated (registered) using this account, then its activation status will be restored as soon as Office is signed into that account. If that doesn't happen or Office tells you that there is no product associated with that global account, then you'll know that Office was NOT activated using that account.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

> This computer was not purchased new. It was a one-off, custom built gaming pc that "Shabu" built for his own use. He used it for a year or so. Then he built a bigger, stronger, faster one for himself and sold this one to me around the time of my birthday, in June of 2017.


This puts things into perspective as far as ownership of that Office product goes.



> I used this Office for over a year with *ALL of its features*… not 90 days. Then, on or about 6-8-2018, immediately pursuant to my repairing the MS Office program, the program became locked, not just reduced features. MS Word is completely locked. It will do nothing other than open a document read-only.


We clearly understand that Office got into this "locked" state after repairing Office, following the malware removal exercise of your other thread. Repairing Office is technically reinstalling Office, so it is expected that after the repair, reactivation of said product may be necessary to unlock it. In order to activate and unlock it, you need either the *product key* or the *Microsoft account* that was used to activate Office the very first time it was activated. Since Office was already installed, activated and used for a year, before you purchased the computer from Shabu, it means the license you've been using with that copy of Office 2016 belongs to him and he activated it using his own Microsoft account credentials.



> Shabu did mention that he was "doing me a big favor" by providing me with "one of the few last remaining copies available for outright ownership", and registering that/those programs to MY NAME via the new Outlook email addr./Microsoft account/"global account".


Your purchase of this computer was not inclusive of the Office license, but he only did you the favour of letting you use his license. At least that's what I understand from the quote above. This implies he did not actually transfer ownership of that Office license to you. This also implies that by "registering that/those programs to MY NAME via the new Outlook email addr./Microsoft account/"global account", he did not actually activate Office using your Microsoft account. It seems his idea of "registering" Office/Windows using your Microsoft account means converting the existing Shabu local user account (remember the *C:\Users\Shabu* path) into a Microsoft account, hence


> That email address is what I see on the Windows sign-in screen that is the first screen to appear after boot up.


Based on the info given so far, I can conclude that Shabu was not selling you his Office license along with that pc, but if he was, then he would have involved Microsoft support to transfer his license (product key) from his Microsoft account to yours. There is no end-user-accessible way of expressly transferring that license from one Microsoft account to another. A Microsoft support agent has to do it from their end. The process involves deactivating/deregistering that license from the old account, thus allowing that license to be reactivated using a different account. He clearly didn't do that, he only switched the Windows user account from a local one (bearing his name) to a Microsoft one (bearing your name and email address). His offer did not include the Office license hence the "favour" he was talking about. 



At this point, you may have no other option except to buy your own Office license and use it to activate Office, opt for the subscription-based model Office 365, or switch to a free alternative. There are quite good free alternatives out there, such as Libre Office and FreeOffice 2018


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

9:00pm Guam time, Fri.6-22-2018: Stancestans : Man you are good! I have done some ancillary legal work related to my profession and I must tell you that this work amounts to forensic analysis. The likeliest 'crime scenario' comes clear now. Probably not prosecutable but I needed to know. This is a tiny island here where we live and we need to know. Thankyou sir or mam! (whichever the case may be) I accept your final assessment as to what are my options for an Office program. I do have more *related* questions if you don't mind? I have questions directly related to the ownership issues. OK?


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

6:10pm Guam time, Sat.6-233-2018: Greetings Stancestans: *My most serious concern now* is the ownership status of "my" copy of Windows 10. Some operations to clean any remaining malware from Windows were done as per instructions per Chemist on the original thread under "Damage Caused by Trojans" ( https://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f100/damage-caused-by-trojans-1227790-2.html#post7682224 ). However, no "repair" as such was instructed or done to Win10. Therefore, no "reinstallation" of Win10 was done that would trigger lockdown & require reactivation such as what happened with Office. By the way, while on this particular point, I remember clearly that when I clicked "repair Office", it opened a window that required me to select one of two options: "local repair" or "internet repair". Since the prompt described "internet repair" as more thorough, that is the option I selected. Now, in hindsight, I suppose "internet repair" means that it goes out on the internet to the Microsoft server & finds the product registration. Correct?* If I had selected "local repair" would my Office not have been locked? *:facepalm:


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

6:25pm Guam time, Sat.6-23-2018: Here is a phone pic of the sign-in screen that opens immediately after boot up. I have redacted my name & email address from the pic. This is my real name and the new Outlook email address that we registered to use for the "global account" at-least-so-I-thought-it-was the "global account". Now that I realize that Shabu tricked me concerning the Office registration, the obvious implication is: *Could he have likewise tricked me concerning the registration of this copy of Windows 10 as well?*


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> 6:25pm Guam time, Sat.6-23-2018: Here is a phone pic of the sign-in screen that opens immediately after boot up. I have redacted my name & email address from the pic. This is my real name and the new Outlook email address that we registered to use for the "global account" at-least-so-I-thought-it-was the "global account". Now that I realize that Shabu tricked me concerning the Office registration, the obvious implication is: *Could he have likewise tricked me concerning the registration of this copy of Windows 10 as well?*


Your Windows user account is a Microsoft account alright (global account as you put it), just the way Microsoft would like us to use it. This being a custom-built PC, he must have purchased a Windows 10 product key and used it to activate Windows. A Microsoft account is not necessary to activate Windows, and switching from a local to Microsoft account doesn't transfer the ownership of that Windows license to the Microsoft account. You can have several Microsoft accounts on a single computer, thus the Windows activation is not tied to any of them. 



I'm afraid that his idea of registering Windows and Office in your name and to your Microsoft account didn't actually mean that, but instead meant switching the user account from a local one (bearing his name) to a Microsoft account (bearing your Outlook.com email address and name). Windows licenses are not exactly cheap, so it's typical for owners to keep them handily close in case they ever needed to reinstall Windows or transfer that license to another computer (in case of retail licenses). I would expect him to surrender the product key for that copy of Windows to you, including the original receipt of that purchase if possible since you technically are the new owner.




englishtutor said:


> 6:10pm Guam time, Sat.6-233-2018: Greetings Stancestans: *My most serious concern now* is the ownership status of "my" copy of Windows 10. Some operations to clean any remaining malware from Windows were done as per instructions per Chemist on the original thread under "Damage Caused by Trojans" ( https://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f100/damage-caused-by-trojans-1227790-2.html#post7682224 ). However, no "repair" as such was instructed or done to Win10. Therefore, no "reinstallation" of Win10 was done that would trigger lockdown & require reactivation such as what happened with Office. By the way, while on this particular point, I remember clearly that when I clicked "repair Office", it opened a window that required me to select one of two options: "local repair" or "internet repair". Since the prompt described "internet repair" as more thorough, that is the option I selected. Now, in hindsight, I suppose "internet repair" means that it goes out on the internet to the Microsoft server & finds the product registration. Correct?* If I had selected "local repair" would my Office not have been locked? *:facepalm:


 Not really. Internet repair doesn't verify the product's activation status. In fact, internet repair works on nonactivated Office too. Internet repair is thorough in the sense that it downloads files required for setup fresh from Microsoft servers as opposed to using "stale" files that are already on the computer's disk (offline installation cache) which may be corrupt (by malware, for example) or out-of-date. Since a repair is technically a reinstallation, whether local or internet, it may or may not result in resetting of the activation status, depending on the extent of damage and therefore the extent of repair needed. I would say the extent of damage to your Office installation was deeper than just file type associations, deep enough to require a reset of the activation status (rewrite of the relevant registry entries).


As for Windows, a repair was not performed or suggested because it's not part of the malware removal process, but on this thread, depending on the severity of damage to Windows as reported by you in terms of problems experienced post-infection, I cannot rule out that we may suggest it down the line.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

8:40pm Guam time, Sat.6-23-2018: Greetings Stancestans : Thank you much for the ongoing support. The amazing thing is I think I actually understand most of it. I've been mostly lucky with computers so that I only had to learn whatever was necessary to get by & do my own job (now online private English tutor). Honestly, this is probably the deepest do-do I've ever had to deal with tech wise. Without TSF, the only backup I would have is a devious big kid in a big hurry who avoids me and won't answer my calls or mails, and now we know how trustworthy that one is! lol :nonono:


I do have some more stuff to post that I may still get to tonight... otherwise tomorrow morning. Micronesia is the first time zone west of the international dateline. America's day begins here.


As I already mentioned above, my most serious concern now is ownership (?) of my copy of Windows 10 and, if I correctly understood your last post above,* it sounds like I do not own Windows either!* :facepalm:


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> 8:40pm Guam time, Sat.6-23-2018: Greetings Stancestans : Thank you much for the ongoing support. The amazing thing is I think I actually understand most of it. I've been mostly lucky with computers so that I only had to learn whatever was necessary to get by & do my own job (now online private English tutor). Honestly, this is probably the deepest do-do I've ever had to deal with tech wise. Without TSF, the only backup I would have is a devious big kid in a big hurry who avoids me and won't answer my calls or mails, and now we know how trustworthy that one is! lol :nonono:
> 
> 
> I do have some more stuff to post that I may still get to tonight... otherwise tomorrow morning. Micronesia is the first time zone west of the international dateline. America's day begins here.
> ...


He probably bought a system builder OEM license for that PC's copy of Windows 10 which is tied to the hardware on which it is first activated and is not transferable to another PC, so there's a good chance that you have a genuine copy, of which you are now the owner, except he didn't surrender the product key to you, which he should have. Maybe it didn't occur to him at that time.



Windows 10 allows you to link its digital license to a Microsoft account so that you won't need to use the product key to reactivate Windows in case of reinstallation. You can check if your copy has been linked to a Microsoft account by opening *Settings *> *Update & security* > *Activation *or use the Windows 10 *Search* function and type _*Activation *_then click the matching result. If your Windows license is already linked to a Microsoft account, you will see a status message saying *Windows is activated with a digital license linked to your Microsoft account *on the Activation page. If it isn't, there will be a link to Add an account. You can also post a screenshot of that Activation page so that we see what you see.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

9:25pm Guam time, Sun.6-24-2018: Thank you Stancestans. It says "Windows is activated with a digital license linked to *'your'* Microsoft account. However, I have become dubious & suspicious. Who is the "your" being referred to. Intuitively, one would expect that "your" to mean *ME*. But now I am "gun shy". Now I am cynical. Now I feel I must trust nothing and verify everything. Maybe the "your" in "your Microsoft account" is really Shabu. How can I verify that "your" really means *ME*. You see what all this "newspeak" and doubletalk has done to me. It has made me a suspicious old cynic.:devil:


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> 9:25pm Guam time, Sun.6-24-2018: Thank you Stancestans. It says "Windows is activated with a digital license linked to *'your'* Microsoft account. However, I have become dubious & suspicious. Who is the "your" being referred to. Intuitively, one would expect that "your" to mean *ME*. But now I am "gun shy". Now I am cynical. Now I feel I must trust nothing and verify everything. Maybe the "your" in "your Microsoft account" is really Shabu. How can I verify that "your" really means *ME*. You see what all this "newspeak" and doubletalk has done to me. It has made me a suspicious old cynic.:devil:


I believe "your" means the Microsoft account that you're currently using to sign into Windows. Looks good to me, but you can check and confirm that this copy of Windows is truly linked to that account. Visit https://www.groovypost.com/howto/manage-registered-computers-and-devices-in-windows-10/ for a nicely done tutorial on how to go about it. Your PC and its Windows 10 Pro should show up. Let us know if it is.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

11:15pm Guam time, Sun.6-24-2018: Stancestans, you are so cool, always on top of it. I want to be just like you when I grow up. :wink:
Already worn out tonight, already senior citizen bedtime, so, first thing in the morning, I'm off to see the wizard... I mean I'm off to 'groovypost'. Is anyone, other than yours truly, old enough to know the etymological origin of the term "groovy"? :whistling:


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

1:00pm ChST (Guam Time Zone), Mon.6-25-2018: Greetings Stancestans: I dutifully went about following your latest instructions from post above. All went well except I could not find any place where my OS registration to what account is displayed. I did find my DEVICES which show only one, this desktop pc. Actually, as I read the tutorial you provided above ( https://www.groovypost.com/howto/manage-registered-computers-and-devices-in-windows-10/ ), I do not see any instructions specific to locating OS registration. As I read it, the tutorial is specific to locating and managing my DEVICES, not my software specifically. I will re-read the tutorial and go through the process again... will post screenshots in sequence below.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

This screenshot is taken from the GroovyPost tutorial. It only shows this user's DEVICES, not his OS.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

This screenshot is also from the GroovyPost tutorial. It instructs how to find my DEVICES, not my OS registration.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

So, now I am officially "stuck" again. This screenshot is the browser page that opened when I followed GroovyPost tutorial's instructions to "Find and Manage All Your Windows 10 Devices
To begin, click Start > Settings > Accounts > Your Info, click the Manage my Microsoft account link". I do see my computer (desktop pc), but I see no display of my OS registration here and no link to open such. Stuck again.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

2:15pm ChST, Mon.6-25-2018: Before going to lunch, I will take this little lull in the action to comment on my comment lol. In one previous comment above, I was bemoaning "newspeak & doubletalk" with reference to Microsoft's current ownership policies & statements thereof. "Newspeak" is a literary reference from 1984, a movie & novel by George Orwell, not the computer programming language with the same name. In that novel & movie script, "Newspeak" is the official language of Ingsoc, a fictional version of England. In that fictional language, there is often a disconnect between the plain literal meaning of a word, term, phrase etc., and the current politically correct meaning as used and prescribed by some government language control committee somewhere. If you think I might be analogizing that committee to Microsoft, you are not mistaken. For example, upon release of Windows 8, Microsoft began using the terms "Microsoft Account" and its synonym "global account". Neither of these terms contain any genuine linkage, linguistically speaking, to the reality they are supposed to represent. Thus, both terms can be misleading and confusing. For example, in addition to my Outlook account that is my so-called "Microsoft Account", I have two Hotmail accounts that are both from Microsoft. Previous to Windows 8, if I said "Microsoft Account", either of the Hotmail accounts would have qualified because Hotmail is an email service of the Microsoft corp. As for "global" account, that term might have a little bit more validity as it is used to contrast with "local account". However, linguistically, there is no etymology of the word "global" which gives it any substantive relationship to the functional meaning that the term is supposed to represent. Therein lies a pernicious problem that has developed in modern English language in general, including but not necessarily confined to tech talk & geek speak. The problem is that we are now using terminology & phraseology that are derivatives of derivatives of derivatives. That means that usage has strayed so far from original, etymologically based meanings, that there is no etymological connection at all to the roots any more. Our (English) language is becoming so disconnected from its linguistic roots as to bear not even much resemblance anymore. Why would that be a problem? That would be a long lecture indeed. Suffice to say just research extinct languages and see what happened to them


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> This screenshot is taken from the GroovyPost tutorial. It only shows this user's DEVICES, not his OS.


