Leo’s Answers #302 – September 27, 2011

A friend just posted this on Facebook:

FACEBOOK JUST RELEASED THEIR PRICE GRID FOR MEMBERSHIP. $9.99 PER MONTH FOR GOLD MEMBER SERVICES, $6.99 PER MONTH FOR SILVER MEMBER SERVICES, $3.99 PER MONTH FOR BRONZE MEMBER SERVICES, FREE IF YOU COPY AND PASTE THIS MESSAGE BEFORE MIDNIGHT TONIGHT. WHEN YOU SIGN ON TOMORROW MORNING, YOU WILL BE PROMPTED FOR PAYMENT INFO...IT IS OFFICIAL. IT WAS EVEN ON THE NEWS. FACEBOOK WILL START CHARGING DUE TO THE NEW PROFILE CHANGES. IF YOU COPY THIS ON YOUR WALL, YOUR ICON WILL TURN BLUE AND FACEBOOK WILL BE FREE FOR YOU. PLEASE PASS THIS MESSAGE ON. IF NOT, YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE DELETED. IF YOU DO NOT PAY...

Is it true?

I see “Windows Live” everywhere, but I can't decide if it's a program or a website or something else. From what I can tell, Windows Live has almost nothing to do with Windows. I'm confused. What is Windows Live all about?

Truecrypt Issue: I cannot read disk even though I successfully mounted Windows 7 Professional, Truecrypt 7.0a

Following your recommendation, I decided to use Truecrypt to encrypt a SD card that contains personal data to keep it off the work laptop. This has worked very successfully for about three months until this morning. When I entered the password to mount the volume, it mounted as usual with no error messages. However, when I tried to access the mounted drive (volume), it said, “You need to format the disk in drive Z: before you can use it. Do you want to format it?” Of course, I clicked No.

I consulted the Truecrypt user manual that said that I should restore the volume header. As recommended, I dismounted the volume, then used Tools > Restore volume header using the “Restore the volume header from the backup embedded in the volume” option, and the normal password worked. I got the message saying the volume header was successfully restored. However,, the same problem persists, "You need to format the disk....." as above.

This is a real disaster for me, I need the drive contents. Do you have any idea what to do next?

I have a 2.5 gb/per month internet browsing plan. What does it mean? Does it include download & upload?

Is it safe to have the same password for all of my email accounts? If one has an account in Yahoo! mail, Gmail, rediff mail, etc., and sets the same password for all of them, will it be easier for a hacker or phisher to find out about it?

Steve writes:

I fixed my particular problem (see my previous posts for the gory details)! In my case, at least, the solution was very simple and straightforward.

Using the information I gained from Leo's article that manufacturers such as Dell copy an image of the Windows XP CD-ROM to the C:i386 folder BUT the Windows error boxes weren't letting me point Windows to the C:i386 folder, I simply fired up my DVD burner software and burned a copy of the C:i386 folder to a blank dvd as a plain data disk. I named the disk i386 (not sure if the disk name has any importance here at all). I then placed the newly burned dvd containing the C:i386 folder and its contents in my first CD/DVD drive (the drive my computer always looks to for any bootable removable media-- but again I didn't make a bootable DVD, just a plain data disk).

I closed Windows and turned off the computer with my newly copied DVD still in the DVD drive. Then I did a cold boot up and voila-- Windows stopped complaining apparently because it was able to find the files it needed from the copied DVD and silently fixed the unrecognized file versions in the background as I worked. I opened up and used all my usual programs and ran through my usual operations. No Windows complaints and the system was working back at its previous speed which I hadn't experienced in a few weeks. Then I took the copied DVD out of the DVD drive and shut down Windows and the computer completely. Shut down went normally and quickly. Then I booted up again without the copied DVD and so far my computer is behaving as it should and is back to normal health and so am I.

Sometimes simple and direct works.

Saetana writes:

A most sensible and intelligent article, as Leo said, bug-free software really doesn't exist, anyone who has even the smallest experience with computer programming (6 months of a university degree for me personally) should realize just how complicated computer programming and testing is, unfortunately that only accounts for a fairly small amount of computer users so the rest of you need to rely on experts like Leo for accurate and (relatively) easy to understand information on these issues. Also remember that Windows Update and the Service Packs will sometimes fix bugs, although the Patch Tuesday download is mostly concerned with anything that impacts on security, understandably.

Trying to track down the source of any PC problem related to software can be an absolute nightmare, even for experts, so please cut Microsoft and all the other software developers a bit of slack here. I've been using Windows since version 3.1 and, even with all its faults (Windows 7 has been a HUGE improvement in this respect), I would not swap it for a different operating system if you paid me. Linux isn't suitable for me as I'm a heavy computer user and the sheer amount of work involved in getting everything I use to work with it puts me off. I wouldn't touch Apple because I detest everything they stand for, but that is a personal opinion.

I find it staggering to believe people actually blame Bill Gates for their problems, use a bit of common sense here people and also look closer to home for solutions before blaming Microsoft/Apple/whoever for your software issues.

ric writes:

over here we run competitions for who can waste the most of their time. "we've blown a fuse" you'll have to wait while I restart my computer" etc

Robert Waller writes:

I'd just like to reiterate what Leo has said, I sometimes play with Beta versions, and have had disastrous things happen, luckily I always keep backups of backups of everything, I also use a test machine which only has my media software on it, so I can listen to music whilst doing other things on my main computer

We're a family where the adults use the Internet for serious reasons but we can't take a chance on having our children screw things up - intentionally or by accident. How should we set up our home network?

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