Recent Posts

201

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: New: USB Safely Remove v5.0, and with a discount for 'free' users

« Last post by MerleOne on February 01, 2012, 11:08 AM »

First quick impression about the new version is that it takes additional resources on my old/slow XP box, but I have to recheck after a clean reboot...

202

Living Room / Re: Looking for password "scheme" suggestions

« Last post by MerleOne on January 27, 2012, 10:17 AM »

BTW, alpha is *NOT* my master key....

203

Living Room / Re: Looking for password "scheme" suggestions

« Last post by MerleOne on January 27, 2012, 10:16 AM »

Hi,
I had a small software developed by a colleague named Passwd (the app, not the colleague!), which does the following :



Enter a master key (hidden or not),


or


Enter a name, typically the name of the service/website you want to create a password for and you get a 8 symbols password



symbols being chosen within a-z and 0 to 9 (32m option); within A-Z  and 0-9 (32M option), and a mix of all printable chars (64 option)



then you can copy/paste it.

It's basically a hash function, deterministic and non-reversible.

This colleague, David, unfortunetaly, lost the visual basic source, so it's difficult to improve it...

I still use it 10 years or so after it was done ...

204

General Software Discussion / Re: Retrieving the name of a nice process killer

« Last post by MerleOne on January 27, 2012, 01:58 AM »

Thanks all !  In the mean time I also found another one close to what I looked for : YAPM (Yet Another Process Monitor) from http://yaprocmon.sou...ge.net/features.html.

205

General Software Discussion / Re: Retrieving the name of a nice process killer

« Last post by MerleOne on January 26, 2012, 06:16 AM »

Thanks.  Will try it.  Not sure it was the one I used once but may offer the same features.
 

206

General Software Discussion / Retrieving the name of a nice process killer

« Last post by MerleOne on January 26, 2012, 03:44 AM »

Hi,

I remember having tried 1 year ago or so an advanced task killer for Windows, that offered 5 or 6 different modes to kill a task, from the nicest way to the harshest.  Can't find its name and there are so many of these utilities I cannot find it on Google.  It was a freeware AFAIR.

Any suggestion ?

Thanks !

207

General Software Discussion / Re: Icon not displayed in standard warning popup window (Win7x64)

« Last post by MerleOne on January 24, 2012, 01:23 AM »

Thanks. I am not sure on how to restart Explorer.exe and it reverts to this behavior after a short while anyway.  Since it's a non blocking issue, I can wait some more time for Microsoft to solve it (in Win7, not Win8 !).  But now the question would be : is Microsoft aware of this issue and how to report it to them ? 

208

Living Room / Re: Recommend some music videos to me!

« Last post by MerleOne on January 23, 2012, 03:55 PM »

....
Note: There's also full footage (1.5 hours) of one of her Tin Angel concerts that can be found here.
 ...

-40hz (January 05, 2012, 09:54 PM)

Maybe a little off topic, but I have a question regarding this video.  I got the .flv file from Youtube, it plays ok but I'd like to convert it to another format (DVD and iPod).  I have tried 2 different video converters that used to work fine : Any Video Converter from Anvsoft and XmediaRecode.  They both have an issue : in the resulting video, the sound is terribly out of sync.  I know it's a common problem, but if someone knows a converter that would handle .flv format better, I'd appreciate it a lot.  Thanks.

209

General Software Discussion / Re: Icon not displayed in standard warning popup window (Win7x64)

« Last post by MerleOne on January 21, 2012, 06:37 AM »

Not here. I'm running a new Windows 7 Pro64-bit  with a GeForce GTX 570 (1280MB) graphics card.

Jim

-J-Mac (January 20, 2012, 09:12 PM)

Then I guess it's another of those Win7x64 "features"....

210

General Software Discussion / Re: Icon not displayed in standard warning popup window (Win7x64)

« Last post by MerleOne on January 20, 2012, 05:08 PM »

Thanks for trying on your system.  This is exactly what I get.  Sometimes, it does work though, usually just after a fresh boot and I get both icons to be displayed.  

Afterwards, when I open the folder and drag & drop an existing icon into the open folder, I get the 2nd icon ok most of the time



I have an AMD Radeon HD 6950 as graphics card.  Is yours also an ATI by chance ?

211

General Software Discussion / Re: Question regarding the "Sandboxie" program

« Last post by MerleOne on January 20, 2012, 10:48 AM »

I would like to know whether the following functionality is available in Sandboxie:
 
Currently, when a program is installed outside of a sandbox and then if a new sandbox is created or if an existing sandbox is opened, we see the installed program in the sandbox too (that is, changes in the actual system are carried into any sandbox). I would like to know if it is possible to restrict changes from the "actual" system to the "sandbox"?
 
Currently, the opposite functionality exists, that is any change in a sandbox is not carried to the actual system but would like to have it the other way around.
 
Thanks!