The OS is not shown separately, it is linked to the hardware on which it's been activated. On this window, click your computer and more details and options will appear. You will see your version of Windows shown.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> So, now I am officially "stuck" again. This screenshot is the browser page that opened when I followed GroovyPost tutorial's instructions to "Find and Manage All Your Windows 10 Devices
> To begin, click Start > Settings > Accounts > Your Info, click the Manage my Microsoft account link". I do see my computer (desktop pc), but I see no display of my OS registration here and no link to open such. Stuck again.


It's alright, you're not stuck. Your computer (and its Windows 10 OS) is registered/linked to your Microsoft account. Next time you reinstall, you won't need the product key to activate Windows because Microsoft recognises your hardware and has a license linked to it, so Windows will activate automatically when you're online.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

OK! Thanks a mil Stancestans! I did click on "Devices>Manage and the page ("global" account password required) (screenshot attached) opened showing both my computer (DESKTOP-9A3RCC2 Z97N-WIFI) and my OS (Windows 10 Professional (10.0.17134.112)). So, I guess I wasn't really stuck as bad as I thought I was... just needed my mommy to hold my hand lol (please tolerate my flippant humor, that is how I cope without going insane). :dance:


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

What is the meaning of "Z97N-WIFI" included underneath my computer's name?


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

On the page last previous screenshot above, read "Actions needed for your device" > "View details". I clicked on that and the following page opened (screenshot attached): See "Windows Defender Security Center
By Microsoft" > "Device performance & health" "The Health report has recommendations for your device." What is that "health report" and how do I find it? 

Also, (screenshot attached) "Data Protection > Turn on BitLocker to protect your data"...
...I don't know what "bitlocker" is and whether I should turn it on for any of the three disks shown???


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> What is the meaning of "Z97N-WIFI" included underneath my computer's name?


 That's your PC's motherboard (hardware) that Microsoft associates with your Windows license. If you look at the text file you attached in your very first post of this thread, you will find the same identifier (model) as shown in the extract below.




```
Summary
        Operating System
            Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
        CPU
            Intel Core i5 4690K @ 3.50GHz    38 °C
            Haswell 22nm Technology
        RAM
            16.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 799MHz (9-9-9-24)
        [COLOR=Blue]Motherboard
            Gigabyte Technology Co. Ltd. Z97N-WIFI[/COLOR]
```


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> On the page last previous screenshot above, read "Actions needed for your device" > "View details". I clicked on that and the following page opened (screenshot attached): See "Windows Defender Security Center
> By Microsoft" > "Device performance & health" "The Health report has recommendations for your device." What is that "health report" and how do I find it?
> 
> Also, (screenshot attached) "Data Protection > Turn on BitLocker to protect your data"...
> ...I don't know what "bitlocker" is and whether I should turn it on for any of the three disks shown???


In simpler terms, Bitlocker is a feature of Windows that enables you to password-protect your system and storage devices against unauthorised access.

Bitlocker is Microsoft's full-disk encryption program that's been part of Windows since Vista, but it's not available for all editions of Windows. It's a data protection feature that prevents unauthorised access, say, in case of a stolen or lost computer or disk drive. Any storage device that's protected by Bitlocker requires a key (password) to unlock it before the data on that device can be accessed.

It's a powerful and great feature for data security-sensitive users, but such power comes with great responsibility. If you turn on Bitlocker for a certain storage device, such as the partitions on your computer's disk (C:, D:, E:, etc), and God-forbid you forget the password or lose the recovery key, there is no way on earth that you'll be able to access the data on those partitions or disk! I personally don't use Bitlocker and have never recommended it to anyone. It has been my opinion that anyone that needs that level of data security is not new to cryptography and will most likely not use Bitlocker anyway.

You will find better and more detailed material about Bitlocker from other sources like https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...ation-protection/bitlocker/bitlocker-overview if you're up for it :hide:

About the other recommendations, user the Windows Search function and type Defender then click the *Windows Defender Security Center *match to open it. There you will find the Device performance & health section, click it to see what these recommendations are. You can safely ignore certain recommendations.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

11:00pm ChST, Mon.6-25-2018: Great job Stancestans! I have more follow-up questions but too tired tonight, already senior citizen bedtime. Will take up where left off tomorrow morning.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

screenshots of Win Defender Recommendations


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

2:10pm ChST, Tue.6-26-2018: So, Stancestans, it seems like Win Defender is advising me to reinstall Windows at this time. Actually, now might be the best time for me. If there is strong possibility it may have to be done in future anyway, perhaps now might be best time while I have tech support.:wink:


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> 2:10pm ChST, Tue.6-26-2018: So, Stancestans, it seems like Win Defender is advising me to reinstall Windows at this time. Actually, now might be the best time for me. If there is strong possibility it may have to be done in future anyway, perhaps now might be best time while I have tech support.:wink:



Windows does get buggy over time and sometimes the best course of action is a fresh start. Those are the times when no repair actions seem to correct an anomaly. A malware attack can also cripple a system beyond repair, even after a successful clean-up, so the only course of action is a fresh start. It's not such a bad recommendation.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

9:50pm ChST, Tue.6-26-2018: Greetings Stancestans: My thinking is that Windows Defender has assessed the damage done by the malware attack and removal and has concluded that reinstallation of Windows is needed. My thinking is that such a recommendation would not have been made if it were not needed. My concern is with the wording of:

*"Start fresh by reinstalling and updating Windows. This will keep your "personal files" and some windows settings and remove most of your apps, including Microsoft Office, third-party anti-virus software, and desktop apps that came pre-installed on your device."
*

It is going to remove Office so, even if I acquire a license, there will be no Office program in there to license. Also, it says it will keep my "personal" files but I have all kinds of files, program files etc., as well as many different kinds of files that I downloaded, uploaded, or made with many different programs. Are ALL of my files "personal files" or, are some files "personal" and some "impersonal". I know I am showing my ignorance but now I am paranoid, reticent to repair anything because of the unintended consequence that happened when I repaired MS Office. :hide:


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

_"personal files"_ are files that are saved to your User account (ie) _C:\Users\[UserName]_ like *Documents, Pictures, Music, Downloads *etc. Any installed programs will need to be reinstalled. After the refresh, All of your old Windows OS will be saved in a folder *C:\Windows.old* and it will be accessible for a few weeks while you get a chance to reinstall or copy any files that didn't make it over from there.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

1:15pm ChST, Wed.6-27-2018: Thank you spunk.funk. It is clear to me that I should reinstall Windows. However, I am waiting for Stancestans to tag again. I think he must be very busy right now. Reason why I am waiting for Stancestans: his characteristic of extra patience with a slow, doddering old fossil such as myself. That is a special human talent. His patient reassurance imparts confidence to a 'dodderer'. :hide:


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

You are in good hands with him, but he can't hold your hand while you are reinstalling Windows, he can just give you words of confidence. You have to do the work.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

If you have data saved anywhere *else* other than the location of personal files as reiterated by spunk.funk, for example; C:\<folder>, then you should move them to Documents. You can download an image of Office 2016 Professional from here and use it to reinstall Office. The source is Microsoft's own content delivery network, so it's safe. Of course you'll need a product key to activate it after installation, but at least you will have the setup package at hand. Otherwise, you're good to go.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

1:45pm ChST, Thur.6-28-2018: Thank you Stancestans. I have decided to reinstall Windows per Win Defender recommendation. I have a few questions preparatory for that. However, I digress back to the MS Office issue for just a moment. In your post above, you referenced only the option of Office 2016. Through various means, Microsoft is trying to push me to get Windows 365 instead of Office 2016. I do not know the difference. Which do you recommend for me? Why?


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

Also, I only have a vague impression that the version of Office that is already installed on my computer is Office 2016. I don't even know why I think that. Can you tell me how to verify for certain which version of Office is the one on there now?


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

Never mind. Disregard the last previous request above. I verified that it is, in fact, Office 2016, on Control Panel > Programs & Features. However, in process of doing that, I noticed "Credential Manager". There I found some very interesting info. Will attach screenshot.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

You will notice, in the screenshot above, right below Microsoft Account, with my "global account" email address as the username, right below that, you will see "MicrosoftOffice 16" username = blank, PASSWORD = ……..

Does that indicate that* if I could get that password*, then I would not need the product key code to reactivate the Office 2016 that is already on there?


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> 1:45pm ChST, Thur.6-28-2018: Thank you Stancestans. I have decided to reinstall Windows per Win Defender recommendation. I have a few questions preparatory for that. However, I digress back to the MS Office issue for just a moment. In your post above, you referenced only the option of Office 2016. Through various means, Microsoft is trying to push me to get Windows 365 instead of Office 2016. I do not know the difference. Which do you recommend for me? Why?


Microsoft has been gradually adopting the software-as-a-service (SAAS) business model for its software products whereby users *subscribe* to a monthly or annual plan that fits their needs (Office 365), instead of a one-time purchase of a user license that lasts for the lifetime of the product for which it was purchased (Office 2016). It's all about safeguarding and maximising its revenue stream. Office 365 is therefore a subscription-based service and thus a recurrent cost (like pay tv) while Office 2016 is a one-time purchase product. Microsoft and other major software makers are moving in that direction.


They both have advantages and disadvantages. Office 365, being a service that you subscribe to, offers the flexibility of paying for it in monthly (e.g $8 per month) or annual (e.g $90 annually) instalments as you use the product, as well as the flexibility of subscribing to only those Office applications that you use (e.g Word). On the other hand, Office 2016 is purchased one-time, and you won't ever have to pay for it again for as long as the product "lives". You technically own a lifetime license to use it. This makes the initial cost of acquiring it very high ($400 for Office 2016 Professional), thus making it affordable to fewer prospective users compared to the smaller cost of subscribing to Office 365.


Office 365 includes Office 2016, and additional bells and whistles that sweeten the deal. This means, the Office applications such as Word, are exactly the same in both Office 2016 and Office 365, but Office 365 throws in extras such as multiple users and devices in a single subscription. For example, a subscription plan of Office 365 Home can be used by up to 5 computers, 5 tablets and 5 phones. A costly purchase of Office 2016 on the other hand is usable on just 1 device (computer), so each computer would need its own purchase of Office 2016!


Office 365 guarantees the latest version of Office applications at no extra cost, meaning its users won't have to pay more in order to upgrade to the latest versions of Office applications. For example, if Office 2018 was released today, owners of Office 2016 would have to ditch their current product (which cost a fortune) and purchase Office 2018 as a separate stand-alone product at nearly the same huge price, if not more! Office 365 users on the other hand won't need to, as long as they have a current subscription, they'll automatically be upgraded to Office 2018.


I recommended Office 2016 because you may find the product key or the correct Microsoft account that was used to activate your Office 2016 product, thus not needing to purchase another license or subscription. However, if Office 365 sounds like a better offer, there's absolutely no reason why you shouldn't go for it, after all, it's currently still Office 2016 underneath. Of course you could go for a cheaper edition of Office 2016, for example Home and Student which costs as low as $90 on Amazon.


You may find better comparison and more details of the two Office products on other sources.




englishtutor said:


> You will notice, in the screenshot above, right below Microsoft Account, with my "global account" email address as the username, right below that, you will see "MicrosoftOffice 16" username = blank, PASSWORD = ……..
> 
> Does that indicate that* if I could get that password*, then I would not need the product key code to reactivate the Office 2016 that is already on there?


The account shown by Credential Manager is the same account that Office is currently signed into (yours?) that isn't associated with the license that was purchased with it. Unless the correct account is signed into, you'll still need the product key.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

10:25pm ChST, Thur.6-28-2018: Stancestans: "The account shown by Credential Manager is the same account that Office is currently signed into (yours?) "yours" Heck, I don't even know what "yours" means anymore...newspeak, doubletalk) that isn't associated with the license that was purchased with it. Unless the correct account is signed into, you'll still need the product key". YES. That is exactly what I am asking. *If I can get the account password from Shabu and sign into that account*, can I re-activate Win 10 without the product key code?


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> 10:25pm ChST, Thur.6-28-2018: Stancestans: "The account shown by Credential Manager is the same account that Office is currently signed into (yours?) "yours" Heck, I don't even know what "yours" means anymore...newspeak, doubletalk) that isn't associated with the license that was purchased with it. Unless the correct account is signed into, you'll still need the product key".


Yours, literally means yours, in the true sense of the word. Sometime back I gave directions and a screenshot showing how to check which account Office 2016 is currently signed into. You never responded with the outcome of that check, so let us check now and get the results as follows:



1. Open Word 2016.
2. Click on File > Account. There, you will see if Office 2016 is already signed into a Microsoft account or not. If it is, and the account is literally yours, and Office 2016 is not activated, then it is clear that that Microsoft account (yours) does not have a license for Office 2016 linked to it. If no account is signed into, then you will see the option to sign in. If you're not sure what to make out of what you see, post a screenshot so we can see what you see.





> YES. That is exactly what I am asking. *If I can get the account password from Shabu and sign into that account*, can I re-activate Win 10 without the product key code?


Office 2016, not Windows 10. Windows 10 and Office 2016 are activated and licensed separately. Always remember that. Yes, If you get the credentials for the account that was used by Shabu to activate/register Office 2016, you will not need the product key to reactivate Office 2016. You will simply sign into that account when you're prompted to activate Office 2016, and the activation will be automatically reinstated because the account is already linked to that product's license.



We already established earlier on that your copy of Windows 10 is activated and linked to your Microsoft Account, and so, you won't need a product key to reactivate Windows 10.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

11:15pm ChST, Thur.6-28-2018: Thank you Stancestans. Yes, I am crystal clear about keeping Win10 & MS Office separated, including their separate registrations, separated mentally. The only place that is still cloudy about that separation is my referenced conversation with Shabu the night he installed the computer about a year ago. Of course, that conversation, and Shabu's possible duplicity, have been the source of many of my problems.


