A Few Tips & Rules For Playing MAFIA WARS

Just a few TIPS AND RULES to help in Mafia Wars Gaming. Our Goal is with these Tips will to help you become a more Knowledgeable & Efficient MW player. Most of you may already know this information...

1) All Energy Gaming ~ THE GAME ISN'T GOING ANYWHERE. Don't be in such a hurry to level up just so you can be abused by some A$$ who has a HIGH Attack and Defense power....

2) BANK YOUR MONEY ~ always BANK MONEY 'before attacks', and 'after attacks' & in between healing your MW character when money has been won. Therefor if you get attacked back you don't lose anything you have gained!

3) HEAL In New York! ~ the $$ money $$ is much easier to come by!!!

4) ENERGY PACKS ~ Use your existing Stamina first! then your existing energy first to level up. Always use your ENERGY PACK last to level up.

5) GIFTING ~ Always Gift back when ever possible and keep an eye out on the trading posts in the topics. Help your fellow lower level players and hardcore fighters. Support your group!

6) STAMINA ~ Always use it like clockwork! built your "fights won stats"! not your "fights lost" stats! don't wait to get attacked..visit your local topics for enemy and bully links!

7) WAR TIME ONLY~ Bookmark your enemy..The ones you can beat! not the ones you cant! when you look in your player updates..look for the ones that have attacked you and you won the fight.. then bookmark their A$$ and teach them a daily lesson!

This does NOT apply to the fight list/ hitlist etc.. only during war time with another clan! you are allowed up 100 attacks in under a min. several times a day until it is considered "abusive behavior" ..don't be shy!

8) Fight List ~ try not to attack someone more then 5 times..there are Millions of people to fight!

9) Mafia Mikes ~ buy as many MAFIA MIKE'S as possible, you never know when robbing will come back! Mafia Mikes cannot be robbed! buy CASINO'S 'NOW' while 'robbing' is down... BUYING THEM 10 AT A TIME..

10) 2nd & 3rd Profiles ~ Not a bad idea for hardcore MW players to have multiple accounts! built them for individual purposes!

11) BUSINESSES ~ GET the ASAP! Get that Cash flow running! Bump those businesses up to full capacity! then worry about everything else! This is a Big help!

Helpful tools: your choice to use them or not!

http://www.spockholm.com/mafia/bookmarklets.php
http://vern.com/mwtools/
http://heartrate.se/
ESPECIALLY HELPFUL TO ME:
SWITCH PROFILE (BOBBY) - toggles you between a FB profile and a MW profile

WHERE IS THE LOOT???
When doing jobs, you will notice a little yellow box next to some of the jobs. This yellow box next to certain jobs indicates loot can be found on this job. Placing your cursor over the box will reveal what loot can be found by doing this job. The loot drops about 33% of the time, or one piece of loot every time you do the job three or four times.

Perform the following tasks DAILY:
(PLESE NOTE: 24 hour clock used for the game, not a calendar day...)

1. NY - Go to NY and bank money. Buy mafia mike's and casino's. 'Get help' with top job available to you.
2. CUBA - Go to CUBA starting at level 30 and bank money. Collect 'politico's' (every 6 hours). 'Get help' with top job available to you.
3. RUSSIA - Go to RUSSIA starting at level 70 and bank money. 'Get help' with top job available to you every 12 or 24 hours. (JOBS IN RUSSIA 'POP EVERY 12 HOURS FOR SOME PLAYERS...)

Revised: 10/16 ~ by me
TY Dennis G Smith ~ {SIU} Godfather ~ for the some of the helpfull tips!

Alex ~ ๑۩۞۩๑ ~ Godfather Read More...

200 WAYS TO REVIVE A HARD DRIVE (PART II)

DROP IT

From: Bob Matott

Besides the typical use of sys C: to transfer back the system files deleted during "housecleaning" by
typical users, I've gotten lucky by turning the drive upside down and setting it on top of the power supply
(which seemed to remove "a static charge" that had built up).

Also have used various Disk Manager packages to "talk" to drives with FAT/NTFS corruptions just to...
recover the data. If drives are being reformatted from an operating system that doesn't want to "fully go
away" (can name a few!), the disk manager software has also worked in this scenario many times to get
rid of the old and allow you to reformat with the new.

Of course, there's always the "drop it from 4-5" onto a flat hard surface" or "smack the side of the
case with the flat of your hand" approaches. Believe it or not, both techniques have worked. Rumor has
it that sometimes the heads "stick" to the platters during parking/cooldown.

From: Kenneth Lillemo

Sometimes a hard drive that has been running since nearly forever won't spin up after being shutdown for
a while. This can be caused by the heads sticking to the platter. As a LAST resort, I will drop the drive
onto a firm surface from approximately eight inches . Inevitably, this will solve the problem and the
drive is useable long enough to remove the data. My Sys admin spouse gives me a funny look every time
I do it but can't argue with the results.

From: Peter Tello

If the low level diagnostics fail, I declare it officially dead. At that point, I have nothing to lose, so I pull it
out and over a thin carpet, drop it 6" squarely on all 4 sides, repeating this 2 or 3 times . I have
approximately a 50 percent successful boot-up rate, usually enough to copy the data off and save my
behind for not having it backed up in the first place.

From: TDC Tech

This is a one-time fix—long enough to revive HD to get data.
· Take the HD out of the computer and squarely drop it on the closed side of the drive (to your
bench) with perhaps a little slam.
· This seems to free up the bearings long enough to copy data off of the hard drive. I have quite a bit of
luck, but 90 percent of the time it only works once.

. . To Be Continued to Part 3 . . Read More...

STEPS FOR OBTAINING A MAFIA WARS PLAYERS LINK

How to obtain a Mafia Wars players link:
1. click on the person that attacked you and on the web address highlight and then go to file and click on "duplicate tab". Use the address in the duplicate tab.

2. Or go to your Mafia Wars update box,...
right click on the name, not pic, and select copy link..then paste in the comment box

In order to get assistance from another player, you must have the link of the attacker, otherwise there is NO way to identify WHO is attacking you!!

Taken from: Nadine Warren, [IMFU] INTERNATIONAL MAFIA FAMILY UNITED Read More...

MAFIA WARS TIPS FOR GETTING GODFATHER POINTS

We wanted to share some Mafia Wars tips that can help you obtain more Godfather points. A very popular (and easy) way of doing this is by simple purchasing the points. For a lot of people...
that is the route they take because it’s really that easy, but for most of us we just don’t want to buy points. That’s why we decided to compile some of the best Mafia Wars tips to help you get the points for free and in the fastest manner possible.

The first thing you have to understand is that you get one point for leveling up. It’s a slow method of doing it, but it’s an honest way to earn some points. Doing the free surveys is a popular way of doing this. The surveys can be a bit tedious and time consuming to do. If you plan on doing a lot of surveys than you should set up another free email account and do all the surveys with that email. It is just an easy way to avoid all the promotional emails you’ll get from doing them. Take the time to understand you won’t instantly get your points after doing a survey. It can take up to an hour for your points to actually show up.

Another one of our Mafia War tips is taking advantage of the pay offers that will give you Godfather points. This method does require you to spend money, but it functions in a much different manner than when you’re just buying the actual points. The idea behind it is that you buy an offer, so you get something in return and the points. The reason that this works so well is that you can buy something that you’ve been looking to buy and you get the points for free. Doing it this way is generally less tedious than doing the surveys and you typically get more points too.

