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The Complete Trouble-Shooting Guide
Visitors since May 3, 1998
The PC from hell.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it spews error messages at you. What can you do when your machine becomes possessed? Our Complete
Trouble-shooting Guide offers ways to prevent or fix your most diabolical problems. We also reveal the dark side of software technical
support and tell you how to get real answers to your questions. Want to conquer your
system's demons?
Read on.
The best call to tech support is the one you never make.
Here's how to crashproof your PC and recover from disaster if it
strikes.
How to Keep Your PC Trouble-Free
Computers are evil. They make your life easier, they create a dependency, and then--just when you need them most--they eat your
data. Or they catch a virus, lose important files, or just plain crash, leaving you looking forward to a long cozy evening on the phone with
tech support.
It doesn't have to be this way. Over the years I've learned a few tricks for keeping a PC's more malicious tendencies at bay. I'll show
you how to organize your hard drive and keep it running smoothly, how to protect your data, and how to set up a regular schedule of
backups and system maintenance. I'll also advise you on the essential software tools for diagnosing and curing a sick PC. You'll
learn how to zap the most common bugs, what books to consult to troubleshoot your PC problems, and which newsgroups to check out
when you need a second (or hundredth) opinion.
I can't promise that you'll never need to call tech support again, but if you follow the advice here, you'll do it a lot less often.
Hard Disk Housekeeping
Bad things eventually happen to every PC. Your power supply could
conk out. Your monitor tube might blow. But if your hard disk dies and you're not prepared for it, you could lose months or even
years of hard work.
The best way to prevent trouble? Organize your data so it's easy to back up. You'll also need to
defrag your files and scan the drive's surface on a regular basis. And you may want to partition the disk to
use its space more efficiently.
Organize Your Data
DOC's rule Number 1:
It's your data. You can put it wherever you want. And the best place
to keep the files you've created is in one master data folder, with subfolders for files related to individual projects.
That way, if you don't have time to back up your entire hard drive, you can quickly duplicate your most precious files. If you want to
take a project home or on the road, you simply copy the contents of a single folder. And if you need to find all the files that contain the
name Irving, you can search your data folder and its subfolders a lot
faster than you can your entire drive.
Here are four quick steps for
organizing your hard drive around your work:
1. Create a master data folder. Start by making a single data folder
off your hard drive's root. I call mine Articles, which probably doesn't mean much to you unless you write for magazines. If you call yours
1data, it will appear near the top of your file directory, so you won't have to scroll down to find it.
HOT TIP Microsoft Office 95 and 97 automatically create a folder called C:\My Documents, where they save all your data files. If you
change the name of My Documents to 1data (or whatever), Office applications will continue to store all your data files there.
2. Create subfolders and move your files. Of course, storing all your data files in one big folder can get pretty unwieldy. Create subfolders
within 1data; if you're an accountant, for example, you'd probably want to create a different folder for each of your clients. My Articles
folder has subfolders for different issues of PC World, with folders inside each for particular articles. I also have separate subfolders for
my financial data, my calendar program's files, and of course the ever-popular Miscellaneous.
After you've set up your subfolders, find all your documents, worksheets, address books, and drawings in whatever folders
they've been hiding in and drag them to the appropriate subfolders. Don't sweat getting this organization right the first time. You can
always redo it. Reorganizing your data subfolders is about a 5-minute
job.
3. Tell applications to save files to your new folder. If you used My Documents (or whatever you've chosen to call it) as your master data
folder, then Word, Excel, and other Office applications will automatically store files there. But other programs--even other
Microsoft applications--don't know about My Documents, so you'll
have to tell them about it.
Windows 95 offers an easy way to tell most programs where to store data files. But first you'll need to find the application's Shortcut. If
you typically launch the program from Windows' Start menu, right-click the Start button, select Open or Explore, and navigate
your way to the menu folder containing the Shortcut. Right-click the Shortcut, select Properties, click the Shortcut tab, and in the 'Start
in' field enter the path to your folder--for instance, c:\1data. Click OK.
If that doesn't work, you'll need to change the program's internal settings for where it stores documents. For instance, with Lotus
Word Pro 97, select File*User Setup*Word Pro Preferences, click the
Locations tab, and in the Documents field enter the path to your data folder.
4. Create a Shortcut to your data folder. From an Explorer window, right-click and drag the folder to
your desktop. When you drop it, select Create Shortcut(s) Here. Double-clicking the folder will open it
up in a window. Right-clicking it and selecting Explore will open it up in Explorer. You can do the same thing with subfolders. To go to a
particular project quickly, create Shortcuts to folders within 1data.
