There are networked hard drives from several manufacturers that can back up both laptops wirelessly and allow sharing. One I reviewed recently is the My Book World Edition from Western Digital. Another approach would be to use a Web-based synchronization service. My favorite of these is called SugarSync, from a company called Sharpcast.

SugarSync can automatically, and almost instantly, synchronize files in folders you select among multiple computers, while also backing them up to a password-protected Web account. SugarSync starts at $5 a month or $50 a year for 30 gigabytes of files, and goes up in price based on the amount you use. The company offers a free two-gigabyte account and a free trial of larger accounts for 30 days. More information is at sharpcast.com.

I have been a Windows user for may years but have wanted to change to Mac. Yet every article I read says that Quicken, which I depend upon heavily, will not run—at least reliably—on a Mac, even with the Windows-compatible software. Is this true?

The native Quicken version for the Mac is a less capable program than the Windows version, and doesn’t use the same file format, which makes importing Windows Quicken files a tedious and imperfect process for many users. Intuit, the maker of Quicken, is promising a new, much better native Mac version early next year that it claims will solve these problems, but I haven’t tested it, so I can’t verify that pledge.

However, in tests I have run periodically, Quicken for Windows ran just fine on a Mac equipped to run Windows and Windows programs. This was true when I used either Parallels or Fusion, which allow you to run Windows programs on a Mac simultaneously with Mac programs; or when I used Boot Camp, which converts the Mac into a full-fledged Windows machine, with Apple’s operating system turned off.

I plan to get a new computer after Windows 7 is released in October, to replace my old Compaq running Windows XP. Will I have difficulty moving my files to the new one?

You shouldn’t have much difficulty with your personal data files. Microsoft is building in an Easy Transfer program to move personal files to a new Windows 7 PC. But the Microsoft program won’t move over your programs. You will have to reinstall all your programs, which means finding your installation disks or installer files and re-installing all the updates from that have occurred over the years. A company called LapLink is promising to sell software it says will automate the entire process, including moving programs, to spare you this re-installation burden. But it isn’t out yet, and I haven’t tested it with Windows 7.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox and my other columns at the All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

If I buy a PC with an AMD processor instead of an Intel one, will I run into any compatibility issues with common software like Vista or Office 2007?

No, as long as the AMD processor, and/or its accompanying graphics and other chips, called a “chip set,” are rated as being able to handle the graphics in the version of Vista you are buying. Each chip company makes some low-end models that handle certain tasks more slowly than their mainstream or top-of-line models. And gamers are often particular about which chip sets they buy. But, in my experience, roughly comparable AMD and Intel processors and chip sets are equally compatible with common software like Office and Windows.

I have been using the Netscape Web browser for years. I am interested in shifting to using the Firefox browser. How do I transfer my extensive list of book marks from Netscape to Firefox?

Firefox will import your Netscape bookmarks automatically during the installation process, just as it can automatically import bookmarks from other browsers like Internet Explorer, Safari and Opera.

Friends who use Macs tell me they have a removable backup device that backs up their entire hard drive, including programs. Is there something similar for PCs?

You appear to be referring to Time Capsule, which is an Apple hardware product that combines a hard disk and a wireless base station and is meant to work with the Mac’s built-in Time Machine automated backup feature. The answer is that there are many backup drives for Windows PCs, and that lots of them work with Macs as well. All the major hard-disk makers sell external hard disks that connect to a PC either directly, or over a network, and which come with relatively simple backup programs. Some of these programs will do complete, automated backups of everything on your PC, including applications. Even Apple’s Time Capsule can be used to back up files from Windows PCs, though it doesn’t come with Windows backup software, and setting it up for Windows is slightly trickier than doing so on a Mac.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox and my other columns online free at the All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

I bought an iPhone and was frustrated that my fingers appear to be too large to type properly on its virtual keyboard. Is there a stylus that works with the iPhone?

