Mr. Modem: When email gives you duplicates, take action
Email that is sent to me at my Gmail address also appears in my Comcast email inbox. What stupid thing did I do to cause this to happen?
It sounds like you are auto-forwarding Gmail to your Comcast account. Many people do that intentionally, but it is easily disabled, if you wish. To do that, when you are in Gmail, go to Settings > Forwarding. The first category is Forwarding. Select the Disable Forwarding check box, then click Save Changes.
When I open Internet Explorer, the File, Edit Menu bar is gone. How can I get that back?
What you’re seeing is normal. Many new programs or versions of programs do not display that Menu bar today. It can be displayed temporarily by pressing the ALT key, which is what most people do. Many users prefer that the Menu bar not appear at all times because it takes up room and it is only used occasionally.
To permanently display it, as in previous versions of IE, click Tools > Menu or press the ALT key to temporarily show it, then click View > Toolbars > Menu Bar. This will place a check next to the Menu bar option and cause it to always appear.
I have an external hard drive that is full. How can I empty it and still keep it saved so I won’t lose it if my computer crashes? Can I refill it again?
If you are asking how to retain the saved data on your external drive before deleting it from the drive, you will need to save that data to another location, perhaps to your computer’s hard drive, on a CD or DVD, or on another portable storage device. You can, indeed, reuse the drive once data is removed.
Having two or more backups is a good idea. In that way, if something happens to one of your backups in the event of a catastrophic drive crash, you will have a second backup available to turn to once the paramedics depart.
The best way to remove all data is to simply reformat it. Click Start > Computer. Find the external drive’s letter on your computer system, something like E, F or G.
Right-click the drive and select Format. The Quick Format option is checked by default. It is a fast and effective way to format a drive. If you want, you can uncheck the box and perform a full format, but that could take hours and is usually unnecessary.
Perform a full format if you are not sure of the condition of the drive. A full format runs CHKSDK (CheckDisk), which will check the drive for sector and other errors. Generally, using Quick Format is sufficient.
Once your disc is formatted, you are ready to start saving data to it again.
Mr. Modem publishes “Ask Mr. Modem!” each week, featuring PC tips, tricks and plain-English answers to your questions by email. For more information, visit www.MrModem.com.
Mr. Modem’s sites of the week
Abandoned Rails
Most railroad lines have a unique and fascinating history. Thousands of miles of track have been abandoned in the U.S., much of it in the last 50 years. This nostalgic site is dedicated to the preservation of the history of each of these former railroad lines and the companies that operated them. It includes many interesting facts, pictures and articles about the railroads of yesteryear.
We Choose the Moon
An intriguing site launched in 2009, this commemorates the 40th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 mission to the Moon on July 20, 1969. Hosted by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, the site provides animated re-creations of key events from the four-day mission, including when Apollo 11 first orbited the moon, when the lunar module separated from the command module. Other features include video clips, photos and actual radio transmissions between the astronauts and NASA flight controllers.
This story was originally published September 29, 2015 at 2:09 PM with the headline "Mr. Modem: When email gives you duplicates, take action."