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   Levy's suggestions would be okay except that a 386 is just too old to use most of today's components.
   The 386 used an AT form factor case and power supply. The AT power connection actually used two separate plugs side by side, making it easy to misconnect and ruin the motherboard (just remember the black wires go in the middle). Whereas a new motherboard uses the ATX form factor and requires a compatible case and power supply. An ATX motherboard uses a one-piece keyed power connection, making it very hard to misconnect. ATX also uses different postions for the motherboard's mounting screws.
   It's possible that the 386 that the co-worker brought in used an IDE drive, in which case Levy was correct in say it could still be used. But frequently 386 era machines used now long dead connection methods, making the hard drive
   To upgrade a 386 you could get a new case and etc. but then you're not really upgrading the 386, you're starting from scratch building a new machine and using the old keyboard, floppy drive and maybe the mouse and monitor.

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   Functionally, drag-n-drop and copy-n-paste are the same. The file tranfer is done in the same way with the same IO functions.
   The caller's problem is likely caused by a file system limitation. The drive probably shipped formatted FAT32, which can't store files larger than 4 GiB. Because the caller had no problem with these big files on his computer's 80 GiB hard drive, it must have been formatted NTFS. Since NTFS can store files that are as big as the partition (minus the space taken by the file system's metadata). So a 60 GiB drive could store a file that's nearly 60 GiB. What the caller needs to do is re-format or convert the USB drive to NTFS (before doing either, the data should be backed up). Here's two pages that show how to convert it: Here and Here(for XP).
   Here's a blog entry which describes the same problem.

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   Obviously he misspoke, but I'll take this opportunity to highlight the difference between Silicon and Silicone.
   Silicon, one of the most abundant elements in the Earth's crust, is the key material used in microprocessors and other semiconductors as well as glass and ceramics.
   On the other hand, Silicones are a synthetic polymer consisting of Silicon and Oxygen and can be made in a variety of consistencies from liquid and gel to rubber.

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   From the first messages we can see that there is a problem with both the Master AND Slave drives on the Primary IDE controller. So from this we know that whatever the problem is, it is affecting both drives.
   The "Press F1 to continue..." error message tells us that the errors are occuring during the Power On Self Test (POST). So we now know that it's during the POST that the drives are failing, not later at boot-time.
   As for fixing it. Remember that both drives are being affected, so what do the two drives have in common? They're on the same IDE controller, thus using the same data cable, so reseating or replacing the cable will tell if it is the cause. If the drives get their power from a Y-splitter, a loose connection could cause both drives to lose power (or perhaps just a bad power supply). The two drives also rely on the BIOS, because it is during the POST that the BIOS retrieves hardware settings from the CMOS. Settings such as the hard drive paramaters. If the drive paramaters are misconfigured or have been lost because the CMOS battery has gone dead, then POST errors are a possibility.
   Personally I think the BIOS battery went dead. This is easy to check by going into the Setup and checking the system's clock. If the clock is wrong then the battery will need to be replaced and then the proper settings changed. If the clock and drive paramaters are correct then move on to checking the different cables. Should the errors still occur than trying the drives in a different machine will be necessary.
   Now to address what Levy got wrong. Levy misread the "Hard disk boot failure..." message, that message is an extension of the earlier problem. The BIOS failed to access the drive(s) during the Self Test which prevented the BIOS setting up the drive(s) to be used. So without any usable drives, and no floppy disk inserted, the machine had nothing to boot from.
   For information concerning a missing command.com file and how DOS/Win 9x loads. See this list of past items.
   Note: It's possible that the caller didn't even have two drives on the Primary controller. Again indicating that the CMOS data was lost. Another possible cause could be a virus which damaged the BIOS's contents.

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   The maximum amount of RAM that a computer can handle is dictated by the Motherboard's chipset. Different chipsets can have different limits and capabilities.
   The caller's machine was using a Pentium 3, so it may be able to handle the upgrade if needed. However my own P3 machine IS limited to 256 MiB (2x128 MiB DIMMs).

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   The User Interfaces in Windows NT have been pretty much parallel to those used in the consumer oriented versions of Windows. Windows NT 3.x used the same interface as Windows 3.x. WinNT 4's UI was the same as Win95. And finally, Windows 2000's UI was the same as that in WinME.
   However, to play Devil's Advocate for a moment, Levy's comment would be correct if he also believed that those consumer versions of Windows had un-friendly interfaces.

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   Parking is an old term for the process whereby a hard drive's read/write heads are placed in an area of the disk that isn't used for data (the landing zone). Modern hard drives will Auto-Park when they lose power, whereas older drives did need to be Parked (using a utility) before the computer was turned off.
   Next, the USB plug is a grounded connection. Therefore, as long as the device is connected, a build up of Static Electricity isn't a problem because the device is not insolated from the computer. Static electricity is only an issue when the device is first plugged in.
   Considering that the Universal Serial Bus is designed to be Hot Swappable, and thus have devices plugged or removed while the Bus is powered, the possibilty of damage from plugging and unplugging is infinitesimal. Which brings us finally to why we shouldn't just unplug some USB devices.
   USB devices which can store data do require several steps to remove them. The steps are as follow: Double-click the "Unplug or Eject Hardware" icon in the System Tray and from the new window select the device and click the Stop button.
   Contrary to Levy's statement, Stopping a device does not turn off the power to its port. Part of the Stopping process involves removing the device's drive letter (if it has one), but most importantly flushing any unwritten data to the device. Without going through the Stopping process there could be data in RAM that would be lost because it wasn't written to the device.
   Mp3 clips for both quotes are here: March 14th and May 1st.

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   That's a possibility, however heat is not always a bad thing for a CD.
   I know of one case where the temporary application of heat is good. That being the many times that I've boiled DVDs and CDs to heat polish them, so that they will play properly. Here's a post I made awhile back which explains the process (username DuneBoy). For informational purposes only, i.e., don't hurt yourself (or stuff) and sue me.

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   I've done a comparaison between my Sister's Windows XP Pro Upgrade disc and my Brother-in-law's Full disc. And they are nearly indentical. The only difference I could find was in 9 files in the i386 directory, the differences in the files are (it can be assumed) what implements the Upgrade installer's check for a previous (qualifying) version of Windows.
   This MS page explains how to do a clean install of XP (see the note at the bottom for Upgrade disc info).
   Comparisons were done by creating md5 signatures for the files on one disc, and checking them with the signatures of the other disc's files.

   It has been brought to my attention that the Internet access portion of the DirecTV service (called DirecWay), is a less than perfect service (i.e. horrible). Let me recount the experience of someone who has had the service (a friend who I'll call JR).
   JR was assured (and re-assured) when signing-up that if she wasn't satisfied with the service that she could cancel it and would just have to pay for the portion of the month that had been used (as long as it was canceled within the first 30 days). The service ended up being very slow and unpredictible, and when JR attempted to troubleshoot it with Tech. Support it was nearly impossible because their Tech. Support people were not fluent in English.
   Needless to say JR canceled the service (within the first 30 days), but along came the termination fees a $100 Service fee and a $400 Hardware fee (the $400 is refundable when the hareware is returned, but "Professional De-Installation" is another $100). JR was never told about any of these fees, quite the opposite, she was assured exactly what she would have to pay and it didn't include a $400 or even $100 fee.
   JR is currently disputing the charge to her credit card and has this to say about DirecTV: "Complete and total Scam artist at work here."

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   If someone wants their email to be private, it can be secured either through the use of Encryption or Steganography. For heavy duty encryption an OpenPGP compliant program should be used. Or for light duty (i.e. less secure), the latest version of WinZip(9.0) now uses a stronger encryption method than the eariler versions.

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   Ever heard the old adage: "The squeaking wheel gets the grease." Well, Error Reporting lets MS know that there's a squeak. And the Service Packs along with other updates are the grease. Here's a page which details what data is sent to Microsoft and how it's handled.

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   Email is not exactly free, there's no per-email charge (under normal circumstances), but last time I looked I still pay an ISP for internet access.
   But more importantly, Levy assumed that the payment for sending email would be made with money. The "payment" that is being suggested would be made with the computer's spare clock cycles. Upon sending an email, the sender's computer would be asked to solve a complicated math problem.
   For instance, let's say the math problem took ten seconds to solve. To send 20 emails, just under 3 1/2 minutes would be added to the time it takes to send the email. However for a spammer sending a million emails, they would require nearly 116 DAYS worth of processing power. (Note: At 10 seconds per solution you could send up to 8,640 emails in 24 hours.)
   Another potenial solution to the spam problem would be the inclusion of a CAPTCHA system which would verify that the sender is human (versus an automated spam mailing program).
   Further reading can be found here: Bill Gates' Proposal and this CNN News article.
   My thanks to Norman Lee for his help with this item.

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   Capacity isn't the difference. The difference is that discs labeled for Music are intended for use in consumer Audio CD Recorders. A recordable Music CD has a different Disc Application Code than a disc marketed for Data use.

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   The Command Prompt in Windows XP is not limited to the short eight letter (with a three letter extension) filename. It can use long filenames just fine. Including paths and filenames which contain spaces, it just requires that they be enclosed by quotation marks.
   Even the Command Prompt in Windows 95 and 98 can handle long filenames (and those with spaces).

