Your Microsoft Office file goes missing in Dropbox and can not be located.
Explanation.
Temporary file in Dropbox has replaced the original file.
It is normal for Microsoft Office to open a file such as myfile.doc and while it is being edited make a copy and name it ~my file.tmp.
When the file is saved the original is deleted and the temporary file is renamed back to the original.
When some applications (such as Microsoft Word, Money Excel, or PowerPoint) open a file, they will often save a temporary file in the same directory and name it in one of the following ways:- Name begins with ~$ (a tilde and dollar sign) or .~ (a period and tilde) Name begins with a tilde and ends in .tmp, such as ~myfile.tmp http://support.microsoft.com/kb/211632/en-us/ ("Description of how Word creates temporary files").
Dropbox does not sync these temporary files on any operating system.
Every time this has happened in Dropbox ,I have recovered the file by renaming it and the extension ( tmp) back to the original file name.
This is still a mystery but I think that the Office application must be open when switching off the PC and has not completed the action of renaming the .tmp file but has deleted the original.
I am still investigating.
Monday, 13 January 2014
Saturday, 11 January 2014
Conduit is installed with EASEUS Partition Master- What is going on ?
I am amazed that the very useful partitioning software by EASEUS is installing the nuisance Conduit.
Here is the screen clip of the installation (which I abandoned) and whether you select Express Install (never recommended) or even the Custom install which is always the safer option to avoid unnecessary Add Ons or Toobars being put in your browser.
What on earth do they think are they doing ?
It is like offering you a free complimentary virus isn't it.
Or is it possible that the download has been compromised anyway ?
I have asked EASEUS but no response.
The Search Conduit malicious browser hijacker secretly installs on your computer without your consent. It usually installs when you download video codecs and ActiveX updates. It also spreads through adult websites. Search Conduit also goes by other names, such as feed.ndot.com, findsoul.info, search.good-search.net and bee-find.com.
Function
- Search Conduit is primarily designed to reconfigure settings for browsers such as Firefox and Internet Explorer. Once reconfigured, Search Conduit redirects searches performed on popular search engines such as Google and Yahoo to Search.conduit.com. Search Conduit opens ports that drop additional malware onto an infected computer and affects DLL files used to improve a program's functionality.
Removal
- If your browser keeps redirecting to Search.conduit.com, run antivirus and anti-spyware scans to remove Search Conduit and related browser hijackers. To increase the chance of detection, update your security programs virus or spyware definition list before running system scans. In addition, run weekly scans to improve computer and online security. Manually removing Search Conduit and related malware is difficult because they hide in system folders and the registry, so using a security program is a safer alternative.
Warnings
- To avoid accidentally downloading Search Conduit and other malware, download content such as video codecs and programs from trusted sites. Some sites, especially those that promote pirated software, secretly package downloads with Trojans and spyware that cause computer problems.
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
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
Friday, 10 January 2014
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>
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>
Thursday, 9 January 2014
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.
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.
Thursday, 12 December 2013
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"
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"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)