Posts
STRAIGHTSHOOTINCOMPUTIN
by Jeff Smith
The Blue Screen of Death
If you're a Windows user, more than likely, you've encountered the Blue Screen of Death at some point. Perhaps you were working on something important, perhaps you just weren't holding your mouth right. Then suddenly, the computer beeps at you and the whole screen turns blue with a bunch of white writing that doesn't seem to convey anything useful. Us geeks have been calling it the Blue Screen of Death or BSOD since Window 95. In fact, its been MicroSoft's preferred "uh-oh" screen since Windows 3.1.
Its pop-culture presence has extended to t-shirts, coffee mugs, and the usual sort of collectibles. And I've seen some pictures of it in action in some unexpected places. There was a picture floating around not to far back of one of those huge video screens at Times Square, in New York that had suffered a crash and was displaying the BSOD.
I'm sure the question on everyone's mind, now that I've taken two paragraphs to reminisce about an error message, is what to do about it.
Keep in mind that a BSOD can result from any number of different problems. And most of the information displayed on the screen is not something that the average person can understand.
The first line usually says something like "A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer" The next line is the one you need to pay attention to. It may not make any sense to you, but write it down. Then, when you get your machine booted back up, or can get to another computer, search for that phrase on Google, or one of the other search engines. Often it can lead you to a solution, or at least an understanding of what has gone wrong. Not always, because some of the messages are not specific enough and cover too many possible problems. But sometimes.
In any case, it will be helpful for when you try to seek help from other sources.
That goes for error messages other than the BSOD as well. The more information you can give a repair tech, the less investigative work he'll have to do to find out why your machine is not behaving itself, and that should speed up the repairs. Which in the end, translates to a smaller repair bill. Or at least it should.
STRAIGHTSHOOTINCOMPUTIN@YAHOO.COM
Friday, September 7, 2007
#17 Cut Copy & Paste
StraightShootinComputin
by Jeff Smith
It seems that last weeks article about email attachments helped out more than a few people, so I'm going to get back to basics for a while. If you're moderately computer literate you'll probably not learn much from this article. But if you are one of those people who sometimes mistakes the CD-ROM tray as a cup-holder, then this one is for you. (that means you Alfred)
CUT COPY and PASTE
When using your computer you may find the need to make a duplicate of a file or move a file from one folder to another. Or perhaps you wish to take some text from a webpage and email it to someone. These are instances where CUT COPY and PASTE will come in handy.
In Windows, you can access these functions via your right-click menu. For instance, lets say you wish to copy some text from a web-page. You can hi-lite the desired text by clicking and dragging over it. Then by right-clicking somewhere in the selected text you should see a menu with "Copy" as one of the options. Alternately, you can use the keyboard shortcut of Ctrl+C to whatever is selected.
At this point that text is now residing in what is called the "clipboard." This is a virtual space for files or text that is in transition. Kind of like a holding-area for what you're trying to copy or move. If you select and copy something else before pasting, it will clear the previously copied data and only hold the last thing that was cut or copied.
The next step is to open your email or a text file where you wish to put the copied text. Right-clicking in an open document in an empty area should give you the option to "Paste." Clicking that will deposit the text right there. The keyboard shortcut for Paste is Ctrl+V.
Cutting works in the same way, except that it deletes the original text (only works in documents you can edit, or on writeable disks) and it exists only in the clipboard until you paste it elsewhere. Keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+X.
In linux its even further simplified... at least for copying text. To copy text in Linux, you only have to select the text to be copied and then middle-click (on your wheel) to paste where you want it.
Doing these operations is very easy. And quite handy when it comes to organizing your files. You can cut a file from anywhere and navigate to where you want it and paste it. Remember not tot move Windows system files unless you know what you're doing.
Selecting multiple files using keyboard modifiers.
When selecting files, you can use the keys CTRL and SHIFT on your keyboard to help you select mutliple files. For instance, clicking one file then holding CTRL while you click another will keep both files selected. You can keep adding to the selection until you have everything you want selected, and then CUT or COPY as you need to for all the selected files at once.
If you click one file then hold SHIFT while clicking another file, it will select those two files and every one between them.
Using CTRL and SHIFT in this way works for both Linux and Windows.
