Computer questions you'd be embarrassed to ask any where else!

New Home · 15-05-2020 12:49pm

I know you can't attach anything to PMs, but what forums don't? Serious question.

15-05-2020 1:40pm

I've come across a few where I can not post the [IMG][/IMG] tags but never where I can not actually attach

spurious · 15-05-2020 2:52pm

Perhaps I am mistaken, though I remember being unable to attach a photo once. It may have been a temporary thing. Apologies.

Steve · 15-05-2020 6:07pm

spurious wrote: »

Perhaps I am mistaken, though I remember being unable to attach a photo once. It may have been a temporary thing. Apologies.

You're correct some forums (like AH used to) do not allow images.

15-05-2020 8:08pm

Steve wrote: »

You're correct some forums (like AH used to) do not allow images.

Don't allow images but block attachments?

Steve · 15-05-2020 10:42pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Don't allow images but block attachments?

Sorry, I don't know what might be causing that.

Esel · 15-05-2020 11:25pm

NIMAN wrote: »

Got another one.

In the past I set up the OHs work laptop to backup files to a memory stick.
First back up done fine, but the stick it backed up to is only a 32gb one, and its showing 0 free space.

When I plug it in now, I would guess it will eventually say there isn't enough room to backup new files?

But I tried to change it and back up all the file history to another drive, but any other drive I attached isn't allowed, it keeps saying it wants the original drive used to proceed.

Any ideas?

Any result on this?

NIMAN · 22-05-2020 7:09pm

Esel wrote: »

Any result on this?

Naw? Haven't been at it since.

You got something similar?

FFVII · 22-05-2020 7:35pm

NIMAN wrote: »

Naw? Haven't been at it since.

You got something similar?

You're backing up the whole operating system?

Esel · 22-05-2020 8:31pm

NIMAN wrote: »

Naw? Haven't been at it since.

You got something similar?

I was just wondering if you had tried my suggestion of inserting the 'full' memory stick first.

NIMAN · 26-05-2020 6:14am

FFVII wrote: »

You're backing up the whole operating system?

No, don't think so.

NIMAN · 26-05-2020 6:15am

Esel wrote: »

I was just wondering if you had tried my suggestion of inserting the 'full' memory stick first.

I did yeah, it didn't give any error to say it was full.

antix80 · 26-05-2020 6:27am

NIMAN wrote: »

I did yeah, it didn't give any error to say it was full.

I've no idea what program you're using but try this..

Open the application and create a new backup, rather than editing the existing backup. Select files to be included in the backup, and put in the new memory key/drive.

NIMAN · 26-05-2020 11:56pm

antix80 wrote: »

I've no idea what program you're using but try this..

Open the application and create a new backup, rather than editing the existing backup. Select files to be included in the backup, and put in the new memory key/drive.

I'm not using a program, its the setting on Win8 that backs up your data in case its lost.

From what I can see, it backs up your user data initially, then if you use the laptop for say 3 months, then put the memory stick back in, it checks to see what 'new' data has been created on the laptop since the last backup, and backs that up on to the memory stick.

batistuta9 · 27-05-2020 4:55am

Is it file history you're using? Have a look at this anyway might help you out
https://www.digitalcitizen.life/file-history

NIMAN · 27-05-2020 6:33am

Yip, thats what I'm using...must try the bit about changing drive. Thanks.

enfield · 08-12-2020 7:54am

Hello computer experts. I really need our help. I am using Excel to sort names and data and keep adding new stuff, genealogy. I would have over 30,000 lines and Excel it great for sorting them using different searches. I am still adding info to them and adding new lines. The project I am working on is going through the online death certificates in the N.A.
Now then here is the problem, while looking for I had saved in a line it was gone, poof, just like that. Like it never existed. My theory is that Excel has a limit and when you go over that limit it deletes lines as you add more. Could that be right?
I hope I explained the problem well enough for you to understand. I am nearly 70 and this has kept me busy during Covid and I would hate to think the whole project is corrupted.
Can you help please?

brianwalshcork · 08-12-2020 8:03am

If you are saving the file as an xls (older) file format, then the limit for the number of rows is 65536.

The newer xlsx file format has a row limit of over 1 million rows.

You can tell which file format you are using by looking at the last or if the file name.

SnowyMay · 08-12-2020 8:19am

enfield wrote: »

Hello computer experts. I really need our help. I am using Excel to sort names and data and keep adding new stuff, genealogy. I would have over 30,000 lines and Excel it great for sorting them using different searches. I am still adding info to them and adding new lines. The project I am working on is going through the online death certificates in the N.A.
Now then here is the problem, while looking for I had saved in a line it was gone, poof, just like that. Like it never existed. My theory is that Excel has a limit and when you go over that limit it deletes lines as you add more. Could that be right?
I hope I explained the problem well enough for you to understand. I am nearly 70 and this has kept me busy during Covid and I would hate to think the whole project is corrupted.
Can you help please?