Partition Your Disk
If you have an older PC with a 1GB-plus hard drive, you may be wasting a lot of disk space.
Partitioning the drive may let you reclaim a little space, as well as create safe havens for your data or software.
Why partition? Hard drive space is allocated in clusters, the smallest
units that Windows can recognize. The FAT16 (File Allocation Table) system used by most Windows PCs can handle a maximum of only
65,536 clusters, which means a 1GB drive has a cluster size of 32K. In other words, even a 180-byte Shortcut file takes up 32K of space.
Most Windows 95 systems shipped this year use FAT32, which can handle more than 4 billion clusters; with FAT32, that same 1GB drive
would have a cluster size of only 4K. To find out if your drive is using FAT32, open up My Computer, right-click your C: drive, and select
Properties; on the General tab, the Type will say FAT32. Sorry, but if you want to update an older PC to FAT32 you'll have to wait for
Windows 98, due out this year.
To trim the cluster size on a FAT16 system, you'll need to divide your large hard disk into several smaller drives. If you turn a 1.6GB disk
into a 500MB drive C:, a 900MB drive D:, and a 200MB drive E:, the clusters on those logical drives will be 8K, 16K, and 4K, respectively.
(See "Wasted Space" for the cluster size of different-size partitions.)
How to do it. If you've got a new hard drive that contains no data, you can partition it using DOS's fdisk utility. But fdisk wipes out existing
data, so if you're already working with your drive, use PowerQuest's PartitionMagic instead--it creates and modifies partitions without
destroying any of your data. PartitionMagic isn't always intuitive, but it's safer than any alternative I've seen.
When I tried out the lone competing product, Quarterdeck's Partition-It, it conflicted with Western Digital's EZ Drive utility,
rendering my drive inaccessible. If I hadn't kept backups, I might still be trying to re-create my lost data. (Quarterdeck is aware of the
conflict with EZ Drive but had no solution for it at this time.)
If you do partition, leave room to grow. For instance, if you put Windows in one partition, your apps in another, and your data in a
third, leave enough room on the apps partition to install new software.
• Partition-It $50 street; Quarterdeck Corp.; 800/683-6696
• PartitionMagic 3.0 $70 street; PowerQuest Corp.; 801/226-8977, 801/226-8941 (fax)
Wasted Space
Every file, no matter how small, consumes at least one hard disk cluster. Larger partitions require larger clusters, which means each
file wastes more space. Here are cluster sizes for partitions on a drive formatted with FAT16, the file system used by most Windows 95
PCs.
Partition Size Cluster Size
16MB to 127MB 2K
128MB to 255MB 4K
256MB to 511MB 8K
512MB to 1023MB 16K
1024MB to 2047MB 32K
Protect Your Assets
Your hard drive can be as organized as Martha Stewart's sock drawer, but if you don't maintain it properly, it will still slow to a crawl
and perhaps even corrupt your files. To keep that drive running smoothly, you need to regularly defragment the files on it and check
the drive itself for errors.
Defrag your files. When Windows stores files, it breaks them into pieces and squirrels them away wherever it finds free space on your
drive. This is a more efficient way to store files, but if your disk gets too fragmented, it can really slow down your machine. Even worse, a
repair program will have a hard time reconstructing damaged files if
the drive is fragmented.
The solution: Defrag your disk every couple of weeks. Windows 95
comes with a serviceable if unspectacular defragmenting utility. From the Start menu, select Programs*Accessories*System Tools*Disk Defragmenter. Better defraggers are available in
commercial utilities packages (see "The Complete PC Toolbox").
HOT TIP Ignore the "quick defrag" options and pick your
defragger's slowest, most complete mode. It takes longer, but you don't have to sit and watch it. Start it when you quit for the night, and
it will be done before you return in the morning.
Scan your disk. Bad things can happen to even the best hard drives. Parts of long file names can be orphaned if you use 16-bit
applications. The operating system can lose track of files, and wear and tear can render sections of the drive unfit for holding data. A
good scanning utility checks for these errors and corrects them.
Windows 95 comes with one (from the Start menu, select Programs*Accessories*System
Tools*ScanDisk), but it's slow and incomplete. You're better off using the scan tool that comes with
Norton Utilities or Nuts & Bolts.
