XP Advice, TiVo Hacks, Building PCs, Software Scams, and More
By Roman Loyola, Tim Moynihan, Nicole Guilfoyle, and Nick Davis - Posted Apr 09, 2004
Call No. 1: XP on RAID
John in Castro Valley, Calif., just got a pair of Western Digital 10,000 rpm Raptor drives. He's going to set up the drives as a RAID 0 array. He currently has a RAID array installed in his PC. Can he just drag copy the current installation of Windows XP onto the new Raptor RAID array?
In theory, Patrick says, the answer is yes. But in practice he's had problems making this work. Play it safe and back up your data, then do a fresh install of Windows XP. This is a good opportunity to clean out your system. Make sure you have the disk with the software for the RAID controller when you do the install.
Discuss this topic and offer your tech advice.
Call No. 2: XP on a homebuilt PC
Jon in Newberry, Mich., has an eMachines PC with Windows XP installed. He's built his own PC and wants to install XP on it. Can he install the copy of XP that came with his eMachines PC on his homebuilt computer?
Because Jon has an eMachines restore disk and not a full copy of XP, Patrick says the chances are 50/50 that it'll work. He may not be able to install that copy of XP on his homebuilt PC because it may only work with an eMachines motherboard. Then again, the installation might work anyway.
The best bet is to test the restore disk on a friend's non-eMachines PC, but don't go through with the full installation. If it prompts Jon to install it and doesn't give him a warning message, odds are he can install it on his homebuilt PC.
Discuss this topic and offer your tech advice.
Call No. 3: memory dumps
Steve in Ellicott, MD, called to say his computer keeps having physical memory dumps. Then it restarts. He wants to stop the madness.
Memory dumps happen when your system writes the contents of memory to the hard drive so it can analyze the data and figure out what's making your system crash. It's usually a problem with a device driver or a missing DLL file.
Discuss this topic and offer your tech advice.
Call No. 4: software deal or scam?
Eric in New Brunswick, N.J., asked if a 70-percent-off deal he saw on the Internet was for real. The deal offered software downloads for less than the purchase price of the boxes of software.
It's always best practice to check with the original software manufacturer for prices before you download from a third-party vendor. Sometimes third-party vendors will indeed sell software for download at cheaper than retail price. But sometimes they mark up the price instead.
Discuss this topic and offer your tech advice.
Call No. 5: XP Home upgrade install
Steve in St. Louis is building a PC. He has Windows XP Home upgrade. Can he do a complete install with the upgrade?
You can, but you need an original Windows 98 installation disc. The XP installer asks for the 98 disc at the beginning of the install. If you don't have one, Patrick says you should go to a flea market and pick one up.
Discuss this topic and offer your tech advice.
Call No. 6: TiVo 30-second skip
Todd in Acton, Mass., owns a TiVo. He wants to know how to skip through commercials with a push of his remote button.
It's easy, and it's called the 30-Second TiVo Jump. There's a push-button code you can enter into your TiVo remote to make the skip-ahead button jump ahead 30 seconds. The skip-ahead button usually skips to the end of the program by default.
Get all the info on how to perform the 30-Second TiVo jump here.
Read our article with a bunch of other great TiVo tweaks.
Discuss this topic and offer your tech advice.
Call No. 7: password-protect WinXP user accounts
Frank from Jamestown, Ohio, phoned to say his little brother keeps getting around the two password-protected user accounts on his computer. The guest account is turned off. How does he keep him out?
Frank, it sounds like your little bro is using Ctrl + Alt + Delete to bypass the Windows XP login screen and log in to a hidden user account. First, change your administrator password.
Then, in Windows XP Pro, do this.
You should also go into your User Account settings and disable Ctrl + Alt + Delete login.
Discuss this topic and offer your tech advice.
Call No. 8: online photo hosting
David from Dix Hills, N.Y., wants to know about reasonably cheap Web hosting companies that offer lots of space for pictures. David only wants to run a website with a lot of images. He doesn't really care about PHP or CGI support.
Kevin and Patrick say Pair Networks is a great Web host. It's FreeBSD-based, it has a great reputation for uptime, and it hosts many sites. Pair Networks offers reasonable hosting plans starting at about $5.95 per month for the home user.
Readysetconnect.com is also a cheap, good host for a home user. Its service costs $7.95 a month, and it offers PHP and CGI support.
Discuss this topic and offer your tech advice.
Call No. 9: water-cooling parts
Nathan in Lillburn, Ga., wants to know want he needs to build a water-cooling device.
Here are some of the parts you need.
Yoshi says you should buy a kit. It's easier to put together a device using a kit.
Discuss this topic and offer your tech advice.
Call No. 10: public Wi-Fi authentication
Scott in Reading, Mass., wants to set up a small public Wi-Fi hotspot that his friends can access. He only wants to give access to users who chip in for the cost. How can he set up a subscriber or authentication system?
