By Randall Hull
Is it OK to empty Norton AntiVirus on Windows PC?
This column offers solutions to personal technology questions from our readers. Neither the author nor this newspaper endorses products or companies mentioned.
Q: We have Norton AntiVirus 2001 on our Windows PC. It
has created a quarantine folder where it put infected files. Is it all right to empty this folder or will this reinfect our PC?
A: You can safely remove the files Norton AntiVirus has quarantined. However, don’t do this unless you are sure you don’t need the files. Files removed from Quarantine will be permanently deleted. To avoid reinfection AntiVirus doesn’t move them to the Recycle bin.
Q: I have a software install CD that is badly scratched. My computer says it can’t read it. Is there any way to remove the scratches?
A: It is possible to restore it depending on the extent of damage. For minor scratches, try a mild abrasive such as furniture polish, silver polish or toothpaste. Put a dab of the polish on a damp soft cloth and rub the scratch very gently, moving from the CD center out in straight lines. The scratch may not disappear but smoothing it out may do the job. For serious scratches consider commercial repair kits such as 303 Sonic Blast ($6.95 at www.303sonicblast.com) or WipeOut Universal CD Care Kit ($29.90 at http://kalvins.com).
If all this fails then you should send your CD to a recovery company that specializes in scratch removal, such as Dr. Disc (www.drdisccompany.com). Your last resort is to contact the software manufacturer for a replacement CD. You will need your software serial number.
Q: I updated my Macintosh Blue and White G3 to OS 9.2.1 and now my QPS Que!Fire 8×4x32 CD-Rewritable Drive is not working. I get a message that says “No CD Recorder”. I tried a bunch of things, different FireWire drivers, updated version of Roxio (Formerly Adaptec) Toast, disabled iTunes. No luck. What have I missed?
A: There are a couple of things you will need to do. First, a new Mac driver is required for the CDRW FireWire Drives and Toast versions 4.1 and 4.1.1. The updates can be found at www.qps-inc.com/support/mac_drivers.html.
Second, with MacOS 9.2, iTunes and Disk Burner extensions are added to the base extension set of your system. These conflict with Toast’s extensions. To make Toast recognize your CDRW you need to disable the iTunes and Disk Burner extensions. I recommend setting up Toast as a separate extension set with these extensions disabled. The specific extensions to be disabled are: Authoring Support, Disc Burner Extension, Firewire Authoring Support, iTunes Extension, SDAP Authoring Support and USB Authoring Support.
Please keep questions to 100 words or less. Send to: Tech Talk, Town Crier, 138 Main St., Los Altos 94022 or e-mail: techtalk@latc.com. Randall Hull is a Los Altos resident and owner of The Br@nd Ranch, a brand marketing firm.
