Restoring factory hard drive capacity

I was futzing with my main computer's hard drive setup today and ran into a very weird problem: one of my 1TB drives (full of data) all of the sudden became 32MB! All data is gone! It even shows 32MB in BIOS.

I tried plugging the drive into either of the on board controllers but the problem persists. Changing the SATA power connector didn't work either. I took it out of the system and connected it to my laptop via USB-SATA adapter and it still recognizes the drive as 32MB. What the heck?!

I thought the drive was dead as it looks like it became corrupted. Luckily I googled a few keywords and found this blog post. Apparently I'm not the only one who have experienced this problem. Even better, there's a tool to fix it! The other cool thing is the tool can fix  the issue while leaving your data intact.
I can attest to this because I was able to use this tool to bring my 1TB drive back with all data. Phew!

Convert any executable to a service

I don't know how I didn't find out about this before but it is a godsend.
The ability to run any executable as a service is just awesome.

Create your own service

Turn your little Canon point-and-shoot camera into a miniDLSR

I'm sure many of you have bought Canon Powershot cameras. Those little guys are super compact and easy to use so you carry them everywhere with you. Sure you can lug around a large DSLR (and, while you're at it, add an 18-200 lens) to ensure you get the best shots possible but many times the DSLR is just too inconvenient. Sometimes it's better to tuck a Powershot in your shirt/pant/short pocket and go. But what if you can combine the pocketability of a Powershot and the flexibility & power of a DLSR? Well...if you have a Canon camera, you're in luck. Check out CHDK.

In short, CHDK gives your little Powershot camera the ability to do a lot of things that only large and expensive DSLRs can do. A few notable features include:

• Save images in RAW format - RAW is an uncompressed image format. Most cameras save to JPEG by default. JPEGs are compressed versions of the image which causes it to lose detail. RAW retains everything and gives you complete control over your picture (with a RAW-capable image editor of course).
  
• Ability to run "Scripts" to automate the camera - Many DSLRs don't even have this capability.
  
• Live histogram (RGB, blended, luminance and for each RGB channel) - this is very useful in composing your shots. Live histograms (especially color histograms) tells you a lot about the amount of light hitting your subject(s). This determines how light or dark your pictures will turn out (or how much of each color is in your picture). You can read more about histograms here.
  
• Zebra mode (blinking highlights and shadows to show over/under exposed areas) - This does the same job as the histogram but it highlights areas of your actual screen, live.
  
• A higher compression movie mode, and double the maximum video file size - Very useful for those of us using Powershots as pocket video cams (with near HD quality too).
• Exposure times as long as 65 second - Very useful for night and other long exposure shots. Here's a few samples of long exposure shots.
  
• Exposure times as little as 1/10,000 of a second - Super fast exposure. Quite frankly, this is why I'm using CHDK with my cheapo ($65) Powershot SD1100IS. Here's a few samples of fast shutter shots.
  
• Ability to use the USB port for a remote trigger input - Can you say time-lapse? This feature allows you to hook your camera up to a computer and take snapshots at different intervals. You can simply set it up to take a picture every minute for an entire day. Then, string those pictures together to form a time-lapse movie.
  

Best of all, it's not a permanent change! Simply load the software (free) onto your memory card, stick it into your camera, turn it on and select the option to run CHDK.

Pretty awesome don't you think?

HP MediaSmart Server EX485 - $419 Free Shipping or $348 w/EPP

HP MediaSmart Server EX485 - $419 Free Shipping or $348 w/EPP (Employee Preferred Pricing)

HPShopping.com has $150 off the MediaSmart Servers, and coupon code SV2132 for $30 off $150, and free shipping. This brings the total cost to $419 for the EX485.
http://www.shopping.hp.com/store/...1/home_PDP

If you have EPP, I've seen the price as low as $347.99 (the coupon code seems to stack).
Thanks to original poster on Slickdeals.

Also, Microsoft Bing cashback for hp.com is currently at 25% so, if you combine that with EPP price (don't use coupon as it will void the Bing cashback), you can get this server for $292!

Here's a few reviews of this server:

• Usingwindowshomeserver.com
• Amazon.com reviews
• Mediasmartserver.net
  

Deal: Free CES (Consumer Electronic Show) 2010 admission

Register for your FREE Exhibits Plus pass
Use code "AN3" when prompted.
Free before October 1, 2009.
October 1, 2009 — 5 p.m. EST, January 2, 2010 $100.00
5:01 p.m. EST, January 2, 2010 — On-site $200.00

Deal: 50% off Dell SMB laptops

Dell Small Business 50% off Vostro 1520, Latitude E5500, and Latitude E6500 50% off Vostro 1520, Latitude E5500, and Latitude E6500 laptops of $1,599 or more with "DLJDVFMLQCN$F9" and E6500 comes with Mini 10 for $99!!

http://www.dell.com/business/laptops

A few galleries

Pictures from my recent trip to Spain, Portugal, and Morocco
My gallery on photoshop.com

Here's a few samples:

More to come...

The start of a new beginning

Here we go again...another blog.

This is probably my 4th attempt at a blog. For some reason, it never really pan out. I never have enough time to keep posting. Hopefully this time around, Facebook will help me keep this blog updated.

Let's see where we go from here.

How to install Windows XP on a hard drive destined for another computer

I needed to install Windows XP on an old laptop today. The laptop has an external DVD-ROM drive but, of course, it doesn't work.

I tried booting from a USB drive, doesn't work either (BIOS is too old and does not support booting from USB). Now what?

Network booting is out of the question as it involves too much work to setup a PXE server and it doesn't make sense for a single laptop install. So I took out the hard drive and used a USB-IDE adapter to connect it to another laptop. The next problem is doing an XP install on the "USB hard drive". I thought about copying the i386 folder from the CD to the hard drive but how do I run the setup? I can't boot from that hard drive. Under Windows 98 or 95, it's as easy as "format /s" or "sys " but there is no such option in windows. To do something similar, you'd have to download boot disk images from bootdisk.com, unpack, expand using winimage, etc. etc. Too much work.


I looked around and found the solution:

1. Format the hard drive in question with whatever file system you want (I prefer NTFS).
2. Let's assume the hard drive is E: and your CD/DVD drive is D:
3. Put the Windows install CD in.
4. In a command prompt (Start, Run, "cmd" then press ENTER)
5. Type: "d:\i386\winnt32 /syspart:E /tempdrive:E"
6. This will start a Windows installation onto drive E: and will copy the installation files to drive E.
7. For more options, click here.
8. After that, the system will restart. Take out the hard drive and put it back into the original computer.
9. Once that computer boots, the OS installation will continue and will detect the proper hardware.

I'd imagine this would come in handy when installing Windows on a netbook or any other systems that do not have a removable drive.