Thats about all I have for this week, if you have any questions about this or any article I write, feel free to write to me at the email address below.
STRAIGHTSHOOTINCOMPUTIN@YAHOO.COM
by Jeff Smith
It seems that last weeks article about email attachments helped out more than a few people, so I'm going to get back to basics for a while. If you're moderately computer literate you'll probably not learn much from this article. But if you are one of those people who sometimes mistakes the CD-ROM tray as a cup-holder, then this one is for you. (that means you Alfred)
CUT COPY and PASTE
When using your computer you may find the need to make a duplicate of a file or move a file from one folder to another. Or perhaps you wish to take some text from a webpage and email it to someone. These are instances where CUT COPY and PASTE will come in handy.
In Windows, you can access these functions via your right-click menu. For instance, lets say you wish to copy some text from a web-page. You can hi-lite the desired text by clicking and dragging over it. Then by right-clicking somewhere in the selected text you should see a menu with "Copy" as one of the options. Alternately, you can use the keyboard shortcut of Ctrl+C to whatever is selected.
At this point that text is now residing in what is called the "clipboard." This is a virtual space for files or text that is in transition. Kind of like a holding-area for what you're trying to copy or move. If you select and copy something else before pasting, it will clear the previously copied data and only hold the last thing that was cut or copied.
The next step is to open your email or a text file where you wish to put the copied text. Right-clicking in an open document in an empty area should give you the option to "Paste." Clicking that will deposit the text right there. The keyboard shortcut for Paste is Ctrl+V.
Cutting works in the same way, except that it deletes the original text (only works in documents you can edit, or on writeable disks) and it exists only in the clipboard until you paste it elsewhere. Keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+X.
In linux its even further simplified... at least for copying text. To copy text in Linux, you only have to select the text to be copied and then middle-click (on your wheel) to paste where you want it.
Doing these operations is very easy. And quite handy when it comes to organizing your files. You can cut a file from anywhere and navigate to where you want it and paste it. Remember not tot move Windows system files unless you know what you're doing.
Selecting multiple files using keyboard modifiers.
When selecting files, you can use the keys CTRL and SHIFT on your keyboard to help you select mutliple files. For instance, clicking one file then holding CTRL while you click another will keep both files selected. You can keep adding to the selection until you have everything you want selected, and then CUT or COPY as you need to for all the selected files at once.
If you click one file then hold SHIFT while clicking another file, it will select those two files and every one between them.
Using CTRL and SHIFT in this way works for both Linux and Windows.
Thats about all I have for this week, if you have any questions about this or any article I write, feel free to write to me at the email address below.
STRAIGHTSHOOTINCOMPUTIN@YAHOO.COM
#16 Sending Email Attachments
StraightShootinComputin
by Jeff Smith
Hi and welcome back. It still surprises me whenever I come across someone who doesn't know how to do an email attachment. I often forget that I was new to all of this once, and that I didn't come out of the womb knowing what I know about computers.
Mostly it surprises me because it is just so easy to do. Sending an email attachmnent is one of the oldest and most widely used computing "tricks" in existence.
An attachment, is simply a file that is sent "attached" to an email. Thanks to viruses, they've gotten a bit of a bad name, but so long as you're careful when you open an attachment, and trust who its coming from, they can be very handy.
Using attachments, you can send pictures to your relatives, documents to and from work, or just about anything within the size limits set by your email handler.
Yahoo Mail, which is what I use, allows up to 10 megabytes worth of attachments to an email. And they virus-scan any attachments you may receive before you can accidently download anything malicious. I couldn't tell you the filesize limits of other services, as I've been a pretty faithful Yahoo Mail user for over 10 years.
Using attachments is pretty easy. Next time you wish to send one, just begin composing an email as you normally would. Then look for a button that says something like "Attach Files" (or it may look like a paperclip) and click it. You'll need to browse to and select the file you wish to attach. Then continue with your message and send it. If all went well, your recipient should now have a copy of the file you sent waiting for them in their email. (No, this won't delete your copy of the file.)
Always be careful to virus scan any attachments you receive that end in .zip or .exe because they may possibly be infected with a virus. They won't necessarily be infected, scanning is just a good habit to make. Or you could get an email service that scans them for you. Like I have.
