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Archives for February 2009

Feb 18, 2009 By Jared Heinrichs Leave a Comment

How can I install Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 to a virtual hard disk (VHD) file?

Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 add the ability for an OS to be installed onto a virtual hard disk (VHD) file to boot physical hardware. To do this, perform the following steps:

  1. Boot from the Windows 7 or Server 2008 R2 media.
  2. Select language options and click Next.
  3. At the Install Now screen, press Shift and F10 simultaneously to open a command prompt window. You’ll partition the disks and create your VHD file in this window.
  4. Select the disk and wipe all of its existing content using the following commands.
    diskpart
    list disk
    select disk 0
    clean
  5. Create a 200 MB system partition using the following commands. The Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 installation procedures normally create this partition automatically.
    create part primary size=200
    format fs=ntfs label="System" quick
    active
  6. Create a partition using the rest of the space on the disk. This partition will hold the VHD files. I call the partition Boot, but you can call whatever makes sense for you. Also, I’ve used the C drive, but when you boot to the VHD the drive letters will shift. If you assign a different letter, make sure to use the new letter in step 7.
    create part primary
    format fs=ntfs label="Boot" quick
    assign letter=C
  7. Create a VHD file on the C drive. In this example, I’ve created it as a 25 GB file that is an expandable disk. You can use “type=fixed” instead of “type=expandable” to create a fixed-size VHD. A fixed-size VHD will use space on the physical disk equal to its full size as soon as the VHD is created but will give better performance, so I recommend fixed-size disks for uses other than testing.
    create vdisk file=c:\win7ult.vhd maximum=25000 type=expandable
    select vdisk file=c:\win7ult.vhd
    attach vdisk
    create partition primary
    format fs=ntfs label="Win7Boot" quick
  8. You can now list your volumes with the command
    list vol

    An example list is shown here.

    Click to expand

  9. Exit Diskpart and close the command prompt window by entering the “exit” twice.
  10. Proceed with the installation. When you’re asked to select the installation target, choose the VHD partition you created. The installer will warn that you cannot install it on the partition, but you can ignore the warning.

    Click to expand

Installation will now progress as usual. Once installation is finished, you can see that the VHD partition is now the C drive while the partition containing the VHD files is demoted down to the D drive, as shown here. If you look at the contents of the drives, you’ll see D contains the VHD file and C, the content of the VHD, looks like a standard drive with a Windows installation. The 200 MB partition you created doesn’t have a drive letter and is essentially invisible to the OS.

Click to expand



Booting from a VHD is explained in the following video.


