Hardware

Infopackets Reader Robert G. writes: " Dear Dennis, I've been a fan of your newsletter for quite some time. Thanks for that! Question: at the end of the day, is it best to log off and keep the computer running and ready for the next time it is used, ... or should I shut it down completely and power off? I've heard different variations on the answer to this age-old question. If I leave it running, the fans are always spinning, which causes wear and tear. What do you think? " My response: Good question! I personally always leave my laptop running 24 hours a day because I'm always using it (I'm ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Don B. writes: " Dear Infopackets Team, I have never made a disk image before. My question is: if I make a complete image backup of my C drive (25Gigabytes large), can I then erase my drive and proceed to restore my image backup? ... Or is disk imaging good only for restoring broken files, but not for doing a complete system restore on a clean drive? I guess I'm a bit confused. What I would like to do is wipe out my hard drive completely, then install Windows XP fresh and all the updates and security software, plus a few program essentials (like MS Office). After doing all of ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'Rose' Writes: " Dear Dennis, My question for you today is: how can I make my CD ROM Drive available to users logging in with Administrator rights only? Here's the problem: my kid brother shares the family computer, which has ... Windows XP professional installed on it. He likes to play online games (which are installed via the CD ROM drive); unfortunately, the games he plays seem to crashed the system. As such, I've set up a separate user account with 'general' user access and have disabled the network card so that he cannot access the Internet when using the computer. Now, ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'Cathryn' writes: " Dear Dennis, My computer will not recognize my CD ROM drive (the D drive). For example: when I put a disc into the CD drive, the mouse pointer briefly changes to a CD icon (as it normally does) to tell me -- ... presumably -- that the drive is scanning the disc for its Table Of Contents. However, the CD icon only appears for a split second (when normally it would take a few seconds to read the contents). When I double-click on the D drive to run the CD, it prompts me to 'Please insert disc into Drive D', when in fact there is already a disc in the drive. Can ... (view more)

An External Hard drive can come in handy for backing up files or freeing up some disk space on your PC. The only problem is they can be pretty expensive. An easy alternative is to buy a drive enclosure for about $20 and build your own using an ... internal hard drive. Building your own external hard drive enclosure can be done in as little as 5 to 10 minutes time, and without opening up your PC's case. Not only does assembling your own external hard drive save money, it provides flexibility in choosing the connections, capacity and style that fit your needs. It is also an excellent way to make ... (view more)

Yahoo! recently acquired a company called Meedio, and they have wasted no time rebranding Meedio's PVR technology as " Yahoo Go TV ". The technology is available now as a free download from Yahoo!. From the Yahoo! Go TV web site: " Now you can take ... Yahoo! off your computer and put it in your living room for everyone to see. View photos, search for video clips and watch movie trailers on your TV. Plus, your own digital video recorder (DVR) lets you record and watch your favorite shows anytime for free. Be part of the Yahoo! Go for TV Beta! " (Source: yahoo.com ). Yahoo! Go ... (view more)

It is possible to customize icons and cursors with MS Windows. For example: software developers often create custom icons for their applications; even webmasters and bloggers use icons (called the "favicon") for their websites. Recently, I came ... across an exemplary freeware alternative, called Paint.NET . In many ways, Paint.NET is a mix between Photoshop, Paint Shop, and MS Paint. While there aren't very many freeware plug-ins available for Paint.NET, they are both easy to install and easy to run. By itself, Paint.NET cannot edit .ICO and .CUR files; however, one plug-in in particular (aptly ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Richard M. writes: " Dear Dennis, My hard drive has been making strange noises for a time, and today, it finally failed. The drive will boot up only to a certain point and then stop altogether; I cannot access my desktop or ... anything else. I ran a Windows 98 startup floppy and managed to do a scandisk, but when it scans the hard drive for surface errors, it stops at 21% and the noise from hard drive starts up again; it won't allow any further scanning. I tried using a program designed to fix hard drive's called 'PC Beginner' and it failed as well. I was wondering if there ... (view more)

On Friday, March 31st, Toshiba released the first-ever high-definition DVD (HD-DVD) player to Japanese consumers. The company said the new units would sell for an equivalent of $936 USD. (Source: digital-lifestyles.info ) Toshiba plans to release ... units in the US later this month with a cost of approximately $799, depending on features. HD-DVD is the next generation DVD format that stores data at greater densities needed for high-definition movies and television. There are two kinds of HD-DVD's: a 15GB single-layer disc, and the 30GB dual-layer with twice the capacity. In comparison, ... (view more)