-Nzyme (January 19, 2012, 07:29 PM)

Not sure it is possible the way it works.  If you create a file C:\foo.txt, then you will access it in every created sandbox, then if you delete it in regular mode, it will also be deleted for all apps run from sandboxes.  If not, you would have to store this, and a huge amount of data.

You may get something close to what you want by using something like shadowdefender + sandboxie but it depends on what you want to perform I guess.

212

General Software Discussion / Icon not displayed in standard warning popup window (Win7x64)

« Last post by MerleOne on January 20, 2012, 09:59 AM »

Hi,
I am having this issue with a recent Win7x64 machine : I have created on the Desktop a folder that contains shortcuts of installed applications, instead of having them all around the desktop.  When I installed CCleaner for the first time, I moved its launch icon to this folder by drag and drop.  

When I install a new version, the launch icon being re-created. The actual issue occurs when I move this recreated icon into the folder : Windows warns me that CCleaner.lnk already exists there and asks me if I want to overwrite it, keep the old version or keep both. *BUT* the ccleaner icon is missing from this popup warning window.  And this occurs also for all  other links in a similar situation, when the link already exists in the folder, it's not CCleaner specific.

I have tried many times to re-generate the icon user database, to no avail.  Here it is how it works on a normal system :



Here the CCleaner icons are perfectly displayed (XP here).  Not on my Win7 system.  I tried to look on Microsoft online help, but with little results.

Thanks for any hint on how to solve this !

213

General Software Discussion / Re: Nasty NTFS issue ? [Solved !]

« Last post by MerleOne on January 17, 2012, 03:38 PM »

I managed to solve the issue.

-MerleOne (January 17, 2012, 06:56 AM)

Good going!
Glad you dug your way out, and thanks for sharing your solution; one never knows when…

-cranioscopical (January 17, 2012, 02:25 PM)

Thanks.  This is the least I could do.  Now I can address the next issue in line....  But I'll post it in another thread...

214

General Software Discussion / Re: Nasty NTFS issue ? [Solved]

« Last post by MerleOne on January 17, 2012, 06:56 AM »

Hi,

I think I managed to solve the issue.  Pretty simple once I found the right process.  I used CASPER V7 for that (www.fssdev.com).  I created the bootable recovery media (WinPE 3.1 based apparently), I cloned the OS partition in standard mode (= file by file copy) to a partition located an external USB HDD disk. Took 2 hours.  After that, I cloned back the OS partition (external drive to internal drive), using AccuClone mode (= sector mode), took just 12 mins.

After reboot, and chkdsk at boottime, the major NTFS corruption was gone.

The "trick" was to use file mode for the first cloning, because using sector mode only transported the issue.

Thanks to all who made suggestions.  I now get as a bonus, among various things, the link to MSFT & Sophos antirootkit, and the very useful Fake Name Generator URL.

215

General Software Discussion / Re: Nasty NTFS issue ?

« Last post by MerleOne on January 16, 2012, 12:56 AM »

Great, thanks !

216

General Software Discussion / Re: Nasty NTFS issue ?

« Last post by MerleOne on January 15, 2012, 05:02 AM »

Still, what troubles me is why this defect would be revealed by a chkdsk@boottime.  

-MerleOne (January 14, 2012, 06:13 AM)

Because at boot time there are files that aren't locked by the operating system and are therefore accessible for testing.  That's why it's always better to do an offline test and the main reason I always have some form of PE to boot from.

-4wd (January 14, 2012, 09:18 PM)

OK !  Thanks.  And also for the Rootkit detectors.

217

General Software Discussion / Re: Nasty NTFS issue ?

« Last post by MerleOne on January 14, 2012, 12:41 PM »

Thanks !  And BTW, try using HDD Regen demo version on this HDD.  If you know the approximate location, it will speed up the process.  AFAIK, the demo version allows the repair of one bad sector, then exits.  If there is just one it should be ok.  Beware that repair here means content destroyed, but no longer bothering the HDD controller.

218

General Software Discussion / Re: Nasty NTFS issue ?

« Last post by MerleOne on January 14, 2012, 06:13 AM »

@Shades : thanks ! 

Still, what troubles me is why this defect would be revealed by a chkdsk@boottime. 

219

General Software Discussion / Re: Nasty NTFS issue ?

« Last post by MerleOne on January 14, 2012, 05:48 AM »

Recently I stumbled upon a couple of discussions about similar strange problems, and they suggested to perform thorough tests on rootkits. Also fixing MBR might help.

An easy step could be reinstalling the MS Office. If it keeps crashing then some rootkit or serious system damage is likely the cause.

-yksyks (January 14, 2012, 12:56 AM)

Thanks.  Any tool recommended for checking rootkits (this PC already runs McAfee Corporate V8, with some strict policies) ?  I already tried Hitman Pro (before chkdsk, while the system was ok).

220

General Software Discussion / Re: Nasty NTFS issue ?

