Thursday, February 28, 2019

Hybrid drive: How does the system decide where files go, SSD vs. HDD, and can I change that?


I got a new laptop, my first with a hybrid drive. Only 128GB of SSD (which I was told is much faster than traditional hard drives) and nearly six times as much HDD. I've noticed that already well over half the SSD is taken up and I've barely downloaded/installed anything. I'm wondering what will happen as time goes by and I download stuff (I usually download music and videos and also lots of PDF files, and I will need to install a few video editing and graphics editors for a course I'm planning to take).


My questions are:



  1. How does the computer decide where things go, HDD, or SSD?


  2. Can I change where things go (e.g., put some PDF files or a program I use often in the SSD)?



Answer



Broadly speaking, the SSD is used by the system as a form of cache.


Frequently used files & startup items will be copied to it by the OS/driver controller, in order to speed up repeating operations.


The user has no control over this functionality.
If you need full control, you will need to 'break' the fusion/hybrid drive into its individual components & set it up as two independent drives instead. I would avoid doing this, as the system will probably do a better job of it.


Fusion/hybrid drives were really a stop-gap until the prices of larger SSDs came down to reasonable levels.


macos - How do manually mount hard drive on mac?

My mac recently gave up and I'm trying to salvage whatever data I can from the hard drive. I was able to boot using the OSX Installation CD and fire up Disk Utility that basically told me that the drive could not be repaired and I need to format it. My question - how can I manually mount it (from Terminal) and try to recover some of my data? I figured that if Disk Utility can see it, perhaps I could too. Thanks.

Wednesday, February 27, 2019

memory - Ram Upgrade - Asus Zenbook UX310UQK

I have an Asus Zenbook UX310UQK notebook with 8GB builtin ram (soldered on the motherboard).

I would like to upgrade to 16Gb using the only free slot available.



Can system stability get worse after the upgrade?



I heard that the best way to upgrade is by matching the exact model number and frequency of the modules that are already installed. Unfortunately I can't match model number because it's soldered but I can match module speed which turns out to be 1.066Mhz (it's the DDR4-2133, right?).



I've attached a screenshot of ram report by hwinfo64.



Thank you very much for the help!




my notebook ram report

macos - How to encrypt all—or part—of a USB hard drive that can be accessed by both Linux and Mac OS X?

I bought a new USB Hard Drive that I want to use as a back up for my Linux (Ubuntu 14.04 LTS at the moment) and my Mac Mini (running Mac OS X 10.9). I can do this perfectly at the moment, but I want to be able to encrypt the files that are on the hard drive. I know I can do this if the hard drive was to be used by either machine exclusively, but unfortunately it’s used by more than one machine running two different operating systems.



Is it possible to do this? I’d prefer a whole drive encryption, but if an “encrypted folder” solution is the only way—or is the better way—then I’d like to know how to do it.

windows 7 - MOBO has 2 Ethernet ports. I want to use one for Internet and one for LAN only. Possible?

My computer (Windows 7) has two Ethernet ports (ASUS Maximus IV Extreme MOBO), both are Gigabit, and I have one port connected to the Ethernet port in the wall that leads to the central router/modem/switch and the other port on the motherboard connected to the WiFi router in my room (this router is only for WiFi and Ethernet switch purposes only so DHCP is turned off on this router).



Since I've got the whole house including all routers under one DNS/network, both connections from my motherboard are connected to the same network (lets just call this network "Home" for my example). Under "Network Connections", both connections have internet access. In my house on my Home network, I have several other computers and NAS (Network Storage) devices and media players and I was wondering if I could assign one of my motherboard's Ethernet ports to handle all internet-only traffic and the other one to handle only LAN traffic, so that I can download or skype using one Ethernet port on my motherboard while at the same time transferring data between devices on my LAN using only the other Ethernet port on my motherboard. Both Ethernet ports are controlled by an Intel controller.



Keep in mind that when I say "ports" here I'm talking about physical Ethernet ports and that we want both to stay on the same network or DNS or whatever they call it, I just want to allocate one for internet traffic and the other for LAN traffic.




Is this possible? And if so, how do I do it?

How to store VBA Macros for Office 2007 to have them always available and share them with others?

I have created some useful VBA macros for Word, Excel Outlook and PowerPoint 2007.



Now I want to




  • have them always available in the corresponding application via keyboard shortcut or icon to click and

  • also have a possibility to share them easily with colleagues so if anything gets updated that they can easily use the new version.


  • have an overview over changes (version control)



Already creating custom commands in the "ribbon" in Office 2007 seems very difficult for me and I have the problem that when I store the macros in a certain file, this file has to be opened to make the macros work - I'd like to have that open in the background.
Does anyone know a good tutorial or book which covers that?



Can I create my own AddIn? If I remember correctly, and AddIn can not be modified directly any more, so if the code is constantly growing I'd need to save the source code in one place and the addin in another - is that true?

Excel popup window after using macro

This is the excel sheet i am using


enter image description here


When i run this macro


   Sub Value_fla()
Dim k As Long
With ActiveSheet
k = .Cells(.Rows.Count, "D").End(xlUp).Row
End With
Range("D2:D" & k).Formula = Range("D2").Formula
Range("F2:F" & k).Formula = Range("F2").Formula
Range("G2:G" & k).Formula = Range("G2").Formula
Range("D3:D" & k) = Range("D3:D" & k).Value
Range("F3:F" & k) = Range("F3:F" & k).Value
Range("G3:G" & k) = Range("G3:G" & k).Value
End Sub

i got this popup window
enter image description here


and if i press cancel macro works fine. How can i get rid off this window??
any tips??


Excel version 2010

Tuesday, February 26, 2019

windows 8 - Win7 --> Win8 = Bitlocker won't ask for password



I have a Dell E6520 laptop with a TPM. It had Windows 7 Enterprise x64. The C (boot) partition is encrypted with Bitlocker. Bitlocker would prompt me for a password after POST, and after I entered the password, the OS booted.



I installed Windows 8 x64 Enterprise by inserting the DVD while Windows 7 was running, and I used the option that shoved all my current stuff over into a c:\windows.old directory. Before the installation started, I suspended Bitlocker.



After the Windows 8 installation was done, I resumed Bitlocker. Now I do not get a Bitlocker password prompt after POST. The computer does POST, pauses a couple of seconds, then reboots, cycling endlessly. I can only get around this by inserting a USB stick with my Bitlocker recovery key.



I then unencrypted and re-encrypted the C drive. I cleared the TPM before I re-encrypted.




During Bitlocker setup, I was never prompted to enter a password or to select an option other than to back up my encryption key. I am still stuck in the state where if I don't have a USB drive handy with the recovery key, I cannot boot the computer as it simply reboots right after POST.



I set an owner password set on the TPM after the Bitlocker encryption was done.



How do I restore the functionality I had with Windows 7, where instead of needing a physical USB key, I could just enter a Bootlocker password to boot the OS?


Answer



It turns out it was related to the group policy settings for the domain I was on. The group policy settings that caused Windows 7 to force a password every time you turned on the laptop did not for for Windows 8.


batch rename - How to add a prefix to all folders and sub-folders? (windows)


re: How to add a prefix to all files and folders in a folder? (windows)


I am trying to create a .bat file which will rename a predefined folder structure with a project number prefix eg. project name/admin - becomes - 7000-01 project name/7000-01 admin. Here is what I have so far:


@Echo off
pushd
for /d %%g in (*) do ren "%%g" "7000-01 %%g"

Which works only for the top level but I would like it to rename all sub-folders (including those below the 'admin' level in the eg. above.)


I read here - https://ss64.com/nt/for_d.html that using for /d /r should work to recursively rename all sub-folders, but I cannot get it to work.


FYI the pushd is used so the .bat name stays the same.


Answer



You were so close! The correct command is:


for /r /d %%g in (*) do ren "%%g" "7000-01 %%~ng"



Full explanation:


As you mentioned, you must use for /d /r to work recursively. (https://ss64.com/nt/for_d.html)


Checking the syntax of the ren or rename command reveals that a very specific syntax is required:


>ren /?
Renames a file or files.
RENAME [drive:][path]filename1 filename2.
REN [drive:][path]filename1 filename2.
Note that you cannot specify a new drive or path for your destination file.

Your original command inside the for loop was evaluating to ren "FULL_PATH" "FULL_PATH", and it should actually be ren "FULL_PATH" "SIMPLE_FILE_NAME"


To get the file name without extension or path, use ~n with the variable (https://ss64.com/nt/syntax-args.html)


windows 10 - What can I do as far as controlling battery charging via a "Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery"

I noticed that sometimes when my laptop is plugged in it says "Plugged in not charging" - searching around I see all sorts of ways to disable this by removing the "Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery" driver from the device manager - however I would rather use this to my advantage instead - is there a way for me to see why the battery is not charging, and/or configure the reasons, or prevent the battery from charging (via software) when plugged in but at a sufficient level?