I hadn’t realized this until recently, when a friend who bought one showed it to me, but, yes, there is. The iPhone wasn’t designed to operate with a stylus, and the small, thin, hard kind that one uses with, say, a Treo, doesn’t work right with the iPhone. But there are some companies that sell a wider type of stylus with a soft tip that approximates a small fingertip, and is designed for the iPhone.

If you type “iPhone stylus” into a search engine, or an online store like Amazon.com, you will see a number of inexpensive choices. One downside: the iPhone doesn’t have a built-in slot for a stylus. My friend carries his, which has a clip on the end, like a pen, in his pocket.

I just purchased an external hard drive for my PC that connects through a USB port to back up photos and important files in the event of a computer crash. Would this hard drive be affected if my main hard drive crashed? Should I disconnect the external drive when it’s not in use?

The two hard disks are separate devices, and if one has a mechanical failure, it doesn’t affect the other. There might be some scenarios in which a problem with the computer itself, as opposed to a breakdown of its internal hard disk, could affect the external drive. And malicious software could corrupt or erase files on the external drive. An electrical surge could also affect both drives, or fry the computer itself.

Many people can’t disconnect their external drives, because they use automated backup programs, or frequently save files to the drives. If you are doing only occasional manual backups, you could disconnect the extra drive when not in use, so you’d feel more comfortable. But, for maximum peace of mind in case of an electrical surge, you should disconnect it not only from the PC, but from the electrical outlet as well, even if you are using a surge protector.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox and my other columns online free at the All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

Write to Walter S. Mossberg at mossberg@wsj.com

Do you know of a free or inexpensive program that will overwrite hard drives? My husband and I have updated to new computers, leaving us with two hard drives that have sensitive data that we would like to erase before disposing of them.

There’s a $20 program for Windows called Window Washer from Webroot that will wipe an entire hard disk so that its data is unrecoverable. Its maker calls this process “bleaching.” In cases where you don’t want to completely wipe a hard disk, the program can also securely erase individual files and folders, and can remove all traces of browser activity. I have tested it, and I can recommend it. You can get it at Webroot.com.

There are numerous other Windows file wipers, some of which may be free, though I haven’t tested them. To find these others, go to download.com and enter “file wiper” in the search box.

Since downloading the new Firefox browser, the panel at the top that shows the Web address and the back and forward buttons has disappeared. How do I get it back?

That panel is called the Navigation Bar and it can be turned on and off. It sounds like it somehow got turned off on your computer. To switch it on again, go to the “View” menu, select “Toolbars” and then click on “Navigation Bar.” The missing panel should reappear, and the next time you view that menu option, you will notice a check mark next to “Navigation Bar,” indicating it is on.

You can also use the same technique to switch the Bookmarks Toolbar on and off.

I have switched to Mac recently and never want to use Windows again. But the program I miss using on Windows the most is Microsoft Money. Do you know any way to make this program run on my Mac?

Microsoft (MSFT) doesn’t make a Mac version of Money.

However, all current Macs can run Windows and Windows programs. I suggest you pick up a copy of one of two programs — Parallels Desktop or VMWare Fusion. Both allow you to run Windows programs right alongside your Mac programs, even without displaying the Windows desktop. Microsoft Money would just appear in its own window, as if it were another Mac program.

This method works well, but it carries a price. Fusion and Parallels cost around $60-$70 each, plus you will have to buy and install a full, fresh, boxed copy of Windows.

• You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online for free at the new All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

Do Macs last longer than Windows PCs? I am willing to pay the additional cost for a Mac if it will last significantly longer, but if it has approximately the same lifespan as a PC from a reputable manufacturer, I will stay with PCs.

In my years of using both types of computers daily, I have never noticed a significant difference in when Macs and Windows PCs become unfit to use, and I have never seen claims from Apple (AAPL) that its computers last longer than competing models. Obviously, on the Windows side, there’s a much greater variety of manufacturers and of quality levels, while Apple makes all Macs, and receives generally high marks in well-known surveys of reliability. But so do some Windows PC makers. All computer makers turn out the occasional lemon, and how long a computer “lasts” depends tremendously on how you use it and how you judge its usefulness over time.