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   To claim that his show is the only place to find such information is laughable. Especially when you consider that there are dozens of websites with that same info, in fact Levy's own Lesson 260 includes a link to a Microsoft page with the information.
   I also find it disingenuous that Levy has been using his old lessons as filler without stating the Lesson number from which the information comes from. In fact, over Saturday and Sunday Levy resurrected four previous lessons. Along with 260, Saturday also had 268, then on Sunday was 265 and 200.

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   Jeff Levy continues to be ignorant about the capabilities of a Windows Upgrade disc. VCOM, the makers of System Commander, even state on one of their support pages that an Upgrade disc can perform a full separate installation, once the Upgrade's install program has seen that you own a previous qualifying version. Here's Microsoft's instructions for doing a clean install.

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   Firstly, the ability to reboot a PC by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Delete is a function of the software (before Windows is loaded it's handled by the BIOS), not the hardware. And while "comes with" is the wrong wording, all modern versions of Windows handle the Ctrl-Alt-Delete combo themselves (instead of the BIOS). Windows 9x displays the Close Program window which also warns that pressing the combo again will reboot the computer and cause data loss. In NT based versions of Windows, Ctrl-Alt-Delete gives you the Windows Security window (in XP you go straight to the Task Manager). Note: For added security, NT can even be configured to require Ctrl-Alt-Delete be pressed before you can login.
   Secondly. Of course there is no problem with Ctrl-Alt-Deleting a system with no hard drive, because it is the hard drive's data that is at risk when it gets rebooted suddenly. The problem arises from the fact that modern Operating Systems write file data to a cache (in RAM) for later writing to the drive. Any data that is in the cache that hasn't yet been written to the drive will be lost if the computer is turned off or reset without going through the proper steps to shut it down (i.e. Start, Shut Down).
   Lastly, my statements on Moon-data storage are in the September 7, 2003 item. In support of my postion I suggest the reading of this article.

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   The program chkdsk has a long history with DOS, however in Windows XP (because it's NT based) chkdsk is NOT a DOS program but actually a regular 32-bit Windows program (it has no window and uses the console instead). The Command Prompt (cmd.exe) is also a Windows program, and as such does not run within the NT Virtual DOS Machine (ntvdm.exe) as real DOS programs do.
   The 'Safe Mode with Command Prompt' boot option (in 2K/XP), being nothing more than Safe Mode with cmd.exe used as the shell instead of explorer.exe, still requires that most of the Windows system be running. Therefore a better option would be to use the Recovery Console which provides its own chkdsk (the /p switch replaces /f in the Recovery Console's chkdsk).
   *The option is 'Safe Mode with Command Prompt' in XP/2K. 'Command prompt only' is from Win9x and would give you a true DOS prompt.

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   This trick doesn't work in modern versions of Windows. Windows XP/2000 (and while not modern, NT as well) can access files and folders that contain character 255. And even in those versions of Windows in which the trick works (Win9x), it is access to the file that is affected not its visibilty.
   Note: Even under XP/etc. there will be programs that can't open a file with character 255. This is because they are not using the Unicode versions of the file functions.

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   Levy's solution is somewhat valid, but his facts are wrong. Booting XP Home into Safe Mode doesn't override the password but rather gives you access to an account which by default has a blank password (it's the Admin's account). However if the Admin's password has been changed, you would need to enter the proper password to log in. Take a look at the Note at the top of this MS article.
   In Windows XP, before you forget the password you can create a Password Reset Disk. If the password has already been forgotten a tool such as this one may be able to recover it. Be aware that you use such a program at your own risk.

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   Under the hood that Dog is something called a Microsoft Agent, and while Windows XP comes with just the Dog you can get other Agents. This Microsoft page has four of them that you can download, a Genie, a Wizard, a Bird and a Robot. MS Office also comes with some other Agents.

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   A patch is not the same thing as a Service Pack. A Service Pack is a collection of fixes for the Operating System. Within a Service Pack are whole files which replace those already on the system. A patch however contains only the new code that needs to be applied, not the whole file. Patches are also usually for a just single file or product, whereas a Service Pack covers any part of Windows that needs fixing (or adding to).

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   The links on the page have changed, the beta version is no longer there. And the installation steps are different because the link is now for an installation program which you download and run to install the toolbar.

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   The positioning of the chips has nothing to do with making it a SIMM or a DIMM. A SIMM is so called because it has a single row of contacts, the contacts on both sides are connected. But with a DIMM there are two (or dual) rows of contacts, because the contacts on one side don't connect with those on the other.
   A 72-pin SIMM has all 72 pins on each side, not 36 on one side and another 36 pins on the other side. DIMMs however, since they have two rows, do have half their pins on one side and half on the other (which he did state, and was correct).
   Finally, the instructions Levy gave for removing and install RAM were correct. Except that they were for SIMMs and won't work for DIMMs since they insert differently. To remove a DIMM you pull the tabs from the ends of the DIMM, which causes it to be pushed out of the socket. This page has the steps for installing a DIMM. Personally I've never been able to install a DIMM with it perfectly parallel to the socket, I've always had to push one end in then the other.
   Here's a picture showing two DIMMs (a double-sided and a single-sided) and a SIMM (double-sided).

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   The Desktop icons that Tweak UI (XP or 9x/NT/2K) can remove are special icons such as the Recycle Bin, Network Neighborhood (now My Network Places), and so on. The file the caller had was not a special file, just a normal file with an invalid length filename. The way to fix it would be to open the Command Prompt and navigate to the Desktop directory. Once there, you can rename (via ren TOOLONG*.* SHORT.*) or delete it (with del TOOLONG*.*) using the * wildcard in place of typing the whole name.

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   Technological difficulties aside. The lawsuits that would ensue would keep such a product off the shelves till it was obsolete. Beside which MS doesn't make their profits (when they do make them) from the hardware, but rather from the games and licensing fees (which is apparently typical in the Video Game industry).
   From a business stand point it doesn't make any sense because making a console that plays another company's games, only sells more games for that company.

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   FUD or Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. In short, disinformation.
   For the sake of argument, let's say that there was some phone-home code in Windows which reported on illegal users. "Don't you think," that the pirates would have taken care of it?
   I don't support using illegal software, but I also don't resort to the use of lies and scare tactics to make my points.

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   How about instead of suggesting people destroy their phones, Levy suggest people donate the phone so it can still be put to use.

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   Windows XP's Command Prompt IS NOT DOS. DOS was a 16-bit command-line based Operating System. The Command Prompt (cmd.exe) in Windows NT (2K, XP) is a fully 32-bit Windows program that merely behaves like the DOS prompt of old. However it also includes features/abilities that weren't available in DOS's command.com.
   Interestingly, Sunday's lesson gave the same info as this Microsoft Knowledge Base Article. You'll note that not once does the article refer to DOS.

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   Let it be known that Jeff Levy is "very sensitive to people's feelings", unless of course it involves stereotypical jokes about Indians.
   However, in support of Levy's stance on their accents. My Pakistani brother-in-law, who not only speaks four languages but has a B.S. in Computer Science a Masters from Northwest University in Computer Science and is now in an MBA course for IT Studies, once yelled at one of Dell's tech-support people because he couldn't even understand them (at least according to my sister).

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   Intel does have a 64-bit processor, it's called the Itanium (which is now in its second version, the Itanium 2). However it's intended for use in servers, whereas the Athlon 64 is geared more toward consumers. So what Intel doesn't have is a low-cost 64-bit processor.

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   The Recovery Console doesn't "go out and try to fix" anything. It's basically NT's answer to the DOS command line, and does not repair the system automatically. It provides a means to recover a system through the use of different commands. A list of the commands can be found at this Microsoft page.

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   From a technical standpoint, any disk that contains a small program in its boot sector which the BIOS can load and execute, is a boot disk. Also known as a bootable disk. The loaded program should then do something such as begin loading the OS. While Levy's wording is nonsensical (i.e. a boot disk that's not bootable). I think what he means is that a plain Windows XP boot disk doesn't give you the same functionality as a DOS boot disk. Such as a command line or disk utilities. This plain XP disk is simply a disk that's been formatted under XP (which gives it the proper boot sector code), then it has copied to it the files: ntldr, boot.ini, ntdetect.com and for some SCSI drives ntbootdd.sys. There's nothing special about the disk, it will boot Windows XP the same way as the hard drive, and would only come in handy if something overwrote XP's bootloader.
   There is another type of XP boot disk which is the Setup disk(s). These are used for installing Windows XP or repairing a system by using the Recovery Console. The Windows XP setup floppies can be downloaded from Microsoft Here.

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   If the caller applies the Customer Service Pack it may solve her problem, but it won't turn Windows 98 into 98 Second Edition. 98SE contains new features that can't be gotten from a Service Pack.
   This Microsoft page allows you to see what versions of Windows they continue to support. Windows 98/98SE between June 30, 2002 and January 16, 2004 will be in the "Extended Support" phase after that it is dead.

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   The old 5 1/4 inch floppies had a jacket made of a thin plastic, not cardboard. Here's a picture of what happens when the jacket is heated then a bolt head pressed into it. And here's some in-depth floppy disk info: History or Construction.
   Next, it is MSBlast, he forgot the S. I know that forgetting one letter isn't that important, but when you're trying to find the program to shut it down, it's best to have the correct spelling.

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   While that would be logical, it is not correct. The site for SpyBot is safer-networking.org.

