CDCheck 3.1

Requirements

Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP/Vista

Author/Supplier
elpros

File Size
1.5MB

File Name
CD-Check.exe

[Click here to Download]

Description
As your CD and DVD collection grows, there are two important problems you face - do your CDs and DVDs still work? What can you do when a CD or DVD starts to have problems? These are crucial questions since the discs are used to store valuable files like email, home movies, photographs, business/tax records and music. The solution is to use a free program like CDCheck. It can scan most CDs in a few minutes to tell you if the data is OK - this way, you don't have to find out the hard way that there is a problem. Plus you can use the time it takes for a scan to complete as indicator of the CD or DVDs overall health - even though files may not be recorded as damaged, slower results normally indicate a CD that is on the way out (expect longer times if there are more files on the CD).

If a CD or DVD is showing files with damage or you can no longer read a file in a drive, CDCheck can be switched to recovery mode and make a full sweep of the CD or DVD, recovering lost files along the way. When parts of a file can't be fully recovered, the program will still recover any salvageable fragments. Many file formats such as Zip, TIFF and JPEG can still be used if incomplete (success of this technique varies, depending on the damage). Most zip tools have a 'repair archive' function, and a standard graphics editor can help repair damage to photographs caused by missing fragments.

Since CDCheck is freeware (free for personal use) and a small download, it is worth getting a copy and occasionally using it on your CD or DVD collection. Note: the authors state that you should request a free license from CDCheck online (you must register as a CDCheck online user, activate your account, login to CDCheck online and request free license).

You are here: CDCheck - Free CD and DVD file recovery and error checking software

Smart Recovery 4.5 (freeware)

Requirements
Windows 98/Me/2000/XP
Supported cards: Compact Flash, Smart Media, Memory stick, Secure Digital Card, Microdrive, Multimedia Card.

Author/Supplier
Convar

File Size
3.8MB

File Name
pci_us_smartrecovery.exe

[Click here to Download]

Description
Digital camera technology makes it easy to erase photos whenever you need. Unfortunately, it can also mean accidentally deleting images you want to keep or transfer. Some cameras can occasionally get confused and reset the card to show 'no images', even though the files are still there. If you act quickly, it is possible to recover lost photographs from most digital memory cards. Smart Recovery can also help reconstruct data files after a card has been formatted. All you do is download and install the program on the computer. Follow the simple steps and - fingers crossed - the photographs can be recovered.

Smart Recovery supports the following picture formats: .jpg, .tiff, .bmp, .gif, Canon .crw, Fuji .raf, Olympus .orf (E-XX), Olympus .orf (C5050), Kodak .dcr, Minolta .mrw, Nikon .nef (D1H/D1X), Nikon .nef (E5000/E5700), Sigma - Foveon .x3f. Plus Video files in .avi, QuickTime .mov format and audio files in .wav or .dss formats.

Most digital card formats are supported including Compact Flash, Smart Media, Memory stick, Secure Digital Card, Microdrive, Multimedia Card and Microsoft pocket. Since Smart Recovery only reads the card, you can try it on card types not listed here. As long as you have a card reader or camera that creates a 'logical drive', it should work. Smart Recovery is free (freeware), so it is worth downloading and keeping for emergencies.

You are here: Smart Recovery 4 - Freeware file recovery for Compact Flash, Smart Media, Memory stick & most digital memory cards.

File Recovery 4 (freeware)

Requirements
Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP

Author/Supplier
Convar

File Size
5.6MB

File Name
pc-file-recovery.exe

[Click here to Download]

Description
We have all had it happen at some stage. Sometimes the wrong answer to a cryptic Windows question has sent files to oblivion. Maybe a program crash or virus wipes files from your system. Suddenly you realise that an important file - or entire directory - has been lost or deleted. Contrary to what you might think, it is possible and quite easy to recover a deleted file (even if the recycle bin has been emptied). However the most important step with any file recovery technique is to avoid using the computer – especially the drive that holds the deleted files. There is a good chance the file is still present but if you use the computer, the possibility of file recovery decreases.

File recovery has many descriptions: you can undelete, recover deleted files or recover a lost file. Regardless of what you call it, the freeware program File Recovery 4 can help get your file back. All you do is download and Install the program on the computer – try to avoid the same drive as the deleted files. Follow the simple steps and fingers-crossed the file can be recovered. It can undelete a lost file from FAT, FAT!6, FAT32 and NTFS file system format. Plus it can finds partitions automatically, even if the boot sector or FAT has been erased or damaged.

File Recovery 4 can also recover most common files types. Even if part of the file is damaged and beyond recovery, you may be able to get back some useful fragments - recovering half of a lost 10,000 word assignment is better than having nothing at all.

You are here: Freeware file recovery software to undelete files or recover lost files

USB 2.0 on Windows XP and 2000

How to:

• Fix common USB 2.0 problems
• Download files and drivers for USB 2.0

USB 2.0 on Windows XP and 2000

There are many reasons why problems with USB devices can occur. Keep in mind that USB Controllers are small pieces of hardware that allow your computer to operate USB connections. These Controllers need software drivers to operate properly. That's why your first step is to check that you have the latest USB 2.0 drivers on your system.