My laptop hard drive crashed last year and I lost some digital pictures that were on it. My daughter had accidentally copied those digital pictures onto her iPod but she didn’t select the option to store them at full resolution. I know I can get the pictures back off the iPod, but is there any software that can get them back at full resolution?

Not as far as I know. Unless you tell iTunes to store the photo at full resolution, what is on the iPod is a version of the photo that has been scaled down for the iPod’s screen resolution and storage capacity, and that is the resolution they would retain if you copied them back to a computer.

I have an H-P (HPQ) laptop using Windows XP and Microsoft (MSFT) Office 2003. If I purchase a new H-P laptop with Vista and Office 2007, what must be done to make the two machines compatible? My goal is to be able to take a copy of Office files from one computer and use them on the other.

The difference in the operating systems won’t affect your plan, but the difference in the Office versions might. The newer 2007 version of Office can easily handle your files from the older version. But Office 2003 can’t handle files in the new default Office formats introduced in the 2007 version. These formats use file suffixes that end in the letter x. For instance, the new Word format has an extension of docx, instead of the old, familiar doc.

Luckily, the new Office can still save files automatically in the old formats, if you change a setting. Here’s how.

On the computer with the new version of Office, click on the round “Office Button” at the top left of the 2007 versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Then, in the window that appears, click on “Options.” In the next screen that comes up, click on “Save” in the column at the left. In the panel that appears at the right, you’ll notice an option called “Save Files in this format,” with a drop-down list of choices next to it. Display the list of choices by clicking on the arrow and select the format that corresponds to Office 2003. Then, click OK at the bottom of the window. For instance, in Word 2007, the format you want is called “Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc).”

The other option is to enable Office 2003 to handle the new formats, by downloading a free “Compatibility Pack” from the company’s “Download Center,” at www.microsoft.com/downloads. You’ll find it listed there under “Popular Downloads.”

• You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online for free at the new All Things Digital web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

I have a new H-P (HPQ) laptop and there are several preinstalled media-playing interfaces that have been foisted on me. Do I really need all of these interfaces? Can’t I just get all of this media to run through Windows Media Player or iTunes?

Since you weren’t specific, I don’t know what media software came with your new laptop. I’m sure some of it may have been redundant “craplets” — the unwanted software PC makers load onto their machines in order to collect a fee from the programs’ publishers. And you are correct that many of the most common audio and video file types can be handled by Windows (MSFT) Media Player and iTunes.

However, the Internet is full of media file types that are best played, or can only be played, in specialized software — either separate applications on your computer or online players that are enabled via your Web browser. So, over time, most users will collect additional players, or plug-ins for their Web browsers, that will supplement their main media-playing program. One way to see if the media software on your new computer is necessary is to test what types of files it handles. If you can open and play these same files in Windows Media Player or iTunes, and you prefer to do so, then you probably don’t need the added software.

If I am running Windows Vista on my iMac desktop using Parallels, will Apple’s Time Machine backup program automatically preserve the Windows hard disk, too?

Yes. Parallels, and its competitor, VMWare Fusion, create virtual Windows hard disks inside a Macintosh. When you are running Parallels or Fusion, Windows sees these virtual hard drives as if they are distinct physical disks. However, they are in fact just very large files on your Mac’s hard disk. So Apple’s (AAPL) Time Machine backup program treats them like any other file and backs them up. Time Machine can also restore these virtual Windows hard disks, in their entirety, just as it can restore other kinds of files.

There are some caveats, however. Time Machine treats each virtual Windows hard disk as a big, unified blob of data, so it cannot peer inside them to recover individual Windows files you may have accidentally deleted while running Windows programs. Also, if your virtual Windows hard disk is large, and it changes often, then using Time Machine to back it up may suck up a lot of space on your backup drive, as numerous archived versions of the file accumulate.