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   Being an artist and programmer I know my share of copyright law, and one thing you cannot do is copyright your name. Why not? Well there has to be some level of creativity put into the work, and for things such as titles and slogans they are so short that it would not be hard for someone else to come up with the same thing. Names (not people ones), tag-lines/slogans and things that have just a few words can be trademarked. But a trademark only prevents someone from using the mark in the same capacity as the owner. So if "Jeff Levy on Computers" was trademarked I could still say it all I wanted but I couldn't have my own show named that. In addition, links are public fact and can't be copyrighted either, same as street addresses.
   And even though the whole show has an automatic (un-registered) copyright upon creation, I can quote Levy willy-nilly under 'fair use' because: A. It's a non-substantial portion of the work. and B. It's being used for criticism/news reporting/teaching.
   Here's an mp3 file of Levy's statements (the 3 beeps replace Shapiro's explaination of the process).

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   The caller could've had a virus infection, so suggesting an update would be prudent. However there are other causes as well.
   Spammers normally don't use their own email addresses in the 'From' field. Should your address be the one they use, then you get all the undeliverable email notices.
   Another possibility is certain viruses which use the addresses in an infected computer's address book for the 'From' field. Making it appear that the email came from you even though it was someone else who was infected.
   Thanks again to Matthew.

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   The processor's cache doesn't sit between the CPU and the main RAM, if you were to diagram the (modern) layout, the cache (L2) would connect directly to the CPU (via a backside bus), or be actually inside the CPU (on-die). Sitting in between implies that main RAM is accessed through the cache, instead of through the Memory Controller (via the Front-Side Bus) as it should. Next, while the Level 1 cache is arguably local it is not onboard. It is on-die, meaning the same piece of silicon as the processor.
   Finally, one of the problems with Levy's demonstration is that the speed increase is caused by the OS's disk cache, which works differently from the CPU cache. The CPU's Cache Controller is designed to predict what data will be needed. Although, considering the complexity of cache design, any mistakes can be excused.

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   So if I said, "I have a PDF file." I'd be saying, "I have a Portable Document File file." That'd be redundant. So it's a good thing that PDF stands for Portable Document Format instead.

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   Baud is the term once used to describe a modem's transmission rate, however it became obsolete when we started sending more than 1 bit per baud, which was over a decade ago. This site explains the difference between baud and bps (bit-per-second, the modern measurement).

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   That won't work and here's why. When Norton quarantines a file it encrypts it, which is like turning the statement: "The sky is blue" into "{7%bT34(HIt$." Encrypting the file stops it from causing harm to the system, it also prevents other virus scanners from finding it.

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   Just a clarification, the "viruses and things" that attack MS Office: A. Don't actually attack the product, but rather use the product to attack the system. B. They are more commonly called Macro Viruses, a macro is a set of instructions used for controlling an application. In the case of Office it is the VB scripting language.

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   If you can boot from it, it is a boot disk. I assume he meant that it's not a DOS boot disk. For an XP (2000/NT) boot disk it first needs to be formatted in XP (2000/NT), this puts the proper (non-DOS) boot code in the boot sector of the floppy. Then you need to copy from the root directory of the hard drive, these files: boot.ini, ntdetect.com, ntldr and sometimes ntbootdd.sys. Yes that's ntldr NOT net loader.
   Also see the items for: August 18, August 24 and October 20, 2002 and July 19, 2003.

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   This isn't something where he's completely wrong, it is more a difference of opinion. The firewall in Windows XP is a 'stateful firewall' which means it watches the traffic and stops anything from coming in that isn't in response to a request. It's not designed to stop outbound traffic, or control connections on a program-by-program basis. For stopping unsolicited packets XP's firewall is fine, if you want to control outbound traffic then look elsewhere. Such as ZoneAlarm, which Levy also suggested. I'd also be interested in seeing Levy's test results to find out just what he means by "breach it easily." In all my testing (via pcflank) I've yet to have anything make a successful connection.

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   Not only do I care, but I also know where Babel Fish come from. They're from Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The quick explanation is that they are a small fish which is inserted into the ear and which allows for inter-species communication, here's some more info.
   Knowing facts like these is one of the side effects of not doing homework as a youth, and in exchange amassing a rather large collection of Science Fiction.

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   RPC or Remote Procedure Call, is one of several technologies that allow network connected computers to process data for each other.

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   Windows NT was free of Resource issues long before Windows XP (which is actually just NT 5.1).
   On hard drives: If I have a thin little 50 page book, and glue it to an encyclopedia, it doesn't take any longer to read the little book. Now, one aspect of having a nearly full drive is fragmentation, which Levy did go on to cover (incorrectly).

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   1. The files which store the Registry are called hives. 2. Folders (directories) are used on a file system to aid in organizing files. Keys are used to organize Registry Values. Nobody would call their Windows folder, their Windows Key. And it is just as incorrect to call the CLSID Key the CLSID Folder. Granted, the Registry Editor does use a folder icon to represent the Keys. But if I swap the dust jackets on my copies of Dune and Dune: House Harkonnen, one will still make me sick and the other will still be the greatest SF book ever written.

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   And what Jeff Levy's not telling you is that Apple also ran a test using Photoshop, which runs on Windows and Macs, and the G5 was still faster. Levy must have ment 'percent' not 'times' because "30 to 40 times" faster is ridiculous.
   As to his last comment: What makes software run? A computer. And if the computer is faster, what happens to the software? It runs faster.

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   There are two things that must be considered. The files for Windows 98. And the Win2K bootloader, which is what displays the menu asking which system you want to load.
   The first, and truly easiest, thing to do is to fix Win2K's boot menu. The boot menu is displayed by the program NTLDR, it gets the menu items from the boot.ini file. Boot.ini is just a plain text file, but before it can be changed you must change its attributes. So from a command prompt go to the root directory of the c: drive, then type (no quotes), "attrib -h -s -r boot.ini". Be sure to make a backup copy of the file before editing it. Now using notepad (or the like), open the file and remove the line which looks something like: C:\="Microsoft Windows 98", save the file and reboot. Now there is no longer a listing for Win98.
   The next problem is what to do with those now unused files. And this is where Levy made an even bigger mistake. You see, from what the caller said, Windows 98 was on the machine then Windows 2000 was installed. This would put Win98 on the C: drive and Win2K on the D: drive, assuming he used two partitions. Even when Windows 2000 is on another drive or partition, it must still keep several files on the c: drive, these are: ntldr, ntdetect.com, boot.ini, and for some SCSI drives ntbootdd.sys. Thus, deleting the c: partition also deletes the files Windows 2000 needs to boot, including the code in the boot sector which is what loads NTLDR in the first place. So how do we safely delete Windows 98's files? Just delete its folder, and if you're sure that you, and Win2K, doesn't have anything stored on that partition (drive letter), then you can go ahead and delete (from within 2K) all the files/folders on the drive (except of course the boot files).
   Note: As Levy suggested, resizing the partition is an option. But A: It's not 100% safe. and B: The "one big" partition may end up with bigger file clusters (wasting space).

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   Instead of reinventing the wheel, please look at this Microsoft article which has all kinds of info about fixing Win2K boot (NTLDR) problems. But to summarize, enter the Recovery Console by first booting from the Win2K CD, then press R, press C, select an installation, hit Enter. Enter the Admin's password. Type map, and hit Enter, take note of what letter is assigned to the CD drive. Then, to copy the good file, type (without quotes): "copy X:\i386\ntldr c:\" with X being the CD drive letter.
   In closing, I will add that NTLDR is NOT short for Net Loader, the NT is just that, NT (see the Reply for June 21, 2003). The file (NTLDR) is responsible for the first stages of loading an NT based OS, or passing execution to another OS's bootloader.

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   ATA (short for AT Attachment) is an interface standard for connecting a hard drive to a computer. The original ATA interface, sometimes called IDE (later EIDE), used a 40 pin ribbon cable. The latest interface is Serial ATA, it uses a 7 pin cable for data and an optional 15 pin cable for power (+3.3v, +5v, +12v and grounds). Serial, because it sends/receives only one bit at a time. The fastest ATA (ATA-7) maxed out at 133MB/sec, while the slowest SATA (SATA-150) runs at 150MB/sec (both figures are the interface speed).
   ATI is a video card (and chipset) maker.

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   HAL, for those who don't know, stands for Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer. Next, I'm not gonna say he's wrong, because VMS one letter over does become WNT. And while that's interesting, it hasn't anything to do with Windows NT's naming. The "NT" doesn't mean New (or Network) Technology, NT is a shortening of "N-Ten," the codename for the Intel i860 processor which Windows NT was originally written for. Here's an article which has a lot of info about the early days of NT.
   Note: The author of "2001: A Space Odyssey" (the book) is Arthur C. Clarke. In the book we learned what HAL stands for.

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   He's fully entitled to his opinion, however his guarantee is incorrect. It's not impossible to get an extended warranty on a refurbished product, it's just not the norm.
   Some info about 'refurbs': The circumstances may change between companies but to give an example. A manufacturer will take the used/returned/traded-in/off-lease products, verify them to work or if necessary and cost effective fix them, then repackage them. These items can't, legally (depending on locale), be sold as new. Refurbs are attractive because they cost less, but the warranty coverage varies greatly between manufacturers, and again depending on the manufacturer the refurb may not include everything that a new item does, such as discs, manuals etc.. It's also best to buy refurbs from the product's manufacturer, versus some guy at a computer show.
   Thanks to JanRita for assisting with this item.
   Update: According to John C. at Dell's refurb branch: "You can extend a Dell warranty on any system that has at least 30 days remaining on the original warranty."

