Protect Your Data and Settings on a Shared PC

Kirk Steers

A hot stock tip. Your toothbrush. A twin-size bed. A personal computer.

What do they have in common? They're all things you're better off not sharing. Having a coworker or family member mess up your PC's settings or lose important files can start you contemplating a new lifestyle as a hermit. The best way to protect your files is to get the interlopers a PC of their own. If this isn't practical, you could upgrade to Windows 2000 or XP, which restrict users to their own folders and settings. You get limited protection in Windows 9x and Me by creating customized settings for each user, or by installing separate copies of Windows and applications for each user via multibooting. Last month's column, Hardware Tips: Multiboot Your PC to Avoid UnXPected Problems, has more on multibooting.

Another alternative to a computer buying splurge is to install a hard disk for each user so that everybody can use their own copy of Windows and their own application software. Romtec's $50 Trios RX-910T6 multi-IDE hard drive selector makes it easy to switch between up to three hard drives when your PC boots, loading the operating system and software on the chosen drive. While the PC runs on that drive, you can't access any OS, software, or data located on the other drives.

Trios mounts in a drive bay and connects to the primary IDE connector on your PC's motherboard, as well as to your system's internal hard drives (see FIGURE 1). Most computers will boot up only from an IDE hard disk that's attached to the primary IDE connector.

To share data with the PC's other users, you must store it on a CD-RW disc or on another removable medium, or put it on a hard drive that's not attached to the Trios. Also, your PC's BIOS must automatically detect hard drives for Trios to work properly. Fortunately, most PCs made in the last few years have a BIOS up to the task.

Send your hardware-related questions and tips to kirk_steers@pcworld.com. We pay $50 for published items. Kirk Steers is a PC World contributing editor.

Toner Talk

I've seen ads for recycled and remanufactured toner cartridges that are much cheaper than those sold by my laser printer's manufacturer. Are they as good as my printer vendor's cartridges? Will they damage my printer?

Diane Johnson, Chicago

Remanufactured laser printer cartridges can definitely save you money, but you're wise to be suspicious. The quality of toner cartridges from third-party manufacturers varies widely from company to company. Before you buy, ask where the vendor is located, how and where it makes its cartridges, and how long it has been in business. Don't buy any cartridge that doesn't come with a guarantee that covers damage to your printer.

Printer manufacturers are quick to suggest that third-party cartridges don't meet the rigid quality standards of their own products. Sometimes they're right, but these firms make big profits selling toner cartridges and other printer consumables, so they have an incentive to discourage you from buying a competitor's product. You may also have heard that using a third-party cartridge will invalidate your printer's warranty. It won't. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act says so.

A Fine Line

M.H. Stanley of Fairview, Texas, asks about the two faint lines running horizontally across his Trinitron screen: one about a quarter of the way from the top, and the other the same distance from the bottom. Trinitrons have vertical phosphor stripes about a hundredth of an inch wide painted on the inside of the monitor glass. An aperture grille, or tension mask, of taut, parallel vertical wires is aligned between each phosphor stripe to keep electrons from accidentally exciting the phosphors of the intended stripe's neighbors. The two horizontal lines are actually very fine wires used to hold the vertical wires in place.