See you next time.
STRAIGHTSHOOTINCOMPUTIN@YAHOO.COM
by Jeff Smith
Hi and welcome back. It still surprises me whenever I come across someone who doesn't know how to do an email attachment. I often forget that I was new to all of this once, and that I didn't come out of the womb knowing what I know about computers.
Mostly it surprises me because it is just so easy to do. Sending an email attachmnent is one of the oldest and most widely used computing "tricks" in existence.
An attachment, is simply a file that is sent "attached" to an email. Thanks to viruses, they've gotten a bit of a bad name, but so long as you're careful when you open an attachment, and trust who its coming from, they can be very handy.
Using attachments, you can send pictures to your relatives, documents to and from work, or just about anything within the size limits set by your email handler.
Yahoo Mail, which is what I use, allows up to 10 megabytes worth of attachments to an email. And they virus-scan any attachments you may receive before you can accidently download anything malicious. I couldn't tell you the filesize limits of other services, as I've been a pretty faithful Yahoo Mail user for over 10 years.
Using attachments is pretty easy. Next time you wish to send one, just begin composing an email as you normally would. Then look for a button that says something like "Attach Files" (or it may look like a paperclip) and click it. You'll need to browse to and select the file you wish to attach. Then continue with your message and send it. If all went well, your recipient should now have a copy of the file you sent waiting for them in their email. (No, this won't delete your copy of the file.)
Always be careful to virus scan any attachments you receive that end in .zip or .exe because they may possibly be infected with a virus. They won't necessarily be infected, scanning is just a good habit to make. Or you could get an email service that scans them for you. Like I have.
See you next time.
STRAIGHTSHOOTINCOMPUTIN@YAHOO.COM
#15 About ISO's
STRAIGHTSHOOTINCOMPUTIN
by Jeff Smith
Last week I was talking about DamnSmallLinux and I promised to give a better explanation on ISOs or disk images, but first, let me tell you how things are going with DSL.
I installed DSL on a very old Fujitsu laptop. Probably about 14 or 15 years old. Maybe more. It has a 133Mhz Pentium 1 processor, only 32MB of RAM, and a tiny lil 1.6GB harddrive. If you've got a newer digital camera, chances are your flash chip for that is bigger than this thing's harddrive. Using and configuring DSL is tough, and not for the faint of heart. Instead of clicking options and adjusting values, you actually just edit text files that contain the configuration information. Its cryptic and weird but very potent. Typos are very potent as well, in a bad way. But after messing with it all week, I was able to get it to hook up to my wireless network, browse the web, read ebooks, and listen to streaming music from Shoutcast (Internet Radio). I was able to change the layout of its menus, and put in a nice looking toolbar, as well as install several useful programs. It now has a pretty useful group of office utilities, such as spreadsheet, word processor, calculator, and an appointment book. Also it can edit photos or create art using the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) which is basically a free alternative to Photshop. Email is handled through web-based email, though it does have a regular email client built in. Add all that to the ebooks and Shoutcast, and its quite a lot of usefulness for such an old machine. All in all, I'm very proud of how it has come along.
DISK IMAGES -There are lots of different file formats for disk images, depending on what program you use to make them. There's .iso, .nrg, .bin and .cue, .mdf and .mds, .ccd and lots more. These are usually made by copying a whole disk into one of these filetypes. Other times, disk images are generated from other programs in order to make bootable cd's. Its a good way to store a cd on your hard drive so that you can make a replacement in case of damage, theft or loss. You can also use utilities such as D-tools, or Alcohol 120% to "mount" these virtual cd's in a virtual cd-drive. This will make your computer think you actually have the disk in a physical drive connected to the machine, and you can interact with it just as you normally would the real version of the disk.
This use of ISOs is great for people who have lots of harddrive space and who hate searching for important disks. I always keep ISO's on my drive of the install disks for all of the different operating systems I use. If I ever need a new Windows or Ubuntu install disk, burning one only takes a few minutes, and there's no worrying about scratches, or other damage, as it is a freshly minted disk.