As for the main text of your last post above... I needed to entertain my local client this evening so now I am exhausted, too tired to proceed. I will review & respond tomorrow. T.Y... J


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

10:45pm ChST, Fri.6-29-2018: Greetings & quote Stancestans: "Sometime back I gave directions and a screenshot showing how to check which account Office 2016 is currently signed into. You never responded with the outcome of that check" Yes, you did give that instruction, on or about 6-16-2018. I did do that check & made a screenshot on 6-17-2018, but failed to post it because the thread moved on to other issues. Sorry for failure to follow through on that instruction. I thought we had consensus on that detail anyway. Actually, because of the Microsoft lockout & hoop-jumping episode that happened back in 2014 with my new HP Win8 laptop, Shabu set up this computer login to use the new "global" Microsoft account as described in my post & screenshot on 6-23-2018 1:27am TSF time. Shabu set up the computer login to use a PIN (see referenced screenshot) because of my paranoid insecurity about signing into this,that&the other using this,that&the other. I never use anything but the PIN to log onto this computer. That evidently signs me into EVERYTHING, including the email account for the referenced 'global'"Microsoft" account. Both Outlook & the Edge browser evidently recognize my single PIN computer login because, when opened, they both automatically show my pic & username for [email protected], same as you see in the referenced screenshot. (I previously posted this same description on 06-21-2018, 11:51 PM TSF time.) So, the single PIN logs me into the computer, Outlook & Edge but NOT MS OFFICE.* I will attach the aforementioned as yet unposted screenshot made on 6-17-2018 which shows* that POST - OFFICE REPAIR (6-7-2018), this copy of MS Office is "unlicensed". *That seems to me to mean that means that no account at all is logged into it anymore *POST - OFFICE REPAIR on 6-7-2018. By the way, to clarify an earlier related point, Windows never used the term "uninstall", neither before, during, nor after the repair. Windows used the term "repair" before and during. After the repair on 6-7-2017, Windows began using the terms "disactivated" and "reactivate", not "uninstalled" and "reinstall". "Disactivated" describes the condition that Office is in now, and "reactivate" is what it wants me to do.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

screenshot made 6-17-2018


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

8:30am ChST, Sat.6-30-2018: **Correction** In my post above, I used a term, "disactivated". That was a mistake. The term is "*de*activate". "*De*activate" is the term used, not by Windows as I mistakenly attributed in the post above, but by the Microsoft tutorials provided by TSF. Those tutorials describe the process of *re*activating MS Office following *de*activation which can have various causes including "deep repair" such as that which I did & Stancestans described.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

quote Stancestans (06-27-2018, 11:39 PM) "Microsoft has been gradually adopting the software-as-a-service (SAAS) business model for its software products whereby users subscribe to a monthly or annual plan that fits their needs..." *OK!* I am glad & relieved to finally see that stated & explained. So, that indicates to me that both Shabu and my previously referenced American "expat" were accurate & truthful on that particular point. At this juncture, I wish to publicly commend Stancestans for his exceptional patience & thoroughness. What I am referring to is this case in general but specifically, Stancestans' willingness to help me get to the bottom of my "Shabu mystery". TSF concentrates & focuses on the technical issues and answers. That is rightfully so as it should be. However, there is also the human side of problems. Forensically and analytically figuring out if the Office deactivation was his fault and whether the nature of that fault was negligence or fraud... that was a critical part of my mission. When one lives in a tiny little community on a tiny little isolated island in the middle of the Pacific ocean, all public relations are personal relations. It is impossible to adequately describe island life to continentals. Please consider an analogy of a crowded life raft on the ocean. The truth matters in ways continentals cannot "get". For example, Shabu not only owns the only computer & cellphone shop on-island, he also owns the grocery store. Evidently Shabu did basically what he claimed to do with reference to Windows 10. He "registered" it to me by associating the license to my "global" Microsoft account. (By the way, "global" is also a term that is used in the Microsoft tutorials). At this point in this case, it is now my best educated guess that Shabu was negligent rather than criminal in the case of MS Office. I suspect that his overriding characteristic of haste is the cause. He may have even intended to do the same with Office as with Windows, associating my account to the license, and just forgot to do it in his haste. I will be probing that detail with Shabu later on. Sorry for the long wind here. Thanks again to Stancestans for the patience & thoroughness as described above.:thumb:


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

You are most welcome. Yes, he was right about one not really owning Ms Office (365). It was rumoured that Office 2016 would be the last version that one could own, and that Office 365 is its successor. We'll wait and see if that will be the case.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

2:45pm ChST, Sat.6-30-2018: With reference to screenshot made 6-17-2018, Account > User Information:
quote myself (Today, 05:47 AM TSF site time)"That seems to me to mean that means that no account at all is logged into it anymore" 
I have a related question, please, concerning the Credentials Manager discussed above (see new screenshot crop attached). "MicrosoftAccount:user= (my global Microsoft account email addr.) That is the account associated with Windows 10. Below that "Microsoft Office16_Data:live:cid=05907f12363797f8" 

My question is: Is 05907f12363797f8 the username of the account that is associated with "my"(Shabu's) copy of MS Office? That could be of critical importance because Shabu is far less likely to remember such a (numerical) username than he is to remember what password he made up for it. It is fairly likely that he WILL remember that password. If he was truthful & just hasty & sloppy then he will likely just tell me the password. For reasons related to my little treatise on island life, the best outcome will be for Shabu to provide me the password and I log into that account & reactivate NS Office that way. No, cynical doubters, it is not just about trying to save myself $400. Actually, I found MS Office 16 for sale on Amazon, with license, for less than $30. No, this is about being one of a tiny few American "expats" living on an isolated western Pacific island with the natives (Shabu is Filipino but has lived here his whole life so we are talking "local" vs. 'newbie yankee'. It is that inconvenient, messy "human dimension" again. How I handle this crisis will mark me locally as either a soft pushover elderly American 'mark' to be exploited, or a demanding, arrogant 'colonialist' American exploiter with no respect for the locals.* I am hoping for a third outcome, that of a tough but fair and reasonable 'regular guy'. 
*


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

New screenshot crop of Credentials Manager redacted failed to attach to post above.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> 2:45pm ChST, Sat.6-30-2018: With reference to screenshot made 6-17-2018, Account > User Information:
> quote myself (Today, 05:47 AM TSF site time)"That seems to me to mean that means that no account at all is logged into it anymore"
> I have a related question, please, concerning the Credentials Manager discussed above (see new screenshot crop attached). "MicrosoftAccount:user= (my global Microsoft account email addr.) That is the account associated with Windows 10. Below that "Microsoft Office16_Data:live:cid=05907f12363797f8"
> 
> ...


Office is signed into your account alright, it just so happens that your account is not linked to the license, hence its "inactive" state.


No, that long alphanumeric (connection) id is not a username. As you can see, the username part appears to be blank as shown by Credentials Manager, but this doesn't mean that the credential is actually comprised of a blank username. In fact, a Microsoft account cannot have a blank username. Credentials Manager doesn't show the username part of all the credentials that it stores. No, this credential is not the one that Shabu used to activate of Office, it is the account that Office is currently signed into (your account as per the screenshot of Word).


He may not be willing to divulge the credentials for the Ms account that was linked to the Office license because it could be his own account. If he truly sold you the Office license as well, he should get in touch with Ms support, have them deactivate that license and then give you the product key so that you can reactivate that license using your own Ms account. I don't believe he didn't know that that is how it is done. He doesn't even have to call Ms support for this, he can just use the live chat option of the Ms support site. After he has proven ownership to the Ms support agent, the agent deactivates that license and sends a link for reactivation of that license. When you open that link, you are prompted to provide your Ms account credentials (sign in), and once that is done, the license becomes active again, but under the new account. That's how the license is transferred from one account to another.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

Stancestans you are so cool! When I grow up I want to be just like you! I love your healthy skepticism and 'hard-headed', no-nonsense sense of justice. I love how you drill down as deep as necessary when you go after the truth. Thank you sir! :thumb:


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

Ooooooolps! I meant :thumb: , not thumbs down. That was a 'boo-boo'.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

6:55pm ChST, Sat.6-30-2018: In this brief interlude, before plunging back into the tech deep doodoo, I beg the audience' indulgence for a short semantics lesson from the old English Tutor. With reference to my post above (Yesterday, 11:26 PM TSF site time), the term "hard headed", I should define because the British English may lack the particular connotation I was using. As I used the phrase, in American English it means "tough minded", entirely complementary. It does not mean stubborn although it can have a connotation of persistent tenacity. :whistling:


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

Oooooops! Misspelled word "complementary" should be complimentary.:uhoh:


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

9:25pm ChST, Sat.6-30-2018: quote Stancestans (06-23-2018, 03:07 AM TSF time) "I'm afraid that his idea of registering Windows and Office in your name and to your Microsoft account didn't actually mean that, but instead meant switching the user account from a local one (bearing his name) to a Microsoft account (bearing your Outlook.com email address and name). Windows licenses are not exactly cheap, so it's typical for owners to keep them handily close in case they ever needed to reinstall Windows or transfer that license to another computer (in case of retail licenses). I would expect him to surrender the product key for that copy of Windows to you, including the original receipt of that purchase if possible since you technically are the new owner."


I think that I understand from this quote that *"my" copy of Windows10 is not actually mine any more than "my" copy of Office 2016 is*. I think that I understand that Shabu never officially transferred ownership of Win10 any more than he did for MS Office, by contacting Microsoft as you described...(Yesterday, 11:17 PM TSF time) "
I'm afraid that his idea of registering Windows and Office in your name and to your Microsoft account didn't actually mean that, but instead meant switching the user account from a local one (bearing his name) to a Microsoft account (bearing your Outlook.com email address and name). Windows licenses are not exactly cheap, so it's typical for owners to keep them handily close in case they ever needed to reinstall Windows or transfer that license to another computer (in case of retail licenses). I would expect him to surrender the product key for that copy of Windows to you, including the original receipt of that purchase if possible since you technically are the new owner."

I think I understand that all he did was to associate MY Microsoft (global)Account with HIS license on MY computer's user account. If that understanding is correct, then, although Win10 is temporarily under my control, that could change. Through some circumstance, whether intentional or coincidental, I could STILL lose "my" copy of Win10... say for example if I had to change the motherboard in my computer... I would not then be able to reinstall Win10 without buying a new license for it, same scenario as Office, because Microsoft's own records will show "my" copy of Win10 as not mine at all, but rather actually still belonging to Shabu (or if perhaps Shabu does something *else* shady or shoddy. Is this understanding correct? Now does everyone "get" how *bewildering* this all can be to a person like myself (old) of lower tech acumen??? :nonono:


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

Stancestans; with reference to my last post directly above: quote Stancestans (Yesterday, 11:17 PM TSF site time) "If he truly sold you the Office license as well, he should get in touch with Ms support, have them deactivate that license and then give you the product key so that you can reactivate that license using your own Ms account. I don't believe he didn't know that that is how it is done. He doesn't even have to call Ms support for this, he can just use the live chat option of the Ms support site. After he has proven ownership to the Ms support agent, the agent deactivates that license and sends a link for reactivation of that license. When you open that link, you are prompted to provide your Ms account credentials (sign in), and once that is done, the license becomes active again, but under the new account. That's how the license is transferred from one account to another." 

Now I think that I understand that, by rights, Shabu should execute this REAL ownership transfer, as you stated in your quote above NOT ONLY FOR OFFICE BUT FOR WIN10 AS WELL! CORRECT? :angry:


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

8:15pm ChST, Mon.7-2-2018: *quote myself from above* "I think that I understand from this quote that "my" copy of Windows10 is not actually mine any more than "my" copy of Office 2016 is. I think that I understand that Shabu never officially transferred ownership of Win10 any more than he did for MS Office, by contacting Microsoft as you described...". "I think I understand that all he did was to associate MY Microsoft (global)Account with HIS license on MY computer's user account. *If that understanding is correct, then, although Win10 is temporarily under my control, that could change*. Through some circumstance, whether intentional or coincidental, I could STILL lose "my" copy of Win10... say for example if I had to change the motherboard in my computer... I would not then be able to reinstall Win10 without buying a new license for it, same scenario as Office, because Microsoft's own records will show "my" copy of Win10 as not mine at all, but rather actually still belonging to Shabu (or if perhaps Shabu does something else shady or shoddy. Is this understanding correct?". "Now I think that I understand that, by rights, Shabu should execute this REAL ownership transfer, 'as (by the means) you stated above NOT ONLY FOR OFFICE, BUT FOR WIN10 AS WELL! CORRECT?'"


*Stancestans*: The above is a review and summation, to tie up all the loose ends together and conclude this topic. Please verify that I have accurately summarized, so that I will know that now my understanding is clear of these VERY complicated, very confusing issues. Please confirm. Did I articulate everything accurately?


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> 9:25pm ChST, Sat.6-30-2018: quote Stancestans (06-23-2018, 03:07 AM TSF time) "I'm afraid that his idea of registering Windows and Office in your name and to your Microsoft account didn't actually mean that, but instead meant switching the user account from a local one (bearing his name) to a Microsoft account (bearing your Outlook.com email address and name). Windows licenses are not exactly cheap, so it's typical for owners to keep them handily close in case they ever needed to reinstall Windows or transfer that license to another computer (in case of retail licenses). I would expect him to surrender the product key for that copy of Windows to you, including the original receipt of that purchase if possible since you technically are the new owner."
> 
> I think that I understand from this quote that *"my" copy of Windows10 is not actually mine any more than "my" copy of Office 2016 is*. I think that I understand that Shabu never officially transferred ownership of Win10 any more than he did for MS Office, by contacting Microsoft as you described...


I wouldn't conclude that just yet, until we know for sure what type of license (OEM, Retail or Volume) is in use by your copy of Windows 10. Each license type has limitations regarding transfer of ownership and eligibility for direct support from Microsoft. I'll later get to details about how to determine this.





> (Yesterday, 11:17 PM TSF time) "
> I'm afraid that his idea of registering Windows and Office in your name and to your Microsoft account didn't actually mean that, but instead meant switching the user account from a local one (bearing his name) to a Microsoft account (bearing your Outlook.com email address and name). Windows licenses are not exactly cheap, so it's typical for owners to keep them handily close in case they ever needed to reinstall Windows or transfer that license to another computer (in case of retail licenses). I would expect him to surrender the product key for that copy of Windows to you, including the original receipt of that purchase if possible since you technically are the new owner."
> 
> I think I understand that all he did was to associate MY Microsoft (global)Account with HIS license on MY computer's user account. If that understanding is correct, then, although Win10 is temporarily under my control, that could change. Through some circumstance, whether intentional or coincidental, I could STILL lose "my" copy of Win10... say for example if I had to change the motherboard in my computer... I would not then be able to reinstall Win10 without buying a new license for it, same scenario as Office, because Microsoft's own records will show "my" copy of Win10 as not mine at all, but rather actually still belonging to Shabu (or if perhaps Shabu does something *else* shady or shoddy. Is this understanding correct? Now does everyone "get" how *bewildering* this all can be to a person like myself (old) of lower tech acumen??? :nonono:


Correct! As long as he is the one in custody of proof of purchase (original packaging with product key in case of boxed/*retail *purchase (DVD or USB flash drive), product key mailed to him upon online purchase of a *retail *license, or a legal/fiscal receipt for the same purchase), he remains the true owner of that *retail *license. I am putting emphasis on retail because that type of Windows license is transferable to another computer, something that he can easily do at any time, thus leaving your copy of Windows unlicensed! This of course, applies only if your Windows license is of the retail type. Again, we'll know if this applies to your Windows license once we identify its type.




englishtutor said:


> Stancestans; with reference to my last post directly above: quote Stancestans (Yesterday, 11:17 PM TSF site time) "If he truly sold you the Office license as well, he should get in touch with Ms support, have them deactivate that license and then give you the product key so that you can reactivate that license using your own Ms account. I don't believe he didn't know that that is how it is done. He doesn't even have to call Ms support for this, he can just use the live chat option of the Ms support site. After he has proven ownership to the Ms support agent, the agent deactivates that license and sends a link for reactivation of that license. When you open that link, you are prompted to provide your Ms account credentials (sign in), and once that is done, the license becomes active again, but under the new account. That's how the license is transferred from one account to another."
> 
> Now I think that I understand that, by rights, Shabu should execute this REAL ownership transfer, as you stated in your quote above NOT ONLY FOR OFFICE BUT FOR WIN10 AS WELL! CORRECT? :angry:


For Office, he definitely should have done that. As for Windows, if the license is retail, then he should have surrendered everything that constituted the purchase of that license to you (the new owner), since a retail license is transferable to another computer/owner.




englishtutor said:


> 8:15pm ChST, Mon.7-2-2018: *quote myself from above* "I think that I understand from this quote that "my" copy of Windows10 is not actually mine any more than "my" copy of Office 2016 is. I think that I understand that Shabu never officially transferred ownership of Win10 any more than he did for MS Office, by contacting Microsoft as you described...". "I think I understand that all he did was to associate MY Microsoft (global)Account with HIS license on MY computer's user account. *If that understanding is correct, then, although Win10 is temporarily under my control, that could change*. Through some circumstance, whether intentional or coincidental, I could STILL lose "my" copy of Win10... say for example if I had to change the motherboard in my computer... I would not then be able to reinstall Win10 without buying a new license for it, same scenario as Office, because Microsoft's own records will show "my" copy of Win10 as not mine at all, but rather actually still belonging to Shabu (or if perhaps Shabu does something else shady or shoddy. Is this understanding correct?". "Now I think that I understand that, by rights, Shabu should execute this REAL ownership transfer, 'as (by the means) you stated above NOT ONLY FOR OFFICE, BUT FOR WIN10 AS WELL! CORRECT?'"
> 
> *Stancestans*: The above is a review and summation, to tie up all the loose ends together and conclude this topic. Please verify that I have accurately summarized, so that I will know that now my understanding is clear of these VERY complicated, very confusing issues. Please confirm. Did I articulate everything accurately?


