Computer Shopper - UK (2020-03)

ISSUE385|COMPUTERSHOPPER|MARCH2020 121

HELPFILE&BUSINESSHELP

InmycomputerIhaveasystemdrive,

and adatadrivesplitinto10logical

partitions.Iwantedto resizeoneof

the partitionsonthelatter,butto my

surpriseIfoundthatIcouldn’tdothis

withthetoolI’vepreviouslyusedfor

this kindof thing.Itturnedoutthat

this wasbecausethedrivehad

somehow beenconvertedto a

dynamic, ratherthanbasic,one.

TheeasiestsolutionIcouldfindwas

to copyoffallof thedata,re-createthe

drive’spartitions,thencopyeverything

back.Ittookawhileto moveall575GBof

datatwice,buteverythingappearedto

workasbeforeuntilItriedto searchfora

file. SearchfoundthefilenameIwas

lookingfor, butdouble-clickingitjust

navigatedto MyPCinExplorer,rather

thanopeningthefileIwanted.

Ifollowedatipto rebuildtheindex,

butsincedoingthat,thesearchfunction

doesn’tfindanythingatall.Interestingly,

theresultswhensearchingOutlookare

equallyuseless,showingatbestavery

smallsubsetof whattheyshouldfind.

Haveyouanyideawhysearchnolonger

functionsandhowImightrecoverit?

Mike Long

Haven’tfound what I’mlooking for

It sounds as though the search index hadn’t

had time to updateitself before you tried

the first search. While it contained the result

you were after,this ‘stale’record didn’t

actually point to the current location of the

file,soitcouldn’t be opened when you

double-clicked it.

Without knowing the timeline,it’s

hard to work out what might have

happened since.With lots of data,

it’s possible that you wrotetous

before Windows had managed to

finish recreating the search index –it

can take many hours, particularly if

the computer is busy doing other

things. Given that Outlook uses the

same search indexing service,the

fact that you’re getting only partial

results there would appear to make

this more likely.

Youcan check the progress of the

re-indexing by openingthe Start

menu, typingcontroland running

Control Panel from the results, then

choosing Indexing Options. Here you’ll

see Indexing completeonce the

process is finished. You’ll also see alist of

the drives being indexed. If you don’t see

all your drives, click Modify,tick the boxes

forany unselected drives, then click OK.

Again, it maytake awhile forthe new

drives to be indexed, but search should be

back to normal once theyare.

Printermanufacturersallwarnthat
compatibleinksmaydamagetheirprinters,
butisthistrue?I’mhappytopay asmall
premiumforOEMinks,butwhentheprice
differenceissogreatI’minclinedto
questionthemanufacturers’motives.Iread
todaythatHPistoincreasethecostof its
printers,apparentlybecausetoomany
usersarebuyingcheapercompatibleinksso
itisn’tmakingupforthelowprofitmargin
onprintersales.What’syouradviceonit?
RobHindle

The battle between original and third-party ink
manufacturers is alongstanding one.While we
can’t tell you which inks you should buy,we
can start with some facts. First, you’re not
obliged to buy aprinter manufacturer’s own
ink and paper,and using third-party inks will
in itself not invalidateyourwarranty.
Beyond that, it gets murkier.A
manufacturer can refuse to honour its
warranty if there’s damage that mayhave
been caused by athird-party ink.
Manufacturers have also tried to make
support foradvanced or optional features
such as cloud services conditional on the
use of OEM ink, so even if there’s no failure
you could still miss out.
We have limited experience of testing
third-party supplies, but our results have

Just aninkling

been mixxxed. While

many products have

workedwwwell, some

ink cartrrridges have

dripped whhhhen

being prepared

and fitteeedtothe

printer,aaand w ’

had one

toner ca

disintegrrra ,,,, pppp gggg

toner intttothe

printer.OOOne third-party

ink brandddin particular c aaaa

nozzles, but we rescued nnnn

returningggto OEM inks nnnn

maintenaaance cycles.

In our experience,print qualllity isbbbestfffrom

OEM inks, with some third-party brands

markedly inferior,particularly in photos. We’ve

also experienced yield that fell well short of

the OEM equivalent, which leads to possibly

our biggest concern: that despitebeing

outperformed by OEM inks, third-party and

refilled cartridges aren’t necessarily cheaper.

MMMM

aaaa

ssss

nnnn eeee

costbbbythhheir ratedddlllifffe–you maybbbesurpriseddd

when you compare this cost per page for

original and third-party supplies.

If you’re choosing anew printer,you

should consider an Epson EcoTank or one

of Canon’s refillable ink Pixmas. These cost

much more to buy,but they’re the cheapest

waytoprint with original inks.

⬅Building the search index can take an

age,especially if you’re still using the PC

➡Ifcheapppink

is all impooortant,

we’d recooommend

buying a refillable

ink tankppprinter