HOT TIP Do a quick scan--one without a sector-by-sector
check of the drive's surface--every day. But every couple of weeks or
so, you should do a more time-consuming full scan of all drive partitions.
Text Support
Good help is hard to find--especially when choosing a PC reference manual. Here's how to judge a book by more than its cover:
1. Scan the shelves. Go to a store's computer section and choose three
books aimed at your general level of expertise.
2. Check the index. Pick three topics and see if they're listed in each book's index. (For example: How do I resolve an IRQ conflict? How do
I make an emergency recovery disk? Just what is FAT32 and how
does it affect hard drive partitions?)
3. Rate the information. Once you find the answers, see if you understand them. Look for step-by-step instructions and illustrations
or photos. If you find yourself scratching your head, move on to the next book.
My favorite PC reference books: The PC Bible by Eric Knorr (Peachpit Press, 1996, 800/283-9444, $29.95) and The PC Upgrade and Repair
Bible by Barry Press (IDG Books, 1997, 800/762-2974, $49.99). The PC Bible is excellent for basic troubleshooting issues, while PC Upgrade
is best for do-it-yourselfers and comes with a CD-ROM full of software.
The Complete PC Toolbox
As anyone with a garage workshop knows, free tools are generally worth what you pay for them. So it is with ScanDisk, Disk
Defragmenter, the Recycle Bin, and many of the other utilities that come with Windows 95. To keep your PC in prime shape, you'll want
to invest in some first-class diagnostic and repair utilities. Here are
my picks for the best of the bunch.
The Essential Utility Library
The first package you need is an all-around collection of solid utilities. There are two top-flight candidates for this job: Symantec's
long-established Norton Utilities and Helix's newcomer Nuts & Bolts. What separates them? About $30, with Nuts & Bolts being the
cheaper of the two. Helix's package also sports a better user interface, with clear dialog boxes and excellent tools (see "Checking
Out the Libraries"). If you already own Norton there's no reason to abandon it (I'm a Norton user from way back and I still use it), but
Nuts & Bolts is the better buy.
Both packages test and fix your hard drive more thoroughly than does Windows' ScanDisk. For instance, they check the partition table
and the boot sector for errors that can render your drive inaccessible--things that ScanDisk ignores.
Symantec's and Helix's defraggers are also faster and considerably safer because to avoid errors they compare the file fragments to the
originals as they move them. They even defrag Windows' swap file--the chunk of hard drive space that Windows uses when it needs
more RAM (in other words, all the time).
They're also true 32 -bit programs, while ScanDisk and Disk Defragmenter are old-fashioned, 16-bit tools. A 16-bit program is more
prone to crashing, and if there's anything you don't want to crash, it's a disk scanner or
defragger.
HOT TIP You can have Norton or Nuts & Bolts run in the
background, alerting you if your hard drive needs defragging or if any files are cross-linked. My advice: Don't bother. Just remember to
defrag or scan the drive every couple of weeks.
* Norton Utilities 2.0 for Windows 95 $79 street, Norton AntiVirus $69 street; Symantec; 800/441-7234
* Nuts & Bolts
$50 street; Helix Software; 800/451-0551
Checking Out the Libraries
Nuts & Bolts offers more for your money, but if you already use Norton, you may not want to switch.
|
Norton
Utilities |
Nuts &
Bolts |
| Street price |
$79 |
$50 |
| Disk scanner
Checks FAT |
Y |
Y |
| Looks for
cross-linked files |
Y |
Y |
| Checks long
file names |
Y |
Y |
| Checks boot
sector |
Y |
Y |
| Tests CMOS |
Y |
Y |
| Scans disk
surface |
Y |
Y |
| Other care and
protection Disk defragmenter |
Y |
Y |
| Enhanced
Recycle Bin |
Y |
Y |
| Monitors
system in background |
Y |
Y |
| Makes
emergency floppy |
Y |
Y |
| System
information |
Y |
Y |
| Crash
protection |
Y |
|
| Hardware
diagnostics |
Y-1 |
Y |
| Automatic
updater |
Y |
N |
| File
management Cleans drive of unneeded files |
Y |
Y |
| Cleans drive
of orphaned Shortcuts |
N |
Y |
| File
compression |
N |
Y |
| File
comparison |
Y |
N |
| File
encryption and decryption |
N |
Y |
Y = Yes N = No
1--Hardware diagnostics program runs in a DOS window.