Hi enfield

No worries about the row (line) limit in Excel just yet. Off the top of my head, it’s approx 65,000 on Excel 2003, and over 1,040,000 from later versions.

Could you have possibly hit Ctrl + z (which will undue an action) along the way? Although, Ctrl + z is useful if you make a mistake and need to fix it. Ctrl + y then is redo, so you can hop back and forth.

Anyhow - I wouldn’t worry that your sheet is corrupt. But what you might do is start saving versions - so save your current one as 20201208_Geneology_v1 or the like, and then it is safe, and then open it up and save it again as v2, and do that every few weeks or month or so, so ensure you have a backup.

Sounds like a cool project!

enfield · 08-12-2020 8:49am

Thank you Brian and Snowy. It is a lot to take in but I will get through it over the day. I had saved all in a master file and that was the one that was corrupted but I also saved it by counties in 26 separate files. Using these individual counties I can re-populate the master that was corrupted. You guys really know your stuff, thank you very much for the help, I don't understand it all but will get there. At least now I have a plan.
The file says it is XLSX and another just says XLS are these compatable?
The project is great, thank you Snowy. I am looking for soldiers who died after discharge between 1914 and 1921 and are missing from the C.W.G.C. So far I have had 290 accepted by 'In from The Cold Project' to be added to C.W.G.C. and if I can show where they are buried each one will get a war grave headstone.

enfield · 08-12-2020 9:57am

Y'know the more I think of it the more I am of the opinion that CTRL Z is the culprit. I will have to keep an eye on that little divil in future. He is too close to Crtl V and CTRL V.

Kat1170 · 08-12-2020 10:53am

Excellent project, well done.
On a a project involving that much work I would definitely be making a second copy of everything on an external HD as a backup.

SnowyMay · 08-12-2020 11:30am

enfield wrote: »

Thank you Brian and Snowy. It is a lot to take in but I will get through it over the day. I had saved all in a master file and that was the one that was corrupted but I also saved it by counties in 26 separate files. Using these individual counties I can re-populate the master that was corrupted. You guys really know your stuff, thank you very much for the help, I don't understand it all but will get there. At least now I have a plan.
The file says it is XLSX and another just says XLS are these compatable?
The project is great, thank you Snowy. I am looking for soldiers who died after discharge between 1914 and 1921 and are missing from the C.W.G.C. So far I have had 290 accepted by 'In from The Cold Project' to be added to C.W.G.C. and if I can show where they are buried each one will get a war grave headstone.

Wow. Well that is some project!!

So, just on xlsx and xls, they are pretty compatible in general. The xlsx is the later version which will allow you those million + rows, and other functionality. If you’re copying over data from one to another, stick with the xlsx version, as the older xls version could lose some formatting or the like along the way.

Definitely also a good idea to back up somewhere other than your laptop as well, as Kat says. Even if you don’t have an external drive, you can just email it to yourself, and voila! Sounds too important to risk losing.

Best of luck with it all!!

enfield · 08-12-2020 12:06pm

Thank you Snowy and Kat. xlsx it is for me then, thank you very much for the suggestions. Sure who else could I have asked than the most helpful pals on this forum. I will save it on a memory stick in future. I did email it a few times but it is 63 megabytes and the email struggles to upload it.
Thank you again for your advice and suggestions which I will take on board and follow.
Kindest regards.
Tom.

Kat1170 · 08-12-2020 3:56pm

I'd say the Genealogy forum would be interested in this if you haven't already posted there.

enfield · 08-12-2020 4:53pm

Hello Kat.
Thank you for your suggestion.
I did put a post in genealogy offering lookups during covid, the thing is that the new ones that were accepted by 'In From The Cold' were not available then but are now. Also newly added (not finished yet, but will be in about 6 weeks) is every soldier ( about 2,000) from the 26 counties who died after they were discharged whether they qualify for inclusion or not, including the Barrack wardens, Barrack workers, Canteen staff, Voluntary Aid detachments (usually women), YMCA attached to the army, over 40 Merchant Navy lads recently found in Cobh Old Church Cemetery (the same one that has the Lusitania victims), other Merchant Navy lads sunk by submarines but not included in the CWGC as they were not on war work, Barrack Sergeants (usually ex-soldiers) and of course over 100 munition workers who died during that period, it is really interesting stuff.

