I have been asked recently by quite a few people if it is possible to recover data from a hard drive which is no longer recognised by their system. In most cases, as long as a hard drive has not mechanically failed, the data on the drive should be recoverable. In approx 90 – 95% of cases it is normally possible to recover everything back from a drive – in some instances however, this percentage can drop where for instance a virus has been on the system. Should you find your drive has failed mechanically your data may still be able to be saved but only by specialist companies who will take your drive apart in laboratory conditions.

A second question which has came up quite a lot is: Can files be recovered if they are deleted or if the hard drive is formatted accidentally. If files have simply been deleted via the recycle bin or if a hard drive has been formatted then most of the time recovery can be a very straight forward process. There are instances however, where corruption may happen which will stop files from been fully recovered.

Hope this helps.

I have had quite a lot of people ask me how to get rid of Microsoft Narrator in Windows Vista. Here’s how to do it:

Go to START > ALL PROGRAMS > ACCESSORIES > EASE OF ACCESS > EASE OF ACCESS CENTRE. Under the EXPLORE ALL SETTINGS section click USE THE COMPUTER WITHOUT A DISPLAY. There should be a checkbox in this area to turn off Narrator.

Hope this helps.

From time to time I am quite often asked how to change the behaviour of PC’s / Laptops when say the power button is pressed or a laptop lid is closed. To change what your computer will do when you do one of the above first of all RIGHT click on the desktop. From the small menu which will appear select the PROPERTIES option. A window like the one below will appear. (Windows XP Window shown below)

From this window select the ADVANCED tab. Under the POWER BUTTONS section you will find the options you can set for your computer when certain actions are carried out.

Set these options as desired and then apply. Thats it – have fun.

If you are using an older PC running on Windows XP then the recommended minimum amount of RAM (Memory) your computer should have is 512mb.  While out repairing PC’s / Laptops it is suprising how many times I have came across machines running Windows XP on 256mb – half of the minimum.  Obviously, people who have machines running like this should really upgrade the physical memory ASAP but one thing which can be done to help give you more speed is increasing your computers virtual memory (or paging file as it is somethimes known).

To do this: Click START > right click MY COMPUTER > Click PROPERTIES > ADVANCED > Click the SETTINGS button under the Performance Tab.  In the Performance Options window which will open click on the ADVANCED tab and then click the CHANGE button at the bottom of the window in the Virtual Memory section.

Select the CUSTOM SIZE radio button if not already selected and as the INITIAL SIZE figure type in 1000 – set the max to 1500.

Click the OK buttons 3 times to close all open windows and then re-start your computer.  It should now run slightly faster. (You may find that the shutting down time of your computer will take longer however – this is because the paging file by default gets over-written everytime you shut down your PC.)

Please note: this tip will help your computer run a little faster but is no excuse for upgrading the physical memory in your computer.