Tag: usb flash drive

How Do You Reformat a USB Flash Drive?

March 02, 2009 by Jason

USB flash drives have become really handy in storing different files of various sizes including, backups, personal documents, music, pictures, portable applications and more. Flash drives turned out to be so convenient that people start pouring in files of any kind without sorting them.

Because of these habits, flash drives end up getting real messy quickly and it becomes difficult to figure out how to clear up disk space to accommodate more files.

Deleting unnecessary files is a good solution, but can be tough to do when files aren’t properly organized. If you want to clear up disk space the fastest way possible, the best problem solver to this is by formatting your USB flash drive directly.

The advantages of doing this is that your flash drive is wiped completely clean, removing all files regardless of their attributes (including hidden files). Here are the basic steps in reformatting your USB flash drive: Read More»

Useful Windows 7 Enhancements

February 24, 2009 by Jason

1. Protect your MP3 files

Along with many good new features, the Windows 7 beta also includes a nasty bug. Its version of Windows Media Player 12 will automatically add missing metadata, including album art, and this can overwrite the first few seconds of the file. Oops. Installing an update may fix this (see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/961367) but it would probably be a very good idea to back up your MP3 files, too.

2. Customise UAC

Windows Vista’s User Account Control was a good idea in practice, but poor implementation put many people off – it raised far too many alerts. Fortunately Windows 7 displays less warnings by default, and lets you further fine-tune UAC to suit your preferred balance between security and a pop-up free life (Start > Control Panel > Change User Account Control Settings).
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Top 10 – January 2009 Popular Tips

February 01, 2009 by Jason

1. Booting Windows XP with USB Flash Drive

2. How to Get another activation for Windows XP or Windows Vista

3. Download Windows 7 Beta right now

4. Resolve Occasional XP SP3 Stop Errors on Restart

5. Delete Index.dat files on Windows

6. Windows 7 Beta Language Interface Packs

7. Windows 7 Beta Download and Install Guide

8. TOP10 – December 2008 Popular Tips

9. How to Dual Boot Windows Vista And Windows 7

10. Ten Tips for Windows 7

Read More»

How to Run Linux from an USB Flash Drive

September 13, 2008 by Jason

Ever wanted to have a portable operating system? One that can reside inside a small USB flash drive? In the past, it was possible to run a Linux distribution from an USB stick just like you would have run it from a Compact Disc, but this task was quite hard to achieve. Why? Simply because you had to type a lot of geeky commands in a terminal and if, somehow, you forgot one or typed something wrong, the whole process had to be started all over again. Not to mention that it could take about 1-2 hours to make a bootable USB stick. Therefore, this guide is here to teach you some new Linux magic tricks on how to achieve a portable Linux operating system, in no more than 5 minutes! How? With the help of a great and marvelous tool called UNetbootin.

For this tutorial, we’ve used Ubuntu 8.04.1 LTS and BackTrack 3 Linux distributions, both tested with an 1GB Kingstone DataTraveler 2.0 USB flash drive. Read More»

Vista does not recognise my USB flash drive

August 24, 2008 by Jason

Some users are experiencing problems with their USB flash drive even when they have been guaranteed that they are compatible with Windows Vista. This is usually due to the wrong software drivers being installed. When you plug in your USB flash drive for the first time you may be required to install the drivers for it, however most USB flash drives do not come with a CD containing their drivers. The majority of drivers for USB flash drives will already have been installed with Windows Vista, so when you are asked to install the driver software for your USB flash drive select Locate and install driver software and then on the next screen choose I don’t have the disc. Show me other options, unless you do have a disc with the driver software on it, in which case allow Windows Vista to search the CD for the correct driver. Assuming that you do not have a CD with the software on it, choose Browse my computer for driver software and then instruct Windows Vista to look for the driver software on the hard drive where you installed Windows Vista. Make sure that the Include subfolders checkbox has been checked and then press Next to search your hard drive for the driver software. Once the software has been found a window may appear telling you that Windows cannot verify the publisher of the software, and as long as you are confident that the drivers are correct, select Install this driver software anyway. You may need to repeat these steps two or three times as new USB devices are found and it is important that you complete these steps for every device, otherwise your USB flash drive will continue to not be recognised. Read More»

How to install Ubuntu Linux from USB Stick

April 23, 2008 by Jason

This tutorial describes how to install Ubuntu by copying the contents of the installation CD to an USB memory stick (aka flash drive) and making the stick bootable. This is handy for machines like ultra portable notebooks that do not have a CD drive but can boot from USB media.

In short here’s what you do:

Prepare the USB flash drive

Boot the computer from your USB flash drive.

Install Ubuntu as you would from a normal boot CD Read More»

Increasing the Speed of a Vista-Operated PC

March 25, 2008 by Jason

If you have a spare U.S.B. flash drive with at least 256 megabytes of free space on it, you can use it to give your Windows Vista-operated PC an extra cache of memory to help increase speed, using the Windows ReadyBoost feature. Just plug the drive into a U.S.B. 2.0 port, and if it is fast enough to work with ReadyBoost, the system will prompt you to set it up. You do not have to erase any existing files on the drive and can indicate how much space you want to use for storage. The feature also works with Secure Digital cards.

Windows ReadyBoost can use storage space on some removable media devices, such as USB flash drives, to speed up your computer. When you insert a compatible device, the AutoPlay dialog box will offer you the option to speed up your system using Windows ReadyBoost. Read More»

Windows Vista SP1 Improves Speed Up to 86% Faster

March 08, 2008 by Jason

Is Vista SP1 really the shot in the arm your Vista system needs? We’ve spent many hours strapped to our benchmarking system in a caffeine and pizza fuelled haze to uncover these very interesting results.

We tested Vista:

* as it comes out of the box (RTM — or “release to manufacturing”)
* as it comes out of the box, with all Windows Update patches applied (”RTM patched)
* with the final SP1 service pack applied

Testing Setup

Although Vista SP1 has many documented improvements, we aimed to test a particular scenario which has proved to be a major problem for pre-SP1 users: file copy speed, particularly over a network. Read More»

Ubuntu 7.10 on PS3

December 10, 2007 by Jason

Today, you will learn how to install Ubuntu Gutsy (as a second operating system) on your PlayStation 3 gaming console. For those of you who think for a second (and who are scared) that this will replace their PS3 operating system, well you guys are wrong, because this will NOT erase your PlayStation 3 native operating system (called XMB) and it will run as an alternative OS on your PS3 console. Ready? Are you excited? Let’s go!

Things needed: Read More»