I currently have a DVD player and a large stack of DVDs that I play through my analog TV set. After the 2009 digital TV conversion, will I still be able to use my existing DVD player and play my existing DVDs, even if I buy one of the government-subsidized converter boxes?

The FCC says DVD players and other add-on gear “will continue to work, even if they are only analog-capable.” But it adds that “manufacturers are producing a number of different connectors to hook equipment together and improve picture and sound quality. Check with your equipment retailer to determine the types of connectors that will work with your equipment.”

In other words, while there’s no inherent conflict, it all depends on your particular DVD player, your particular TV set, and how you have them connected. The best thing to do is consult closely with the dealer or manufacturer selling the converter box so that you understand how it can coexist with your current DVD player setup, or how you might have to alter your current setup.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online free of charge at the new All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

There’s no other major item most of us own that is as confusing, unpredictable and unreliable as our personal computers. Everybody has questions about them, and we aim to help.

Here are a few questions about computers I’ve received recently from people like you, and my answers. I have edited and restated the questions a bit, for readability.

Last week you discussed how to uninstall Windows Vista and go back to Windows XP. But I own a Macintosh, and after upgrading to the new Leopard operating system from Tiger, I find I dislike Leopard. How can I uninstall Leopard and go back to Tiger?

To restore the older Tiger operating system after upgrading to Leopard, you should first find the Tiger DVD that came with your Mac. Insert it and reboot your Mac while holding down the “C” key. This will boot the computer from the DVD rather than your hard disk.

On the screen that shows available hard drives for installation, click on the Options button and select the “Archive & Install” option. Also, select the choice called “Preserve Users & Network Settings.” If you have enough free disk space (roughly six gigabytes), Tiger will be reinstalled and your home directory and applications should be preserved.

However, just as with Windows, performing such an operating system “downgrade” on a Mac can be tricky for a nontechnical user. You might want to hire an expert to do it. If you do decide to try it yourself, I strongly urge you to first read an Apple document that contains more details, including some potential pitfalls and limitations of the “Archive and Install” procedure. It’s at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107120.

Occasionally, I try to download a song or artist that would be in the “Easy Listening” category, but neither iTunes nor Amazon lists that genre. How can I find them?

In the iTunes store, there is indeed a genre called “Easy Listening” that contains thousands of tracks. The problem is that it’s not listed on the front page of the store. To find “Easy Listening” and the songs it contains, select “Browse” from the box labeled “Quick Links” at the upper right on the store’s front page. Then click “Music” in the far left column and “Easy Listening” in the column labeled “Genre.”

In Amazon’s MP3 download service, I couldn’t find a listing for the “Easy Listening” genre. But some of the songs and artists you’re looking for could be listed under other categories. Try directly searching for an artist’s name or a song title in the search box at the top of the MP3 Downloads page.

Why isn’t a FireWire port included on either of the two new slim laptops you recently reviewed, the Lenovo ThinkPad X300 and the Apple MacBook Air?

Both laptops are so small that they can only include a limited number of ports, though the Lenovo has many more than the Apple. And standard FireWire, also known as “1394″ or “iLink” on some machines, is becoming redundant in mainstream consumer computers, since the USB 2.0 ports offer roughly the same speed and are compatible with many more devices. There is a faster version of FireWire, which Apple uses on most of its desktop models. But there is also a faster version of USB in the works.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online free of charge at the new All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

Corrections and Amplifications

Due to incorrect information provided by the manufacturer, this column erroneously says that Macintosh users performing a “downgrade” from Apple’s new Leopard operating system to the older Tiger system should select an option called “Preserve Users & Network Settings.” In fact, that option isn’t available when installing an older version of the operating system over a newer one. Users must instead manually relocate their data files and settings after performing the downgrade, a process that is explained at this Web page: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107297.

I have a 3-year-old PC, which has a single physical hard disk divided into a small C drive that is almost full and a larger D drive that has lots of empty space. I know I can move stuff from C to D, but how can I either merge these hard drives or somehow make D the automatic destination for files I download?

