How to repair Mac

Hi all, based on my recent experience, i will share steps involved in case you want to explore how to repair your Mac machine (iMac / Macbook). Although it is a huge difference between Windows, the concept is almost similar but using different methods.

Mac doesn't boot to login screen / corrupted/ etc or similar issues:

To repair HDD in case disk corrupted, etc:
1. Reboot your Mac and press and hold Command + R key in your keyboard until the Apple logo appears and loads into a repair option window.
2. Once you see the repair selection window, select disk utility and continue.
3. On the next window, select the disk you wish to repair and click "first aid" button on top the window.
4. The selected disk will be checked for errors and repaired if possible.
5. You may exit the window and reboot your Mac once done.

Note: you may also select Reinstall Mac OS incase you suspect the OS is corrupted and it will reinstall your OS.

To repair HDD using CLI (command line interface):
1. Reboot your Mac and press and hold Command + S key in your keyboard until the Apple logo appears and loads into a command line interface. This will be considered single user mode in Mac.
2. Key in /sbin/fsck -fy and press enter. This will repair your disk and show the progress until complete.
3. Once it is complete, you may type the command reboot and press enter to reboot your Mac.

Robocopy for copying files and folders in Windows

Hi all, I would like to share alternative step to copy files / folders in Windows apart from the conventional Windows Explorer copy method.

This Robocopy method will show the progress of your copy, files / folders being copied, size, number of files copied, skipped and etc.

To use this method, you may follow the below steps:

1. Open command prompt by typing "cmd" without quotes or Windows Powershell by typing "powershell" once clicking Start icon in Windows.
   
   Note: Make sure you right click and click "run as administrator" for the application shortcut, regardless of command prompt or windows powershell - this is to avoid permission issues when running commands.
   
2. Once opened, in order to run robocopy to copy files, you may type the below command to run:
   robocopy /E
   
   /E - copies all folders and folders including subdirectories which is empty
   
   Note: you may explore more additional command/ syntax for robocopy by typing "robocopy /?" without quotes.

Example:

How to reset administrator password in Windows based machine

Hi everyone, it has been long since I last wrote or published a post, this time I will share some tips on how to reset administrator account password in windows machine / PC due to my recent encounter with Windows Server 2012 based VM which I lost track of the password I set. Below are the steps:

Instructions

1. Boot from the Microsoft Windows Server 2012 / related Windows DVD.
2. From the Windows Setup menu, click “Next”.
3. Select “Repair your computer”
4. Under Choose and option, click on “Troubleshoot”.
5. Under Advanced options, click “Command Prompt”.
6. At the command prompt, run the following commands (note: D is the drive where your actual system files located, you need to navigate to the correct drive):
   d:cd windows\system32ren Utilman.exe Utilman.exe.oldcopy cmd.exe Utilman.exe
   
7. Close the command prompt and then click “Continue”.
8. The server / PC should now boot and present the logon screen. Here click Windows Key + U.
9. At the prompt you can now change the password, by typing the following command:
   net user administrator Password123
   This will set the password for the Administrator user to be Password123 (case sensitive). You may set the password of your choice.
10. Close the command prompt by typing exit.
11. Login the administrator account using the password you set earlier (in step 9).

Cleanup Steps

1. Restart your server / PC and once again, boot from the Micrsoft Windows Server 2012 DVD.
2. From the Windows Setup menu, click “Next”.
3. Select “Repair your computer”
4. Under Choose and option, click on “Troubleshoot”.
5. Under Advanced options, click “Command Prompt”.
6. At the command prompt, run the following commands: (note: D is the drive where your actual system files located, you need to navigate to the correct drive):
   d:cd windows\system32ren utilman.exe utilman.exe.newcopy utilman.exe.old utilman.exe
7. Close the command prompt and then click “Continue”.

Hope this helps for those who unfortunately lost their administrator account password that they set and unable to login to windows. This step helps to quick rectify the issue without having to reformat or wipe the disk and install the OS again.

Microsoft Click-to-run process consume high CPU & Memory

Hi all,

Recently i have been encountering issues with my notebook CPU & Memory usage when starting up, where it shoots up very high and stays high for some time.

It occurs every time i boot up the notebook into windows and when checked, the process of "Microsoft Click-to-run" is consuming the most resources based on windows task manager.