The Latest, Greatest Software
Applications seem to change by the minute. By the time you install one, there's either a new version or a new patch for the current
version. In fact, Windows 98, due out this year, is expected to come with its own Internet update software. Meanwhile, several software
solutions can keep you and your applications up-to-date, but they're
not for everyone.
CyberMedia's Oil Change scans the Internet and offers you a list of
updates to the programs it finds on your system. After you download the update, Oil Change can unpack the compressed file and will even
run the install program for you. It also has an undo feature that can (or at least should) uninstall the most recent update you made
through it.
Using Oil Change showed me just how out-of-date my programs really were. I found I could install a file conversion wizard for Excel, add a
preview pane to Exchange, and install a QuickTime plug-in in
Netscape Navigator.
But Oil Change didn't tell me to update Norton AntiVirus, even though I knew that I needed to.
Stranger than that, it recommended upgrades to several games I'd never even heard of, and suggested I
upgrade America Online from version 2.5 to 3.0 (which I was already using). And when I tried to uninstall Word 97's file compatibility
patch, it didn't work. (An upgrade to Oil Change, which features push technology, an expanded knowledgebase, and the ability to schedule
nighttime updates, was unavailable for testing at this time. It should be available by the time you read this.)
TuneUp.com is a Web-based subscription service that can keep your
system up-to-date for $3.95 a month. It costs more than Oil Change but includes virus checking, information from a number of sources
(including BugNet), and one-on-one technical support by e-mail. Earlier this year Quarterdeck purchased TuneUp.com; a retail version
of the Web-based tool, PCTuneUp, should be on store shelves by the time you read this. PCTuneUp will also be able to roll back
installations, so that if installing the latest Blunderbuss driver renders your laser printer inoperable, you can go back to the driver
you were using before.
If you use a lot of shareware, Manage-able Software Services offers a free update service called Catch-Up. Catch-Up doesn't automate the
upgrade process and won't update a program you bought in a store, but it does make it easy to check up on and download shareware and
freeware programs. If you're using a lot of shareware, it's convenient--at least until you're overwhelmed by all the .zip
files and installation programs you find yourself downloading.
If you use a great many programs, automatic update packages are worth your while: Maintaining the latest versions of your core
applications should help you avoid bugs and keep your computer running smoothly. But if there are only two or three programs you
need to update on a regular basis, these utilities probably aren't
worth your time or money.
• Catch-Up free; Manage-able Software Services
• Oil Change first-year subscription $39.95, subsequent years $19.95
each; CyberMedia; 310/581-4700
• PCTuneUp $40 street (includes one-year subscription; renewal
rates were not yet set at press time); Quarterdeck Corp.;
310/309-3700
Terrific Shareware Extras
There are some wonderful little programs that can make it much easier to care for your PC. Better yet, many are no-cost or
inexpensive shareware products you can evaluate free of charge. All the programs discussed here are available at WinFiles.com and at PC
World.
Safety Net Pro. Want a quick way to back up your Windows
configuration files? Safety Net Pro copies your Registry, .ini files, and other important settings to floppy disk. If disaster strikes, you can restore your custom Windows 95 settings, even if your backup drive
doesn't work. $21.95 registration fee; CT Software; 800/617-7740
RegClean. Windows 95's Registry is like your garage; it stores stuff
you don't know what to do with but don't dare throw away. RegClean clears away some of the mess. The program often misses more garbage than it finds, but you can't complain about the price--it's
free. See here for details.
SiSoft Sandra. Ever wonder how Windows is using all that RAM? Run
SiSoft Sandra, a near-complete diagnostic tool with an interface that looks a lot like Windows' Control Panel, to find out. Registration fees
vary (the program is free to homes and schools). SiSoft Software Ltd.
Windows 95 Registry FAQ. Designed for moderately technical to
advanced users, the FAQ has everything from tips on changing icons to a reference list of binary values. You can even launch Windows'
Registry Editor and configuration backup program from the FAQ. A more ambitious shareware version, with information on Microsoft
Office, Internet Explorer, and other products, is in the works. Go check out Imaginations Unlimited.
