Category: Vista

BREAKING NEWS : Microsoft issues 961509

Paul

Microsoft as issued an new security advisory about the possible way someone might be able to take your sensitive information using an invalid digital signature:
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Microsoft is aware that research was published at a security conference proving a successful attack against X.509 digital certificates signed using the MD5 hashing algorithm. This attack method could allow an attacker to generate additional digital certificates with different content that have the same digital signature as an original certificate. The MD5 algorithm had previously shown a vulnerability, but a practical attack had not yet been demonstrated.

[via Windows Technet]

Although Microsoft has stated in the advisory most companies are using the SHA-1 algorithm.  Some are still using the MD5 and should stop using it immediately.   Microsoft says there is none in the wild but you can be bet on it someone will do it sooner or later.  Certificate Authorities should stop using MD5 and go to a much stronger better Algorithm. This is what Microsoft is saying and they aren’t providing much information for the end-user on how to prevent from using MD5 certificates on your system. You can remove the MD5 certificate manually if you are a system administor and want to protect the computers at the office.  Please don’t do this unless you know what your doing, you could very well break your system if you did something like this.

Pctv HD Mini Stick and My thoughts!

Paul

Pctv HD Mini Stick

  • Includes mini-remote control and high-gain telescopic antenna

  • Compact size HDTV tuner for easy travel and storage

  • Instantly turn your PC into a personal digital video recorder

  • Record your favorite shows to your hard drive or direct-to-DVD

  • TV Standards – ATSC (HDTV up to 1080i, SDTV) and ClearQAM (HDTV up to 1080i, SDTV) Inputs

Price: Click Link to See the Price

Just saw this and couldn’t resist talking about it.  This would be great on the road.  If you use this on a laptop, then you would have some really good channels as you travel on the road.  No more having to watch movies on your laptop.   You can now see the current events as you travel around the US.  With the Digital change over Coming Feburary 17, 2009.  You’ll want to have a way to watch TV, this would be one way.  Right now Amazon is offering it for 112.22 but that could change so check the link out to find out how much it is.

Warning Signs of Hard Drive Trouble

Paul

For every computer there comes a time when you have a problem with hardware or software. This is for those who want to learn the signs of possible fixes for having hard drive problems. Although if you know you’re hard drive is dieing then you better back it up as quickly as possible. You will of course need to get the back up software to protect your data.  If you have special drivers you will need to backup yours drivers.  If you have an OEM system then you will need to backup the Hidden Partition.

So what are the warning signs of a hard drive failure:

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  • Unexpected freezing of Windows — When Windows Locks up and you have to reboot or getting a Blue Screen of Death.   You have no choice but to restart because you can’t do anything with windows.

  • Losing data files — if you seem to see files being lost or deleted without your direct input.  It might be a sign of a computer virus or it could be a damaged hard drive.

  • Locking up during boot — this is most common when you have a hard drive failure, although if you can restart and not be a problem then just keep in mind that it might be the beginning.  The more frequent you have the lockup boot problems the more chance of the hard drive dieing.

  • Hard drive isn’t recognized in BIOS– Although this can be a old hard drive, if the bios can’t see it then the problem might be a hard drive failure, usually this is meaning you just have to replace the hard drive.  there’s isn’t much you can do with this problem, just replace the hard drive.  Most of the time it is a problem inside the Hard drive bios and you really can’t fix this, you’d have to send it off to possibly save the hard drive data.

  • Clicking, Scratching, Whirling, Grinding sounds from Hard drive — This is the most dangerous signs of hard drive failure and means you need to get your data off ASAP.  If you want to hear some of the waring sounds of a dieing hard drive click here.

Although some of these can or can not be a hard drive failure, some can be driver issure or disk defragmentation and should be check out to rule out these problems.   There can be several problems that might be easily fixed.  If you think it is a failure you might try Spinrite.  The program is made by Steve Gibson and he actually has a “Absolute Satisfaction Guarantee“.  So if it doesn’t work or your not satisfied you aren’t out any money.  I’ve used this in the past for hard drives that are dieing so I could get all the important data off before it died all together.  It is essential that if you can get it working for a short time to get a backup.

Disclaimer: Although spinrite might fix some of the problems associated with a hard drive failure, it might not fix all the problems or any problems.   So it is left up to the user to decide if it is worth it or not to buy it.   I don’t recommend this for every situation or every problem only for the off chance that it might let you get the important data off the computer before you lose it.  Use at your own risk.

Disaster preparation — 103 Hidden Partition

Paul

What is an OEM?

Many laptops or Desktops now a days have this hidden partition that is used for OEMS.  An OEM or original equipment manufacturer for those who don’t know is a company that sells a system with it’s own branding or services.  It varies from company to company just what they sell to the consumer.   Having Said that, let’s talk about this Hidden Partition.

Why do I have a Hidden Partition on my drive?

