Fitting a new Hard Drive to a Humax Fox T2 (Click of Death)

The Seagate Pipeline HD series of drives from Seagate are now catalogued and supplied as Video 3.5 HDD which more accurately defines their optimum purpose.
They can be used in a PC of course but is really the drive of choice for Personal Video recorders (PVR).
I have just fitted this (Jan 2014) to A Humax Fox T2 recorder having been quoted £150 for a factory repair (yes just out of the 2 year warranty)
With a Philips screwdriver with a magnetic tip to lift out the loose screws it took about 5 minutes.
Only the tiny fan connector was awkward to get at. The drive is in cage with silent resilient mounts.
Powering up the drive was recognised as needing formatting for PVR use. Contrary to reports I had read where this takes hours it was about 3 minutes and all the scheduled recordings were still in place.
No need to pack and ship the Humax off for repair.
How do you know if you need a new drive anyway ?
If the Storage Option on the Menu is greyed out and cant be selected (make sure no recordings are taking place) or if you are hearing the "Click of Death" (Google It) or if you can access Storage a hard drive test reports an error code that formatting alone does not cure.

Here is the Data Sheet Information
Optimised for high-definition consumer DVR applications
* Low power, quiet hard drives fine tuned for consistent, dependable delivery
of multiple high-definition video streams with capacities from 250GB to 4TB
* Designed to meet Energy Star and other strict consumer power consumption
standards
* Quiet drive operation to enhance customer viewing and listening experiences
* Easy-to-manage multi-room video delivery of up to 16 simultaneous
HD streams
* Qualified for operating temperatures up to 75°C to meet the rigours of the
consumer electronics set-top box market
* 24×7 operational profile to meet the always-on demands of the DVR market

How to format an external hard drive as FAT32 in Windows 7

The options in Disk Management in Windows 7 for formatting an external HDD is NTFS or exFAT.

I need a drive to swap between an iMAC and a Windows 7 PC.
A Mac will read an NTFS drive but wont write to it so I have been using USB memory sticks.

Today I found out how to format a large SATA external drive as FAT32  to make this process easier.

A small program called fat32format.exe is run through the Command Prompt (cmd) and run at Administrator level.
It is important that any explorer windows are closed that refer to the drive being formatted as an error code results if not.

How to
Download a copy of fat32format.
http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/fat32format.htm
Extract the single EXE file to somewhere suitable, like C:\.
Click Start-Run and enter
    cmd
Note :- Run as Administrator
When the command prompt opens, type this - C:\ is the place you extracted the exe file to. Note if this sort of command line stuff makes your head hurt, you should probably give this a try instead
    CD /D C:\

press enter and then type this. You need to replace f: with the drive letter you are trying to format.
    fat32format f:

You should see this displayed
    Warning ALL data on drive 'f' will be lost irretrievably, are you sure (y/n)

Now when it says this, it really means it. If you format the boot sector, FATs and root directory will be filled with zeros. By typing pressing Y and hitting return, you're also absolving me of liability for whatever was on the disk before.

Assuming you don't bail out at this point you should see something like this -
    Warning ALL data on drive 'f' will be lost irretrievably, are you sure
    (y/n) :y
    Size : 250GB 488392002 sectors
    512 Bytes Per Sector, Cluster size 32768 bytes
    Volume ID is 1bdb:2c1d
    32 Reserved Sectors, 59604 Sectors per FAT, 2 fats
    7629261 Total clusters
    7629260 Free Clusters
    Formatting drive f:...
    Clearing out 119304 sectors for Reserved sectors, fats and root cluster...
    Wrote 61083648 bytes in 0.988463 seconds, 61796609.106193 bytes/sec
    Initialising reserved sectors and FATs...
    Done

This means that all has gone according to plan. It should take about 4 seconds per Terabyte to format the disk. You can run chkdsk f: at this point if you're curious, and see something like this -
    The type of the file system is FAT32.
    Volume Serial Number is 1BDB-2C1D
    Windows is verifying files and folders...
    File and folder verification is complete.
    Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.
    244,136,352 KB total disk space.
    244,136,320 KB are available.
   