Monday, February 25, 2019

Delay at Windows Log On Screen

I'm getting a delay when entering my password at the log on screen in Windows 7. What I mean is that I can select the text box but pressing keys does nothing. I had this problem initially on this computer with Vista installed - when I reformatted and installed Windows 7 the problem went away - but over the weeks it is slowly coming back (the delay seems to be getting longer).


Any clues as to why this is happening and how I can fix it? It currently takes about 4-8 seconds before it will accept keyboard input.

freeze - What is the cause of my hanging freezing computer?

Tech Support Guy System Info Utility version 1.0.0.4



OS Version: Microsoft Windows 10 Home, 64 bit



Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2310 CPU @ 2.90GHz, Intel64 Family 6 Model 42 Stepping 7



Processor Count: 4



RAM: 8174 Mb (DDR3 2 sticks 4gb each)




Graphics Card: Radeon RX 570 Series, -1 Mb



Hard Drives: C: 465 GB (90 GB Free); D: 465 GB (14 GB Free);



Motherboard: ASUSTeK Computer INC., P8H61-M LE



Antivirus: Windows Defender, Disabled



PSU: Seasonic SI2II Bronze




IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII



Good day,



Until recently this week, I never had a GPU and only used a generic PSU. But just 3 weeks ago, I bought a GPU and a good quality PSU.



I am totally at a loss here. I have been having problems with my computer for several years now.



What happened before the upgrade:





  • My computer would instantly hang and then the screen would shatter (showing lines). 1-2 years ago, this occurrence would be accompanied by a loud repeating sound when I was playing a game for instance, but not all the time 90% of the time, the screen would just freeze. This can occur even on the simplest of tasks, not necessarily playing games, but more demanding games causes more hangs based on my observation.

  • There were a few instances were it instantly rebooted instead of hanging.

  • On half of the instances, a Blue screen of death (BsoD) would just appear and show a huge variety of error messages everytime.

  • Restarting my PC when I hanged will create an overheating error most of the time where my CPU is very hot. I will bypass this all the time by pressing "Disable changes and Exit" in the BIOS in the start-up.



This happened last year and stopped appearing for about 6-8 months, then started appearing 1-2 weeks ago on a intermittent basis. Probably since 1-2 weeks ago, it would occur 1-3 times every 1 to 2 days. I never cleaned my computer for about 5-7 years until I decided to get a GPU and PSU wherein I opened my computer and cleaned all the components.



Removed the fan facing the motherboard, cleaned the fan, heatsink, and motherboard of dust. Also removed the thermal paste, then re-applied and re-attached. The rams were very dirty, there were layers of dust in the ram to the point the circuits were covered in dust. I thought this was the problem and I cleaned it carefully with a dry tissue paper until 95-99% of the dust were clear. I also cleaned the other fan at the back of my CPU.




So basically, the only thing I did not clean is my generic power supply because I was thinking of replacing it anyway.



After the upgrade:




  • My computer would still hang, but this time my screen would simply freeze the most recent image in my screen, then after about 5-10 seconds my monitor will completely lose signal and not detect anything from my computer. My keyboard still works when I press caps lock for a few moments after the screen has turned black, then after that it will also stop taking in any input. I cannot do anything, but restart the computer.

  • The first instance it hanged after I got the GPU just yesterday, is that when I restart my computer after the freeze, my optical drive suddenly opened. My optical drive never opens, also pressing the button does not even open it because it is broken. So I was shocked it opened even. I doubt it is the PSU that is the culprit because this is a brand new Seasonic power supply and I have been having freezing problems before I even upgraded.

  • No blue screens of deaths ever since the upgrade (which happened almost every 1-2 days for about 2-3 weeks before I bought my GPU and PSU) so the blue screens stopped appearing, only the freeze.

  • No more overheating errors ever of CPU when restarting unlike prior to the upgrade




Tests Done:




  • So I did a "Windows Memory Diagnostic" and it ran the "Standard"
    tests once then rebooted and said it had no problems encountered. But
    only for about 15 minutes and did not do any memtest yet.

  • I ran Furmark for 45 mins to test GPU stability, Prime95 to test my
    CPU and Ram for 5 hours. I ran MSI afterburner while playing games
    and learned that even at temperatures below 60C on both GPU and CPU,
    my computer can still freeze during games. No errors/crashes found
    during stress tests. Freezes occur 95% of the time while paying games, but

    there was one instance it hanged when I was right clicking a folder

  • I'm not sure if my hard drive can be a culprit because I never have
    corrupted files despite it being extremely slow. Also, most of the
    time, my computer is slow at right clicking or loading things or
    starts to get sluggish because disk utilization where it gets capped
    out at 100% at many instances. Sometimes it gets capped with just a
    low usage of memory--oddly.

  • Checked motherboards for bloated capacitors they looked clean and
    uniformly cylindrical.



So I am wondering what my computer's problem is. Also, I am worried
that my new GPU and PSU might get damaged from a possible defective
motherboard, processor, ram, or hard drive. As most of these are
probably about 6-8 years old or more.

power management - How to make VGA display go into standby when no computer/laptop connected


At my work most people use laptops, in combination with a stand-alone Dell LCD (connected through a VGA cable).


Problem: if you unplug your laptop from the display, the display doesn't go to sleep (it is scanning for a VGA signal), wasting full power.


Question: does there exist (i.e. , commercially available) some sort of adapter that you can plug in between the cable and the display, that would make the LCD think that a computer is connected all the time? (Similar to what a docking station would do, I assume)


Answer



I just discovered (to my surprise) that some VGA cables at our office allow the same display(s) to go into standby, while other cables do not. After some google-ing (this was useful) and tinkering, it appears that the monitor goes into standby when pin 5 is short-circuited to the ground. Although pin 5 is labeled as GND in the pin-out, apparently it is not always wired as such.


You can easily check this by short-circuiting pin 4 and pin 5 (using some kind of metal pin, e.g. easy to do using a test probe from a multimeter). If you do so, the monitor will go into standby.


So, to answer my initial question, I think we should select/buy cables where pin 5 is really wired to the ground. This shifts the problem to "how to find out before buying"


How to start Notepad++ from a Windows 10 batch file?

When I Google this, I get pages about running Notepad++ from the command line, running batch files from Notepad++, and pages that start by explaining how I set my path variable.


I am not allowed to set my path variable on my work machine (don't get me STARTED). So I would like to create a batch file that will run Notepad++ and put it in a directory off the root (I'd put it in the root, but am not allowed to do that either) so that I have a short command to start it.


I've tried:


"C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++\notepad++.exe" %*
'C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++\notepad++.exe' %*
"'C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++\notepad++.exe'" %*
C:/Program Files (x86)/Notepad++/notepad++.exe %*
'C:/Program Files (x86)/Notepad++/notepad++.exe' %*
"C:/Program Files (x86)/Notepad++/notepad++.exe" %*

'wget --continue' does not work with '--no-clobber'


I am working under Windows 7, and I want to download all new files from a Windows server directory over HTTPS using wget. In addition, I want to resume the download of large files in case of connection loss during transfer.


When I run


wget.exe --continue --recursive https://://pdf.dll

everything works fine.


But using


wget.exe --continue --no-clobber --recursive https://://pdf.dll

the download is not resumed after a connection loss, but the incomplete file remains on my local file system. The message of wget being:



File '//pdf.dll' already there; not retrieving.



(We want to use the --no-clobber option in order to avoid sending HEAD requests for all files that are already transferred.)


Does this mean that --continue does not work well together with --no-clobber?


Answer



That is because you are combining two options (--no-clobber and --continue):



  • --continue : Continue getting a partially-downloaded file

  • --no-clobber: This will clobber/overwrite the previously downloaded file before restarting to download again


As you can see, these two options ask Wget to perform quite opposite tasks, so it does not know what to do by the end. Do not combine them. You can read about download Options in details.


ubuntu - How to package linux os on a hard disk for another computer?

I want to give my friend a hard disk with a Linux operating system for his/her unused computer. Using unetbootin, I tried to install a bootable iso on my hard disk in one small partition and then I tried to install the linux os from that hard disk to another larger partition on the same disk, and it failed. I came to the conclusion that unetbootin does not allow installing unto the same disk it currently resides.


How does one package a linux os on a hard disk for another computer?

freeze - How to root cause a complete Windows Vista lock up

I have a fairly strange lock up problem with a Windows Vista Business installation. When I run a specific application, and only that application, the system freezes completely. I'm looking for advice on how to precisely identify and eliminate the issue.



Specific details of the symptoms and what I've tried so far:



The system is a Dell Latitude D630 with 2GB RAM, all drivers are up to date and the system is fully patched.



When it occurs the OS is completely frozen. Mouse and keyboard are unresponsive and any on screen activity ceases. Remote connections to the system fail. Pings timeout. The only way to get out of this is to hard power down the system. I've left it to see if it would time out but after more than an hour in the same state I decided that it wasn't likely to come back.




