Backups are here to prevent such drastic recovery, yes, but sometimes, things don’t happen as smoothly as forcasted.

Situation

I had a HD that was hapilly running on a NAS, but since two years, a SMART error was thrown. I bought a new disk and had planned to mount both the new and old disk in another machine, so I just would have to copy/paste the data from the old HD to the new HD.

But I didn’t expect the NAS HD to have three partitions, one being in FAT16, containing the OS. Windows 7 refused to mount this disk. I then had the luminous idea to mount it as “Dynamic Drive”.

The brillant idea destroyed the MBR.

For the record, the MBR contains (among other things) the index of the data stored on the HD. When you lose your MBR, you lose the partition, file names, saved date and folders structure.

Thus, my problem was a HD that displayed as RAW in Windows 7, with a destroyed MBR.

My configuration was: Windows 7 64bits, RAID controller (though the HD wasn’t in an array), a HD to recover that had a FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS partitions. The NTFS was the one I needed to recover.

Softwares

I naively thought that among the thousands of recovery softwares available, one at least would be able to recover the data.

That is not the case. So, here is the list of all the softwares I tried, bought and tested, also with the results I obtained.

I hope that might save some of you money and time.

Reviews

A good place to start is by reading reviews of the available softwares on the market, here is where I started to digg: TopTenReviews.com.

The first three are the one that interested me. I eliminated DT Utilities Digital Rescue 2010 for the following reasons:

• doesn’t recover data from deleted partition

• lack of RAID support, though the company claims that it can recover RAID, it didn’t detect any HD that were attached to the RAID controller. Maybe a driver problem

That left me with the other two.

Recover my files v4 from GetData

RecoverMyFiles was the one I came back to, over and over and eventually I bought the software.

The reasons of my choice were:

• RAID support

• Windows 7 support

• ease of use

• Recover both FAT and NTFS

But, it wasn’t a so good choice. First, I expected to have my files neatly recovered, with all the folders structure and file names.

That’s not possible with a missing MBR. You can try whatever program, it won’t recover the files names.

So, this is what you can expect from Recover My files:

• looooong time to parse the disk (20 hours for 150GB)

• The more file types, the longer the search. Choose well.

• Not all file types are candidates for recovery

• The good news is that you can save the search, thus browse the HD whenever you want without have to go through the search again

• Fair price 69.99$

Before buying, search for a coupon code on Google. I was able to buy it with 25% off, thus only for 52$.

The results of the search didn’t satisfied me for the following reasons:

• all the files are stacked within one folder. It’s up to you to sort exe from pdf, from jpg and so on

• a lot of files are unreadable, about 70% of them actually, I mean that they have been recovered, but I cannot read them. Though I’m not sure the software is at fault here

• Not all files can be recovered, for instance, if you have RAW file from you favorite camera, you can forget them

But I admit, I have a difficult case.

Disk Internal Partition recovery

DiskInternal Partition recovery has a confusing name, as it actually recovers your data. It can recover both FAT and NTFS, though you can choose to buy only one of the version.

The good points:

• RAID support (controller, not the array, you have to buy their other software to recover arrays)

• Fast search (about one hour for 150GB)

• Recover ALL the file types

• Sort the files per type and folder

The bad points:

• No possibility to save the search

• The price!!! About 140$ with rebate! If I weren’t so deseperate to recover my data I would never had paid such a price!

I ended with this software, despite the price, because it was the only one which was able to retrieve all the data.

I first used PartitionRecovery with the “extensive search” option, which took about an hour and produced many, many files, sorted per types, but 99% of them were unreadable. I suspect that with this kind of search I only recovered files that had been deleted since a long time.

I complained at the provider of the software (DiskInternal) and I received a very quick answer. Then I tried the “quick search” and the miracle happened! All my files and folders structure appeared! Even with the MBR broken and Windows wanting to know nothing about the disk!

Then, I highly recommand this software. It is the only one that was capable of such a recovery.

