How to Completely Recover Documents, Pictures and More Off Your Failing Hard Drive or SmartCard

Nearly every computer user has experienced a crash at one time or another.  Most times your machine fires right back up, but sometimes not.  So what do you do about all your pictures, music, videos and miscellaneous documents you’ve gathered over the years?  Here are a few ways to save your precious data.

(BTW: this wouldn’t be necessary if you regularly backed up your files onto an external hard drive or or burned them onto DVD’s, but you probably haven’t done that).

Whoops! I Deleted Everything, Right?

If you’re a CSI, Law & Order or NCIS fan you’ve seen that data can be retrieved from a hard drive, even if it’s been deleted.  That’s possible because even though you delete a file, it doesn’t actually go away.  Your computer simply moves the file to an area of the drive where it can be overwritten and tells the OS (Operating System) that that space is now available.

But the TV Detective IT Squad has special tools to extract the damning digital evidence, right?  Sure, but so do you and it’s free.  Before I go there, what do you do when your hard drive completely dies and your computer won’t fire up?  Honestly, most of the time it’s just a corrupted system file or portion of your boot sector which can be corrected by running the chkdsk command in a DOS command prompt, but that’s for another tutorial.

The most cost effective way to retrieve your data and even repair the drive is to open up the case, remove the hard drive and plug it into a  another working computer as a slave drive.

A hard drive is a peripheral component and is not OS exclusive, however, in order to retrieve data from a Windows machine, you’ll need to hook the drive up to another Windows computer.

Remove the Failing Drive

1. Power down the computer and unplug the AC from the back.
2. Remove the side of the computer case.
3. Locate the Hard drive and unplug the Power and Data cables from the back of the drive. (Newer computers use SATA connectors, but yours may have the PATA or Parallel connector, there are only two kinds so it’s one or the other)
4. Unscrew or detach the drive from the chassis or case (check your manual for instructions) and remove the drive.

(The power cable pictured is a Moler cable, yours may be the SATA power connector, again there’s only two choices so it’s one or the other)

Most newer computer motherboards have both PATA and SATA connectors, check your hard drive connection and the motherboard connections of the computer you want to use to make sure.

Next, be sure you have the proper cables.  For the SATA drive you can pull the one from your computer and take it with you.  If you have a PATA or Parallel connection you’ll need a PATA ribbon with three connectors like below:

The only possible remaining issue could be the jumper pin settings on the PATA hard drive (SATA drives are preset).  The most common jumper setting is CABLE SELECT (CS).  Jumper settings on both drives should be set to CS.  Otherwise, the drive you’re plugging into should be set to Master and your drive to Slave.

(Check the hard drive manufacturers website for the correct jumper settings for each drive, the image below is an example specifically for this article)

As above, power down, unplug and open up the computer you’re going to hook your drive to, plug in the appropriate cables, put everything back together and fire it up.  There’s no need to replace the side of the computer you’re using, unless it makes the other computer owner feel better, than by all means.

Failing hard drives may have corrupted system files or may not have enough juice to fire up the entire computer, but even slightly damaged drives will register with the other machine, and that’s when you can navigate to the folders where all your stuff resides.

Your drive will show up as E: or F:, depending on that computers set up, it could be anything except C: or D: (in most cases).

Once you find your drive go to - E: (whatever drive letter it is)>Documents and Settings>Owner (or whatever your user name is)>My Documents.  That is the default location for personal data storage, although you may have files on your desktop or other folders you created as well.

Once you have that figured out, start moving your data over.  You can use your friends hard drive, an external drive, a thumb drive or you can burn the files onto a DVD or BluRay disk.

What If…

If the drive registers but doesn’t allow access the drive may be damaged.  In that case, you’ve got a couple options.  The FREE option is to download and install PC Inspector – File Recovery.

PC Inspector is a FREE data recovery program that can not only pull data from a damaged drive, but it also has the ability to retrieve deleted files on your computer.  As mentioned above, when you delete a file it just gets moved to another area and is overwritten.  If the file was deleted recently or not much activity has taken place, there’s an excellent chance that you can completely restore the file.  PC Inspector – File Recovery is awesome.

