Web User - UK (2019-12-11)

Cloningadrive createsagoodbackupbutusesmorespacethanatraditional

incrementalbackup

Find moresolutions atwww.facebook.com/webusermagazine 11 -26December 2019^67

Askthe Expert

have.Couldyoupleasegivemeyour

thoughtsonmybackupstrategy?

My WindowsOSand appsarekept on

the C: driveandIusethe D: driveto

storedata. Iinstalledathirddriveand,

usingAOMEI Backupper,Icloned the C:

drivetothenewdriveE.Ithen ran

andentercmdto openaCommand

Prompt window.Enteripconfig

/flushdnsto clearthe cache.

SinceNortonisyouronlyrecent

upgrade,try uninstalling it –oratleast

disable everything in it to seeifthat’s

thecause of theerror.Dothe samewith

anyother security software youhave,

includingfirewalls.Now restart

Windows andtry using theinternet.

Restor ethe securi ty software

afterwards if it makesnodifference.

Next,try switchin gDNS servers.

They don’tcause HTTPerror400,but

problemscansometimes be reported as

HTTPerror400 by mistak e. Open the

ControlPanel,thenopen ‘Network and

SharingCentre’.Click theinternet

connection link,clickProperties in the

next window, then double-click Internet

Protocol Version4inthe following

window. Select ‘Use thefollowing DNS

server addresses’and enter8.8.8.8and

8.8.4.4intothe boxesbelow.ClickOK

to close thewindows andrestart thePC.

That’s justaboutall youcan doon the

computer. If theproblempersists, it

couldbeexternal, suchas arouterfault.

To checkthis, turn offyourrouter, wait

10 secondsand turn it backon.

If youhave alaptop, tryusing it in a

differentlocation, such as acafé or a

friend’s house. If theinternetworks fine

elsewhere,youprobablyneedto talk to

your ISPand possiblyreset or replace

therouter. Theremay be areset button

on theback.

GENERALPC

Setupagoodbackup

strategy

Q

ThebiggestproblemwhenDriveC

fails is reinstalling allthe programs

andtryingtoremember which apps you

Q

Iuse theinterneton

my mobile data

allowanceand have my

phonesetupasaWi-Fi

hotspot. It worksfine, but

even though Ihave 20GB

of data on my phone

contract,Windows

updatesare using fartoo

much. Twiceayear there

is ahugedownloadand,

if onefails and hasto

download again, then I

have very little data left

forthe rest of themonth.

Once,Iwentovermy

allowance. Doyouhave

anysuggestions?

JimMitchell, viaemail

A

Do youhave alaptop

or adesktopcomputer? Ifyou

have alaptop, youcould go to a

public Wi-Fi hotspot, suchas acafé,

andusethatwhenyouneedto

download anymajor Windows

updates. Some public Wi-Fi is quite

fast,especiall ywhenthereare few

people around,sobuy acoffee,

pretendtobeworkingand grab

theupdate.

To stop Windows downloadingthe

update at homeoveryourmobile

connection,open Settings,‘Network

&Internet’ andselect Wi-Fionthe

left.Click theWi-Fi connection,scroll

down andturn on theswitch ‘Set as

meteredconnection’.Clickthe link to

‘Set adatalimittohelpcontrol data

usageonthisnetwork’. Click ‘Set limit’

andenteravalue, suchas 15GB.

Stop updatesoverloading data allowance

GENERALPC

Limitthe interne tdataWindows can useifyou’re

using amobile hotspotoraren’tonanunlimitedplan

Winmergeto check thesource and

destinationwerethe same.

Then, to test if Windows will boot from

driveE,Idisconnected all theSATA

cables from theC: and D: drives, then

rebootedfrom DriveE.Ifthis works, then

I’ll have aspareharddrive,which can

replacethe C: drive,should itever break.

Aretherelikelyto be anyWindows

licensingissues?Doyou see any

problems with this?

GrantWilso n, viaemail

A

Youhave beenvery thorough with

this and,ifa nything, youhave done

morethanyouneedto.Cloningadrive

is atypeofbackup, butit’salot ofwork

andis usually onlynecessarywhen

swappinganold drivefor anew one

–for example,ifi t’sbrokenoryou’re

upgradingfrom aharddrive toan SSD.

Stick withthis method if it’s working

foryou,but youmay findit easierto

pluginanexternalUSB driveand back

up thewhole drivetoitusing atoolsuch

as AOMEIBackupper(www.aomeitech

.com), Todo Backup Free ( http://www.easeus

.com)orMiniTool ShadowMakerFree

(www.minitool.com).

Theseutilities canbeset to run on