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Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Flash Drive Recovery- Image Rescue 4 Recovered My Pictures!

Flash Drive Recovery

Flash drives and SD cards are very convenient for saving and transferring files, and the prices have come way down lately. It is amazing how much memory you can get on a tiny flash device. If you want the best performance from your camera, you want to choose a flash memory with fast read/write times such as a SDHC Class 10 Flash Memory Card .

But what do you do if a flash drive or memory stick is corrupted and your files are lost?

I recently lost all my Christmas pictures from my digital camera! The 32GB SDHD card was corrupted, and I could not see my pictures with the camera, with a Mac, or with a Windows PC. Of course, I was disappointed and almost reformatted the card since I could not find my pictures after trying many times.

But I decided to try to recover the pictures first. It turned out to be quick and easy to recover files from a corrupted flash memory.

Image Rescue 4 Flash Drive Recovery

I downloaded and installed Image Rescue 4 from Lexar. I found an offer for a free download of Image Rescue 4 in my SDHC card package. You can also download a free trial version that might get the job done.

Image Rescue 4 has tools to scan for lost image, picture, and video files on corrupted flash devices. You can also recover deleted files from a flash memory. Image Rescue works with all kinds of flash memory devices, SD cards, and USB flash memory sticks.

Flash Drive Recovery- Image Rescue 4
Image Source: Dr. Penny Pincher

Image Rescue 4 found all of my images on my corrupted flash device. I simply selected my corrupted flash memory from the menu and selected "Start Scan". After Image Rescue recovered my files, I saved them to my hard drive and reformatted my SDHD card after saving the files to my computer hard drive.

Image Rescue 4 offers FAT32 or NTFS flash fomatting options- I used FAT32 for compatibility with my digital camera.

Recommended Reading:
Use a Cheap USB Flash Memory Stick to Speed up Windows 7

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Monday, December 30, 2013

What is ReadyBoost?

ReadyBoost is a feature of Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows Vista that allows computers to use a flash drive as a memory cash to make the computer run faster. Since flash drives have faster random access read and write times than a hard drive, Windows uses the flash drive as a high speed memory cash to make your computer run faster.

Flash drives, also known as thumb drives or USB memory sticks, are available for under $10, so using ReadyBoost is an inexpensive way to get more performance out of your older computer. I use the SanDisk Cruzer Fit USB Flash Drive in my laptop for ReadyBoost- it doesn't stick out like a full-size flash drive and works great with ReadyBoost.

This link has detailed instructions on using ReadyBoost and a cheap USB memory stick to speed up your computer.

Recommended Reading:
Use a Cheap USB Flash Memory Stick to Speed up Windows 7

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Saturday, December 28, 2013

What is an iPod?

An iPod is Apple's brand of portable MP3 player. These devices store digital music files and play them through headphones. Some iPod models can also store and play videos on the small iPod screen.

iPod Touch features a touch screen and runs iOS like iPhones. You can run iPhone apps and play games on an iPod Touch. You can think of an iPod Touch as an iPhone without the phone.

What is the Difference Between an iPod and an MP3 Player?

iPods are a type of MP3 player. MP3 describes the file format used to store digital music files. iPods differ from other brands of MP3 players in that many people think they are easier to use. Apple has integrated music downloading from iTunes to make it easy to download and manage songs.

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What is PayPal?

PayPal is an on-line money transfer service that replaces checks and money orders for making payments. PayPal users put funds into their PayPal account with a funds transfer from their bank or credit card. The PayPal account can then be used to transfer the funds to someone else's PayPal account to make a payment.

Using PayPal eliminates the risk of getting a bad check since the funds are confirmed immediately. If you receive funds into your PayPal account, you can transfer these to your bank to access the money.

PayPal is the main method of payment for eBay items. PayPal charges the seller a transaction fee of about 3% for sales on eBay.

Recommended Reading:
What is eBay?