PC Inspector also has a SmartCard Recovery program that performs the same function for the SmartCards used in digital cameras and other devices.  Digital cameras have been known to re-format a SmartCard for no reason at all, but when that happens you just need to download and install PC Inspector Smart Recovery.  Plug a card reader into your computer, or use the card reader bay, start Smart Recovery, navigate to the card and your pictures magically reappear.  Again an awesome program.

If All Else Fails

If that doesn’t work, there is one more option you can utilize that isn’t free, but it doesn’t cost hundreds either.  The absolute best data recovery, hard drive repair program is called SpinRite.

For a mere $89 (as of this writing) you can save data and repair hard drives over and over again.  I’ve used SpinRite on dozens of drives and have had 100% success in restoring them.  SpinRite will restore corrupted system files, boot sectors and it can even repair physically damaged drives.  Absolutely amazing.

Summary

If you’re cheap (or broke) like me, you may go through the steps above to retrieve your data.  If you’re not interested in cracking open your computer, than SpinRite is definitely the best way to go.   Please leave any questions in the comments section.

Good Luck!

Anti-Malware, Web Development Tools and Entertainment

My aversion to paying for anything software related results in countless hours scouring the internet for useful FREE software.  Each of the programs listed below not only rock but are absolutely free, however, it would be nice if you threw a couple bucks at them if you appreciate their efforts.

Came across a great anti-malware program, not by mistake.  Just so you know, my internet surfing behavior could be described as daring, controlled recklessness or idiotic.  The fact is, I’m convinced I can fix anything computer related, real or imagined, and I’ll die believing that, regardless of the veracity of the sentiment.

Malwarebytes

Malwarebytes.org

My admitted unsafe internet surfing practices led to infection by a nasty little trojan.  After 2 minutes of googling, I found Malwarebytes.org which erradicated the infection.  I had to run it 3 or 4 times, but it did the job.

HTTrack Website Copier

HHtrack.com

As a Web Designer, Web Developer, it can be advantageous to gain an understanding as to how Pros put their sites together.  HTTrack downloads the entire html translated site.  Protected or encrypted directories won’t download, but most of the files and directories will.  Great tool.   Or,what if you like the content of a particular site? Whatever content that is?

Or, what if you want to use elements of a particular site?  Need I go on?

Notepad++ Source Code Editor

Notepad++

Taken from their site:

Notepad++ is a free (as in “free speech” and also as in “free beer”) source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages. Running in the MS Windows environment, its use is governed by GPL License.

Based on a powerful editing component Scintilla, Notepad++ is written in C++ and uses pure Win32 API and STL which ensures a higher execution speed and smaller program size. By optimizing as many routines as possible without losing user friendliness, Notepad++ is trying to reduce the world carbon dioxide emissions. When using less CPU power, the PC can throttle down and reduce power consumption, resulting in a greener environment.

Foobar2000

foobar2000.org

So many of the media players available have more bells and whistles than one could want or use.  Foobar2000 is a Windows based media player with cool features, but it keeps it simple.  I use it for it’s simplicity and that it adopts all the codecs on my machine.  No ups, no extras just music how you want to hear it.

No big deal this post, just some cool stuff.

Have fun.

Keep your Wordpress blog running smooth and optimized with 10 of the most useful plugins available.

As of WP version 2.8.4 these plugins are used for every Wordpress website/blog I set up.  My goal is to work as efficiently and expediently as possible.  Each of these plugins help achieve that goal and will increase your productivity in a meaningful way.

1. Akismet

Akismet is included with the default install of wordpress.  It catches spam comments so they don’t clog up your bandwidth, compromise your server or infect your viewers computers.  All that’s required is to visit Wordpress.com and register for an API Key. I use the same API Key for every Wordpress application I create.

2. All in One SEO Pack

All in One is a simple Search Engine Optimization plugin that works.  Headspace is also an effective plugin, and I’ve used both, but my preference is All in One primarily because I find that I personally don’t use all the bells and whistles that come with Headspace and I haven’t noticed any measurable difference between the two.