There are some steps to be performed to reduce this, even though it was not fully effective for me. You can give it a try as below:

1. Disable service click-to-run (in services - set disabled)
2. Restart computer (click-to-run will be not loaded)
3. Open C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\Spw and delete all files
4. Open C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\15.0\OfficeFileCache and delete all files
5. Enable service click-to-run (set automatic)
6. Restart computer

Alternatively, you may find the full question and answer at Microsoft at this link:
http://bit.ly/2z8kwo4

GE13 swing

Its the 13th general elections as we all know in Malaysia.

Few of my opinions about it:

1. More seats won by the so called "Opposition" parties compared to the last 2008 elections.
2. Previous ruling government came into power again with slight margin.
3. People were not clear about the results as mainstream medias only showed results comprising one political party's victory on seats contested.
4. Results were too slow ( Not sure made up or really counting took time)
5. It looked like a major foul played when out of the sudden a political party was announced victorious with minimum majority number of seats reached suddenly after a blackout came back normal.
6. People looking at online results were not confident of sudden surge of seats obtained by the victorious party in certain states where the victory should be otherwise falling to the opponent party.

Whatever fouls or tricks being played, now every single citizen are smart and the whole world knows because the power of internet. People are no more depending on the mainstream medias controlled by the Government for information as it is too bias to one side. Things might happen or might not happen, lets just be calm and go with the flow for now.

Easy life vs hard life

Today, I wonder about my current life, it is easy to the sense that its kind of settled down, but hard in the sense that there is a lot more things to do and achieve.

If you ask me to choose, I would prefer a hard life, because this kind of life is a shortcut for us to achieve different phases in life. When you have a hard life, you tend to realize the value of things because you have work hard / sacrificed for it. Hard life is a teacher for you to learn the value of money, happiness, respect and many more. When you go through a hard life, you will be happy to see a miracle, even though it is a very simple one. You will enjoy surprises more than those who have an easy life. When you have a hard life, you tend to be positive when something bad happens meanwhile it will be like a disaster for those with an easy life. Having a hard life makes you complain less, because we face hardship more often and know it can be adapt and solved. It makes you gain experience more faster than those who having an easy life, by facing hardships more often. You tend to think maturely faster than them. You grow much stronger then easy life people because they don't get the opportunity to face obstacles as you do. You will appreciate people's kindness and care more often and value it more.We get to cherish the experience in life that we get that some don't. Usually when we are in our hard life, we tend to understand it, but other's might not. They might tend to take it differently and misjudge you. They might not know what is going on in your life.

So for those who have a hard life, remember, I'm one of you, and you are a strong person. Keep working hard and being positive, you will get a better life soon, and if you do not, don't give up, because you know you get the reward everyday with small simple miracles that make you happy, because, you have learned to treasure every simple thing in life :)

Upgrading to Windows 8

Hello everyone,

Recently I was wondering about Windows 8 upgrade because currently I am using Windows 7.
I am sure most of you wondering about compatibility issues that will rise if you choose to upgrade to this new version of Windows.

Well, no worries, the is a program called Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant that will assist to check your system on its compatibility with Windows 8 before or even without upgrading to Windows 8 yet.

I've tried it and found out some apps needs some fixing or updates if i choose to upgrade the Windows.
Below are the screenshots that will help you to see how this program works.

Download the program here:
Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant

1. After download, double click it and run the application.

2. Once it runs, it will scan and show how many devices / apps that is compatible and not compatible.

3. You can click at 'See compatibility details' to see which app / devices are not compatible or needs update to run on Windows 8.

4. You can close this window and if you click next, it will go to another page to suggest you which Windows 8 should you use with your preference of settings and files that you choose as below:

So you can choose to order straight or buy the Operating System yourself to upgrade your current Windows.

Hope this gives some information before you choose to upgrade to Windows 8 :)

Extend iPhone battery life

Here are 14 tips to help you extend your iPhone battery life. 

