Space - Still A Frontier
The Age
Tuesday June 11, 2002
Q How much disk space do I really have? When I right-click on the C: drive icon and select Properties, it says that I have used 8.6GB on my computer. But when I go into C: drive, highlight everything in it, and then click on Properties, it indicates that I have used up only 5.6GB. How do I tell how much disk space I really have? I use Windows XP and have no hidden files. -- D Shan
A XP has lots of hidden files, and when you highlight the files, the hidden and system files are not shown. On my computer there are more than 600 files that are hidden by XP. The very large swap file will be a hidden file. You may have a hibernation file that will be the size of your memory, which is also hidden.
For a good approximation of the amount of disk space you are using, open a DOS box and type DIR C:<\\> /S and write down the total. Then type DIR C:<\\> /S /AH to list all the hidden files and add the two totals.
This will be close but will still understate the usage, due to cluster-size limitation. The smallest segment of disk space that can be allocated by the operating system on your hard disk is 4KB, but small files such as cookies will have possibly 100 bytes, resulting in wasted space that is not totalled under DOS. To see the "wasted" space, right-click on the cookies folder and you will see the file totals as well as the disk space used. There is virtually nothing that you can do about this slack space.
Q How can I display the current time in a cell in Excel 97? -- TJ
A Enter =now() in the appropriate cell to display the date and time.
If you want to just see the time, right-click on that cell, select Format Cells, Number, Custom and select your appropriate time format.
Assuming that you have Automatic Calculation on (via Tools, Options), whenever you make any change to any cell, the time will be updated.
Q I am making a spreadsheet that has temperatures. How can I format cells for degrees? -- J Jones
A Highlight the cells that you want to format, right-click and select Format Cells. Then, from the Category tab, select Custom and enter the following code: #,###.0" oC". This will set the number of decimals to 1. By adding additional zeros after the decimal point in that format you will increase the number of decimals displayed.
Q I cannot understand why, when I play music or the speakers are idle, there is a constant buzzing noise. -- R Iezzi
A This is most likely due to an earthing problem. Ensure that your audio jacks are pressed in firmly at both ends; this usually fixes the problem.
If the problem persists, it is possible the speaker leads are picking up some interference. This can come from many sources and includes anything that uses electricity, including the cables themselves. One way to reduce this it to shorten the leads by rolling up the slack. You should do this when the buzzing noise is present so that you can monitor your progress. These leads act as an antenna picking up stray signals, so shorter leads should result in a reduction in the signal being received.
George Skarbek runs a computer consulting company and can be contacted at gskarbek@melbpc.org.au
© 2002 The Age