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Seriously, except from the total uselessness of publishing our garden’s view, I tought that publishing a live cam on the web was really simple.

Now, let’s face the fact; it is not.

The reminiscence of the computer engineer sleeping in me woke up and finally found how to publish a private IP camera on the world wide web. Not that you need a computer degree to acheive it.

Here we go with the tutorial, if that might save you some time, it will make my day!

What you need

A cup filled with your favorite coffee.

The Linksys WVC54GCA properly configured and already working on your network.

Access to your router/modem.

Before we go

Here are the various ways Linksys offers to retreive the camera stream.

To display a jpeg snapshot of the current image;

http://x.x.x.x:xxxx/img/snapshot.cgi

———————-
big snapshot:

http://x.x.x.x:xxxx/img/snapshot.cgi?size=3&quality=1

where size =
1 = 160×128
2 = 320×240
3 = 640×480
and quality =
1 = very high
2 = high
3 = normal
4 = low
5 = very low

also:

http://x.x.x.x:xxxx/img/mjpeg.cgi

http://x.x.x.x:xxxx/img/video.mjpeg

——————————————–
To view the mjpeg video stream (which is supported by browsers-other-than-IE);

http://x.x.x.x:xxxx/img/video.mjpeg

To view the mpeg video stream (from Windows Media Player);

http://x.x.x.x:xxxx/img/video.asf

To view the built-in video host page (with zoom controls and ’snapshot’ buttons;

http://x.x.x.x:xxxx/img/main.cgi?next_file=main.htm

Mobile Snapshot mode – Captures JPG from the camera at mobile size (160×120):

http://x.x.x.x:xxxx/img/mobile.cgi

Reboot the camera remotely (Requires admin rights):

http://x.x.x.x:xxxx/adm/reboot.cgi

You might think that accessing directly the stream and displaying within a player would be a good idea, but actually, it is not.

1. it could eat all of your personal bandwidth if your camera is suddenly accessed by thousand of curious.

2. I couldn’t find any player (except QuickTime) that can read one of the format above. Thus I wrote a Flex program that could read the stream, but that wouldn’t solved point 1 anyway.

Thus, the approach I choose was to access the static images and refresh it from time to time.

Here we go

Finished your mug of coffee already? Go for a new one!

First, you’ll need a DDNS that will work as a relay. If your using your camera from home, your internet provider assign you a fresh IP address from time to time. Thus, there is no reliable way for the world wide web to access your camera, as its IP changes. By using TZO services, they will create a domain name for you and the camera will send TZO your IP every 15 minutes (or the interval you choose).

Don’t ask me for another service than TZO, it’s the only supported by Linksys.

1. start here: https://www.tzo.com/portals/Linksys.php?x=1

2. choose the WVC54GCA camera and choose your domain name

3. now, I’m going lazy. Follow this tutorial to set up your camera: http://www.tzo.com/MainPageSupport/HowToPage/LinksysWVC54GCTutorial.html

The tricky part is the port forwarding if your modem is not a linksys. But, that can be overcome.

Now you should be able to see your camera home page from the domain your choose at TZO.

Web part

I opted for the most laziest choice.

1. change your web forwarding option at TZO, as in part http://www.tzo.com/MainPageSupport/HowToPage/LinksysWVC54GCTutorial3.html of this tutorial

2. now, as address, choose http://yourwemdomainbytzo.com:1024/img/snapshot.cgi?size=3&quality=1 you can choose other options, as listed above. Choose Silent mode.

3. create a HTML file and drop in the following script

<a title="test" href="" target="_blank"><IMG src="http://www.xxx.linksysremotecam.com/img/snapshot.cgi?size=3&quality=1" width="640" height="480" border="0" name="refresh"></a>
      <SCRIPT language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
      <!--
      var t = 5 // interval in seconds
      image = "http://www.xxx.linksysremotecam.com/img/snapshot.cgi?size=3&quality=1" //name of the image
      function Start() {
      tmp = new Date();
      tmp = "?"+tmp.getTime()
      document.images["refresh"].src = image+tmp
      setTimeout("Start()", t*1000)
      }
      Start();
      // -->
      </SCRIPT>

The above image is refreshed every 50 seconds. At night and from time to time, the webcam is unplugged.