3. Bad Behavior

Bad Behavior is a gatekeeper that compliments Akismet and other spam solutions by utilizing a PHP based solution for blocking link spam and the robots that deliver it.

4. Clean Options

As Wordpress progresses, updates are necessary to stay current and remain secure and functional.  There are times when you will experiment with different plugins, but as time and WP versions march on, some plugins will be rendered incompatible with updated version.  Most likely an alternate solution will become available, but you’ll still have deprecated plugin remnants in your database that could conflict with your current application or new plugins.  Clean options finds the orphaned database entries and gives you the opportunity to remove them, thus keeping your database free of unnecessary clutter.

5. Contact Form 7

Contact forms are a necessity, not an option, for any serious blog.  Contact Form 7 is a simple, yet highly customizable contact form that is easy to configure and easy to place on it’s own separate page,  included in a post or in the sidebar.

6. Google Analyticator

This plugin adds the necessary JavaScript code to enable Google Analytics on your blog.  Google Analytics is the most comprehensive FREE web traffic analyzer available.

7.  Maintenance Mode

Whether you’re in the initial development stages or you need to perform a major overhaul of your blog, Maintenance Mode is a great way to let your visitors know that your blog is down temporarily.  Maintenance mode is customizable in that it accepts html code and gives you the ability to tell your visitors when to check back.

8. My Page Order

Blogs are dynamic and living documents by design and as the pages come and go you’ll want control over the order in which they are presented in your menu bar or navigation bar.  You can change the order by digging into the PHP code, but why bother when someone else has designed this great time-saving plugin for you. My Page Order adds a link in the Pages section of your Wordpress back-end, all you have to do is click and drag to rearrange the order.

9. Reveal IDs for WP Admins

Referencing posts, pages or other components of your blog are made simpler by Reveal ID’s.  While this plugin is designed for the more advanced user, there are a few plugins (notably: Featured Content Gallery) that require this plugin to work.

10. TinyMCE

TinyMCE is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor that adds an enormous amount of flexibility for the writer/blogger.  The ability to create and format tables, enhanced font control and multitude of useful formatting elements not available in the standard WP editor.  Each of these functions can be accomplished using the html interface, but for time saving and ease of use, TinyMCE is one my favorites.

There are literally thousands of Wordpress plugins to substantially increase the usability, flexibility and ease of use for the developer, blogger and visitor.  This small sample represents the basics for any initial setup.  Suggestions, comments  or questions are welcome.

peace.

Filezilla is one of the best FTP programs available, and totally free.  It doesn’t get much better than that.

There’s no better compliment to a Wordpress (or any, for that matter) blog than FileZilla.  This primer will show how easy it is to transfer files from your computer to your website quickly and easily.

1. Download and Install FileZilla – (download)

FileZilla is available for Windows (2k – Windows 7), Linux and Mac (Requires OS X 10.5 or newer)

2. FileZilla Interface

The image below describes the functions of each window of the interface.  Transferring files is as easy as right-mouse clicking on the file and selecting “upload”.  Take a minute to review the image.

3. Configure FileZilla for your website

• Click on File>Site Manager
• Click on the “New Site” Button just below the “Select Entry” window.  A new entry will appear and be highlighted under “My Sites” in the “Select Entry” window.
• Rename the new entry to whatever you want (something close to the site name could work, but it’s up to you)
• In the top right of the Site Manager window are four tabs; General, Advanced, Transfer Settings and Charset.  General is the only tab you need, the default settings suffice 99.99% of the time.  (I’ve never had to adjust any of the other settings in the 9 years I’ve been using FileZilla)
• In the Host: textfield (see below) type in the domain name of your site without the http://www (make sure to include the .com|.net|etc)
• Servertype: should be set at FTP – File Transfer Protocol
• Set Logontype: to Normal
• User: is your FTP user name
• Password: is, well your FTP password

important – User names and passwords ARE case-sensitive and there can be NO spaces between letters or words.