You can merge the drives into one larger C drive, or redistribute space between them, by using what’s called a disk-partitioning utility — a program that rearranges the space on the hard disk without erasing your files. One I have tested and found that works well is called Partition Magic and is sold by Symantec.

Short of doing that, you can change the settings in programs you use to download or save files so that they store the files on your roomier D drive. Not every program has such a setting, but many do. These settings are usually found in the options or preferences sections of the software. For instance, in the latest version of the Firefox Web browser, go to the Tools menu, select “Options,” and, under “Main,” in the Downloads section, you can specify a folder on your D drive where it says “Save files to.”

In your review of the Amazon Kindle e-book reader, you praised its ease of downloading books, but criticized the hardware design. You seemed to prefer the design of the Sony Reader, which costs $100 less, but said it offers fewer books. If you had to choose between them, which would you pick?

Neither is a compelling product. However, putting aside price as an issue, I would choose the Kindle, despite its design problems. The Sony is slimmer, sturdier and, unlike the Kindle, it isn’t prone to accidental button-pushing. But Amazon’s device can download books directly, without the need for a PC. Sony’s can’t. And Kindle’s online catalog of compatible titles is 90,000 books, more than triple the number Sony offers.

Unless you absolutely crave an e-book reader now, I’d suggest waiting for a system that’s better than either. However, if you’re going to invest $300 or $400 now in a device to read electronic books, you would likely want the one with the widest selection of titles and the quickest, easiest downloading process. And that’s the Kindle.

I use Outlook Express for my email. I have been getting a lot of offensive junk mail I’d rather not even view for a moment. Is there a way to delete incoming mail in Outlook Express without having to first view the contents?

You can avoid automatically viewing the contents of your email in Outlook Express, and many other email programs, by turning off the preview feature. In Outlook Express, click on the View menu, then select “Layout…”, and uncheck “Show Preview Pane.” Then, click OK. After that, you will have to manually open each message to view its contents.

However, you may have to open some emails anyway in order to decide whether to delete them, since spammers often use deceptive sender names and subject lines that make it hard to decide if they are worthy of deletion. So, you might consider installing an antispam program.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online free at the new All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

I have a Dell Dimension that is six or seven years old. Recently, the following message appears every time we start the computer: “WARNING: Dell’s monitoring system has detected that Drive 0 on the primary EIDE controller is operating outside of normal specifications. It is advisable to immediately back-up your data and replace your hard disk drive.” When we hit F1, the computer boots normally and functions fine. All our data is backed up on an external drive. What is going on? Is it time to bite the bullet and get a new computer?

I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but you should take the warning very seriously. It’s good that your data is backed up, but if your hard disk fails, you won’t be able to use the computer. Six or seven years is a long time to keep a computer, and hard disks do go bad. Just because it continues to work doesn’t mean it isn’t on the verge of sudden failure. At the very least, have Dell or a local technician diagnose the hard disk to see if it is a serious problem or one that can be easily fixed. If the disk is failing and you are otherwise perfectly satisfied with the computer, you can get a new drive that is much larger for a reasonable sum. You should also seriously consider buying a new computer, simply because everything else on your machine is also out of date and, as time goes on, you may find that more and more software and Web sites won’t work well with it.

Does either Parallels Desktop or VMWare Fusion support multiple virtual machines installed on a Macintosh — for instance, one running Windows XP and one running Windows Vista?

Yes. Both of them allow you to create multiple virtual computers, running Windows XP or Vista, older versions of Windows, or Linux, as long as your Mac has sufficient hard-disk space.

My Toshiba Satellite runs Windows XP Home, and it takes more than four minutes when starting up before I can open any programs. Is my computer running too many programs at start-up? If so, how can I view them and shut down the unnecessary ones?

