We will actually be doing a Repair. Once the repair session hits the GUI screen we can launch a command prompt that will let us reset your password, create new accounts or promote another user to be the administrator. Heck we can even make it so the machine logs in as the Administrator automatically! So here’s how you do it.

Grab your CD along with its CD key and boot to your media. Once you boot to your CD, it will say, “Press a key to boot to CD”. Go ahead and press any key.

Let Windows do its thing and start. We will not format or lose any data if you follow my explicit instructions. I was amazed when I got this to work and also sickened by how insecure workstations can be! If you have a third party SCSI, RAID or SATA adapter you will have to point it at the drivers so it can access your hard drive. If this is you then you know what to do already – F6 and point it to the drivers.

Another few minutes will pass by and Windows setup will say that it is starting Windows. Be forewarned – DO NOT HIT THE R KEY ON THE NEXT SCREEN. We will be hitting Enter to start the installation.

On the screen below that says Welcome to Setup make sure you hit the ENTER key and not R. R here will take you to the recovery console – if you do not have the administrators password you will have to start ALL OVER AGAIN! So hit Enter to set up Windows and continue.

The agreement pops up hit the F8 key to continue.

Ah ha! Now on this screen below you will want to highlight your installation of Windows if there is more than one. And hit the R key! Yes, here is where you will hit that key to repair the installation. The process rewrites all the system files and what not.

After you hit that R key the Setup wizard will start to copy the system files from the media to your hard drive/Windows Installation. This took about 4 minutes on my machine.

Windows will now reboot automatically or you can hit ENTER to speed things up a little. When the machine restarts DO NOT BOOT FROM THE CD! DO NOT HIT A KEY TO BOOT FROM YOUR CD! Take the CD out of the drive if you think this is going to be an issue for you.

Once the computer starts back up it will jump into the installer. Here, when you get to about 37 minutes left on the installer it will say Installing Devices on the bottom left hand side of the screen – Hit Shift-F10 at the same time and a command prompt will pop-up! Just like that.

Using some basic command line kung fu we type control userpasswords2 and we can do whatever we want to. You can get at anything from this command prompt you have full root/administrator access!

Once you have the user accounts control panel up, you can add, modify or remove users. Promote a user to administrator status or what have you. Remember only use this for good and not evil.

Log in and you are good to go! Do you have another method to get back into your machine that does not require any media? We would love to hear about it in the comments.

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Here is the post that will shed light on how to recover deleted emails in Thunderbird. So if you have recently deleted an important eMail and accidentally emptied the Trash, you may still be able to recover it. Just don’t compact your folders, yet!

Before you start, close Thunderbird and best perform a backup. At least make a manual backup of the files you are going to work with!

Open your Thunderbird profile folder. Generally this folder can be found under C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR USER NAME\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles.

By default, the Application Data folder is hidden. To make it visible go to C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR USER NAME\ and click Tools > Folder Options and open the View tab. Scroll down to Hidden files and folders and check Show hidden files and folders. Click OK to save and you should be able to see the Application Data folder.

You should know under which account and to which folder the deleted eMail was originally delivered. Otherwise you will have to apply trial and error and search through different accounts and folders.

Let’s say we’re looking for an eMail that was delivered to the Inbox, subsequently deleted and emptied from the Trash. The traces of this eMail should still be found in the Inbox folder.

Go ahead and open the folder for the respective eMail account, then launch the Inbox file without the .msf file extension in a text editor, such as Notepad.

If you’re unsure, click on one of the files and expand the file details in the bottom left of the folder. For the correct file type it should just say “file”, rather than “MSF-file”.

Opening files can take a few seconds or a few minutes, depending on how many eMails have survived termination in that folder. Make sure the text editor you choose can handle large file sizes. Some of my files were up to 300MB!

For my example, I picked an eMail I received from Stumble Upon this morning. I had deleted it and before attempting to restore the eMail I also emptied the Trash for this account.

When I looked into the Inbox file I indeed found that eMail along with all details and contents in my Inbox text file.

To recover the eMail and make it reappear in its original folder, change the X-Mozilla-Status to 0. In the example pictured below it says “X-Mozilla-Status: 0009″. The result should say “X-Mozilla-Status: 0″.

Save the file, close it and launch your Thunderbird client.

Lo and behold, my test eMail magically reappeared in my inbox.

Now to everyone who have been getting rid of secret or compromising eMails simply by deleting them, there is no need to suffer from a nervous breakdown now.

There is a way to remove those eMails forever. Simply compact your folders. My previous post on How To Terminally Deleted eMails In Thunderbird by Compacting Folders thoroughly explains the steps you need to take.

Did I save your day? Your feedback is appreciated, please use the comments!