That should be all you have to do.  Once those fields are filled in, you click on the “Connect” button and you should be in and ready to start transferring files.

4. Transferring Files

Basically, you’re moving files/folders (directories) from your computer (window 4 above) to your web server (window 5 above).  The left side of the FileZilla interface is your computer, and the right side is the web server or remote site.  You can do that by right-mouse clicking the files/folders(directories) and selecting “upload”.  You can control-click or shift-click a group of files/folders(directories) and right-mouse click or you can even click and drag files/f0lders(directories) from anywhere else into the remote site file window (window 5 above). Window 6 will show you the status of your transfers.

5. A little more about how it works

When you first connect via FileZilla, you could get confused by all the folders/directories on your remote site/web server.  If a number of folders/directories appear, the only ones you’re concerned with is “www” or “public_html”.  Double click on that folder/directory and upload your files to there. Very often, both directories exist, if that’s the case upload to the “www” folder/directory.

If the “www” or “public_html” folders don’t exist, than you are in the root directory, upload your site there.

EVERY HOME PAGE IS ACTUALLY A FILE NAMED “INDEX” OR “DEFAULT” (example: index. htm, index.html, index.php, index.asp, default.asp, default.html, default.htm).  If that file does not exist in your root directory, than users can not visit your website.

You’ll notice I always used folders/directories in the descriptions above.  We’re used seeing folders on our computers, but they are always directories.  On a web server, directories is more accurate terminology.

In the FileZilla interface image above, you see a number of directories.  Those are the directories in my flathead site.  The first directory is 4sale.  If you were to open a browser and type http://www.flatheadenterprises.com/4sale in the address pane, it will take you to the contents of that directory.  I have an index.html file in that directory, so you’re browser can read it, otherwise, it’s likely you’d get an error message.

FileZilla does not recognize changes you’ve made while the FileZilla application is open.  For example, if you add an image to a folder that you’re working on while FileZilla is open, it will not automatically recognize it.  You’ll need to either close and reopen the application, or as I do, click on some other folder than go back to the folder the image (or whatever) you added is in.  There’s no automatic refresh nor is there a refresh button.

6. Backing up your site is a breeze

To me, this the best part.  You’ve been working for days/weeks/months to get your site to a place where it’s really cool.  But nothing is forever, and if you’re talking electronics, anything can happen at any moment.  Create a folder on your computer called something crazy like “site-backup-(date)”.  Open FileZilla, select all files and folders and download it to that folder.  It’s gonna take a while, but you don’t have to wait for it, so go see what you have saved on DVR  and check back later cause it’s all getting done.  Afterward, burn it to a CD/DVD and you’re completely backed up.  If you are using wordpress or some other database driven website application, than exporting the .sql file and saving that completes the backup, but if you know what that stuff is already, you probably already know this stuff anyway.

Don’t hesitate to ask me any questions, love to help.

peace.

Grown children are buying computers for their parents to improve communication.  Many of the “long-in-tooth” crowd pick it right up.  Others, not so much.  This series is intended for the absolute beginner, but you might get something out of it too.

Overview

The internet continues to grow in importance in our daily lives.  It offers us an opportunity to retrieve a seemingly infinite amount of information.  Every dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia, news source and educational institution in the world is at your fingertips (literally).  It has enabled immediacy in social communication and business applications.  But it can also lead to hours of hair-pulling, expletive-bellowing frustration. This guide can serve as a quick resource for those times when your hair and your dignity are threatened.  So, let’s get started:

RULE #1

SECURITY

Safe surfing means having a basic understanding of what dangers exist and how they affect you.  Viruses, spyware, malware and adware affect Microsoft Windows computers primarily.  Hackers are indiscriminate, but the vast majority of hackers typically attempt to compromise Windows machines.  Due to the architecture of Microsoft software and operating system, more opportunities exist for the hacker to exploit Windows, than in Linux machines or Macs.