Filed Under: Windows 2008, Windows 7

Feb 17, 2009 By Jared Heinrichs 1 Comment

Computer Technicians Quick Reference Guide

Computer Technicians Quick Reference Guide

Useful DOS Commands:
Networking
ipconfig – Windows IP Configuration
ipconfig will tell you the IP settings for the current computer such as what your current IP is and what subnet/gateway
you are on. It is great for troubleshooting. Here are the two most useful commands for ipconfig and usage:
ipconfig /all – Views detailed information about the installed network devices.
ipconfig /release – This will release any IP information that the computer was given and make your IP address 0.0.0.0
ipconfig /renew – This will ask any DHCP servers (usually your modem/router) for a new IP address.
ping – Check a connection or computer
Ping is used to check the health of a connection. The ping command will tell you whether a network device is responding
and how fast it is running. The ping tool can also be used to convert a web address into an IP (eg. www.google.com =
74.125.19.99). Usage:
ping www.google.com – Pings a webserver to see if it can be reached or is responding. I personally use this to see if the
computer I am on can reach the internet.
ping 192.168.0.1 – Pings a local address, often a modem, router or another computer.
netstat – Displays current TCP/IP connections
netstat – Will display what connections are currently active on the system. Useful for spotting programs calling back to
base such as spyware.
File Management
type – Open text files
Similar to Unix’s cat command, this command will display the contents of a text file in DOS as read-only. Usage:
type c:\sometextfile.txt
attrib – Make hidden files visible
Attrib can change the attributes of a file, such as whether its a system file or its hidden. This is especially useful to
technicians because critical files such as the boot.ini is a hidden system file:
attrib -H c:\boot.ini – To unhide the boot.ini
attrib -S c:\boot.ini – To make remove its system file attribute
For more options with this command, type attrib /?
find – Advanced file search
The find command is a very powerful one with many options such as the ability to search for something, but exclude
certain files. The following command will find all files with .pdf in their name on C:\
dir c:\ /s /b | find “.pdf”
For more information in this command and its usage, type find /?
move – Move files
Normal usage of the move command would be:
move file.txt c:\TextFiles\
However, you can also use it to move only certain files. For example, if I wanted to get all the PDF’s out of a folder and
move them to another location, but leave all other file types alone, I would do:
move *.pdf c:\WorkPDFs\
tree – View the tree structure
Type tree to see the folder and file structure of the folder you are currently in. You can also use this command to make
prints of the directory structure by sending the information to a text file with the following command tree > textfile.txt
System
systeminfo – Displays information about the system
systeminfo – Will display information about the system such as the name, version, uptime, specifications and patches
installed (XP Pro only by default).
tasklist / taskkill – Shows what programs are running on the computer and can kill them
tasklist – Will display all the processes running and their memory usage.
taskkill – Will kill a process (XP Pro only by default). Usage would be: taskkill firefox.exe
sfc – Launches Windows’ system file checker utility
sfc /scannow – This command will start scanning your computer for any damaged or missing windows system files.
Useful to run after a virus, adware or spyware attack has damaged core files. Have an XP CD handy for this one.
chkdsk – Can check a disk and attempt to recover data in bad sectors.
chkdsk /f /r – This will check a disk for errors and try and fixes information from bad sectors
chkdsk /x – Forces the volume to dismount first.
For further information/usage on any of these commands, you can bring up the help for each one of them by typing:
command /?
STOP Messages:
Stop 0x0000000A: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL – This Windows stop error indicates that a kernal mode process or driver
tried to access a memory location that it did not have permission to access, or at a IRQL that was too high (a kernal
mode process can only access a IRQL that is lower than or equal to its own IRQL).
This stop message usually means that there is incompatible or faulty hardware. In personal experience its usually bad
ram.
Stop 0x000000D1: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL – Note the “Driver” part at the start off the message, this isnt
the same as the error message above – This Windows stop error indicates that the computer tried to access memory
using a kernal process which had a IRQL that was too high (as kernal processes can only access IRQLs that it is either
equal to or IRQLs that less than it). This is usually caused by incorrect or incompatible drivers.
Stop 0x00000024: NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM – This Windows stop error typically indicates that a problem occured with the file