The last Mafia Wars tips that we want to give are on the use of the Godfather points. We suggest that you use the points to help refill your energy or use it for 4 skill points. You may feel the need to use the Godfather points on money, but typically it isn’t that hard to get money in the game. You merely have to buy some properties and after a while you’ll end up with more money than you can spend. You don’t need to refill your health because you can simply refill the health by going to a hospital. Refilling your stamina can be a useful thing to do, but players will typically refill their energy.

Well, these are all the Mafia War tips that we wanted to share with you. The free approaches are generally more time consuming, but it is the frugal way of obtaining them. In this game, it really comes down to how you use the points, rather than how you get them. Read More...

MAFIA WARS GUIDE TO TOPPING THE MAFIA LIST

This is a pretty unique Mafia Wars guide because it isn’t teaching you how to do one little thing, but will show you how to play the entire game properly. When you get right down to it, the best strategy is...
properly allocating your points between attack, energy, health, defense and stamina. Obviously, it is best to choose a way to play the game and fit everything accordingly. These are some of the basic guidelines that you should be following. Feel free to use these strategies in combination with others.

The most popular strategy in this game is called Leveler. The reason that it is so popular is that you can level up the fastest using it. The idea behind this is quite simple. All you want to do is put all your points into energy, so you can do a ton of jobs. The more jobs you do and doing the ones with more experience will allow you to level up faster. Here are some of the best jobs for experience to energy ratios.

* Street Thug Tier: Auto Theft (1.33 ratio)
* Associate Tier: Bank Heist (1.77 ratio)
* Soldier Tier: Museum Break-In (1.5 ratio)
* Enforcer Tier: Run Illegal Poker Game, Manufacture Tokens, Get Cheating Deck (1.83 ratio)
* Hitman Tier: Protect City Against Rival Family, Assassinate Political Figure (1.77 ratio)
* Capo Tier: Whack a Rival Crew Leader (1.68 ratio)
* Consigliere Tier: Steal an Arms Shipment (1.82 ratio)
* Underboss Tier: Oder a Hit on a Public Official (1.96 ratio)
* Boss Tier: Travel to the Old Country (1.978 ratio)



All the rations listed in this Mafia Wars guide are based on experience gained and the amount of energy to do the job. Also the calculations include 11% more experience bonus and a 10% less energy bonus. It is important to understand the bonuses because this might cause the ratios to be a little different. This is why it is important to have strong players in the Mastermind and Wheelman Top Mafia positions. Even though the ratios may be different, they’ll still be the strongest.

Another strategy we wanted to go over in this Mafia Wars guide is the fighter strategy. The idea behind this is also simple by putting all your points to attack and defense equally. You do it equally because you’ll be more rounded than if you put more in attack and less in defense. Attack and defense skills aren’t the only things that inevitably lead to winning a fight, so you’ll have to pay attention to the other skills you’ll need. The size of your mafia will play a big roll. You should be aiming at getting over 500 members.

As the size of the mafia grows, you’ll have to have items for each member. Things like weapons, armor and vehicles will be needed for each of the members. There are also loot weapons that can be used too. As your players get stronger it is important to also build up their stamina. Basically being strong is good, but you need the stamina to put the strength to use.

We suggest attacking mafias that are smaller than yours. It is really the only way to make sure that you’re actually going to win the fight. It’s a pretty simple method to follow and can be quite a beneficial way to go. Read More...

200 WAYS TO REVIVE A HARD DRIVE (PART I)

From: Travis Standen

One trick I have learned as a technician, when the problem is data-read errors off the platters themselves, is to freeze the hard drive overnight. It makes the data more 'readable,' but for a one-shot deal. If this data is critical, and you have a replacement hard drive (which, if it's a drive failure, you probably do), then you can hook up your frozen hard drive and immediately fetch the data off before it warms up...

From: Thedeedj

If the problem is heat related, I put the drive in the freezer for about 15 minutes to cool it down... sometimes this gets the drive up long enough to copy any critical files...

From: Itguy1

Put the drive in a waterproof sealed bag, put it in the fridge for an hour or so, then have another go.

From: Kelly Reid

Well, I won't start playing with your specific situation, too many steps or possible solutions where everything starts "If that last thing didn't work try..."

But I'll give you one for free that was a nice hero moment for me. Had a drive where it sounded like the drive motor was engaging but not getting anywhere, so we stuck it in the office freezer for an hour! I'll be darned if it didn't work. The drive was up long enough to get the data ghosted to another drive and we turfed it, even though it sounded fine at that point. I can't really take credit for it though—I had heard it in some geek bull session but I thought it was some jedi-geek urban myth. Goes to show you that you know you're really screwed when you say something to the effect of "Okay, hold on tight, I'm gonna try something I saw in a cartoon once but I'm pretty sure I can do it"

From: mpicpu

If this drive isn't spinning up, putting it in the freezer for about an hour will usually get the drive spinning again so you can copy needed files before the drive warms up again. The first thing you want to do is run a disk utility like Norton disk doctor or wddiag (if it's a western digital drive) to verify whether the drive is working mechanically or not. If it is a master boot record problem, sometimes running Fdisk/mbr will correct the problem. It could also be a virus, and a program like F-prot will look at the drive as a physical unit. As an A+ PC technician I have seen this problem many times. Usually if the drive is not making a clicking sound I am successful in recovering the data.

From: Scott Greving

I've run into this scenario numerous times. One time it involved the main Novell SYS volume on our HP File Server. I was really sweating as the server would not boot. I took the drive out and put it in a freezer for 30 minutes. I then reinstalled it into the file server and Presto! I was up and running. Needless to say I quickly mirrored the drive onto another and got rid of the bad drive.

In stand alone client systems, the method I've had the most luck with reviving drives from death has been removing the drive, firmly tapping the top of its case several times, and then re-installing it making sure all cables are secure. I've had a better than 60 percent success rate with this method.

From: jphillips

If the drive is spinning and you are experiencing these kinds of errors, my experience has been that you are out of luck.

If the drive is not spinning, I have been able to remove it from the computer and 'spin' the drive on a flat smooth surface (much like spin the bottle). This will usually free the drive and when placed back in the machine, it will boot. You should immediately back up you data after a successful boot, because the problem will return.

The next 'fix' was actually given to me by a Compaq technician several years ago. I had a drive that would not spin and he told me to put the drive in a plastic bag in the freezer overnight and then install back in the computer. Believe it or not, the drive booted. I have only tried this the one time.

From: John Turcotte

In the past, when a drive has failed after it has been running for a short period, I have removed it from the machine and placed it in a freezer for a couple of hours, then hooked it up again. It sometimes will run long enough to remove the data to another safe storage medium.

From: David Furlow

One of the methods I have used before (sometimes even successfully) is to actually remove the drive from the PC, place it in the freezer for a day, then quickly put it back in the machine and try to access it. Why does this work? Who knows, but I heard about this tactic years ago, and it has saved my behind on a couple of occasions. (Of course, if it comes back up, back up the data immediately.... Guess that should go without saying.)

From: Keri D.

Hard drive revival:

A technique I have learned is if you bring the temperature of the hard drive down to the freezing point by putting it in a freezer first and then taking it back out, somehow the condensation from bringing it back to room temperature helps revive it for about 20 minutes. It can be repeated about 5-6 times tops. Long enough to get out any important files that need to be backed up. It has been proven to work a number of times.