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All my email attachments, work files and even the storage for all my applications including photos, music and RSS data are on there. I was able to check email (albeit without attachments for what has already come in to my inbox.) I was able to get on the internet and make calls but I could not research a new article, email my invoices from the day before or even look at the pictures and video we took of my daughter yesterday.

I thought I covered all possible scenarios and problems with Windows Mobile Devices in our Windows Mobile Guide – but this one had not happened to me yet.

I will walk you through what happened and how to recover data from a USB drive or memory card if it becomes corrupted.

I turned on my HTC Fuze this morning and my RSS program called RSS Hub said to me that it could not find my memory card with the default storage location and it asked me if it should use the internal storage for the data… WTF?!?

This is what I need this early in the morning – right? I took out my laptop as I opened up my file manager on my phone and there was no storage card! I popped the Micro SD card out and threw it into an adapter. The adapter let me slide the card into it and then it has a USB adapter on the end. I plugged it into my laptop and my machine recognized it as a drive and gave it a letter. But when I went to click on it I get a error box with a message. It says E:\ is not accessible. The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable. DAMN! DAMN! DAMN!

Ok time for a little command line magic. I hit the start menu – run and typed CMD to bring up a command prompt. Then I typed Chkdsk e: /r

The chkdsk command checks a disk for structure corruption. The e: tells it what drive letter to use and the /r tells it to repair the issues it finds. You may see the warning that your drive is not a Windows XP drive – this is not an issue. You can continue on by pressing Y to continue. It will start to run through the files and directories. You will feel a lot better when you see your file names… It proves all is not lost! Aren’t you glad you went this route instead of formatting it?

When it is almost complete it will ask you if you want to save lost chains into files – I always pick yes but have never used those files once to this day!

Chkdsk will report back what it has done and then go to my computer and check out your drive. Mine opened at this point and I was able to get to all my data as you can see below

I then popped my Micro SD card back into my Windows Mobile and was good to go. All in about 7 minutes on the train. Not too shabby eh?

Do you have any repair stories to share with us? Leave them in the comments. Your hardship and work might just help someone else out!

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Well, I am not getting into the criminal underbelly, but just jabbering about a long existing software that makes it possible to recover deleted files from a memory card used on digital cameras. PC Inspector Smart Recovery (v4.5) is a free, Windows only software that does one job (actually two… as we shall see) and does it well.

Primary job: PC Inspector Smart Recovery is a freeware data recovery program from CONVAR for Flash Card/USB Flash Drive, Smart Media, SONY Memory Stick, IBM Micro Drive, Multimedia Card, Secure Digital Card or any other data carrier for digital cameras.

Secondary job: While it goes about its first job, it also offers a way to check the memory type for any errors.

I call PC Inspector Smart Recovery a ‘doomsday’ software. This one and others of its ilk help us to recover from our errors or those committed by our digital devices. If you think that the chances of losing some precious photo or video among the thousands we shoot with our digital cameras is one in thousands then give this software a miss. Otherwise, let’s give it a rip…

The download size of PC Inspector Smart Recovery is fairly compact at 6.1MB. The software is compatible with Windows XP (not tested for Vista).

These are the formats and digital camera types supported by PC Inspector Smart Recovery:

JPG, AMR, TIF, BMP, GIF, AVI, MOV, WAV, DSS, MP4, Canon (.crw) , Fuji (.raf) , RICOH (.raw), Olympus E-XX (.orf), Olympus C5050 (.orf), Nokia (3gp), Kodak (.dcr), Minolta (.mrw), Nikon D1H/D1X (.nef), Nikon D2H/D2X (.nef), Nikon E5000/E5700 (.nef), Konica Minolta, Sigma – Foveon (.x3f).

Installation is a no-brainer. And so is the use – in five simple steps.

1. Connect your memory card through your computer’s memory card reader or connect the digital camera/mobile phone with the provided data cable.
2. Start PC Inspector Smart Recovery. Select the drive letter (Select Device) used by the memory device from the first dropdown.
3. Select the file type (Select Format Type) that is to be recovered from the second dropdown. The Enhanced Options is for JPG format only. The default Automatic setting recognizes the format on its own. The With Thumbnails option assumes that your picture format includes thumbnails; the Without Thumbnails option assumes that your picture format does not include thumbnails.
4. Select the destination folder (Select where the images are to be recovered). Create a specific folder as opposed tp recovering them to an area like the desktop because the sheer number of images might create a mess.
5. Click on Start and the software indicates the progress through the progress bar.

   

Change the search mode…

The Settings menu lets you change the way the recovery is done. The Fast Mode is the default mode. The Intensive Mode scans more thoroughly and takes longer to complete. The recoverable file size can be limited optionally.