DiskData. As I write this, my C: drive has 853,478K of actual files,
which, thanks to its 16K clusters, is taking up 1,003,248K of disk space. Meanwhile, my Start menu folder has 253K of small Shortcut
files that take up 6864K. This info is at my fingertips thanks to DiskData, a handy little program that shows where your hard drive
space is going. Informative, easy to use, and free. Can't ask for more than that. Digital Information Gallery
ConfigSafe. Want to take a snapshot of your Windows configuration
files? Use Artisoft's ConfigSafe. Then, when disaster strikes and Word tells you a .dll file is missing (when it really isn't), you can restore the
snapshot and everything should start working again. Even if Windows refuses to load, the program can restore your system from a DOS
prompt. The $40 program isn't shareware, but I wish I'd discovered it
before I started writing this article. Artisoft ; 800/846-9726
Top Ten Bugs
(And How to Swat Them)
1. Netscape Navigator
BUG: Security flaws in Navigator 3.0 and 4.0 can allow hackers to access files on your PC.
FIX: Download Navigator version 3.03 or Communicator version 4.02 from Netscape's Software Download Page.
2. Internet Explorer
BUG: Potentially dangerous security holes in Explorer 3.0 could let evil Web page authors attack your hard disk.
FIX: Download Internet Explorer 3.02.
3. Windows 95
BUG: File system problems could endanger your data; also has poor
password security.
FIX: Windows 95 Service Pack 1 beefs up security but includes a bug of its own that can nuke its ability to save your log-in password. You
can get around this bug by deleting your password list file (use File,
Find and look for and then delete *.pwl), and then grabbing the patch from here.
4. Microsoft Fax
BUG: You can't use the cover pages in Win 95's Exchange fax program, even though the files are in the Windows directory.
FIX: Don't bother figuring it out; just download the patch from cover
page fix.
5. Quicken
BUG: Quicken's 6.0b update fixed some bugs and introduced a new one: It won't automatically move scheduled transactions from the
Reminders window to the register.
FIX: At this time Intuit was still working on a patch. However, you'll
find lengthy work-around instructions at tech support.
6. Cyrix 6x86 CPU
BUG: Early versions of the CPU run slowly under Windows NT. Some programs (particularly games) that require a Pentium may refuse to
run.
FIX: Cyrix has an exchange program for NT users with early CPUs (call 800/462-9749). Check out Bryan Davis's 6x86 Web site for links
to utilities that fool Win 95 into detecting the 6x86 chip as an Intel Pentium.
7. Microsoft Office 97
BUG: Office 97 data files are often incompatible with those from earlier versions of Office.
FIX: The 8MB Service Release bears fixes, enhancements, and file converters. Watch out, though--versions downloaded in early August
were buggy.
8. Norton Utilities 2.0
BUG: Version 2.0 trips over earlier installations, displays the amount of free disk space incorrectly, leaks memory, and does not
completely support FAT32 disk partitions.
FIX: Use Norton's LiveUpdate feature to grab version 2.03, or else
download it from here.
9. Tax Software
BUG: Tax software bugs seldom bite hard, but you should always check for fixes before entering data and printing your forms.
FIX: For TurboTax, scout out their site. For Block Financial's Kiplinger TaxCut, review tech support .
10. Iomega Jaz Disks
BUG: A limited number of Jaz disks manufactured between March 13 and April 20, 1997, are defective and will eventually suffer from
performance degradation or fail completely.
FIX: If you have a bad disk, Iomega's customer service department 800/336-1314) will replace it for
free. For a complete description of the problem, including how to identify defective disks (the date of manufacture is etched on each), and how to exchange them, read
the company's press release about the problem at Jazzdisk News.
Keep Your PC Safe and Secure
Call me paranoid, but I believe you should expect disaster to strike. If
you don't back up your files, monitor viruses, and protect against power dips and surges, you could lose it all. Here are three absolute
essentials (and one optional step) that will preserve your data--and maybe your sanity.
Essential #1: A Backup Drive
The most important thing you can do to protect your data is to back it up regularly and reliably.
Believe me, I know. While working on this article, I managed to render my hard drive completely inaccessible.
Fortunately, I had a recent--and complete--backup on tape. Within a couple of hours, I was back to work.
Here are the steps for backup security:
1. Get a tape drive. The easiest backup in the world is one where you click a button and walk away. The cheapest way to do this is to buy a
tape backup device with at least the capacity of your hard drive, such as the Iomega Ditto 2GB or the Ditto Easy 3200. Removable-disk
units like Iomega's Zip drive just aren't big enough. And don't even
think about floppies.
Internal backup drives are $40 to $150 cheaper than external drives but require you to pop the hood and install them; most external
drives are slower but simply plug into your PC's parallel port.