The problem is only caused by launching the VMWare VI Client. I use this system constantly and nothing else appears to trigger the problem. Running multiple apps attempting to stress the system isn't a problem. Very shortly after the VI client successfully authenticates to either an ESX\ESXi Host or a vCenter\Virtual Center server the system locks up. The precise stage at which it freezes varies slightly but it always succeeds in causing the problem. Completely uninstalling\reinstalling the VI 3 Client makes no difference and upgrading to the VI 4 Client makes no appreciable difference; the lockup timing is different but it still occurs. The same software on identical hardware with (as far as I can tell) an identical Vista Business installation does not suffer from the problem.



The event log entries that get recorded give no indication of any consistent or related activity that I can see, just an event log entry stating that the previous shut down was unexpected.



Edited to add
After some further testing I've established that the problem only occurs when I'm directly connected via a LAN connection to the network that the target VMware systems are on. If I'm connected remotely (ie tunnelled in via VPN over a wireless connection) the lock up does not happen. I'm not currently able to test if the problem does not occur if I'm just connected via a wireless network as I don't have a WLAN that directly routes to the systems in question.

firefox - "Print" webpage to pdf with working hyperlinks



I print a lot of web pages to pdf, using CutePDF. URLs are maintained as active links in the pdf document, but hyperlinks do not generate an active link.



Is there any, preferably free, pdf printer that maintains active hyperlinks, when printing webpages?



(And please, do not advice any tool that does not specifically do this)




I use Firefox, but don't think the browser should matter.


Answer



First I have to assure you that it matters what browser you are using. Unless you are using the standard OS print dialog, the browser will use its own library to create the PDF. Results will vary between different browsers.



Just as experiment I have printed this page using Firefox and Chromium. Firefox did not save any clickable links. Chromium saved about 50% and the selection seemed to be pretty random.



I believe the best solution for you would be to install a browser add-on / extension that will do the job.



I made a quick search and for Firefox I have found this one: the unimaginatively named Print pages to Pdf. Direct link to the latest version: 0.5.0.6.





Creates one Pdf from any amount of open Browsertabs,Bookmarks/-folder,
Scrapbook(Plus) pages. This document can be archived, sended [sic] by e-mail
or printed out with any standard Pdf Viewer.




if you go through the list of features you will find what you are looking for:






  • Retains links in the pdf from the content of webpages

  • Supports local links for navigating in the webpage/pdf




I have tested it briefly and it printed the page correctly with all clickable links.


windows 10 - Usable RAM is too low as compared to installed RAM


I have gone through the articles here, here and over other sites.However, unable to glean any actionable details for my issue.


I installed additional RAM in my old laptop for performance improvement - still dead slow(approx 5 mins to boot, another 5mins to open chrome). I believe the low amount of usable RAM is the reason here.[Installed RAM:6GB / Usable RAM:2.8GB]


TaskManager shows the RAM usage to be 100% almost all the time.


I am attaching few screenshots.
System Information 0
System Information 1
SLOT1
SLOT3
WMIC


As per my understanding, P6100 can go up to 8GB of RAM.
Before I add another 2GB of RAM, I would like to know whether it will really make any difference.Or is it the P6100 which is the cause of slowness here. Please advice.


Answer



From your screenshot: X86 based system.
This is a 32 bit system (and not x64 based 64 bit system).


On a pure 32 bit system you can use max 4GiB of memory, and part of that is used by PCI peripheral space etc. 2.8GB left is pretty normal.


You can use more memory if you use a 64 bit based OS (and firmware support and CPU support). This is more of less the default for the last decade. Or if you have a CPU and OS which support PAE.


The first is a no go: Your CPU is from 2010 and for some reason it does not support 64 bit more. (see https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/50175/intel-pentium-processor-p6100-3m-cache-2-00-ghz.html).


AND PAE... going from memory that was removed in win10. (Everybody could run x64 by then anyway)


So you might be stuck with max 2.8GB usable,





Side note on speed:

That system is old. It will have many slow parts. Before upgrading it find out what is causing slowness and then fix that part first. If could be eMMC on the motherboard, or a 10 year old rotating rust laptop disk, or ..... Not neccessary low RAM.


Sunday, February 24, 2019

Samsung Windows 8 memory leak, can't find reason

1


Does anyone know what the cause of this memory leak is? My memory shoots up every few days and I have to continually restart the computer. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Based on other forum posts, I've already deleted Intellimem. It helped a bit, but the memory leak still happens every few days (instead of every few hours).

usb - Need help identifying the type of cable used in my external portable hard drive



I purchased my Seagate external hard drive about 4 years ago. Recently I have started experiencing problems with the provided USB cable. So I am guessing it is time to replace it.

However I am just overwhelmed with the type of USB cables out there.



I had no idea that this many types of USB cables are out there. Doing some research on the inscrption on the back of my hard drive and based on several images on the internet, my conclusion is it is a "USB 2.0 female to mini USB 2.0 female cable". Only problem is google returns no exact matches for this type of cable.



The inscription on the back of my hard drive is below:



Company:   Seagate
Type : Expansion Portable Drive
P/N : 9SD2A4-500
S/N : 2GH50JSN

Capacity: 500 GB


Now based on some googling using the P/N, I came to the conclusion that it is a "USB 2.0 to mini USB 2.0". Only problem is there aren't any female to female USB cables. My understanding about male/female in USB is, if the USB slot in the cable had pins, it is male, else it is female. Based on this understanding I concluded both are female slots.
Could somebody point out which cable I should be buying?


Answer



After reading the comments posted here and the wiki article for USB, I have finally found what I need to buy - USB Type A plug to Mini USB Type B plug. To be safe, I have ordered a dual "Y" cable to draw extra power for my Hard drive.
Here is an image of what I ordered: http://www.acp.ca/images/313265.jpg


Windows 10 asks for password after profile name change

I have pretty strange problem. I have been using Windows 10 without any issue for some time and now I went for username change. I went to "netplwiz" and changed my username. I haven't added any password. After that I rebooted my computer and suddenly Windows 10 asks me for password I didn't have.




I have tried to login different ways without any success. After some time of researching the ways to get into my computer I did it via Administrator in Safe Mode. Once I got into Windows 10 I went to User Account Settings. However I can't do anything there (add or delete user accounts). I also can't see any other user accounts except Administrator. I also can't click windows icon on desktop and use search. Only folders can be opened.



At the moment I am making backup of my files just in case I would not be able to recover my system. I was thinking about registry. Maybe it is possible to access user accounts from there? However I don't know how and don't know how to access registry as I am not able to type "regedit" anywhere as search icon is not clickable.
Is there any way to get everything back working?

Linux returns “No space left on device” while copying data to a non-full USB flash drive


I'm trying to copy a file to a USB flash drive. The drive does not have a write-protect switch.


df gives the following:


$ df -h .
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sde1 1.9G 622M 1.3G 33% /media/lindenb/803C-078D

df -i produces strange output to me (0 everywhere)


$ df -i .
Filesystem Inodes IUsed IFree IUse% Mounted on
/dev/sde1 0 0 0 - /media/lindenb/803C-078D

Number of files on the drive:


$ find . |wc -l
170

But when I try to copy a file, I get this:


$ mv ~/file.txt ./
mv: cannot create regular file ‘./file.txt’: No space left on device

How can I fix this ?


Answer



The root directory on a FAT16 filesystem can store only a limited number of file entries



  • Your flash drive is 2 GB in size. This is the maximum filesystem size supported by FAT16. As such, it is likely that it was formatted with the FAT16 filesystem from the factory.


  • Due to a technical limitation in the FAT16 filesystem, only a limited number of file entries may be stored into the root directory. This limit is set when the filesystem is formatted (source). Directory entries (which may include long filename information), but not the contents of directories, count towards this limit.


  • To solve this problem, convert the filesystem to FAT32. On Linux, it may simply be best to move all files to a temporary location, unmount the drive, reformat to FAT32 with mkfs.vfat -F 32 /dev/sde1, and mount the drive and move the files back.



Error message generated by Windows 8 for a full root directory on a FAT16 volume


Remap Surface Type keyboard "special keys" to standard function keys


The top row of the MS Surface Type keyboard mostly consists of special keys for increasing volume, searching, accessing settings, etc. But if you hold the "Fn" key, then that row becomes the standard function keys (F1 - F12). I'd like remap the keys so that without "Fn" pressed, it is the standard F# keys, and with the "Fn" press, it is the special key. So basically flip what the key is for "Fn pressed" vs. "Fn not pressed".


What is the easiest way for me to accomplish this?


Answer



Press Fn + Caps


This will toggle the Fn key so that F-keys are the default.


You may need to install/update the "Trackpad Settings" app and install all your Windows Updates -- I think this keyboard shortcut may have came in a recent update.


Also, I beleive this fix currently only works with Surface Pro + Type Cover. Please post a comment if you can confirm it works on others combos (RT, Touch Cover)...