Upload it to the webserver of your choice and voilà!

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After a couple of months of use, here is my observations regarding this watch and the traning program. Also, I compare the Garmin with my Polar 800SD, that I’ve been using since 2005.

The Forerunner comes well packed with a bunch of useful accessories. You get the USB stick, the belt and two replacement wrists (as well as the tools) when using the watch on a bike, for instance. Thus, it works right out of the box!

Features

The Forerunner 405Cx, as its name implies, is targeted to running activities, though you can use it for biking, too.

The main features are:

• builtin GPS

• heartbeat

• pace (instant, average, lap)

• speed, elevation

• user profile and calories consumption

As accessory, you can buy a podometer, though I fail to see its usage, as we have an accurate GPS.

Usage

Now to the core of the matter. The 405Cx has only two buttons. To navigate within the menus, you need to slide your finger on the ring surrounding the screen, first gen Ipod like.

Actually, I don’t like this way of interaction. Because when I’m trying to change the display screen, it is while running and many times with gloves. Thus, I optain reather erratic results. I won’t even try to think using this while biking.

The good news is that you can use the two buttons, instead of the ring.

So far, I could configure the watch without the need of the user manual, which is a good news.

Builtin GPS

Garmin builds very accurate GPS and the 405Cx is no exception. Compared to the 705, the 405cx is as accurate.

Yet, the 405cx takes a very long time to find the satellites. More than 5 minutes, no matter if you’re at the same place than the last time you turn off the watch’s GPS, less than 24 hours ago. The 705 and 305 are much faster, but as I’m using them on the bike, I don’t care if it takes 2 or 10 minutes before they find the position.

The problem with the 405cx taking a long time to position itself, is that you cannot do anything with the watch in the meanwhile! For instance, you cannot start your running session. You have to wait until you can use the watch.

The good news here, is that you can record a position and recall it, thus the 405 will start the session from this place and save you some precious time from freezing you a** outside.

Lisibility

The watch screen is big enough to read it, yet it’s a bit small. The Polar 800SD was a little bit bigger.

A very good feature about the 405Cx is that you can create your own display screen, with the infos you would like to see.

The light is very good and strong.

Battery

The 405Cx has a builtin battery that needs to be recharged from time to time.

Without excercising, the watch battery lasts about one week, with daily one hour exercice and GPS on, it lasts 3 days. The 405x automatically stops the GPS and enters economical mode, so you don’t have to worry about draining your battery accidentally.

Yet, I’m not confident enough to use it as a morning alarm clock. Try to explain your boss that your watch had no more battery if you miss the wakeup.

Software

You can use either Garmin Pro trainer local program, which runs on your personal computer or the online one.

The online program is really basic, it merely displays your data (heartrate, elevation, pace, kcal) on a map. The local one is a bit more complete, though not by far. If you have installed maps on your computer, you can plan tracks and transfer them to you 405Cx, but you cannot build more advanced training programs like I used to create with Polar training program.

Garmin 405cx vs Polar 800SD

For the record, the Polar 800SD was the first of the serie to be released, back in 2006. The difference between the latest versions and this one is that the 800SD can only support one accessory at a time. It means either the s3 podometer or the GPS G3, but not both.

The 800SD was not as accurate as the Garmin, dued to the S3 poor fiability. Not to mention the S3 poor battery life.

Yet, I prefer the Polar for advanced training program. For instance, interval training or when you include strides, walk, sprint and so on. With the Polar training program, it’s really easy to define one’s session, minute per minute.

Conclusion

The 405cx is a very good watch, though compared to the Polar 800 series, it lack a good training software. But unlike Polar, you don’t need to buy tons of expensive accessories.