From: Christopher Post

How do you bring a hard drive back to life?

My situation:
Half of a volume set goes south on a WinNT server, no good backup and an angry boss screaming about the data being mission critical.

My solution:
** A bit unorthodox but, it has saved my butt! **
• Turn off the server.
• Take out the failing hard drive and wrap a static bag around it.
• Throw it in the freezer conveniently located in the break room.
• Pray for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
• Leaving the hard drive in the bag, quickly plug the drive back into the server. (Just plug the in cables and go.)
• Cross fingers, turn it on, and move all data off the drive as fast as you can! Then add a tape drive and start backing the dumb thing up!

My so-called logic:
Metal contracts when it is cold.... so the platters shrink and increase the clearance for the read/write heads.

From: Chris Poole

Put the drive in the freezer for about a week and then you can usually get one last read off the drive.

From: Cheyenne Robert Alspach

Here are some drive recovery tricks that have worked for me, in the order that I do them. Try booting the drive and copying the data off after every step.

1. Hold the drive upside down, making gravity change the head geometry ever so slightly. Vertical is also another option.

2. Slightly rap the drive with your knuckle, (but nowhere near hard enough to damage the drive).

3. Try the drive in another machine, (slight drive voltage change assumed to be the miracle worker here).

4. Rap the drive just SLIGHTLY harder than you did above in 2.

5. Freeze the hard drive in the freezer for two hours, and place in a plastic zip lock bag to prevent condensation from forming on the drive when you plug it back into the system, (head geometry, electrical resistance lowered, electrical contact points adjusted, etc., assumed to be the miracle here).

6. After the drive warms up to room temperature or better, rap it even harder with your knuckle this time.

7. Repeat all of above steps on next day, as sometimes I've gotten data off drive simply by trying again.

From: James McLaughlin

Hmmm sounds like a toughy to me. Back in the old days when I first started teching, if we ran into a problem like this, there were only a few ways to deal with it. I will go over these options now:

QUESTION: What do you think you can do about this, Mr. Tech?

First Answe—r—Nothing, your computer is too old, and the data on there is not really of that much importance. If you really want it back, you can get a hold of a company called "Total Recall" out of Denver and get charged thousands of dollars to get your files back. Besides, with Y2K, this machine ain’t gonna run anyway, and prices are so low right now, there is no reason why you should not upgrade now.

2) Well, I can take it back to the shop and pretend like I know what I am doing for 3-6 hours. Then I will call you the for the next week and a half giving you excuses as to why I am not able to get your information off of that hard drive. Of course, I won’t charge you anything, but I will expect compensation for all the time I wasted on your hard drive.

3) I could take the hard drive out of your machine, plug into my Secondary IDE controller, and boot up. Hopefully, I can see your hard drive and have the ability to copy all of your files to a temp folder on my machine called "Your Name." After I collect all information, I would run IBM's WIPE on the drive and then a thorough scandisk, just to see if the cause was sunspot related or not. If......this was not working, then extreme temperatures always have a way of talking older hard drives into giving us what we want. I would then wrap the HD in a Ziplock bag and slam it in the freezer for 12 hours. Pull it out the next day and very quickly plug it into my machine, copying what I can as quickly as possible until the drive dies again, repeating until all files are copied and safe. If.....that don’t work, move onto the extreme heat. A Shrink wrap gun works best, but a hairdryer will do the trick if that is all you have. Wrap one end of the HD in a towel and use the shrink wrap gun or dryer to heat the hard drive. Very quickly plug it in and copy files until finished. Repeat until all necessary files are copied and you are done.

You may not think it works, but when you are down to that as your last option...it does.

From: Lichtenwalner Allen L TSgt

Solution:
• Carefully remove it from the computer.
• Place it in the freezer for 24 hours, then put it back in the computer. You should have approximately 30 minutes of good spin time left before a fina–l—and much more permanen–t—shut down.
This problem often arises from a catastrophic hard disk crash—bearings are usually the culprit, coupled with badly worn read/write heads. I've used this technique on many computers throughout the last fifteen years as "resident expert" and saved virtually all important data.
If you're in a pinch for time, such as critical data needed for a briefing in twenty minutes, you can opt for the more drastic cooling technique—a C02 fire extinguisher...

From: Jeff Smoley

Here is a solution for really dead drives: ones that won't spin or ones that make those funny grinding noises:

Put the drive in the fridge for a few hours. This can shrink up something inside that might let it run long enough to get critical data. If not, try the freezer for a few more.

This actually has worked for me in the past.

From: Neal Menkus

Things we have done in the past that worked:
1. Remove the drive, grab it, and shake the hell out of it: "What could it hurt? It's not working anyway…."
2. Place the drive in a freezer for about 10 minutes.
3. Open the drive case in a laminar flow-hood, and give it a spin. (Once it was closed up and reinstalled, it worked long enough to suck the data off of it.)
4. Swap the logic board with one on another drive of the same type.

Numbers 1, 2, and 3 worked with older Seagate (which we no longer purchase) drives, which were prone to "stiction" problems. Number 4 worked following an electrical surge (lightning strike), since the data on the platters were still there and OK.

From: Clifford Liles

Depending on the drive failure I have had success with some rather extreme solutions to data recovery.

Symptom: Invalid Drive Specifications
Treatment: Basic Check your cmos battery
Check your IDE cable and connections
Check your jumper settings
Remove all other IDE connections but the drive in question

Advanced Try disk manager software
Try data recovery software
Use a bios upgrade card ($39) and allow it to setup the drive
Look up the drive specifications on the manufacturer’s Web site and plug
them in manually.
Turn Off or On Write Precomp—32bit disk access

Symptom: Drive does not spin up: "Sticktion"
Treatment: Basics Lightly tap the side of the drive case with a screwdrive–r—no power
Lightly tap the side of the drive case with a screwdriver–—power on

Advanced Cold soak the drive: Freeze in a zip-lock bag
Spray drive case with inverted can of canned air
Lightly slap the drive on a desk top: (mild frustration)
Repeated hammering of the drive on a desk top: (last resort—total
frustration only)

Symptom: Invalid media type
Treatment: Basics Boot with a FAT32 Windows 95 boot disk
Sys the drive

Advanced fdisk /mbr
Check for a virus from a known clean boot disk

These are but a few techniques for the doomed platters. These techniques can be used in conjunction with one another to arrive at the desired solution. Lather, rinse, and repeat if necessary.

From: Daniel Philpott

Here is the solutions checklist for this problem:

Tools needed:
• Bootable CD or locked floppy dis–k—Formatted with an OS that can see the file system of the hard drive. DOS is usually the preferred OS for this function with NTFSDOS from Sysinternals for NTFS reads and DOS utilities for diagnostics/repair.
• It should have the ability to boot to and/or see CD-ROM drives, read FAT, FAT32, NTFS, or other common file systems, run common network card drivers and see the network, have disk diagnostic and/or repair utilities, and have antivirus scanning software with current definitions.
• OnTrack Data Adviso–r—A free download from www.OnTrack.com Hard Drive (large capacity)—Formatted for a FAT file system (or whatever is your common file system) and preferably with BeOS as the boot operating system.
• Computer Repair Tool Ki–t—Standard repair tools.
• Freezer–—The one in your kitchen will do quite nicely.

