[SoftRatty] tag: disk

ANDREW 1.3 (Default branch)

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 06:47:03 +0000

ANDREW's Not a DVD Ripping and Encoding Wizard, but an interactive command-line interface that simplifies the use of some programs to create AVI, Matroska, or OGM files from DVDs. ANDREW works on-the-fly or with ripped DVDs; handles progressive, telecine, and interlaced NTSC and PAL formats; encodes an entire title or a few chapters only; splits movies into several files or encodes them by target size or video bit rate; supports AVI, Matroska, and OGM containers; controls needed disk space availability; and more.

License: GNU General Public License v3

Changes:
This release fixes a number of bugs and adds some new features, such as AVI container support; manual audio selection mode and video resolution selection modes; video bit rate creation mode; and support for low resolution, pan and scan, and DVD-SVCD format. ANDREW is now released under GLPv3.

Copy URL To Clipboard When Copying Text In Firefox

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 20:18:26 +0000

Quoting text on a website usually requires to include the url of the website the quote was found. Some webmasters prefer not to do this but visitors like the possibility to check the source for additional information to research the topic further. And sometimes it comes in handy to check if the article on one site is actually putting the quote into the right context.

The small Firefox add-on Quote URL Text adds a new entry to the context menu of the web browser. The Quote Text entry can be used to copy the selected text and the url of the page to the Clipboard. This saves the step of having to copy the url separately when quoting text on a web page.

The Firefox add-on comes with a few options to include additional information like the title of the page and the date the page was visited. There is even a separate tab for advanced formatting options which allows for additional format changes.

The add-on seems to have a bug when pressing the context menu entry without having selected text before. The error does not have any bad effects though other than having to click on the OK button to get rid of it.

It would be nice if the developer of the add-on would include a few more options. Some interesting ones would be the use of a url shortening service and the ability to add html code to the formatting. One could for instance create a valid html link pointing to the url of the page with the link as the anchor.

Copy URL To Clipboard When Copying Text In Firefox

Tags: copy url, firefox, firefox tips, firefox-add on, mozilla-firefox, quote url, quote url text

Moving The Firefox Disk Cache To Another Drive

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:37:00 +0000

The Firefox disk cache is usually located on the same drive that Firefox got installed. In Windows it is located in the Documents and Settings folder. It usually is a good idea to have temporary directories located on a fast hard drive. In this case the hard drive that Firefox was running on was a Solid State Disk which is usually not the best choice for lots of write operations since those drives read data fast but write them rather slowly.

The main reason for moving the Firefox disk cache is therefor performance. Security could be another reason. The disk cache could for instance be moved to an encrypted part of the hard drive, a removable drive or ram disk.

The location of the the Firefox disk cache cannot be changed in the Firefox settings. The only way is to add a new parameter in the about:config dialog to change the location of the Firefox disk cache.

Type about:config in the Firefox address bar:

Right-click and select New > String from the menu. Enter browser.cache.disk.parent_directory as the preference name and the new path to the cache location, for example d:\temp

Opera users can practically do the same by typing in opera:config#UserPrefs|CacheDirectory4 and changing the preference there.

Internet Explorer users can simply change the location in the Tools > Internet Options by clicking on the Settings button under Browsing History.

Moving The Firefox Disk Cache To Another Drive

Tags: disk cache, firefox cache, firefox disk cache, firefox tips, internet explorer disk cache, mozilla-firefox, opera disk cache, web browser

How to determine where all your hard drive space has gone in Windows

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:12:57 +0000

WinDirStat (short for Windows Directory Statistics) is a “disk usage viewer” that can help you visualize your used hard drive space. This allows you to track down which directories and file types are taking up the most space. Also, it’s a fun thing to see! You can download it here. WinDirStat runs on “all current variants” of Windows.

As seen in the image below, in the upper-right window, flac files are taking up the most space (compared to all other file types) on my hard drive.

click to enlarge

After you run WinDirStat, you will be presented with an option between showing all your drives, individual drives, or even a folder. After you select a drive it begins scanning. This may take a few minutes, but you get a nice pac-man looking animation by your folders.