Also, a great improvement Garmin could make about this watch is to make it waterproof! Not that I’m really interested in swimming with it (the 800SD will do the job), but I often forget to remove the watch before the shower.

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The model being reviewed is the 720p (1280x720p), not the latest at full HD.

Specifications

The ContourHD offers 135 degrees of view, SD card (no external support is required), two lasers for alignement, rechargeable battery, one record button, small and fit almost everywhere.

The ContourHD is provided with a 2GB SD card. The battery lasts about 3hours.

The street price is about 260USD. Europeans will pay the same price..in Euro.

First impressions

The contour is well packed and provided with a helmet mount. It the first deception here; you need to stick the pad on the helmet. I had to buy the vent mount (30$) to be able to put the camera on.
The mount is very easy to use.

Lasers

I wonder why other manufacturers didn’t steal this idea! With the dual lasers, it’s so easy to tune the point of view. As the contour has no feedback screen, it’s really a must!

More than a year ago, I had bought an Archos helmet cam, with the Archos 5 to record and display the results. The adjustement process was painful, because I had to record, look at the result, record again, and so on until the point of view was correct.

The only problem I had while doing this while riding (not the best idea), was to find the red dots..

Record button

This is also a genius idea! When you have glows and/or are in action, you surely have better to do than spend 5 minutes trying to find the on/off button. Plus, the Contour gives a signal feedback, so you know if you’re starting or stopping recording. This is really, really helpful. With the Archos, many times I thought I was recording when I was not and vis versa.

Battery

I’ve only tested it in mild conditions and it lasts about two hours. Which is correct. Who’s going to watch a two hours video of a mountain biker getting lost in woods, anyway?

Quality

This was precisely the reason I resold the Archos. The quality was so bad I couldn’t tell whether I was diving 30feets under the ocean or mountain biking in a forest. You can have a look at the video I took a while back here.

The ContourHD offers the 1280px720p resolution, which is the max it can handle and is also the quality I used for my tests.

To make a long story short, the quality is very good for a camera of this price.

Test part I

In this test, I ride a difficult terrain, with a lot of stones, rapid change of light, open space and under wood conditions.

The Contour handles very fast the changing of light situations, and accustomate very well to low light.

The only problem in this test is the color balance. On low light it’s too cold and too warm in normal light. Maybe they pushed the extrems a bit too much.

Test part II

Except the color balance, two new aspects are shown here. The first is that part of the scenery that are in the corners are completely blown out.

The other thing is a purple line that appears randomly. I have no idea what it is. I have other videos when it appears, always on the side of the facing sun, though it doesn’t look at all like an optical effect. More like a sensor hippcue.

Maybe the cam is deffect. If anyone noticed the same, please leave a comment.

Conclusion

A very good HD helmet camera! I would be curious to test the full HD version, though. It’s easy to handle, has good quality, correct battery life and fast recording.

My next test will be while skiing.

Don’t miss vHold videos community. Surely these guys know how to promote themselves for free!

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What if it existed a way to both wake you up on time and feel refreshed?

That’s what the Sleeptracker promises. We played the guena pigs with this watch and now are sharing our experiences.

What is it?

Basically, the Sleeptracker is a watch that monitors your sleep. It wakes you up when you’re in between sleep cycles, leaving you refreshed and ready for your day activities.

How does it work?

Your sleep is interrupted by short wake-up periods. Usually, you don’t even remember you woke up. The purpose of the watch is to wake you up when you’re within one of these awake moment. For example, if you want to wake up at 6a.m., you set up the watch for 5:40a.m. with a time frame of 20 minutes. If you’re awake at 5:20, the watch will ring or buzz.

More than an alarm clock

You can expect more from the watch. For instance, you can monitor the quality of your sleep and with accurate observation, you can improve your sleep quality. Maybe you’ll notice that you don’t sleep well after a big meal or sport activities. You can also find the number of hours you need for sleep.

Experience

Husband and I both bought a watch for each one and during two months, we monitored accurately our sleep cycles and try to improve them.