2. Test it. Sometimes a tape drive seems to be working fine. Then you try to restore a file (usually the day your big project is due) and
realize the drive only looks like it's been backing up your files. To protect yourself, back up and restore a few files when you set up the
drive's software. You should run this test about once a month.
3. Set up a schedule. Once you've tested the tape drive, do a full backup. Then at the end of every workday, do an incremental
backup, which copies only those files that were created or have changed since the last backup. If you're in a hurry, you can speed up
this daily process by backing up only your data folder and its
subfolders.
Every two weeks, change tapes and do another full backup. With two or three tapes, you'll have a month's worth of data.
4. Store your data off-site. If your computer is stolen or destroyed in a fire, you don't want your data to go with it. Store your backup tapes
in a secure place, like a safe-deposit box or a fireproof safe.
HOT TIP For the ultimate in off-site data storage, check out
Web-based online backup options, like McAfee's Personal Vault and Atrieva Corporation's Atrieva. With online backup there's no need to buy a backup drive, and no worrying about fire, theft, or flooding.
Costs vary, but storage starts at around $10 a month for 25MB of server space. The drawbacks? Using an online backup service can be slow and expensive, depending on how much data you store.
You're also dependent on the service's server being accessible at all
times.
Essential #2: Antivirus Software
Every parent knows that when the little ones go off to preschool, they're bound to come home with the flu. The same is true of the
Internet. As soon as you're sharing data and programs with millions of users online, your computer's chances of coming down with a virus
increase a hundredfold. You need an up-to-date antivirus package,
and you need to use it correctly.
Here's how:
1. Buy an antivirus program. Look for one that operates in the background, checking files as you work. It should be easy to set up,
use, and--very important--update. When we last reviewed antivirus software, Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit was awarded the Best Buy
by virtue of its ability to detect all the viruses we threw at it and remove 89 percent of them. I use Symantec's Norton AntiVirus, which
also detected all the viruses but was able to remove only 77 percent of them. I like it because it's simple to use, versatile, and amazingly
easy to update--you just click a button and it updates itself over the
Net.
2. Run it in the background. This is the best way to use an antivirus program because it stays out of your way. You can also scan your
drive for viruses daily or weekly, but thanks to the vigilance of what
these programs do in the background, that isn't really necessary.
3. Update virus definitions at least monthly. New viruses are cropping up all the time. If you want to stay clear of them, you need to get
regular updates from the folks who made your software. Most antivirus programs allow you to download new definitions off their
Web sites--or better yet, through one-button, Net-based updating
tools built into the programs themselves.
HOT TIP Scan your hard drive after updating your program's virus
definitions. That way, you can make sure that the software hadn't been missing a newly discovered virus before you updated it.
* Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit $85
street
Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus $50 street; Dr Solomon's Software;
800/960-9095
Essential #3: A Surge Suppressor
Power corrupts, and electric power corrupts electrically. If you don't use a good surge suppressor, a sudden jolt of electricity can wipe out
your computer. This is especially true if you live in an area with frequent electrical storms or a building with ancient wiring. Sure, it's
a small risk, but do you want to bet all of your hard work on it? I didn't
think so.
A surge suppressor looks and works like a power strip, but it also protects the devices plugged into it from electrical surges that can
fry your hardware. If the surge suppressor is hit by a bigger jolt than it can handle, it will self-destruct, shutting off power to your
computer and sacrificing itself for the good of more expensive hardware. Best of all, you can find a decent one for under $20.
HOT TIP Buy a surge suppressor with a UL 1449 rating of 330
volts or less and 240 or more joules. A unit with four to six outlets is probably sufficient. If you live in an area with a lot of electrical
storms, get a surge suppressor with phone jacks for protection from surges coming through the phone line and into your modem.
And the Optional: An Uninterruptible Power Supply If your work is so
critical and time-sensitive that a sudden system crash would be an absolute disaster, get yourself an uninterruptible power supply. This
is basically a battery with a surge suppressor attached. If a power failure occurs, you'll get enough juice to save your work and close things down gracefully.
For most people, the advantages of a UPS just aren't worth the device's $100 to $500 price. You can protect your work for free by
saving to disk often--and far more crashes are caused by bad software than by a loss of power. I've never owned a UPS.
Still, there was that time when the power went out at the office. While the rest of us screamed and cursed, the one person with a UPS
happily finished the document he was writing, saved the document,
exited Windows, and properly shut off his machine.
