Tag Archives: Recover

Q. My old MacBook Pro is dead. How can I run its internal drive with OS X 10.11 as an external drive?

Posted on February 20, 2020 by quill

A. First, what year and model of MacBook Pro is it? If it is a 2012 or older, it is simple, because it is a 2.5 inch SATA drive. You’ll remove the hard drive and put the drive into an … Continue reading →

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How can I reinstall OSX and keep my bookmarks and mail?

Posted on April 27, 2015 by quill

I would like to do a reinstall my OSX as I am having problems. I do have a backup Can I transfer my browsers favorites, contacts and previous e-mails without losing them? Here are several specific points, but read this … Continue reading →

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Q. My Win XP PC comes up with “Couldn’t find NTLDR” and won’t boot?

Posted on June 26, 2012 by quill

Your Windows XP or XP Pro machine cannot find a bootable drive to start from, or the NTLoader (NTLDR) software on your bootable drive is damaged. (for Windows Vista/7 go here) The first step is to make sure you are booting … Continue reading →

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Q. My Win7/Vista PC comes up with “Couldn’t find BOOTMGR” and won’t boot?

Posted on June 26, 2012 by quill

If your machine is stopping very early in the boot up sequence and telling you that BOOTMGR is missing, that means your Windows 7 or Windows Vista machine cannot find a bootable drive to start from, or the software on … Continue reading →

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Q. How do I get the data off my hard drive so I can reformat or replace it?

Posted on January 16, 2012 by quill

The easiest way is to buy an external hard drive. Yes, it will cost some money but you really need to have a backup drive for your data. Don’t ever trust your data to one media device only.  Every hard … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, General Computer, Hard Drives and SSD, Mac questions, Windows questions | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Q. How do I restore a Windows computer to the factory settings?

Posted on January 5, 2012 by quill

Completely re-installing a computer Did your computer come with Restore or Recovery DVD or CD disks?  You would use those to reformat the drive and restore / re-install your machine. These will put your machine back to the state you … Continue reading →

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Q. My Mac just has a question mark on the screen

Posted on May 22, 2011 by quill

The ? means that the machine cannot find a drive with a valid operating system. This means either that your hard drive has failed, or the operating system on it is damaged. What to do: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1411?viewlocale=en_US Safe Mode: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1564 (Starting … Continue reading →

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Favorite: Windows utilities from Piriform

Posted on May 18, 2011 by quill

Some utilities you use once in a blue moon. Some utilities you end up using every day until they become indispensable.  One company that makes shareware that is part of my everyday toolkit is Piriform. CCleaner cleans out cache files, … Continue reading →

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Q. My HP computer didn’t come with disks

Posted on May 14, 2011 by quill

Hewlett-Packard, like many manufacturers, is saving money by not including Windows recovery or install DVDs with new machines.  The customer is expected to spend a couple of hours when they first unpack the machine, and burn their own disks.  Guess … Continue reading →

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Q. My computer is broken and I need the data

Posted on May 14, 2011 by quill

If your computer has a broken screen, failed motherboard or bad power supply, the data on the hard drive is probably still OK – so you want to be able to get it copied to a new machine or another … Continue reading →

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Q. My external hard drive won’t mount

Posted on May 12, 2011 by quill

Try replugging the cables and connections first before concluding that it has failed – half of all ‘failures’ are problems with connections.  Or shut down the machine, turn off the hard drive. Now turn on the hard drive first, let … Continue reading →

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Q. How do I recover a Microsoft Word file I was working on when the machine crashed?

Posted on May 11, 2011 by quill

Microsoft Word saves temporary files of your work in progress, so you may be able to get back your document. How to use AutoRecover files Word 2010 office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/recover-earlier-versions-of-a-file-in-office-2010-HA010356735.aspx Word 2003 and 2007: support.microsoft.com/kb/827099 Word 2002: support.microsoft.com/kb/316951 Word 2000: support.microsoft.com/kb/316950 Word … Continue reading →

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