Getting familiar with ISO's can make your computing life much easier, and its not nearly as hard as it sounds. Chances are, if you use a burning program, it already supports disk images. Just do some poking around and you'll likely find it is pretty easy.
Until next time, burn CD's ... not yourself.
STRAIGHTSHOOTINCOMPUTIN@YAHOO.COM
by Jeff Smith
Last week I was talking about DamnSmallLinux and I promised to give a better explanation on ISOs or disk images, but first, let me tell you how things are going with DSL.
I installed DSL on a very old Fujitsu laptop. Probably about 14 or 15 years old. Maybe more. It has a 133Mhz Pentium 1 processor, only 32MB of RAM, and a tiny lil 1.6GB harddrive. If you've got a newer digital camera, chances are your flash chip for that is bigger than this thing's harddrive. Using and configuring DSL is tough, and not for the faint of heart. Instead of clicking options and adjusting values, you actually just edit text files that contain the configuration information. Its cryptic and weird but very potent. Typos are very potent as well, in a bad way. But after messing with it all week, I was able to get it to hook up to my wireless network, browse the web, read ebooks, and listen to streaming music from Shoutcast (Internet Radio). I was able to change the layout of its menus, and put in a nice looking toolbar, as well as install several useful programs. It now has a pretty useful group of office utilities, such as spreadsheet, word processor, calculator, and an appointment book. Also it can edit photos or create art using the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) which is basically a free alternative to Photshop. Email is handled through web-based email, though it does have a regular email client built in. Add all that to the ebooks and Shoutcast, and its quite a lot of usefulness for such an old machine. All in all, I'm very proud of how it has come along.
DISK IMAGES -There are lots of different file formats for disk images, depending on what program you use to make them. There's .iso, .nrg, .bin and .cue, .mdf and .mds, .ccd and lots more. These are usually made by copying a whole disk into one of these filetypes. Other times, disk images are generated from other programs in order to make bootable cd's. Its a good way to store a cd on your hard drive so that you can make a replacement in case of damage, theft or loss. You can also use utilities such as D-tools, or Alcohol 120% to "mount" these virtual cd's in a virtual cd-drive. This will make your computer think you actually have the disk in a physical drive connected to the machine, and you can interact with it just as you normally would the real version of the disk.
This use of ISOs is great for people who have lots of harddrive space and who hate searching for important disks. I always keep ISO's on my drive of the install disks for all of the different operating systems I use. If I ever need a new Windows or Ubuntu install disk, burning one only takes a few minutes, and there's no worrying about scratches, or other damage, as it is a freshly minted disk.
Getting familiar with ISO's can make your computing life much easier, and its not nearly as hard as it sounds. Chances are, if you use a burning program, it already supports disk images. Just do some poking around and you'll likely find it is pretty easy.
Until next time, burn CD's ... not yourself.
STRAIGHTSHOOTINCOMPUTIN@YAHOO.COM
#14 DamnSmallLinux
STRAIGHTSHOOTINCOMPUTIN
by Jeff Smith
Hello and welcome back again! This week I'd like to share with you a recent discovery.
I have good news for those of you who have an old computer in your closet or garage just sitting there gathering dust. That old machine may not be as worthless as you may have thought. This weekend I came across another distribution of Linux that is just perfect for older hardware. Its called DamnSmallLinux. I'm not trying to offend anyone, thats just what it is called. From here on, I'll just call it DSL.
The minimum requirements for running DSL is a 386 processor and 16MB of RAM. The complete installation of the operating system is only 50MB! For reference, many of the applications on your average machine take up more space than the whole operating system of DSL! DSL comes with a word processor, spreadsheet, firefox web browser, some card games, a Tetris clone and a whole lot more! If you've been curious to try Linux, but don't want to risk messing up your main machine, now there's a version of Linux for you to try that you can put on practically any old machine you have laying around.
DSL is also easily expandable via MyDSL extensions which allow you to download optimized applications (provided you have a working net connection) which provide added functionality to your old machine.
Be warned, DSL is not as easy to use or configure as Ubuntu. In fact, I'm still figuring it out myself. I recommend this for hobbyists and PC enthusiasts only. But then again, you can run it completely off of the disk, without modifying any of your existing files, so it doesn't hurt to check it out.