Enjoy! :D


Zip/gzip compression ratio much less in Linux than in Windows


I have a bunch of very huge files located on a Linux machine that I would like to compress and save some space. I have tried using the tar/gzip combination and I have noticed that the compression ratio is not very good. A 1.2GB file was compressed into a 1.1GB file. I have tried increasing the compression level as suggested here: How to specify level of compression when using tar -zcvf?


but it still wasn't any better. I've copied the same file to a Windows machine and ran WinRar on it. The resulting compressed file was only 0.45GB in size.


Is there a reason for such a huge discrepancy? Is there a better compressing tool for Linux?


UPDATE: I've even tried lzma and still not much better


Answer



Gzip is not a very good algorithm compared to Rar.


A more common method for linux these days is bzip2 which is installed by default on almost all linux distributions.


You can switch the tar archiver to use bzip2 compression by changing your command line to tar -cvjf rather than tar -cvzf the key being the replacement of the z with j in the options.


This should hopefully yield a good increase in compression ratio.


The reason for the discrepancy is because they are fundamentally different algorithms for compression. Gzip is an older algorithm and older algorithms tend to be less computationally intensive so that they would finish in a reasonable time. This is an effect of more readily available processing power, better and more computationally intensive algorithms can be used that finish in a similar time than an older algorithm did on an older computer. Conversely the older algorithms will complete compression much faster on a newer computer.


Almost any Windows archiver has an equivalent on Linux. 7zip is a nice archiver that gets good results on Windows and has an unofficial Linux version.


Saturday, February 23, 2019

Can a vSphere/ESXi host be used for automatic provisioning of instances?

VMWare's products and service offerings are absolutely indecipherable to me. I know I have a single ESXi (vSphere?) host using the free license.



I know that there a number of tools can be used to bring up VEs using API calls. But trying to get vagrant-vsphere to run, it wants me to provide a "template" to clone from, and as far as I can figure out templates are only supported when using "vCenter".



Are people doing automatic provisioning using a simple, single ESXi instance, and what tools are they using?

Friday, February 22, 2019

macos - Downgrading to Leopard

I am using Snow Leopard in macbookpro unibody 15p. Usually did time machine backups. Now I thought about downgrading to Leopard given my problems with Leopard. I erased the Disk, and booted in Leopard when installed. I expected I could use my Snow Lopeard time machine backup here but I get an error message, saying that in Leopard one can not migrate from newer versions.


Do you know a workaround for this so I can get the data?


At the moment I will probably copy all SL TM backup to the harddisk and copy files.

Excel macro date parser cannot handle single-digit days


From previous questions on this and other sites I was given a function that can parse for and find dates in text strings or cells. Here's the function:


Function GetDate(strInput As String) As Date
Dim DateFormat() As String
Dim intDateLength As Integer
Dim intMaxFormat As Integer
Dim intFrmtCtr As Integer
Dim intPosition As Integer
intMaxFormat = 6
ReDim DateFormat(1 To intMaxFormat)
DateFormat(1) = "*##[-/]##[/-]####*"
DateFormat(2) = "*#[-/]##[-/]####*"
DateFormat(3) = "*##[-/]#[-/]####*"
DateFormat(4) = "*##[-/]##[-/]##*"
DateFormat(5) = "*#[-/]##[-/]##*"
DateFormat(6) = "*#[-/]#[-/]##*"
GetDate = Now
For intFrmtCtr = 1 To intMaxFormat
If strInput Like DateFormat(intFrmtCtr) Then
intDateLength = Len(DateFormat(intFrmtCtr)) - 8
strInput = Replace(strInput, " ", "")
For intPosition = 1 To Len(strInput)
If Mid(strInput, intPosition, intDateLength) Like DateFormat(intFrmtCtr) Then
GetDate = DateValue(Mid(strInput, intPosition, intDateLength))
Exit Function
End If
Next intPosition
End If
Next intFrmtCtr
End Function

This is then called by referencing a cell address:


'Gets date from cell A2
Range("A2").Select
dateWork = GetDate(Selection)

I can then format the output using Format(dateWork, "mmddyy") or similar.


In the case above, given a cell contents of 8/31/2011 the string 08312011 is returned.


Beginning with cell content dates with a single digit day (ie, early in the month), though, the function began returning the first two digits of the year instead of the second two digits. All of a sudden, dates started looking like they were in 2020, not 2011.


I've been able to test this using otherwise identical input data sheets where dates up to and including 8/31/2011 were returned correctly and dates beginning with 9/1/2011 and continuing all return "20" as the year.


Where is this function breaking down?


UPDATE clarification for questions:


I use this function in several macros acting upon data exported from a report-generating tool (Business Objects). It is possible to manually edit the date in the input files, but that rather defeats the purpose of the macros and so should not be considered an option.


The GetDate() function can be called upon to find dates in any string. The strings can be just the date in any of various formats, or they can be combinations of text and date such as "Totals as of 9/13/1977".


I would appreciate your simplification or edits to the function so long as it retains the abilities laid out above.


Answer



Your Mid(strInput, intPosition, intDateLength) isn't working for you. For 9/1/2011, you're matching DateFormat(6) = "*#[-/]#[-/]##*". So Mid(strInput, intPosition, intDateLength) = Mid("9/1/2011", 1, 6) and returns "9/1/20" rather than "9/1/2011".


based on your example above, I think you need to add 2 more patterns so that you cover all combinations of 1 and 2 digit months/days & 2 and 4 digit years. Order is important because you want to match the 4 digit years first (noting that the reason you have a problem is that #/#/## matches 9/1/2011 when in fact you only want it to match 9/1/11. So the code change is something like the below. I haven't exhaustively tested it with all date formats, but it seems OK.


intMaxFormat = 8
ReDim DateFormat(1 To intMaxFormat)
DateFormat(1) = "*##[-/]##[/-]####*"
DateFormat(2) = "*#[-/]##[-/]####*"
DateFormat(3) = "*##[-/]#[-/]####*"
DateFormat(4) = "*#[-/]#[-/]####*"
DateFormat(5) = "*##[-/]##[-/]##*"
DateFormat(6) = "*##[-/]#[-/]##*"
DateFormat(7) = "*#[-/]##[-/]##*"
DateFormat(8) = "*#[-/]#[-/]##*"

Can't enable Windows Hello - Some settings are managed by your organization




I did a clean install of Windows 10 Anniversary Edition. Now I can't enable Windows Hello with my domain joined Surface Pro 4, logged in as an AD user. When I log in with my Msft account, I can turn Windows Hello on, though.



I tried "Some settings are managed by your organization" while not on domain? (increasing telemetry via settings app) and also this: resetting telemetry via gp.



This shows that this problem is different than the others here. This is also in fact domain joined, not like the most other questions here.



This is what the settings look like;
enter image description here




With the old version of Windows 10 the same device could enable Windows Hello while domain joined with the domain user. That's why I rule out GPO as the source of the problem. GPO even explicitly allows Biometrics for domain users. What can I do?



Windows 10 Professional, Cortana is enabled. No Insiders Edition. I have administrative access to the domain.


Answer



I found the solution. The reason is that Windows Hello is managed differently on domain joined computers, starting with the anniversary update.
To get it to work you have to follow these steps:



1) Setup a Group Policy Central Store (you should already have that)



2) Get Windows 10 Anniversary Update Group Policy Templates. You can do so by copying your files from PolicyDefinitions (in windir on a Win10 Anniversary Update machine) into the PolicyDefinitions of the central store. You might copy those files first to a file share, because of permissions your regular user should not have on the central store.




3) Setup a new GPO or add to an existing the following settings to enable Windows Hello:




  • Computer Configuration/Policies/Administrative Templates



.../Windows Components/Windows Hello For Business/ Use biometrics => Enabled



.../Windows Components/Windows Hello for Business/ Use a hardware security device => Enabled (if you want to use TPM instead of key or certificate based activation for Windows Hello). Note that in general all business computers should have TPM




.../System/Logon/ Turn on convenience PIN sign-in => Enabled (This is the key. This enables PIN sign-in which in turn will enable Hello, together with the other settings.)



.../Windows Components/Biometrics/ Allow domain users to log on using biometrics => Enabled (I think this is enabled by default, but being explicit makes GP management a lot easier.)



You will find more optional configuration possibilities in System/Logon and Windows Components/Biometrics and Windows Components/Windows Hello for Business.



You will find more background here:
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/ash/2016/08/13/changes-to-convenience-pin-and-thus-windows-hello-behaviour-in-windows-10-version-1607/




and here



https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/itpro/windows/keep-secure/implement-microsoft-passport-in-your-organization



Most important excerpt:




Beginning in version 1607, Windows Hello as a convenience PIN is disabled by default on all domain-joined computers. To enable a
convenience PIN for Windows 10, version 1607, enable the Group Policy
setting Turn on convenience PIN sign-in. Use Windows Hello for

Business policy settings to manage PINs for Windows Hello for
Business.




If you want to use key or certificate based Windows Hello you can follow the guides in the links. Don't get confused though. You can still use regular TPM for normal Windows Hello.


windows 10 - On Win 10, on any browser, some sites can not reproduce sounds (only learning related websites affected?)