« Last post by MerleOne on January 14, 2012, 05:37 AM »

Considering the possibility that you could have a sector that is iffy, but not bad enough to send up a flag. Have you tried running chkdsk with the /R  switch?

Sometimes when multiple unrelated applications fail it's because the one thing they do share is a bad spot on the drive.

Just a Thought,

Stoic Joker

-Stoic Joker (January 13, 2012, 06:35 PM)

Yes, it is something to consider.  But HDD Regen found no bad sector.  Slow sectors were not monitored because I was using it within Windows.  I can always try to boot from the recovery media, there I will see if there are some "half-bad" sectors.  Thanks for the suggestion.

221

General Software Discussion / Re: Nasty NTFS issue ?

« Last post by MerleOne on January 14, 2012, 05:33 AM »

That shouldn't happen, about the only software I've had affected by a Repair install is Windows itself, (all updates are lost), possibly virtual network drivers will no longer work, (eg. OpenVPN), and AV software will no longer work.  Any time I've done it all my other software has kept working fine unless it specifically relied upon an update later than the install disc.

But I always do a full disk image before attempting the Repair install.

Safe mode will help rule out any driver/program conflict problems.

-4wd (January 13, 2012, 06:27 PM)

Thanks, I can always try that with a good image backup dine before.

222

General Software Discussion / Re: Nasty NTFS issue ?

« Last post by MerleOne on January 13, 2012, 05:29 PM »

Other than 'at boot time, it renders my XP unstable', you don't explain anything about your problem, so how are we supposed to know how to help you? Please supply some extra information.

Does 'unstable' mean 'crashes'? Does it mean 'hangs for ages'? What sort of success rate? How about safe mode? Are all your drivers upgraded? Have you tried a tool, like for example HDtune? Etc.

-worstje (January 13, 2012, 10:08 AM)

I checked surface defects with HDD Regenerator : none found.  Didn't try safe mode, maybe because I considered that after the chkdsk, the system was anyway badly damaged so working in safe mode would not help repairing it (maybe I am wrong here).

223

General Software Discussion / Re: Nasty NTFS issue ?

« Last post by MerleOne on January 13, 2012, 05:25 PM »

does the chkdsk at boot seem to do anything .... usually it write some messages to the screen while running.

Perhaps a windows repair from CD might correct whatever chkdsk changed.

-hpearce (January 13, 2012, 04:56 PM)

Maybe, but it would require a XP Pro install CD, which I don't have (maybe the IT guys at work have one...).  It's my office PC and these IT guys there only propose to reformat it and re-install a fresh system.  This should work but I would lose 2 years of configurations of all the software I have added since I got it.

224

General Software Discussion / Re: Nasty NTFS issue ?

« Last post by MerleOne on January 13, 2012, 05:21 PM »

Thanks all for your messages.  Here are, in a rather random order, some answers.  I didn't want to give all the fine details because I feared it would have been to long a message to read...

- Sata Port/Cable : it's a portable PC, Dell E6400, so I don't think there is any choice here. Besides, the system works fine before the chkdsk (see below), I guess it's not H/W related.
- Unstable : yes sorry, it means here I get a wealth of various error messages, that I never get otherwise, plus Office 2007 won't launch (Word, Excel) any longer and Windows shuts itself down after a last "serious" error message.  So totally unusable, and unstable...
- The chkdsk at boot *doesn't* display any error message.  I might have more details in the system log (winlogon entry) but since Windows has gone unstable, I cannot access it...  I think I tried also by booting from a WinPE CD, performed the chkdsk with /f /v options, there was a few minor errors, as usual, except one is serious.

The strange thing is that before the chkdsk in invoked, my system is rock solid, never a BSOD or any crash, hang, freeze.

I will try next week a clone in file mode with Casper, my last option today.

225

General Software Discussion / Nasty NTFS issue ? [Solved !]

« Last post by MerleOne on January 13, 2012, 10:04 AM »

Hi,

I am having a nasty issue on my OS drive (C:, XP Pro).  I realized a month ago that even if chkdsk (in read mode) is not finding any serious issue, at boot time, it renders my XP unstable.  The issue seems present for quite some time, because it is present "within" all recent image backups I made with different tools (AIP Free, drive snapshot, R-Drive, etc.). And older backups cannot be restored because some important changes have been made since them I cannot lose.

I have tried the following (among many other experiments) : clone my OS partition to an external drive using a regular cloning tool (HDCLone), perform a chkdsk /f on the destination, then clone back the partition.  At first boot all was fine, then I asked for a chkdsk at boot time, and my OS was "cooked" again.  The drive is surface error-free AFAIK (HDCLone would probably have reported any wrong sector).

Currently, all is working fine, unless a chkdsk is launched at boot time.

Any hint on how to solve this.  I am considering cloning in file mode, if I can manage that, because I suspect the NTFS metadata are somehow damaged.

Any help appreciated !  Thanks.