There is a lot you can do inside WinDirStat. You can browse through all of your folders and the files will be outlined in the visualization. Moving your mouse over a block in the visualization will display the file’s path and name in the lower left corner, and you can even delete files right in WinDirStat!

click to enlarge

This application is mainly just for fun, but it can also be useful for tracking down big files. Just make sure not to delete any important files!

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Related Articles at Simple Help:

How to determine where all your hard drive space has gone in Windows - Simple Help

Monitorix 1.2.2 (Default branch)

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 06:18:12 +0000

Monitorix is a lightweight monitoring tool designed to monitor as many services as it can. At this time, it monitors from the CPU load and temperatures to the users on the system. Network device activity, network service demand, and even the devices' interrupt activity are also monitored. It uses RRDtool as its logging and graphing back-end. The current status of any corporate UNIX/Linux server with Monitorix installed can be accessed via a Web browser.

License: GNU General Public License (GPL)

Changes:
A missing "/" when removing /var/www/monitorix in the un_install.sh script was fixed. More than three network devices are now accepted. There were some parts that were not correctly upgraded to five. The parameter -w during the hddtemp call was added just to make sure that it will awaken the disk (if needed). The .sh extension and the she-bang in the crond script were removed for all Linux distributions, although problems were experienced only in the Debian based ones. More fixes and some enhancements were made.

Download Microsoft Virtual PC SP1

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 05:52:23 +0000

Microsoft Virtual PC is a powerful software virtualization solution that allows you to run multiple PC-based operating systems simultaneously on one workstation, providing a safety net to maintain compatibility with legacy applications while you migrate to a new operating system. It also saves reconfiguration time, so your support, development, and training staff can work more efficiently. Use virtual machines to run operating systems such as MS-DOS, Windows, and OS/2.

You can run multiple operating systems at once on a single physical computer and switch between them as easily as switching applications-instantly like virtual machine, with a mouse click. Virtual PC is perfect for any scenario in which you need to support multiple operating systems (in virtual system), whether you use it for tech support, legacy application support, training, or just for consolidating physical computers.

Here are some key features of “Microsoft Virtual PC”:

Configurability
· After installing Virtual PC, you can configure it to suit your requirements. Virtual PC has a number of settings that control how the product interacts with the physical computer, allocates resources, and so on.

Easy installation
· Virtual PC is simple to install. Any administrator can run the Virtual PC guided setup program, and installation doesn’t require a reboot. The first time Virtual PC starts, it guides you through the process of creating the first virtual machine.

Standardization
· Configure and test upgrades and installations on virtual machines, and then you can deploy throughout your company a standard configuration that avoids problems caused by minor differences between hardware platforms.

Convenience
· Users switch between operating systems as easily as they switch between applications. They simply click the window containing the virtual machine. They can pause individual virtual machines so they stop using CPU cycles on the physical computer. They can also save virtual machines to disk and restore them at a later time. The restoration process normally takes a few seconds-much faster than restarting the guest operating system.

Host integration
· Users can copy, paste, drag, and drop between guest and host. Virtual PC provides additions that you install in a guest operating system to enable this functionality.

Freeware Collection

Download Microsoft Virtual PC SP1

AgileWiki 10.3.3 (Element Model branch)

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 05:35:03 +0000

AgileWiki is an SDK for assembling software systems which are fluid, easily configured and can be reorganized on-the-fly to meet ever changing requirements. It includes a COW-based database, the Rolonics programming paradigm, and semantic inferencing.

License: Common Public License

Changes:
Freed disk blocks are no longer reused in the same transaction, with a substantial increase in overall robustness.

My computer running slow

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:36:00 +0000

If your computer is running slow, you might need to read this free tips on how to fix the problem. There are 23 easy-to-follow tips and tricks to speed up the sluggish PC. The e book covers these topics and steps on how to do it:

1. Controller Devices
2. RAM (Random Access Memory) Upgrade
3. NTFS
4. File Indexing
5. Video and Drivers updates
6. Emptying the prefetch folders
7. Disk Cleanup
8. Defragmenting
9. Cabling Upgrade
10. Removing spy ware, ad ware, Trojan
11. Removing Unnecessary Items on Windows Start Up
12. Removing unused program completely together with traces and debris the software left behind.
13. Turn Off animations and disable active desktop
14. Registry tweak
15. Anti Virus
16. Updating Windows
17. Fonts
18. Do Not partition the hard drive. Learn why.
19. RAM Check
20. CD or DVD Recorder Updates
21. Disable unnecessary services
22. Computer Cleaning
23. Windows Explorer Crash how to fix.