All right?


When using Chrome, Vivaldi or Edge, for example, I can play Youtube videos or other stuff and the sound is correctly played.


But, when I visit learning related websites it doesn't work! (actually checked on the following: translate.google , memrise and duolingo) In duolingo it plays not the words but the sounds when the words are correct, for example.


The sound image on the tab appears (the playing sound informative icon), in all the cases, but no sound is reproduced. I checked the drivers and they are updated. Also checked the Mixer and it's on the highest volume possible!


On Chrome (edit: on any browser when using translate.google), there's a peculiar thing that happens: when I type a word and wants to listen to its pronunciation and click on the sound button, it becomes a square while on the tab it appears as it should, so, no sound reproduced... then... it gets back to normal...


Google's Translator situation


Only on learning related websites??? If it helps: I am using GDATA as Internet Security...


How to solve this odd stuff? Anyone able to help, please?


Thanks in advance! :D

Unable to paste file path directly from Windows Explorer to PowerShell


I can't paste path to PowerShell window when the file or folder location is copied from Windows Explorer (select file > right click > copy / select file > Ctrl + C). Bizarrely I can paste to the shell after first pasting to somewhere else, for example to notepad. Why does this occur and how to resolve the issue?


Answer



I am not exactly sure how can you copy a file path by file > right click > copy/select file > Ctrl + C, but you can press Shift key while right-clicking on file. It adds a new context menu item 'Copy as Path'. This should allow you to copy/paste the path to PowerShell or any other application.


screenshot


Thursday, February 21, 2019

windows 7 - Microsoft hotfix install over network fails 0x80070003

I have been been trying to figure this out for a long time now and have made no progress so I'm hoping someone can help.


I have an installer script to install a predefined set of Microsoft hotfixes on a new Windows 7 boxes. When installing from a network mapped drive with"


"C:\Windows\system32\wusa.exe" "Z:\Documents\OS_Hotfixes\Win7-2008\32bit\Windows7SP1\Windows6.1-KB2559049-x86.msu"


I get an error: Installer encountered an error: 0x80070003 The system cannot find the path specified.


If I run the same hotfix from the local machine:


"C:\Windows\system32\wusa.exe" "C:\Share\HostDocuments\OS_Hotfixes\Win7-2008\32bit\Windows7SP1\Windows6.1-KB2559049-x86.msu"


The hotfix installs just fine with no unexpected errors.


All hotfixes act the same way so it's not this specific one. I have also run sfc /scannow on the box with no success.


This is a Windows 7 SP1 32 bit host.

windows 7 - How to safely rescue data from a trojan infected system?




Thanks to my little brother, we got a nice selection of trojans on our home PC, one of which is W32/Murofet.A, a file infector that has spread across a good number of .exes already.
Since it isn't the only trojan, we decided to just entirely nuke the harddrive and reformat it. Sadly, there's still a lot of data that we want to save, like pictures, videos, personal documents, etc.
Now, I got a 2TB external harddrive, but I want to be sure not to carry over any of the malware that's on the home PC, because I also got personal stuff on the external (over 500gig, so I can't copy it elsewhere for some time.).



How would I best do this? I thought of a Linux live CD / USB stick to boot from, but how can I make sure not to copy any infected data / cleanse such data before copying it?
If any additional information is needed, I'll be glad to provide it. Thanks in advance.


Answer



Your idea of a Linux live CD is a good one.



What I'd do is a partial cleanup of the hard drive first to reduce the chance of getting anything infected.



First off delete any files that could contain a virus - EXE files, VBS, SCR, COM, BAT, CMD - basically anything that can be directly executed.




# find /path/to/hard/drive -iname '*.exe' -iname '*.vbs' -iname '*.scr' -iname '*.com' -iname '*.cmd' -delete


If there are any other file types you know you'll not be wanting to copy over you can delete those as well - files such as *.ocx, etc.



Then you can make a list of all the files that you think you might want to keep:



# find /path/to/hard/drive -iname '*.txt' -iname '*.jpg' -iname '*.png' [...] >/tmp/keepfiles



You can then manually work through that file (/tmp/keepfiles) removing any files you don't want to keep. You can pretty much remove anything that's not in the /Users directory. What's left can be copied over to the external with a reasonable amount of confidence that it's not infected. It's still not guaranteed though.



# rsync -avP --include-file=/tmp/keepfiles /path/to/hard/drive /path/to/external/disk


That should maintain your existing directory structure in the copy.1



Once that is all done you can then remove the external drive and clean your hard drive and install Windows a-fresh. Once you have done that you should install a good anti-malware program - I recommand [Malware Bytes][1], but there are many other good ones around. Only when one of these programs has been installed should you even consider plugging in the external drive.




Scan the external drive as the first thing you do, and scan it well.



1 I haven't tested this command, so you may need to tweak it to get it to work right. Read the man pages.


linux - Mount external hard drive with r/w permissions for minidlna


I trying to mount my external hard drive (NTFS) on my raspberry pi in /home/pi/dd


But I would like to have r/w access to all files on this HD because I want to use one of its subfolders with minidlna: example on /etc/minidlna.conf:


media_dir= /home/pi/dd/a_folder

Actually chown and chmod doesn't work after the mount...


Example of what I did:


pi@raspberrypi - ~ sudo cat /etc/passwd
pi:x:1000:1000:,,,:/home/pi:/bin/bash
minidlna:x:107:110:MiniDLNA server,,,:/var/lib/minidlna:/usr/sbin/nologin
pi@raspberrypi - ~ sudo cat /etc/fstab
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/mmcblk0p5 /boot vfat defaults 0 2
/dev/mmcblk0p6 / ext4 defaults,noatime 0 1
UUID=0A1C40D81C40C105 /home/pi/dd ntfs-3g uid=1000,gid=1000 0 2
pi@raspberrypi - ~ ll
total 12K
drwxr-xr-x 2 pi pi 4,0K janv. 30 10:18 backup_files
drwxr-xr-x 2 pi pi 4,0K janv. 30 10:17 dd
drwxr-xr-x 2 pi pi 4,0K déc. 24 12:34 Desktop
pi@raspberrypi - ~ sudo mount /dev/sda1
pi@raspberrypi - ~ ll
total 24K
drwxr-xr-x 2 pi pi 4,0K janv. 30 10:18 backup_files
drwxrwx--- 1 root 1004 16K janv. 30 07:43 dd
drwxr-xr-x 2 pi pi 4,0K déc. 24 12:34 Desktop

We can see the line:


drwxrwx--- 1 root 1004  16K janv. 30 07:43 dd

This (I think) cause the fail of minidlna start:


pi@raspberrypi - ~ sudo service minidlna force-reload
[....] Restarting DLNA/UPnP-AV media server: minidlna[2015/01/30 10:57:31] minidlna.c:474: error: Media directory "/home/pi/dd/Downloads/Music" not accessible! [Permission denied]
[2015/01/30 10:57:31] minidlna.c:474: error: Media directory "/home/pi/dd/Downloads/Films" not accessible! [Permission denied]
. ok

And when I chmod or chown dd folder, nothing change the folder owner/rights don't change...


I think that I don't understand really well mount options...


Thank you for your help


EDIT: Here is the result of "sudo cat /proc/mounts"


pi@raspberrypi - ~ sudo cat /proc/mounts
rootfs / rootfs rw 0 0
/dev/root / ext4 rw,noatime,data=ordered 0 0
devtmpfs /dev devtmpfs rw,relatime,size=219744k,nr_inodes=54936,mode=755 0 0
tmpfs /run tmpfs rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,size=44784k,mode=755 0 0
tmpfs /run/lock tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,size=5120k 0 0
proc /proc proc rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime 0 0
tmpfs /run/shm tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,size=89560k 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,gid=5,mode=620,ptmxmode=000 0 0
/dev/mmcblk0p5 /boot vfat rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=ascii,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro 0 0
/dev/sda1 /home/pi/dd fuseblk rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=0,group_id=0,default_permissions,allow_other,blksize=4096 0 0

EDIT 2: I forgot to say that I share this folder /home/pi/dd with samba, here is the configuration file:


[global]
workgroup = WORKGROUP
server string = %h server
netbios name = Naspi
dns proxy = no
log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
max log size = 1000
syslog = 0
panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d
security = user
encrypt passwords = true
passdb backend = tdbsam
obey pam restrictions = yes
unix password sync = yes
passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
passwd chat = *Enter\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully* .
pam password change = yes
map to guest = bad user
usershare allow guests = yes
[Nas]
path =/home/pi/dd
read only = no
locking = no
guest ok = yes
force user = pi

Answer



The problem is your partition is mounted via fuse. That's not the same as mounting a filesystem native.


Use that command:


sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /home/pi/dd -o uid=1000,gid=1000

That should set the partition's user and group to pi.


Get iso from Windows Secure Download Manager


I'm installing a copy of Windows 8 and the only install media I received was in the form of a download though something called the Secure Download Manager. See screenshot.


