I recently bought my wife an Acer Aspire One AOA110-1295 Notebook PC for school. This little unit was really cheap and runs a weird version of Linux called Linpus.

Of course, I needed to mess around with it before I let her use it and, of course, I royally messed it up. I wasn’t too worried because it came with a recovery DVD that I could use to get it back to factory.

Unfortunately, when I went to build the recovery USB device, it failed. Now what?

Well, after some research and effort, I was able to build a new bootable USB device that allowed me to get the system back up and running.

Since I pieced the information and process together from a number of different sources and even used some new techniques myself, I figured that I should document the process and let everyone else know how I did this.

Step 1: Get Your Tools

In order to do this properly, you will need to download come tools from the Internet. You will need:

1. 7-Zip (download)
2. SelfImage (download)
3. MD5 verification software (e.g. WinMD5Sum)

Download and install these applications.

You will also be needing a USB drive. I recommend something 4GB or larger.

Step 2: Download The Image

Next, you will have to download the drive image. It is available from here or you can get the torrent. Be aware that this is a very large file and is 958MB in size so it may take some time to download.

Also, download the MD5 hash file to confirm that the drive image has downloaded properly.

Step 3: Verify the Drive Image File

Once you have downloaded the drive image, make sure that the MD5 hash that you downloaded matches the one that you generated.

Step 4: Extract the Raw Image

Using 7-Zip, extract the raw image from the drive image that you downloaded.

Step 5: Write the Drive Image to the USB Drive

Using SelfImage, write the drive image to the USB drive. In order for this to work, you need to make sure that you are driving to the USB device, not the partition on the device. If you write to the partition, it will not work.

Wait for the process to finish prior to removing the USB drive.

Note: You will probably get a warning that the image was not made for the specific device. This is not a problem and you can continue to image the drive.

Step 6: Boot Aspire One from USB Device

On your Aspire One, put the newly created USB device into one of the USB ports. When it boots up to the BIOS, press F12 and select the USB device to boot from. This will then take you into the setup process where you can then work you way through rebuilding your Aspire One from scratch.

I hope that his has been a helpful tutorial and gets your Aspire One up and running again.

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2008/09/02/diy-acer-aspire-one-recovery-usb-device/trackback/

Windows has had a search option for a very long time. The problem that I have with it is two-fold:

1. It is slow
2. The indexer is a real
3. resource hog

So, a long time ago, I learned how to index all of the files on my computer that provides me with accurate results in a fraction of the time. And, the index is completely portable so I can keep a copy of the index on my USB drive so that I can tell my wife exactly where that file is on my computer at home that I need at work.

How exactly is this done? Read on.

Create the Index

The index is really nothing more than a text file listing every single file that is on your computer’s hard drive. To create the index, simple go to a command prompt and type the following:

dir c:\ /s /b>>fileindex.txt

Wait for a couple of seconds and it will be done. If you want to add more hard drives to the index, simply retype the command and change the c: drive letter in the command to the other drive letter you want to index.

Search the Index

The next step is to search the file index for a file you are looking for. Let’s say you are looking for a file with the word “accounting” in it. You would use the following command to get a list of all the files with the work “accounting” in them:

find "accounting" fileindex.txt

You will instantly get the results. No waiting!

Updating the Index

Since it is so quick and easy to build the index, to update the index all you need to do is delete the fileindex.txt file and recreate the index just like you did earlier.

Suggestions

What you may want to do to simplify the process is create a couple of batch files to simplify the process. For example, you could create a batch file called MakeIndex.bat that would delete the fileindex.txt file and then rebuild it with information from all of your hard drives. This file may look something like this:

@echo off
del fileindex.txt
dir c:\ /s /b>>fileindex.txt
dir d:\ /s /b>>fileindex.txt

You could also create a file called WhereIs.bat that will find your files easier for you. It might look something like this:
@echo off
find %1 fileindex.txt

Now, all you would have to type is:

WhereIs "accounting"

This will give you the same results!

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2008/08/28/diy-file-index/trackback/

Since I have done a lot of writing in the past about USB devices, I often get questions about the actual USB hardware. One of the biggest questions that I get is about the USB pinout specifications. Just what are each of those pins and what do they do.

Well, the USB pinout varies, depending upon which type of USB plug and receptical you have.

Series A USB Pinout

This is usually what you see most USB devices such as mice and keyboards using. These are four pin devices, two pins for power (1,4) and two pins for data (2,3). The power pins transfer 5V DC.

Series B USB Pinout

These are more popular on USB hard drives, CD/DVD drives and scanners. Just like Series A, these are four pin devices, two pins for power (1,4) and two pins for data (2,3). The power pins transfer 5V DC.

Mini-USB Series A USB Pinout

The Mini-USB series went to a five pin design, even though one pin is either not used or is redundant. You will usually see these on cameras or other such devices. Pins 1 and 5 are for power and pins 2 and 3 provide data access. Pin 4 is connected to pin 5 for redundancy.

Mini-USB Series B USB Pinout

Just like Mini-USB Series A, Series B used five pins, two for power (1,5) and two for data (2,3). Pin 4 is not connected and serves no purpose.

Summary Tables

Standard USB Pinout & Cable Color Code

Mini-USB Type-A Pinout & Cable Color Code

Mini-USB Type-B Pinout & Cable Color Code

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2008/07/21/usb-pinout/trackback/

Well, it took over a year, but we now have definitive proof that the Lost USB Drive application works! When I launched the Lost USB Drive Experiment in early June of last year, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I had all but forgotten about the experiment.

So, imagine my surprise when I had this in my inbox this morning:

Dale,

I recently took over Costa Coffee Eastleigh and have found your USB Memory stick, I’m not sure how long it has been here but if you would like to pop in and collect it I will put it to one side.

Thanks

Matthew
Store Manager

Costa Coffee
27-29 Market Street
Eastleigh
SO50 5RG

To be honest, I was a little shocked! But, at the same time, this totally made my day! Just goes to prove that there are some honest people out there and that a little ingenuity can go a long way!

If any of you are in the area of Matthew’s store, go in, congratulate him on his honesty and integrity, and buy the biggest, most expensive coffee on the menu! Way to go, Matthew!

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2008/06/11/long-lost-drive-found/trackback/