Learn how to speed up your slow computer by downloading this free ebook safe download.

Computer Crash

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:26:00 +0000

Top 10 reasons for computer crash. Your computer pop ups something on the screen – Fatal error: the system has become unstable or is busy. If you click Enter to return to Windows or press the Control-Alt-Delete buttons to restart your computer, you will lose any unsaved works and information in all application that still open.

When you face the Blue Screen of Death, what do you have to do? How to prevent computer crash from happening again?

Conflict Between Hardware

Top reason for Windows system crashes is confliction of hardware. Each hardware device in your computer communicates to other devices though IRQ or interrupt request channel. These channels are formed to be unique for each device.

For instance, a printer often a printer connects internally on IRQ 7 and the keyboard uses IRQ1. Each item will try to keep a single IRQ channel for itself.

The conflict starts when devices in a computer are not installed properly as two of the devices might share the same IRQ channel. Crash happens when you try to use both devices that share the same IRQ number. One step to check if hardware conflict happens in your PC is through the following way:

Go to Start. Then click Settings. Choose Control Panel. Then click on System. Select Device Manager.

Usually there is a yellow exclamation mark (!) appears next to a problematic device. Highlight computer (in Device Manager) and click Properties to see the IRQ numbers used by your PC. If two devices using the same channel, the IRQ number appears twice.

Sometimes a device might share an IRQ with something described as 'IRQ holder for PCI steering'. This can be ignored. The best way to fix this problem is to remove the problem device and reinstall it.

Sometimes you may have to find more recent drivers on the internet to make the device function properly. A good resource is www.driverguide.com. If the device is a soundcard, or a modem, it can often be fixed by moving it to a different slot on the motherboard (be careful about opening your computer, as you may void the warranty).

When working inside a computer you should switch it off, unplug the mains lead and touch an unpainted metal surface to discharge any static electricity.

To be fair to Mcft, the problem with IRQ numbers is not of its making. It is a legacy problem going back to the first PC designs using the IBM 8086 chip. Initially there were only eight IRQs. Today there are 16 IRQs in a PC. It is easy to run out of them. There are plans to increase the number of IRQs in future designs.

Bad Ram (Random Access Memory)

Ram problems might bring on the blue screen of death with a message saying Fatal Exception Error. A fatal error indicates a serious hardware problem. Sometimes it may mean a part is damaged and will need replacing.

But a fatal error caused by Ram might be caused by a mismatch of chips. For example, mixing 70-nanosecond (70ns) Ram with 60ns Ram will usually force the computer to run all the Ram at the slower speed. This will often crash the machine if the Ram is overworked.

One way around this problem is to enter the BIOS settings and increase the wait state of the Ram. This can make it more stable. Another way to troubleshoot a suspected Ram problem is to rearrange the Ram chips on the motherboard, or take some of them out. Then try to repeat the circumstances that caused the crash. When handling Ram try not to touch the gold connections, as they can be easily damaged.

Parity error messages also refer to Ram. Modern Ram chips are either parity (ECC) or non parity (non-ECC). It is best not to mix the two types, as this can be a cause of trouble.

EMM386 error messages refer to memory problems but may not be connected to bad Ram. This may be due to free memory problems often linked to old Dos-based programmes.

BIOS settings

Every motherboard is supplied with a range of chipset settings that are decided in the factory. A common way to access these settings is to press the F2 or delete button during the first few seconds of a boot-up.

Once inside the BIOS, great care should be taken. It is a good idea to write down on a piece of paper all the settings that appear on the screen. That way, if you change something and the computer becomes more unstable, you will know what settings to revert to.

A common BIOS error concerns the CAS latency. This refers to the Ram. Older EDO (extended data out) Ram has a CAS latency of 3. Newer SDRam has a CAS latency of 2. Setting the wrong figure can cause the Ram to lock up and freeze the computer's display.

Mcft Windows is better at allocating IRQ numbers than any BIOS. If possible set the IRQ numbers to Auto in the BIOS. This will allow Windows to allocate the IRQ numbers (make sure the BIOS setting for Plug and Play OS is switched to 'yes' to allow Windows to do this.).