1. The first task to recovering a drive is not at all technical—It is social. Prepare your user for the worst but also explain what the realistic chances of recovery are. Then start collecting information that you will need. Here is what you need to know before starting:
• What is the goal of recovery, returning to the previous state or recovering the data?
• Which is most important?
• What is the client willing to spend on recovery?
• What OS (NT, 95, Linux) and DOS (FAT, NTFS, FAT32) was the system running?
• Where is the computer located?

2. Check the environment: The last question from step 1 is often forgotten and can lead to extensive troubleshooting of a simple problem. Look for an environmental problem that may cause problems for the hard drive. Are there magnets on the computer case close to the hard drive? Is there a fan or heater near the computer? Is a transformer, electrical junction box, or high energy device near the computer (on a floor above or in a nearby wall)? All of these will produce a magnetic (or electromagnetic) field that can cause problems. Equipment that may vibrate the computer even at a very low frequency can cause hard drive heads to skip and jump or even scratch the platters.

3. Turn off the computer, remove the cover, and get ready to the turn the computer on. Then put your ear right next to the drive and power the system on. If you hear any kind of grinding, scratching, or rattling from the drive, turn the computer off as quickly as possible and go to the next step. Otherwise go on to step 5.

4. If the disk has made noise that indicates some sort of mechanical stress, then the problem is the domain of data recovery experts. This is where the client has to make a decision. Do they want to send the drive to a data recovery service, or do they want to destroy the disk in an attempt to recover some data? If the client has information that absolutely needs to be recovered, then send it to the professionals. Remember, you cannot service a hard drive unless you are working in a clean room.

If they are willing to destroy the disk and try to get some data off the drive, there is a quick hack available. Place the drive in a static-free bag, then place the drive and static-free bag into a ziplock bag to seal out moisture. Place this into a freezer turned to as low as possible for 24 hours. After 24 hours, pull the drive out and immediately put it into a computer (the faster the better) that boots to a floppy and has another hard drive to transfer data to. If the drive wasn't damaged too much previously, you should be able to pull some data off before the metal of the drive heats up and starts destroying the data storage platters. You can repeat the process only if you shut down almost immediately and go through the 24 hour freeze process again. Chances are that the first time attempt will be the only chance to recover data.

5. If the drive boots to an operating system and you can get to either a network or backup medium, then start copying the most important data off first. Once that data is off, you can back up less important data. The best bet is to listen to your client to find out what absolutely must be recovered.

6. If the client wants to restore the drive to its previous state and continue operating, then you need to do two things to see if this is feasible.
• First, run a virus scan on the drive. Update the virus definitions then scan every file on the computer.
• Second, boot to a floppy-disk-based hard drive utility and run a low-level
bad sector discovery utility.
If both tests pass and the computer boots to the operating system, then your job is done and you are eligible for a pat on the back. Otherwise, continue.

7. If the drive does not boot, then try booting to a bootable CD or a bootable locked floppy disk. If you can see the file system, continue to step 8.

If you can not see the file system, then assess your tools. If you have Hard Drive Mechanic from Higher Ground Diagnostics or Tiramisu from OnTrack, then you can use these to diagnose and recover data. Otherwise, boot to the Data Advisor disk to find out whether data can be recovered. They will recover it or suggest a recovery plan or even require the disk be sent to a data recovery center like OnTrack. The client needs to make the choice as to whether the expense of this solution is worth the recovery of the data.

8. If you can see the file system, then priority actions are:

• Copy the most important data off the drive
• Copy the rest of the data off the drive
• Determine if the drive can be recovered (scan with virus checker and disk utilities)
• Repair the operating system

The best way of doing this is to install your spare hard drive in the computer and boot to either it or the CD/floppy bootable. Copy the important data off first, copy the less important data off next, and then do your diagnostics. If your diagnostics look like the drive is repairable, then go right ahead and repair it.

The reason I suggest BeOS be the boot OS on the hard drive is that it has the ability to mount more file systems than I even knew existed before using it. If you need to access an exotic file system, BeOS 4.5 is almost sure to have a driver available for it. However, the FAT (or FAT16) is the most commonly readable file system around, so generally you will want to transfer data to this file system.

If it becomes apparent that the file system is intact and not infected with a virus (or has had a boot sector virus removed), then you may need to replace the Master Boot Record (MBR) of the drive. Simple. Boot to a DOS disk that has the fdisk utility and run an 'fdisk /MBR' to replace the MBR. Remember, balance the time it takes to restore the operating system against the time it takes to recover data, get a new drive, and install a fresh operating system.

Normally, disk recovery is simply a matter of recovering the data. Returning a drive to its previous state is a goal but may simply be more costly than recovering the data and replacing the drive. How much effort to expend on the process is entirely up to you and the client.
. . To Be Continued to Part 2 . . Read More...

Win7Loader Slick2.1 Release 5 by Orbit30

Win7Loader Slick2.1 Release 5 by Orbit30 Activates Windows 7 RTM and OEM x86/x64
using the OEM activation method.
Supporting 'SLIC' and 'Non-SLIC' enabled BIOS.

Instructions :

1. Have clean installed Windows7.

2. Disable UAC[User Account Control].

3. Run loader as Administrator.

4. Choose OEM information.

5. Choose Activation option [None slic option 1/ Hazar option 2]
which ever applicable.

For 'Hazar option 2' click 'Activate slic present',.

'None slic option 1' go to step 6.

6. Install Information 32/64 Bit, as applicable.

7. Wait until the Window activity finishes.

8. Reboot.

9. Enjoy !

Thanks 'afualex'

To check your activation:

Use slmgr /dlv under CMD prompt
or
From Start Button, right click Computer and select 'Properties'.
You should see the Blue Genuine Logo.
Hit Start Button again, type in winver... and check that no trial times or information exist.

Thanks 'ellene '
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2006 Ducati Superbike 999

Hailed by the press as the best Twin ever produced, the new 999 has proved to its riders its power to win on tracks around the world. The innovative and cool design immediately draws attention to this dynamic machine. The Ducati 999 seems to be in motion even when at rest....
Our goal was to create a Ducati Superbike of stunning design that improves rider ergonomics, makes maintenance easier, reduces complexity of the motorcycle and offers performance second to none. The aerodynamics, mechanical and electronic components, chassis and running gear were developed first and styling followed.

And a look under its fairing confirms the 999’s state-of-the art technology.

Customise your new Superbike with Ducati accessories. Working closely with R&D and the Corse race team, Ducati builds motorcycle accessories that let owners create their own Dream Bikes. With a passion for design innovation and new materials, Ducati itself has become the industry reference point for the finest, custom Ducati accessories available.

Features:
2005 has been an exceptional year for Ducati Superbikes, the range having been completely revolutionised with a series of stylistic and functional refinements and, above all, with a general upward shift in terms of power ratings and performance in both engine displacements and all versions. The 749 and 999 machines have been made more aggressive, edging closer to the dividing line between the street bikes and the official machine used on the world's racetracks.