         32,768 bytes in each allocation unit.
      7,629,261 total allocation units on disk.
      7,629,260 allocation units available on disk.

Result for Drive I 80GB Drive

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.
C:\Users\Terry>cd downloads
C:\Users\Terry\Downloads>cd fat32format
C:\Users\Terry\Downloads\fat32format>dir
 Volume in drive C is Windows 7
 Volume Serial Number is E4EE-F3D0
 Directory of C:\Users\Terry\Downloads\fat32format
10/01/2014  08:35              .
10/01/2014  08:35              ..
10/01/2014  08:35            49,218 fat32format.exe
               1 File(s)         49,218 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  169,662,734,336 bytes free
C:\Users\Terry\Downloads\fat32format>fatformat32.exe
'fatformat32.exe' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
C:\Users\Terry\Downloads\fat32format>fat32format.exe
Usage Fat32Format X:
Erase all data on disk X:, format it for FAT32
It is also possible to specify a cluster size for the disk, e.g
Fat32Format -c1 X:  - use 1 sector per cluster ( max size 137GB for 512 bytes pe
r sect)
Fat32Format -c2 X:  - use 2 sectors per cluster ( max size 274GB for 512 bytes p
er sect )
Fat32Format -c4 X:  - use 4 sectors per cluster ( max size 549GB ... )
Fat32Format -c8 X:  - use 8 sectors per cluster ( max size 1TB ... )
Fat32Format -c16 X: - use 16 sectors per cluster
Fat32Format -c32 X: - use 32 sectors per cluster
Fat32Format -c64 X: - use 64 sectors per cluster
Fat32Format -c128 X: - use 128 sectors per cluster (64K clusters)
Version 1.07, see http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/fat32format.htm
This software is covered by the GPL
Use with care - Ridgecrop are not liable for data lost using this tool
C:\Users\Terry\Downloads\fat32format>fat32format i:
Warning ALL data on drive 'i' will be lost irretrievably, are you sure
(y/n) :y
Failed to open device - close any files before formatting and make sure you have
 Admin rights when using fat32format
 Are you SURE you're formatting the RIGHT DRIVE!!!
GetLastError()=32: The process cannot access the file because it is being used b
y another process.

C:\Users\Terry\Downloads\fat32format>fat32format I:
Warning ALL data on drive 'I' will be lost irretrievably, are you sure
(y/n) :y
Failed to open device - close any files before formatting and make sure you have
 Admin rights when using fat32format
 Are you SURE you're formatting the RIGHT DRIVE!!!
GetLastError()=32: The process cannot access the file because it is being used b
y another process.

C:\Users\Terry\Downloads\fat32format>fat32format I:
Warning ALL data on drive 'I' will be lost irretrievably, are you sure
(y/n) :y
Failed to open device - close any files before formatting and make sure you have
 Admin rights when using fat32format
 Are you SURE you're formatting the RIGHT DRIVE!!!
GetLastError()=32: The process cannot access the file because it is being used b
y another process.

C:\Users\Terry\Downloads\fat32format>fat32format i:
Warning ALL data on drive 'i' will be lost irretrievably, are you sure
(y/n) :y
FSCTL_ALLOW_EXTENDED_DASD_IO OK
Size : 73GB 143577088 sectors
512 Bytes Per Sector, Cluster size 32768 bytes
Volume ID is 100a:392e
32 Reserved Sectors, 17523 Sectors per FAT, 2 fats
2242843 Total clusters
2242842 Free Clusters
Formatting drive i:...
Clearing out 35142 sectors for Reserved sectors, fats and root cluster...
Wrote 17992704 bytes in 0.78 seconds, 21.88 Megabytes/sec
Initialising reserved sectors and FATs...
Done
C:\Users\Terry\Downloads\fat32format>

Does your extra large colour ink cartridge seem to have run out far too early ?