You can find DSL at www.damnsmalllinux.org From there you can download the ISO and burn it to a disk which you can then use to install DSL, or as a Live disk.
For those of you not familiar with the term ISO, it is a disk image file. Basically, it's a whole disk copied into a file, which can be used to recreate the disk. If you're still confused, tune in next week where I'll be covering ISO's and other disk image file types in greater detail.
See you then!
STRAIGHTSHOOTINCOMPUTIN@YAHOO.COM
by Jeff Smith
Hello and welcome back again! This week I'd like to share with you a recent discovery.
I have good news for those of you who have an old computer in your closet or garage just sitting there gathering dust. That old machine may not be as worthless as you may have thought. This weekend I came across another distribution of Linux that is just perfect for older hardware. Its called DamnSmallLinux. I'm not trying to offend anyone, thats just what it is called. From here on, I'll just call it DSL.
The minimum requirements for running DSL is a 386 processor and 16MB of RAM. The complete installation of the operating system is only 50MB! For reference, many of the applications on your average machine take up more space than the whole operating system of DSL! DSL comes with a word processor, spreadsheet, firefox web browser, some card games, a Tetris clone and a whole lot more! If you've been curious to try Linux, but don't want to risk messing up your main machine, now there's a version of Linux for you to try that you can put on practically any old machine you have laying around.
DSL is also easily expandable via MyDSL extensions which allow you to download optimized applications (provided you have a working net connection) which provide added functionality to your old machine.
Be warned, DSL is not as easy to use or configure as Ubuntu. In fact, I'm still figuring it out myself. I recommend this for hobbyists and PC enthusiasts only. But then again, you can run it completely off of the disk, without modifying any of your existing files, so it doesn't hurt to check it out.
You can find DSL at www.damnsmalllinux.org From there you can download the ISO and burn it to a disk which you can then use to install DSL, or as a Live disk.
For those of you not familiar with the term ISO, it is a disk image file. Basically, it's a whole disk copied into a file, which can be used to recreate the disk. If you're still confused, tune in next week where I'll be covering ISO's and other disk image file types in greater detail.
See you then!
STRAIGHTSHOOTINCOMPUTIN@YAHOO.COM
#13 Just some numbers
STRAIGHT SHOOTIN COMPUTIN
by Jeff Smith
Todays harddrives just keep getting bigger and bigger. Amazingly, there are actually terabyte drives out on the market these days.
To give you an relative idea of what a terabyte is, a terabyte equals out to about 217 recordable dvd's worth of data, or 1498 recordable CD's, or 728,177 floppy disks. If you consider the average size of an MP3 file to be around 4 megabytes, then a terabyte hard drive will hold 262,144 songs.
More specifically, a terabyte(TB) is about a thousand gigabytes. And a gigabyte (GB) is made up of approximately 1000 megabytes(MB), which is comprised of about 1000 kilobytes(KB), which is about a 1000 bytes(B), which can be broken down to exactly 8 bits(b). The reason I keep saying approximately and about and other vague phrases is that its not exactly a thousand. Its 1024. The reason this is so has to do with binary math and is more than i can really go into in depth in such a short column.
A couple things to note about this is how companies use these different numbers to misrepresent their products and services. If you've ever used a dial-up internet connection, you probably noticed that on a 56k connection, you never actually see your download speed anywhere near 56. The reason for this is that connection speeds are advertised in bits. 56k means fifty-six kilobits-per-second, while on the other hand, Windows measures your internet speeds in kilobytes. 56 kilobits converted into kilobytes (divide by 8) gives you 7 kilobytes per second, which is the fastest you're ever likely to see a dialup connection go.
Common DSL service is offered with 768 kilobit-per-second download and 256 kilobits-per-second upload speeds. Which equals out to 96KB down and 32KB up showing up on your PC.
They sell internet service in bit speeds because it just looks better on paper. Its kind of like saying, I don't have one hundred dollars, I have ten thousand pennies. I think this marketing scheme was created by the same team that came up with ten hot-dogs versus eight buns.
Its also why your brand new 60GB hard drive only shows about 55GB once it is installed. For the purposes of advertisement, harddrive manufacturers do their math in even 1000s, whereas Windows does its math with 1024.
