I hate to tell you Uvah, but the first thing you should have done with the system you just purchased was do a clean install of the operating system and then started installing the software you want.  I have a feeling you may have some messed up files somewhere.

Hehe, I've been converting all my old tapes, singles, LP's and CD's to MP3's since first getting a computer about 8 - 9 years ago.  All up I have 346 gigs of music on a dedicated media drive.  Shoot, that's music I've been collecting since the 70's, and while I replaced many LP's with CD's [of which I have 2012.. counting box sets as individuals], I still have 232 LP's, all of which are rarities and/or collectors editions.  Yeah, it's good to hear music on vinyl, with all the pops and cracks, etc... so much more character than the digital stuff.

My mother always wondered why I needed so much music [while still living with the oldies I'd buy 2 - 3, sometimes 4 or 5 albums a week] and I'd say that I'd rather have the dilemma of having to choose from a large selection than being bored shitless with a small one.

As usual, I get carried away and digress.... [as my father used to say, I'd talk under water with duct tape gag and a mouthful of marbles]

Yeah, I think many of your ills would be cured with a reformat and clean install of the OS.  Yeah, I know it's a pain in the arse and time consuming [getting all the updates and service packs, reinstalling ally your proggies] but at the end of the day you'd have a more stable/reliable system. 

A friend of mine bought a 'refurbished' laptop and discovered that not only had it NOT been refurbished, but that it still had the previous owner's files stored in the 'My Documents' folder.  I knew bugger all about computers back then - even less about laptops - so I advised her to take it to my trusted techie, who in turn advised her that the machine had some dodgey RAM and needed a new HDD... which suited her perfectly. 

Instead of getting the OS with all the 3rd party proprietary crap restored from the recovery partition, she got a neat, no bones clean install of XP with a disc.  That's one thing I never liked about laptops... the recovery partition instead of a disc.  Call me too fussy or over particular, and maybe they do the same thing [install the OS] but I like a clutter free installation, which proprietary brands never are, and an installation disc that can't/doesn't suffer hardware failure. 

My mother's first laptop suffered the fate of the HDD dying after about 2 1/2 years.  It was a case of either replacing the drive or going new... she opted to trade it in for a better model.

Anyway, Uvah, me old cobber, you'd probably be better off biting the bullet and reformatting.  I mean, if the hardware's all good, why fuzz it up with ify software!

4.5 Tb currently plugged in....not counting the OS driive....overall a bit over 55% full.......

Well..........looks like I'm gonna be a busy camper today. Really didn't like this edition of W7 anyway.

That is the standard for any mass produced computer these days be it a notebook or desktop.

By the way did you get a OS disk with the sale?

^ Damn fine and pertinent question, kona.  

I ask because I see it on Craigslist all the time. People selling computers without a OS or recovery disc or selling computers after loading the OS using a copied Windows XP/Vista/7 disc.

Nope, no OS disc came with it. No biggie though, I have my own W7 Pro disc 64 bit. I did a variation on the upgrade. Booted up, put the install disc for W7 in the tray, opened it up, clicked on setup.exe and boom, four hours later after I did a backup restore from my external HDD, all folders skins and other nice stuff. Did a reinstall of WB, DX, CFX, which BTW is working now, and my anti-virus apps. Trying out PS now to see if its still working. If not out it goes and I stick with PSP. Pays to have your own install disc. I did learn however that you can only put the OS on two machines. I always thought the limit was five, had to get a new product key. But, knock wood, all is good in the land of insane folks.......

Like starkers and a few others who should remain nameless but..................

GOTCHA!

Thats odd...each of my Technet keys allows you to install the OS to 10 different machines, and reinstall unlimited times.

I always thought it was one copy per machine. that's what the ELUA reads.

I dunno. The one I tried to install it on was for a friend. He bought a larger drive for his laptop. Had a helluva time with it too. Anyway, when I went to activate it online it kept refusing it. So I called support and spent the next hour and change getting it straightened out. What a pain that was.

Back OT....mine brand new used one is coming along nicely. Got almost all my apps installed. I think one or two more will do it. Don't want to overload it.

BTW......Does anyone have the installer package for Bins beta that you might want to share? Mine is stuck on the other HDD.

It's still available for download...here

Guess that depends on which EULA you get. The one I have from Technet allows me to use each of my 10 keys of each version on 10 different machines.

Also, my Win 7 Enterprise edition key can be used on an unlimited amount of machines.

Technet is the only way to go...you get access to every thing Microsoft has, before it's released. All this for the price of a retail copy of an Ultimate edition of Win 7.

Thank you CG1 for the link. Now on to folders...lol.