Start by opening Windows Explorer and right-clicking on My Computer. Click the Hardware tab, followed by the Device Manager Button. Towards the bottom of the list you should see a heading 'Universal Serial Bus Controllers.' Click the small plus sign next to it. This menu will expand to reveal one or more listings. To see if you have USB 2.0, look for a line that says 'USB2 Enhanced Controller.' The exact entry will vary slightly and don't confuse it with other entries that may simply list 'USB Universal Controller'. See the screenshot to the below for an example of how it may look. Note that there are no yellow exclamation points next to the entries - the yellow exclamations,, indicate a problem with the device.

If you do see a yellow exclamation next to any of the USB entries, especially the USB2 Enhanced Controller, then there is a problem affecting the USB 2.0 driver on your system. To fix the problem, right click on the entry and select Properties. Click on the 'Troubleshoot' button and follow the prompts. In most cases this will help find a solution. The alternative is to right-click and select 'Update driver' while your computer is connected to the Internet.

OK, what if you look down the USB list and there is no entry with 'USB2 Enhanced Controller'? This generally means that you do not have the USB 2.0 driver installed. There are two steps you need to follow. Firstly you must ensure that you have installed either Windows XP Service Pack 3 or Windows 2000 Service Pack 4. Technically, XP users only need Windows XP Service Pack 1, but this would be risky as it leaves your system exposed to numerous security threats fixed with Service Pack 2.

If needed, download and install the Service Pack, then restart your system. Go back to the Device Manager - as shown in the first paragraph - and check the status of your USB controllers. If the USB2 Enhanced Controller has appeared without the yellow symbol, you should be ready to use USB 2.0. If not, you will need the specific USB 2.0 driver for your system. There are only six manufacturers of USB 2.0 controllers: Acer Labs, Intel, NEC, SiS, VIA and nVidia (which may appear as 'Standard Controller'), but sometimes they are re-branded by other companies. In this case, you will need to find out which Controller is on your system and visit the manufacturers site for an update or special instructions. For example, if you have the Via USB Controller, you will need the Via USB 2.0 driver (you can download a copy here).

You are here: USB 2.0 - Driver download and troubleshoot USB 2.0 drivers for Windows XP and Windows 2000.

How to create your own free CD autorun for HTML and most file types.

Create your own autorun CD or DVD

It is easy to create an autorun CD or DVD for Windows and all it takes are a few files (which we've supplied for free). The technique can be used to open other file types, but HTML is used for a reason: it is the most commonly supported by Windows (most PCs have a Web browser) and it is flexible. You could use it to open other files, such as a Powerpoint presentation, but it would require the end user to have Powerpoint or the Powerpoint viewer on their system. The autorun zip file we've prepared contains everything you need to autorun a CD and open a HTML file. So download a copy - it's tiny and free - see above for the download link.

So why can't an autorun open a HTML directly? It is because a Windows autorun can only open an application (program) not a data file (eg HTML). You cannot tell an autorun to directly open a HTML file. Try it, and nothing will happen. To get around his problem, we are using a .bat file which Windows will treat as a program. This special file will then open the HTML file.

Assembling the CD
Download and copy the files to your root directory of the CD. These are: autorun.inf, autorun.bat and index.html. You can put all sorts of files on the rest of the CD. They won't affect the autorun. You can test the autorun by burning the three files to the root directory of a test CD-R. Open the CD drive and close it again. Viola, you have just created your own autorun HTML CD. You should change the contents of index.html to whatever you need. The index.html supplied is only a test page.

Changes you can make
The autorun can open any type of file and display any message you want. To make changes, open Windows Notepad (do not use Word, WordPad or other Word processors). Now open the autorun.bat file from within Notepad. The order is important, if you double-click the autorun.bat file, it will try to run. So open NotePad and select File-Open and choose the autorun.bat file. You'll see four lines of code.

The first line after @echo (remember the space) will appear as a comment in the autorun launch Window. This comment will be seen very briefly by your end-users. It can be changed to anything you want, but since it only appears for a second or less, don't make it too wordy. If you wanted to say 'The CD is loading now...', the first line of code will look like:

@echo The CD is loading now...

The second line of the code tells the .bat file to open to your index.html file. If want to open a file by another file (eg readme.txt), then it would read:

@start readme.txt

Make sure you leave the last two lines untouched (@cls and @exit) - they must always appear last. Save the changes and you are done. That that's all you need to create your own HTML autorun CD.

You are here: Autorun CD - how to create your own free CD autorun for HTML and most file types.

