Fret not. You, too, can set up your own network fairly easily and inexpensively. Wired or wireless, it's easier than ever to get connected.

New Life for an Old PC

Let's start by discussing how you can use that old PC you may have lying around. Perhaps you just purchased most state-of-the art PC with fastest processor, tons of disk space, and enough memory to last you a lifetime. So now what do you do with old one?

Sure, you can donate it, but reusing that old PC can add a lot of functionality to your computing experience. Besides, it feels good to keep hard to recycle items out of our landfills.

Getting Started

There are a few things you need to do in order to prepare that PC for its new use.

Remove Unneeded Programs. If you don't intend to run any applications from your "new server", remove every application you don't intend to use. Simply go to Control Panel, select Add/Remove Programs and delete everything you don't need.

Clean Up The Hard Drive. Get rid of temporary files, browser cache, and anything else you don't need that will free up disk space. PC World has a great article on how to Reclaim Hard-Drive Space.

Install a Network Card. If machine doesn't have a network adapter, you will need to install one. You can get one at almost any computer accessory retailer for about $15. To install card, you must take precautions. First, turn PC off and unplug machine. You will need to remove cover to find an empty PCI slot so avoid static damage by wearing an antistatic wrist strap while working inside your PC. Find a free PCI slot and remove cover. Carefully insert network card and use a screw to fasten it down. When you start up machine, Windows should detect card. To install drivers, follow directions that come with your network card.

Put It To Use

Now that you have your PC set up for networking, you can use it as a file server, print server or to share an Internet connection. No one likes to fight over only computer with Internet access, or being kicked off so someone else can use printer. Not to mention hassle of running back and forth to transfer files. Use steps below to implement your own file server, print server, and shared Internet access.

File Server

To use that old PC as a simple file server, all you really need is hard drive space. If you have 20GB or more, that should be enough to use it for simple file sharing and backup. However, if you want to store a lot of files or share and store digital media, you may want to consider adding a second, larger capacity hard drive.

Enable File Sharing. Depending on your Operating System, right click icon Network Neighbourhood or My Network Places on your desktop, then choose Properties. Then, for Windows 2000 or XP, right click Local Area Connection, select Properties, and check File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks. For Windows 98 or ME, click File and Print Sharing button and select I want to be able to give others access to my files and click OK. Then restart your PC.

The article explains how to reconstruct Volume Boot Record and will touch briefly on multiple-partition drives. This information will help solve some very common problems encountered in a computer service department. This article is designed to work with a system that has a single drive using a FAT 16 structure (all DOS and older Windows systems, some Windows NT), and no drive overlay.

A common problem with hard drives is error message "MISSING OPERATING SYSTEM."

Typically what this means is that critical data is missing or damaged in two possible locations. The first is Master Boot Record (MBR). This data area contains error messages and pointer information that specifies location of second critical data area, Volume Boot Record (VBR). The VBR contains operating system specific data for format of that particular partition on drive. If either of these two critical data areas is damaged, by a virus, controller failure, etc., then drive will not be accessible through operating system.

The normal response to this error message is to boot to a floppy disk and to re-partition drive (probably using FDISK) and thereby totally removing any possibility for recovery of data on that drive, except by dedicated data recovery software or a data recovery facility. If applicable, following technique will help save time, money, and frustration.

The first step to data recovery (covered in great detail in first article of this series) is to verify location of existing partition information. For purposes of this article, it will be assumed that FAT structure and root directory are intact, there is only one partition, and that only MBR and VBR were damaged. Using Micro-Scope, enter Fixed Disk Editor menu and select fixed disk that is being repaired. Using Find menu option, locate all sectors that contain string "55 AA" (see Step Four of first article in this series), and then verify that FAT structures are intact (see Step Seven). Note on a scratch paper values (in Cylinder, Head, Sector format) where this string appears. These values will be used later in reconstruction process.

Rebuilding MBR

Using Fixed Disk Editor in Micro-Scope, locate and read Cylinder 0, Head 0, Sector 1. This should be location of corrupt Master Boot Record. Press "M" to modify sector and enter 0's for entire sector, effectively wiping all data from this sector. Press ESC, then "W" to write data, and "Y" to confirm write operation. Then exit Fixed Disk Editor and select Rebuild Master Boot Record menu option. Press "Y" to confirm this operation. The fixed drive now has a completely corruption-free MBR available for use during reconstruction of VBR.

Rebuilding VBR