Free Support: USENET to the Rescue
If you're willing to forgo pure quality in favor of sheer quantity, you
can get great advice from Usenet newsgroups. Here are some of the
sharpest groups around:
alt.comp.shareware: This low-volume group provides a manageable introduction to Net news.
alt.comp.virus: Get the virus and antivirus software skinny from A to Z. Beware of occasional obscene
spam.
alt.sys.pc-clone.dell: Commune with other disgruntled, or gruntled, Dell PC users. See also
alt.sys.pc-clone .gateway2000 and alt.sys .pc-clone.micron.
comp.dcom.modems: More than you ever wanted to know about modems, phone lines, and the human urge to communicate. Also
don't miss comp.dcom.fax and comp.dcom.isdn.
comp.infosystems.www.browsers.ms-windows: The latest scuttlebutt on beta bugs, push and pull technologies, and Java and
JScript. Warning: This is a high-volume group.
comp.os.ms-windows.win95.misc: The mother of all Windows 95 information resources. NT users should visit comp.os.ms-windows.nt
instead; Windows 3.x is still being rehashed in comp.os.ms-windows.misc.
comp.sys.ibm.pc.hard- ware.*: Eight different groups cover topics including processors, computer systems, communications,
networking, storage, CD-ROM drives, and video boards. If it's not discussed here, it's just not hardware.
Your PC Tune-Up Schedule
Things To Do Every Day
Scan your disk quickly Use Norton Utilities' Disk Doctor, Nuts & Bolts'
Disk Minder, or Windows' ScanDisk to check for cross-linked files and other problems. For a quicker scan, turn off the surface scan option.
Put the program Shortcut in your Startup folder so your disk gets scanned every time you load Windows.
Do an incremental backup At the end of the day, back up only those files that have changed since the last backup. In a hurry? Do an
incremental backup of only your data folder and its subfolders.
Things To Do Every Two Weeks
Back up your entire hard drive A recent, full copy of your hard drive's
contents is the best insurance you've got against data-loss disaster. Put in a fresh backup tape, close all running applications, and launch
your backup program. Start a full backup, turn off the monitor, and leave the office--preferably for the night.
Defrag your hard drive Set your defragging software (Norton Utilities' Speed Disk, Nuts & Bolts' Disk Tune, or Windows' Disk Defragmenter)
to its slowest and most complete setting, get it started, then turn off your monitor and walk away. A long lunch break will probably be
enough time. If not, do it overnight.
Scan your drive Use Norton's Disk Doctor, Nuts & Bolts' Disk Minder, or Windows' ScanDisk to check the condition of your hard drive. This
time, make sure the surface scan option is turned on.
Things To Do Every Month
Test your backup Backup drives and tapes aren't always dependable.
About once a month, try to restore a few files from various folders--preferably files that are expendable. If you can't restore
them, contact the tape drive manufacturer.
Update your virus definitions Your antivirus program vendor regularly posts updates that help the software spot the latest in malevolent
engineering. Grab the updates off the vendor's Web site, or use the program's built-in update tool.
Things To Do When Installing Software
Make room on your hard drive To find out how much room you have
on your drive, double-click My Computer, right-click the drive, and select Properties. You'll want enough space to load the entire program, plus 10 percent of your drive's total space.
If you don't have enough space, empty the Recycle Bin, look for files you can delete or archive, and uninstall applications you no longer
use. Both Norton Utilities and Nuts & Bolts have tools that can help
you determine which files are unworthy of disk space.
Back up the Registry Installation programs do all sorts of horrible things to user.dat and
system.dat, the two huge and complex Registry files where Windows stores your configurations. You can't back up the Registry with Explorer or with DOS's copy command, but
there's a program buried on the Windows 95 CD-ROM that lets you do it. Go to the disc's
other\misc\cfgback folder, and copy cfgback.exe to your Windows folder and cfgback.hlp to your
Windows\Help folder. To make a Registry backup, launch the
cfgback.exe program and follow the directions.
Take a snapshot of Windows From a DOS prompt, enter the commands dir c:\windows > before.dir and dir c:\windows\system >>
before.dir; note that the second command uses two greater-than (>) signs. This creates a text file listing all files in those
directories a big help if you decide later to restore your settings.
Do the installation Don't be too quick to go with defaults. Think about which components you need and where on your hard drive you want the program. In most cases, a
subfolder in My Programs is the best location.
Take another snapshot This time the DOS commands are dir c:\windows > after.dir and dir c:\windows\system >> after.dir. Once you've created the before and after files, use a word processor or Norton Utilities' file comparison program to look at the changes.