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What is eBay?

eBay is an e-commerce site where visitors can buy and sell items. All kinds of items are offered for sale on eBay. Individual sellers can sell household items and electronics that are no longer wanted to make money. Some eBay sellers buy large quantities of imported items and sell them individually at a profit.

eBay is a good place to look for rare or unique items since millions of items are for sale from around the world. eBay is a good opportunity for sellers to reach a large market to get the best price for their items.

What Selling Formats are Available on eBay?

eBay started off selling through an auction format. Items were listed at a starting price, and buyers could bid in an auction by offering a price higher than the current high bid. The person with the highest bid at the end of the auction wins the auction.

eBay has added other selling formats, such as "Buy It Now" (BIN) where buyers can instantly buy an item by offering the BIN price. Buyers like this format since they do not need to wait until the end of the auction to find out if they will get to buy the item or not.

Another option is "Best Offer" where buyers can make the seller an offer and the seller can accept or reject the offer. This is a good selling format for items that are difficult to price.

How Much Does it Cost to Sell on eBay?

The final value fee from eBay is 10% of the final price. If you accept PayPal for payment the PayPal fee is about 3% of the selling price.

Recommended Reading:
What is Etsy?
How to Ship Sold eBay Items
Avoid the Nigerian eBay Scam

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Friday, December 27, 2013

IP Security Cameras: Monitor Your House Over the Internet

IP Security Camera

An IP Security Camera is the name for an "Internet Protocol" Security Camera that can be accessed from anywhere in the world over the Internet. With an IP Security Camera in your home, you can monitor the video feed over the Internet using a computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone. A password is used to restrict access to the video feed to authorized users.

Wireless IP Security Camera

A wireless IP Security Camera uses a wi-fi network to transmit the video to the Internet, so no Ethernet cable is needed. This makes placing IP security cameras in your home or business very easy. Most IP Security cameras do require a power outlet.

IP Security Camera Features

One key feature is wireless vs. wired IP security cameras. Wireless cameras are very handy if you do not have Ethernet jacks near your camera locations.
Motion detection is another useful feature in an IP Security Camera. Some cameras use the same type of IR (infrared) motion detector that is found on motion sensing lights. Motion detection can be used to trigger recording of the video stream to a memory card in the camera and even to trigger the camera to send an e-mail notification.
Security software is another feature of an IP Security Camera. Some software allows you to draw a box on the video frame to define an area to generate alerts if motion is detected in the video within the defined area.
Some IP Security Cameras allow you to listen using a microphone on the camera and even to speak over a speaker on the camera.
You can get an IP Security Camera with night vision capability. These IP Security Cameras use IR LEDs and a sensor that can detect IR. This allows the camera to produce video in total darkness.
Some cameras have pan and tilt motors to allow you to position the camera to view the desired area.

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What is a UPS?

UPS is an acronym that means "Universal Power Supply". This is a back-up power supply for computing equipment that allows computers to keep running through a brief power outage.

During thunderstorms, it is not unusual for the electric power supply to homes and businesses to go out for a few minutes due to lightning strikes on utility equipment or tree branches falling and damaging power lines.

A UPS has a battery and an a DC to AC converter to supply 120 volt A/C power to run equipment. The capacity of most UPS can run a computer for an hour or so when no power is available. The main purpose is to allow users to save their work in an orderly fashion and power down their computer without losing their work. Most UPS also include surge protection to protect items plugged into it from power surges.

Do you need a UPS?

If you have a desktop PC, you may benefit from a UPS. A UPS will protect you from losing your unsaved work when power outages occur, and can allow you to continue working for some time without electric power. You can also power peripherals such as printers using a UPS. You will also benefit from surge protection which protects your computer equipment from power surges.

If you have a tablet computer or laptop, you do not need a UPS since these devices have a built-in battery and are not immediately affected by power interruption. You may want to consider a surge protector to protect your equipment from power surges.

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