Guena pig 1

Husband learned from the watch that he was trying to get more sleep than he needed. He realized that after 6hours, he was tossing and turning in bed. Thus, he shortened his nights and it lessen his back pain.
Because the watch was waking him up smoothly, he is now able to get up 2 hours before going to work and can enjoy some time for himself.

Guena pig 2

Having two small children to take care of at night is definitely a no go for this watch. I learned that I didn’t get enough sleep. I knew it before using the watch.
My sleep is interrupted by the kids, several times per night. It doesn’t matter if the watch wakes me when I’m supposely awake, I feel blasted anyway.

Conclusion

If you can manage a healthy sleep schedule, then this watch can help you fine tuning it and eventually you could learn something about yourself.
If your nights are those of a mother, forget it. We’re helpless.

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Did you ever wonder what all these descriptions mean?

Have a look at this example.

Read from bottom to top.

All clear? Isn’t it?

If not, here are some explanations.

The commercial invoice is missing and is required for export

Before the good is physically sent, UPS sends the required papers to the foreign customs, which does all the necessary. If the invoice is missing, UPS does nothing. It’s up to you or the sender to contact them and send the missing documents. It can be a pain, really. Especially if you’re a non English speaker.

Forwarded to the facility in the destination city

It means that the documents are sent to the foreign customs (here Switzerland/Geneva), which does all the processing as if the good was physically crossing the customs. But the good it still in the US, at this point. The information is very misleading, I think.

Package data processed by brokerage. Waiting for clearance

Now the item is physically crossing the border. It means also that the previous sent document have been processed by the destination’s customs.

Released by clearing agency. Now in-transit for delivery

Well, that bunch of information is a piece of junk, really. Because the good is not in transit. As before, papers are sent from Germany to Swiss customs for processing. The good is stuck in Germany.

I have no clue why UPS sends the invoice papers for custom processing before the physical good. Anyway, I hope it helps some of you.

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Ebay got full of itself and the new policies say it all: “We want big resellers”.

Well, they forgot that they need buyers, too. Buyers that are casual resellers..

Since 2006, I’m a casual user of Ebay. I sum up mere 50 sales/pruchases, all of them reaching 100%.

Over the years, Ebay introduced a couple of changes:

• no more negative and neutral evaluations for buyers. If something goes avry, that leaves the seller with the only option to say nothing.
• refactoring of the website. A pity. I skip the ergonomic part to jump to the search one. Google gives better results than Ebay. Add this terrible search engine to the crisis and you’re selling nothing.
• Since June 09, Paypal/Ebay protect you no more. See my previous post.

My latest sale was the last on Ebay, really. I resell my Canon 5D for 1500$. A good price, you say. That was the only nice part.

I posted the item like the others; being honest and descriptive. I posted pictures of the camera body under every angle I could find. I mentionned that the camera had no scratch. That was all.

My first deception was to discover that I’ve been raped by Ebay: 50€, then Paypal: 50$.

My second deception, was the buyer. At first, he sounded kind. I explained him about the funds being held by Paypal and to leave a positive feedback as soon as possible.

I even offered (means he paid nothing for it) the buyer 40€ of insurance in case the postal service damage or lose the package.

24 hours after the delivery, the buyer contacted me to state that there were mismatch between my description and the camera. He talked about a BIG (his words) scratch. I looked closely at the pictures I took of the body and notice a thin dotted white line, about half the size of a cat’s hair. Ok, my bad, I said there was no scratch and there is one. The buyer claimed me 20€ for the repair. I’m still wondering how this can be fix.

Secondly, he said the viewfinder, the sensor and the mirror need cleaning. I believe him with my eyes closed. Despite having the camera sent every year for cleaning, the 5D’s sensor is a magnet to dust. Yet, I mentionned nothing in my ad about the sensor/viewfinder and mirror being clean. The buyer claimed me 46€ for the cleaning.

Because I didn’t want a dispute and wait months until my funds were released, I offer to pay the cleaning.