NTFS.sys such is the driver that allows the operating system to read and write to NTFS formatted harddrives. This can
often be caused by harddrive problems.
Stop 0x000000ED: UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME – This Windows stop error is caused by a Input/Output sub-system
tried to use the boot volume but failed. This error can occur during an upgrade to Windows XP Professional on
computers that use faster ATA harddrives or have controllers with the wrong cabling. This can sometimes be caused by a
failing hard drive.
Stop 0x00000050: PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA – This Windows stop error indicates that information that the
operating system was looking for was not found in memory (ram). This occurs when the system looks for information in
the ram that doesn’t exist. This is usually caused by defective RAM (including Ram on your motherboard, L2 cache and
video card ram).
Stop 0x0000002E: DATA_BUS_ERROR – This Windows stop error indicates an error in the system memory. It is caused
when the system tries to access a memory address that doesn’t exist. This usually is caused by defective or failed RAM
(including those on your motherboard, Level 2 case or the memory on your video card). This can also indicate hard drive
damage caused by viruses or other computer problems.
Stop 0x0000007B: INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE – This Windows stop error indicates that Windows XP Professional is
unable to access the boot volume or system partition of your harddrive during startup.
Installing incorrect drivers for your harddrives or updating the storage adapter hardware usually causes this error. It is
also possible that the boot volume or system partition was damaged either by hardware failure or a virus infection.
Stop 0x000000EA: THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER – This Windows stop error indicates that there is a problem with
a device driver (such as the video card driver) that is causing the system to pause indefinitely. This problem is usually
causes when the video card driver is waiting for the video card hardware to become idle but never does. This usually
indicates that there is a hardware problem with the video device or the video card driver is faulty.
Stop 0x0000008e: PAGE_FAULT_IN_NON_PAGED_AREA – This is typically caused by faulty RAM or the RAM
configuration you are running is incompatible with Windows XP.
Stop 0x00000044: MULTIPLE_IRP_COMPLETE_REQUESTS – This problem is primarily limited to Windows 2000 as is
caused by a bad driver called “falstaff.sys”. This can be stopped by updating this driver from the vendor at
http://www.in-system.com
Important Data Locations:
Outlook Express Emails
C:\Documents and Settings\User Account\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{Random Numbers and
Letters}\Microsoft\Outlook Express
Address Book
C:\Documents and Settings\User Account\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book\User Account.wab
Microsoft Outlook
C:\Documents and Settings\User Account\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook
Microsoft Outlook .nk2 Auto-Complete File
C:\Documents and Settings\User Account \Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook
Favorites
C:\Documents and Settings\User Account\Favorites
My Documents
C:\Documents and Settings\User Account\My Documents
Desktop
C:\Documents and Settings\User Account\Desktop
Quickbooks Accounting Package Database – Default Location
C:\Program Files\Intuit\QuickBooks\databasename.qbw
MYOB Accounting Package Database – Default Location
C:\MYOB {version number}\databasename.myo
Common Router/Modem Login Details:
Linksys
Model Username Password
WAP11
AP1120
n/a (none)
DSL
Linksys DSL
n/a admin
Etherfast Cable/ DSL Router administrator admin
Linksys Router Cable /DSL
BEFSR41 Rev 2
WRT54GC Compact Wireless-G B/R
(none) admin
BEFW11S4 Rev 1 admin (none)
WRT54G
WAG54G
WAG54GS
AG241 – ADSL 2 Gateway – 4pt sw
PAP2 & PAP2v2 (Vonage)
RTP300 (Vonage)
WRT54GP2 (Vonage)
WRTP54G (Vonage)
admin admin
Comcast Rev. Comcast Supplied comcast 1234
Netgear
Model Username Password
RM356 (Telnet)
RP114 Rev 3.26 (Telnet)
(none) 1234
WGT624 Rev 2
FR314
RT614
MR814
FVS318
DM602
FR114P
WGR614 Rev V4
DG834
DG834G
Router/Modem
ADSL Modem DG632 Rev 3.3.0A_CX
WGT634U
WNR834Bv2
WPN824 / WPN824v2
admin password
Comcast Rev. Comcast Supplied comcast 1234
MR-314 Rev 3.26
RP114 Rev 3.20 – 3.26
MR314
admin 1234
RT314 admin admin
WG602 firmware version 1.04.0
WG602 firmware version 1.5.67
super 577364
WG602 firmware version 1.7.14 superman 21241036
ME102 (none) Private
GSM7224 admin (none)
GS724T Rev 1.0.1_1104 n/a password
FM114 n/a (none)
D-Link
Model Username Password
DFL-200 Firewall
DI-604 Rev. 2.02
DI-604 Rev. 2.02
DI-614+
DI-624+ Rev. A3
D-704P
DSL-302G
DSL-300G+ Rev. TEO
DSL-500
DSL-500G
DSL-504G ADSL Router
DSL-504T
DSL-G604T
DSL-G664T Rev A1
ADSL
admin admin
Hubs/Switches (Telnet) D-Link D-Link
DI-704 Rev. REV A (none) admin
DI-804 Rev. V2.03
DWL-614+ Rev. REV A REV B
D-704P Rev. REV B
DI-604 Rev. REV A REV B REV C REV E
DWL-614+ Rev. 2.03
DWL-900+
DI-604 Rev. 1.62B+
DI-624 Rev. ALL