Which immediately starts an upgrade style install. Having been on this board for about a week, I am sure I want to do a clean install.


How can I get an iso from the Secure Download Manager?


Secure Download Manager


Answer



From my experience, the Secure Download Manager uses a .sdx-file to take care of downloading the piece(s) of software described in that file, probably in a secure manner, as the name of the application implies.


When the download is completed, the file(s) should be located in the specified download location. Based in your image, it seems to be located inside "C:\Users[your username]\Downloads" in your case.


You can either open (or do whatever you want to do with) the file inside that folder, or you can use the "Launch" button in the manager.


If the downloaded file is not a .iso-file, then you need to look elsewhere to get a .iso-file. If the .sdx-file is for downloading a .exe-file, then that's how the story goes...


Is it important that the file must be a .iso-file? From the image, it looks like you are going to upgrade from Win7 to Win8 or something along those lines. Even if the file is a .exe-file, it should still be able to do that.


Wednesday, February 20, 2019

restore - External Hard Drive lost after Making a Windows 10 Bootable USB


I have two issues; 1st: I lost all my data on an external hard drive after creating a bootable USB for windows 10 installation via windows media creation tool


2nd: I only can see 30 GBs out of my 1TB hard disk.


My question is, how to get all the storage available back? and is there any way to recover the data lost on the external hard drive?


Answer



What's on the external hard drive now? If it's only the Windows installation data, then I'm assuming you wrote to the external hard drive instead of another USB drive (or you intended to do that...).


Anyway, as long as you've only overwritten 30GB out of 1024GB hard drive, then there should still be about 994GB of the old data still there.


Recovering at least some of the old data should be possible, a recovery program like TestDisk, it tries to do things like:



TestDisk is powerful free data recovery software! It was primarily designed to help recover lost partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software: certain types of viruses or human error (such as accidentally deleting a Partition Table). Partition table recovery using TestDisk is really easy.



There's good documentation at the link above, including a Step by Step guide.


Or if TestDisk fails, you can always read the whole drive directly, looking for files to piece back together with PhotoRec. Recovered files might not have their original names or be in the any directory trees, but at least you can get some of the data back.




Recovering the drive capacity should be just a re-partition (new GPT/MBR) & re-format away. But don't do that yet if you want to recover any data.


memory - What are the quality metrics for RAM?


I have searched RAM and I found there are given some specification for the same capacity RAM, What are the difference and performance comparison between these?


Like


RAM1


General


Brand           Transcend
Memory Type 2 GB (8 x 128 MB) DDR2 DIMM
Memory Standard DDR2-800/PC-6400
Compatible Device PC
Pins 240-pin
Burst Length 4, 8
Buffered/Unbuffered Unbuffered

Memory


Memory Clock    400 MHz
Technology DDR2 SDRAM Memory
CAS Latency 4, 5, 6

RAM 2


General


Brand              Transcend
Memory Type 2 GB (8 x 128 MB) DDR2 DIMM
Memory Standard DDR2-667/PC2-5300
Compatible Device PC
Pins 240-pin
Burst Length 4, 8
Buffered/Unbuffered Unbuffered

Memory


Memory Clock    333 MHz
Technology DDR2 SDRAM Memory
CAS Latency 3, 4, 5

RAM3


General


Brand           Kingston
Memory Type 2 GB (64 x 256 MB) 800 MHz DDR2 DIMM
Compatible Device PC
Pins 240-pin
Error Check Non-ECC
Buffered/Unbuffered Unbuffered

Memory


Memory Clock    200 MHz
Technology DDR2 SDRAM Memory
CAS Latency 6

What are the affect of the following



  • Memory Type(given as 8 x 128 MB)

  • Memory Clock (given in MHz)

  • CAS Latency (given as 4,5,6)


my Requirement is 2 GB DDR2 Type Desktop/PC
Please suggest and help


Answer



CAS is the column access strobe and it is delay counter so less is faster. Mhz is the number of clock cycles per second and so more is faster, but the CPU and chipset control the maximum that is useful. Some CPU and chipset support 1066 and higher and others don't.


The clock speed will make more of a difference than CAS. The 66Mhz more in clock speed of RAM 1 won't generate that much more performance because it has CAS 4 and RAM 2 has CAS 3 as its lowest setting. How RAM 1 will probably be faster than RAM 2 but by a very tiny margin like 1%-5% percents. The CAS is 6 on RAM 3 so it is slower than RAM 1 given the total Mhz is 800mhz for both(RAM 1 and RAM 3.


The memory type is a simple internal layout of the memory and as far as I know has no effect on performance. However, if you were getting 8GB+ sticks of memory some motherboard don't support certain layouts.


Check your motherboard for maximum supported MHZ on the memory


How can I use an old PATA hard disk drive on my newer SATA-only computer?

I've got some old hard drives I'd like to connect to my new computer to quickly transfer gigs and gigs of data from the old drives to my nice large new drives. The old drives are PATA/IDE/ATA and the new computer's motherboard only supports SATA drives.


I found this PCI IDE raid controller card. Will this work? How do I power the old drives. My power supply has only new-style connectors.




I want to do a one-time dump of miscellaneous data (mp3s, DVD images, MAME roms, photos, videos, documents, etc.) off of 5-or-6 smaller, older PATA drives onto my newer, larger SATA drives. I've been unable to "retire" two old computers because I've never gotten around to this housekeeping task. Now I want to get rid of the clutter.




I'd rather avoid the USB solutions. I've got a lot of data to transfer and I want it to go as quickly as possible.


The DVD drive is SATA--not PATA. It's a Dell computer, they don't seem to give away a single extra port on their motherboards. I'm surprised it came with even a free PCI slot.


I've asked: How much slower is USB than SATA or PATA for HDD?




I don't know a power supply model number or anything. It came with a cheap Dell computer. There are no molex power connectors because the computer came with no such drives. The DVD drive is SATA.


I've found adapters, but they go the wrong way: old power supply to new drive.


molex 4pin male to 15pin SATA power cable


This was for a one-time bulk file copy to retire/repurpose the old disk drives and I'm now done. But, I would be interested to know if anyone found such an adapter.

Custom keyboard shortcut for macros in Outlook 2010?



I have a suite of macros that I used to have linked to buttons in a custom toolbar in Outlook 2007. Using the & encoding I could assign keyboard shortcuts to those macros (e.g. &1 to make Alt-1 trigger that button).




I can't figure out how to do this in Outlook 2010. Is it possible to assign keyboard shortcuts to macros in this new version?



Ramon


Answer



I can't figure out how to set my own shortcuts, however once you add you macro to the Quick Access Toolbar, it is automatically assign the keyboard shortcut alt- where starts from 1 going from the leftmost icon to the right.


macos - The left modifier keys on my Macbook Pro has a delay before working after wake up


Occasionally, my mid-2014 Macbook Pro 15 Retina's left modifier keys (Shift, Option, Control) don't work immediately after resuming from sleep.


For example:



  • My login password requires pressing the Shift key. I have to use the right-Shift or Caps Lock, unless I wait 20 seconds or so for the left-Shift key to wake up.


  • Immediately after Sleep, if I shift-select text in a text editor such as Atom or the web browser's URL bar, pressing the arrow keys while holding shift will simply move the cursor for awhile. Sometimes only 5 characters, sometimes 30 characters, and then the shift-selection highlight will start working.



Curiously, left-shift starts working within a short space of time (less than a minute), every time. And once it's working, it will stay working while the Mac is on. It always starts working again within a minute.


When it starts working it is 100% working - in other words, it's not like I have to press the key extra hard or anything. When it's working, I can press gently anywhere on the left-shift key and it will perform the function correctly.


Putting the MBP into sleep and then waking it, often but not every time, triggers the "sleepy left-shift" problem. The longer the Mac has been in sleep the higher chance it will have the delay before working, although sometimes a brief sleep causes it too, it is somewhat unpredictable.
This makes it slow to test for resolution, as it can appear like the problem is fixed.


I've tried:



  • PRAM and SMC resets


  • Removed a number of plist preferences


  • Checked accessibility options including Sticky and Slow Keys. I've turned these on and then off.


  • Disconnected my Apple Bluetooth keyboard in case that was interfering. The problem still exists.


  • Turned on the keyboard viewer to check if any keys were stuck and causing the left-shift not to register. No keys appeared stuck.



Any ideas please? I'm nearly at the point of doing a clean install, but I would really like to solve the problem.


It is possible it's a hardware fault which would be annoying. But it seems somewhat unlikely given the problem goes away every time, and only affects the left-shift key. The flag for it being hardware is that my Apple Bluetooth keyboard doesn't have the problem, so it's not likely to be a software hook causing the problem, unless that is only applied to the internal keyboard.


OS X 10.11.4.


Answer



Solution: I had the keyboard replaced. Now the Macbook is working fine. Bonus is that the keyboard feels better, like firmer.


Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Can I dual boot Ubuntu and Windows XP on an internal and external hard drive

I've recently gotten a computer with no OS on it.