Jellybaby_1 · 08-12-2020 9:20pm

Kat1170 wrote: »

I'd say the Genealogy forum would be interested in this if you haven't already posted there.

Darn right! My genealogy is on Excel, so I'm off to check the version now!

enfield · 09-12-2020 5:05pm

OK so, I am correcting the problem by putting all the 26 separate counties into 4 large excel files. I also added a master backup file with all the counties from a backup I have from last year, and then sorted them. Now to delete the duplicates which showed me the problem. When I added one county say Kilkenny, to one of the large files and come to delete the dublicates I can see that some of the Kilkenny lines I added did not transfer over to. About one line every 500 we have a missing name. Now I cut and pasted them so they were all together but some were missing afterwards. As I have duplicates lines in there as well I can see which ones are missing. Its strange that it does this and rarely happens to other transferred files mainly with Kilkenny.
I hope I explained that and you are not confused. So, in hindsight it does not look like CTRLZ is the problem.
Thank you again guys and gals for your patience with me. I can fix this but it will take a bit of time, but it can be fixed.
Kindest regards.
Tom.

SnowyMay · 09-12-2020 7:21pm

enfield wrote: »

OK so, I am correcting the problem by putting all the 26 separate counties into 4 large excel files. I also added a master backup file with all the counties from a backup I have from last year, and then sorted them. Now to delete the duplicates which showed me the problem. When I added one county say Kilkenny, to one of the large files and come to delete the dublicates I can see that some of the Kilkenny lines I added did not transfer over to. About one line every 500 we have a missing name. Now I cut and pasted them so they were all together but some were missing afterwards. As I have duplicates lines in there as well I can see which ones are missing. Its strange that it does this and rarely happens to other transferred files mainly with Kilkenny.
I hope I explained that and you are not confused. So, in hindsight it does not look like CTRLZ is the problem.
Thank you again guys and gals for your patience with me. I can fix this but it will take a bit of time, but it can be fixed.
Kindest regards.
Tom.

Hi Tom

Ok, that doesn’t make sense, and is not normal Excel behaviour. I’m struggling to think of a reason - maybe some weird merged cells in the source or something.

I hope this doesn’t cross a line, but you could PM if you wanted me to take a look for you, but only if you would be comfortable with that (I work with a lot of sensitive data, and really don’t take notice of the content anymore).

Totally up to you, but will help if I can.

Red Hare · 09-12-2020 7:30pm

What's Exel?

is_that_so · 09-12-2020 7:33pm

Red Hare wrote: »

What's Exel?

Excel is a spreadsheet tool, typically used to record and add up numbers but you can do lots more. One example is where people do a weekly or monthly budget for the year. It's part of Microsoft Office.

GarIT · 09-12-2020 7:35pm

Red Hare wrote: »

What's Exel?

A spreadsheet program. It handles calculations for you automatically if you know how to tell it to do those.

09-12-2020 7:35pm

is_that_so wrote: »

Excel is a spreadsheet tool, typically used to record and add up numbers but you can do lots more. One example is where people do a weekly or monthly budget for the year. It's part of Microsoft Office.

Or government agencies run a pandemic Track and Trace on a single spreadsheet...
:pac::pac::pac:

is_that_so · 09-12-2020 7:36pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Or government agencies run a pandemic Track and Trace on a single spreadsheet...
:pac::pac::pac:

Now, now!:D

Red Hare · 09-12-2020 7:37pm

But the things being calculated here are genetics and they have a 4 fold formula that is different to how a speed sheet works

09-12-2020 7:38pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Or government agencies run a pandemic Track and Trace on a single spreadsheet...
:pac::pac::pac:

That did happen but it was across the water in UK. It didn't happen here.

UK Excel blunder under-reports 16,000 Covid cases

GarIT · 09-12-2020 7:42pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Or government agencies run a pandemic Track and Trace on a single spreadsheet...
:pac::pac::pac:

That was the NHS not our government.

Excel also isn't a terrible place to store that data. Insecure but it could be encrypted. The issue the UK had was that they used an old version that only allowed for a limited number of lines.

GarIT · 09-12-2020 7:43pm

Red Hare wrote: »

But the things being calculated here are genetics and they have a 4 fold formula that is different to how a speed sheet works

Excel can do any formula if you're good enough at it and the data is still stored in a spreadsheet.

is_that_so · 09-12-2020 7:43pm

Red Hare wrote: »

But the things being calculated here are genetics and they have a 4 fold formula that is different to how a speed sheet works

That's the power Excel offers you. You can use it for basic calculations or dive into its large functions and formulas library!