For the Superbikes manufactured in Borgo Panigale, 2006 will be dedicated to digesting the generational shift, which has taken place just two years from the launch of the new series, with the numerous innovations and refinements introduced in 2005.
The decision to revolutionise the machines was driven by the return of Ducati to the North American AMA Superbike Championship, which has more stringent rules than European championships with regard to modifications to mechanical parts and chassis: the new model is a result of the efforts aimed at creating a machine that would be race-ready straight off the production line, with a large number of adjustments for attitude and riding position, while also being suitable for use on the road. The result is a superbly contemporary range that is highly sophisticated and able to meet the most demanding sports rider with the basic equipment of the 749 and 999, and gradually approaching the S and R versions in a series of evolutionary steps. This brings us to the current state of the art, with the top of the range position occupied by a 999R packing a massive 150 HP, proposed for 2006 also in a Xerox replica version, sporting the colours of the "official" SBK ridden by James Toseland and Regis Laconi.
The Ducati sports machines share aesthetics based on the concept of racing aerodynamics, with fairings that are highly effective also at extreme speeds. That's the thinking behind the development of a new upper fairing, designed to protect the rider's head and shoulders and eliminate air turbulence. The fairing, which is higher and wider than its predecessor to increase the level of protection, joining a tapered lower section of the body, equipped with a pair of sweeping wrap-around and highly effective deflectors. Protection of the rider is one of the key concepts of the latest generation of Ducati machines: the absence of air turbulence makes the cockpit more comfortable - an important factor when riding in traffic and offering significant benefits on the racetrack because stress and fatigue levels are reduced, allowing riders to achieve consistently fast lap times for longer. The unforgiving stopwatch has amply proved this theory.
The styling and aerodynamic strategies adopted are just two of the factors used to achieve the close relationship between competition and series production machines. The box-section swingarm - very light and with very high torsional strength - comes from the world championship experience in the Superbike class and is the most evolved solution for road riding and for the racetrack, apart from adding to the already mean appearance of the 749 and 999. Style and function are also reflected in the exhaust silencer, which is integrated into the rear fairing and protected by a black anodised aluminium cover, and also in the ergonomics of the machine and the multiple possibilities for adjusting rider position. Since their introduction in 2002, the current Ducati Superbikes have been characterised by the ability to modify the positions of the handlebar levers and footrests, and also the facility to adjust steering head rake to two positions, a feature that is unavailable on any other sports machine on the market.
There's also one final detail worthy of note: fore-aft adjustment of the seat-tank unit on single-seater versions of the machines. These unique features make the 749 and 999 the production machines that, of all the bikes currently on the market, are the closest to the thoroughbred race versions.
The sports personality of these machines are also reflected in the engines, with the impressive twin cylinder engine bringing sheer performance prowess to all equipment versions. These results have been achieved while keeping a close watch on environmental concerns: all the twin cylinder engines, including the 150 HP mounted on the 999R, comply in full with stringent Euro2 regulations.

999
The basis of the current Superbike family, the incredible balance of this machine never fails to impress. The styling is nothing short of iconic and the 140 HP engine is at ease with any type of riding style or road conditions. This bike offers an incredibly attractive mix of features, designed to appeal to riders of all types, even those who are approaching the racetrack for the first time, offering the ability to achieve truly excellent lap times.

Style
All aesthetic developments start from this package, which is what happened 12 months ago with the launch of the current edition, identifiable because of the revised proportions of the upper fairing and windscreen, which are now more protective, and the elimination of the vertical air intakes that distinguished the first 999s. The current model is aesthetically very similar to the official Testastretta bikes in terms of bodywork and technical details, such as the striking box-section aluminium swingarm.

Chassis

Among the most appealing elements on the machine, the box-section swingarm combined with the tubular trellis frame is one of the key features of the 999 chassis because it combines ultra lightweight with remarkable resistance to twisting and flex. Consequently, road handling is extremely precise in all riding conditions, which cover a very wide range of situations for the 999, from the racetrack to the motorway, or winding mountain roads, with a solo rider or with a passenger. The "standard" 999 features numerous ergonomic solutions, which are also found on the more sports-oriented versions. This machine features adjustments to alter the distance of levers from the handlebars, footrests with five position adjustments and a variable rake steering head, complete with a steering damper equipped with eccentric attachment system to adapt rapidly to fork angle adjustments. The sophisticated chassis of the 999 is completed by Showa suspension front and rear, with full adjustment for preload and hydraulic damping. The front fork even includes TiN slider coating for racing performance and superb handling.

Powerplant
The Testastretta engine of the 999 twin packs an impressive punch.
The performance is that of a thoroughbred race engine, with 140 HP at 9,750 rpm and 11.1 kgm of available torque at 8,000 rpm. Among the many advantages of this engine is its deep sump, resembling that of the official race machines, that allows very generous lean angles for high speed cornering.

Chassis:
Frame: Tubular steel trellis
Wheelbase: 1420 mm / 55.9 in
Rake: 23.5° - 24.5°
Front Suspension: Showa 43 mm upside-down fully adjustable fork with TiN surface treatment
Front Wheel Travel: 125 mm / 4.9 in
Front Brake: 2 x 320 mm semi-floating discs, 4-piston 4-pad caliper
Front Wheel: Y-shaped 5-spoke light alloy 3.50 x 17
Front Tire: 120/70 ZR 17
Rear Suspension: Progressive linkage with fully adjustable Showa monoshock
Rear Wheel Travel: 128 mm / 5 in
Rear Brake: 240 mm disc, 2-piston caliper
Rear Wheel: Y-shaped 5-spoke light alloy 5.50 x 17
Rear Tire: 190/50 ZR 17
Fuel Capacity: 15.5 L / 4.1 US gal (includes 3 L / 0.8 US gal reserve)
Weight * : 186 kg / 410 lbs
Seat Height: 780 mm / 30.7 in
Instruments: Speedometer, rev counter, high beam indicator, turn signals, oil pressure warning light, low fuel warning light, neutral light, water temperature, immobilizer system
Warranty: 2 years unlimited mileage
Tank and Fairing Colours: Red, Yellow, Glossy black (for two-seat only)
Frame and Wheel Colours: Red w/black wheels, Metallic Grey w/Metallic Grey wheels, Black w/Black wheels
Versions: One or Two Seats
*=* = The weight excludes battery, lubricants and, where applicable, cooling liquid.

ENGINE
Type: L twin cylinder, 4 valves per cylinder Testastretta Desmodromic; liquid cooled
Displacement: 998 cc
Bore and stroke: 100 x 63.5 mm
Compression Ratio: 11.4:1
Power: 103 kw - 140 hp @ 9750 rpm
Torque: 11.1 kgm - 80 ft-lbs @ 8000 rpm
Fuel system: Marelli electronic fuel injection, 54 mm throttle body
Exhaust: Single steel muffler with catalytic converter
Emissions: Euro2
Transmission
Gearbox: 6 speed
Ratio: 1st 37/15, 2nd 30/17, 3rd 28/20, 4th 26/22, 5th 24/23, 6th 23/24
Primary drive: Straight cut gears; ratio 1.84
Final drive: Chain; Front sprocket 15; Rear sprocket 36
Clutch: Dry multiplate with hydraulic control

Source: http://totalmotorcycle.com Read More...

200 WAYS TO REVIVE HARDISK

P A R T - 1
From: Travis Standen
One trick I have learned as a technician, when the problem is data-read errors off the platters themselves, is to freeze the hard drive overnight. It makes the data more 'readable,' but for a one-shot deal. If this data is critical, and you have a replacement hard drive (which, if it's a drive failure, you probably do), then you can hook up your frozen hard drive and immediately fetch the data off before it warms up...