[ad]To simply put it, most likely it is there for a emergency backup for your Operating System.   It can be accessed through your boot up.  Most of the time if you press f11 or f12, some key combination to go to this hidden partition and restore the system to the  factory settings.   Now I tell you this to warn you that you don’t ever want to delete this partition because you need it to verify that in case you need a driver it might be there.     Now a days, most laptop and desktop sellers don’t want to include a backup CD or DVD in the box so they expect you do make one.   This is where the hidden partition comes to play.   This also used to make DVD or CD of operating system.

How big is the Partition?

That isn’t a simple question because most OEM’s like to vary partition to prevent them from being used in other OEM systems.   Now not saying it is hard to find out.  There are several tools used to backup this hidden partition but can cost to get to it.  Like my system, it takes up around 8 gigabytes of space on mine.   Others, I’ve seen, only take up 4 gigabytes.   It varies from branding to branding.   Also keep in mind that you want to backup this important partition just in case there is a problem with the Hard Drive.   This is really IMPORTANT: the Hidden Partition is only good for the hardware you have right now so it can only be used with that particular system.   Should you try it on another system, may have trouble or not work at all.

How do I back up this Hidden Partition or Even transfer it to another Hard drive?

If you wanted to change out your old laptop or desktop hard drive and put in a bigger and better hard drive.  You’d need to copy the old partition of the drive first to put in the new drive.    How do you do that?   Most laptops only have room for one Hard Drive so you might need to buy a cable for that laptop.   It’s call a USB to Sata Adapter and it allows you to hook up a second hard drive so you can copy from the original source.   This one I am showing you is good for both Laptop and Desktop it’s got all you need to make a back up or even copy the data off.

What software do I need to copy this Hidden partition?

There are several programs that will help you do this.   Each of them have there own look and feel to them.   These companies will support people who are wanting to backup there important Operating system.   Yes the operating system is important if you didn’t have that the hardware would just sit there.   Although there are free operating systems they do come with there own problems and solutions.  So let’s begin talking about the commercial backup software:

  • Acronis True Image — Backup your entire PC: Acronis True Image includes our patented disk-imaging backup technology. You can copy your entire PC, including the operating system, applications, user settings, and all data. In the event of a system or disk crash, virus attack, or other fatal failures, you can restore the entire disk contents in minutes–no reinstallations required!

  • Norton Ghost 14.0 — Protects your computer with advanced backup and recovery: creates full system and file backups, restore from system failures, and back up based on schedules and events

  • Paragon Partition Manager 9.0 Personal — Partitioning, Manage disk partitions, Optimization and Defragmentation, Boot Manager, and Simple Backup Wizard

[ad#ad2-right]I will add more to my store when I find others that work well with doing the hidden partition.   You will also not that these are are the best to use when you want copy the hidden partition because they know about the hidden partition.  Other software might only copy the visible partition and ignore the hidden.  So that is why I talk about commercial software because there’s a person on the other end who could help you out.

These are just a few that will work for you, if you want to go find the free software by all means but I must warn you the free software doesn’t come with any warranties or someone who could help most of the time.  It is a pot shot with free software, some work well and others just make a mess.  There are some free back up software but most of the time they only copy the visible and not the hidden, so if you must go looking.  Go looking for the ones who say they can copy the hidden partition.   These are the ones you need use to back up your operating system.

Disaster Preperation — 102 Driver Backups

Paul

In my previous post about backing up, I talked about the need to backup the sensitive data. This one I will talk about backing up the important drivers. There are several ways to backup the system drivers. Although this is not always needed. You might however have a program or two that you no longer have the CD or program to install the drivers for. I thought we talk about this and ways you might be able to back up your drivers with.

In computing, a device driver or software driver is a computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a hardware device.

A driver typically communicates with the device through the computer bus or communications subsystem to which the hardware is connected. When a calling program invokes a routine in the driver, the driver issues commands to the device. Once the device sends data back to the driver, the driver may invoke routines in the original calling program. Drivers are hardware-dependent and operating-system-specific. They usually provide the interrupt handling required for any necessary asynchronous time-dependent hardware interface.

[Via Wikipedia]

A device you might no longer have software for a really old devices or programs drivers.  So how can you backup those old device drivers.  Here are some great programs to help you back up you drivers:

  • Driver Backup — Open source program that can help back up those really important device drivers.  I’ve used this one a lot and it makes re-installing drivers easy.

  • DriverMax — DriverMax extracts the installed drivers in your Windows system and copies them along with the INF files so that they can be reinstalled in the future when needed (such as when you install Windows again)

  • Driver Genius — Diagnoses your hardware and identifies required drivers, Automatically searches for online driver updates – 30,000 drivers supported, Automatically downloads and installs the latest drivers for your machine – Daily updates ensure you always have the latest drivers, Quickly backs up your existing drivers and Restores every driver in a single operation.

Each one comes with there own unique qualities and uses.   I have been using Driver Backup on my Vista system without a problem.   Although some people may want something other than that.  I’ve also added one from my Recommendations the Driver Genius who might be good for people who need the extra hand in finding those rare drivers or backing them up.  If you have backed up your sensitive data this is usually what is needed to be done once a month or so.  Unless you start installing programs left and right, you only have to backup your drivers once in a while.  This is a good step to do to quickly install a system back to running order in under 2 or 3 hours of re-installation.