 1. Turn on Auto-Brightness 
 The iPhone has an ambient light sensor that adjusts the brightness of the screen based on the light around it (darker in dark places, brighter when there's more ambient light) to both save battery and make it easier to see. Turn Auto-Brightness on and you’ll save battery because your screen will need to use less power in dark places.
 Find it in the Settings app -> Brightness & Wallpaper -> Auto-Brightness On

 2. Reduce Screen Brightness 
 You can control the default brightness of your iPhone screen with this slider. Needless to say, the brighter the default setting for the screen, the more battery it requires. Keep the screen dimmer to conserve more of your battery.
 Find it in Settings -> Brightness & Wallpaper

 3. Turn Bluetooth Off 
 Bluetooth wireless networking is especially useful for cell phone users with wireless headsets or earpieces. But transmitting data wirelessly takes battery and leaving Bluetooth on to accept incoming data at all times requires even more juice. Turn off Bluetooth except when you’re using it to squeeze more juice from your battery.
 Find it in Settings -> Bluetooth -> Move Slider to Off

 4. Turn Off 3G/4G 
 The iPhone 3G and later models can take advantage the speedy 3G and 4G LTE cellular phone networks. Not surprisingly, using 3G, and especially 4G LTE, requires more battery life to get the quicker data speeds and higher-quality calls. It’s tough to go slower, but if you need more battery, turn off 3G or LTE and just use the older, slower networks. Your battery will last longer (though you’ll need it when you’re downloading websites more slowly!).
 Find it in Settings -> General -> Cellular -> Slide Enable 3G to Off on some models or Enable LTE to Off on the iPhone 5 or newer

 5. Keep Wi-Fi Off 
 The other kind of high-speed network that the iPhone can connect to is Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is even faster than 3G, though it’s only available where there’s a hotspot (not virtually everywhere like 3G). Keeping Wi-Fi turned on at all times in hopes that an open hotspot will appear is a sure way to drain your battery life. So, unless you’re using it right this second, keep Wi-Fi turned off.
 Find it in Settings -> WiFi -> Slide to Off

 6. Turn Off Location Services
 One of the coolest features of the iPhone is its built-in GPS. This allows your phone to know where you are and give you exact driving directions, give that information to apps that help you find restaurants, and more. But, like any service that sends data over a network, it needs battery power to work. If you’re not using Location Services, and don’t plan to right away, turn them off and save some power.
 Find it in Settings -> Privacy -> Location Services -> Slide to Off

7. Turn Data Push Off 
 The iPhone can be set to automatically suck email and other data down to it or, for some kinds of accounts, have data pushed out to it whenever new data becomes available. You’re probably realized by now that accessing wireless networks costs you battery life, so turning data push off, and thus reducing the number of times your phone connects to the network, will extend your battery’s life. With push off, you’ll need to set your email to check periodically or do it manually (see the next tip for more on this).
 Find it in Settings -> Mail, Contacts, Calendar -> Fetch New Data -> Slide to Off

8. Fetch Email Less Often 
 The less often your phone accesses a network, the less battery it uses. Save battery life by setting your phone to check your email accounts less often. Try checking every hour or, if you’re really serious about saving battery, manually. Manual checks means you’ll never have email waiting for you on your phone, but you’ll also stave off the red battery icon.
 Find it in Settings -> Mail, Contacts, Calendar -> Fetch New Data -> Select Your Preference

9. Auto-Lock Sooner 
You can set your iPhone to automatically go to sleep – a feature known as Auto-Lock - after a certain amount of time. The sooner it sleeps, the less power is used to run the screen or other services. Try setting Auto-Lock to 1 or 2 minutes. Find it in Settings -> General -> Auto-Lock -> Tap your Preference 10. Turn off Equalizer The iPod app on the iPhone has an Equalizer feature that can adjust music to increase bass, decrease treble, etc. Because these adjustments are made on the fly, they require extra battery. Turn the equalizer off to conserve battery. This means you'll have a slightly modified listening experience - the battery savings might not be worht it to true audiophiles - but for those hoarding battery power, it's a good deal.
 Find it in Settings -> Music -> EQ -> Tap off


Source: http://ipod.about.com/od/iphone3g/tp/iphone-battery-life.htm

30 second hiccup cure

I got this hiccup which was annoying when i was working night shift, it actually lasted longer than it usually do when i get it. I tried the normal method of drinking water, but it didn't work. Then i used google. I found a link and tried the "30 second hiccup cure". It really worked. Just follow step 1 -6 until your hiccup cures.

Step 1: Start by inhaling through your mouth until your lungs feel full (when it feels like you cannot inhale any more.... your lungs will basically stop taking in air).

Step 2: Swallow. You are not really swallowing anything but it seems that without this act, it doesn’t work. Do not let any air out.

Step 3: Now inhale some more until your lungs feel full again. You may not be able to inhale a lot, but do get some more air in. It will start to get difficult to do this as you go, but keep trying. You obviously can’t suck in as much air as you did initially, but just a little will do (think of it as taking a “sip” of air but directly into your lungs).