DWL 1000
DI-614+ Rev. ANY
DWL 2100AP
DWL-2000AP+ Rev. 1.13
DI-524 Rev. ALL
DWL-900AP+ Rev. REV A REV B REV C
DI-707P ROUTER
DGL4300 Rev Game Series Router
admin (none)
DI-614+
DI-624 Rev. ALL
DI-514
DI-624 Rev. ALL
DI-524 Rev. ALL
user (none)
DWL 900AP (none) public
DI-704 n/a admin
DSL-300G+ Rev. TEO (Telnet) (none) private
DI624 Rev. C3 admin password
VWR (Vonage) Rev Wireless Broadband Router
VTA (Vonage)
user user
OpenDNS.com DNS Servers:
OpenDNS is a alternative DNS service to your ISP’s DNS servers. The advantages of OpenDNS is a safer, faster and more
reliable interet experience. OpenDNS allows you to put in parental controls, phishing protection, typo correction,
shortcuts and customization. For more information check out http://www.opendns.com
To use open DNS, set your DNS servers to:
Primary Server: 208.67.222.222
Secondary Server: 208.67.220.220
Useful IP Addresses:
You can ping these addresses if you suspect that the current ISP is having DNS issues. These sites currently respond to
ping but it would be wise to test a few of them as they can change their IPs at any time or choose not to respond to ping.
The standard command for pinging a website in command prompt is: ping xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Google: 150.101.98.220 / 150.101.98.216
Wikipedia: 208.80.152.2
Yahoo: 209.131.36.158
Myspace: 63.135.80.46
BIOS Beep Codes:
There are any different beep codes for different motherboards that could go on for pages and pages. However, most
motherboards now days adhere to the IBM standard beep codes with the exception of a few OEMs. Below are the IBM
beep codes:
Beep Code Description of Problem
No Beeps Power Short, No power, Bad CPU or Motherboard or Loose Peripherals
1 Short Beep Normal Post. The computer booted fine and everything is normal
2 Short Beeps POST Error – Error code usually shown on screen
Continuous Beep Power Supply, Motherboard or Keyboard problem
Repeated Short Beeps Power Supply or Motherboard problem
1 Long, 1 Short Beep Motherboard problem
1 Long, 2 Short Beeps Video Card Problem (check if its working and fully pushed in)
1 Long, 3 Short Beeps Video Problem
3 Long Beeps Keyboard Error
Repeated Long Beeps Memory Error (check RAM is working, correct type and fully pushed in)
Continuous High-Low Beeps CPU is Overheating (check thermal paste, heatsink seated correctly and
fans are spinning)
RJ-45 Color Codes:
Useful Links:
HijackThis Log Analyzer – http://www.hijackthis.de
HijackThis.de is a “Hijack This!” Log Analyzer where you paste your Hijack This! logs into the website and it will tell you
what is potentially malicious and what is safe.
Test Single File for Virus – http://www.virustotal.com
Virustotal allows you to upload a single file to their website and it will be tested using a variety of anti-virus products
databases.
Test Internet Speed – http://www.speedtest.net
Speedtest allows you to test the speed of your internet connection, choose multiple mirrors to test from and compare
your results to other people in the area.
Find You Public IP Address – http://www.whatismyip.com
Displays your public IP address, nothing more. Simple but useful.
Online Virus Scanner – http://housecall.trendmicro.com
A online virus scanner to scan your computer for viruses.
Find Hardware Drivers – http://www.driverguide.com
A site with a huge collection of drivers for all sorts of hardware.
Router Passwords – http://www.routerpasswords.com
Contains a list of the default passwords for various router models.
Replace Missing or Damaged DLLs – http://www.dll-files.com
Contains many different DLL’s which are available for download. Handy when an application is missing a certain DLL that
is preventing it from running.
Check Windows Processes – http://www.processlibrary.com
A searchable list of Windows processes. Just enter the name of the process (for example, svchost.exe) and it will let you
know whether it is malicious, safe or unneeded.
Computer Manuals – http://www.eserviceinfo.com
This place has 5260+ manuals for various computer manufacturers, parts and peripherals. They have manuals for
Printers, Laptops, Networking Equipment, Uninterruptible Power Supplies, Scanners, Motherboards, Audio adapters and
more.
Computer Manufacturer Links – http://www.electroservice.net/info2.htm
If you know the name of a computer manufacturer, this list has their web address. A handy site when you are trying to
find drivers for a rare part.
Shields Up! Firewall Leak Test – https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2
This website/server probes your computer looking for any open ports and vulnerabilities then creates a report.
Kellys XP Tweaks – http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
If there is a little nagging bug in Windows that you cant figure out or just want to disable something that annoys you,
chances are there is a registry tweak for it here.
Doug Knox XP Tweaks and Fixes – http://www.dougknox.com
Similar to Kellys XP Tweaks.
List of Open Source Software – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open-source_software_packages
A nicely ordered list for open source (free) software packages.
Freeware Alternatives:
Virus Protection
AVG Free – http://free.grisoft.com
AVG Free is one of my personal favorites and remains a favorite amonst most of the techicians on the Technibble
forums. It has a very extensive virus database and will detect anything that a major antivirus brand such as Norton can
detect. In fact, there have been a few times while I was on the field that AVG found viruses that Norton/McAfee didnt
detect at all.
Avira Antivir – http://www.free-av.com
Avira Antivir is an antivirus I have seen only a couple of times on clients machines in the field. I have to say, its resident
virus shield is awsome. One time when I was onsite, I plugged in my USB drive with all my computer technician tools on
it. As soon as it was in, Avira detected a virus on my USB drive and asked me what I wanted to do with it. I hadnt run
anything on the drive, I hadnt even looked at the drive in My Computer yet. Just plugged it in. It turns out it discovered
the the Eicar virus which is a test file that computer technicians can use to test the capabilities of antivirus software.
Avira is a little “heavier” on system resources than AVG, but not by much.
avast! – http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html
Another good antivirus. I’ve seen it many times onsite and it does its job well.
Child Filtering Software
K9 Web Protection – http://www1.k9webprotection.com
A great parental filter with many features such as the ability to set the protection based on the child’s age.
Backup Utility
Cobain Backup – http://www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/cobianbackup.htm
I really like Cobain Backup and use this piece of software myself. It’s simple enough for home users to setup, yet is
powerful and feature packed for the computer technicians. Cobain Backup can run as a service and backup to FTPs.
Office Suite (Word Processing, Spreadsheets etc..)
Open Office – http://www.openoffice.org
Open Office looks and feels like the Microsoft Office package. It can do pretty much anything MSOffice can do without
the nasty price tag.
Firewall
Zonealarm Firewall – http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/catalog/products/zonealarm_free_firewall.jsp
For the more knowledgeable clients, I recommend Zonealarm, provided they know a little bit about processes and
security. Otherwise they don’t know what the security popups mean and just allow anything. For the nonknowledgeable
clients, I just use the built in Windows firewall.
Media Player
VLC Media Player – http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
I love VLC. There have been many times where a client cannot play the video they want in Windows Media Player
because its lacking the correct codec. I just install VLC and it fixes most of their problems. VLC is lighter, faster and less
prone to breaking than Windows Media Player.
PDF Creation
PDF Creator – http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/
PDF Creator installs itself as a printer so that it can export to PDF in almost any program that you can print in. Just select
PDF Creator as your printer and it will save that document as a PDF.
Resizing Images
Image Resizer Powertoy – http://download.microsoft.com/download/whistler/Install/2/WXP/ENUS/
ImageResizerPowertoySetup.exe
Many of my clients want to send digital photos via email to relatives or post some pictures on eBay. However, most
digital cameras take poster sized photos which can often be 1mb or more. The Image Resizer Powertoy allows you to
right click on any photograph, select “Resize Picture” and choose what size you want the picture to be.
Photo Editing
Paint.net – http://www.getpaint.net/download.html
I used to work as a web developer, so I know my way around graphics software like Photoshop. Ive used Paint.net a few
times and I must say that it has great features and comparable to Adobe Photoshop, except about $1000 cheaper.
PDF Reader
FoxIt Reader – http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader_2/down_reader.htm
FoxIt Reader is a lightweight alternative to Adobe Acrobat Reader for reading PDFs. The install file for Adobe Acrobat is
22mb, FoxIt Reader does it in 2mb and has almost all of the same features.
Web Browser
Firefox – http://www.getfirefox.com
Faster, more secure and a better alternative to Internet Explorer.
Email Client
Thunderbird – http://www.getthunderbird.com
Faster, more secure and better alternative to Outlook Express.
Music Player
Winamp – http://www.winamp.com
A lightweight and very well featured Music Player. Runs much quicker than Windows Media Player
Archive Extractor (zip, rar, tar etc..)
7-Zip – http://www.7-zip.org
7-Zip can create and extract many different archive types such as Zip, Rar, Tar, Arj, .Gz, preventing you from needing
multiple archive extractors such as Winzip, Winrar, Winace etc.
Anti-Spam
Spamfighter Free – http://www.spamfighter.com/Download_Download.asp
I have used this on many clients computers and it works very well. It comes pre trained to deflect most spam and has the ability to learn even more based on your preferences.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Feb 17, 2009 By Jared Heinrichs 1 Comment