Unless you have printed  a ton of stuff or lots of A4 photos on glossy paper it may come as a shock that your £25 cartridge has run .
First estimate how much you have printed and if seems unreasonable try this.
The software on your printer utilities are usually a waste of time and show a new cartridge as half full after printing the test page sometimes.
I have a very sensitive scale for my mail which measure in grams  and once I weighed a cartridge I had thrown in the bin. In comparison to the weight of a brand new one they were almost exactly the same weight. I then ran the print utility to clean the  printer heads as in the manual. A test print still showed that black was OK but the colour was streaky and very feint.
After giving it one more cleaning cycle it was the same.
I then thought of getting a tissue and cleaning the head with alcohol ( IPA in an aerosol). When I placed the head in contact with a dry tissue all 3 colours appeared and a test print was back to normal.
This cartridge fished from the waste bin gave me loads more A4 photos so it was OK all the time.
I have seen loads of reviews moaning about cartridges and think that often it could be  that they are not empty at all.
I  usually go weeks between doing colour prints on an Inkjet Printer  as I daily use a Laser Printer so that was probably the reason.

Do you still need to put www in a web address

It was always necessary too put www as the start of a URL ( uniform resource locator or more commonly called a web address) 

If it was put in a Google search box by mistake instead of in the top address bar it just gave confusing results and didn't find anything of use.

Things seem to have changed as of Jan 2014 but in  the past, it was common to specify the difference via a prefix for consistency. So for example, Acme Industries might buy the domain-name ‘acme.org’, then set up one or more computers to host the different services they have. When you want to use one of the services, you enter the appropriate host name:

So why does it still work without ‘www’? Because most web-servers allow you to accept different URLs and then redirect them  as necessary. For the convenience of users, most companies and organizations set up a rule to have the web-server handle connections to the hostname on port 80 (the “web port”), or redirect it to another system if the web-server is a different machine.

Dragon Naturally Speaking Error Message about Multimedia Device

Dragon Naturally Speaking Error Message about Multimedia Device.

Dragon naturally speaking v11.5 SP1

If using Office 2003 and Windows 7 Dragon may produce an error message as follows

" cannot find multimedia device. Check to see if your computer has a sound card or if the multimedia wave in component is missing from the sound card"

This is caused by an Outlook add in that does not show under Tools-Options-Other-Advanced options-COM-Add-ins
Because it does not show you can't disable it by uncheck in the box.
Other add Ins such as Evernote Outlook may be visible and checked.

It can be resolved by always having a microphone connected to the PC check that it is shown in Recording Devices  lower right on the PC (click the sound icon)  as "plugged in "

 Alternatively if you don't want the microphone headset always plugged in are comfortable about editing the registry or get a geek to do it for you.

　

1. Navigate to :-

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins\Dgnoutlook.Connect

2. Change the LoadBehavior value to 2. Which is default 3

Since doing this  the problem has not been seen any more when opening OUTLOOK 2003 .
I recommend this solution for anybody who has weird problems with Outlook potentially caused by the non listed Dragon plugin.

Oddly in Windows 8 no problem occurs with the original settings.
In Windows 8 you can even open Dragon Naturally Speaking without a Microphone connected but doing this in Windows 7 gives the same message

" cannot find multimedia device. Check to see if your computer has a sound card or if the multimedia wave in component is missing from the sound card"

Missing emails on iPad

Emails go missing on iPad. This may be in me.com or other email addresses

Go to sent mail, inbox, saved etc.

If nothing is there just type in a search term if you can remember anything in the email.

A list of emails will appear but be greyed  out.
You can still open it and then send a copy to yourself.