09-12-2020 7:51pm

Red Hare wrote: »

But the things being calculated here are genetics and they have a 4 fold formula that is different to how a speed sheet works

Excel also uses worksheets, which is like a folder containing spreadsheets which you can reference.

So you can do(written in pseudo-code):

If formula1, use A1 from Worksheet1:
if formula2, use A1 from Worksheet2

and so on.

09-12-2020 7:59pm

GarIT wrote: »

Excel can do any formula if you're good enough at it and the data is still stored in a spreadsheet.

My father wrote a virtual alcohol still originally using the spreadhseet program on a Commodore 64 around the year I was born. He converted it to an Excel workbook late 90s. Around 2009 I attempted to convert it to MySQL backed with a python based lookup. I gave up.

I gained a lot of respect for him while (trying) to do that project, considering when he did it, he had no intermet, Google hadn't been invented and he was working just off the manual that came with it.

enfield · 09-12-2020 8:01pm

Thank you for your kind offer May, but it is all in hand, it will take time but will be grand in the end.

About Excel for those unfamiliar with it-I save my data in excel. It is a program like a book with lines in it. Each line would have a name, number, unit, date of death, birth, place, where enlisted, residence, next of kin details, what they died from, any newspaper articles written on them, and place of burial and grave number. You can 'sort' out all the input anyway you please to give you the answers you require.
Such as, when I am fixing the error I have encountered, at the click of a mouse all the information were sorted in this sequence, Surname, First name, date of death, service number and place of burial. All done in a fraction of a second. If I wanted all the people who died on a certain date again it would only take a second and give you the results you require. I do not know how I survived before I used Excel but would not, and could not record the data in any other way that give me the results I want, when I want it.
Thank you everyone for all your helpful suggestions, you are very patient with this doddery old codger.]
Kindest regards.
Tom.

SnowyMay · 09-12-2020 8:06pm

GarIT wrote: »

Excel can do any formula if you're good enough at it and the data is still stored in a spreadsheet.

Yes. And, honestly, it can do so much more (I’m a big Excel fan in case it isn’t obvious). With macros, you can predefine stuff that you want to do on a daily basis fairly easily - you can even just record an action and use it again (but be careful with that as Excel will record your exact steps and replicate them, so if you start off in cell A3, any other actions will start off in cell A3).

Ok, it’s not the most beautiful solution ever as getting stuff into a database is preferable, but, if you want quick and dirty, I can say that Excel has saved me more than once speeding up tasks, having essentially an audit trail in your formulas/code, and is pretty easy to get to grips with in the normal stuff.

Ahhh - I love Excel.

looksee · 09-12-2020 8:09pm

Ahem. There are no doddery old codgers in O&O, we are all lithe young things. Well, apart from me.

enfield · 09-12-2020 8:22pm

Ah looksee, you misunderstand, I meant I was a doddery old codger.
Snowyowl if you PM me your eaddy I will send you an Excel.
Kind regards.
Tom.

09-12-2020 8:56pm

Deleted User wrote: »

That did happen but it was across the water in UK. It didn't happen here.

UK Excel blunder under-reports 16,000 Covid cases

I never said it happened here (well in that scenario anyway...)

Jellybaby_1 · 09-12-2020 8:59pm

enfield wrote: »

...About Excel for those unfamiliar with it-I save my data in excel. It is a program like a book with lines in it. Each line would have a name, number, unit, date of death, birth, place, where enlisted, residence, next of kin details, what they died from, any newspaper articles written on them, and place of burial and grave number. You can 'sort' out all the input anyway you please to give you the answers you require.
Tom.

I'm interested in your system, similar to mine but sounds way better organised and with more information. I make that 13 columns or have you more?

Akrasia · 09-12-2020 9:07pm

Hi Enfield, in relation to your mysterious disappearing cells, if you highlight a large amount of cells and press backspace, only the first cell you highlighted will be deleted. It’s possible you might have accidentally pressed backspace when copying data from one sheet to another?

enfield · 09-12-2020 11:11pm

Jellybaby_1 wrote: »

I'm interested in your system, similar to mine but sounds way better organised and with more information. I make that 13 columns or have you more?

My lines begin at A and stop at BR. My columns are over 31,000.

enfield · 09-12-2020 11:12pm

Akrasia wrote: »

Hi Enfield, in relation to your mysterious disappearing cells, if you highlight a large amount of cells and press backspace, only the first cell you highlighted will be deleted. It’s possible you might have accidentally pressed backspace when copying data from one sheet to another?

Thank you Akrasia for you suggestion. I will try that first thing in the morning.
Kind regards.
Tom.

Computer questions you'd be embarrassed to ask any where else!

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