Step 4: Swallow again. This too will start to get difficult as you go. Do not let any air out.

Step 5: Repeat steps 3 and 4 (inhale and swallow) until you cannot swallow again. While it seems you can almost always suck in just a little more air, it is actually the swallowing that gets to be impossible. When you feel like you cannot swallow again, swallow again anyway. It will be hard to do, your face will probably turn red, and you may make squeaking sounds. But you CAN swallow one last time. By this time, your lungs should also be quite full and it should be difficult to get much more air in as well. While you should try not to let any air out, if you have really repeated steps 3 and 4 as many times as you can, you probably will end up letting a little air out before you can take that last swallow. If you find that air keeps escaping out of your nose even early in the process, try squeezing it shut with your fingers.

Step 6: Exhale.
Credit to
http://www.cognitial.com/hiccups.shtml

Recover back booting problem with Windows 7 after removing Ubuntu

Hi all,

Another thing I would share here based on my recent experience. I have installed Ubuntu 11.04 earlier using boot cd long ago and it was installed in a different partition in a different disk. Yesterday I thought of uninstalling it but based on my search, if it is installed using boot cd, we need to delete the partition where the Ubuntu is installed. So i proceed to delete the partition with disk management utility in Windows 7. After that, when i reboot the machine, it is unable to boot to Windows 7, it shows some error and "grub rescue>" DOS command. Tried some commands but didn't work.

So at last i inserted my Windows 7 dvd to the dvd drive, boot the machine using the cd and try to repair it. In the first screen that appear, there is an option to install windows, below it there is options to "repair your computer". Click on "repair your computer". Once clicked, it will go to another screen with options to repair such as memory recovery, startup recovery and so on. Click on open command prompt. Once a command prompt is opened, type in "bootrec.exe" without the quotes and press enter. It will show the options you can use under that command to fix issues and descriptions about it. For me, i did all of it. Example, the first option that is displayed there is /FixMbr to fix the master boot record. So type in "bootrec.exe /FixMbr" without the quotes and press enter. There will be a result of the command execution displayed at the command prompt screen itself. Do the same thing by changing the term after / with the other 3 option that is displayed. Example the next one would be "bootrec.exe /FixBoot". After all command is executed, you can reboot your machine and see that it will boot fine with Windows 7.

Hope I can share this tips to everyone out there!

A rainy sunday

I woke up, its a rainy sunday morning, nice cool breeze with the urge to fall asleep again. Then i started to wonder about my money, why is it getting less to fast, there must be a reason. There was a lot of spending in this month due to moving to new house, car service, etc. Now i am in the mood that what i had way back during study time where we will try our best to save as much as possible. Even now i'm thinking what to eat, and let it be less consuming money. Guess i gotta plan in the next income on how to spend on it, maybe get some plans on saving it.

Facebook Tips: Recall a friend request

Facebook Tips:

In order to recall a friend request in Facebook that is long pending approval, go to the profile page of the other party and there is a link 'cancel friend request' under the profile picture at left bottom.

This can eliminate unwanted updates from the other party coming on your news feed and eliminate the 'waiting' for approval of a friend request.

Viewing network connections in Windows 7

Windows 7 users must be wondering how to view network connections in a window like the one in Windows XP. Here it is, go to start > type ncpa.cpl in the search box and press enter. This will bring you to a separate window showing you the network connections in the PC that can't be viewed via control panel (normal way).

This method can be used in Windows XP as well by typing the same command in (start > run) field box. This can eliminate unnecessary time spent by going through the control panel and such. :D

Wednesday

A wet wednesday filled with non-stop rain. Makes me want to sleep again but i just woke up from it. Blasting my new speaker system with songs and relaxing abit. Planning what to eat at night. A bit of meditation before sleep again.

2010

Now that Christmas has just ended, new year awaits, one day more to celebrate the new year 2011. Well, many things have happened this year, most of it are my wishes that came true. First of all, I managed to grad, get a job, get a new car. It is really wonderful to have all in one year itself very fast. Things in life have changed, my expectations, my goals, my daily routine, now it is not like typical student life, but more to a busy life but yet an enjoying one.

Sometimes i get too bored, since i have 4 days off due to current work routine and time, i hope life would be better and I would seriously want to meet someone better in life that can change this to a wonderful life - this can be my new year resolution :D

I'm getting more open in thinking, 2010 has showed me a lot of lessons, most of it for the good, some are bad incidents like my car accident, i miss my datsun but it is meant to be like this. I plan to just move on as i know more opportunities and reward awaits me in 2011.

