Leo's Answers #89 - August 3, 2007 - Confident Computing

Leo's Answers
A Weekly Newsletter From
Ask Leo!
Leo Notenboom

Hello!

*** Contents

This Week's New Articles on Ask Leo!
A Word from our Sponsor
Popular Articles from the Archives
Thoughts and Comments
Newsletter Administration

*** This Week's New Articles on Ask Leo!

How do I tell Windows where my I386 folder has moved?

The folder c:i386 takes up a lot of space on my hard disk, so I moved it to a drive on another machine on my network where I have more room. I'm now getting Windows File Protection errors, and there's no option to tell it where the files are. What do I do?

I actually get variations of this question on a regular basis. Recently as I was cleaning up the hard disk on my primary machine I found myself asking the same question.

The answer is that you can move I386, if you then also make another change, deep in the Windows registry.

Continue reading: "How do I tell Windows where my I386 folder has moved?"
http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_tell_windows_where_my_i386_folder_has_moved.html

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How can I reject email from unwanted senders?

I keep receiving email from a source that I have never contacted. I do not want this to ever get onto my system. How can I configure my email to reject any item I receive from this source/email address?

The short answer is "it depends".

It depends on your email provider, it depends on the email program you use, and it depends on the source of the email.

While I don't know the specific answers for your situation, I can offer a few ideas and places to look.

Continue reading: "How can I reject email from unwanted senders?"
http://ask-leo.com/how_can_i_reject_email_from_unwanted_senders.html

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So what should I backup?

I purchased backup software and even after reading the online documentation I don't understand what files I should be choosing to back up. And will I burn these to a disc or put them on my hard drive? I have the PC's installation files so I know I don't really need these, but I am so confused.

Good for you for even getting this far. So many people don't bother to backup at all and end up regretting it later when the inevitable disaster happens.

There are several answers to both of your questions and which to choose depends on what you have, your level of expertise, and how much effort you want to put into understanding and configuring your backup. And as always, there are tradeoffs.

Continue reading: "So what should I backup?"
http://ask-leo.com/so_what_should_i_backup.html

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Why does one contact keep signing in over and over to MSN Messenger?

I use MSN instant messaging. One of my contacts is frequently (every couple of minutes) popping up as just having signed in. Actually, he never signs out or in at his end, he is still online. Other people who have him as a contact are complaining of the same thing. Is there a resolution to this problem?

The fact that others are seeing the same behavior as you tells us that the problem is at your contact's end. The problem's very simple to describe, but potentially very difficult to diagnose.

Continue reading: "Why does one contact keep signing in over and over to MSN Messenger?"
http://ask-leo.com/why_does_one_contact_keep_signing_in_over_and_over_to_msn_messenger.html

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Is there a way to refurbish an inexpensive printer?

I haven't used my nice little Canon BJC 2100 printer for more than a year so it won't print now. I've pressed all the cleaning & nozzle cleaning buttons, printed test pages all to no avail. The ink pad on the cartridge is still wet with ink so it must be the print head that's dried out. Canon tried to help but suggested a new print head but at a price that would buy me 2 new printers! I'd like to use that printer again so is there any way to refurbish & clean that print head?

I'll throw this one to my readers, buy my off-the-cuff answer is no.

I mean, yes - but no.

Let me explain...

Continue reading: "Is there a way to refurbish an inexpensive printer?"
http://ask-leo.com/is_there_a_way_to_refurbish_an_inexpensive_printer.html

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Disk Crash: a backup and recovery story

A hard drive died. I review the steps I took, and what finally saved me in the end.

Continue reading: "Disk Crash: a backup and recovery story" Article Includes Audio
http://ask-leo.com/disk_crash_a_backup_and_recovery_story.html

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*** Popular Articles from the Archives

Oh, haven't we all been here?

Can I stop or 'un-send' an email I sent by mistake?

I wrote an email from my yahoo email account and sent to the wrong email address in Europe. Is it any way that I can retrieve the email I sent from the wrong email address, delete it before the wrong recipient can read my email?

Unfortunately, the news is not good.

Read more... Can I stop or 'un-send' an email I sent by mistake?
http://ask-leo.com/can_i_stop_or_unsend_an_email_i_sent_by_mistake.html

*** Thoughts and Comments

If you looked closely at my article on relocating the I386 folder, you might notice that I moved my copy to a server on my LAN named "freenas". FreeNAS is a free Network Attached Storage package that turns a PC into a dedicated file server. What's neat about it is that my FreeNAS based server is an old 500 Megahertz box that was pretty much destined for the scrap heap. FreeNAS is based on FreeBSD, a Unix variant, and is incredibly lightweight and fast, and support Windows networking. It's also very simple to set up, albeit it just a tad geeky.

In my case, my old PC turned out to be a great place to put a couple of high capacity drives and make them available to all the machines on my network.

As has been a theme around here for a few weeks, it's all about backing up.

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Be sure and check here next week for a little fun. It'll be a special day for Ask Leo!.

'till next time...

Leo

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*** Newsletter Administration

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