From: Thedeedj
If the problem is heat related, I put the drive in the freezer for about 15 minutes to cool it down... sometimes this gets the drive up long enough to copy any critical files...

From: Itguy1
Put the drive in a waterproof sealed bag, put it in the fridge for an hour or so, then have another go.

From: Kelly Reid
Well, I won't start playing with your specific situation, too many steps or possible solutions where everything starts "If that last thing didn't work try..."

But I'll give you one for free that was a nice hero moment for me. Had a drive where it sounded like the drive motor was engaging but not getting anywhere, so we stuck it in the office freezer for an hour! I'll be darned if it didn't work. The drive was up long enough to get the data ghosted to another drive and we turfed it, even though it sounded fine at that point. I can't really take credit for it though—I had heard it in some geek bull session but I thought it was some jedi-geek urban myth. Goes to show you that you know you're really screwed when you say something to the effect of "Okay, hold on tight, I'm gonna try something I saw in a cartoon once but I'm pretty sure I can do it"

From: mpicpu
If this drive isn't spinning up, putting it in the freezer for about an hour will usually get the drive spinning again so you can copy needed files before the drive warms up again. The first thing you want to do is run a disk utility like Norton disk doctor or wddiag (if it's a western digital drive) to verify whether the drive is working mechanically or not. If it is a master boot record problem, sometimes running Fdisk/mbr will correct the problem. It could also be a virus, and a program like F-prot will look at the drive as a physical unit. As an A+ PC technician I have seen this problem many times. Usually if the drive is not making a clicking sound I am successful in recovering the data.

From: Scott Greving
I've run into this scenario numerous times. One time it involved the main Novell SYS volume on our HP File Server. I was really sweating as the server would not boot. I took the drive out and put it in a freezer for 30 minutes. I then reinstalled it into the file server and Presto! I was up and running. Needless to say I quickly mirrored the drive onto another and got rid of the bad drive.
In stand alone client systems, the method I've had the most luck with reviving drives from death has been removing the drive, firmly tapping the top of its case several times, and then re-installing it making sure all cables are secure. I've had a better than 60 percent success rate with this method.

From: jphillips
If the drive is spinning and you are experiencing these kinds of errors, my experience has been that you are out of luck.

If the drive is not spinning, I have been able to remove it from the computer and 'spin' the drive on a flat smooth surface (much like spin the bottle). This will usually free the drive and when placed back in the machine, it will boot. You should immediately back up you data after a successful boot, because the problem will return.

The next 'fix' was actually given to me by a Compaq technician several years ago. I had a drive that would not spin and he told me to put the drive in a plastic bag in the freezer overnight and then install back in the computer. Believe it or not, the drive booted. I have only tried this the one time.

From: John Turcotte
In the past, when a drive has failed after it has been running for a short period, I have removed it from the machine and placed it in a freezer for a couple of hours, then hooked it up again. It sometimes will run long enough to remove the data to another safe storage medium.

From: David Furlow
One of the methods I have used before (sometimes even successfully) is to actually remove the drive from the PC, place it in the freezer for a day, then quickly put it back in the machine and try to access it. Why does this work? Who knows, but I heard about this tactic years ago, and it has saved my behind on a couple of occasions. (Of course, if it comes back up, back up the data immediately.... Guess that should go without saying.)

From: Keri D.
Hard drive revival:
A technique I have learned is if you bring the temperature of the hard drive down to the freezing point by putting it in a freezer first and then taking it back out, somehow the condensation from bringing it back to room temperature helps revive it for about 20 minutes. It can be repeated about 5-6 times tops. Long enough to get out any important files that need to be backed up. It has been proven to work a number of times.

From: Christopher Post
How do you bring a hard drive back to life?

My situation:
Half of a volume set goes south on a WinNT server, no good backup and an angry boss screaming about the data being mission critical.

My solution:
** A bit unorthodox but, it has saved my butt! **
• Turn off the server.
• Take out the failing hard drive and wrap a static bag around it.
• Throw it in the freezer conveniently located in the break room.
• Pray for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
• Leaving the hard drive in the bag, quickly plug the drive back into the server. (Just plug the in cables and go.)
• Cross fingers, turn it on, and move all data off the drive as fast as you can! Then add a tape drive and start backing the dumb thing up!

My so-called logic:
Metal contracts when it is cold.... so the platters shrink and increase the clearance for the read/write heads.

From: Chris Poole
Put the drive in the freezer for about a week and then you can usually get one last read off the drive.

From: Cheyenne Robert Alspach
Here are some drive recovery tricks that have worked for me, in the order that I do them. Try booting the drive and copying the data off after every step.

1. Hold the drive upside down, making gravity change the head geometry ever so slightly. Vertical is also another option.

2. Slightly rap the drive with your knuckle, (but nowhere near hard enough to damage the drive).

3. Try the drive in another machine, (slight drive voltage change assumed to be the miracle worker here).

4. Rap the drive just SLIGHTLY harder than you did above in 2.

5. Freeze the hard drive in the freezer for two hours, and place in a plastic zip lock bag to prevent condensation from forming on the drive when you plug it back into the system, (head geometry, electrical resistance lowered, electrical contact points adjusted, etc., assumed to be the miracle here).

6. After the drive warms up to room temperature or better, rap it even harder with your knuckle this time.

7. Repeat all of above steps on next day, as sometimes I've gotten data off drive simply by trying again.

From: James McLaughlin
Hmmm sounds like a toughy to me. Back in the old days when I first started teching, if we ran into a problem like this, there were only a few ways to deal with it. I will go over these options now:

QUESTION: What do you think you can do about this, Mr. Tech?

First Answe—r—Nothing, your computer is too old, and the data on there is not really of that much importance. If you really want it back, you can get a hold of a company called "Total Recall" out of Denver and get charged thousands of dollars to get your files back. Besides, with Y2K, this machine ain’t gonna run anyway, and prices are so low right now, there is no reason why you should not upgrade now.

2) Well, I can take it back to the shop and pretend like I know what I am doing for 3-6 hours. Then I will call you the for the next week and a half giving you excuses as to why I am not able to get your information off of that hard drive. Of course, I won’t charge you anything, but I will expect compensation for all the time I wasted on your hard drive.

3) I could take the hard drive out of your machine, plug into my Secondary IDE controller, and boot up. Hopefully, I can see your hard drive and have the ability to copy all of your files to a temp folder on my machine called "Your Name." After I collect all information, I would run IBM's WIPE on the drive and then a thorough scandisk, just to see if the cause was sunspot related or not. If......this was not working, then extreme temperatures always have a way of talking older hard drives into giving us what we want. I would then wrap the HD in a Ziplock bag and slam it in the freezer for 12 hours. Pull it out the next day and very quickly plug it into my machine, copying what I can as quickly as possible until the drive dies again, repeating until all files are copied and safe. If.....that don’t work, move onto the extreme heat. A Shrink wrap gun works best, but a hairdryer will do the trick if that is all you have. Wrap one end of the HD in a towel and use the shrink wrap gun or dryer to heat the hard drive. Very quickly plug it in and copy files until finished. Repeat until all necessary files are copied and you are done.

You may not think it works, but when you are down to that as your last option...it does.