Right now your average store-bought computer comes with 40 to 80GB of space on its hard-drive. Probably more if it was geared toward video editing. This is expected to raise quite a bit in the future, but don't worry, an up to date version of XP can handle drives up to 1.44 petabytes. A petabyte is 1024 terabytes.
To run Windows XP you need at least 128 megabytes of RAM. By comparison, man went to the moon with the help of a computer that only had 32 kilobytes of RAM. So I guess the moral story to be learned there is that its not so much about the power of your machine, as what you do with it.
I realize that all of these numbers may be giving some of you a headache, and for that i apologize. I only hoped to give you a better understanding of the math involved in your computer and how it is used and misused by various companies and organizations.
Hopefully, armed with this information, you will be more informed next time you order internet service or make a hard-drive purchase.
See you next week,
STRAIGHTSHOOTINCOMPUTIN@YAHOO.COM
by Jeff Smith
Todays harddrives just keep getting bigger and bigger. Amazingly, there are actually terabyte drives out on the market these days.
To give you an relative idea of what a terabyte is, a terabyte equals out to about 217 recordable dvd's worth of data, or 1498 recordable CD's, or 728,177 floppy disks. If you consider the average size of an MP3 file to be around 4 megabytes, then a terabyte hard drive will hold 262,144 songs.
More specifically, a terabyte(TB) is about a thousand gigabytes. And a gigabyte (GB) is made up of approximately 1000 megabytes(MB), which is comprised of about 1000 kilobytes(KB), which is about a 1000 bytes(B), which can be broken down to exactly 8 bits(b). The reason I keep saying approximately and about and other vague phrases is that its not exactly a thousand. Its 1024. The reason this is so has to do with binary math and is more than i can really go into in depth in such a short column.
A couple things to note about this is how companies use these different numbers to misrepresent their products and services. If you've ever used a dial-up internet connection, you probably noticed that on a 56k connection, you never actually see your download speed anywhere near 56. The reason for this is that connection speeds are advertised in bits. 56k means fifty-six kilobits-per-second, while on the other hand, Windows measures your internet speeds in kilobytes. 56 kilobits converted into kilobytes (divide by 8) gives you 7 kilobytes per second, which is the fastest you're ever likely to see a dialup connection go.
Common DSL service is offered with 768 kilobit-per-second download and 256 kilobits-per-second upload speeds. Which equals out to 96KB down and 32KB up showing up on your PC.
They sell internet service in bit speeds because it just looks better on paper. Its kind of like saying, I don't have one hundred dollars, I have ten thousand pennies. I think this marketing scheme was created by the same team that came up with ten hot-dogs versus eight buns.
Its also why your brand new 60GB hard drive only shows about 55GB once it is installed. For the purposes of advertisement, harddrive manufacturers do their math in even 1000s, whereas Windows does its math with 1024.
Right now your average store-bought computer comes with 40 to 80GB of space on its hard-drive. Probably more if it was geared toward video editing. This is expected to raise quite a bit in the future, but don't worry, an up to date version of XP can handle drives up to 1.44 petabytes. A petabyte is 1024 terabytes.
To run Windows XP you need at least 128 megabytes of RAM. By comparison, man went to the moon with the help of a computer that only had 32 kilobytes of RAM. So I guess the moral story to be learned there is that its not so much about the power of your machine, as what you do with it.
I realize that all of these numbers may be giving some of you a headache, and for that i apologize. I only hoped to give you a better understanding of the math involved in your computer and how it is used and misused by various companies and organizations.
Hopefully, armed with this information, you will be more informed next time you order internet service or make a hard-drive purchase.
See you next week,
STRAIGHTSHOOTINCOMPUTIN@YAHOO.COM
#12 Restore Disk No-No's
STRAIGHTSHOOTINCOMPUTIN
by Jeff Smith
If you bought your computer new, you invariably recieved either a Windows installation disk, or restore disks from your manufacturer, or possibly both.
A common problem I'm seeing with inexperienced users is that they think that these disks are a fix-all. That if you've got a computer problem, you can use these disks and all of your problems will go away. Which is partly true. Your computer problems WILL go away. But unfortuneately, your personal files will go away as well.