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   When command.com is all that's missing you'll be asked where it is, you won't get the above message. The "Missing..." error can be caused by an incorrect partition setup or a bad boot sector. Which leads us to the next thing Levy got wrong, Windows needs a lot more than three files, what Levy ment was DOS which does need three files io.sys, msdos.sys (both hidden) and command.com. But DOS, and any other operating system, also needs some special code (a program) in the boot sector. This code is what the BIOS looks for and loads, which is the first step to loading an OS. When this boot code can't be loaded, Missing Operating System can be one of the error messages.
   This boot sector code is NOT a file, but for DOS and non-NT Windows it can be fixed by using the program sys.com, and for NT based Windows (2K/XP) you can use the setup disc or setup floppies (fixboot can be used from the 2K/XP Recovery Console).

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   Stepper motors haven't been used in hard drives since the early 90's, and weren't used in drives with more than 100 MiB. Modern drives use a voice coil system to move the heads. Here's a picture of a stepper motor that I dug out of my collection. Next, consumer hard drives are not hermetically sealed (i.e. air tight), they have a "breather filter" so the air pressure can remain equalized. Here's another picture, this one is the top cover to a Seagate ST-251 which shows the breather filter, although modern drives don't have such noticeable filters. See the items for August 11 and December 29, 2002. This site has more about stepper motors and voice coils.
   I have a video of an old Seagate ST-257A, it had a bad case of Stiction which tore the read/write head from the armature. Here's an Mpeg or a Bink (exe), 448KiB and 440KiB (the Bink file looks better).

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   In a FAT file system there is only one root directory. In FAT32 there can be backup copies of the actual File Allocation Table, but it's a completely different thing.

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   Windows XP's Compatibility Mode does NOT support DOS, the available systems are: 95, 98 (ME), NT4 and 2K. That's not to say that Windows XP won't run DOS programs, however there can be a lot of problems. One potential source of problems is that NT (XP) doesn't run on a DOS subsystem like non-NT Windows do. DOS programs (under NT) run inside the the Virtual Dos Machine (ntvdm.exe). Another problem is that DOS programs (under NT) aren't allowed direct access to the hardware, which could prevent the program from using the sound card and other such hardware.
   In addition, Compatibility Mode doesn't just trick the program, in most case it also employs extra code to accommodate the programs and their incompatibilities.

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   The slowest Pentium 3 runs at 450 Mhz which is plenty fast to run Windows XP, I use a P3 500 (among others). One thing that Levy didn't ask about was how much RAM the machine had, which would impact loading times. However I think the problem is caused by something else. I would check what services are loading, the machine may be trying to enable a network interface or doing something else that's slowing the machine. I once had a WinXP machine slow to a crawl for the first 45 seconds after the desktop loaded. It was caused by XP trying to use DHCP to access my non-DHCP network.
   A couple places to look at would be the Startup tab in the program msconfig, and the Processes tab in the Task Manager.

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   Because he was so explicitly wrong, this will probably be the last time I list another of his Resource errors. Needless to say the Resources and RAM are two different things. True, the Resources are kept in RAM, but they are capped at certain values irregardless of the amount of RAM.
   Not only does his explaination contradict itself but, it used the terms 'Resources' and 'RAM' interchangeably, which they are not. In addition, Resources aren't where programs run, Resources are used to store information about the running programs/windows (USER) and graphical elements (GDI). See the errors for, May 11 and December 8, 2002 and April 19, 2003.

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   "Somebody" = Me. But it doesn't take a conspiracy to have bad security. Read this article. To summarize, wireless keyboards/mice (those using radio not infrared) send the signal on a limited number of channels. Some only 16, others in the thousands. This makes it hard but not impossible, yet sometimes accidental, for someone nearby to pickup the keystrokes. The exception is those devices which use Bluetooth for their transmissions. Their signal is encrypted.
   Of course, any government agent using TEMPEST could also see what's on your monitor, but wait. That would be a conspiracy.

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   The items asked to load at startup are not listed in a "startup file." They're in the Registry, the Startup folder on the Start menu, and the deprecated win.ini file. In Windows 98, and higher, items in the Startup folder can simply be dragged off the menu onto the desktop (or just deleted). For items in the Registry, there's more than a dozen places where something can be asked to run, so using a utility to make changes would be best.
   In fact, the copy of msconfig that comes with Windows XP can be used with 2000. It can be found on a couple of sites, or extracted from XP's Service Pack 1 (run the servpak with the -x switch, then after the files have been extracted, use extract.exe to extract msconfig.ex_ to msconfig.exe).
   Update: A good tool for configuring the startup processes is Autoruns.

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   Yes, Windows XP doesn't have a program named Scandisk. However it does include a program that does the same thing as Scandisk, it's called Check Disk (chkdsk). You use it by going into My Computer, right clicking a drive (and choosing Properties), clicking the Tools tab, then clicking the Check Now button. The interface is different than Scandisk, but it does the same thing (scanning for and fixing errors in the file system). Or on a command line you can run chkdsk.exe or chkntfs.exe (use the /? switch for help).

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   Yes, I can just see it now. The last piece of data Bill Gates needs for world domination: Betty Sue has a P3 500 with 256 Megs of RAM. (Insert Maniacal Laughter) Or more likely, Levy just pulled it out of his bu...er hat.
   I think the evil-info-gathering-tool he was to was speaking of is MSInfo32.exe. It comes with Win98, 2K, XP (XP/2K's act as a snap-in), as well as some other products (e.g. Office).

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   There's a big difference between a forward slash (/) and a back slash (\). In DOS, and continuing into Windows, a forward slash is commonly used for providing options to a program. Such as, "dir /p" which lists directories one screen-full at a time. Whereas backslashes are used to separate parts of a pathname, like "c:\winnt\system32".
   PDA stands for Personal Digital Assistant.
   And in closing, Safe Mode DOES load drivers (very basic ones). See the items for March 9 and October 6, 2002 and March 1, 2003.

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   Here's what was happening, her machine did not have the Klez worm. But, when she would read her email, Norton would see that emails which she was receiving WERE infected, and so Norton was just doing its job to protect the system by wanting to quarantine those infected emails. When a file has been quarantined, it no longer poses a threat to the system. Here's a helpful article that deals with Norton's quarantining of email.

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   Windows XP wasn't the first to handle memory differently. WinXP is just NT 5.1, thus it uses the NT memory model which does not have the low resource problems of non-NT Windows.
   The percentage that is shown is that of the Resources (USER/GDI), NOT the available RAM. System Resources are used to store information about the running programs/windows (USER) and graphical elements (GDI). It isn't the memory "used to run programs."
   This site has some about information about System Resources.

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   In Microsoft's infinite "wisdom" they decided to retire IE5.5 (on Dec. 31 2002). No more full downloads, just bug fixes. And come December 31 2003, it's dead to them. In addition: IE5 is following 6 months behind, it will die June 31, 2003.
   Unfortunately, according to the MS external distribution license, once a new version is released you must distribute the new one, although you're allowed to clear out any existing inventory. So it may be possible to find it on CD somewhere.
   Update: MS's page for IE 5.5 now has a link to a setup file which it says is for Windows ME. I've looked at its workings, and some of the programs/dlls have been changed but the inf files still have info for Win98/NT4/2K, so it may work but I haven't tested it yet.

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   It's the other way around, if you have a 1 Gig drive with a 10% Recycle Bin. It won't grow past 100 MiB, 10% of the drive's size, not its free space.

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   An IP address, does contain four sets (or octets) of numbers but each can only range from 0-255, quite different from "four characters long."

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   Records use one long spiral track. If records used concentric tracks there would be no way for the needle to travel from the outer edge toward the center of the record, because the tracks wouldn't be connected. Spiral tracks are also used on CDs and DVDs.

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   Well, Jeff Levy won't be counted amongst the few that know that the new millennium started, and the turn of the century took place, in 2001. NOT 2000.
   The reason? Because there was no year 0, it went 1 BC then 1 AD. So the first millennium started at 1, and ended at 1000. The NEXT millennium started at 1001, and ended one thousand years later in 2000.
   This page has more info.

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   Switch Off is FreeWare, which usually means that you can use and redistribute the software without cost, but the author still maintains ownership of the software. Public Domain is actually a legal term meaning that it has no copyright (owner).

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   What'd Levy get right: the 's' in https does mean security, it's Secure-HTTP.
   What did he get wrong: Everything else. First, S-HTTP isn't trying to fix anything, it's just a way of securing the data sent to a server (via encryption).
   Next, it WAS PayPal, not a scam. They have the caller's bank info, because he gave it to them. The reason they need to make two deposits is two make sure that you have access to the account. PayPal makes two deposits less than a dollar, then you have to tell them the two amounts (via a form on their site). In their eyes this means it is your account, and you are then a Verified Member
   Props to Tamar, again. And at least Levy erred on the side of caution.

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   (In my best William Shatner/Wrath of Khan yell) "LEVY!" There ARE drivers loaded. See these errors: February 2, March 9 and October 6, 2002.

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   The 64 bit processors have already 'hit' and while they will eventually reach 7 Gigahertz (and beyond), at the moment Intel's 64 bit Itanium 2 maxes out at 1.5 GHz versus the 3.20 GHz of their Pentium 4. However the difference in clock speed is not as important because a 64 bit processor can outperform a 32 bit processor (even when the 32 bit chip has a somewhat higher clock speed).
   Thanks to Brendon C for prompting some corrections and for providing this link which shows a P4 running at 5 Gigahertz!

