Dec 17, 2007
Sometimes SD cards get corrupted. More accurately, sometimes the files on SD cards — and even the file system itself, which tells the thing that the SD card is plugged into where the files are — get corrupted.
You’d think SD cards and other kinds of solid state flash memory would be incorruptible. Although it doesn’t happen often, flash memory (unfortunately) isn’t immune to this. In the world of digital photography you’ll find lots of apps that rescue photos from corrupted flash memory cards for this reason.
If you ever find that Kinoma Player isn’t seeing all of your files on your SD card, try this first:
To reduce your chances of SD card corruption:
You’d think SD cards and other kinds of solid state flash memory would be incorruptible. Although it doesn’t happen often, flash memory (unfortunately) isn’t immune to this. In the world of digital photography you’ll find lots of apps that rescue photos from corrupted flash memory cards for this reason.
If you ever find that Kinoma Player isn’t seeing all of your files on your SD card, try this first:
- Make an new folder on your Desktop.
- Using an SD card reader (or a utility like Softick Card Export II), copy the contents of the card to the new folder. If you have problems copying a specific folder, copy the files and folders within that folder one by one until you find the culprit.
- Format the SD card, which I recommend doing on your device. To do this, launch Card Info and select Format Card from the Card menu.
- Copy the files from the folder on your Desktop back to your card.
To reduce your chances of SD card corruption:
- Use high-quality, name-brand SD cards
- Avoid software that causes device instability
Dec 8, 2007
If you spend a lot of time on WorldStart's message board or if you read a lot of online articles, you have probably already heard about this, but just in case some of you haven't, I wanted to fill you in. This was brought to my attention by one of our message board users, "jholland1964," and after doing some more research on it, I found several other news pieces on it as well. This whole thing was discovered about a week ago (November 11, 2007) and even though I'm a little behind on getting this story to you, here's the full scoop!
Over last weekend, approximately 1,800 new external hard drives were found to have been pre-installed with Trojan horse malwares. The two infections found go by the names of "autorun.inf" and "ghost.pif." These external hard drives were both the 300 GB and 500 GB sizes and they were originally made for a company called Maxtor in Thailand. When the hard drives are in use, all of the information on the disk is forwarded to two different Web sites in China: www.nice8.org and www.we168.org. The hackers can then take the information off the drive and use it however they please.
From what I've read, it looks like a company in China has been pin-pointed as the leader of this attack, but there have even been implications that the Chinese government is behind the Trojans. There have been reports of this same type of thing for Maxtor disks sold in the Netherlands as well. Now, I know this is only happening in China and a few other select countries, but that doesn't mean it could happen to you too. If you're in the market to buy a new external hard drive, just make sure you're purchasing it from a reputable source. Also, before you start using it, it's a good idea to reformat the drive and make sure it's clear of any "bad stuff." If you do that, you will be just fine. Let's just hope this whole malware issue gets cleared up sooner than later. Stay safe out there!
Over last weekend, approximately 1,800 new external hard drives were found to have been pre-installed with Trojan horse malwares. The two infections found go by the names of "autorun.inf" and "ghost.pif." These external hard drives were both the 300 GB and 500 GB sizes and they were originally made for a company called Maxtor in Thailand. When the hard drives are in use, all of the information on the disk is forwarded to two different Web sites in China: www.nice8.org and www.we168.org. The hackers can then take the information off the drive and use it however they please.
From what I've read, it looks like a company in China has been pin-pointed as the leader of this attack, but there have even been implications that the Chinese government is behind the Trojans. There have been reports of this same type of thing for Maxtor disks sold in the Netherlands as well. Now, I know this is only happening in China and a few other select countries, but that doesn't mean it could happen to you too. If you're in the market to buy a new external hard drive, just make sure you're purchasing it from a reputable source. Also, before you start using it, it's a good idea to reformat the drive and make sure it's clear of any "bad stuff." If you do that, you will be just fine. Let's just hope this whole malware issue gets cleared up sooner than later. Stay safe out there!
If you've gotten a new computer in the last few years, it more than likely came with USB ports. If you're not sure, USB ports are the little slots on either the front or back of your computer that you can use to plug in certain devices, such as a flash drive or digital camera. USB ports come in two different speeds: 2.0 and 1.0, with 2.0 being faster. Most newer PCs have the 2.0 speed, but if you purchased yours quite awhile ago, you may have the 1.0 speed. So, if you've ever wondered which speed you have, keep reading to learn how you can find out!
To get to your computer's USB area, you need to right click on the My Computer icon on your desktop and choose Properties. Next, click on the Hardware tab and then hit the Device Manager button. When that new window opens, scroll down to the very bottom where it says Universal Serial Bus controllers. Click on the plus sign (+) next to that and all of your USB information will come up. You may have quite a few listings or you may only have a few. It just depends on how many ports came with your computer and if you've added any yourself.