Check Media found under Menu – Function is a way to check the memory device for errors. Once started, the progress is reported by the software under the Media Check section. Any read errors like a ‘Not Available’ alert could indicate problems in the memory device, the card reader or the driver.

So has it helped me avert my doomsdays?

On my 4GB memory card with a sample of 160 pictures, I recovered all but six. Yes, the process was slow – about 160 minutes for an intensive scan. But the success ratio was great so I guess I can live with the slow speeds. Getting the lost pictures back at no cost is a definite deal maker for me.

There are a few others which fall under the broad category of file recovery software. Check these out. They might save your day –

3 Remarkable File Recovery Tools
Recover Lost Computer Files with Undelete Plus
How To securely Retrieve and Delete PC files

So, what do you do when you unintentionally lose your Kodak moments (minus the teeth gnashing of course)? How do you recover deleted picture files from a memory card? Do you have your toolkit of ‘doomsday’ software?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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When walking around with a laptop, you need to constantly watch out for it. Lose your attention for a second and your computer can be gone.

Even more dangerous than getting your laptop stolen, in some cases, is getting your data stolen. A lot of people walk around every day, carrying information that must not be allowed to fall in the wrong hands. Identity theft and any breach of personal privacy are just one side of the problem. Imagine the horror of a big-time CEO when his laptop gets stolen, especially in these economic unstable times.

LaptopLock

LaptopLock, a nifty application, provides a nice and easy back-up plan, both for the relocation of your system after it’s stolen, and for protecting what’s on it.

The application can destroy or encrypt data, or run set actions, after you signal from a remote location. Even when the laptop never connects to the web, the application can trigger these actions after a given time, when the thieves fail to provide the right password.

Installing and Linking LaptopLock

Setting it up is quite easy, though it requires several steps.

For starters, you need an account on the LaptopLock website. Signing up is entirely free, and doesn’t even require activation.

In the online control panel, you can add one or more systems. Simply enter a name for easy identification, and hit the button. That computer will then be added to the database, and linked with a unique Computer ID.

Next, on your laptop, download and install the LaptopLock agent software.
We can now link our laptop to our online account. Upon starting the agent, you’ll be required to enter your Account Email, which you used to sign up, and the Computer ID.

You can choose whether to enter a password for accessing the software. This will also trigger any set actions if the system goes too long without an internet connection, and the user fails to provide the password. However, using this will cut back on the stealth as well, and might warn the thieves into taking additional precautions.

Configuring Security Plans

In the Security tab, you can configure and manage your plan of action. This basically says what needs be done in case of theft.

The available options include the deleting and encrypting of set data, showing a notification to the user – perhaps with a possible reward – or launching an external application.

All encrypted files can be recovered afterwards, in Security – Recovery Options.

Signaling Theft and Tracking

Back in the online control panel, signaling laptop theft is as easy as hitting the button. Your security plan will be carried out as soon as the stolen system connects to the internet.

Check Information shows the last ten locations of your laptop on a map. This probably isn’t as accurate as a GPS, but it will help the police in any investigation.

LaptopLock can help you in case your laptop gets stolen. Got any other tips? Share them below!

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Undelete Plus is a free file recovery utility that easily brings back those files that somehow got lost or ended up deleted by some random occurrence.

Undelete Plus is an extremely easy to use program. After you install it and open it up, Undelete Plus will automatically detect the hard drives on your computer. Select the drive that has the lost files on it, and click the Start Scan button.

My 80 GB harddrive was scanned in just a few minutes, but it returned over 4,000 files. When did I delete 4,000 files? This could get ugly really quickly.

Needle in a Haystack

My idea of fun is not sorting through over 4,000 files to find that one report due in a few hours that I accidentally deleted. The best feature of Undelete Plus, besides the whole undeleting part, is its ability to filter your deleted files. This makes the searching process much less painful.

You can filter files by type, folder and drive. This provides a great start, but even if I filter it down to images, I still have a couple hundred images to choose from. Undelete Plus allows you to also sort the files by filename, path, status, size, date created and date modified. After a quick filter and sort, you should be able to quickly find the file you want to restore.

I selected around 20 files and clicked the Start Undelete button to hopefully bring my files back from the dead. The process was surprisingly fast, as after only a few seconds, I had zombie files all over my desktop. All 20 of the files that were selected popped up on the desktop.

Conclusion

Undelete Plus performed as advertised. It was an easy to use program that quickly brought back my once lost files. However, I must say that my sample of 20 files is a very small one in the grand scheme of things and may not be fully representative.

Another alternative is Restoration which was written about by Mark, last September.

What does everyone out there use to get back those precious files that accidentally go the way of the dinosaur, and how has your success rate been on the file resurrection front?

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