The one thing that made me going all this while in 2010 is confidence. Things that never seem to be easy to be done or achieved made possible by me because of my mere confidence that nothing is impossible.

Another great thing to see in 2010 was Malaysia my country i was born won a quite high soccer competition in history after last in 1989 and now its at 2010 end. Its the winning of Asian Football Federation Suzuki Cup 2010 after beating Indonesia 4-2 in a fan-packed tournament in history.

I personally looking for a great 2011 ahead and its Rabbit year according to Chinese calendar so we'll hope for a fast paced year i guess ;)

Dream 25 December 2010

I've been getting weird dreams lately, some of them are very interesting, some of them even scary, i think every dream has a message, well just hours ago i dreamt a "nightmare" where a couple of people including me when for a "vacation" like trip and went to a one isolated hospital to visit the area. What happened was, we saw a doctor, he said there is a closed room just nearby in the hospital itself that is haunted by at least 4 ghosts. He also added that the ghosts will start to "attack" if the public tend to open the door of the room and do some insulting stuff. After meeting the doctor, we all went out of the doctor's room and was looking around the "haunted room" and suddenly a bunch of people from our trip straight away opened the door and did some insulting stuff like screaming and yelling to see what happens. That moment was like the disaster moment for me as i can't do anything to prevent them. After they did that, they just closed the door and ran away. Apparently, me and my close friend was trapped where the haunted room is at our way out. All others that caused the trouble managed to run away. Then when we both try to run away also, but the actual problem started. The haunted room's door opened slowly without anybody around with the scary squeaking sound. I and my friend could not do anything as we expected the outcome as the doctor told us. We both managed to hide behind a wall where it is blocking vision so that anything that comes from the haunted room could not see us. We both just lied down on the floor and just prayed with our eyes closed so that anything bad won't happen. Suddenly, I felt some force came and hold my body that I can't even move. It made me to open my eyes and see what is happening in front of me even I don't want to. When I opened my eyes, I saw a lady ghost came slowly towards me and started to talk to me. I was scared that I could not even open my mouth to talk. That ghost actually told me one thing - "Tell your friends out there, we do not disturb your life if you don't disturb our life." I was like "Okay, okay..I'll inform them." . The ghost message was quite stern as it really meant what it was saying to me. After that my friend got "interviewed" by the ghost, I don't know what the ghost asked him, but still remember what it told me. After a while everything went back to normal as the ghost flew away back to its place and we both straight away went out of the hospital. To our suprise, all the others in the trip including the one disturbed the ghost looking at me as if nothing has happened. I only remember the place was a hospital and it was surrounded my forest like jungle.

I can remember this much as there was not much after that. But one thing I need to tell you guys - "Ghost don't disturb your life if you don't disturb them." as the ghost said in my dream.

More posts to come :)

Tired

Just got back from a hectic night shift and after waking up from sleep, 1 day off and going to work again to night shift for 4 days.

Out of Focus

I woke up out of a sudden around 2.30am in the morning knowing that i've went through multiple dreams while was asleep. Guess my timing of sleep, meal and work has gone haywire! I'm sleeping when i'm not suppose to and awake at weird times. =.="

My Shift work life

I started my shift work that is 12 hours by working night shift on tuesday night - 28/9/10 7pm - 7am. It was a total different experience for me as i'm not used to it, when most people go back from work, i will enter work, but i'm learning to adapt quickly. First day i could work without sleeping, but second day i could feel the tiredness throughout my body until morning until i get some sleep. Phew! its a hectic work, but when i think back, i was thinking how my Dad and Mum suffered while they worked 12 hours like me staying up at night just for the family. Now, I'm gonna take this as a gift from God rather than mere obstacle as God gave me the chance to experience how my parents went through hard times in their life. Again, I strive to be a better person in life after all this sacrifice for a good future ;-)

Facebook Mobile

I was wondering for a long time to use the facebook mobile with my phone, now i've got the idea to surf using the url http://0.facebook.com. For Malaysians who use Digi as their telecommunications provider, they can enjoy free facebook mobile without any data charges using that url. Nice that i can update my status anywhere, anytime. The free data charges applies when you are surfing without viewing the photos, if you want to view photos and other extra stuff that is not visible as default, standard data charges may apply, the charges also apply when you leave facebook and go to other mobile site. Fair enough!