As stated earlier, we can't make conclusions until we know for sure what type of license your Windows 10 is activated with, so go ahead and run the following command-line in Command Prompt:

```
slmgr -dli
```
You can copy-paste the above line into Command Prompt and press Enter to run it. Shortly, a small dialog box will appear with details about your Windows 10 license Take a screenshot of it and click OK to close it. Post the screenshot in your next reply and I'll be able to conclude on this matter.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

8:35am ChST, Tue.7-3-2018: Thank you Stancestans.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

Your Windows 10 Pro license is of type RETAIL. As mentioned earlier, this type of license is *transferable *from one computer to another, so in the event of a *major hardware change*, for example; motherboard replacement, new build, new purchase, or upgrade of older version of Windows, the product key for this license can be used to activate Windows 10. Of course, the license can only be active on *one computer at a time*, and in the event that subsequent activation fails, you can contact Microsoft for *direct support* with the activation process, as well as for any other support with your Windows 10 Pro installation. Because of these benefits, a RETAIL license is more expensive than an OEM license which lacks these advantages.


Now that we know what type your Windows 10 license is, I'm afraid your fears regarding ownership are confirmed. Nothing at this point would prevent Shabu from transferring this license to another computer. He may not even have to call Microsoft to do this. The Windows 10 activation troubleshooter has a provision for reactivating Windows in case of a major hardware change. If he uses that option on another computer, the current instance (the one on your computer) of this license will be revoked, rendering your copy *unlicensed*, and by providing the product key, he'll be able to reactivate it on that other computer. If he ever had problems with reactivation, he could call Microsoft and won't have any problem proving he is the owner of that license, especially since he's the only one with the product key!


If you reinstall Windows 10 now, you won't need the product key to reactivate it, as long as he doesn't transfer it to another computer. If you changed the motherboard, you won't be able to reactivate Windows 10 without the product key. Even if he surrendered the product key, and kept a copy of it and retained proof of purchase/ownership, it would still be very hard for you to prove to Microsoft support that you're the rightful owner of that license in the event of a conflict, say if both of you tried to activate Windows using the same product key.




> I think that I understand from this quote that *"my" copy of Windows10 is not actually mine any more than "my" copy of Office 2016 is*.


Correct, unless he hands over the product keys for Office 2016 and Windows 10, any media (DVD or USB flash drive) or backup copy of said media, or any labels/certificates of authenticity that were acquired with the software, to you. It is important that only one of you should have and use the product keys for these software, on one device at a time.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

9:25pm ChST, Wed.7-4-2018: *Stancestans*: *Thank you SO much!* You are my hero! I want to be just like YOU when I grow up! You are the one with the patience and thoroughness to drill down as deep as necessary to get to the truth! May I leave this thread open for a couple more days? Today is July Fourth (U.S. independence day). Nobody around here will be sober until day after tomorrow! lol. :dance:


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

3:50pm, Tue.7-10-2018: Stancestans: Sorry for the delay. It is said that rural USA runs on "country time" (slow). Here, we run on "island time" which is even slower. I found (in some old boxes in the garage) what I think may be the product key code for Office. Should I re-activate Office first or should I reinstall Windows first? Thanks.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> 3:50pm, Tue.7-10-2018: Stancestans: Sorry for the delay. It is said that rural USA runs on "country time" (slow). Here, we run on "island time" which is even slower. I found (in some old boxes in the garage) what I think may be the product key code for Office. Should I re-activate Office first or should I reinstall Windows first? Thanks.


Reinstall Windows first. Office and other programs you use will need to be reinstalled afterwards.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

Thanks. Already late tonight. Will do in the morning.:thumb:


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

2:05pm, Wed.7-11-2018: Greetings Stancestans: It has occurred to me that I may be able to use my NAS drive to *safely keep my files while reinstalling* Windows & Office. You should know the following information: The username & password for the NAS have been long lost. I still have the installation disk from DLink but I have no CD/DVD drive to use it in and no way to buy one (companies will not ship to here). I had given up on ever being able to use the NAS again until I got this computer with Win10. Win10 has the most aggressive device & drive discovery that I have ever seen. Amazingly, Win10 discovered the NAS and proceeded to "hack"(best term I can think of to describe) into the admin of the NAS. It somehow managed to connect & open the NAS drive without username & password. However, it was not instant. Sometimes it would open & other times not. Over a period of time, several weeks, Win10 seemed to gradually conquer the NAS admin. Now, it will always open. Also, there appear to be multiple duplicates of the "volumes". Inside they all appear to be dupes. I have no idea how that happened. I probably caused that but don't know how I did. Please be informed that it is SUPPOSED to create ONE duplicate because of its RAID configuration. I don't remember the name of the configuration type (RAID 1? RAID 2? RAID???). This NAS has 2 identical SATA disks that are configured to make a mirror image of each other. Thus, if one of the disks is damaged, one simply replaces the damaged disk with an identical replacement disk. Then it automatically copies all the files onto the new disk. Both disks are updated every time a file is added, edited, or any other changes. One of the disks DID fail before I came out here to the islands. I simply bought a new identical disk, replaced the damaged one and WOW! It quickly copied the other disk. Each of the 2 disks is 2 Terabyte. Therefore, with the mirroring RAID configuration, its capacity is almost 2 terabytes.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

This is a screenshot of the NAS contents.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

Windows 10 can't hack your NAS. If it's accessing the storage without any credentials being asked for, then it's either using stored/saved credentials or none have have been setup on the NAS. As for NAS detection, it will depend on your network setup, i.e Windows, NAS and any other networking hardware and software that is part of your network.


You can download the user manual and software for your NAS from D-Link Support. Yes, you can backup your data on the NAS before reinstalling Windows. You should have a current backup of your data at all times anyway; you just never know when you're gonna need it. That's a RAID-1 array setup.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

Can you ascertain from the screenshot which volumes are redundant? Should there be only 2 of them? one on each of the 2 disks in the NAS housing, mirroring each other?


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

Mirrored drives will not show up in File Explorer, only in the NAS control panel and Disk Management


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

spunk.funk quote "Mirrored drives will not show up in File Explorer, only in the NAS control panel and Disk Management" 

I confess this is far above my level. I have to interpret & extrapolate every quote to understand it. Am I interpreting this quote correctly to indicate that of the volumes appearing in my screenshot above, of the contents of the NAS, that single volume named "Volume_1", is the original and ALL the other volumes are dupes? I articulated above that I have no idea how multiple volumes occurred. I imagine that I caused it, just don't know what I did to cause the dupes. The files contained in all the volumes appear to be identical. 


Extrapolating further, do I understand correctly that if I delete all the volumes except Volume_1, there will still remain a mirrored copy of Volume_1 on another disk (slot #2?) inside the NAS? (see description of the NAS configuration above)


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

Actually, as best I can ascertain, the NAS is not showing up on Disk Management (screenshot attached).


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

Neither is the NAS showing up on Network )screenshot attached).


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

If this (screenshot attached) is the login to "NAS control panel", as I disclosed above, the username & password have long since been lost. As I also described above, I simply connected the NAS housing to this computer, just out of curiosity, via ethernet cable. Also above, I described the process that Windows 10 device discovery went through to open the NAS. It was not instant. It was a process over several weeks. I never even made any attempt to use any username & password, because I already knew they were lost. I accept Stancestans' admonition that Win10 did not "hack" into the NAS admin. OK, so "hack" is not the correct term. I was simply describing what I observed. It looked to me like it "hacked" in. I have become aware that Win10 device discovery is more powerful than any previous OS. That is what piqued my curiosity to plug in the NAS & try it. I did not really expect to get in. I brought this NAS with me from the states when I moved out here to the islands. It was connected to an old HP XP laptop that I brought with me. That laptop died. I have since tried to connect that NAS to another HP laptop with no success, could not get in. Also tried to connect it to a Win7 desktop, same result, could not get in.


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

Here is D-Link's web page about setting up the NAS, if you left everything as Default you can try these instructions to login: https://eu.dlink.com/uk/en/support/...et-up-my-sharecenter-cloud-storage-nas-device


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

First, I highly recommend you download the _User Manual_ and _Easy Search_ utility from here. Secondly, you need to connect the NAS to your Broadcom ADSL router and then turn it OFF and ON (power cycle/reboot). Your router should have a built-in ethernet network *switch *(a set of same-coloured LAN ports, usually four in number) next to its WAN (internet) port. It is visually very easy to tell the _WAN _and _LAN_ ports apart. They are also usually labelled accordingly, so you can't mistake them. The NAS should connect to one of the LAN ports on the router. If you are connecting the NAS *directly *to the computer with a *straight-through cable* (the one that came with the NAS), it won't work because a *crossover cable* is required for that. While this isn't mentioned in the user manual for your model, it is stated in the (very detailed) manual for the DNS-320L NAS.

Follow the manual to the letter as if you are setting it up for the first time, so that you don't miss an important step. The default username is admin and password is blank. If you did not set another password, then you don't need one. If there's any part of the instructions manual that isn't clear, let us know and we'll guide you. Once you're successfully logged into the NAS, you can follow the manual to manage the volumes. You won't be able to manage them from Disk Management because they are not locally-attached storage devices.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

Thanks guys: I believe I will be able to follow the provided instructions. I have one demur which makes me awfully uneasy. Unless I misinterpret, the above instructions are based upon Stancestans' quote "If you did not set another password, then you don't need one." I must clarify. Yes, I absolutely, for certain, DID set a username and password, back around 2009 when I bought the NAS. So, the default username is definitely NOT "admin" and the password is definitely NOT "blank". I did not experiment with trying usernames & passwords this time because that never worked with the other 2 computers I previously tried to connect the NAS to. I am feeling uneasy because, SOMEHOW, Win10, on this computer, was able to penetrate or override the NAS admin, SOMEHOW was able to open it and give me access to my long-lost files. There are irreplaceable files in there. Once I noticed that Win10 had SOMEHOW accessed the NAS contents, I made a desktop shortcut and tried to map the volumes as "mapped drive". Ever since then I have had instant access to my files in there. I also set up Win10 system restore disk backup to the NAS. I am queasy uneasy about maybe I will do something in this process that will cause the disks in the NAS to be reformatted, thus irrevocably losing those files forever.


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

You may have turned off *Password Protected Sharing *in the *Advanced Sharing settings* in the _Control Panel. _ Allowing you to access the NAS without a password. 
The NAS control panel is different then just accessing the files on the drives. That is what the setup admin and password are for. Once logged into the control panel, you can view the array and manage the drives. DNS-343 - Configuring NFS Network Access
If you are afraid of loosing files then back them up to a Cloud service. You should never have all of your eggs in one basket.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

I did not turn anything on or off. This setting is how it was when I got the computer. I changed no sharing settings.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

spunk.funk quote "If you are afraid of loosing files then back them up to a Cloud service. You should never have all of your eggs in one basket." Years ago, I contacted both BOX and DropBox, because of failure of my attempts to use those cloud services to back up files in the NAS. Both of them told me the same: "Cloud backup will not work on NAS because NAS is on a network, because NAS are not locally-attached storage devices."


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

Has something changed since then?


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

Dropbox etc are not the only game in town:

https://www.cloudwards.net/how-backup-nas-to-the-cloud/

Being a Network device, Unless the NAS is connected locally, it will not show in Disk Management. 

You can map a drive letter for your NAS if you haven't already.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

Thank you spunk.funk. I will pursue those as soon as I am able. I have taken ill with "jungle fever" which can last for quite some time. So there will be a significant delay. Right now, I am too sick to continue to sit up at the computer.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

1:40pm ChST, Sun.7-22-2018: Hello TSF. This old man made it through another round of jungle fever, one of several since I came out here to the islands. Sepsis is a constant danger here in tropical jungle. What a beating!Back at my desk today and tried to resume where I left off a week ago. First thing and I'm already in over my head again. 

quote spunk.funk: "Being a Network device, Unless the NAS is connected *locally*, it will not show in Disk Management. You can map a drive letter for your NAS if you haven't already." 

I think I understand this quote but I am not quite able to reconcile that understanding with what I am seeing. Now I have access to the DLink webpages which admin my NAS. I have configured and mounted (I think so) the NAS and followed the Win10 process to map the drive (now designated Drive Z). However, it would not map the entire NAS, only a single volume. Since all of the 5 volumes appear to be all dupes, I only mapped ONE of them. Neither the NAS, nor the volume are appearing in Win Disk Management. How can I verify that the Raid1 configuration is mirroring between the 2 hard disks in the NAS?


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

> I have access to the DLink webpages which admin my NAS


 Logging into the NAS via the web will give you access to the DLink Control Panel to administer your RAID volumes. Typically, in a RAID 1, one Primary drive is shown, then there is a Mirror drive of the same contents which is Hidden. When ever a file is added or deleted or changed in the Primary drive, the Mirror drive saves the changes too. if the Primary drive fails, you can Replace the Primary drive with a drive of the same capacity and enter the DLink Panel and Rebuild the Array from the Previous Mirror drive and you will be back in business.
If there are 3 or more Drives in a RAID, it is usually a RAID 5. In which each drive has a table of contents of the data on each drive. If one drive fails, it can be replaced and you can Rebuild the Array without loosing any data. 
This is all great for a big business that has tons of information, but overkill for the normal Joe Email user.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

My NAS is Raid 1. I need the 2TB capacity to store and share videos, audios, & PowerPoint presentations. I am an online English tutor. I understand the basics of how RAID mirroring works. Specifically, I want to verify that that both of my disks are working and that the mirroring is taking place. If so, the 2 disks will have the same total memory used as each other… correct? How can I view/verify that?


