Dear Jack,
My guy, Pete, has got to have the latest, fastest, coolest programs and fixes, and he is always downloading stuff. Invariably these additions crash the system--isn't the term "Microsoft patch" an oxymoron--and it sometimes takes him days to get everything back up and running. Meanwhile, I just want to read the Internet newspapers, check e-mail, and work on my site. There's not room enough in our tiny house for a second computer. He's a night person; I'm a morning gal, so one computer would suffice ... if it weren't always crashed by his damned downloads. What can I do about this guy?

Frustrated

Dear Frustrated,

It's a guy kind of thing: techno-obcession. There is nothing you can do about Pete!

You can, however, fight technology with technology. Here's what you do: get another hard drive of the same type and capacity as the one already in your computer, plus (from a hardware store) two toggle switches and a few feet of lamp wire.

On the back of the hard drive is a jumper switch to tell the computer if the drive is a "master" or a "slave." (Jumper on = master; no jumper = slave.) Remove the jumper from the existing hard drive and press on one end of the lamp chord. Make sure that you don't bend the pins.

Tech notes: -----make sure the lamp chord end has a fresh square cut; -----form the "socket" end using the pins of an old drive, if available (an old CD drive was used in the illustration below,) or the "cable select" set of pins; -----test the continuity of this newly-formed "jumper" with a multimeter.

Attach the other ends of the wires to the toggle switch.
Now do the same thing with the new drive. Install the switches in a cover plate from one of the unused 5.25" drive bays.
Install the switches so that when both are down, one will be on and the other will be off. What this setup does is change the jumper settings: with both switches down, the original drive is on and is the master drive; with both switches up, the new drive is the master, (or vice-versa, depending on how you installed your switches.) The computer will boot from whichever drive is the master and will "see" that drive as being "drive C."

You will need to run FDISK, format, and add an operating system to the new drive. It doesn't need to be the same one as on the original drive. You could even install LINUX, if you wanted to keep maximum distance from Pete's fascination with Microsoft patches.

Tech notes: -----to have maximum security in formatting your new hard drive, you may want to remove the data cable from the original drive. That way there will be no danger of loosing your existing data; -----you may want to label the new drive NOT4PETE as an additional reminder.
In effect, you will have two computers in the same box. You will want to install your own copies of your software, Internet browser, etc. on your hard drive so that your programs will always be available. Now, the next time Pete scrambles Windows on "his" drive you will still be able to use "your" computer just by flipping the switches. I strongly advise that you never access data or programs on Pete's drive (and vice-versa) so that there is no cross contamination. Failure to do so could result in scrambling Windows' brains ... just the thing you are trying to avoid.

Jack Bourbon's advice column will be found in the features section at newsNH.com.

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