That certainly could be one cause of the problem. It’s a common situation. To see what programs are set to run when you start up your computer and to turn off unwanted ones, you can use a somewhat geeky built-in program from Microsoft or simpler ones available from outside software vendors. To run the built-in program, go to the Start Menu, click “Run,” and in the blank box that appears, type in “msconfig.” This utility will let you turn on and off invisible start-up programs. Go to the tab marked “Startup” and check off any you don’t want. But be conservative — don’t turn off anything you don’t recognize and know is unneeded. A better solution, easier to use and with more information, is an $8 utility from PC Magazine called Startup Cop Pro. You can get it at: www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2177188,00.asp. There are a number of similar programs that may work just as well, but unlike Startup Cop, I haven’t tested them and so can’t recommend them.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online for free at the new All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

Write to Walter S. Mossberg at mossberg@wsj.com

On two different new computers, I’ve created Word files and they’re automatically saved with the extension “.docx.” What is that? When I send these files via email, no one can open them. Can you shed some light?

In the 2007 version of Microsoft Office for Windows, which you appear to have on your two new PCs, Microsoft introduced new default file formats whose extensions end in the letter “x”. The one for Word is “docx,” for Excel it’s “xlsx” and for PowerPoint it’s “pptx.” You are using Word 2007, and all of your files are thus automatically being saved in the “docx” format.

Your correspondents can’t open these files because they are using older versions of Office that don’t recognize the new formats. Microsoft has made available a free auto-conversion patch for the older Windows Office versions, but most people don’t have this patch. (It can be found at microsoft.com/downloads under “Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats.”)

There’s also a kludgy free stand-alone converter from Microsoft for the Mac versions of Word and PowerPoint, available at microsoft.com/mac under the name “Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter for Mac.”

Unless you can persuade all of your correspondents to install these workarounds, I suggest you change a setting in Word 2007 so that, henceforth, all of your files will be saved in the traditional “doc” format. That familiar format isn’t only compatible with older versions of Microsoft Office, but with many other programs, on both Windows and the Macintosh.

To make the change, first click on the round “Office Button” at the top left of Word 2007. Then, at the lower right of the window that appears, click on “Word Options.” In the next screen that comes up, click on “Save” in the column at the left. In the panel that appears at the right, you’ll notice an option called “Save Files in this format,” with a drop-down list of choices next to it. Display the list of choices by clicking on the arrow and select “Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc)”. Then, click OK at the bottom of the window.

Microsoft warns that some new features in Word 2007 won’t translate into the old format, but I believe that this will prove irrelevant in 99% of cases and is outweighed in any case by the incompatibility you have run into.

How can I transfer all my Outlook contacts from a Windows PC to a Macintosh contacts program?

There are a number of methods. You can use a PDA or smart phone that can synchronize the contacts with a Mac, after having first synchronized with Outlook on your PC. Or you can use a $10 program called O2M, which is specifically designed to move Outlook data to a variety of Mac programs. It can be downloaded at littlemachines.com.

Or you could get Apple to do it. The company offers a basic file transfer for free if you buy the Mac from an Apple retail store. But, if you want Apple to move Outlook contacts in just the way you want, you may have to purchase the company’s $99 a year ProCare service, which comes with a more complete transfer service.

I recently replaced an old Windows XP computer that was running very slowly. I want to continue to use it as the computer for our young kids, and I was thinking that if I format the hard drive and reinstall XP (which I bought to upgrade the machine a while back), it will probably improve its performance. Do you agree? And, can I reinstall my copy of XP, when I have already “activated” the software when I originally installed it?

I do agree that the computer will likely run faster after you wipe the hard drive and reinstall Windows. That is the usual outcome. And it should be possible to use it legally, as long as you haven’t made any major changes to the hardware, since Microsoft’s activation system typically allows Windows to be reinstalled on the same machine. If activation fails, you can call Microsoft and explain that it’s the same machine, and the company says it will usually OK activation in such cases.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online for free at the new All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

Write to Walter S. Mossberg at mossberg@wsj.com