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

> Logging into the NAS via the web will give you access to the DLink Control Panel to administer your RAID volumes.


 Once in the DLink control panel is accessed, you can view the various drives that are a part of the RAID Array and check the health of each, and if necessary, Rebuild the Array if a drive fails. 
https://eu.dlink.com/uk/en/support/...up/nas/dns-series/how-can-i-access-my-dns-323
DNS-343 - Configuring NFS Network Access


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

4:45pm ChST, WEd.7-25-2018: Greetings TSF. Apology for the delay. Suffered fever relapse back down a couple days but today back in the saddle. 

https://eu.dlink.com/uk/en/support/f...ess-my-dns-323
DNS-343 - Configuring NFS Network Access 

__________________
The DLink support page URL posted above is missing.:sad:


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> 4:45pm ChST, WEd.7-25-2018: Greetings TSF. Apology for the delay. Suffered fever relapse back down a couple days but today back in the saddle.
> 
> https://eu.dlink.com/uk/en/support/f...ess-my-dns-323
> DNS-343 - Configuring NFS Network Access
> ...


Here's a shortened version https://bit.ly/2LJCmVb


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

I have found the menu inside DNS-321 admin for Hard Drive info (see attachment). As I expected, the 2 disks are identical 2TB disks. However, I see no menu for disk properties where I can view the actual space used and space remaining. Also, the left side disk is displaying "status = abnormal" so I clicked on "abnormal" and opened that window, included in the attachment. I confess that none of the info displayed in the "abnormal" window means anything to me.


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

Looks like the Left drive is failing and needs to be replaced.


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## tristar (Aug 12, 2008)

Could be due to the temperature, if possible, shut down the NAS over night, keep it cool, start it the next day morning, look at the temperatures, if they're the same, then check if it says Abnormal.

If it looks good in the morning, there might be some cooling issues in the NAS tower for the left hard drive..


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

12:20pm ChST, Thur.7-26-2018: Greetings tristar: I followed your instructions and made screenshots (attached). Left side disk (slot2) is showing "abnormal" at startup. Please note that the temperature at startup of both disks was the same (32C / 89F which is pretty close to room temp) so, I am guessing that temp is not the root cause of the "abnormal" issue, unless the max. temp of 47C / 116F is excessive (see screenshot from yesterday). I will attach 3 screenshots: #1 NAS System info at startup, #2 Hard Drive Slot1(right side) Info at startup, #3 Hard Drive Slot2(left side) Info at startup. I notice that some of the info is different comparing between Right Side (Slot1) and Left Side(Slot2), especially in the sixth column ("Updated"). *I am including these screenshots because I do not know how to interpret the significance of any of this info.*


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

Greetings TSF & spunk.funk: All of the guidance and info is good and much appreciated. However, I am still no closer to my stated mission related to the NAS. quote myself on 7-22-2018 "I understand the basics of how RAID mirroring works. Specifically, I want to verify that that both of my disks are working *and that the mirroring is taking place*. If so, the 2 disks will have the same total space used as each other… correct? How can I view/verify that?" 

I have combed through the entire NAS control panel/Disk Management, and I cannot find any way to view the "properties" of each disk individually, which would allow me to compare the actual space used on EACH INDIVIDUAL DISK (only total of both disks together is shown, not space used for each disk individually). My thinking is that if the space used on Slot1 disk is different from space used on Slot2 disk, then the mirroring is not taking place. Is that reasoning sound? Is there any other way to determine if the disks are properly mirroring? 

*quote spunk.funk on 7-11-2018 

"Mirrored drives will not show up in File Explorer, only in the NAS control panel and Disk Management"


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

Maybe the Manual can help you:
https://www.manualslib.com/manual/35210/D-Link-Dns-321.html


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

Looking at the information on the STATUS page of the NAS' Web UI that you screenshot, I see the workgroup name is set as "HomeGroup". This is different from the default workgroup name in Windows 10 and can be a contributing factor as to why the drive is not accessible.


The S.M.A.R.T report of the disk on slot 2 seems to indicate it's facing imminent failure, hence the "abnormal" status. Is this the oldest drive of the two?


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

9:45am ChST, Sun.7-29-2018: Thank you Stancestans. quote "contributing factor as to why the drive is not accessible" The drive *IS* accessible. That issue was solved above several frames ago. "Is this the oldest drive of the two?" I have no idea. I do remember changing out one of the disks WAY back in America more than 8 years ago. Which one? Sir, that is a laughable question. Considering my age & family history of Alzheimer's as well as several concussions and now, failure of profusion to the brain due to atrial damage... well, Sir, I seem to remember what I had for breakfast... maybe. My critical issue upon which I am now stuck is as follows: I do not want to invest more money into a NAS system that does not even work and has no means (among the mass myriad of useless technical information in it's web page based control panels)… no practical means of even determining if the _ _ thing even does its job. That "practical means" would be the simplest, most basic disk property in existence. That would be a simple view of disk properties for each individual disk, not an amalgam total of both together, or of a shared file folder called Vol.1. But is such basic critical information available amongst the mass myriad of useless high tech gibberish? No Sir! I will paste below an example of the simple view of disk properties that has been in every computer since Windows 95.:banghead:


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> 9:45am ChST, Sun.7-29-2018: Thank you Stancestans. quote "contributing factor as to why the drive is not accessible" The drive *IS* accessible. That issue was solved above several frames ago. "Is this the oldest drive of the two?" I have no idea. I do remember changing out one of the disks WAY back in America more than 8 years ago. Which one? Sir, that is a laughable question. Considering my age & family history of Alzheimer's as well as several concussions and now, failure of profusion to the brain due to atrial damage... well, Sir, I seem to remember what I had for breakfast... maybe. My critical issue upon which I am now stuck is as follows: I do not want to invest more money into a NAS system that does not even work and has no means (among the mass myriad of useless technical information in it's web page based control panels)… no practical means of even determining if the _ _ thing even does its job. That "practical means" would be the simplest, most basic disk property in existence. That would be a simple view of disk properties for each individual disk, not an amalgam total of both together, or of a shared file folder called Vol.1. But is such basic critical information available amongst the mass myriad of useless high tech gibberish? No Sir! I will paste below an example of the simple view of disk properties that has been in every computer since Windows 95.:banghead:


Looking at their serial numbers, the "abnormal" one (left slot) is older, and it's reporting bad sectors on it. This drive needs to be replaced if you still wanna keep the mirroring configuration. The NAS is only as effective as the drives inside it. Remove the bad drive. You should still be able to access and use the remaining drive for backup. You have about 320GB of data on it that you said you would rather not lose. If that's the case, then I suggest you buy a new replacement disk because those drives are very old and can go out without warning. For now, remove the bad one and use the NAS to backup your PC's data for purposes of reinstalling Windows. As soon as you have a clean installation of Windows running, restore the data and plan on securing the valuable data on the NAS before it's too late.


That simple disk properties dialog you attached is only shown for locally attached disks, not the remotely attached ones in the NAS, and it doesn't tell the health of the disk unlike the S.M.A.R.T report shown on the NAS' web ui. That mess of a web ui has actually been more informative, hence why we needed you to log into it in order to see what the actual condition of the NAS is.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

Thank you Stancestans: I was being just a bit facetious in my last previous post with regard to the DLink control panel. Although much of the displayed information there is, in fact, incomprehensible to me, I do understand that the physical condition of the physical hard disks can be ascertained from that info and that one of the disks is dying, probably from simple material fatigue, due to age, heat, and huge number of rotations.


PLEASE, try now to focus on the mental and technical limitations of your client (me). Now, please address the following question, inasmuch as possible, in "layman" terms and phraseology (think of how your client thinks). I posted the screenshot of a simple disk properties display because the only way I know how to ascertain *IF* the RAID 1 mirroring is actually occurring, thus producing 2 identical data sets on the 2 disks... The only way I know how to ascertain/verify that RAID1 mirroring is, or is not occurring is to compare the space used and free space of the 2 disks. If used space used and free space match on the 2 disks, then they are mirroring. If not, then they are not. I need the ability to ascertain/verify this if I am going to spend one penny more on this NAS. If that simple, critical, basic, essential verification cannot be accomplished on this NAS, then perhaps I should scrap it completely and invest in a different NAS that *CAN be verified* that the 2 disks are, in fact, mirroring. Since DLink, in their infinite wisdom, has refused to provide any display of space used and free space on each individual disk, then IS THERE ANY OTHER WAY TO MAKE THAT VERIFICATION? For example, is there any way to view the folders and files per individual disk, not per the amalgam shared folders named Vol_1, Vol_2 etc.?


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> Thank you Stancestans: I was being just a bit facetious in my last previous post with regard to the DLink control panel. Although much of the displayed information there is, in fact, incomprehensible to me, I do understand that the physical condition of the physical hard disks can be ascertained from that info and that one of the disks is dying, probably from simple material fatigue, due to age, heat, and huge number of rotations.


The abnormal disk has bad sectors, many of which have been reallocated and some are pending reallocation, which suggests the disk has run out of spare sectors on which to reallocate the bad ones. Don't worry about understanding any of that though. The bottom-line is, the disk is failing thus preventing the RAID 1 volume mirroring from completing successfully, as evidenced by the status info _*Sync Time Remaining: Degraded*_



> PLEASE, try now to focus on the mental and technical limitations of your client (me). Now, please address the following question, inasmuch as possible, in "layman" terms and phraseology (think of how your client thinks). I posted the screenshot of a simple disk properties display because the only way I know how to ascertain *IF* the RAID 1 mirroring is actually occurring, thus producing 2 identical data sets on the 2 disks... The only way I know how to ascertain/verify that RAID1 mirroring is, or is not occurring is to compare the space used and free space of the 2 disks. If used space used and free space match on the 2 disks, then they are mirroring. If not, then they are not. I need the ability to ascertain/verify this if I am going to spend one penny more on this NAS. If that simple, critical, basic, essential verification cannot be accomplished on this NAS, then perhaps I should scrap it completely and invest in a different NAS that *CAN be verified* that the 2 disks are, in fact, mirroring. Since DLink, in their infinite wisdom, has refused to provide any display of space used and free space on each individual disk, then IS THERE ANY OTHER WAY TO MAKE THAT VERIFICATION? For example, is there any way to view the folders and files per individual disk, not per the amalgam shared folders named Vol_1, Vol_2 etc.?


Since the disks are in a RAID 1 array configuration, the space usage is not reported for the individual disks, but rather for the RAID 1 volume that they both contain. What matters most is the sync (mirroring) status. If _*Sync Time Remaining: *_is reporting anything other than _*Completed *_after the *sync time remaining has reached zero* (0), then we know the mirroring is not happening for some reason (e.g imminent disk failure). I'm sure the space usage of individual disks would have been reported if they were in a standard configuration as opposed to RAID 1. There may be ways of verifying the space usage of the individual disks, but it's pointless because the outcome of that verification *won't tell us anything that we don't already know from the sync status shown by the NAS admin web ui. *For instance, you may remove both disks and locally attach them to a computer, say using a USB adapter or internally using SATA cables, and then use disk management software to check their properties. All that just to verify their individual space usage! Furthermore, checking their individual space usage is not a reliable verification method because, both disks will most likely report the same occupied space (~320GB of data), which would confusingly suggest the mirroring is working when in fact it isn't as a result of the failing disk (which may appear to be operational and fully functional).


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

Listen up all TSF! Stancestans is your star! Rather than cop out by shirking off legitimate specific questions and problems, preferring vague generalities to actual relevant specifics, blithely referring the client to an unidentified, unspecified portion of a large, complicated user manual & likewise large, complicated multi-page control panel, most of which is beyond the capacity of the client, Stancestans has taken the time, and mental effort to (once again) actually drill down to the real issues, actually analyze those issues, and bothered to explain it adequately in language that a geriatric, low tech client can actually understand and actually use! :dance:


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

12:30pm Tue.8-14-2018: Greetings Stancestans & all TSF: Thank you all for this great service. I am reopening this thread because I completed reinstalling Windows. Post reinstallation there is some good news and some bad news. Will start with the good news. The reinstallation was successful. As far as I can ascertain so far, none of my files were lost. I had taken the precaution of copying all of my files from C drive & E drive to the NAS, but all the files on C & E seem to be undisturbed. The bad news is that I have lost access to my NAS. It no longer appears on network or This PC Drives. Of the 3 DLink tutorials provided by Stancestans & SpunkFunk, 2 of those pages are missing from the internet. #3 tutorial instructs to use the Easy Search Utility on the installation disk, which I cannot do because I don't have a CD/DVD drive. I know I need one, and I know I also need to buy a replacement disk for the damaged one in the NAS. However, I have a situation in this location that is unimaginable to mainland Americans. Very few companies, whether American or other will even try to ship anything to our island (US territory). I suppose their "reasoning" is that our population is too small to be worth bothering with. :angry:


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

(cont.) The other bad news is that my Windows screen capture utility is gone. This is a critical problem for me because I use screenshots constantly, both in my online tutoring practice, and for this forum as well. In desperation, I downloaded a 3rd party software called PC Screen Capture. I selected that one out of many I found via internet search because it advertised "safe download" and 4.5 star Cnet customer rating. The utility does not work 'worth a hoot' & I think it must be malware. It keeps making popups trying to sell me this or that. When I went to Control Panel / Programs & Features / Uninstall or change a program... to try to delete it, It does not appear on the list. That makes me think malware. How can I find this devil to delete it? 

I also have one question remaining from the Windows lockout / account suspension issue before the reinstall: I am curious, after Win10 locked my account, how & why was I still able to get in by using my PIN sign in but not my password sign in. What difference?


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> I have lost access to my NAS. It no longer appears on network or This PC Drives.


Your *network location type* must have defaulted to *public *instead of *private*. Discovery of network devices is disabled for public networks. You need to check if the connection is set to public and change it to private. See this for how to do it. I revisited a screenshot of your NAS and noticed the workgroup was set to _*Homegroup*_, but the default workgroup on Windows 10 is named _*Workgroup*_. This mismatch will prevent the NAS from showing up in Network. You PC and the NAS should both be joined to the same workgroup. To check which workgroup your PC is connected to, right-click This PC and choose _*Properties*_. Look at the section labelled _Computer name, domain and workgroup settings. _Take note of the workgroup name.



> Of the 3 DLink tutorials provided by Stancestans & SpunkFunk, 2 of those pages are missing from the internet. #3 tutorial instructs to use the Easy Search Utility on the installation disk, which I cannot do because I don't have a CD/DVD drive.


After you've set your network connection to private as instructed above, open This PC > Network. The NAS drive should show up, but if it still doesn't, just proceed to the next steps. 

