Q: I'm running two operating systems - Macintosh OS X and Windows Vista - on my MacBook Pro by using VMWare Fusion (a "virtualization" program that allows them to share the same computer without affecting each other.)
After doing some software upgrades, I bought two new Hewlett-Packard printers, an Officejet Pro 8000 and a Photosmart All-In-One D110, both wirelessly connected to the MacBook. But now only the Macintosh OS can use the printers; Windows can't print at all. What can I do?
- Dennis Hjerpe, Green Valley
A: Your Macintosh operating system was designed for that computer, and is getting through to the printer. But Windows, the stranger to the Mac, can't find its way through the thicket of VMWare. Check out "Troubleshooting printer connection issues in VMware Fusion" (www.tinyurl.com/4cgevn4), and see the section on "Network/Wireless Printers."
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Also make sure you've got the current software drivers for your printers. Find the Windows Vista drivers for HP Photosmart All-In-One D110 (tinyurl.com/36uksxx) and for the HP Officejet Pro 8000 (tinyurl.com/4dz4eb8).
Q: I want to give away my desktop PC after retrieving some photos and files, then erasing the hard drive. But I don't know how to copy the data; my CD drive is broken and my flash drive is not accepted by the USB port. Could I use the floppy disk drive? What's the best way to erase the hard drive?
- Tim Quinlan, Otsego, Minn.
A: The easiest solution is to buy a new flash drive and see if it will work in the USB port. A floppy disk has too little storage capacity to be useful.
If that doesn't work, you could e-mail the information to yourself as attachments. But many e-mail services limit e-mail attachments to 25 megabytes, so if you've got a lot of data that could take a while. Alternatively, you could buy a few gigabytes of online storage for about $5 a month. You could upload the data from your old computer to your online storage, then retrieve it with a new computer. (See "online storage services review" (tinyurl.com/cbz4eh).
You also could remove the hard drive from the old computer and convert it into an external hard drive that could be read by a new PC through a USB connection (tinyurl.com/n8sfmu). To erase the old PC's hard drive, download and run a free "secure erase" program (tinyurl.com/2xoqqw). Click on the "download freeware secure erase utility."
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