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   Blocking cookies is NOT one of the functions of a standard firewall. Some software firewalls do include a cookie filtering ability. However the free ZoneAlarm doesn't filter cookies, but the $50 ZoneAlarm Pro does.

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   As of Feb. 22nd 2003 Symantec's Norton Anti-Virus protects against 63,111 viruses/worms. Of those, Symantec has removal tools for only 48 of them.

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   The Last Known Good Configuration and System Restore, are two completely different things. System Restore tracks changes made to the Operating System's files and allows them to be undone. Whereas LKGC only restores one area of the registry: HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet. Which is stored in the windows\system32\config\system file. Unfortunately for the caller, whatever damaged the system file must have also damaged his system.alt file (the backup copy).
   In the absence of a backup, Levy's first suggestion was right.
   Update: Thanks go to AxL, who has also suggested that the Registry files that are in the 'windows\repair' folder could be copied to the 'windows\system32\config' folder, after renaming the bad file(s). The files in the '\repair' folder are made after installing the system, so they can be quite old. But by using the Windows Backup tool, and backing up the "System State", the '\repair' directory's files will be updated.

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   While he said DLL, I'm sure he ment DSL, an honest mistake. Now, with a little bit of research he would know that some DSL providers do have you dial in. Those providers which use PPPoE require the user to login, either with a 3rd party client such as EnterNet (now defunct) or WinPoET, or by using a Protocol driver like RASPPPoE and just using Dial-Up Networking.
   As to the caller's problem, I had something similar. I used to use EnterNet to connect, and if it was still logged in when I shut it down, the machine would take several minutes to finally shutdown. That's why I switched from EnterNet to RASPPPoE.

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   DPI or Dots Per Inch, is the measurement used to describe the resolution of a scanner (or printer). The higher the DPI, the finer the detail and the better the picture quality. At the very least, Levy could have given the caller an explaination of what DPI are.

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   The people who say that the discs are the same, are the people who know what they're talking about. The only difference between an Upgrade disc and a Full version disc, is that the Upgrade disc's installer requires proof that you have a previous qualifying product (either its installation on the drive or its install disc).
   Also see the error for June 9, 2002.

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   It's rare for an exported copy of the registry to even fit on a floppy disk. This MS page explains what the registry is, and has links to pages which tell how to properly backup AND restore the registry.

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   This is a good example of how to be wrong AND not make sense. Yes, Windows XP is very network oriented, but that hasn't got anything to do with drive letters. XP can be installed on any drive letter (except A and B), I've done installations on C, D, E and J drives.
   The only thing I think he could have been thinking of was mapping a network share, which is when you attach a local unused drive letter to a network share.

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   Nero can in fact burn a VCD. Note: The makers of Record Now Max just happen to be one of Jeff Levy's sponsors.
   Update (11-15-2003): Thanks to Ander, who was kind enough to inform me that the OEM version of Nero that's bundled with many CD-RW drives is limited by what video formats it will accept to make a VCD.

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   An ounce of research on that number she gave, and he would have seen that it truly was a 'critical update.' It fixes a number flaws in MS's Java VM. The number she gave was Microsoft's Knowledge Base number for the update. Here are several MS documents about the update and what it fixes, KB Article, Security Bulletin, Security Bulletin (technical).

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   Going to google and searching for 'zipit' will give you many links to ZipIt for Macintosh. Doing some more in-depth searching will find you some outdated PKZip shells, most with broken links. However there was this ZIPit but it's not Public Domain, it looks to be AdWare.
   The GNU Project has a good page with the Categories of Free and Non-Free Software, such as Freeware and Public Domain.

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   1. Levy forgot to have the caller partition the new drive, without partitioning there'll be no new drive letters to format.
   2. Internet Explorer 5.5 is up to Service Pack 2, it was released over a year ago. Here is MS's trouble shooting page.

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   Hey, if he can be the "Rush Limbaugh of Computing," can I be the Matt Drudge?

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   Unless the program has been specifically coded to process at a certain rate, the program will run as fast as the hardware will allow. Although some things, like RAM, and the Front Side Bus, may act as a bottle neck slowing a program's processing. Another thing that will slow a program, is the Operating System and other programs that may be running at the same time, thus causing the OS to switch between tasks.

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   This isn't exactly wrong, it's just been simplified down to a point at which it's inaccurate. First, when a file is deleted it doesn't create a "blank space," the data is still there it's just the file's entry in the file table that has been changed thus freeing the space for new files. Next, let's say I have three book shelves, and I want to read all the books on the first and third shelves. To get to the third shelf, I don't have to read all the books on the second shelf, I just skip over it. It's the skipping around that makes a fragmented file read slower, because the drive's heads must be repositioned to get the next piece of a file. Defragmenting organizes a file's pieces (clusters) so that they can be read without needing to skip over pieces of other files.

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   IE 6.0 does have JavaScript, it's Microsoft's Java VM that Levy is thinking of. Java and JavaScript are two separate things. See the items for February 23 and April 6, 2002.
   Next, the caller wasn't having a problem with a IE, he was trying to use a feature of IE which Jeff Levy didn't know about. That being the favicon.ico file. A simple Windows icon file, that is placed in the root directory of the website. See one of the items for September 7, 2002, it has more info.

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   While it is a very small possibility that the disc is bad, what Levy didn't pickup on was the difference between RAM and Virtual Memory. Otherwise, he would have asked the caller what he had set his Virtual Memory at. Had Levy asked him, I'd bet that the caller would have said 2 MiB (the minimum allowed) thinking that the more RAM you have the less Virtual Memory you need.
   Even with a Gigabyte of RAM, the Virtual Memory should be to set near or above the amount of RAM. Some suggest setting it to 1.5 times the amount of RAM.

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   I think the caller was thinking of the Windows 9x Resource Meter (rsrcmtr.exe). In Win9x, click Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools then Resource Meter. In NT (2000/XP) you get the Task Manager by right clicking the Taskbar and choosing Task Manager.

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   The CD drive is NOT always the D drive. Drive letters are setup this way: The hard drives get their letters first, then the Win98 floppy loads a RAM drive, and then loads the MS CD Extensions from the RAM drive (mscdex.exe gives DOS the ability to work with CD drives). So if you have just one hard drive/partition, C:, then the RAM drive will be D: and the CD would be E:. The more hard drives/partitions you have, the higher the RAM drive and CD letters will be.

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   1. Do you really think that if Microsoft was secretly gathering your information that hackers wouldn't have found out and told everyone by now.
   2. Product Activation does NOT send your hardware configuration, it sends a hash, which is a big number made from the different hardware components, and it is nearly impossible to work the number back to the components which made it.
   Note: I do not agree with Product Activation, for several reasons, but it is best to argue against it with truth not falsity.

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   Long range wireless keyboards do exist, they use RF (radio) instead of IR (light). Here's a link to one that goes 100 feet, thanks to Harry for the link.
   As for how to get the video card's output onto a TV. The first thing is getting the picture from the computer's format to the TV's format, this is done with a scan converter or with a video card that can output to a TV, like the ATI All-in-Wonder cards. The next problem is how to get the converted picture to a TV that's about a hundred feet away. Using a really long cable is one way, but the signal could get weakened by the distance. So a better way would be to use something like the Radio Shack Wireless Audio/Video Sender (model #: 15-2572).

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   Not all Packard Bell motherboards are pop-riveted, I even dug out a PB machine from my library and verified that it used screws.
   However, the caller may still need to buy a new case if the old one is an AT. Because the new motherboard will use the ATX form factor (which uses a different power connection and mounting hole postions).

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   MS products or not, Klez will not infect a Mac. The caller thought he may have been infected because people were emailing him saying that he had sent them the Klez worm. This happened because Klez spoofs the From address, giving the impression that it was sent from someone else.

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   Stiction is when the drive's platter(s) won't spin up at all because the Read/Write heads are stuck.
   Consumer hard drives are NOT hermetically sealed. They contain what's called a barometric (or breather) filter to allow the internal pressure to equalize with that outside the drive. However, there are some special use (e.g. aircraft) drives which ARE hermetically (but not vacuum) sealed.

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   I can forgive the "4.75" flub. But then he couldn't decide how wrong he was going to be, "450 to 475 megabytes." A CD (or CDR) can contain up to 700MiB (some CDs hold even more), although some drives only support up to 650MiB.

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   Problems with the boot sector are NOT problems with command.com. Boot sector errors can be caused by a crashed/broken or badly connected drive, and by data corruption among other things. The boot sector code is not a file, but is written when the drive is formatted or when you use the program sys.com (for DOS/non-NT drives).
   Lastly, command.com is not a bootable file, it is the Command Line Interpreter. Command.com is loaded by the io.sys file, which is loaded by the boot sector code. Also see the errors for June 15, 2002.

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   The default left pane contents for WinXP's Explorer are set to show information about the current folder and different actions that can be performed. To have the left pane contain the directory tree view, open Explorer and at the top, click View then move down to Explorer Bar and click Folders.

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   A CD can contain upward of 700MiB (originally only 650MiB). Next, the caller isn't producing a TV show, he doesn't need a Video Toaster or anything expensive. A scan converter will work just fine. A scan converter connects between the video card and the monitor, and another plug on the converter gets plugged into the TV or VCR. Then everything that is seen on the monitor is also seen on the TV/VCR.