How to install Homebrew and play backed up games on your Nintendo Wii

This article will show you exactly how to hack your Nintendo Wii and installing Homebrew (allowing you to run third party applications – such as a DVD player and play backed up games) on your Nintendo Wii. As the Nintendo Wii has only Left/Right audio plugs and so the best sound you will be getting is Pro Logic 2. So, it’s probably best if you stick to your current DVD player. This guide will show you how to do install the DVD player software. This is a soft mod, meaning that it doesn’t require a mod chip and so you will not have to open up your Nintendo Wii. Be warned however there is a small chance your Nintendo Wii could brick, although this is rare so be warned.

I have divided to split this guide into two sections:

  1. Installing Homebrew
  2. How to run Backups of your games

Section One – Installing Homebrew

What’s needed?

  • Nintendo Wii
  • SD Card
  • The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princes
  • Wii Brew SD installer (Microsoft Windows OS)
  • A Microsoft Windows PC with an SD Card Reader

What this hack will do is load a ‘fake game’ into Zelda Twilight Princess which will exploit a buffer overflow, thus allowing you to install homebrew on your Nintendo Wii (Much alike what is done on a PSP with Grand Theft Auto)

  1. To format your SD Card into ‘Fat-16’ – Insert your SD Card into the SD reader in your PC, Go to ‘My Computer’, Find the SD Card Reader, Right Click and select Format, A dialogue box should appear, Under ‘File System’ section select ‘FAT’, Format, Leave the SD card inserted.
  2. Download ‘Wii Brew SD installer’ from http://www.mediafire.com/?mdinnlyniyk
  3. Once downloaded run the ‘Wii Brew SD installer’ just downloaded. Select the file location – this should be the location of the SD card just formatted. To determine what this is go to ‘My Computer’ and check the letter in front of the name of the SD card – such as ‘F:’
  4. Select the region your Zelda Twilight Princess copy is from, most likely where you purchased your game. Then select ‘Homebrew Channel’, ‘Homebrew Browser’. DVDX will be installed in section two. You can probably install it now, but this is just the way I do it.
  5. Take a look at the inner circle of the date surface of your Zelda Twilight Princess copy. Depending on the inner circle number will determine which ‘save slot’ you will load the save file on. Note down the save slot. Now, your SD card is prepared.
  6. If you haven’t created a save game file of Zelda Twilight Princess please do so now (on your Wii) Now unplug the SD card from your PC and insert it into your Nintendo Wii. Switch on your Nintendo Wii. Erase the Zelda Twilight Princess saved game file, and copy the Twilight hack to your Nintendo Wii and finally execute it within Zelda Twilight Princess. As this may seem quite complicated and so the guys from WiiBrew have created a video showing exactly how this is done.
  7. Accept the disclaimer by pressing 1 on the Wiimote. Head back to the Wii menu and the Wii homebrew channel will be present.

Section 2 – Running backed up games

Now that Homebrew is installed I will now provide instructions on playing backed up games.
Please note that this guide is only applicable to you if you own a copy of the game. I do not condone piracy as it is ILLEGAL and I will not hold responsibility and any liability for any illegal actions in which you may take. What’s needed?

  • Homebrew installed (Shown in section one)
  • SD Card
  • DVD-R burner
  • Blank DVD-R media
  • Nintendo Wii
  • WinRAR (Windows)

1.) We will install cIOS36 Rev6 – Download (In Spanish) To save you registering you may use either of the usernames and passwords provided below:
Username
Password
InstructableUse
Wiiwii
foobar
foobar

2.) Download IOS36-64-v1042.wad

3.) Put IOS36-64-v1042.wad into the root of your SD card, this is done by formatting your SD card (refer to section one, step one). Make a folder called ‘apps’, copy ‘CIOS36’ into the apps folder just created and put ‘cIOS36_rev6-Installer.dol’ into the ‘CIOS36’ folder.

4.) Boot the installer and it should install it onto your Nintendo Wii. Voila, it’s now installed.

5.) Now it’s time for installing DVDx, which you can download here.

6.) Extract the file, place the DVDx files into the SD card by using your PC. Place dvdx under the ‘apps’ folder, with the .dol file placed within ‘driveletter’/apps/dvdx/.dol file here. Now run the installer on your Nintendo Wii by selecting the .dol file.

  • Select ‘Advanced Install’
  • Select 249
  • And press install

7.) Download WAD Manager 1.3 and also Download backup launcher beta 0.3

8.) Extract ‘Backup Launcher 0.3 beta.wad from the RAR archive, create a folder in the root of the SD card, name this folder wad. Place the backup launcher 0.3 beta.wad into the wad folder created.