Maps for Nokia Maps 2.0 (direct download)

Applies to:
Nokia Maps 2.0 and Nokia PC suite running on Windows

Requirements
Nokia Maps 2.0 and Nokia PC suite running on Windows

Author/Supplier
Nokia

Maps for Nokia Maps 2.0 - download by continent:

Africa: 82MB

America (North, Central and South): 1.07GB

Asia (and Middle East): 404MB

Australia and Oceania (and New Zealand): 108MB

Europe: 1.24GB

Description
These are the direct download links for Nokia's worldwide maps - you can download each continent separately. Nokia encourages the use of Map Loader for this process but it has many frustrating issues. Firstly, it is hard to back up and transfer the maps to other computers - a problem in more remote locations or for people with slow internet connections. Also, downloading the Nokia maps directly tends to be quicker as you don't have to wait for the Nokia software to grind its way through the process - this is something you have to restart each time if there is a problem with the transfer.

Importantly, downloading the maps directly can avoid the frustrating error: 'Connection to Storage Medium interrupted. Attach your storage medium and retry.' Also, when you upgrade your Nokia software, often it will wipe the contents of your phone, requiring you to start all over again and download the maps. The total size of all the files is over 3000MB, so it's not something you want to be doing on a regular basis.

Instructions

• Make sure you have an unzipping program on your computer
• Install Nokia Maps and run it while your phone is connected to your computer - this will create some important file structures on your Nokia phone. Exit the Maps application.
• In a temporary folder on your PC, unzip the Nokia map files that you have downloaded and make sure you leave the file structure in tact. These will be a group of 16 folders with names 0, 1, 2, all the way to 9, then a, b, c, d, e, and f.
• Check that your phone is connected and visible in Windows Explorer. Double click on the phone and look for the folder called diskcache. Typically it is [Phone model or Removable Disk]/cities/diskcache (see picture below). This may vary slightly betwen phone models. Open the diskcache folder.
• Copy all the unzipped contents over to the diskcache directory.
• Repeat for each continent.
• Important note: these files are downloaded directly from Nokia's servers.
  
  
  
  The usual location of the Nokia Map files
  on a Nokia phone.

You are here: Download worldwide maps for Nokia Maps 2.0 via direct download - its faster, ideal for backups or offline and will avoid the Nokia Map Loader error: Connection to Storage Medium interrupted, Attach your storage medium and retry.

Flash installation issues

How to:

• Fix the Youtube error message 'Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Macromedia's Flash Player. Get the latest Flash player'.
• Check the version of Flash Player installed on your PC
• Fix common Flash Player installation errors
• Download the latest version of Flash Player as a single installation file

Understanding Flash Player

Adobe's Flash Player is needed to access certain types of content on the Web. Generally, you will need the latest version installed on your computer to properly access Flash content, including videos on Youtube.

That's all well and good, but we are guessing the reason you are here is that something has gone wrong. Either Flash seems to install but the content is still not showing, or no matter what you did, Flash wouldn't install on the official Adobe site. Sadly, these are very common issues.

The most frustrating error appears at sites such as Youtube where you see 'Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Macromedia's Flash Player. Get the latest flash player.' In most reports we have seen of this Youtube error, it is nothing to with Javascript being turned off, but the Flash Player itself.

Why does the installation on Adobe's site fail?
Well, it could be a range of issues. Here are some common ones:

• Security software is interfering with the installation
• User rights are not set at the correct level
• There is an unknown bug on the Adobe site
• For some reason, the Flash ActiveX files are not properly registered on the system (common in Internet Explorer 7 and Vista)
• There is some other Windows Vista or Internet Explorer 7 issue
• ActiveX controls or security levels in Internet Explorer are set in a way that prevents the installation
• The protected zone in Windows Vista is causing the problem
• Something is wrong with the existing version of Flash on your computer. It is probably corrupted and this is preventing the proper installation of the latest Flash player.
• For the Youtube error 'Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Macromedia's Flash Player. Get the latest Flash player', this is mainly due to a corrupted installation of the Flash Player.

Solution to all of the above: get the standalone Flash Player installation file (links are at the top of this page). There are two types: one for Internet Explorer, the other is for Mozilla/Firefox/Netscape.


Something seems to have gone wrong
Okay, you downloaded the standalone installation and the Flash Player is still not working properly. Did you run the installation file you downloaded and close all open windows - including your Web browser? Silly as it may seem, some people forget these steps. Otherwise, it may be an older or corrupt version of Flash that is causing the issue.

Solution: Adobe - and many of our visitors - advise you to use the Flash Player uninstall tool (see the top of this page). Restart your computer and try running the standalone installation file again.


Determining what version of Flash is on your system
A highly frustrating aspect of Flash is that sometimes you think you have installed one version, yet you are being told something different on various web sites. You need to cross check two things. Most issues relate to Internet Explorer, so we'll deal with it here. This is going to be a marathon - stay in there...

Start Internet Explorer and from the menu click Tools-Internet Options. Click the General Tab, followed by the Settings button about half-way down the window on the right. Now click the View Objects button. You should see an option called 'Shockwave Flash Object'. Right-click on the file and choose Properties. Finally, click the Version tab. Now go to Adobe's version check (this link opens in a new window). Do the two version numbers match and are they the latest version? If yes, you should be OK to view content. If not - or there is still a problem - use the Flash Player uninstall tool (see the top of this page) and try reinstalling the player.

You are here: Flash install problems - how to fix Flash player installation problems such as the Youtube error: Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Macromedia's Flash Player.