FAQS! FACTS! FAX!  375 (05/08/03)

Q

I am about to upgrade the hard drive in my PC. I would like to copy the contents from the old drive to the new one, is there any software that will allow me to do this?

Tony Stott

A

Yes there is, and I’ll come back to it in a moment, but cloning your drives means you’ll also be copying all of the faults and problems that will have accumulated, so why not start afresh? It’ll probably only take a couple of hours to install Windows and all of your programs then you can ‘slave’ the old disc to your new one and copy across your data files, which should only take a few minutes. A fresh installation will effectively turn back the clock and your PC will run like a new machine again (for a while at least…).

If you still want to make a copy of your hard disc there are several freeware utilities available which work in DOS but they can be risky – you could lose the data on your original drive – so they’re not really for beginners. Commercial programs are usually a better bet and one of the most painless is TrueImage, which will copy your drive whilst Windows is running. It costs around £28 and you can download it from: www.acronis.com/products/trueimage/

Q

Since installing Windows XP on a new drive (the old one went bang in the heat) and re-installing Office, I am no longer allowed to make Outlook Express my default email program. If I go into Tools > Options in OE and click the "Make Default" button and Apply it all looks OK, but if I come out of Tools and then go back in, I find that things have reverted to the previous settings.

If I try to change it by going into Control Panel > Internet Options on
the "Programs" tab, I am only given the option of using Outlook, not Outlook Express. This means that if I try to, for instance, send a Word document as an email or email a web page to a friend, I get an error message saying that the default email program is not installed. Both Outlook and Outlook Express function normally if I open them independently.
Mel Pitts, Northampton

A

Here are a couple of things to try. When you change the Default setting in OE exit the program and this should then save the settings. When you open it next time the default should be set. If that doesn’t work then there’s a possibility that OE wasn’t configured properly, in which case close it down, go to Run on the Start menu and type the following, (including the quotation marks):

"C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\msimn.exe" /reg

Open OE and go to Tools > Options as before and on the General tab OE should now be the default and the Make Default button should be greyed out.

Q

I've been given a Toshiba Pentium 2 laptop with a 4.3Gb hard drive, which is empty. I'm told the drivers are available from Toshiba website, which I can access from my desktop PC. I want to use it for doing some simple office work and collecting/sending email when away from home. How do I go about getting it running, or should I get a professional to do it for me?

Laura Shirley

A

There’s no reason why you shouldn’t tackle this job yourself and judging from your laptop’s spec it looks as though Windows 98 SE (or ME) is the best option for the operating system. It’s not difficult but you should do a little homework first. Have a look at Microsoft Knowledgebase article Q221829 ‘How to install Windows….’ (just type Q221829 into Google’s Search field) and peruse a slightly less dry account at: www.pcnineoneone.com/howto/clean1.html.

Toshiba has a very well stocked web site and you can download the necessary drivers and manuals for your machine from one or both of the following locations:

www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/su/su_sc_home.jsp

www.toshiba.co.uk/ (follow links Computers > Technical Support). The driver files will need to be loaded onto a CD-ROM so they can be accessed by the laptop, so if you haven’t got a CD writer on your PC you will need to seek the assistance of someone who does.

Q

I was most interested to read your recent comment about using CD-R as a virtual floppy disc by formatting the CD's in Direct CD or UDF (universal disc format). Although I do use CD's as back up it seems to be a long winded process using Nero hence the back ups are not as frequent as they should be.  Where can one learn more about/acquire Direct CD or UDF and its use in simple back ups?

David Thomson

A

All recent versions of Nero have this feature, it’s called InCD or Packet Writing, but it’s an extra feature and isn’t usually loaded with the main Nero Burning program. To do so now load your Nero CD ROM and the option to install InCD should appear on the opening page. Incidentally InCD and Direct CD are not compatible and discs made using one will not be readable by the other until the disc is ‘finalised’ or converted into a normal CD-ROM. Don’t worry, it’s all explained in the Help files.

Q

Recently everything I write is misspelt on screen.  Or as that sentence appears on my monitor - YRecenbt5lyr ehveyryrt5hvinbgf I wyrit5e is misspelt5 onb scryeenb.

I have run two virus checks but nothing was detected. The misspelling appears in all programmes. Help! (or HVelp!)

Clive Power, London

A

I’m not aware of any viruses that do this sort of thing but I do recall a ‘prankware’ program a few years ago that did something similar. This seems unlikely though, these programs usually display a ‘gotcha’ type message after a while and they normally appear in the Windows Startup list (type ‘msconfig’ in Run on the Start menu) or Startup folder, which you’ll find by going to Start > Programs. It’s more likely to be a hardware fault; have you spilt any liquids on your keyboard lately? Try swapping it for a known good keyboard or restart the PC in DOS mode (press F8 at boot up and select Command Prompt Only) and see if it continues to act up. The other possibility is a faulty keyboard controller chip, which is on the computer motherboard, if so it could prove expensive, as the whole circuit board will have to be replaced.