Database News - Wednesday December 19, 2007
HELP DESK
'Magic' has its price
I'm a long-time fan of Wanda Sloan and enjoy trying the software she recommends every Wednesday.
I'm using PartitionMagic right now, but I remember she used to mention free software for creating a hard disk partition. Unfortunately I forgot to save it.
Could you please mention it again, if possible?
WIBOON NITTHAYAKOSON
Database replies: Wanda Sloan replies: I really must say that there is no free software that can match Partition Magic in both ease and amount of tasks. If you want to move or adjust partitions without affecting data and the operating system, it is difficult unless you use software like Partition Magic - ie, for-fee programs.
For-free programs, however, can do a lot. Windows XP added a number of excellent functions, once you find your way to the place the wise-guy Microsoft programmers hid them away. Start the Control Panel, and open Administrative Tools. Now open Computer Man-
agement, scroll down a bit and near the bottom on the left you will see Disk Management. If you want to delete or make new partitions, this may be enough, but note it can only work on empty disk space, or alternatively wipe your data and let you start again.
There is a small program that does roughly what the old DOS and pre-XP operating system did with FDisk. The Ranish Partition Manager again is destructive - it requires free disk space or will have to wipe out your data. It is at http://www.ranish.com/part.
In the end, I find that the commercial and shareware programs like the popular Partition Magic are best for this task.
-
8mm solution
A friend in the office gave me a copy of a column by Tony Waltham (I'm not sure of the date) re: 8mm films. I have what I hope is an easier question. I have lots of Betamax tapes, and have "gotten by" for years by finding unwanted Betamax (Sony or other brand) machines for sale that still function.
But - my current machine just broke a tape and I fear the worst. I'm only in Bangkok for a couple more months and would love to find a source for beta format machines - used would be fine. Even a repair shop to work on my machine (an ancient Sanyo) would be a welcome reference.
Any ideas?
JIM DUNLAP
Database replies: Tony Waltham replies: There is an area of Bangkok known as "Klong Thom" (in Chinatown, near Hua Lampong railway station) which is full of second-hand equipment, but an "easier" place to start might be "Klong Thom Seacon" at Seacon Square on Srinakarin Road, where you might try your luck.
Seri Center, down the road, also has several shops specialising in older A/V equipment and some do repairs. That's on the third floor (in the IT section).
Thai technicians are resourceful and I'd say the chances are fairly high of finding old equipment as well as getting your player repaired, or at least looked at.
If any readers have specific recommendations, please send to database@bangkokpost.net and we will forward them to this reader.
-
Simple sorting
I have a 250-gigabyte HD full with programs, MP3s, avi files, etc. Do you know a program which can filter the things I want to copy to one of my computers? Like I want to see only the MP3s in a folder and copy them to another folder, or only see avi files and do the same.
I searched the Net but could not find one.
JMM
Database replies: Wanda Sloan replies: Well, I think that the Windows search operation is fine for something like this. You can install file finders such as Google or Copernic toolbar, but it is a lot of trouble for a pretty simple operation.
Click Start and then Search. First, tell the applet you want to find All files and folders. Then tell it what and where. For example, tell it to find only *.mp3 files on your D: drive, or find only *.avi files in a certain folder.
To select just one folder, or a folder and it sub-folders, click on the tab to select a drive, and go right down to the bottom and click on Browse.
Once the Search is over, you have a list of all the files. You can mark them and Copy or Move them as you wish.
Bangkok Post
No comments:
Post a Comment