Hard disk drives

After a few weeks, the information on a hard disk drive starts to become piecemeal or fragmented. It is a good idea to defragment the hard disk every week or so, to prevent the disk from causing a screen freeze. Go to

Start. Select Programs. Then click on Accessories. Then choose System Tool. Then click on Disk Defragmenter.

This will start the procedure. You will be unable to write data to the hard drive (to save it) while the disk is defragmenting, so it is a good idea to schedule the procedure for a period of inactivity using the Task Scheduler.

The Task Scheduler should be one of the small icons on the bottom right of the Windows opening page (the desktop).

Some lockups and screen freezes caused by hard disk problems can be solved by reducing the read-ahead optimisation. This can be adjusted by going to

Click on Start. Then choose Settings. Then Control Panel. Go to System Icon. Then to Performance. Select File System. Choose Hard Disk.

Hard disks will slow down and crash if they are too full. Do some housekeeping on your hard drive every few months and free some space on it. Open the Windows folder on the C drive and find the Temporary Internet Files folder. Deleting the contents (not the folder) can free a lot of space.

Empty the Recycle Bin every week to free more space. Hard disk drives should be scanned every week for errors or bad sectors. Go to

Go to Start. Select Programs. Then Accessories. Click on System Tools. Choose Scan Disk.

Otherwise assign the Task Scheduler to perform this operation at night when the computer is not in use.

Fatal OE exceptions and VXD errors

Fatal OE exception errors and VXD errors are often caused by video card problems.
These can often be resolved easily by reducing the resolution of the video display.

Go to Start. Choose Settings. Click on Control Panel. Click on Display. Choose Settings.

Here you should slide the screen area bar to the left. Take a look at the colour settings on the left of that window. For most desktops, high colour 16-bit depth is adequate.

If the screen freezes or you experience system lockups it might be due to the video card. Make sure it does not have a hardware conflict.

Go to Start. Select Settings. Choose Control Panel. Click on System. Choose Device Manager.

Here, select the + beside Display Adapter. A line of text describing your video card should appear. Select it (make it blue) and press properties. Then select Resources and select each line in the window. Look for a message that says No Conflicts.

If you have video card hardware conflict, you will see it here. Be careful at this point and make a note of everything you do in case you make things worse.

The way to resolve a hardware conflict is to uncheck the Use Automatic Settings box and hit the Change Settings button. You are searching for a setting that will display a No Conflicts message.

Another useful way to resolve video problems is to go to

* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Performance-Graphics

Here you should move the Hardware Acceleration slider to the left. As ever, the most common cause of problems relating to graphics cards is old or faulty drivers (a driver is a small piece of software used by a computer to communicate with a device).

Look up your video card's manufacturer on the internet and search for the most recent drivers for it.

Viruses

Often the first sign of a virus infection is instability. Some viruses erase the boot sector of a hard drive, making it impossible to start. This is why it is a good idea to create a Windows start-up disk. Go to

* Start-Settings-Control Panel-Add/Remove Programs

Here, look for the Start Up Disk tab. Virus protection requires constant vigilance.

A virus scanner requires a list of virus signatures in order to be able to identify viruses. These signatures are stored in a DAT file. DAT files should be updated weekly from the website of your anti virus software manufacturer.

An excellent anti virus program is AVG which you can get it for free for non-commercial usage.

Printers

The action of sending a document to print creates a bigger file, often called a postscript file.

Printers have only a small amount of memory, called a buffer. This can be easily overloaded. Printing a document also uses a considerable amount of CPU power. This will also slow down the computer's performance.

If the printer is trying to print unusual characters, these might not be recognised, and can crash the computer. Sometimes printers will not recover from a crash because of confusion in the buffer. A good way to clear the buffer is to unplug the printer for ten seconds. Booting up from a powerless state, also called a cold boot, will restore the printer's default settings and you may be able to carry on.

Software

A common cause of computer crash is faulty or badly-installed software. Often the problem can be cured by uninstalling the software and then reinstalling it. Use Norton Uninstall or Uninstall Shield to remove an application from your system properly. This will also remove references to the programme in the System Registry and leaves the way clear for a completely fresh copy.