The Sale of Goods Act

The Sale of Goods Act

Under the Sale of Goods Act 1979 goods must be as described, of satisfactory quality and fit for purpose.
Fit for purpose means both their everyday purpose, and also any specific purpose that you agreed with the seller (for example, if you specifically asked for a printer that would be compatible with your computer)
Goods sold must also match any sample you were shown in-store, or any description in a brochure.
If you have bought a faulty product :-

Who is responsible

If your goods fail to meet any of the above criteria then you could have a claim under the Sale of Goods Act.
If you want to make a claim under the Sale of Goods Act you have several possible ways of resolving your issue, depending on the circumstances and on what you want done.
Your rights are against the retailer – the company that sold you the product – not the manufacturer, and so you must make any claim against the retailer.
However, the Sale of Goods Act doesn’t apply to goods you've bought on hire purchase (HP).
Instead the Supply of Goods Implied Terms Act 1973 applies, which makes the HP company responsible for the quality of the goods supplied and gives you slightly different rights.

Summary

All goods must be:

• as described
• of satisfactory quality and
• fit for purpose

If they're not, the retailer is in breach of contract and you have a claim under the Sale of Goods Act

Returning faulty goods

If you buy a product that turns out to be faulty, you can choose to reject it which means you can give it back and get a refund.
But, the law only gives you a reasonable time to do this – what's reasonable depends on the product and how obvious the fault is.
However, even with major purchases or complex items, it’s safest to work on the basis you usually have no more than three to four weeks from when you receive it to reject it.

Getting faulty goods replaced or repaired

You have the right to get faulty goods replaced or repaired if it's too late to reject them. You can ask the retailer to do either, but they can normally choose to do whatever would be cheapest.
Under the Sale of Goods Act, the retailer must either repair or replace faulty goods 'within a reasonable time but without causing significant inconvenience'.
If the seller doesn't do this, you're entitled to claim either:
• a reduction on the purchase price, or
• your money back, minus an amount for the usage you've had of the goods (called recision)
If the retailer refuses to repair the goods, and they won't replace them either, you may have the right to arrange for someone else to repair your item, and then claim compensation from the retailer for the cost of doing this.
You have six years to take a claim to court for faulty goods in England, Wales and Northern Ireland; in Scotland you have five years.

Proving your claim for faulty goods

If your claim under the Sale of Goods Act ends up in court, you may have to prove that the fault was present when you bought the item and not, for example, something which was the result of normal wear and tear.
If your claim is about a problem that arises within six months of buying the product, it's up to the retailer to prove that the goods were of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose, or as described when it sold them.
For example, by showing that the problem was caused by an external factor such as accidental damage.
To get a faulty good repaired or replaced,
   

1 Contact the retailer

Contact the retailer you bought it from. Tell them about the problem and ask for a replacement, or arrange to have it repaired.
Ultimately, the retailer can choose which of these to do - normally it will choose the cheapest option. But to begin with, you can ask for whichever  option you'd prefer.

2 Use your guarantee

If the product is within its guarantee period, check the terms of the guarantee. Find out if the manufacturer will offer a repair or replacement.

Top Tips

• Contact the retailer - your contract is with the retailer and not the manufacturer
• Cite your rights under the Sale of Goods Act
• Don’t be fobbed off - you can always take the retailer to the small claims court

3 Don't be fobbed off

If the retailer or manufacturer will not help, write to the retailer (not the manufacturer) saying that, under the Sale of Goods Act, the item is not of satisfactory quality and you are exercising your right to have it repaired or replaced.
If it continues to fail to offer a remedy and you want to resolve the dispute through court action, start following the steps in the Practice Direction on Pre-action Conduct.

4 Claim from your credit card

If you get no response from the retailer or if it has gone bust, and you paid for the item with a credit card, you can take your claim to your credit card company.
You have the same rights from your finance provider as you have against the retailer. .

Expert's reports

Beyond six months, it's up to you to prove that the problem was there when you received the goods even if it has taken until now to come to light.
So, you may need to prove that the fault was not down to ordinary wear and tear or damage you caused, and that the product (or a component) should have lasted longer than it did.
To do this you may need an expert's report, for example, from an engineer or a mechanic.
Always try to keep the cost of any report proportionate to the value of the claim and, if you can, try to agree on an expert you and the seller both agree has the necessary expertise.