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   If there was a large enough demand for home built laptops, the Manufacturers would see to it that the components were available.
   The use of Anti-Static Wrist Straps and other Anti-Static products is not unique to laptop construction. ANYTIME you handle computer components you should use a static discharge system.

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   It's odd that he would say that. Because towards the end of the show, when asked what Motherboard to buy, Levy stated, "when I build a computer for myself. Well actually I don't, I don't have time anymore, I have that done for me."

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   Levy would have been correct except for the fact that the caller had an eOne. The eOne was a PC that was similar to the original iMac, in that all it components (such as the CRT, the motherboard and the drives) are all in one case. And that is where the problem comes in, the floppy drive in the eOne is NOT a standard off-the-shelf drive. It relies on the outer case as its bezel but most important is that it does NOT use the standard cable interfaces (which Levy described), it instead uses a single ribbon cable for both data and power.
   The easest way to fix the caller's problem would be to buy an external usb floppy drive.
   This page tells how its owner upgraded his eOne to Windows XP.

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   It's not really wrong, it's just irritating. Even Arthur C. Clarke finds it an "annoying and persistent myth." In his book, The Lost Worlds of 2001, Clarke explains that "HAL stand for Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer."

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   Removing the Client for Microsoft Networks will cause even more problems. One of the new problems will be Dial-up networking not saving the password, and other networking problems.
   What the caller needed to do was use the Network control panel to change the Primary Network Logon to the "Windows Logon" or the "Windows Family Logon." See this page for info about Win9x network password setup.

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   At least this time Levy didn't tell him to reformat, like he did on November 23, 2002. But the caller also needs to edit his boot.ini file to remove the boot menu listing for the one he doesn't want.

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   He is once again applying Windows 9x's Resource limits onto a modern system that is free of those limits. In addition, Virtual Memory is used along with the physical memory, not in place of it.
   Note: According to Microsoft, Windows XP Pro supports 4 Gigs of physical memory. Here's their info for other NT based systems. Also see the error for May 11, 2002.

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   WJView is Microsoft's Java class loader. On my test system the registry contained 171 Keys and Values which contained the term "main." And deleting them would not fix the caller's problem, but instead would cause severe problems. Instead the caller should run msconfig and under the Startup tab uncheck any entries which are loading .class files and/or wjview. I've also heard that Limeshop, which is installed with Limewire, can sometimes cause this problem. It too is listed in msconfig.

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   Let's see take 20+ minutes to reinstall, or 10 seconds to drag it back. There's two ways to fix the caller's problem (in under a minute):
   1. Right click on the folder and with the button still down, drag the folder to the Start Menu (don't let go yet), when the Start Menu opens move the cursor up to Programs, then Accessories. Then, where you'd like the folder to be, let go of the mouse button, and in the new menu choose Move.
   2. Right click the Start Menu and choose Open. Now use the regular Explorer window to navigate to the Accessories folder. Now just right click and drag the folder that's on the Desktop, into the Explorer window. Let go of the mouse button and choose Move.

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   If the proper partition wasn't active there would be no boot menu, it would cause an error along the lines of "Missing Operating System." The caller's problem could be caused by a misconfiguration during the install or, exactly what the message says: the hal.dll file is missing. Reinstalling should fix it, or using the Recovery Console to take a known good copy of the file and copying it to the proper directory.
   Note: Hal.dll is the NT (2K/XP) Hardware Abstraction Layer.

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   A completely full drive goes through as much work has one that is nearly empty. However there are two things which do affect a drive's data rate: Fragmentation, which is when a file is split into several piece on the disk. And to a lesser extent, placement of the data on the drive, because on some drives the inner tracks can be read/written faster than the outer tracks (on some it's vice-a-versa).
   Most importantly, none of these things are causing the caller's problem, because a drive's state doesn't change from the time it is shutdown to the time it's restarted. And rebooting would get the caller's computer running again for a while. What the problem could be is, a virus or other malicious program or, a badly written program that may be reeking havoc on his Resources or stuck in a loop and is hogging the CPU.

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   Fdisk has no risk, it ABSOLUTELY will *invalidate any pre-existing data. Fdisk is designed to simply create and edit the partition table, it is a destructive partitioner. Whereas Partition Magic is a non-destructive partitioner, (or destructive/reconstructive).
   *The word invalidate was used because the data is still on the disk but, without a very recent backup of the partition and file tables, it would be best to engage a data recovery specialist if it needs to be retrieved.

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   They have similar names because they are intended to one day be one and the same. A Janus of sorts, a god of doorways with two faces. One face being that used for local storage, another face used for browsing the internet.
   Here's an interesting history of Internet Explorer and its relation to Explorer.

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   To remove NT4, which is what the caller finally settled on, you just need to delete the folder that contains Windows NT (such as WinNT or Windows). Then edit the boot.ini file to remove NT4's listings.
   Note: The boot.ini file is a read-only file, so it must be made writable before it can be edited. Also, there may be NT4 related files within the Program Files hierarchy which would need to be deleted on a case by case basis.

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   Out of the box Windows 3.x can NOT access FAT32 volumes, partly because Win3.x is not an Operating System but a windowing system that sits on top of DOS. And all versions of DOS prior to 7.1 can't access FAT32.
   There are however two ways to access FAT32 from Win3.x. One way is two use a FAT32 driver for DOS 6 (or lower). The other way, is to use a patch that's floating around that allows Win3.1 to be loaded from DOS 7.x.
   Note: The first system to use FAT32 was Win95 OSR2.

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   It's Icon, not Con. But what's worse is that deleting the ShellIconCache can cause the desktop icons to lose their placement, the exact problem the caller had. Because the icon placement data is stored in that file.
   Microsoft has even addressed the exact same problem the caller had. (Safe Mode deletes and re-creates the ShellIconCache file)

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   While he's correct that a Windows 95 era machine won't run WinXP. He's wrong about upgrading, Microsoft specifically says you CANNOT upgrade to XP from 95.

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   While Levy is correct that he would lose the data, what Levy failed to mention was that the caller could convert his drive to NTFS (using convert.exe) without reformatting. Here's two pages that show how: Here and Here(for XP).

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   The file ShellConCache does not exist, however the file ShellIconCache does. The two Ls in Shell are mixing with the capital I, making it hard to see the I. Besides which even when spelled right, if you search for shelliconcache.* (dot asterisk) you won't find the file because it does not have an extension, thus no dot.

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   While he's right that they're called keys, they are not actually folders. The Registry Editor just uses the folder icon as part of its representation of the hierarchy within the Registry. This very technical article has information about the internals of the Registry.

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   To paraphrase Microsoft: 'Don't do it.' Ctrl-Alt-Delete (X2) is the ejection seat of Window's reboots (excluding NT based systems), it's not the proper way (clicking Start/Shutdown, etc.), and can cause file corruption. Ctrl-Alt-Delete (X2) should only be used when the system has crashed/locked up. It's funny that even though MS says not to reboot that way, it's one of Jeff Levy's top suggestions for quick rebooting.

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   When doing a fresh installation of Windows, the files being installed can be quite old, in some cases several years. That's why after doing an install you should ALWAYS apply any updates.
   Note: Windows 2000 and XP can be SlipStreamed, which is when a Service Pack is applied to a copy of the install files. Then systems installed using the SlipStreamed files will be up to date from the beginning.

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   The caller has plenty of power to watch DVDs, he also had 256MiB of RAM, I've played DVDs just fine with a P3 500MHz with 64MiB of RAM.
   Some of the things that could cause the caller's problem are: A setting in his DVD software could be misconfigured. His sound driver and/or its settings need to be changed.

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   To answer the caller's question, you can connect the two machines with one cable, but that cable has to be what's called a Crossover cable, something which Levy didn't say.
   Cable Info: A crossover cable has its Transmit and Receive wires switched at one end. Whereas a Patch cable is straight through, and would be used to connect each machine to a hub or switch. Using a Patch cable in place of a Crossover, results in the two machines transmitting on the same wire, i.e. it won't work. More info is here, with pictures.

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   The command xcopy a:. a: doesn't work. It gives the error, "File cannot be copied onto itself." Because it's trying to copy the files to and from the same disk.
   The problem with using xcopy is that it doesn't copy the boot sector, only files. Doing a complete copy can be done using the DOS program diskcopy, or opening My Computer right clicking the floppy drive and choosing Copy Disk. If you have a Western Digital drive you can get their tools Here.

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   Well, according my own test results (from pcflank.com), the XP firewall passed all tests except for my browser sending the site referrer info. However one of the things that the XP firewall won't do that ZoneAlarm will, is control outbound traffic. But both will block incoming connections.

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   While Windows ME is made worse by the hiding of its DOS underpinnings. The command line prompt in Windows XP (2K/NT) is in no way related to the DOS that Jeff Levy is familiar with. It's a native Windows program (cmd.exe) that only acts like a DOS prompt, it has nothing to do with the loading and operation of Windows.

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   If a floppy isn't bootable, how do you boot from it? Answer: All floppy disks that are formatted with WinXP/2K/NT ARE bootable, except that they are missing some files needed to continue the boot process. These are: ntldr, boot.ini, ntdetect.com, and sometimes ntbootdd.sys for SCSI drives.
   Microsoft does in fact explain how to make fully bootable disks Here, or even better Setup Disks, which can repair an installation, either automatically or with the Recovery Console.
   On a side note: You'll see that Levy refers to a "net loader," when the file is really NTLDR.

