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Perhaps TV wants you because you've got personality and they need a Barney to jazz up their programmes a bit? You've probably given their researchers livelier comments than they get from most of their telephone calls, making them believe it'd help their ratings to get you more involved. A certain taxi driver did well out of this, why shouldn't a plumber?

My "media" experience is limited to the press (national, online and regional) and regional radio. The journalists / presenters have wanted people able to provide useful quotes or topic expertise at very short notice.

If you're able to beat their deadlines consistently, you've a better than average chance of developing an ongoing, mutually profitable relationship. Don't expect too much though - it's bad for the journalists' professional credibility if the expert interviewee is always Ms or Mr Bloggs.

Journalists and presenters seem to accept the deal's got to work both ways. You need to agree your "price" beforehand for giving them useable material. If it's me, for example, I always want them to quote my company name and website address and I'd expect them to meet any costs involved (eg transport to the interview). You're often able to "tweak" the deal offered to suit your business needs.

The publicity I've gained this way has created some useful awareness of my company (sometimes lasting longer than I'd expected) but not much actual business. The effort involved in helping out the journalists hasn't been much - on balance, the cost-benefit ratio works for my business.

Hope this helps, best wishes Linda

I've done a conventional degree at a good university, another degree at the OU and have looked at various non-degree distance learning courses.

Like mrb, I feel the obvious starting point is the Open University. It's probably the most credible and flexible distance learning degree provider available, it's a lovely, helpful organisation to deal with, its course materials are superb and the summer schools and seminars are great fun and extremely accessible.

Best wishes, Linda

Thanks Simon, that's very helpful to know.

Is the "forensic military grade utility" process a mandatory one for any organisation holding sensitive information on individuals on its computers (eg accountancy firms, the NHS, Dept of Work & Pensions, etc)? I hope it is.

Best wishes, Linda

Hi Steve

In the end, that's what I did.

The person who picked up the other parts of the computer for re-building suggested I use the old hard drives as an external drive for my laptop. An "IDE Hardrive External Caddy/ Enclosure " would only cost around

Just for info ....

PC junked (spares gone to good Freecycle homes, hard drives whipped out to be securely stored) and all of a sudden, I've got SPACE on my desk! It's rather nice!

Now what else can I get rid of????????????

... but I am so lazy, mrb!!!!

Hi everyone and thanks for your advice on my Windows problems. The only solution that seems likely to work for me is to junk the computer.

I'm Freecycling my computer's peripherals and would like to Freecycle the computer itself if I can be absolutely sure all the data will be off it when I let it go. I'm rigorous about client confidentiality.

The person who wants it has a small computer business and says he thinks he can get my computer started again - if he can, he's got a disk that will wipe the data off. The erasure would have to be done in my presence, obviously.

What checks do I need to make to be absolutely sure all trace of confidential data has gone from the chips before I allow the computer to go, please?

Thanks again, Linda.

THANKS Steve and Dreamraven

Will try Dreamraven's approach first, then junk my PC if it fails to take its last chance!

Am very grateful to you both. Thanks again, Linda

THANKS Steve. The speedy and helpful advice is much appreciated but my computer still says "no can do".

XXXX, the thing still won't work in safe mode.

Have tried reinstalling - no luck so far.

Am now strongly inclined to give up but plse tell me if you see any more hope (this computer and the printer aren't worth spending money or much time on).

Random thoughts:-

I've noticed of the lights on the tower case the bottom green one is on, the intermediate orange one comes on intermittently and the top one isn't on at all. Does that mean disk failure?

The text on the screen while it tries to start up mentions System 32 drivers a lot.

Also pri.master disk and slave disk HDD Smart capability are disabled (maybe they always were????) as is DRAM ECC mode.

Could the fault be caused by a loose connection anywhere, in the cables, sockets etc?

How do I wipe the info on the computer off it, when I can't get the thing to work?

Is there likely to be such a thing as a "translator" linking bit to enable my printer to talk to the laptop (which has got USB ports on it but nowt else I think)?

Any thoughts welcome - though I suspect there is no fix for this particular problem. Thanks anyway. Linda

I feel I ought to know the answer to my question - but I don't! HELP!

The problem started suddenly, without warning. It coincided with my downloading next year's Norton subscription and updating - but that may be an irrelevance.

What's happening is that I switch on the computer, the Windows start-up screen comes up but doesn't load, I then get the screen text telling me this and advising me of my options - click on Start Windows Normally or Last Known Good Configuration, etc.

I've tried both these options and both take me back to the original loop.

What do I do plse? Do I try reloading Windows from scratch (horribly time-consuming but worth it if it would work)?

I've got Windows 2000 and WinXP loaded.

I use this old computer purely to run my trusty but ancient printer (a Hewlett Packard DeskJet 520, bought 1995 and trouble-free after all these years). I know most printers only work a couple of years so I don't want to say goodbye to this one. If this computer stays down, the HP printer cables and ports aren't likely to link up to the slightly more modern laptop I'm using as my main computer.

Yours hopefully, Linda