From: Lichtenwalner Allen L TSgt
Solution:
• Carefully remove it from the computer.
• Place it in the freezer for 24 hours, then put it back in the computer. You should have approximately 30 minutes of good spin time left before a fina–l—and much more permanen–t—shut down.
This problem often arises from a catastrophic hard disk crash—bearings are usually the culprit, coupled with badly worn read/write heads. I've used this technique on many computers throughout the last fifteen years as "resident expert" and saved virtually all important data.
If you're in a pinch for time, such as critical data needed for a briefing in twenty minutes, you can opt for the more drastic cooling technique—a C02 fire extinguisher...

From: Jeff Smoley
Here is a solution for really dead drives: ones that won't spin or ones that make those funny grinding noises:

Put the drive in the fridge for a few hours. This can shrink up something inside that might let it run long enough to get critical data. If not, try the freezer for a few more.

This actually has worked for me in the past.

From: Neal Menkus
Things we have done in the past that worked:
1. Remove the drive, grab it, and shake the hell out of it: "What could it hurt? It's not working anyway…."
2. Place the drive in a freezer for about 10 minutes.
3. Open the drive case in a laminar flow-hood, and give it a spin. (Once it was closed up and reinstalled, it worked long enough to suck the data off of it.)
4. Swap the logic board with one on another drive of the same type.

Numbers 1, 2, and 3 worked with older Seagate (which we no longer purchase) drives, which were prone to "stiction" problems. Number 4 worked following an electrical surge (lightning strike), since the data on the platters were still there and OK.

From: Clifford Liles
Depending on the drive failure I have had success with some rather extreme solutions to data recovery.

Symptom: Invalid Drive Specifications
Treatment: Basic Check your cmos battery
Check your IDE cable and connections
Check your jumper settings
Remove all other IDE connections but the drive in question

Advanced Try disk manager software
Try data recovery software
Use a bios upgrade card ($39) and allow it to setup the drive
Look up the drive specifications on the manufacturer’s Web site and plug
them in manually.
Turn Off or On Write Precomp—32bit disk access

Symptom: Drive does not spin up: "Sticktion"
Treatment: Basics Lightly tap the side of the drive case with a screwdrive–r—no power
Lightly tap the side of the drive case with a screwdriver–—power on

Advanced Cold soak the drive: Freeze in a zip-lock bag
Spray drive case with inverted can of canned air
Lightly slap the drive on a desk top: (mild frustration)
Repeated hammering of the drive on a desk top: (last resort—total
frustration only)

Symptom: Invalid media type
Treatment: Basics Boot with a FAT32 Windows 95 boot disk
Sys the drive

Advanced fdisk /mbr
Check for a virus from a known clean boot disk

These are but a few techniques for the doomed platters. These techniques can be used in conjunction with one another to arrive at the desired solution. Lather, rinse, and repeat if necessary.

From: Daniel Philpott
Here is the solutions checklist for this problem:
Tools needed:
• Bootable CD or locked floppy dis–k—Formatted with an OS that can see the file system of the hard drive. DOS is usually the preferred OS for this function with NTFSDOS from Sysinternals for NTFS reads and DOS utilities for diagnostics/repair.
• It should have the ability to boot to and/or see CD-ROM drives, read FAT, FAT32, NTFS, or other common file systems, run common network card drivers and see the network, have disk diagnostic and/or repair utilities, and have antivirus scanning software with current definitions.
• OnTrack Data Adviso–r—A free download from www.OnTrack.com Hard Drive (large capacity)—Formatted for a FAT file system (or whatever is your common file system) and preferably with BeOS as the boot operating system.
• Computer Repair Tool Ki–t—Standard repair tools.
• Freezer–—The one in your kitchen will do quite nicely.

1. The first task to recovering a drive is not at all technical—It is social. Prepare your user for the worst but also explain what the realistic chances of recovery are. Then start collecting information that you will need. Here is what you need to know before starting:
• What is the goal of recovery, returning to the previous state or recovering the data?
• Which is most important?
• What is the client willing to spend on recovery?
• What OS (NT, 95, Linux) and DOS (FAT, NTFS, FAT32) was the system running?
• Where is the computer located?

2. Check the environment: The last question from step 1 is often forgotten and can lead to extensive troubleshooting of a simple problem. Look for an environmental problem that may cause problems for the hard drive. Are there magnets on the computer case close to the hard drive? Is there a fan or heater near the computer? Is a transformer, electrical junction box, or high energy device near the computer (on a floor above or in a nearby wall)? All of these will produce a magnetic (or electromagnetic) field that can cause problems. Equipment that may vibrate the computer even at a very low frequency can cause hard drive heads to skip and jump or even scratch the platters.

3. Turn off the computer, remove the cover, and get ready to the turn the computer on. Then put your ear right next to the drive and power the system on. If you hear any kind of grinding, scratching, or rattling from the drive, turn the computer off as quickly as possible and go to the next step. Otherwise go on to step 5.

4. If the disk has made noise that indicates some sort of mechanical stress, then the problem is the domain of data recovery experts. This is where the client has to make a decision. Do they want to send the drive to a data recovery service, or do they want to destroy the disk in an attempt to recover some data? If the client has information that absolutely needs to be recovered, then send it to the professionals. Remember, you cannot service a hard drive unless you are working in a clean room.

If they are willing to destroy the disk and try to get some data off the drive, there is a quick hack available. Place the drive in a static-free bag, then place the drive and static-free bag into a ziplock bag to seal out moisture. Place this into a freezer turned to as low as possible for 24 hours. After 24 hours, pull the drive out and immediately put it into a computer (the faster the better) that boots to a floppy and has another hard drive to transfer data to. If the drive wasn't damaged too much previously, you should be able to pull some data off before the metal of the drive heats up and starts destroying the data storage platters. You can repeat the process only if you shut down almost immediately and go through the 24 hour freeze process again. Chances are that the first time attempt will be the only chance to recover data.

5. If the drive boots to an operating system and you can get to either a network or backup medium, then start copying the most important data off first. Once that data is off, you can back up less important data. The best bet is to listen to your client to find out what absolutely must be recovered.

6. If the client wants to restore the drive to its previous state and continue operating, then you need to do two things to see if this is feasible.
• First, run a virus scan on the drive. Update the virus definitions then scan every file on the computer.
• Second, boot to a floppy-disk-based hard drive utility and run a low-level
bad sector discovery utility.
If both tests pass and the computer boots to the operating system, then your job is done and you are eligible for a pat on the back. Otherwise, continue.

7. If the drive does not boot, then try booting to a bootable CD or a bootable locked floppy disk. If you can see the file system, continue to step 8.

If you can not see the file system, then assess your tools. If you have Hard Drive Mechanic from Higher Ground Diagnostics or Tiramisu from OnTrack, then you can use these to diagnose and recover data. Otherwise, boot to the Data Advisor disk to find out whether data can be recovered. They will recover it or suggest a recovery plan or even require the disk be sent to a data recovery center like OnTrack. The client needs to make the choice as to whether the expense of this solution is worth the recovery of the data.

8. If you can see the file system, then priority actions are:

• Copy the most important data off the drive
• Copy the rest of the data off the drive
• Determine if the drive can be recovered (scan with virus checker and disk utilities)
• Repair the operating system

The best way of doing this is to install your spare hard drive in the computer and boot to either it or the CD/floppy bootable. Copy the important data off first, copy the less important data off next, and then do your diagnostics. If your diagnostics look like the drive is repairable, then go right ahead and repair it.