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   Booting from different drives is absolutely possible. One of the more common ways is to use a multi-boot program like System Commander, one of the many Linux loaders, or the plain old WinXP/2K/NT loader. These programs get loaded first then based on your choice, pass the boot process to that Operating System. Most modern Systems can be loaded from a drive that isn't the "C" drive.
   Note: System Commander's site even says it can boot capable Systems from any drive.

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   One of the many things that Win95 introduced to the masses, was Long File Names. LFNs weren't new, Unix and Windows NT, among others, had them. However, in DOS/Win3.x, filenames were limited to eight characters, and were limited to a three character extension, this is called an 8.3 filename. But to maintain DOS/Win3.x compatibility, files are aliased with a 8.3 filename, example: My Big File.txt becomes mybigf~1.txt. Windows CAN display Long File Names, but there are times when the 8.3 alias is used, like in older programs and a few entries in the registry. More details can be found Here.
   Note: Long File Names includes names given to directories (folders).

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   To begin, NTKern.vxd is NOT the NT/2000 kernel, it is a part of Win98/SE and ME that deals with WDM drivers. According to Microsoft that error message can be caused by bad memory (RAM). This page has more details and some solutions.

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   Most computers do have fuses, they're in the power supply.
   Note: Technically, a record has one long spiral groove, whereas a hard disk (or floppy) is organized in rings, one within the other. On the other hand: CDs, and DVDs do use a spiral track.

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   Safe Mode does in fact use drivers, very limited ones.
   The virus protection in the BIOS is very simple, it basically just stops writes to the boot sector of the hard drive. Applying the 'BIOS Defaults' is useful when the settings are tweaked so badly the machine won't work right. A menu/setting in the BIOS setup will allow you to disable the virus protection without affecting the other settings.

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   The first hurdle to overcome is getting the files out of the Amiga and onto the PC. This can be done in a number of ways, by using software on the Amiga that can read/write dos formatted (720k) floppies, or setup a network. Here's some links: This page explains the floppy method, and this page recounts setting up a network.
   Now, the next problem is file formats, the Amiga has its own file formats, and depending on the (Amiga) software, it may be able to save the image(s) as a .bmp or another PC-centric format. In addition, some Amiga image formats can be read/written by PC Software, such as Debabelizer, Photoshop or IrfanView.

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   RAID actually stands for Redundant Array of Independent (or Inexpensive) Disks. This site has lots of information about the different RAID configurations, with pictures.

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   Microsoft does things different with 98, there's one Service Pack called the Customer Service Pack, and a bunch of Security Updates. The Customer Service Pack is only bug fixes/updates, Win98+CSP still won't have all the features that were added to Win98 Second Edition.

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   There is no plain 2000, there's only Professional, Server, Advanced Server, and Datacenter Server.

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   It's rare for an exported copy of the registry to actually fit on a floppy disk. I've seen sizes from 4 MiB to 38 MiB.

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   WinXP Service Pack 1 contains A LOT of bug fixes, and probably some new bugs too. However it's still a good idea to install it, and if you have enough free drive space, go with the option (during the install) to be able to uninstall it.

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   If a non-bootable floppy (formatted in Win9x) is left in the drive when booting, the error message is: "Invalid system disk. Replace the disk, and then press any key." Secondly, if the command.com file is missing you get the message asking you to: "Type the name of the Command Interpreter."
   The message "Data Error Reading Drive," is exactly what it says, it can't read the data on the drive. Microsoft suggests running scandisk. In addition you should also check all the cables that connect to the drive, making sure they're seated properly, or test the drive (or cables) in another machine.

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   Apparently Jeff Levy has never heard of the favicon.ico file. The favicon file is a regular (16x16) Windows icon which most modern browsers use when bookmarking or viewing a website. IE saves favicon files in the Temporary Internet Files directory. Thus, the shortcut's icon reverts to the default when the cache is emptied, or when the file is deleted to make room for new files.
   Changed 05/06/2003: I've written my own program for downloading favicons and updating Favorites, called Facon. Or you can just save the favicon.ico files to their own directory, then manually change the icon for those shortcuts, via right-clicking it then click Properties, then the Web Document tab, then Change Icon, then choose the favicon for that site. Since each site's file is usually named favicon.ico, you'll have to save them with descriptive names, while keeping .ico. Finally, the favicon.ico file is normally in the root directory of the website, such as yahoo.com/favicon.ico or you can try looking in the internet cache (dir /s fav* or dir /s *.ico).
   Some pages may use a different filename, if so you'll need to look at the html (source) for that page and find a tag that looks like this: <link rel="SHORTCUT ICON" href="XXX">. The href property will contain the path/filename of the icon.
   Lastly it is ShelliconCache, icon not "con", and deleting the file won't fix the problem (there is no problem).

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   Win U U is the exact same as clicking Start/Turn Off Computer/etc., and won't make Windows shutdown any faster. This page has lots of information about XP shutdown issues.

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   Penicillin is an antibiotic, antibiotics are used against bacteria, NOT viruses.

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   The software which make up the BIOS do things such as the POST and, to act as a go between for DOS and the hardware. The CMOS, which is the common term for the RTC and NVRAM combination, stores values related to the hardware, and its operation. The time is kept current by the RTC.

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   It's the Last Known Good Configuration, see the item for June 23, 2002. The "net loader" file is actually NTLDR (an abbreviation of NT Loader) those two other files were probably ntdetect.com and boot.ini.

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   I could say what was wrong, but that's a long story I can't get into. Oh, wait. I know what I'm talking about.
   That file is NTLDR, and the caller had the file because if he didn't, he wouldn't be able to boot at all. This page tells how to reinstall the Installer service.
   Note: NTLDR only loads certain drivers, although it doesn't initialize them. That is done by ntoskrnl.exe.
   Update: Next week's lesson had absolutely nothing that would help the caller, unless he wanted to make comments in Word.

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   Those WinME discs that can be booted, don't load Windows, they load the Windows installer. He made the same mistake the day before, and later in the same show (minus the formatting).

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   He's confusing the OS core with the target demographic. Windows 2000 is NT 5.0, with Windows XP being NT 5.1. But XP was targeted more toward the users of Win98/ME.

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   There are many shades of gray between a User and an Administrator, with varying levels of authority and ability.
   Also, a User with Administrator privileges, is an Administrator. Note: In XP Home there are only two user groups: Limited User or Administrator. But XP Home's security model is a joke.

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   There are two forms of drive formatting, High Level and Low Level. High Level Formatting creates the file system structure, and is performed by DOS's format command or by Windows. Low Level Formatting on the other hand defines the sectors, tracks, interleave, etc., and is done by the manufacturer.
   Not since the days of the stepper motor has a LLF by the user been necessary. Modern drives (which use a voice coil) do not suffer from the problems that stepper motor drives do. Such as data corruption because of platter expansion/contraction with temperature changes. As the platter's shape changed, the stepper motor would still postion the head where it assumed the data was. A voice coil system uses postioning data to determine where the head is located, instead of assuming where it is. So as the platter changes shape both the user and postion data move together.
   Even if the caller did have corrupted track data, the type of format (HLF) he suggested wouldn't fix it.

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   Windows still opens files based on the file extension (e.g. .jpg), not by looking at its contents.

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   To quote the FCC's website: "The FCC does not regulate the Internet or Internet Service Providers (ISPs)." Thus threatening an ISP with the FCC is about as smart as setting fire to belt buckles with bananas.
   Should an email archive exist, it would only be for law enforcement's use (like in the UK).
   The caller may have used some wrong terminology, if so, it could be that he just couldn't login to the POP server.

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   Levy is confusing the FAT16 limit of 2 GiB, with older BIOS limits (Details: here and here).
   The first release of Windows 95 was version 4.00.950, that version plus Service Pack 1 made it 4.00.950a. Then along came OSR2, or version 4.00.950b. OSR2 was sold only to OEMs, and in dark alleys. Note: There were also a couple updates to OSR2.
   The caller's problem could be caused by a hardware configuration problem, or if the drive had been pre-formatted as FAT32, or numerous other things.

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   Besides the fact that there is no "startup file." Windows 98, ME, and XP (Home & Pro) all have the msconfig.exe file, although sometimes OEMs don't pre-install it. Windows 2000 can use the one for XP, or instead use the better tool Autoruns.
   The caller's problem was most likely caused by the OS doing some negotiation with the network card/modem, such as DHCP, which usually isn't necessary if her connection type is PPPoE.

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   Judging a processor's performance based only on the clock speed (Hertz) is pure folly, compounded by the fact that the two processors have different architectures, Apple historically using RISC based processors, and Intel historically CISC based.
   It's not surprising that Apple's own G4 benchmark shows an 800Mhz G4 faster than a 2.2Ghz P4 (using Photoshop). But at least they reiterate my first statement.
   Updated (June 2005): Mea Culpa. He was only 10 months shy of the date, but it did happen.

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   MIME files are not compressed files, although WinZip will open them. Secondly, XP can open zip files, as well as create them (although WinZip has more options).

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   There was a Large (Extended CHS) mode but it's no longer used. LBA = Logical Block Addressing, and is a BIOS setting for translating hard drive geometry (CHS).

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   Not only is he missing the S, but CMOS (truly) stands for Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor.

