Ask Leo! #359 - Testing your backups, missing newsletters, deleting all your drivers and more... - Confident Computing

*** Featured Articles

Why am I only sometimes getting newsletters I signed up for? Is there a subscription limit?

I have signed up for a large number of newsletter subscriptions to my Hotmail account. Around Christmas, something happened so only 20-25% get through. I have started a second Hotmail account with those I recall subscribing to, and they are delivered to the second account. I access three different computers and have the same results. Just prior to Easter, the account clicked and they were all delivered. On April 7th or 8th, the deliveries stopped again. I love to enter giveaways and so several years of connections to gfc, fb, tw, pin, circles, stumble, blogfrog are included in the problem. Starting over would be a nightmare. I am sure it has to be something on the Microsoft end as it flicks on and off at will. It is not just a filtering issue, as the newsletters are delivered to a second account, which doesn't connect to those other services. Is it possible they have a subscription limit? Also, friends with low usage are having similar problems.

What you and your friends are experiencing is nothing more than spam filtering.

Even though you signed up for them, newsletters – and for that matter any legitimate email – can still get filtered as spam for a variety of reasons.

And it's certainly not just Hotmail. All email services are scrambling to fight spam as much as they can. It's an incredibly complex issue without a simple solution.

I'll review a few of the reasons, but first, I'll suggest what actions you and your friend should take.

Continue reading: Why am I only sometimes getting newsletters I signed up for? Is there a subscription limit?
http://ask-leo.com/C5404

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How do I test my backup to make sure it will work when I need it?

Is there any way I can check out my system image to see if it will be able to be restored before I use it do my spring cleaning and reformat my hard drive?

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Windows backup always gives me an error and does not complete. I tried to use it to make a system image and save everything Windows chooses to backup. But at about 90%, it stops and says, "Windows backup did not complete successfully." The image worked, but I checked the error code and it said that 'Files may be in use by Windows,' but I had nothing opened and I cannot do Windows backup in safe mode.

Making regular backups is critical.

But once you've got that set up, how do you know what you have will in fact work?

In this audio segment from an Ask Leo! webinar, I'll discuss the approaches to doing so that will be presented in detail in my forthcoming book.

Continue reading: How do I test my backup to make sure it will work when I need it?
http://ask-leo.com/C5401

*** Answercast

Answercast #22 - One monitor with two computers, deleted drivers, Hotmail disappearing act, registry madness and more...

What do you do if your Hotmail account suddenly disappears, or you delete all the drivers from your computer?! Is it possible to get rid of Ask.com, and what if a registry cleaner messes up your computer? Find out that and more in this Ask Leo! Answercast.

Continue reading: Answercast #22 - One monitor with two computers, deleted drivers, Hotmail disappearing act, registry madness and more...
http://ask-leo.com/C5402

How do I test my backups to DVD?
Macrium Reflect has a backup-verify step in its backup process that will help in testing for these kinds of problems.
Continue reading: How do I test my backups to DVD?
http://ask-leo.com/C5403

Will a dual core processor run single-threaded programs?
The way dual core processors work is quite complex. They allow the computer to do two things at a time, but that may only help for programs that are written multi-threaded.
Continue reading: Will a dual core processor run single-threaded programs?
http://ask-leo.com/C5405

How do I login to my old Hotmail account after I create a new one?
You can only be logged in to one Hotmail account at a time in a browser window. That often feels like the other account just "disappeared."
Continue reading: How do I login to my old Hotmail account after I create a new one?
http://ask-leo.com/C5406

Can I open Outlook PST files read-only?
It is not possible, as I understand it, to open a .pst file that is on read only media. This is a side effect of how Outlook works.
Continue reading: Can I open Outlook PST files read-only?
http://ask-leo.com/C5407

Why do all my programs crash with "stopped working"?
Using overly aggressive registry cleaners can lead to numerous errors. The solution might be painful.
Continue reading: Why do all my programs crash with "stopped working"?
http://ask-leo.com/C5408

How can I get rid of ask.com?
Ask.com is a reputable site. You should be able to remove any toolbars or browser settings that have been added to your computer.
Continue reading: How can I get rid of ask.com?
http://ask-leo.com/C5409

Can I copy a bootable DVD to my hard disk to burn again later?
ImgBurn is the tool for this. Not only can you copy the DVD to your drive, but you can use ImgBurn later to remake the bootable DVD.
Continue reading: Can I copy a bootable DVD to my hard disk to burn again later?
http://ask-leo.com/C5410

Can I connect two computers to my dual-input TV?
Connecting two monitors to a computer is common. You can go the other way and connect two computers to one monitor if you have the right drivers and hardware.
Continue reading: Can I connect two computers to my dual-input TV?
http://ask-leo.com/C5411

I accidentally deleted all my drivers, now what do I do?
Deleting your drivers is not good! Time to get out that installation media.
Continue reading: I accidentally deleted all my drivers, now what do I do?
http://ask-leo.com/C5412

Is a quick scan the proper default for security software?
A quick scan is going to find a good percentage of malware problems. You should also consider a full scan at the right time.
Continue reading: Is a quick scan the proper default for security software?
http://ask-leo.com/C5413

*** Our Sponsor

Windows XP Is Not Dead!