The System Registry can be corrupted by old references to obsolete software that you thought was uninstalled. Use Reg Cleaner by Jouni Vuorio to clean up the System Registry and remove obsolete entries. It works on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98 SE (Second Edition), Windows Millennium Edition (ME), NT4 and Windows 2000.

Read the instructions and use it carefully so you don't do permanent damage to the Registry. If the Registry is damaged you will have to reinstall your operating system. Reg Cleaner can be obtained from www.jv16.org

Often a Windows problem can be resolved by entering Safe Mode. This can be done during start-up. When you see the message "Starting Windows" press F4. This should take you into Safe Mode.

Safe Mode loads a minimum of drivers. It allows you to find and fix problems that prevent Windows from loading properly.

Sometimes installing Windows is difficult because of unsuitable BIOS settings. If you keep getting SUWIN error messages (Windows setup) during the Windows installation, then try entering the BIOS and disabling the CPU internal cache. Try to disable the Level 2 (L2) cache if that doesn't work.

Remember to restore all the BIOS settings back to their former settings following installation.

Overheating

Central processing units (CPUs) are usually equipped with fans to keep them cool. If the fan fails or if the CPU gets old it may start to overheat and generate a particular kind of error called a kernel error. This is a common problem in chips that have been overclocked to operate at higher speeds than they are supposed to.

One remedy is to get a bigger better fan and install it on top of the CPU. Specialist cooling fans/heatsinks are available from www.computernerd.com or www.coolit.com

CPU problems can often be fixed by disabling the CPU internal cache in the BIOS. This will make the machine run more slowly, but it should also be more stable.

Power supply problems

With all the new construction going on around the country the steady supply of electricity has become disrupted. A power surge or spike can crash a computer as easily as a power cut.

If this has become a nuisance for you then consider buying a uninterrupted power supply (UPS). This will give you a clean power supply when there is electricity, and it will give you a few minutes to perform a controlled shutdown in case of a power cut.

It is a good investment if your data are critical, because a power cut will cause any unsaved data to be lost.

Don't have time to read? Download the PDF version of this post from this link (Reason and How to Prevent Computer Crash).

Free Utility for Easy Hard Drive Cloning

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:22:00 +0000

PC INSPECTOR Clone Maxx is the new professional DOS-based hard drive copying program from CONVAR. Using the new direct DMA support, data can be copied from hard drives in high speed mode with speeds up to 3.3 GB per minute.

This high speed is achieved by PC INSPECTOR™ clone maxx through intelligent inspection of the PC motherboard and the hard drive controller. The software independently determines the fastest data transmission rate and achieves these exceptional speeds through optimal utilization of the DMA chipset on the motherboard of your PC.

PC INSPECTOR™ clone maxx can be started directly from a boot diskette. The copying process is always based on the physical drive and is independent of the file system (e.g. FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, HPFS, NTFS, Ext2, Reiser, etc.) or the number of partitions. It also can be downloaded as ISO image file and needs to be burned to a CD, witch you will be able to boot for the drives copy session.

If you have chosen to download the program for boot up floppy creation, launch the executable file. The software will create a bootable disk. Now, you can restart the PC with the it. After the PC has booted, you can start the program by entering cmaxx. You can choose your operational language by starting the program with the following parameters:

cmaxx -Language

Utility supports the following languages:

-DE German
-SP Spanish
-FR French
-IT Italian
-DU Dutch
-US English

You can also select the language after booting the program, from the menu list.

Note that you cannot copy separate partitions, directories, or individual files, as it is designed exclusively for the entire Hard Drive cloning. It also does not work for External Hard Drives.

Developers Website: http://www.pcinspector.de/Sites/clone_maxx/info.htm?Language=1

Direct Downloading Links:
For Floppy Creation: http://www.ziddu.com/download/2695191/pci_clonemaxx.exe.html

[SoftRatty] tag: disk

ANDREW 1.3 (Default branch)

Copy URL To Clipboard When Copying Text In Firefox

Related posts

Moving The Firefox Disk Cache To Another Drive

Related posts

How to determine where all your hard drive space has gone in Windows

Monitorix 1.2.2 (Default branch)

Download Microsoft Virtual PC SP1

AgileWiki 10.3.3 (Element Model branch)

My computer running slow

Computer Crash

Free Utility for Easy Hard Drive Cloning