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   It's Icon, not con. He even spelled it wrong. Also the running icons can be caused by certain viruses or practical joke apps, but not by a corrupt ShellIconCache.

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   To quote Microsoft, the Last Know Good Configuration option, "...does not correct problems that are caused by missing or corrupted drivers or files."
   Now since the caller didn't have an install CD, just an OEM repair disc, he should download the WinXP Setup Disks, which can repair an installation, either automatically or through the use of the Recovery Console. Note: ntfs.sys is on the fifth floppy.

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   W32 is the prefix Symantec and others use for a virus/worm that infects Windows executables.

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   Format's /s switch is there as a convenience over using format then sys.com. When a drive doesn't need reformatting, but needs to be bootable, just use sys.com. This Microsoft page has a list of boot errors and some fixes.

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   There is more than one Word virus (actually called a Macro Virus), and Symantec doesn't have fixes for all of them. With some searching I found this non-virus related article which describes the same problem and provides a workaround.

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   Assuming there isn't a floppy disk left in the computer.
   Cause 1: Damaged boot sector data. To fix a 9x/Dos boot sector, you use the program sys.com, which copies the files (usually) io.sys, msdos.sys and command.com to the root directory. Sys.com also adds a small program to the boot sector, this program is NOT a file, thus has no listing in the filesystem.
   Cause 2: A missing io.sys file. Which would also be fixed with the program sys.com, or by copying a known good copy to the root directory.
   Cause 3: Having no active partitions, which is remedied with the program fdisk. Here are two sites: Dos boot errors and FatFS Structure.
   Note: When command.com is missing, an error message will ask you where it is.

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   The only real difference in the Upgrade disk versus the Full version, is that the Upgrade's install program needs evidence of a previous qualifying version (either installed on the drive or the install disk). Once the Upgrade's need is met, it can either upgrade the previous OS, or do a regular full install.

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   Both Windows 2000 and XP are based on NT (they are NT 5.0 and NT 5.1 respectively). Windows ME was the last system based on 9X. On a side note, Microsoft recently posted a Windows Timeline.

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   He may be correct. Since, out of curiosity, I timed last Saturday's show and, without the news/traffic, or the commercials, or bumper music. There was only one hour and thirty-one minutes of Levy.

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   Giving a User account Administrator privileges defeats the whole point of using a limited rights account, that being security and the protection against inadvertent misconfiguring. Additionally, a Guest account can't install most, if not all, software; due to access limits on the registry and file system (if NTFS). The caller's problem would be better fixed by changing those file's permissions from the Admin account allowing Everyone access.

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   The removal of Java was the result of a lawsuit.
   Fact 1: Java is made by Sun. Fact 2: Mr. (Larry) Ellison is the CEO of Oracle.

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   The Single in Single In-line Memory Module means there is a single row of contacts (both sides are connected). Similarly, the Dual in DIMM means there are two, separate, rows of contacts. With respect to chip placement, both SIMMs (72pin) and DIMMs can be double-sided or single-sided.

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   When I played the first clip for my Mother, she was shocked. She then asked what he said after the break, I didn't know. So we waited while I fast-forwarded my tape (VHS). When we heard what he then said, we both yelled: "Oh, My God!"

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   "Non-system disk, or disk error" means there was some problem with the boot sector. It's important to note, the caller had Windows XP. Now if the boot sector can't load (or rather run), then the boot menu is impossible to get to.
   In WinXP the file "command.com" is included only for legacy dos apps, and has nothing at all to do with booting XP.
   Finally, booting off the Windows CD-ROM does not load Windows. It loads the installer. Fortunately XP's installer can repair the boot sector.
   Also check this item.

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   Hitting Ctrl-Alt-Delete (x2) should only be used to reboot a locked/crashed machine (Win 9x).

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   He is confusing (regular) memory and (USER/GDI) Resources. Windows 9x Resources, for compatibility reasons, are capped at 128KiB (64KiB USER, 64KiB GDI) for 16bit heaps, no matter the size of the RAM. The swap file (Virtual Memory), has no bearing on those Resources.

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   Diskeeper predates Win2000 by at least 3 years and, the defrager in 2000 is in fact a limited version of Diskeeper. Also Diskeeper is NOT a Scandisk substitute.

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   Winfile.exe was the File Manager. Progman.exe was the Program Manager.

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   They are Uninterruptible Power Supplies. Not Universal.

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   Booting from the Windows CD, immediately starts the installer. Not Windows.

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   It's the Blue Screen of Death or the Click of Death.

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   .bin and .rom are the extensions commonly used for files which contain (uncompressed) BIOS data. The data is written to the BIOS using a flashing utility, usually available from the same source as the .bin or .rom.

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   Somehow I prefer this quote from Ben Franklin: "Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn."

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   In 1985 Microsoft released Windows 1.0, here's a Windows Timeline.

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   He must be unaware of the Registered Trademark. MS owns quite a lot of trademarks, search here. However "windows" is limited in scope, so MS won't be suing people marketing storm windows. This item is really interesting after you read the one for September 27, 2003.

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   It was Java that was "left out". He also implied that Java and JavaScript were made by the same company, and that MS's actions were punitive. See the item for May 25, 2002, for more info.

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   It's the programs themselves that are adding the entry. If their own settings tell them to run at startup and they see the "run" entry missing from the registry, the program will put it back. Therefore, the setting must be changed within the respective program, not msconfig.

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   MAC is an acronym for Media Access Control.

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   The Win98 "System Update" is only bug fixes/updates, Win98+SU still won't have all the features that were added to Win98 Second Edition.

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   Look at every third word (starting at Levy).

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   That's strange, I wonder what's on those three Mandrake Linux (8.2) disks, or the eight disks in the ProSuite.

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   If a file doesn't exist, and someone assumes it does, that's not a kernel problem. I've seen two systems, both OEM installs, that didn't have msconfig preinstalled. Msconfig is not that important, it's just easier than using regedit and notepad. The msconfig.exe file for Win98 is in Win98_46.cab. Or even better, use AutoRuns.

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   Win2000 and XP do have drive checking and defragmentation tools. In fact, the defrager in 2000/XP is a limited version of Diskeeper. Diskeeper is NOT a Scandisk substitute.

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   He was probably right about it being the video driver, but had he listened closer he would have heard that she went to ViewSonic (they make monitors, not video cards), and would have realized that the caller got the monitor spec file (.inf), not the video driver. If it was an IRQ issue it wouldn't have just a color depth problem.

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   Short answer: Nope. Long answer: Wrong. Just reading data won't change the data, unless it's a bad drive (which the caller didn't have).

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   Win 98SE (among others) can sort the Programs menu by name. Click 'Start', 'Programs', then right-click any item and choose 'Sort by name'. Thanks again to A.K.

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   There ARE drivers loaded, just very basic ones. If one renames their vga.drv file, 9x will blue screen when it goes to safe mode. He makes this mistake quite a bit.

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   Obviously he meant watts, except that too isn't right, it should be 650 Volt-Amps. Note: A 500 Kilowatt UPS costs around $80,000.

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   First, his Gates comment probably had to do with the removal of MS's Java Virtual Machine from Windows XP. Second, Java and JavaScript are completely different things. Thirdly, as far as I know Microsoft does not have patches for Netscape products, the "patch" he's talking about is probably the Java VM for XP which is here: MS's (dead) or Sun's. Of course, neither VM will fix JavaScript errors.

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   With a clean partition, or after defragging, Windows will write a file contiguously.

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   His first one was redundant, and the second spells KMM. KVM stands for Keyboard, Video, Mouse. And is a device for sharing (via switching) a single Keyboard, Monitor and Mouse, with multiple computers.

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   There ARE drivers loaded, just very basic ones. If one renames their vga.drv file, 9x will blue screen when it goes to Safe Mode. He said the same thing the next day.

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   IE 2.0 was the only MS browser to use that file. Netscape (as of 6) however still uses it. So on this one he's not completely wrong, he just made the assumption that everyone uses Netscape (or IE 2.0).

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   Baud and bps are not interchangeable. This site has information about the difference.

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   You can buy it there, but the site for Nero is www.nero.com. Where you can also get a demo version.

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   .isu's are InstallShield files, which describe an installation.

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   It was the Dreamcast, and it rocked!

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   It would cause file corruption, but it's not called a crash. A hard drive crash is when one of the heads, which read and write the data, comes into contact with the platter while it is spinning. Causing physical damage to the surface of the disk.

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   It has a network adapter (ethernet).

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   It's Accelerated Graphics Port.

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   It's Application Programming Interface.

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   Narrow and wide are descriptions for the same dimension. It can be 'short and wide', or 'tall and narrow'. But not 'narrow and wide'.

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   Jeff Levy's guestbook had to be shutdown, not because of "construction," as was posted, but because it was inundated with negative posts.
   When the guestbook came back there was only one post. Today, three months later, there's still one post, the same post. I know for a fact that complimentary posts aren't being posted, so that leaves two possibilities: It's broke, or it's fake.

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   He must be thinking of that old 8008 based dumb terminal, which ran at 0.06 Million Instructions Per Second, or 3.6 million instructions per minute, although that's still faster than what he described.

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   This item isn't intended to bring light to an error, but rather to show that he gave correct information. Though as far as I know, it was Levy who single-handedly started that myth when he warned people to "park" their USB devices before unplugging them so to avoid "the risk of having a static electricity attack."
   Levy's earlier warning can be found on May 1st, 2004.