Patrick and Kevin say the best way to authenticate use of his Wi-Fi hotspot is to gather his friends' MAC addresses, then set up the hotspot to allow access only to those MAC addresses.
There's also an application called LinSpot that'll help Scott. It's a free downloadable program that turns your own Wi-Fi router into a wireless access point for paying customers to use. The only problem is that it only runs on Mac OS X.
Discuss this topic and offer your tech advice.
Call No. 11: speed up your PC
Jeremy from Boise, Idaho, called asking if he'll see improved speed by upgrading his memory (about 35 percent expected increase in performance).
Unless you get a new processor or double your RAM, you'll only see a negligible performance improvement.
Discuss this topic and offer your tech advice.
Call No. 12: dual-boot system
Nathan from Davenport, Iowa, asks, is it possible to set up a dual-boot system with one OS (Windows) on the main internal hard drive and one OS (Linux) on an external USB hard drive?
First you need to verify that your BIOS will support your USB hard drive, and further whether it will support USB hard-drive booting. We suggest you first install Windows on your main drive and then install Linux on the secondary USB drive. Doing this will cause the Linux installation to take over the OS booting process. The Linux bootloader (LILO or GRUB) will by default let you boot whichever OS you prefer.
Discuss this topic and offer your tech advice.
Call No. 13: transfer video to PC
Dan in Laurel, Md., has a bunch of VHS tapes he wants to transfer to his PC's hard drive.
You need certain hardware and software tools to do this. Patrick has the details in this article.
Discuss this topic and offer your tech advice.
Call No. 14: Linux swap partition
Larry in North Hampton, Ohio, wants to create a dual-boot Windows/Linux system on his XP machine. He's creating the partitions with PartitionMagic. During the partition-creating process, PartitionMagic is asking him where he wants to put the swap file. What's a swap file, and where should he put it?
The swap file is like a scratch pad for data that doesn't fit in your main system memory. Just like RAM, it helps you access data faster.
Windows has only a swap file, but Linux has an entire swap partition. Larry should make the swap partition the first partition he creates. That way, the swap partition will be close to the center of his hard disk, so it can access data more quickly.
Kevin recommends making the size of the swap partition twice the size of the amount of RAM in Larry's machine.
Discuss this topic and offer your tech advice.
End of show messages
John in Castro Valley, Calif., just got a pair of Western Digital 10,000 rpm Raptor drives. He's going to set up the drives as a RAID 0 array. He currently has a RAID array installed in his PC. Can he just drag copy the current installation of Windows XP onto the new Raptor RAID array?
In theory, Patrick says, the answer is yes. But in practice he's had problems making this work. Play it safe and back up your data, then do a fresh install of Windows XP. This is a good opportunity to clean out your system. Make sure you have the disk with the software for the RAID controller when you do the install.
Discuss this topic and offer your tech advice.
Call No. 2: XP on a homebuilt PC
Jon in Newberry, Mich., has an eMachines PC with Windows XP installed. He's built his own PC and wants to install XP on it. Can he install the copy of XP that came with his eMachines PC on his homebuilt computer?
Because Jon has an eMachines restore disk and not a full copy of XP, Patrick says the chances are 50/50 that it'll work. He may not be able to install that copy of XP on his homebuilt PC because it may only work with an eMachines motherboard. Then again, the installation might work anyway.
The best bet is to test the restore disk on a friend's non-eMachines PC, but don't go through with the full installation. If it prompts Jon to install it and doesn't give him a warning message, odds are he can install it on his homebuilt PC.
Discuss this topic and offer your tech advice.
Call No. 3: memory dumps
Steve in Ellicott, MD, called to say his computer keeps having physical memory dumps. Then it restarts. He wants to stop the madness.
Memory dumps happen when your system writes the contents of memory to the hard drive so it can analyze the data and figure out what's making your system crash. It's usually a problem with a device driver or a missing DLL file.
Discuss this topic and offer your tech advice.
Call No. 4: software deal or scam?
Eric in New Brunswick, N.J., asked if a 70-percent-off deal he saw on the Internet was for real. The deal offered software downloads for less than the purchase price of the boxes of software.
It's always best practice to check with the original software manufacturer for prices before you download from a third-party vendor. Sometimes third-party vendors will indeed sell software for download at cheaper than retail price. But sometimes they mark up the price instead.
Discuss this topic and offer your tech advice.
Call No. 5: XP Home upgrade install
Steve in St. Louis is building a PC. He has Windows XP Home upgrade. Can he do a complete install with the upgrade?
You can, but you need an original Windows 98 installation disc. The XP installer asks for the 98 disc at the beginning of the install. If you don't have one, Patrick says you should go to a flea market and pick one up.
Discuss this topic and offer your tech advice.
