Dr. Bombay Computer M.D.

By Dr. Emilio Bombay, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas

Jan. 4–Too cheap for antivirus? Don’t expect pity.

Dear Dr. Bombay: I’m cheap. I didn’t buy antivirus software until it was too late. My Compaq got gunked up, and I needed to reformat the hard drive. After doing that, I spent about eight hours looking for the original Windows XP disc. After I gave up and had a couple of beers, I remembered they didn’t give me one. They expected me to create one myself. Fine. I used my full set of six “recovery” CDs. Two hours later, I started up my computer. That’s when I realized that the “recovery” CDs installed all the crud my computer started off with. I get to look at ads for AOL, Yahoo!, Hot Deals on Accessories, Easy Internet Sign-up, etc. Long story to get to my question: How do I format the hard drive and only install XP when I don’t have a CD or product key?

— Up a Creek

Dear Creek: It’s simple. You go buy a Windows XP installation CD. The product key conveniently comes with it.

I certainly hope you didn’t expect any sympathy on my part. This little problem is entirely your fault, and unless you want to spring for a new copy of XP, you’re going to have to live with it. And what did you think those recovery CDs were going to do? Give you a pristine copy of XP without all the useless bundled bloatware and links to sites that want to take your money? It took me a half an hour to stop laughing at you. It makes me smile even now. Somebody paid Compaq to put that stuff on there in the first place. They’re sure not going to miss a second chance to assault you with their come-ons.

The thing is, that set of discs gave you your authorized copy of XP back, and you should be happy it did instead of whining about all the unnecessary stuff that also got restored. Grow up and accept the responsibility. You’re the one who didn’t install virus protection, even though it’s not that expensive. There are even free ones, if you can’t part with a few lousy dollars to defend yourself against this kind of thing.

Personally, I wouldn’t buy a computer from a company that doesn’t provide you with a bona fide Microsoft installation disc. They can add anything else they want to the computer, even give me CDs to go with the extra stuff. I really don’t care. I’m going to delete it. When I start from scratch, I want to start from my scratch, not the manufacturer’s.

Your cry for help has fallen on extremely deaf ears. Go help yourself, Chucko.

Dear Dr. Bombay: I really like Windows XP Backup and have used it for some years. However, I’ve not been able to run it on an automated schedule. I’ve tried it on four different machines including a brand new Dell. I tried Dell’s outsourced support, and the guy seemed to think I was an idiot. Maybe I am. Can you help?

— Unscheduled Stop

Dear Unscheduled: I’m not sure I can help you with that. Or with your backup problem. I tend to agree with the guy on the support line, because Backup is a really easy program to use, and scheduling a session is easy enough that a monkey hitting keys at random could do it.

I hope you’re not using Backup’s wizard, even though the program initially thinks you’re dim enough to need it. Always choose the advanced setup, then go to the Schedule Jobs tab and click on Add Job. At that point, yet another wizard will guide you through setting things up. If you’ve done it correctly, the task should show up in the Scheduled Tasks utility (in the System Accessories folder, along with Backup).

Just by looking at Backup, you can tell it’s a relic. It’s a clunky leftover from the days of Windows NT, and it shows its age. You might be better served with a different kind of backup-and-restore program.

The Backup program copies files back and forth rather than creating a bit-for-bit image of your hard drive. Assuming all the copying goes perfectly, maybe that’s good enough for you. But if you want an extra sense of security, you’ll spend a few bucks for an image-creation package like Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image, either of which will allow you to restore an exact copy of the drive you backed up. You can get the details at tweakhound.com/xp/backup/1.htm. I can guarantee you that guy from the first question wishes he’d done that.

Dear Dr. Bombay: Some time ago I downloaded and printed on my Lexmark X 6150 some very important digital photos of our home just before it was destroyed. Unfortunately, I stupidly failed to save the files and now desperately need to find and reproduce them if at all possible.

— Photo Finished

Dear Finished: You already know what I’m going to say, don’t you? Then why even ask? Once you lose a file, it generally stays lost, so I don’t know how you expect me to find it. I know the pictures meant a lot to you, but you should have taken care of them better if they were that important. I always burn a couple of CDs when I get a bunch of stuff I want to archive.

Since that ship has sailed, the only thing you can do now is to have the prints scanned at some place like Kinko’s. You’ll lose some of the quality, but at least you’ll have the files again, assuming you don’t repeat the same mistake.

Dear Dr. Bombay: When I shut down Windows XP, I turn the monitor off after I see the message that Windows is shutting down. Sometimes I can do this, go to bed, and the next day when I turn the monitor on the screen says it still shutting down. I have to hold in the power button on the computer for about 10 seconds for the computer to turn off. After that, the computer is fine. It doesn’t do it every time, but I’d like to know what is going on

— Shut Me Down

Dear Down: And I’d like to know what’s keeping you from using Google to figure out the solution to one of the most common Windows problems of all, second only to forgetting to plug your computer in. You’ve got some program running in the background that periodically refuses to shut down when Windows tells it to, and chances are you don’t even need it.

After you do the requisite spyware scan, if you still have the problem you should start taking stuff out of your startup by opening Msconfig from the Run dialog and eliminating programs one-by-one. If you didn’t understand any of that, tough. I suppose you could look it up on Google, but … oh, I forgot, you apparently don’t know how to do that. Too bad. You’d be surprised what you’d learn if you just got up off your duff and did a little research on your own.

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We’d start apologizing for Dr. Emilio Bombay’s behavior in these notes, but it would be a full-time job. Send your questions to drbombay@star-telegram.com or fax 817-390-7257.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas

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