If you see one that says something like "USB Enhanced Host Controller," that means you have the 2.0 speed. The "Enhanced" part is what sets the 2.0 apart from the slower speed. On my computer, that entry was the very last one, so make sure you look through your whole list before you make any assumptions. Also, just for your information, if one of your USB ports is 2.0, it's likely that all of your ports will be the same. That goes for the 1.0 speed as well. Most computers don't come with two different port speeds. So, tell me, how does it feel to know what kind of USB speed your PC is running? Pretty darn good, huh? Check yours out today!
To get to your computer's USB area, you need to right click on the My Computer icon on your desktop and choose Properties. Next, click on the Hardware tab and then hit the Device Manager button. When that new window opens, scroll down to the very bottom where it says Universal Serial Bus controllers. Click on the plus sign (+) next to that and all of your USB information will come up. You may have quite a few listings or you may only have a few. It just depends on how many ports came with your computer and if you've added any yourself.
If you see one that says something like "USB Enhanced Host Controller," that means you have the 2.0 speed. The "Enhanced" part is what sets the 2.0 apart from the slower speed. On my computer, that entry was the very last one, so make sure you look through your whole list before you make any assumptions. Also, just for your information, if one of your USB ports is 2.0, it's likely that all of your ports will be the same. That goes for the 1.0 speed as well. Most computers don't come with two different port speeds. So, tell me, how does it feel to know what kind of USB speed your PC is running? Pretty darn good, huh? Check yours out today!
Dec 7, 2007
Have you ever needed to open, move or delete several files all at one time? Well, if you have, I can show you a few techniques on how to select those files much faster and easier than what you may have done in the past. Let’s get to it, shall we?!
First off, I will show you how to open a couple files at the same time. You can start by locating the files you wish to open, preferably in your My Documents folder. Once you've found them, click once on the first file and then move your cursor to the last one, but don’t click yet! Before you click, hold down the Shift key on your keyboard and then finally, double click the last file. When you double click the last file, your files should pop up together, as shown here:
The second method I’m going to show you is for opening large groups of files at the same time. It's similar to the first technique, but it is slightly different, so be sure to pay attention! First, click once on the first file and then move your cursor to the next one. Next, hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard and then click your mouse through the whole list of files. Be sure to hold the Ctrl key down until you have finished selecting all of the files. Once you've finished choosing your files, you can go ahead and double click on the very last one. Just like before, all of those files will pop up together, as shown here:
Now, you can do a few other things with both of these techniques. You can drag them into another folder, to your hard drive or even to the Recycling Bin. If you can’t see the folder you want to put them in, cut them by right clicking on any file in the selection and choosing Cut from the shortcut menu. Then just navigate to the folder you want to put the files into, right click on it again and select Paste.
You can now open your files much faster than ever before.
First off, I will show you how to open a couple files at the same time. You can start by locating the files you wish to open, preferably in your My Documents folder. Once you've found them, click once on the first file and then move your cursor to the last one, but don’t click yet! Before you click, hold down the Shift key on your keyboard and then finally, double click the last file. When you double click the last file, your files should pop up together, as shown here:
The second method I’m going to show you is for opening large groups of files at the same time. It's similar to the first technique, but it is slightly different, so be sure to pay attention! First, click once on the first file and then move your cursor to the next one. Next, hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard and then click your mouse through the whole list of files. Be sure to hold the Ctrl key down until you have finished selecting all of the files. Once you've finished choosing your files, you can go ahead and double click on the very last one. Just like before, all of those files will pop up together, as shown here:
Now, you can do a few other things with both of these techniques. You can drag them into another folder, to your hard drive or even to the Recycling Bin. If you can’t see the folder you want to put them in, cut them by right clicking on any file in the selection and choosing Cut from the shortcut menu. Then just navigate to the folder you want to put the files into, right click on it again and select Paste.
You can now open your files much faster than ever before.
Here's one for those of you who still use floppy disks! As you probably know, after awhile, floppies can become damaged or corrupted. That's especially true if you don’t have a case or something to protect them with. The shutter on the disk, along with the ribbon and some of the other components, may become damaged, which can cause the disk to stop working properly. It can also cause errors on the disk. Luckily, there are some things you can do to see what's going on with your floppy disk before it gets any worse.
The Disk Error Check will check your floppy for errors, the Defragment feature will make it easy and faster to access your files and the Formatting function will help clear up some of your available space. By performing all of these procedures on a regular basis, you will be able to get a lot more life out of your floppy disk. Here's how!
Disk Error Check
To check for errors on one of your floppy disks, put it into your floppy disk drive and double click on the My Computer icon on your desktop. Once you get there, right click on the 3.5 Floppy (A:) disk drive and select Properties. Click on the Tools tab and then click Check Now.