The only answer I got 48h later from the buyer, was the Paypal payment for the cleaning.

Since then, nothing.

No evaluation, no thanks. Not a word. I think I’m ready to wait 21 days until I get my money.

I’m done, sincerely. I’m honest, do favor, be kind and in the end I’m raped all the same.

Related posts:

1. Ebay new policies
2. Ebay côté vendeur
3. Ebay côté acheteur

For our protection, they say.

Because Paypal is bankrupted, I say.

Seriously, what is intruduced is:

• You *have to* use Paypal. No other way to pay on Ebay.
• When you pay (with Paypal), unlike before, the transfer isn’t immediate. Paypal waits for the money to be really on the account. It means, if you pay with a credit card, that they wait until your bank said “ok, let’s do it”. Or if you tranfered funds from your bank account to your Paypal’s, let’s wait a few more days. For the seller, it means you have to wait up to *one week* before Paypal says “the money is here” and you can send the item.
• For the buyers protection, Paypal blocks the money on the seller account. Means for the seller, you have to wait until the item has arrived or that the buyer has left a positive feedback or that 21 days have passed without dispute.

The third point is really a pain. First because the delivery confirmation only works in the US and secondly because 50% of buyers never leave feedback at all (or weeks later). That leaves the buyer with the option to *wait* 21 days to get the money.

In one sentence: Paypal/Ebay protects you no more. It simply blocks the money and make sure it resides on your account.

Now allow longer delays to get your stuffs sent.

Related posts:

1. Leaving Ebay
2. Ebay côté acheteur
3. Ebay côté vendeur

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What’s that?

The Blackberry Internet Service (BIS) allows to recieve your mails in pull. It can be Gmail, for instance. You need to suscribe on your carrier Blackberry portal. For instance, the one for the swiss operator Swisscom is: mobileemail.swisscom.ch

What can we do with it?

What you need to know about the BIS, called Blackberry E-mail by Swisscom:

• you can only retrieve your emails in pull mode.
• No calendar and contact synchronization is possible.

How much?

By Swisscom, the activation is free of charge. But not the data.

1MB of data cost 10CHF. Note that it concerns only Emails, not regular data like web browsing, which costs 14CHF/MB.

By Swisscom, you can suscribe at different options; for instance, you pay 20CHF/month and get 5MB of mail. Have a look here: http://www.swisscom-mobile.ch/scm/prv_blackberry_option-fr.aspx

Must know

Blackberry mail and data plan are two separates things. For instance, by Swisscom, you cannot have both a data plan and a BIS activated.

Having to push and calendar/contact synchronization, the BIS seems to be for private usage.

How to?

You need to ask your carrier to activate the BIS (ie to register you phone on the Blackberry network).

Conclusion

I fail to see any advantages to this plan. Expensive, no push and no data plan. I’d rather buy another push compatible smartphone coming with a data plan; it’s far more interesting.

BES

What’s that?

The BES (Blackberry Enterprise Service) is, as named, for companies. It allows push synchronization with mails, calendar and contacts with the mail server of your company (Exchange, Lotus, etc).

How?

To have the BES, your company needs to have the Blackberry service running on their mail server. This service is quite expensive.

Next, you need to suscribe to the BES at your carrier.

By Swisscom, this is possible only if you’re a company. A private person cannot have this BES activated.

How much?

By Swisscom, the BES is at least 45CHF/Month with 250MB of mails included. For 69CHF/Month you have also 5MB of mails international roaming.

To this, you have obviously to add the basic voice plan.

Good to know

The BES plan can be cancelled at any moment, unlike the 12/24 months voice plans.

Swisscom needs 1-3 days until the BES is set up.

There’s no data plan included. Means that the 250MB only covers the mails. If you decide to visit your favorite website, you’ll pay for it.

Conclusion

Expensive. Not to mention that, unlike the Iphone, the Blackberry comes with little applications. If you want to edit you Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents, you’ll have to buy a licence.

In one sentence; click and pay.

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