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Keep your Windows XP machine running longer.

Maintaining Windows XP - A Practical Guide
Downloadable PDF or CD-ROM. Also available in paperback.
- An Ask Leo! book.

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*** Last Issue's Articles

*** Comments

Will drilling my hard drive wipe it of all data so I can donate it?

BAW30s writes:

Drilling! Hammering! What a barbaric thing to do to a highly sophisticated complex electronic device. Unless your drive is suspected of containing data relevant to national security or of extremely high value, who is going to try to recover the odd byte after a couple of full formats? I would run a secure shred on anything I thought sensitive and then restore the computer to its original condition as supplied using the manufacturer's hidden partition / system disk and give away something in good working order.

I agree, but some people are particularly concerned for assorted reasons. Most people (myself included :-)) just aren't that interesting, and a run of DBAN is more than sufficient to prevent accidental data leakage that could lead to identity theft - the most common concern.

-Leo

Will drilling my hard drive wipe it of all data so I can donate it?

James writes:

My bigger concern in what the person wants to do, is that he wants to donate a non-functioning computer. He says the CD drive doesn't work and now he wants to permanently destroy the hard drive. After that, the computer is going to be a hunk of scrap metal.

I work for a charity and we get donations all the time of various items, some of which are broken, cracked, and non-functioning. It actually costs us a lot of money to scrap items which the donors should have scrapped themselves.

Unless the charity is specifically collecting scrap metal to sell as a fundraiser, please keep your non-functioning computer and dispose of it yourself.

Why do I get "device ... cannot be stopped right now" trying to safely remove my USB drive?

Oceander writes:

I get this error all the time and I thank the author for providing a useful way to find out what is causing the problem. I've found that frequently it's Microsoft's own software that does it; for example, if you've saved an MS Word file to a usb drive, Word will hold onto the drive even if the file is closed until and unless you close out of Word altogether. I find it rather ironic that Microsoft's operating system is incapable of controlling the behaviour of Microsoft's own applications. It might be different if it were a third-party app that was going a bit rogue, but when it's MS going rogue on itself, well....

Yes, I've experienced this as well - not just with Word, but with several programs from a variety of sources - closing the file sometimes doesn't release the file until you actually close the program. Very frustrating.

-Leo

Can I reinstall my XP with SP2 even though updates have ended?

Just me writes:

"Now, having said that, when you install XP with SP2, you will most likely not get individual updates. But you should be offered SP3."
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The last time I did a fresh XP install from an SP2 disc was in 2011 when I set windows update to DL & notify, it downloaded 80+ post SP2 updates and it didn't offer SP3 until the last individual update was installed then after SP3 was installed if offered me the post SP3 versions of at least half of those same updates and thus I ended up installing over 130 updates

I don't know if they've changed the pattern yet to start with SP3 but I do know that if I start with SP2 and immediately drop the network / offline SP3 install over top of SP2 I only get the Post SP3 updates and the few Pre SP3 that aren't included because they're for Media Player, dot net framework, etc.

Thanks for sharing that. I'll definitely recommend people download SP3 to apply after reinstalling XP-SP2.

-Leo

*** Thoughts and Comments

Avoid Windows 8!

I know, they just released another "preview", but it's just that - a preview. It's not finished, will have problems and there's no uninstall.

Last time the preview was released I got a small flood of emails from folks who had updated to it, and of course something went wrong. Since they treated it like a real release they'd installed it on their main machine and not backed up.

Don't do that.

It's not a real release.

Windows 8 is not ready for daily use, it's not finished.

If you must play with Windows 8, then do so on a machine you can reformat completely when you're done, or in a virtual machine.

But please, please resist the temptation to start using it daily. You're asking for trouble.

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Hopefully this issue's slightly new look for articles and Answercast items will be more useful.

As always I may tweak a little as we move forward, but this addresses one of the complaints I got when listing Answercast segments: the title wasn't enough information to judge whether the segment was going to be of interest.

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As always one of the best ways you can help Ask Leo! is to share it with your friends! Share articles on Facebook, forward the newsletter to a friend (remove your unsubscribe information at the bottom), or just point them at http://ask-leo.com.

It all really does help.

And I do appreciate it.

'till next week...

Leo
Leo A. Notenboom
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