It has 1 internal and 1 External hard drive.




I have a bootable USB with Ubuntu on it and a copy of windows XP.



Is their a way of installing Ubuntu onto the external hard drive and Windows onto the internal HD so that I can choose which one it should boot from without having to remove the internal HD each time I want Ubuntu, and preferably without having to partition?



Currently the hard drive is blank and un-formatted but the external hard drive has not been made bootable, will this be needed?
Any websites with tutorials would be greatly appreciated.

Monday, February 18, 2019

USB 2 Hub for running USB External Drives


I am experiencing an odd problem with using 2 different USB 2.0 Hubs to run a Seagate FreeAgent USB harddrive on.


I'm getting an 'unknown inpage error' (or similar). When i plug in directly to the computer it has no problem. Any ideas what this error is about and how I can get around it? I need to run it on a HUB as im short on USB. Hardware recommendations welcomed!


USB Drive only runs a USB cable. (Does that make it a unpowered drive?)
USB Hub only runs a USB cable. (Does that make it unpowered?)


Answer



Is this a 2.5" drive? It possibly needs a powered USB hub. Is the hub powered?


mac - Wrong keyboard layout for login screen



On my Mac mini with Snow Leopard installed, I have a swiss german bluetooth keyboard. This works as expected. However on the login screen the keyboard layout seams to be switched to US.



The keyboard was set to an US layout before by accident. I followed this answer Mac has wrong keyboard layout to set it to the correct swiss german layout. But it seams that this settings are not taken into account on the login screen.



Any ideas to fix this?


Answer






Lion:





Snow Leopard:




windows 7 - How to create a batch file for this issue?



I need help making a batch file that will create a folder and then extract a cabinet file from a Windows installer file and then run a DISM command to install said extracted update. Below is a list of the command to use but for the life of me I cannot figure out the batch command order to get it to work.



mkdir update
expand -f: Windows6.1-KB3112343-x64.msu .\update
cd update
dism /online /add-package /packagepath:Windows6.1-KB3112343-x64.cab



I would be using the command knowing the file is at C:/users/owner/desktop/Windows6.1-KB3112343-x64



I'll also be making the update folder on the desktop as well. I just want to automate this process as much as possible because I have many Windows 7 computers that I update and to start I usually need to do the above commands and I want to make it more efficient if I can.


Answer



This question is a typical XY problem. You tried to fix the slow MSU install and this can be done by running this batch file. It stops the Windows Update service before trying to install a MSU update. This speeds up the installation a lot.


Sunday, February 17, 2019

laptop - Battery ran out of charge suddenly and won't charge


I've dell inspiron 5547 laptop and it was working fine till last night i used it. I didn't shut it down as I usually do and just closed the lid to let it go to hibernate or sleep mode, battery was fully charged then. Now, at work I pressed the power button but it did nothing, i then plugged in the charger and charging indicator turned on then switched off again, I pressed the power button again while AC adapter was plugged in, laptop booted but charging indicator started to blink in red, and it's currently doing the same as i'm typing. I checked my battery status using battery info viewer and results are as follow.
enter image description here


as it can be seen that battery is pretty healthy (65%) but it's not charging....
further in bios it says "this battery has experience permanent failure and needs to be replaced"
i'm unable to understand this. any help would be much appreciated


Answer



The battery capacity is severely degraded and chances are one of the cells has now died. The battery is not charging at all and its "current capacity" is at "0.0%"


A healthy or new battery should be at or near it's "design capacity". One that is at about 60% capacity has either had a hard life, is very old or both. Batteries loose capacity over time and need to be replaced. As they age their chances of critical or catastrophic failure do increase as there are important chemical changes going on both during the charge/discharge cycles as well as over the life of the battery. Whiskers of metal can form in the battery puncturing layers separating internal parts, or films can form on contacts blocking the flow of electrons.


If an actual cell in the battery has failed and discharged itself then it it potentially hazardous and needs to be disposed of per your manufacturer guidelines.


Your BIOS message is also telling you exactly the same: that it is old, has failed, and needs replacement.


Replace it.


There is a very small chance that it could be a fault in your charger circuitry in your laptop, but battery failure due to age is far more likely.


windows 8 - DISM RestoreHealth Source


I am trying to fix component store corruption on my windows 8 laptop which is preventing me from upgrading to Windows 8.1. I have tried to run DISM /online/Cleanup-image/RestoreHealth but it doesn't work because of an invalid source. My laptop came with the OEM version of windows so I don't have a installation CD. So where or how do I get a valid source to repair my corruption? Can I capture an image from a running Windows 8.1 computer that isn't corrupt? I've read the DISM articles about how do capture and image, but where should I capture a valid image from.


Here are the links to the DISM and CBS logs:


https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxX6CIDigV64cHEtZWxGRlNaTkE/edit?usp=sharing


https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxX6CIDigV64aFJPN1ktamNyekU/edit?usp=sharing


Answer



Decided to just factory reset the computer and run updates from scratch. I was able to install the 8.1 update after this.


Saturday, February 16, 2019

installing vista on a laptop

I have a laptop which has a vista setup kit partition with drivers. After i buy it i had to do the next, next routine to install vista from those partition to the laptop.



Now, if I wish to reinstall Vista but to use the same partition as a source...how can I do it?



it is about a Toshiba satellite A300D



UPDATE:



1) I've tried HDD Recovery Procedure but i don't have Toshiba HDD Recovery in the menu, maybe because I've installed Windows 7.




2) also, I've tried to boot holding down the 0 button (this method) but i get no HDD Recovery Mode



I'm sure that the partition with the prebuilt MS Vista is on HDD and intact. All I need is to activate it and boot from it.

troubleshooting - My Windows 8 just crashed. How do I find out why?




Are there logs somewhere? Which process is to blame? Is it hardware or software? Where do I start looking for these things..?

windows 8 - Can't delete a folder because it's too deep


I have no idea how this happened, but I have a folder with so many sub folders that I can't delete the root folder. I have been googling this for about 2 hours and I've tried many things, nothing is working.


enter image description here


I've tried a few 3rd party tools, but no luck. I also can't map a drive to anyplace inside this folder. It tells me the path is not valid.


Any ideas?


Answer



Just shorten the names of the folders the undeletable folder resides in so the whole path has a maximum of around 250 Charakters. Then you should be able to delete it.


Example:


If the last folder can not be delted:


C:\folder1xxxxxxxx\folder2xxxxxx\folder3xxxxx\lastfolder


Now you should be able to delete it:


C:\folder1\folder2\folder3\lastfolder


windows - Dual-booting RAID 1


I have three drives: two 1TB hard disks, one 120GB SSD. I want to install Ubuntu (preferably, but justified alternatives are fine) and Windows 7 on the SSD, and have them both read from the other two drives as a mirrored RAID pair (RAID-1). These drives do not need to be bootable, just accessible from both OSs (and properly mirrored on both.)


I've had a good look through my bios, and there's no support there, and I'd rather not go out and get a hardware card. Another SU post suggested just setting up the 1TB disks as mirrored volumes in Windows 7, and seemed to suggest that would just work, but Ubuntu ignores that completely, and seems to show the drives as independent disks, which happen to have the same thing on them, and that is not a good solution.


TL;DR: Does anybody know how to set up software RAID-1 data disks that work from both Windows 7 and Ubuntu?


Answer



I found a solution in the end! Steps:



  • Install everything and get it working on the boot drive.

  • Go into Administrative Tools in windows, dig about a bit, and find the disk management section. From there, select one of the drives and set it up to mirror onto the other. It should demand that it become a dynamic disk; that's fine. It'll also probably want to format, that's fine too.

  • Go into linux and install mdadm.

  • From there, run 'mdadm --build /dev/md0 --level=1 --raid-devices=2 /dev/DRIVE1 /dev/DRIVE2', replacing DRIVE1 and DRIVE2 with the ids of partitions that windows has created.

  • Try and mount /dev/md0 somewhere, and make sure it works (will require NTFS drivers, but I think they're everywhere now anyway)

  • Rock out.


To do this at boot, you'll want to add the mdadm command to rc.local, or similar. Since this is NTFS you'll get partition issues, but you can mostly just ignore them. I'm just mounting the whole partition as my home directory, with uid=me,gid=me,umask=0077, and that's very usable.


Essentially with this you've built a RAID with no metadata on the relevant drives, they just happen to be in sync, and each of the OSs tries to keep them in sync as they go. This is not a perfect solution: Linux goes through both drives everytime you boot to check they match, which seems wasteful, and Windows likely does similar. Nonetheless, it does work, and if any drive ever fails (look up mdadm, there's lots of ways to tell, or even to get it to email you) you'll still have all your data, perfectly intact.


mac - Install Windows on a MacBook Prod legally




I have a MacBook pro retina, and I want to buy and install a Windows 7 on (in a bootcamp partition and/or virtualized via VirtualBox). However, I do not know how to get it legally in a non-physical format.