A little window will pop up with a few choices for you: "Check Disk 3.5 Floppy for Disk Options," "Check Both the Automatically Fix File System Errors" and "Scan for and Attempt Recovery of Bad Sector Boxes." Once you've made your choice, just click the Start button. There are four phases the disk checker goes through to give you complete and accurate results.
Formatting
If you have a new floppy disk that is showing up as a full disk or an older disk and it has no available space, you need to reformat it. To do so, go back to the 3.5 Floppy (A:) disk drive icon and right click it. Next, go to Format and the Format 3.5 Floppy A: window will come up. You can leave everything as it is, except for the Format Options. In that section, click Quick Format and then press Start. A caution window will come up, stating that reformatting the disk will erase all of your data. Go ahead and click Yes or OK to that. When the reformat is done, you will receive a Format Complete window, telling you that the formatting process is complete. Simply press OK to close it out.
Defragment
The Defragment tools will make it easy and faster for you to access the files on your floppy disk by rearranging them and saving the data in a color coded method. Again, go back to the 3.5 Floppy (A:) disk drive icon, right click on it and choose Properties. Next, click the Tools tab and then click Defragment Now. The Disk Defragmenter window will come up for you. From there, click on the (A :) choice, if it's not already selected. Then click on the Analyze button and give it a few seconds to run through its scan. A report will then come up for you and you can View, Print or Save the results. The report will show you the exact files and data that are going to be moved. Once you're done looking over the results, click Close and on the Disk Defragmenter window, click Defragment After the Defragmentation process is done, a final report will come up, showing you exactly how much space and files have been compressed. You can either View, Print or Save the results for future reference as well.
The next time your floppy disk takes all day to pull up your files and data, it shows a full disk that should have some available space or it appears to be corrupt, try one these methods to get more out of your floppy disk and correct the problem. I hope this has been helpful to you!
The Disk Error Check will check your floppy for errors, the Defragment feature will make it easy and faster to access your files and the Formatting function will help clear up some of your available space. By performing all of these procedures on a regular basis, you will be able to get a lot more life out of your floppy disk. Here's how!
Disk Error Check
To check for errors on one of your floppy disks, put it into your floppy disk drive and double click on the My Computer icon on your desktop. Once you get there, right click on the 3.5 Floppy (A:) disk drive and select Properties. Click on the Tools tab and then click Check Now.
A little window will pop up with a few choices for you: "Check Disk 3.5 Floppy for Disk Options," "Check Both the Automatically Fix File System Errors" and "Scan for and Attempt Recovery of Bad Sector Boxes." Once you've made your choice, just click the Start button. There are four phases the disk checker goes through to give you complete and accurate results.
Formatting
If you have a new floppy disk that is showing up as a full disk or an older disk and it has no available space, you need to reformat it. To do so, go back to the 3.5 Floppy (A:) disk drive icon and right click it. Next, go to Format and the Format 3.5 Floppy A: window will come up. You can leave everything as it is, except for the Format Options. In that section, click Quick Format and then press Start. A caution window will come up, stating that reformatting the disk will erase all of your data. Go ahead and click Yes or OK to that. When the reformat is done, you will receive a Format Complete window, telling you that the formatting process is complete. Simply press OK to close it out.
Defragment
The Defragment tools will make it easy and faster for you to access the files on your floppy disk by rearranging them and saving the data in a color coded method. Again, go back to the 3.5 Floppy (A:) disk drive icon, right click on it and choose Properties. Next, click the Tools tab and then click Defragment Now. The Disk Defragmenter window will come up for you. From there, click on the (A :) choice, if it's not already selected. Then click on the Analyze button and give it a few seconds to run through its scan. A report will then come up for you and you can View, Print or Save the results. The report will show you the exact files and data that are going to be moved. Once you're done looking over the results, click Close and on the Disk Defragmenter window, click Defragment After the Defragmentation process is done, a final report will come up, showing you exactly how much space and files have been compressed. You can either View, Print or Save the results for future reference as well.
The next time your floppy disk takes all day to pull up your files and data, it shows a full disk that should have some available space or it appears to be corrupt, try one these methods to get more out of your floppy disk and correct the problem. I hope this has been helpful to you!
Dec 1, 2007
To make manual inspection and removal more difficult, malware often disables access to Task Manager. Fortunately, a few quick Registry edits are usually all that are needed to regain control. Here's how.
Here's How:
Here's How:
- Click Start
- Click Run
- Type REGEDIT
- Click OK The Registry Editor will now open
- Browse to the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\system - In the right pane, look for the value: DisableTaskMgr
- Right click DisableTaskMgr and select Delete. (When prompted with "Are you sure you want to delete this value", select Yes.
- Now browse to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system - In the right pane, look for the value: DisableTaskMgr
- Right click DisableTaskMgr and select Delete. (When prompted with "Are you sure you want to delete this value", select Yes.
- Close the Registry by choosing File | Exit
- You should now be able to access the Registry. If not, reboot into Safe Mode and repeat the steps outlined above.
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