Call No. 6: TiVo 30-second skip
Todd in Acton, Mass., owns a TiVo. He wants to know how to skip through commercials with a push of his remote button.
It's easy, and it's called the 30-Second TiVo Jump. There's a push-button code you can enter into your TiVo remote to make the skip-ahead button jump ahead 30 seconds. The skip-ahead button usually skips to the end of the program by default.
Get all the info on how to perform the 30-Second TiVo jump here.
Read our article with a bunch of other great TiVo tweaks.
Discuss this topic and offer your tech advice.
Call No. 7: password-protect WinXP user accounts
Frank from Jamestown, Ohio, phoned to say his little brother keeps getting around the two password-protected user accounts on his computer. The guest account is turned off. How does he keep him out?
Frank, it sounds like your little bro is using Ctrl + Alt + Delete to bypass the Windows XP login screen and log in to a hidden user account. First, change your administrator password.
Then, in Windows XP Pro, do this.
- Right-click My Computer and choose Manage.
- Go into Local User Accounts.
- Look for users you don't know and disable the accounts.
You should also go into your User Account settings and disable Ctrl + Alt + Delete login.
Discuss this topic and offer your tech advice.
Call No. 8: online photo hosting
David from Dix Hills, N.Y., wants to know about reasonably cheap Web hosting companies that offer lots of space for pictures. David only wants to run a website with a lot of images. He doesn't really care about PHP or CGI support.
Kevin and Patrick say Pair Networks is a great Web host. It's FreeBSD-based, it has a great reputation for uptime, and it hosts many sites. Pair Networks offers reasonable hosting plans starting at about $5.95 per month for the home user.
Readysetconnect.com is also a cheap, good host for a home user. Its service costs $7.95 a month, and it offers PHP and CGI support.
Discuss this topic and offer your tech advice.
Call No. 9: water-cooling parts
Nathan in Lillburn, Ga., wants to know want he needs to build a water-cooling device.
Here are some of the parts you need.
- Radiator
- Pump
- Water blocks
- Reservoirs
- Tube
- Water
Yoshi says you should buy a kit. It's easier to put together a device using a kit.
Discuss this topic and offer your tech advice.
Call No. 10: public Wi-Fi authentication
Scott in Reading, Mass., wants to set up a small public Wi-Fi hotspot that his friends can access. He only wants to give access to users who chip in for the cost. How can he set up a subscriber or authentication system?
Patrick and Kevin say the best way to authenticate use of his Wi-Fi hotspot is to gather his friends' MAC addresses, then set up the hotspot to allow access only to those MAC addresses.
There's also an application called LinSpot that'll help Scott. It's a free downloadable program that turns your own Wi-Fi router into a wireless access point for paying customers to use. The only problem is that it only runs on Mac OS X.
Discuss this topic and offer your tech advice.
Call No. 11: speed up your PC
Jeremy from Boise, Idaho, called asking if he'll see improved speed by upgrading his memory (about 35 percent expected increase in performance).
Unless you get a new processor or double your RAM, you'll only see a negligible performance improvement.
Discuss this topic and offer your tech advice.
Call No. 12: dual-boot system
Nathan from Davenport, Iowa, asks, is it possible to set up a dual-boot system with one OS (Windows) on the main internal hard drive and one OS (Linux) on an external USB hard drive?
First you need to verify that your BIOS will support your USB hard drive, and further whether it will support USB hard-drive booting. We suggest you first install Windows on your main drive and then install Linux on the secondary USB drive. Doing this will cause the Linux installation to take over the OS booting process. The Linux bootloader (LILO or GRUB) will by default let you boot whichever OS you prefer.
Discuss this topic and offer your tech advice.
Call No. 13: transfer video to PC
Dan in Laurel, Md., has a bunch of VHS tapes he wants to transfer to his PC's hard drive.
You need certain hardware and software tools to do this. Patrick has the details in this article.
Discuss this topic and offer your tech advice.
Call No. 14: Linux swap partition
Larry in North Hampton, Ohio, wants to create a dual-boot Windows/Linux system on his XP machine. He's creating the partitions with PartitionMagic. During the partition-creating process, PartitionMagic is asking him where he wants to put the swap file. What's a swap file, and where should he put it?
The swap file is like a scratch pad for data that doesn't fit in your main system memory. Just like RAM, it helps you access data faster.
Windows has only a swap file, but Linux has an entire swap partition. Larry should make the swap partition the first partition he creates. That way, the swap partition will be close to the center of his hard disk, so it can access data more quickly.
Kevin recommends making the size of the swap partition twice the size of the amount of RAM in Larry's machine.
Discuss this topic and offer your tech advice.
End of show messages
- If you have to choose between Windows 2000 and Windows XP, choose WinXP.
- The Gimp, a free open-source image editor, runs on almost any operating system and is a great alternative to Photoshop.
- Read Leo's article about cookies to learn more about what information cookies store and how to clear them.
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