Tell the new app about your data folder Find out where your new program saves its data files, and change the default to 1data (or
whatever you call your data folder).
Things You Should Do Once
Make emergency boot floppies You'll need them for that horrible day
when your hard drive refuses to boot. Here are the essential steps:
1. To create your basic Windows 95 emergency boot disk, insert a floppy, go to the Start menu, and select Settings*Control Panel.
Double-click Add/Remove Programs, click the Startup Disk tab, and click the Create Disk button. The resulting disk will contain a number
of DOS-based utilities for examining and fixing your system.
2. Programs like Symantec's Norton Utilities, Helix's Nuts & Bolts, and most major antivirus products create their own emergency boot
floppies. If you have one of these programs, simply follow its instructions.
3. In case you ever have to reinstall Windows 95 itself, you'll need an emergency boot disk with your
16-bit CD-ROM drivers on it. If your computer came with Windows 95 already installed, this should be
easy. From the Start menu, go to Programs*Accessories*System Tools and see if you have an option called Create System Disks. If
not, try to find your old DOS autoexec.bat and config.sys files and
your CD-ROM drivers and then save them on a floppy disk.
4. Write-protect all your boot floppies and store them in a safe place where you can access them easily.
Buy a surge suppressor A sudden surge in electricity can transform
your PC into a piece of avant-garde sculpture. Look for one with a UL 1449 rating of 330 volts or less and at least 240 joules; make sure it
has enough outlets to meet your needs.
Also worth considering: a suppressor with phone jacks to go between the wall and your modem.
Buy a tape drive Look for a drive with a capacity at least equal to
your hard drive's. That way, you can back up your entire system
without having to be there to switch tapes.
* External drives that plug into the PC's parallel port are generally easier to install than internal ones, and they can be easily shared
between computers.
* Test the tape drive by backing up and restoring some files before trusting it to do a real job.
Buy a good set of utilities For thorough and safe disk scanning and
defragging, crash protection, and assorted other forms of protection, you'll want Symantec's Norton Utilities or Helix's Nuts & Bolts. Either
program does an excellent job, but Nuts & Bolts gives you more for your money. See "The Complete PC Toolbox" for more details.
You'll also want a full virus protection program--one that can watch
your system and check new files, update virus definitions, scan your hard drive, and eliminate existing infections. We recommend Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit.
Decide how to partition your hard drive If your hard drive is 1GB or
larger and your PC uses the FAT16 file system, it's time to divide the drive. Using a partition program (I like
PartitionMagic), make your logical C: drive 1023MB, the largest it can be and still have 16K
clusters. Why 16K? Because a 511MB drive--the largest capacity that allows 8K clusters--fills up too quickly with today's software.
On drive C:, put Windows, your data, and as many of your regular programs as will fit. Name the rest of the hard drive D:, and use it to
hold apps you don't work with a lot, large disk-hogging programs, and major downloads. If you find yourself keeping a lot of little programs
on D: that you don't use often but want to keep, compress them into
archives--then you can access them later.
Organize your hard drive You should organize your data in a way that
makes sense to you.
Here's how:
1. Create a data folder on your hard drive. (If you're using Microsoft Office for Win 95 or later, you've already got one called My
Documents.) Rename it 1data or another name that's meaningful to you.
2. Create subfolders in the data folder to store your work logically by
project, client name, or whatever works for you.
3. Move your data into the subfolders.
4. Set your applications to save new files to your data folder by
default.
5. Put Shortcuts to your data folder--and possibly to subfolders within your data
folder on your desktop or in the Start menu.
Things You Should Never Do
1. Never assume that disasters happen only to other people. You'll be sorry.
2. Don't unplug peripherals while your computer is turned on.
3. Don't shut off your PC without properly exiting Windows first. The next time you start Windows, you could be in for a nasty surprise.
4. Don't improve your computer in any major way like installing RAM or upgrading your operating
system without first doing a thorough backup.
5. Never open a file you've just downloaded unless your anti-virus program is up and running in auto-scan mode.
6. Don't store floppies or backup tapes near a magnet, such as in a telephone or monitor or on a refrigerator. It can wipe out their data.
7. Don't smoke near your computer. The smoke is bad for more than
just your lungs.
8. Don't use your CD-ROM drive as a coffee cup holder. In fact, it's best not to drink or eat anything near your PC.
9. Don't grab your mouse by the cord and beat it against your computer just because you're frustrated.
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