Download the Easy Search Utility from ftp://ftp2.dlink.com/PRODUCTS/DNS-321/REVA/DNS-321_EASYSEARCH_4.800.ZIP and any other resource from https://support.dlink.com/ProductInfo.aspx?m=DNS-321

Follow the manual to the letter, and with the help of the Easy Search Utility, open the web management interface of the NAS and set its workgroup to match the one your PC is connected to.



> I know I need one, and I know I also need to buy a replacement disk for the damaged one in the NAS. However, I have a situation in this location that is unimaginable to mainland Americans. Very few companies, whether American or other will even try to ship anything to our island (US territory). I suppose their "reasoning" is that our population is too small to be worth bothering with. :angry:


The NAS should be usable with the bad drive disconnected. There is no need to keep the bad disk inside it. Turn off the NAS and remove the bad disk then power it back on. The RAID 1 volume should be accessible and usable, but without the mirroring until you replace the bad drive.



englishtutor said:


> (cont.) The other bad news is that my Windows screen capture utility is gone. This is a critical problem for me because I use screenshots constantly, both in my online tutoring practice, and for this forum as well. In desperation, I downloaded a 3rd party software called PC Screen Capture. I selected that one out of many I found via internet search because it advertised "safe download" and 4.5 star Cnet customer rating. The utility does not work 'worth a hoot' & I think it must be malware. It keeps making popups trying to sell me this or that. When I went to Control Panel / Programs & Features / Uninstall or change a program... to try to delete it, It does not appear on the list. That makes me think malware. How can I find this devil to delete it?


I lost my respect for Cnet a long time ago when they introduced their own downloader which was laden with adware. I would advice you stay away from Cnet and always download software from their official websites. Windows 10 has a built-in screen capture utility called Snipping Tool. You could give it a try. If that doesn't suit your taste, you can try ShareX. It is my favourite.

PC Screen Capture is self-contained, that is, it uses a stand-alone executable file and therefore doesn't get installed on your system, so there isn't an uninstall entry for it in Control Panel. It is also very old and outdated. To remove it from your system, just delete its executable file.

If you can remember the name of the screen capture utility you had before the reinstall, you can search for it on Google and download it from its official website.



> I also have one question remaining from the Windows lockout / account suspension issue before the reinstall: I am curious, after Win10 locked my account, how & why was I still able to get in by using my PIN sign in but not my password sign in. What difference?


PIN is tied to the specific device (hardware) on which it is set and it is local to the device, i.e, the authentication takes place locally. You can read more about it here https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...usiness/hello-why-pin-is-better-than-password. It's a good thing you had a PIN configured for your Windows global (MS) user account.


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## jenae (Jun 17, 2008)

Hi, sounds like Stan has got a Fan, well done. :wink: However i would not leave Spunk out of the Club. :thumb:


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

Greeting jenae s: No one is left out. For me there is no club. My gratitude is directed to all TSF, including spunk.funk . However, you are correct; I am a big fan of Stancestans for all the reasons I have posted.:dance:


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

12:40pm ChST, Wed.8-15-2018: quote Stancestans "Windows 10 has a built-in screen capture utility called Snipping Tool. You could give it a try."

I should have been more specific in reporting this issue. What I should have specified was that the built-in Windows screen capture utility is what was missing post Windows reinstallation. I used to be able to simply push "PrtScn" on my keyboard & not only would it capture the screen, it would also automatically save it to a OneDrive folder. That feature saved me a lot of time. I did find the "Snipping Tool" & tried it... seems to work well but lacks the option for automatic save to OneDrive. I miss that feature. Also, I have not yet found a way to make the snipping tool stay available on my desktop. So far, I can only find it via Search on my taskbar. Also, this Snipping Tool does not *seem* to be the same Windows utility that was connected to my PrtScn button before the Windows reinstall.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

correction: quote myself "I have not yet found a way to make the snipping tool stay available on my desktop. So far, I can only find it via Search on my taskbar." That is somewhat of a misspeak on my part. I did pin the snipping tool to my taskbar. That does work & makes it available all the time. But I have become generally averse to pinning anything to the taskbar. Reason is that, before the Windows reinstall, I had accumulated so many pins on my taskbar that they occupied 2 full rows and ready to bump down to a third row with the next pin. 

My real issue with the snipping tool is a more general one with Win10. The locations & menu configurations of Win10 have become so complicated that there are many things the only way I can find is taskbar search. That usually works fine and quickly but that is not helping me to learn the actual locations of things because the searched for utility or whatever just opens without revealing its menu location. Therefore, I have to use taskbar search every time to find it again. Also, sometimes instead of searching inside This PC, it bypasses This PC & goes straight to internet search, which is not what I need. I wish I could teach it to search inside my own system only instead of internet search. I can do that with a browser.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

Stancestans : I read all of your instructions and followed them. Still cannot access NAS. Please view screenshots attached.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

The hits just keep on coming! Now Win10/MS has decided that my newly recently unlocked Microsoft global account has a new problem (see screenshot attached) which is the same BS message it was giving before "most likely your password has changed". I know what is coming. MS will lock me out again. I do have the local admin login but you know.:facepalm:


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

Using the D-Link Easy Search Utility, it "failed to map the drive".:facepalm:


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> Stancestans : I read all of your instructions and followed them. Still cannot access NAS. Please view screenshots attached.


Looks like the NAS uses SMB1 protocol which is being deprecated by Microsoft and is disabled by default since Windows 10 1709. Unfortunately, there is no firmware update for the NAS to update its SMB protocol to a higher version. Re-enabling SMB1 client functionality should restore access to the NAS and get rid of that error. To re-enable the *SMB1 client* feature, see *OPTION THREE* of this tutorial.




englishtutor said:


> The hits just keep on coming! Now Win10/MS has decided that my newly recently unlocked Microsoft global account has a new problem (see screenshot attached) which is the same BS message it was giving before "most likely your password has changed". I know what is coming. MS will lock me out again. I do have the local admin login but you know.:facepalm:


Click that notification and provide the new password that you set while recovering access to the suspended account. That should restore the connection to your Ms account and get rid of that notification.




englishtutor said:


> Using the D-Link Easy Search Utility, it "failed to map the drive".:facepalm:


This won't work until you re-enable SMB1 client functionality as directed above. Windows reinstallation must have disabled the SMB1 features, so you need to re-enable it, reboot the PC and try to map it again.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

> My real issue with the snipping tool is a more general one with Win10. The locations & menu configurations of Win10 have become so complicated that there are many things the only way I can find is taskbar search. That usually works fine and quickly but that is not helping me to learn the actual locations of things because the searched for utility or whatever just opens without revealing its menu location. Therefore, I have to use taskbar search every time to find it again. Also, sometimes instead of searching inside This PC, it bypasses This PC & goes straight to internet search, which is not what I need. I wish I could teach it to search inside my own system only instead of internet search. I can do that with a browser.


You can turn off internet/online/web search by following this tutorial. It should be easy to follow, but if it proves difficult, I can create a single reg file for accomplishing the same and share it later.

If you'd like to have the Windows 7-style Start menu instead, you can use Classic Shell. It doesn't clutter your search results with web results. A lot of folks prefer it over the Windows 10 Start menu, me included. The installation package includes two other features that are enabled by default, so IF you decide to try its Start Menu, make sure to disable _*Classic Explorer*_ and _*Classic IE*_ as shown below:










After the installation is completed, click the Start button and you'll be presented with the Classic Start Menu Settings window. Leave the settings unchanged (for now) and click OK. Click the Start button again to see the new start menu in action. 










If you like it, I can share my Classic Start settings that you can quickly apply to yours in a few clicks instead of going through the numerous configuration options of the settings window.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> 12:40pm ChST, Wed.8-15-2018: quote Stancestans "Windows 10 has a built-in screen capture utility called Snipping Tool. You could give it a try."
> 
> I should have been more specific in reporting this issue. What I should have specified was that the built-in Windows screen capture utility is what was missing post Windows reinstallation. I used to be able to simply push "PrtScn" on my keyboard & not only would it capture the screen, it would also automatically save it to a OneDrive folder. That feature saved me a lot of time. I did find the "Snipping Tool" & tried it... seems to work well but lacks the option for automatic save to OneDrive. I miss that feature. Also, I have not yet found a way to make the snipping tool stay available on my desktop. So far, I can only find it via Search on my taskbar. Also, this Snipping Tool does not *seem* to be the same Windows utility that was connected to my PrtScn button before the Windows reinstall.


I do not know of any other inbuilt screen capture utility on Windows 10 other than _Snipping Tool_. I'll look at the information collected from your PC on the malware removal thread and see if I can identify which utility it was. Otherwise, *ShareX *is a pretty good one and all it takes is a quick change in its settings to have it save the screenshots automatically in a location of your choosing, for example; the OneDrive folder on your PC.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

Stancestans : WOW! What a "meaty" set of solutions! These ought to keep me occupied & off the street for awhile! I would say "clear as mud" but then I would be half joking. No, seriously, all of your instructions ARE followable, even by the likes of yours truly, "senior citizen" (euphemism for just plain old) with early onset age dementia! So, it is already getting late here so I'll probably start fresh on these new projects first thing tomorrow. As for the alternate taskbar SEARCH replacement software, my answer is YES! I want mine to imitate yours! Thanks a million 'Mister SuperStans' ! :dance:


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

If you get the snipping tool up you can right click on it and pin it to your taskbar, if that would help you any.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

Here's a zipped folder containing two reg files; one disables web search while the other reverts the changes. All you have to do is double-click the one that disables web search, allow the merge when prompted and reboot for the changes to take effect. _Windows Desktop Search_ results should no longer include web results. Be advised that future updates may revert these changes to default, thus re-enabling web search. If that happens, simply re-apply them, unless MS decides to force things even further and override those settings altogether in future updates. That wouldn't be a surprise at all!


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

quote Stancestans "Re-enabling SMB1 client functionality should restore access to the NAS and get rid of that error. To re-enable the SMB1 client feature"

Done. See attached screenshot.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

HOWEVER, the results are still mixed. The Volume_1 icon in File Explorer / Quick Access came back to life (see attached screenshot). So, I can access the files in it. HOWEVER, the NAS itself ( DLINK-964FAE ) DOES NOT appear on File Explorer / Network (see other attached screenshot).


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

With reference to the NEW Microsoft notification of NEW account problem: The above referenced message kept appearing in my Notifications so I did click on it and it did ask for authentication in a new window that popped up. HOWEVER, it did not say problem with "account" singular. It said problem with "accounts" plural. AND, it did not ask for password. Instead it asked for PIN. Stancestans already taught me that the PIN does not access the global Microsoft account. Instead, it accesses a LOCAL account (So now I have 3 accounts?). Anyway, I entered the PIN and the current window disappeared, revealing a new page (see attached screenshot) behind announcing that "ALL accountS, plural, (all 3?) are now working properly. So, I guess mission accomplished but this has left me even more confused. Is there never any end to all of the overcomplexity of Microsoft's accountS and all of their "needs fixing" messages? I will now enumerate my various MS account(S):
1. global "Microsoft account" that uses a password
2. local login account that uses PIN
3. Another local login account (local admin) that I added per instructions of Stancestans……………...Is this list correct & complete now? :banghead:


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

The hits just keep on coming! Before the Windows reinstall, I had a Spotify account (for quite some time), had downloaded the desktop client with no prob & been using it to play music for more than a year with no probs. Today I realized that the app was gone. OK, no big deal. I was expecting that apps would be lost. I'll JUST reinstall it, right? But when I went to Spotify website to download a fresh copy, guess what I saw? I couldn't believe it! Spotify is now not available in the United States of America ("your country")??? 
Screenshot attached.:facepalm:


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> quote Stancestans "Re-enabling SMB1 client functionality should restore access to the NAS and get rid of that error. To re-enable the SMB1 client feature"
> 
> Done. See attached screenshot.


Turn off the *SMB 1.0/CIFS Server* feature, it's not needed. You only need the client feature.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> HOWEVER, the results are still mixed. The Volume_1 icon in File Explorer / Quick Access came back to life (see attached screenshot). So, I can access the files in it. HOWEVER, the NAS itself ( DLINK-964FAE ) DOES NOT appear on File Explorer / Network (see other attached screenshot).


Use the Easy Search Utility to map the NAS. As for it not being visible in Network, you need to configure and start the *Function Discovery Resource Publication* _service _ as described here.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> With reference to the NEW Microsoft notification of NEW account problem: The above referenced message kept appearing in my Notifications so I did click on it and it did ask for authentication in a new window that popped up. HOWEVER, it did not say problem with "account" singular. It said problem with "accounts" plural.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That message does not solely refer to Windows user accounts, but those used by apps as well, for example, _Mail_. Click the *Manage your accounts* option to see them and what they are being used for.
The PIN does not necessarily access a local user account, but is a *local authentication method* that's applicable to both global and local accounts. To access your Windows user account via your global (MS) account, you have the option of using the password for that MS account or the set PIN for that same Windows user account. The password is what you'd use to access that MS account from a browser, because the password authentication is taking place remotely on an MS server on the internet. On the other hand, you cannot use the PIN to access your MS account via a browser because the PIN is verified *locally *on the specific device/computer and NOT on a remote Ms server on the internet.



> Anyway, I entered the PIN and the current window disappeared, revealing a new page (see attached screenshot) behind announcing that "ALL accountS, plural, (all 3?) are now working properly. So, I guess mission accomplished but this has left me even more confused. Is there never any end to all of the overcomplexity of Microsoft's accountS and all of their "needs fixing" messages? I will now enumerate my various MS account(S):
> 1. global "Microsoft account" that uses a password
> 2. local login account that uses PIN
> 3. Another local login account (local admin) that I added per instructions of Stancestans……………...Is this list correct & complete now? :banghead:


No, the list is not correct. As stated above, the PIN is a local authentication method that applies to both local and global accounts, so the presence of a PIN does not explicitly mean it belongs to a local account. The correct list would be:

1. A global Windows user account that uses your Microsoft account (email address) and its password OR PIN. Authentication via the password takes place remotely, on an MS server on the internet, while authentication via the PIN takes place locally, on the device itself. The password works on any other device that uses the global account, say a second Windows 10 computer or Windows 10 tablet, but the PIN will NOT work on any other device except the one it has been set on. To use a PIN on other devices, you must individually set the PIN on each and every device, which also means that every device can have different PINs while the password for the global account remains the same across ALL devices that have been configured to use it.

2. A local (admin) Windows user account that uses a username. It can optionally use a password or PIN, and both authentication methods are verified locally, on the device. No remote server on the internet is involved, whether you're using a password or PIN.

