Ask A Geek

Q: How do I connect 2 computers together in order to share data/application using the Ethernet cable?

Q: I have 2 computers and 5 hard drives between them on my home network. One machine is running Windows XP and the other machine is running Windows Vista 32.

I need to organize my network storage so that I don’t keep 4 copies of files in 3 or 4 different places. Is there a way to find common files on multiple drives so that I can get organized. I need a primary place and then a backup on a different drive.

Q: I work for a company that lets us store files on a network drive. I copy a folder there that had a DOS shortcut pif to A drive. When I try to delete the pif, or folder it give me an error that the file is being used. Any Idea how to delete this file?

A: Hi There, people working on network drives at times do experience issue in deleting files. Below are given some of the possible solutions that you can use to help alleviate the issue at hand.

1. The pif file may not get deleted if the file is read only. To remove this problem, Go to the safe mode, right click on the file, then click on the properties, uncheck the read only box and then click ok. Then try deleting the file.
2. There are also incidences when viruses create undeletable pif files . So ensure that your antivirus is in place.
3. If the file still remains undeleted you can use a file deleting utility to delete the particular file. One such program is called FileUtilities. This utility is capable of deleting files which do not get normally deleted and it also check folders for consistency errors.

If the solutions provided above don’t work toward solving your problem, it is advisable to contact your network administrator for help.