Dear Geek,
I’m going on a work trip next week, and I need to bring my laptop, and an external hard drive on a plane. Is the X-ray going to wreak my laptop? Can it erase my files?

Sincerely,
“I’m leaving on a jet plane”

Dear leaving,
Airplanes say that electronics need to be in your carry on bags. The X-rays used at airports produce electromagnetic energy, which is NOT magnetic, and will not damage your laptops or erase any files. Any kind of computer, tablet, or phone will be safe from X-ray damage. The only thing these X-rays can harm would be camera film, because it is light sensitive, but not many people still carry camera film.

The only thing to be worried about on the plane is physical damage, which is an easy fix. Get a good case for your laptop, and make sure your electronics are stored properly, so they don’t shift and break.

 If you have a question for our Resident Geek, send it to: geek@tbyd.ca.

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Geek,

I am on my way to a meeting, where I’m giving a huge presentation. While trying to put the presentation on my USB hard drive, I clicked “delete”. My whole presentation is gone! What can I do?!

Sincerely,
Uh oh, Spaghettio.

Dear Spaghetti,

Don’t worry, the Geek is here to save the day! When you delete a file, it doesn’t just disappear, it actually goes to your “Recycle Bin”. When you click on the icon, which is on the desktop of your computer, it should open up a folder of all the files you have recently “deleted”. To restore any of your files, you just need to highlight any files you want to be restored, right-click on the file, and select the “Restore” option. This will restore the file from the original location it was deleted.

If your file is not in the Recycle Bin, there could be three explanations for this. The first one is that it could have been deleted from the Recycle Bin in order to make room for more files. However, if the file was just deleted, it is most likely one of the other two options. The second explanation is that you, or your boss, or whoever set up the computer, could have enabled Windows not to send the file to the Recycle Bin. The most likely scenario, is that you, or someone else has emptied the Recycle Bin.

If you have a question for our Resident Geek, send it to: geek@tbyd.ca.

Got Cyber-Bugs?

Call 1-204-800-3166

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Dear Geek,

I want to make sure that my Windows support isn’t ending, but I’m not sure what version of Windows I have. Is there a way to check?

Sincerely,
Better door than Window.

Dear Window-Aspiring,

It’s relatively painless to figure out what kind of Windows program you have. If you click on the “Start” menu, then “Run” or sometimes there is a “Start Search” field, either way, click on one of them. Type in “winver”, and press enter. This will bring up some information about your licensing for Windows, including what version you are using in nice big letters.

Another option is to right-click on “My Computer” and click on “Properties”. In the “System Properties” tab, it will show you what version of Windows you have installed on your computer.

If you have a question for our Resident Geek, send it to: geek@tbyd.ca.

Got Cyber-Bugs?

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Dear Geek,

I use a USB drive that I use to bring files to and from work. I used a co-worker’s Mac, and it told me to “eject” the drive. Do I have to do that on a PC too? Is this a Mac only thing? What does it do?

Sincerely,
Macs R Confusing

Dear Mac-aroni and cheese

This is a PC issue as well, not just a Mac thing. Usually when you copy files to or from your removable device, it will notify you when it is done. Many people know that if you remove a USB or external hard drive before an action is finished, there is a big chance that your files could become corrupted. But many people do not know that even if the drive isn’t actively being written to, you could still corrupt the data. Computers actually wait to perform actions until it has a number of requests to fulfill, and then it fulfills them all at once. This process is called write caching. When you hit the eject button it flushes the cache to make sure that all the pending actions have been preformed, ensuring that your files are safe to remove.

You can “eject” external hard drives and USB on a PC as well. In the system tray (lower bottom right hand corner), there should be an option to “safely remove hardware”. This is the windows version of eject.

To sum up, to avoid or reduce the possibility of corrupted files, it is always better to eject your drive.

If you have a question for our Resident Geek, send it to: geek@tbyd.ca.

Got Cyber-Bugs?

Call 1-204-800-3166

For Cyber-Extermination!