3. Any other account that's used for Shared Experiences, including accounts used by apps like Mail.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> The hits just keep on coming! Before the Windows reinstall, I had a Spotify account (for quite some time), had downloaded the desktop client with no prob & been using it to play music for more than a year with no probs. Today I realized that the app was gone. OK, no big deal. I was expecting that apps would be lost. I'll JUST reinstall it, right? But when I went to Spotify website to download a fresh copy, guess what I saw? I couldn't believe it! Spotify is now not available in the United States of America ("your country")???
> Screenshot attached.:facepalm:


Download it from https://filehippo.com/download_spotify/

The website must be checking your location as indicated by your internet connection, and if it doesn't find a matching location on its database, it will definitely return that message. I don't know if it will restrict you from signing into your account though.
https://support.spotify.com/us/acco...t_basics/how-can-i-change-my-country-setting/


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

quote Stancestans "Use the Easy Search Utility to map the NAS."
That job was already done. That is how the Volume_1 icon in File Explorer / Quick Access came back to life. 
screenshot attached
Now I will proceed to "As for it not being visible in Network, you need to configure and start the Function Discovery Resource Publication service as described here."


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> quote Stancestans "Use the Easy Search Utility to map the NAS."
> That job was already done. That is how the Volume_1 icon in File Explorer / Quick Access came back to life.
> screenshot attached
> Now I will proceed to "As for it not being visible in Network, you need to configure and start the Function Discovery Resource Publication service as described here."


The mapped drive should also be listed in This PC. You can even place a shortcut to it on the Desktop. Way faster than waiting for the Network window to update as it discovers network devices.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

Greetings Stancestans : With regard to the SPOTIFY issue:

quote "The website must be checking your location as indicated by your internet connection, and if it doesn't find a matching location on its database, it will definitely return that message. I don't know if it will restrict you from signing into your account though."

I remember seeing something SOMEWHERE in all of the computer places I have been, I think during the last 24 hrs. or so, following some of my various instructions. What I saw was something about a box to tic "find location" "enable or disable" something like that. I remember noticing that the "enabled" box was ticed. During the Windows reinstall, could it have reset back to default & caused Edge browser to react that way? It would have seen a Guam server address on my IP address. Guam is a Federal District of the USA, same as Washington DC, by far not a "foreign" country.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> Greetings Stancestans : With regard to the SPOTIFY issue:
> 
> quote "The website must be checking your location as indicated by your internet connection, and if it doesn't find a matching location on its database, it will definitely return that message. I don't know if it will restrict you from signing into your account though."
> 
> I remember seeing something SOMEWHERE in all of the computer places I have been, I think during the last 24 hrs. or so, following some of my various instructions. What I saw was something about a box to tic "find location" "enable or disable" something like that. I remember noticing that the "enabled" box was ticed. During the Windows reinstall, could it have reset back to default & caused Edge browser to react that way? It would have seen a Guam server address on my IP address. Guam is a Federal District of the USA, same as Washington DC, by far not a "foreign" country.


You'll find the necessary information and instructions here https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10-location-and-privacy


Objectives:

*Turn on location services if it isn't already on. 

*Set a default location. 

*Allow Edge to use the location services.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

Here is something that seems very odd to me. Volume_1 DOES appear on This PC, but DLink-964FAE does NOT appear on Network. (see 2 attachments)What???


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> Here is something that seems very odd to me. Volume_1 DOES appear on This PC, but DLink-964FAE does NOT appear on Network. (see 2 attachments)What???


Yeah, it's a Windows 10 v1803 issue. Did you do as instructed in post #158?


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

It seems a drive letter D: has been assigned to the system partition (~99MB). This is also another Windows 10 v1803 thing. That partition is usually hidden from File Explorer for good reason. To remove its drive letter, open an elevated command prompt and run the following command: 




```
MOUNTVOL D: /D
```

*Note*: you can copy the above line and paste it into command prompt and press Enter to avoid errors.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

Success!:dance: I followed the tutorial (Network Computers are Not Visible in Windows 10 Version 1803) & bang! there it is (see attached screenshot). While perusing the tutorial, I also read 

"According to Microsoft, Windows HomeGroup was a terrific feature in the pre-cloud and pre-mobile era, but now it is outdated. The company now offers the following alternatives for file sharing:
File Storage:
OneDrive is a cloud-first, cross-device storage and collaboration platform for all of the pieces of data that matter most in your life – like your files, your photos, your videos, and more.
OneDrive Files On-Demand takes cloud file storage a step further, allowing you to access all your files in the cloud without having to download them and use storage space on your device.
Share Functionality: For those who prefer not to use the Cloud to connect their devices, the Share functionality for folders and printers allows you to see the available devices and connect them to and from other PCs on your home network.
Easier Connection: No more remembering cryptic HomeGroup passwords in order to connect to another PC. You can now simply connect through your Microsoft Account email address across devices."

Not only there but everywhere I look, MS is promoting OneDrive as their "new" "premiere premium solution". I've been using it since it first came out as "SkyDrive". It is pretty neat but what is all the MS hype about. Is their "new" OneDrive really the file backup AND networking solution they are touting it as??? (old cynic here)


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

Before we leave the NAS issue, I have a couple more relevant questions. (see attached screenshot) I see multiple volumes. Before I began this thread on TSF, I thought the multiple volumes might be something to do with the RAID1 mirroring. Stancestans set me straight on that particular but I still don't know exactly what the multiple volumes are, nor how they got there (likely something I did myself but what I don't know). When opened, these seem to be identical "dupes", all containing the same folder names. I tried to compare them by way of properties > size on disk but they all show 0 bytes??? (see screenshot) Obviously, they are not really 0 bytes because they are full of files? 
Anyway, is it safe to delete all but one of them to free up space on the disk?


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

This is an addendum to my last post above concerning MS OneDrive. I kept getting prompts from Windows Defender Security Center something about using OneDrive as some kind of "virus&threat protection - anti ransomware" tool. I didn't understand it so I DID NOT DO what it was prompting me to do until I check with TSF. The prompts have stopped now but I did save a screenshot (attached).


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

quote Stancestans :
"You'll find the necessary information and instructions here https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/...on-and-privacy
Objectives:
*Turn on location services if it isn't already on. 
*Set a default location. 
*Allow Edge to use the location services." 

I read the MS tutorial (done). Location services was already on (done). I set my default location (done). I *could not find* where in Edge settings to "Allow Edge to use the location services" (not done).

*see attached screenshot*


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> quote Stancestans :
> "You'll find the necessary information and instructions here https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/...on-and-privacy
> Objectives:
> *Turn on location services if it isn't already on.
> ...


 Right below the *Location history* section, there is a section labelled *Choose apps that can use your precise location *and below it you should see a list of apps with switches next to them. Toggle the switches to either allow or deny location access. _Edge_ is one of the apps listed.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> Success!:dance: I followed the tutorial (Network Computers are Not Visible in Windows 10 Version 1803) & bang! there it is (see attached screenshot). While perusing the tutorial, I also read
> 
> "According to Microsoft, Windows HomeGroup was a terrific feature in the pre-cloud and pre-mobile era, but now it is outdated. The company now offers the following alternatives for file sharing:
> File Storage:
> ...


OneDrive is *simply *cloud storage. The concept of cloud storage, be it OneDrive or other solution, has become quite the *viable backup solution* if you look past the monetization aspect of it and internet bandwidth requirements. The idea of having your important data stored on some remote server on the internet, ready for access from any location or connected device, is a good *recovery plan* in case the local copies on your physical devices get compromised or are lost for some reason, say drive failure, ransomware attacks e.t.c, so you can expect MS to take advantage of its Windows platform to push for adoption of its cloud storage solution, just like Google does on Chrome OS and Android, or Apple does on Mac OS and iOS... but in the end, it's up to you to evaluate the offer and decide whether it's a worthy investment or not. You don't have to use it, but if nothing (read money) prevents you, then by all means use it as a backup strategy.



englishtutor said:


> This is an addendum to my last post above concerning MS OneDrive. I kept getting prompts from Windows Defender Security Center something about using OneDrive as some kind of "virus&threat protection - anti ransomware" tool. I didn't understand it so I DID NOT DO what it was prompting me to do until I check with TSF. The prompts have stopped now but I did save a screenshot (attached).


What better way for MS to tout its cloud storage offering than through your Windows 10 device's security hub/centre, especially when coupled with scary vocabulary like ransomware? I am by no means downplaying the very real threat that ransomware attacks are, far from it, but I really don't expect MS to tout Google Drive or some other cloud storage service as a recovery plan on their own OS. Opinions aside, you can dismiss that prompt and use any backup strategy of your choice, not necessarily OneDrive.

The concept of using OneDrive, which is pre-installed on Windows 10, as a backup plan (data protection) is best described here.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> Before we leave the NAS issue, I have a couple more relevant questions. (see attached screenshot) I see multiple volumes. Before I began this thread on TSF, I thought the multiple volumes might be something to do with the RAID1 mirroring. Stancestans set me straight on that particular but I still don't know exactly what the multiple volumes are, nor how they got there (likely something I did myself but what I don't know). When opened, these seem to be identical "dupes", all containing the same folder names. I tried to compare them by way of properties > size on disk but they all show 0 bytes??? (see screenshot) Obviously, they are not really 0 bytes because they are full of files?
> Anyway, is it safe to delete all but one of them to free up space on the disk?


There's just one volume on the NAS, namely Volume_1. Those other share folders are all linking to that one volume. Think of them as multiple shortcuts to the same destination. If you look closely, they are all named Volume_1, but with a suffix number for each additional copy of the shortcut. Multiple volumes would be named:

Volume_1
Volume_2
Volume_3
Volume_4

I wouldn't worry about them as long as they all point to the same target, but I would caution against deleting any of them because we do not know if doing so will only delete the shortcuts themselves or will also delete the contents of their target (Volume_1). I have no idea how they came to be, and all my searches have so far been unfruitful. Again, I strongly recommend using the mapped drive Z: in _This PC_ or _Quick Access_ if you prefer, and not the share folders listed in Network.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

11:40am ChST, Wed.8-22-2018
Greetings TSF & Stancestans :

Apology for my absence few days. Monsoon rains here, semi-typhoon condition 2; caused flooding & wind damage.


I read the tutorial about how to disable web search in Win10 (What a bonehead idea make internet search override local search in the first place. pure bonehead). Anyway, first thing I see in the tutorial is _"Warning: It’s very important to note that modifying the Windows Registry can cause serious problems if not used properly. It’s assumed you know what you’re doing and that you have created a full backup of your system before proceeding._"


So, first, before I mess with the registry, I think the time has come for me to deal with the larger issue of exactly what is the model I want for my backup program. That means calling into question every aspect of what I have now. So, first I would like to describe my thinking on this issue.


What I envision is a 2 tier backup system with at least 2 terabytes of space, preferably more. Why do I need so much storage space? As my profile shows, my profession is private language tutor. I have mainly changed from face-to-face tutoring and now tutor mostly online. Previously a Skype user, I recently began using a different platform called Zoom, and am also experimenting with TeamViewer. Both of those programs have a feature that records video of everything on my screen, for the entire class, in my case, 1 hour. Those videos with audio & all the split screen panes etc. make very large files. I must not allow those files to be backed up to cloud while I continue working, I MUST back them up LOCALLY, NOT to the CLOUD. Why? Because copying large files or edits to the cloud will take too much of my available bandwidth. Especially TeamViewer & Skype are very bandwidth hungry programs. If my bandwidth is being taken by uploading going on in the background, my work will suffer because low bandwidth interferes badly with these programs. So, it seems to me what I need is local backup to a local external drive, correct? That drive will be *tier1*. If so, next question is my NAS obsolete & should replace? 


*Tier2* will be "backup of the backup" to cloud. That backing-up (upload) activity will not occur during my workday. During my workday, I want backup to be local only so as to not take away bandwidth. Each day when I finish work and leave my office, I will initiate the backup to cloud. That will be the entire work product of that day. It can run all night to backup the backup from the local external drive to the cloud.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

Under "This PC" not only does the NAS Volume_1 appear , but now there is also another icon "dlink-964FAE, which is the name of the NAS itself, not just the folders inside (Volume_1). I don't know what this is or what it is for. It will not open when I click "open". When "properties" are clicked, there are no properties ("properties not available"). What the heck IS this thing?


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> I read the tutorial about how to disable web search in Win10 (What a bonehead idea make internet search override local search in the first place. pure bonehead). Anyway, first thing I see in the tutorial is _"Warning: It’s very important to note that modifying the Windows Registry can cause serious problems if not used properly. It’s assumed you know what you’re doing and that you have created a full backup of your system before proceeding._"


You can safely use the registry files I attached in post #152. One of them applies the changes required to disable web search, the other reverts those changes to the original, unmodified state. It is safer than manually opening and editing the Registry.



> So, first, before I mess with the registry, I think the time has come for me to deal with the larger issue of exactly what is the model I want for my backup program. That means calling into question every aspect of what I have now. So, first I would like to describe my thinking on this issue.
> 
> What I envision is a 2 tier backup system with at least 2 terabytes of space, preferably more. Why do I need so much storage space? As my profile shows, my profession is private language tutor. I have mainly changed from face-to-face tutoring and now tutor mostly online. Previously a Skype user, I recently began using a different platform called Zoom, and am also experimenting with TeamViewer. Both of those programs have a feature that records video of everything on my screen, for the entire class, in my case, 1 hour. Those videos with audio & all the split screen panes etc. make very large files. I must not allow those files to be backed up to cloud while I continue working, I MUST back them up LOCALLY, NOT to the CLOUD. Why? Because copying large files or edits to the cloud will take too much of my available bandwidth. Especially TeamViewer & Skype are very bandwidth hungry programs. If my bandwidth is being taken by uploading going on in the background, my work will suffer because low bandwidth interferes badly with these programs. So, it seems to me what I need is local backup to a local external drive, correct? That drive will be *tier1*. If so, next question is my NAS obsolete & should replace?


Cloud and local backup is a sound strategy. Rule of thumb is, do not have all your eggs in one basket. Since local storage is a lot cheaper than cloud storage, you can have multiple local backups, for example, the RAID 1 configuration on the two HDDs on your NAS, an external drive or an extra internal drive, or ALL of them. Redundancy lowers risk of irreversible data loss, so the more backups you have the better as long as you don't break the bank! It has already proven reliable in the event of failure of one of the disks in the NAS, hasn't it? Local backup is perhaps most suitable for media files (videos) which can get quite big. Documents do not occupy as much space as media files, so they can be given higher priority for cloud backup (tier 2) after local backup.

Your NAS is not obsolete, but it is old and replacing it with a new model or even different brand can be beneficial in terms of performance and security. As you can see, your NAS uses SMB v1 protocol which is outdated and insecure, and you were forced to re-enable that protocol in Windows 10 to be able to access it. MS may in the near future completely remove that protocol from Windows, which would render the NAS inaccessible through it. While the NAS supports another protocol, such as NFS, it may not be as fast as SMB. Also, the NAS has no support for disks larger than 2TB and you may easily exceed that capacity. Upgrading to a newer NAS would surely overcome such limitations.



englishtutor said:


> Under "This PC" not only does the NAS Volume_1 appear , but now there is also another icon "dlink-964FAE, which is the name of the NAS itself, not just the folders inside (Volume_1). I don't know what this is or what it is for. It will not open when I click "open". When "properties" are clicked, there are no properties ("properties not available"). What the heck IS this thing?