The reason I suggest BeOS be the boot OS on the hard drive is that it has the ability to mount more file systems than I even knew existed before using it. If you need to access an exotic file system, BeOS 4.5 is almost sure to have a driver available for it. However, the FAT (or FAT16) is the most commonly readable file system around, so generally you will want to transfer data to this file system.

If it becomes apparent that the file system is intact and not infected with a virus (or has had a boot sector virus removed), then you may need to replace the Master Boot Record (MBR) of the drive. Simple. Boot to a DOS disk that has the fdisk utility and run an 'fdisk /MBR' to replace the MBR. Remember, balance the time it takes to restore the operating system against the time it takes to recover data, get a new drive, and install a fresh operating system.

Normally, disk recovery is simply a matter of recovering the data. Returning a drive to its previous state is a goal but may simply be more costly than recovering the data and replacing the drive. How much effort to expend on the process is entirely up to you and the client.
. . To Be Continued to Part 2 . . Read More...

SUKA TIDAK SUKA

Suka atau tidak suka tapi perkembangan Facebook yang luar biasa, khususnya di Indonesia, membuat 'kecanduan' para penggunanya. Dominasi friendster sebagai situs jejaring sosial yang cukup populer beberapa tahun lalu kini digeser oleh Facebook, sebuah situs jejaring sosial yang bisa disebut minimalis dari segi desain tapi kaya akan fitur dan pendukung.

Namun, seperti halnya......... situs jejaring sosial lainnya, maka penggunaan Facebook pun tetap harus memperhatikan etika yang ada sehingga apa-apa yang kita lakukan di Facebook tidak menimbulkan keresahan atau tidak enak dipandang oleh pengguna lainnya.

Misalkan kita termasuk orang yang sering sekali mengupdate status dan terkadang malah memasang status yang mungkin terlihat oleh orang lain 'mengganggu' atau kita pasang foto yang cukup menghebohkan.

Seperti paragraf di awal, suka atau tidak suka Facebook sudah mewabah dan berikut ini 10 tips yang seharusnya tidak dilakukan di Facebook:

1. Menggunakan mail dari Facebook dibandingkan email yang biasa
Jangan keseringan mengirim email dengan Facebook jika anda mengetahui alamat email asli teman anda, kenapa? Karena hal itu hanya membuang-buang waktu saja. Anda kirim email ke teman anda dan Facebook mengirimkan email pemberitahuan ke teman anda kalau anda telah mengirimkan pesan buat dia. Bukankah itu jadinya kerjaan dua kali.

2. Menambah teman lama dan lalu melupakan mereka

Hal ini banyak kita lakukan dan mungkin inilah kejahatan terbesar dari jejaring sosial. Anda iseng mencari-cari nama teman SD atau SMP anda dulu di Facebook dan ternyata anda menemukannya. Lalu anda tambahkan ia sebagai teman dan kemudian setelah menjadi teman di Facebook anda melupakannya lagi dengan tidak pernah menyapanya sama sekali.

3. Menambahkan orang yang tidak dikenal sama sekali

Situs jejaring sosial seperti halnya dunia maya menjadi rimba belantara yang liar. Untuk itulah kalau seandainya ada seseorang yang hendak menambahkan anda sebagai temannya tapi anda tidak mengenal dia sama sekali, baiknya dihindari atau anda bisa cari tahu tentang dia dulu sebelum anda memutuskan untuk menambahkan dia sebagai teman. Hal itu bisa anda lakukan dengan mengirimkan email ke dia.

4. Menerima 'invitation' dari orang yang tidak anda kenal

Seperti halnya poin di atas, suatu hari anda menerima invitation dan anda setuju untuk bergabung. Lalu ketika anda lihat, ternyata tidak terdapat teman-teman anda dalam group tersebut. Bingung kan jadinya.

5. Mengupdate Facebook di saat 'semestinya' anda sakit
Yang ini mungkin bisa disebut kecerobohan yang terencana. Anda sedang tidak ingin masuk kerja dan pikir-pikir mungkin akan bilang sakit, lalu anda menelpon kantor dan menginformasikan kalau anda tidak bisa masuk kantor hari ini. Lalu karena iseng dan ceroboh maka anda buka Facebook dan anda mengupdate status anda setiap beberapa menit, seperti sekarang sedang sarapan, sedang makan es krim, main video game atau yang lainnya. Yang seperti itulah yang disebut kecerobohan yang terencana karena bisa jadi bos atau rekan kerja anda di kantor mengawasi Facebook anda.

6. Menulis di wall dibandingkan komunikasi secara pribadi

Keterbukaan atau narsisme, itulah yang terjadi ketika para penggunanya ingin selalu berbagi kepada orang lain tentang apa yang mereka lakukan lewat status di Facebook. Hal ini mungkin bagus, tapi jika seandainya anda membutuhkan sesuatu yang pribadi baiknya jangan ditulis di wall sehingga semua orang bisa membacanya. Contohnya anda ingin mengadakan acara khusus yang cuma akan dikunjungi oleh beberapa teman undangan anda, tapi karena anda menuliskannya di wall maka rencana acara khusus itu menjadi tidak khusus lagi karena banyak teman-teman anda yang lainnya yang tahu.

7. Mengeluh di status Facebook
Hal yang paling mengganggu di Facebook adalah membaca wall seseorang yang isinya berupa keluhan pribadi. Misalkan anda baru saja putus cinta dan anda menulis di wall, "Rita, aku menyesal kisah cinta kita berakhir seperti ini. Aku sayang kamu dan akan merindukanmu dan aku harap kamu dapat memaafkan aku suatu hari nanti." Jangan tuliskan keluhan yang sifatnya sangat pribadi di wall, karena mungkin bukan simpati yang anda dapatkan tapi bisa jadi orang-orang mengenal anda 'cengeng'.

8. Mengupload foto di Facebook dan menghapus file aslinya
Walaupun Facebook bisa digunakan untuk menyimpan foto-foto pribadi anda tapi jangan sekali-kali menghapus foto asli yang terdapat di komputer anda. Facebook tidak begitu bagus ketika harus mengkompres dan merubah besar ukuran foto.

9. Men-Tag teman dalam foto tanpa sepengetahuannya

Saya baru sadar kalau hal ini sangat mengganggu ketika kemarin teman di Facebook mengupload foto yang tidak ada hubungannya sama sekali dengan saya dan ia rupanya men-Tag saya dan beberapa temannya. Karena foto itu menghebohkan maka banyak yang berkomentar, dan repotnya itu komentar yang ada diinformasikan ke email mereka yang di-Tag. Cukup menjengkelkan juga karena kita menerima email yang banyak tapi kita tidak merasa mengenalinya. Kita bisa pilih remove Tag di foto itu dan ingat agar jangan men-Tag foto seseorang tanpa sepengetahuan orang tersebut

10. Membuat dan bergabung dengan group yang dapat meresahkan
Facebook memang bebas dan terbuka dan terkadang karena sebab itulah Facebook dimanfaatkan oleh beberapa kalangan untuk membuat group yang menyuarakan aspirasi dan kepentingan mereka walaupun itu terkesan menyudutkan orang lain atau hanya sekedar fitnah belaka. Hindari untuk membuat dan bergabung dengan group seperti itu. Read More...