Tag Archives: DIY

Dual boot Ubuntu & Windows

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We needed a dual boot Ubuntu and Windows 7 setup today, which had a few stumbling blocks.

Problem 1. – GPT Partition

Installed Windows 7 on half a 500GB drive and left 250GB free for Ubuntu. When booting to install Linux, it didn’t see Windows 7 due to the GPT partition that Windows 7 uses by default.

Solution 1.

Used Gparted from the Linux live cd to format the drive with an MBR partition layout. (Note:- This destroyed the original Windows installation.) Then installed Windows back to the drive. This time, Ubuntu saw Windows 7 during installation and was happy to install alongside it.

Problem 2. – Default Windows Dual Boot

Although the machine was now happily dual booting, it would default to Ubuntu, regardless of which changes i made to the grub config. Startup manager would make changes to grub, but it would still default to Ubuntu.

Solution 2.

Nariub on the Ubuntu forums suggested changing the os-prober number, so it loads that first. This puts Windows at the top, making it the default. Perfect for what we needed.

The command for this, which worked for us on Ubuntu 11.10 & Windows 7:

mv /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober /etc/grub.d/09_os-prober
update-grub

So now we have the machine booting as we want, with each operating system happily taking up half of the 500GB drive.

Stop Password Expiration In Windows 7

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My brother has just brought me his laptop to look at after forgetting the login password. It was frequently asking him to change the password, and one day he changed it and then forgot it. I found a simple command to stop the password from expiring:

First run Cmd (Command Line) as Administrator (click Start -> and type cmd. Right click on Cmd and choose “Run As Administrator”). If you followed correctly this should give you a black command line window with white text.

Then type:

net accounts /maxpwage:unlimited

And press return or enter.

It should congratulate you, or say successful (can’t remember the exact wording).

The password should then last forever, or until it is changed manually.

Note: It is good practice to change passwords regularly, however outside of corporate IT land can be a huge hassle. Just ask my brother :-)  

Make a file or folder hidden in Finder

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Sometimes when we clone a Mac drive using unconventional methods, it works fine, but has an annoying side effect; Files that are usually hidden in the Finder are instead displayed and accessible to users. These files are hidden for a reason, and contain things like the UNIX system files and some Mac system files which you probably shouldn’t mess with.

Luckily there is a simple terminal command to make these files hidden again. It doesn’t delete them, just changes their file attributes.

sudo chflags hidden filename

sudo allows you to run commands as Super User so be careful! It will ask for a password (but not display it as you type…)

Where it says filename you can either replace it with a file or folder name, or drag a load of folders onto the terminal window and it will fill out the names for you.

An example below:

sudo chflags hidden /var

That would hide the var folder on the root of the boot drive.

I found this really helpful but as usual use it at your own risk…

Data Destruction Discussion On Slashdot

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Slashdot had an interesting article today about how to destroy hard drives. It’s a commonly asked question, but deserves a bit of time every once in a while. Of course there are the usual physical destruction options, from the humble hammer and screwdriver, to more exotic (and dangerous) techniques like a propane furnace.

For most purposes we still advise that a simple zeroing of the whole disk is a pretty safe bet. *

Failing that, then as long as you totally destroy the platters, you are good to go. That means taking the disk apart and grinding, bending and scraping the disks to bits.

* During normal use, a hard drive will get occasional bad sectors, which are then mapped out and prevented from being used. When that same sector is requested again, a new spare sector is used from another part of the disk. With the right knowledge, it is possible to access this list of remapped / bad sectors and see if there is any useful data within them. The chances of finding anything useful in these sectors is slim, but you never know.

Read the article on Slashdot

Pogo Plug Remote Access Device

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We often have requests from small business customers as to which is the best backup solution when having more than one user, and also when the users are located in different geographical locations. Well Pogo Plug may be the answer to this problem. It allows you to attach and share as many storage devices as you wish and also allows users to drag and drop files, making moving files across a remote network straight forward. Therefore you could have a large central storage unit for your users to access and back up their files.

Pogo Plug

Mac Hard Drive Quick Diagnosis Fail Guide

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For Mac users who cannot get their Mac to boot, this is a quick guide to find out the level of the problem with your internal hard drive. If on start up you get to the Apple logo and beyond, then this means that your Mac can read the internal hard drive. For this to happen the drive will have carried out it’s own start up process when you pressed your mac power on button. This therefore tells you that your drive is functional to a point, but has some reading problems.

If however on start up your Mac shows a folder with a question mark, then this means that your Mac cannot read the drive at all. Therefore your drive may have a more serious problem.

Backup Your Windows PC For Free

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It’s something we should all be doing but never seems important until it’s too late. I’m not talking about taking the dog for a walk or feeding the cat, I’m talking about backing up your PC. In the words of Joni Mitchell “You don’t know what you’ve got ’till it’s gone.” How would you feel if you never saw your data again. Family photos, years worth of e-mails, documents, music and videos all gone in the blink of an eye. This is usually where we come in with our data recovery process. But there is an alternative. Lifehacker has an excellent guide on using free software to backup your PC. The only prerequisite is that you purchase an external hard disk of sufficient storage capacity.

For Mac users there is a totally different process. If you are running Leopard (10.5) then take a look at Time Machine. (More on this in a future post)

Checkout Lifehacker for all the details

The Credit Crunch and it’s influence on Data Recovery

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Dataquest has already started to see the influence the current state of the economy is having on the data recovery industry. We need to make sure that established and future customers are made aware of the options they have available to them when seeking out professional help for data loss. We are already aware that more DIY customers are attempting to recover their lost data themselves. This is where we need to work together with these customers to inform and educate them.  This can a simple guideline on backup and basic data recovery.