That other icon, is the NAS appearing as a *media server* for streaming videos, music and photos to compatible network media players. It is one of its features and you may have turned it on or it is enabled by default. You can turn that feature off. It is covered on *page 34 of the user manual*.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

11am ChST, Fri.8-24-2018: Thank you Stancestans : Okay, now that I know that my abstract model is sound, next questions are:

1. What replacement for D-Link NAS? My thinking is that NAS offers a superior solution, for my abstract model, over simple external hard drive (What connection type? USB? "Firewire"? Scuzzy cable?....best connection type?). Is that thinking correct or misguided? Also, I know that huge generational changes have happened in hard disk manufacture since the NAS was new. When new, the Sata hard disks were the latest & greatest, especially for durability. Now, maybe not so? I have read that SSD hard disks are taking over.

2. What source will ship new hardware to me? Once I identify the best type of external drive, I will need to find a source to buy that hardware. The D-Link NAS came from TigerDirect, as did both of the original disks, as did the first replacement disk. That was all good. Good price on the NAS & good price on the first replacement disk. The replacement went flawlessly. I simply pulled out the bad disk & slid in the new one. It immediately mirrored good to go. However, since TigerDirect was sold in 2016, now they refuse to ship to me.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> 11am ChST, Fri.8-24-2018: Thank you Stancestans : Okay, now that I know that my abstract model is sound, next questions are:
> 
> 1. What replacement for D-Link NAS?


You have a wide range to choose from. Amazon alone has NAS ranging from ~$100 to ~$130,000! What's your budget (excluding shipping)? Note that most of them are diskless (do not include HDDs), while a select few do include HDDs. Purchasing one that includes disks can save you some bucks, compared to buying the NAS and the HDDs separately, but attention must be paid to the HDDs they contain so as not to compromise on quality/reliability/suitability.



> My thinking is that NAS offers a superior solution, for my abstract model, over simple external hard drive (What connection type? USB? "Firewire"? Scuzzy cable?....best connection type?). Is that thinking correct or misguided?


Yes, in your abstract model, NAS is preferable. Many decent NAS offer both LAN and USB connectivity. I would recommend one that offers at least one LAN and one USB port.



> Also, I know that huge generational changes have happened in hard disk manufacture since the NAS was new. When new, the Sata hard disks were the latest & greatest, especially for durability. Now, maybe not so? I have read that SSD hard disks are taking over.


SSDs are here to succeed HDDs, but that won't be happening any time soon. They are relatively more expensive and limited in capacity. As system drives (from which operating systems run), SSDs offer far superior performance and durability than HDDs, but for bulk storage, they are still far from being a consumer-friendly, economically feasible option.



> 2. What source will ship new hardware to me? Once I identify the best type of external drive, I will need to find a source to buy that hardware. The D-Link NAS came from TigerDirect, as did both of the original disks, as did the first replacement disk. That was all good. Good price on the NAS & good price on the first replacement disk. The replacement went flawlessly. I simply pulled out the bad disk & slid in the new one. It immediately mirrored good to go. However, since TigerDirect was sold in 2016, now they refuse to ship to me.


Your best bet would be to shop from any US online store of your choice and then use a reputable parcel forwarding service such as USGoBuy or MyUS. The latter seems to be favoured more by many, I too would choose it, than the former, but they've both scored impressively on third party reviews. You can Google "USGoBuy reviews" or "MyUS reviews" and compare the two, and you can also visit each service and find out more about what perks they offer and compare them.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

Thank you Stancestans. Okay, now I am looking for a NAS with 2 matching HDDs. What particular type of HDD is it that would be best for this use? ...especially considering the heat, humidity & coral dust in the air all the time on this tropical island? Is it still Sata? I have seen something about more than one type of Sata, like Sata1, Sata2, Sata3, like that?


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> Thank you Stancestans. Okay, now I am looking for a NAS with 2 matching HDDs.


 Many small business/home office NAS are 2-bay, so that won't be a problem.




> What particular type of HDD is it that would be best for this use? ...especially considering the heat, humidity & coral dust in the air all the time on this tropical island?


When I mentioned HDD type, what I had in mind is _desktop class_ or _enterprise class_ HDDs. If going for NAS that includes the HDDs, you can end up paying a fortune if the HDDs included are pricier enterprise class disks, suitable for 24/7 365-day uptime and faster performance such as those you'd use on a server computer. Those would be overkill for your use case and not value for money. Instead, the included disks should just be fairly priced, acceptable quality, desktop class disks like those you'd use on a PC. As for climatic conditions, you'll just have to keep their use environment (office?) free from those harsh elements.





> Is it still Sata? I have seen something about more than one type of Sata, like Sata1, Sata2, Sata3, like that?


Nothing below SATA III. The higher; the faster, the better.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

10:45am ChST, Sat.8-25-2018: Thanks a million! Stancestans You da man! I'm still following some previous instructions. Will also research the hardware. When I get caught up, by your leave, I want to go into the subject of backup software for the 2 tier system. :whistling:


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

Okay, I disabled internet search in Windows Search using the executable file provided by Stancestans. That was successful. Now, I wish to broach the subtopic of backup software for my theoretical 2 tier backup system. It needs to automatically back up files to my (new) NAS, not to the cloud. Then, at night, when I leave my office, I want software that will back up the backup, so to speak, backing up the NAS to the cloud. I want it to do that only on my command, NOT run continuously in the background. 

I know that this subtopic has already been touched on previously with a couple of cloud services recommended. I will review those soon. But, first, I would like to address a solution that I thought of myself. This gets complicated for my understanding. It seems that cloud backup uses software that only backs up the drive it is deployed from? correct? After I reinstalled Windows, I got several Win10 prompts to "finish installing & configuring OneDrive" or some similar wording. I did not know what I was doing so I did nothing. However, evidently Win10 got tired of waiting for me to "finish installing & configuring OneDrive", and did it for me without my permission (I hate when Windows makes arbitrary & capricious moves like that without my permission). Anyway, now that Win10 finished that task for me, it appears that it has deployed OneDrive under Desktop (see attached screenshot). Before I reinstalled Windows, I began playing with this idea. I reasoned that since I already have OneDrive with my OS, why not see what it can do? So, I moved the OneDrive folder to Volume_1 in the NAS. That SEEMED to work. Of course, that configuration was undone by the windows reinstallation. Before I get in any deeper & probably confuse myself, I will wait for you TSF to critique this post and maybe clarify my understanding.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> Okay, I disabled internet search in Windows Search using the executable file provided by Stancestans. That was successful. Now, I wish to broach the subtopic of backup software for my theoretical 2 tier backup system. It needs to automatically back up files to my (new) NAS, not to the cloud. Then, at night, when I leave my office, I want software that will back up the backup, so to speak, backing up the NAS to the cloud. I want it to do that only on my command, NOT run continuously in the background.
> 
> I know that this subtopic has already been touched on previously with a couple of cloud services recommended. I will review those soon. But, first, I would like to address a solution that I thought of myself. This gets complicated for my understanding. It seems that cloud backup uses software that only backs up the drive it is deployed from? correct? After I reinstalled Windows, I got several Win10 prompts to "finish installing & configuring OneDrive" or some similar wording. I did not know what I was doing so I did nothing. However, evidently Win10 got tired of waiting for me to "finish installing & configuring OneDrive", and did it for me without my permission (I hate when Windows makes arbitrary & capricious moves like that without my permission). Anyway, now that Win10 finished that task for me, it appears that it has deployed OneDrive under Desktop (see attached screenshot). Before I reinstalled Windows, I began playing with this idea. I reasoned that since I already have OneDrive with my OS, why not see what it can do? So, I moved the OneDrive folder to Volume_1 in the NAS. That SEEMED to work. Of course, that configuration was undone by the windows reinstallation. Before I get in any deeper & probably confuse myself, I will wait for you TSF to critique this post and maybe clarify my understanding.


You can relocate the local OneDrive folder to the NAS thus avoiding duplication and unnecessary space usage. As for backup software, Macrium Reflect Free will do the job just fine. As for the hardware, I strongly recommend Synology, especially DS218j. Synology is a leading brand of NAS and has perhaps the best budget offers and great value for money. I strongly recommend buying the NAS and HDDs separately because I've observed that those that come populated with HDDs are not as feature-rich. Synology DS218j has native (inbuilt) support for cloud backup to OneDrive among other public cloud services, so you won't need to keep the pc running for the NAS' contents to be backed up to the cloud.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

5pm ChST, Wed.8-29-2018: Stancestans; Thank you once again for your typical thorough, in-depth, detailed support. Is this the NAS model?

https://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6152275&CatId=11706

Is this a good price ($189.99 + shpg.) sans hard disks? 


Also, I am seeing a huge selection of HDDs. Beyond the general guidance you already gave above (min.SataIII, min.5TB), do you have any favorite brands, like maybe 3 top favs? Any fav particular models?

Thanks a million! :wink:


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> 5pm ChST, Wed.8-29-2018: Stancestans; Thank you once again for your typical thorough, in-depth, detailed support. Is this the NAS model?
> 
> https://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6152275&CatId=11706


 Is this a good price ($189.99 + shpg.) sans hard disks? 

Yes, that's the model. It goes for $169.99 on Amazon and Newegg sans shipping. I don't know how much they'll charge for shipping to a US address, so I can't tell if TigerDirect's offer is better. Any reason why you prefer TigerDirect; incentives perhaps?



> Also, I am seeing a huge selection of HDDs. Beyond the general guidance you already gave above (min.SataIII, min.5TB), do you have any favorite brands, like maybe 3 top favs? Any fav particular models?Thanks a million! :wink:


My top brand would be WD (Western Digital) Red are especially suitable for NAS application (longevity) while maintaining a modest price tag. Second choice would be HGST NAS drives, which is a Western Digital brand, so that is expected. My third choice would be Seagate. Most of my DOA (dead on arrival) and failure encounters have involved Seagate more than the other brands, especially on desktop and laptop drives, hence it being my last choice of brand.


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

2:30pm ChST, Thur.8-30-2018: Thank you Stancestans : You are definitely the *hardware man!* 

My quick research confirms your recommendations. There does appear to be some consensus that Western Digital makes the best NAS drives. However, in addition to Red & HGST, I also see Green, Blue, Purple & maybe other colors as well. The selection is wide indeed. However, to get up into the 5-6TB sizes with min.SataIII, the prices I am seeing are up around $200 PER DISK. So, although $170 + shpg. for the NAS housing is not necessarily prohibitive, additional $400+ for the disks would 'sink my ship' at the present time.

Therefore, it looks like my best bet will be to replace the bad disk in my current NAS for now, and start saving up to buy the new NAS & disks asap (as soon as practical). 

So, I went back into the D-Link control panel to get the specs on the bad disk for exact replacement. Both disks are model WD20EARS-00MVWB. I searched but could not find any with the "00MVWD" part, but did find 3 listings on Newegg for WD20EARS. 

1. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...4F65325&cm_re=WD20EARS-_-22-136-514-_-Product

2. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...75B0668&cm_re=WD20EARS-_-22-236-214-_-Product

3. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...7AX0524&cm_re=WD20EARS-_-22-136-936-_-Product


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

Stancestans: Just a quick note here to answer your question about TigerDirect. No, I did not do my initial product search on TD because of any rebates or other purchase incentives. My experience with TD rebates is that they are easy for TD to offer & advertise but not so easy to actually collect (like pulling teeth without anesthetic). They make you jump through so many hoops that I stopped even bothering to apply... not cost effective if I allow any value for my time.

The reason I did the initial product search on TD was nothing other than plain & simple 'force of habit'. Previous to 2015, I used to buy EVERYTHING from TD because, back then, their selections & prices were unbeatable and their customer service was adequate. However, my experience with TD in 2015 caused me to quit them altogether. That is a different story, I guess not for this thread. Suffice to say, their sales & customer service 'went to Hades in a handbasket' that year. After 2016, when I discovered that TD had been sold to new owners, I tried again. However, to my horror, I discovered that their sales & customer service had actually gotten WORSE after the sale, not better. What a crying shame! TigerDirect used to be such a good company!


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

englishtutor said:


> 2:30pm ChST, Thur.8-30-2018: Thank you Stancestans : You are definitely the *hardware man!*
> 
> My quick research confirms your recommendations. There does appear to be some consensus that Western Digital makes the best NAS drives. However, in addition to Red & HGST, I also see Green, Blue, Purple & maybe other colors as well. The selection is wide indeed. However, to get up into the 5-6TB sizes with min.SataIII, the prices I am seeing are up around $200 PER DISK. So, although $170 + shpg. for the NAS housing is not necessarily prohibitive, additional $400+ for the disks would 'sink my ship' at the present time.
> 
> ...


You don't need to start so high. You could start with 2TB (WD Red @ $83.99 on Amazon) and when/if your needs exceed that capacity, you can expand to larger drives as necessary, so you'd be looking at $167.98 for two WD Red 2TB NAS drives making a total of $337.97 sans shipping.

WD names its models using colors, and each is designed with a suitable use case scenario in mind.

All three links above are for refurbished and used drives. The one on link 1 may seem new if you look at its price ($75.09) compared to the one on link 2 ($49.99), but it isn't. If you look at its specifications, under Features, it is stated:



> _Sold as used and in working condition. There may be drives that have up to 50 bad sectors._


That is a drive I would stay away from, especially as a backup drive. I would strongly recommend getting two brand new latest 2TB NAS drives such as the WD Red linked above or the combo bundle on Newegg and use them with your current NAS, and then when you've finally acquired the new NAS, you can swap them to the new NAS then upgrade to bigger capacities if need be. Bottom line is, I don't trust the good drive in the current NAS coz it can easily kick the bucket even before the RAID 1 array is rebuilt!


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

12:45pm ChST, Thur.9-6-2018: Greetings Stancestans & TSF: A new issue has arisen that is pursuant to the recovery process from damage done by the malware. I tried to use my scanner for the first time since the Windows reinstall. It failed because the operating software was removed by the Win reinstall. So, I tried to operate the scanner by using Windows Fax&Scan utility. That one failed as well. I located & downloaded the manufacturer's operating software but that software failed to produce an icon in the utilities (^) on the taskbar like it is supposed to do. For some reason, even though the Visioneer OneTouch software DOES appear in Control panel/Programs & Features, as well as on the start menu, it does not work. When I try to use it, all it does is prompt an error message telling me that "no scanners are connected". *see attached screenshots*


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

more screenshots


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## englishtutor (Apr 30, 2018)

What I cannot understand (among many) is that the scanner was originally installed about a year & a half ago & worked fine for all that time, including the OneTouch software which had its icon in the utilities (^) on the taskbar (not this time). Evidently the USB ports were ok for it then. How is it that suddenly it requires a different (older) generation of USB port now (USB 2.0)? Did the Windows reinstall or perhaps some Windows update change some USB 2.0 port into a USB 3.0 port? Of course, I did try moving the scanner's USB cable around to different slots. The result was the same.


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