9.) Run the Wad Manager 1.3, press A, A, and select Backup Lancher 0.3 beta.wad, press the + button. When it’s installed, press the ‘home’ button and your Nintendo Wii console should restart. Present will now be Backup Launcher 0.3 as a new channel.

10.) You can now backup your games using a freeware application called Imgburn.

Filed Under: Wii

Feb 17, 2009 By Jared Heinrichs 4 Comments

Make USB drive write protected

I carry my USB flash drive that contains a lot of portable tools with me all the time but I am afraid of one thing, which is a computer virus such as JambanMu or MaxTrox that is able to infect USB flash drives and bind itself to the executable files in there. So far there are only ways to disable writing to USB flash drive on your computer by editing the registry but if you plug it into a public computer which has virus, your USB flash drive will be writable and can be infected by virus. So is having a pendrive with a built-in write protect switch the only way to prevent the drive from virus infection?

Few days ago I found out about PenProtector which claims to protect all removable disks from additions of new files. PenProtector prevents the writing on pendrive of viruses, trojans, dialers and any other type of executable that would use the removable disk to replicate it self. PenProtector cost €3,90 and I bought a copy to see what it really does. From my observation, PenProtector creates a “block” file to fill up the remaining free space on the USB flash drive. When there is no space left on the removable drive, virus won’t be able to copy itself to to drive or infect any executable files.

PenProtector

Honestly, it is not worth buying PenProtector because there are a few FREE ways to write protect a USB flash drive by creating a fake dummy file to fill up the removable disks free space.

First, you have to know how much free space is left on the USB drive. Plug in the drive, go to My Computer, right click on the drive letter and select Properties. Take note of the “Free space” that is in bytes. My USB drive has 1,300,594,688 free space, so I will need to create a dummy file that has the exact file size.

Removable Drive Free Space
The best and easiest way is to use fsutil, a command line tool included in Windows. Open up command prompt from Start Menu > Accessories and type the following command:

    fsutil file createnew F:\IamDummy 1300594688

fsutil file createnew

You will see that your USB flash drive’s LED is blinking meaning the file is being created. Now my pen drive has 0 free space and virus won’t be able to get in. You can change 1300594688 to the size that you want in bytes. F: is the letter of my USB flash drive and IamDummy is the file name. When you want to copy files into the USB removable drive, simply delete the dummy file. When you’re done, create the dummy file again using the fsutil command.

Write Protect USB Removable Drive

If you’re looking for a graphical tool to create dummy fake files, here are a few that I found. Some are slower, and some with NTFS restriction, so you might want to test it out to see which you prefer to use.

1. NOD32 Dummy File Creator

NOD32 Dummy File Creator
NOD32 Dummy File Creator Utility is meant to create dummy files in a specified folder to immunize a system against particular worms. Same concept as DiskHeal which creates autorun.inf file so the virus won’t have the chance to overwrite it. Supports setting file attributes (hidden, system, archive, read-only) to the dummy file on both NTFS and FAT drives.

2. DonationCoder’s Dummy File Creator (DFC)

Dummy File Creator
This tool is able to create dummy files of any arbitrary size filled with a specify hex byte value.

3. Nikko Dummy File Creator

Nikko Dummy File Creator
A simple program which creates files of any size with ease. This program also has a built-in random function, so users can choose to create either compressible or non-compressible files. Can create multiple fake files from batch list file.

Here is another example why you’d want to use these fake dummy file creators. To earn 1 point in RapidShare, we will need to upload a 5MB file for people to download. Let’s say you have a 3MB file and short of 2MB. Instead of searching for it on your hard drive or on the Internet, you can just create one yourself. You can also fool your friends by messing up their hard drive space, test drive transfer speed by moving dummy files, prevent data recovery by filling the free spaces and etc… I’m sure there are more.

Filed Under: Computer Hardware

Feb 9, 2009 By Jared Heinrichs 13 Comments

Windows XP Missing Automatic Updates service

Windows XP Update fails because it is missing Automatic updates service / Automatic update service will not start.

I came accross this when working on a customers machine.

The first thing you will want to do is download the latest version of Dail-a-fix. Run the windows update and MSI fixer. Next you should open a command prompt by hitting: START – run – "cmd". In the command box window type:

regsvr32 wuaeng.dll

This will re-register this service.

EXTRA NOTE – An inplace repair install of XP will not correct this issue.

Filed Under: Windows XP

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