The majority of these disks work by wiping your computer and re-installing everything from scratch, leaving your computer in the same state you bought it in. If you have family pictures, songs from iTunes, or important company info, those restore disks will erase it all away, leaving you with nothing but your (now) perfectly running empty system.
This happened to one of the cellphone retailers in town. I was contacted with a request for advice dealing with a virus related problem. My advice was "Don't do anything to it until I get there."
What I would have done would be to remove the hard drive, place it in a virus-immune linux machine and copy off all of the vital information without fear of contaminating the linux machine. After which, it would have been time to use the restore disks to wipe and re-install Windows, and then use the backups I'd have made to restore the vital info back to the customer.
What actually happened was that the potential customer decided that they could fix it themselves, of course, because they had their trusty-dusty restore disks.
Long story short, they lost all of their company records for that location, several thousand dollars worth of accounts, and had no backups to speak of. Live and learn I guess. Moral to this story is, firstly, always keep backups of your important data, and secondly, know when to call in the pros.
If you had a Porche or a Ferrari you wouldn't go banging about in the engine unless you knew what you were doing. If you've never done more than check your email or use software that you were trained to use at work, don't consider yourself a PC repair man. When your PC full of precious data is on the fritz, it is not the time to be experimental. Either you know exactly what to do, or you don't.
The time to use those disks is when you're reasonably sure there's no data on your computer that you wish to keep. Most times even when it won't boot up and does nothing but sit there and beep at you, your data is still in there and can be recovered by someone who knows what they're doing. Even if your hard drive fails and won't ever work again, there are places you can send it to that will recover the data and return it to you on CD's. Just don't panic. Don't spaz. Don't do anything rash that you'll probably regret later when you realized that those pictures of your loved ones, or worse, account information for the entire eastern seaboard are gone forever.
Until next time, just keep your cool.
STRAIGHTSHOOTINCOMPUTIN@YAHOO.COM
by Jeff Smith
If you bought your computer new, you invariably recieved either a Windows installation disk, or restore disks from your manufacturer, or possibly both.
A common problem I'm seeing with inexperienced users is that they think that these disks are a fix-all. That if you've got a computer problem, you can use these disks and all of your problems will go away. Which is partly true. Your computer problems WILL go away. But unfortuneately, your personal files will go away as well.
The majority of these disks work by wiping your computer and re-installing everything from scratch, leaving your computer in the same state you bought it in. If you have family pictures, songs from iTunes, or important company info, those restore disks will erase it all away, leaving you with nothing but your (now) perfectly running empty system.
This happened to one of the cellphone retailers in town. I was contacted with a request for advice dealing with a virus related problem. My advice was "Don't do anything to it until I get there."
What I would have done would be to remove the hard drive, place it in a virus-immune linux machine and copy off all of the vital information without fear of contaminating the linux machine. After which, it would have been time to use the restore disks to wipe and re-install Windows, and then use the backups I'd have made to restore the vital info back to the customer.
What actually happened was that the potential customer decided that they could fix it themselves, of course, because they had their trusty-dusty restore disks.
Long story short, they lost all of their company records for that location, several thousand dollars worth of accounts, and had no backups to speak of. Live and learn I guess. Moral to this story is, firstly, always keep backups of your important data, and secondly, know when to call in the pros.
If you had a Porche or a Ferrari you wouldn't go banging about in the engine unless you knew what you were doing. If you've never done more than check your email or use software that you were trained to use at work, don't consider yourself a PC repair man. When your PC full of precious data is on the fritz, it is not the time to be experimental. Either you know exactly what to do, or you don't.
The time to use those disks is when you're reasonably sure there's no data on your computer that you wish to keep. Most times even when it won't boot up and does nothing but sit there and beep at you, your data is still in there and can be recovered by someone who knows what they're doing. Even if your hard drive fails and won't ever work again, there are places you can send it to that will recover the data and return it to you on CD's. Just don't panic. Don't spaz. Don't do anything rash that you'll probably regret later when you realized that those pictures of your loved ones, or worse, account information for the entire eastern seaboard are gone forever.
Until next time, just keep your cool.
STRAIGHTSHOOTINCOMPUTIN@YAHOO.COM
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