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[ STORAGE ] Can I recover drives from dead PC?
My Windows 10 PC has died on me. Inside it are two hard drives with files I want to transfer to a new PC. I’ve been told this is complex and am now concerned my attempts to retrieve the information could lose the data. [ HAROLD HAYWOOD ] Nick Peers replies: Harold confirmed the PC was completely dead — no boot messages at all. This is potentially good news, as it should mean the drives inside are physically fine. Once you’ve identified their size (2.5-inches if an SSD drive or housed inside a laptop, 3.5-inches for other desktop drives), you’ll need to purchase an external drive enclosure to house them in — a cheap USB 3.0 model costs around $30 online. Then simply extract the drive, fit it into the new enclosure and plug it into a working PC.
The drive should be recognised and mounted as an additional drive with all its data intact. You’re likely to get an ‘Access Denied’ error when attempting to open certain folders, such as your own personal user folders, which you’ll find inside the Users folder on the root of the drive. If this happens, then click ‘Continue’ when prompted and Windows should give your current user read and write access to the drive, allowing you to browse and recover files easily.
[ WINDOWS ] Set up PC for multipurpose computing
I have a long history of way too many programs being installed on my computers, and this obviously makes them particularly slow and buggy. In general, these programs fall into three or four categories: work, writing, graphics and play. I’m thinking of making an ISO file of the basic computer, then creating separate ISO files for each category of use, switching between them when necessary. Does that make any sense or is there something a lot better? What would you recommend doing? [ MARSHALL BROWN ]
Graham Barlow replies: We like the idea, but it’s not really that practical. It would involve either using drive images and switching between them, or setting up a complicated multi-boot system, with four separate Windows installs, each one focusing on a different category. Neither is a practical or guaranteed solution to your problems. What would work better is investing in boosting your PC’s overall performance.
Double its RAM (8GB should be adequate even for demanding systems) and — crucially — invest in a fast 120GB SSD drive on which Windows and your programs can reside, keeping your existing drive as storage for data and other files. This twin performance boost should make your PC easily capable of handling your demands, without requiring any complicated setup.
[ MEDIA ] Analog to digital
I’ve got a giant box full of childhood cassette tapes — mostly audiobooks, like The Famous Five and The Muddle-Headed Wombat — that I can’t seem to find CD or digital versions of online. Is there some way to digitise them without taking them to a shop and paying hundreds of dollars? I can’t bear the thought of not being able to listen to them once my ancient cassette/ stereo deck finally dies! [ MILES ROBINSON ]
YOU’RE LIKELY TO GET AN ‘ACCESS DENIED’ ERROR WHEN ATTEMPTING TO OPEN CERTAIN FOLDERS, SUCH AS YOUR OWN PERSONAL USER FOLDERS, WHICH YOU’LL FIND INSIDE THE USERS FOLDER ON THE ROOT OF THE DRIVE.
Carmel Sealey replies: You’ll find a thorough guide to this very topic back in TechLife 38 (see page 50) — it also includes how to convert vinyl records to digital files — but for convenience, we’re happy to recap the most pertinent elements here (and we’ve even sprinkled in some new tips, too).
Despite being quite time-consuming, digitising your cassettes can offer you peace of mind, as well as convenience. If you currently play cassettes through a stereo system, simply connect an RCA cable (equipped with an RCA-to-3.5mm cord) between your stereo and computer. If your computer doesn’t have a 3.5mm line-in socket, you can usually use the headphone jack. If your stereo/tape deck has USB out, use that instead.
Once connected, you’ll then need software. The good news is that this costs you nothing. Audacity is a free, open-source audio recorder that will be perfect for the task. Download it from audacity.sourceforge.net. Firstly, set your device’s preference to ‘stereo’ rather than ‘mono’ through ‘Edit > Preferences > Devices’. For Windows, you will also need to select Microsoft Sound Mapper as your input if you’re using the RCA cable with 3.5mm plug. If your stereo/tape deck has USB-out, then select the applicable USB instead.
Keep volume levels in mind — it’s probably best to do a couple of test recordings first. You’ll know your connection is working if a waveform starts appearing in the Audio Track section of Audacity.
How you record your cassette is up to you. If it’s an audio tape, you can stop and start recording for each track or let it run for the whole side and chop it up later. The latter option is easy: simply select the time region of the track by dragging the cursor over the waveform, copy and then paste into a new file. Don’t forget to fill out your metadata (artist, album and song name etc) as you go to save confusion later by going to ‘File > Edit Metadata’. Export in the format of your choice, from lossless FLAC to MP3. We recommend FLAC; however, keep in mind that not all media players support all formats. VLC ( www.videolan.org) is reliable in this regard.
Note that Audacity can’t improve the audio quality of your cassettes, just the volume (though don’t head into the red). However, do make sure that your cassette tape and deck is clean before ripping.
And that’s it! For a more comprehensive step-by-step, check out the original article. Good luck, both to you and the Famous Five!
[ WINDOWS ] How can I create reinstall media?
I have to dispose of three PCs, all upgraded from Windows 7 to 10, and tried to follow some online Windows 10 reinstall guides with no success. The problem appears to be I have no recovery environment to fall back on, and neither can I create a recovery drive due to missing files. Any ideas on how to resolve this? [ PHILIP CROWE ] Nick Peers replies: The simplest way to create media for reinstalling Windows 10 is via the Media Creation Tool. In this case, when you launch the tool, be sure to select ‘Create installation media for another PC’. If all your PCs are running the same system architecture, then the default choices are fine. Choose whether or not to burn to DVD or copy to a USB flash drive (8GB or larger — all existing data will be wiped). Once it’s created, simply boot from this media and follow the prompts to wipe your drive clean and reinstall Windows from scratch, skipping the product key prompt (Windows 10 will automatically reactivate without this). Once complete, your PC will be ready to pass on — but if there’s sensitive data on the drive, we recommend using a tool such as DBAN ( www.dban.org) to securely wipe the drive before you reinstall Windows on it.
[ HARDWARE ] Dying iMac optical drive
The internal optical drive in my 27-inch iMac (Late 2009) has stopped working properly. It now rejects CD-R discs, even those which it burned itself. I took it to a Genius Bar, where they told me that it’s considered obsolete and that they couldn’t replace the optical drive because they’re no longer stocked. A friend’s Apple USB SuperDrive doesn’t work properly on the iMac. Is there a way I can get a fullyfunctional optical drive again? [ DANIEL GARCIA ]
Howard Oakley replies: The first solution to try is to give the drive a gentle and fairly dry clean using one of the better optical drive cleaning kits available from good audio and electronics retailers. It mustn’t be abrasive, nor too wet, which could damage the rest of your iMac.
If that doesn’t fix the problem, or the issue recurs soon after, the optical drive will need to be replaced. This can be either another internal unit if you can get your hands on one, or an external drive. A good, Applecertified engineer should be able to source an appropriate drive, and will reuse the plastic inserts from the old one in order to to keep dust out of your iMac.
If they can’t manage that, you’ll need to locate a suitable USB 2.0 drive that’s sufficiently compatible with your iMac. Apple’s external SuperDrive works with Macs from 2008 that don’t have an internal one, but not with other Mac models. However, you should have no problems using an external drive from another manufacturer.