Q: I need help saving my photos. I have an Android phone that uploads photos from the phone to my Google Photos account. I haven’t been able to transfer photos directly from my phone to my laptop (primary storage site), so the only way I can get them is to download them from the Google account to my laptop. After I do that, I want to delete them but I’m afraid if I delete them from the Google Photos account, I’ll delete them everywhere. I do back up photos to my Dropbox account. I haven’t been able to find an answer in Google Photos help.
— Marty Byrne
A: If you delete photos in your Google Photos account they will be deleted not only from that folder but also from any devices that you’re syncing with and from places shared within Google Photos. If you’ve backed up those photos you can still retrieve them for 60 days.
To copy or move photos from your Android phone to your computer just connect the two using a USB cable. The phone will automatically show up in File Explorer, though its contents won’t appear until you log into your phone. After that you can access the folder on your phone where your photos are stored. Select the photos you want to move or copy to the computer and then right-click on one and drag the photos to the folder on the computer where you want them to go. When you release the mouse button you can choose whether to have them moved or copied.
Q: Per your advice I followed your instructions to move the Windows paging file from my SSD drive to an available SATA drive. After shutting down and restarting, it looks like the active paging file is now on the SATA drive. But I still see a paging file on the SSD drive, and when I try to delete it, I get a message that I cannot because it is still in use. How do I proceed to reclaim that space?
— Walt Chrush, Edmonds
A: Actually, if that page file isn’t being used it shouldn’t be taking up noticeable space.
If you nevertheless want to get rid of it, you need to launch File Explorer as an administrator to delete it. To do that navigate to C:\Windows and locate Explorer.exe. Right-click on it and then click on “Run as administrator.” Then you should be able to navigate to Pagefile.sys and delete it.
Q: Where do copies of my printer come from? Under the Device and Printers utility in the Control Panel I have the Epson ET-2760, an Epson ET-2760 Network (I’m assuming that’s the wireless). But I also have Epson ET-2760 Copy 2 and Copy 3. As far as I know I didn’t assign multiple copies so I’m just curious why they are listed.
— Kevin Howard
A: I’ve been there. Sometimes when the computer can’t communicate with the printer the simplest way to get things moving again is to reinstall the printer. But if you install printer drivers again without removing the printer from Devices and Printers those copies will show up. That’s the only explanation I know of for there being multiple copies.