The specific definitions of spyware, malware, et al; are unimportant.  The idea is to know what to look for,  avoid them when possible and/or remove them once they’ve landed on your computer.  Avoiding them means knowing what not to click on, removing them is the practice of cleaning out your machine from time to time.

Some adware and spyware are unavoidable annoyances, but not much of a threat.  Viruses, malware, key-loggers and rootkits on the other hand can pose a serious security risk.  The repercussions of an infection from these little programs, which is what they are,  can range from annoying and/or embarrassing pop-ups to the compromise of your bank accounts and all of your personal information.  Notice I didn’t say “some” or “a little bit of.”

If that last sentence scared you, GOOD.  The hackers still have the upper hand, but, that doesn’t mean you have to be afraid of surfing the internet.  There are tools you can use and techniques you can employ to protect your privacy.

First Line of Defense:

Put a router in between your computer and your modem.  Even if there’s only one computer in the house, a router is a hardware firewall which effectively anonymizes the ip address of your computer.  Software firewalls, like the Windows Security Center, are easily compromised and highly ineffective.

To other computers, your computer is a series of numbers called an ip address.  Each computer has a unique ip address, sort of like a fingerprint.  The internet is really just a bunch of computers all connected together in a network.  The network is made up of Servers and Clients.  Servers direct all the traffic, track and log activity and store information.  Clients are users, like you.

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When you open a browser (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, etc) you make a call or a request to a Server, which is typically your Internet Service Provider or ISP.  The Server sends your request to it’s intended destination which is usually a website that resides on a Server somewhere else.  Your identifier, in the form of your ip address is stored on every server you visit and are directed to, and through.

Hacker Exploits

When one of these bad programs or a hacker obtains the ip address of your actual computer it/they begin a series of searches for what’s called open ports.  Your computer has over 10,000 ports that are used by different programs on your computer for a variety of functions, but most often they are used as a portal for a specific program to communicate with other components via the internet or network.

Hackers, both white-hat (good guys, right) and black-hat, have found vulnerabilities in the code used to actuate these processes and have developed what are called exploits to attempt to break in or compromise a computer system.

That’s one reason Microsoft regularly sends out updates.  Updates many times are patches or fixes to their own code which repair the vulnerabilities.  That’s why anyone in IT recommends updating your system regularly.

Your Router is the Gatekeeper

The benefit of putting a router between your computer and your modem, is that a router adopts the ip address and basically becomes the gatekeeper between you and the internet.  A router is a small computer that only runs one program, typically utilizing the Linux OS, which is extremely difficult to hack if not impossible.

Therefore, hacker exploits are stopped at the gate as it were, unless you inadvertently let them in by clicking on the wrong link.

Just Say No To Pop-ups

If you see a pop-up that you weren’t expecting, close it.  On my FREE Guide to Internet Security, I show several examples of fake system messages.  Unfortunately, the bad guys have gotten good at replicating actual websites and system messages.  If you are unsure, Google can be your best friend.  Look at the message and either write down the contents of the message or open up a separate browser tab or window and do a Google search based on the message.  Please read my FREE Guide for more info.

Impostor Links/Sites

Another point of entry is through email and Impostor Links. Impostor links lead to Impostor sites which look exactly like Bank, Credit Card, etc sites, but are clones whose sole intent is to get your information.

One way to check whether or not a link is an imposter is to place your mouse pointer over the link, without clicking on it and look at the web address in the bottom left-hand corner of your browser window as illustrated below.

click on pic to enlarge

By looking at the link you can find clues as to whether or not the link is real.  For instance, most websites in the US end in .com, .net, .org, .biz or .info.  Below are some examples:

• http://www.bankofamerica.com – (real link to real site)
• http://de.bankofamerica.com – (fake)
• http://www.bankofamerica.de.com – (fake)
• http://www.bankofamerica.com.ru – (fake)
• http://www.bankofamerica.info.ru.com – (fake)

ISP spam, virus and phishing filters have improved, but every now and then something will slip through and it pays, literally to be on the safe side.

I hope this first installment has been helpful.  Please don’t hesitate to comment, critique or contact me with any questions.

peace, out.