Number 286 - March 2007

UPDATE
Hardware    In I Just Bought Your Hard Drive the author reports on his faulty hard drive, containing personal information, that was replaced by a manufacturer--was supposed to be destroyed--but was not! A man who bought it, found his address and phone number on it and contacted him! Read about it and the steps you should take to prevent this from happening to you. Operating Systems    In SHADOW NTI...On-the-fly Data Backups, Brian Lewis describes this backup software recommending it with some caveats. Backups, as he points out, seldom, if ever, backup your operating system and programs. In general, they are designed to backup data files only.    In CRASH! Windows Will Not Come Up! This Could Be YOU! another author, Irene Ganas of Chicago Computer Society, tells her story about backing up and choosing too small a backup hard drive. The same size as the existing drive may not be big enough. Read and learn.	Communications    Did you ever download a file that was supposed to include a picture but all you got was the text and a red box containing a red X? Vinnie LaBash discusses Conquering The Big Red X where he gives reasons for it appearing instead of the desired image and suggests steps to take to track down the problem. General Interest    In VCom System Suite 7 - The King Of Utility Suites author Vinny LaBash discusses the features of this many-faceted maintenance program.    In Tour the World With World Wind Rob Rice of Oklahoma City's Computer Club discusses some of the features of this program from NASA's Ames Research Center. It is a direct competitor for Google Earth and does some things a little differently.
Number 286 - March 2007