I could buy the Windows box in a store, but it has a DVD, and my Mac does not have DVD player. Thus, this is not an option.



I cannot find any Windows distribution in a USB drive or a way to download a ISO legally.



My question is where can I buy a Windows license and use it for my Mac.



In other companies and there is a place to download the ISO or installers that you already paid for. For example IBM with PassportAdvantage, or Oracle with OTN.


Answer




What Jamie says is quite right. To buy the key, you can use Sofway who will send you the key and download links via email. They are perfectly legit, I'm not from them but have used them in the past.



EDIT: Alternatively just install windows 7 by using the links above, then when it asks for product key in the setup, just press enter, which will give you a 30 day trial. Then after the install, windows will ask you to buy windows 7, and take you to their website.


Laptop randomly shuts down after latest Windows 10 update

Since the latest update of Windows 10 my computer decides to randomly shut down after every couple of minutes. First the screen goes black, then the sounds stops and after quite a while the power also goes down.


Obviously I though of cleaning the fan with a big vacuum, as suggested on My Windows 10 Computer Randomly Shuts Down . However, after doing this, the shutting down goes even quicker. I cannot even properly log-on before the shutdown takes place.


What should be my next step?


Ps. The computer is quited aged (roughly 3 - 4 years). The battery is dead enough such that I always need to have it plugged in an outlet. It might just be "done for" but I'm hoping to revive it for just a little bit more.

windows 7 - Removing BOOTMGR from USB flash drive


Got 8GB flash drive. It was formatted to FAT32 and is completely empty, but windows shows that 4KB are in use (once formatted to NTFS windows shows that 54MB are in use).


Used some disk editing software to look inside. Turns out the space is taken by some BOOTMGR. As I understand this is only used if I would be booting something from this flash drive?


Any way to wipe it all? So that after format where would be no used space.


Answer



Sure, here is how to.


Note that the used space could be overhead of the filesystem. Check if formarting to FAT32 reduces the used space.


Friday, February 15, 2019

command line - cmd > attrib - Unable to change attribute

I'm following this tutorial because I'm having problems with the Task Scheduler service:
http://technicallyeasy.net/2010/10/how-to-fix-keyset-does-not-exist-for-scheduled-tasks-in-windows/



Basically (in case the link dies), it says that you should go to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\S-1-5-18 and delete everything that's in there.



Here's the problem I'm having - there is a single file, marked as hidden, system and read-only. The file name is "d42cc0c3858a58db2db37658219e6400_46884bcb-8fba-461e-a2ee-e996218ba78a".
When I try to delete it, I get the following message:
Cannot delete X : Make sure you specifiy the correct path




The file is definitely there, as I can browse to it via Windows Explorer.
I assumed that the problem is the "system" attribute.
I ran
attrib -s "path\to\the\file"



and the output:
Unable to change attribute - "path\to\the\file"



When I try to remove the hidden or read-only attributes instead, I get:
Not resetting system file - "path\to\the\file"



Once again, this is a file, not a folder.
Any ideas greatly appreciated!




PS: OS is Windows Server 2003 r2 x64

windows 10 - Does disabing wuauserv service affect installation of updates?

I want to manually control the launch the Windows Update service on a Windows 10 Home laptop because it runs too frequently, causing high CPU and draining the battery.


The idea is that the the service will be disabled and the user will launch Windows Updates on demand and then once the service has started and it is under way, set the service immediately to Disabled again. This should ensure that once updates are applied, Windows Update will not launch again by itself.


My question is, considering some updates need to reboot the system to complete their installation, would disabling the service in this way cause issues with these updates?


Alternatively, and unfortunately more complicated, is to



  • Set Windows Update service to its own svchost.exe process

  • Launch the service & Check for updates

  • Monitor CPU usage and disable once found it has settled down.


My plan is for the user to launch the update when they go to sleep and hopefully when they wake, the updates will have been done and the service will be disabled.




EDIT:


What I have done so far is to create two VBS scripts. One to stop and disable the service. It runs automatically at logon with elevated privileges through the Task Scheduler.


The second script enables the service and starts it. Then the GUI is presented to the user to click "Check for Updates". This way they can keep an eye on it. I will have her launch the second script once a week, probably weekends when she goes to sleep. Reboots should occur automatically.

partitioning - Dual booting: 0xc000000e Windows Error when installing GRUB


Hi everyone!
This is my first question so correct me please if I´m asking something wrong.


So my Problem is:
I´ve got a Lenovo E31-70 with pre-installed Windows 10 home 64bit and I tried to dual-boot Kali Linux on it.
First I´ve created an Partition with 100GB. Than I installed Kali Linux and the GRUB loader from an .iso image from an USB. The Installation was working fine and finally I had all installed.Then I tried to boot Windows and I got a boot error, but Linux was working well.
For some reason i cannot upload an photo of the error, but:


File: \Boot\BCD
Status: 0xc000000e
Info: The Boot Configurations Data for your PC is missing or contains errors.

After a bit searching I found that: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/0xc000000e-boot-error/ef08ab00-e130-4301-bc80-79d5b414a81f?auth=1
THE SECOND ANSWER


So I downloaden an Windows 10 .iso on my USB, started Windows repair, and wrote
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /rebuildbcd


All worked fine, Windows was completly restored,
but when I restarted the PC, GRUB doesn´t appear!
I´ve tried restarting the Notebook several times, with the same result.


Than I found this solution: https://forums.kali.org/showthread.php?20559-How-To-Repair-Kali-Linux-Grub-With-Kali-Linux-Live-Cd-Dual-Boot-With-Windows-7


Again all worked fine. When I rebooted the Notebook, GRUB appeared. I thought it was the end... It wasn´t.
Because when I´ve tried to start Windows, I got the same 0xc000000e Error again.


NOTE:
Fast boot is turned off
Boot Mode is legacy(can switch to UEFI)


Conclusion:
When repairing Windows, GRUB doesn´t appear.
When repairing GRUB, Windows boot error.


I guess that GRUB is overriding Windows boot data...


[EDIT]
I can boot windows if i switch to UEFI. The problem is: I don´t want to switch in BIOS from UEFI to Legacy every time i need to boot another OS. Is there any way to boot Windows 10 in legacy or start GRUB in UEFI?


Answer



Most pre-installed Windows 10 use uefi with secure boot. I'm not very sure if kali supports secure boot or not but it definitely supports uefi.


Also it seems that you are installing kali in legacy. For GRUB to appear, both os must be in either legacy or uefi.


1 : Restore you windows 10 using the steps you already mentioned.


2 : Disable secure boot from bios.


3 : Install kali in uefi (not legacy).


Now GRUB should appear.


P.S : You don't need to turn off fast boot. Also you don't need windows 10 iso specifically to repair windows. It can be done using win 7 or win 8.1 iso.


windows - is it a good idea to change a recovery partition from primary to logical? [HP laptop]


I have a new HP laptop, model dv6-6c85la, with 1TB hard drive, and it has 4 primary partitions, like this:


|<- system [199 MB] ->|<- c: [899.8 GB] ->|<- d:(recovery) [27.5 GB] ->|<- e:(hp_tools) [4 GB] ->|


I wanted to make another partition, splitting "C" which is the main partition, into TWO partitions, and leave the rest as it is. but it doesn't let me because they are already 4 primary partitions (the ones in the diagram).


I read somewhere, that i could in fact split C into 2 partitions, but only if the adjacent partition (in this case d:(recovery) is converted into a "logical" partition. That way, the new unallocated part taken from C, and the recovery partition, would each be logical, "inside" an extended partition (right???)


As i understand, the resulting partitions would be:



  1. primary (system, no letter),

  2. primary (c:),

  3. extended [ logical (x:) | logical(d:recovery) ],

  4. primary (e: hp_tools)


"x" being the new one. am i correct?


My question is, if i do convert the recovery partition to logical (and thus, it is inside an extended partition adjacent to the new "x:" one), would i have any problems when in case of a disaster i would like to restore the system using the now logical instead of primary RECOVERY partition?


Or it is completely safe to change it to logical? My main concern is because i think i may need to be primary so the recovery can proceed in boot time? Or i am completely wrong? how does the recovery process happens?


I also understand that i can simply create recovery media, in DVDs, and then even i would be able to delete that recovery partition completely, but as of now, i don't want to do that. I may create the disks, but i don't want to delete the partition, simply because it would be a lot faster and easier to recover from a hard drive than disks.


Wrapping up: if i change a recovery partition from primary to logical, will the system still be capable of using it to recover? or it NEEDS to be primary to work?


The whole point is that i want to split C:, but as things are, i cant directly, i'd need to change the recovery partition to logical. Or is there another way?


thanks.


Answer



See this article on how to make a 5th partition properly without losing any functionality of any of the partitions partition.


Back up data and Make your Recovery media before you start changing partition structure.


I would also make this disc


hard drive - Leaving bad sectors in unformatted partition?

Laptop was acting really weird, and copy and seek times were really slow, so I decided to scan the hard drive surface. I have a couple hundr...