Saturday, October 31, 2009

BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) Data Recovery

The other day while I was watching the Internet TV, my lovely netbook crashed and bam, the Blue Screen of Death showed up. I was a little panic at first because the machine is fairly new and I didn't even think of backing up the data, although nothing much was on there. I contacted the company asking about system recovery and data recovery. The first answer was fine (pressing ALT + F10 to reset the system back); the second answer, however, required some fees from their technicians. Consider myself as an amateur geek, I started searching for the solutions to recover my data after the BSOD on the Internet. Well, luckily I found lots of information on how to recover the data after the BSOD and how to create a bootable CD/DVD/USB. I opt for creating a bootable USB since I don't have an external CD/DVD burner.

The first method I tried was using Knoppix, an open source linux-based operating system. The article from this http://www.ehow.com/how_4858086_screen-of-death-using-knoppix.html has a better explanation than mine. To create a bootable flash drive using Knoppix, I followed this article http://www.pendrivelinux.com/usb-knoppix-510/. The USB drive I used was a 2GB generic brand. The steps were painless. All you need to do is download the required files (the ISO file took about 2 hours for me to download). Follow the instructions on the screen. Knoppix will format the USB to be used as a boot drive. If needed, you can download HP USB Disk Format Tool from http://www.bay-wolf.com/usbmemstick.htm to format your USB to FAT 32.

Now, power up the netbook (the infected hard drive with BSOD). Press F2/F12 to change the boot sequence from hard drive to USB. I was successfully able to boot to my machine, no BSOD, with Linux. However, the system drive was not showed up on the desktop. Yes, the drives showed only those you have partitioned not the system drive. I was careless saving data under My Documents and Settings. Hmm.. what do I do?

Another method, and I find this the most effective in fixing the BSOD and retrieving the data, is to use PE Builder from Bart's website. Download the latest file and follow the instructions from Greg Shultz. The other two programs you need are Windows Server 2003 files and Windows XP Professional CD. Shultz has written the article very well and easy to follow. The process was again painless for me.

Okay back to my problem netbook, I powered it up one more time with another USB plugged in (the one with Windows XP compressed version). Voila! No more BSOD. The netbook booted into Bart's PE. I used the "checkdsk" utility to fix my system drive (C). This method required about half an hour (I chose "fixed error and retrieved readable files"). Now I was able to access my C drive and retrieved all the data I needed using DOS command.

Another cool thing about Bart's PE is that once you choose to fix the C drive, the BSOD, in my case, is gone. After backing up the data, I shut the netbook down, remove the USB, and reboot. I changed the boot sequence back to hard drive. Awesome! The BSOD is gone and I was able to get into the normal Windows XP environment.

I could also remove the infected hard drive, make it slave, and connect it to my desktop using a usb 2.0 cable to SATA. Well, although this method seems to be the easiest and probably fastest to recover the data, I didn't do it because the netbook model I have doesn't have the diagram or manual showing how to remove the hard drive. In deed, I have to send it to the company to have it remove.

So.. there you have it. The possible methods to recover the data after the BSOD. If none of the above work, contact one of the computer experts or use the third-party software.

Kein Problem :-)

Saturday, October 24, 2009

First iPhone/iPod Touch apps

Yes, the first and easy one. I have to tell you that I am not an expert and still learn a lot from many resources. The book that I recommend is "Beginning iPhone 3 Development" by Dave and Jeff. Here is the link to their site, http://iphonedevbook.com/

Alright enough talk. Let's go to my first app. I'll try my best to explain it through.
I call it "Simple Pickers".

... more to come