PC Repair Flow Charts

There are logical steps to fixing PC problems, but sometimes you just draw a blank.
These flow charts might be what you need to give yourself a kick start.

http://www.fonerbooks.com/pcrepair.htm

I came across this site at one of my favorite blogs Lifehacker.

http://lifehacker.com/5350446/computer-repair-flowchart-troubleshoots-common-hardware-problems

Copy it... Period!

If you have ever dealt with a corrupted hard drive you have come across this problem. You are trying to move files from the old/corrupted hard drive and as you are copying you hit a bad file. The copy job stops leaving you at a loss for what has copied and what hasn't. I have spend many an hour digging through file lists making sure I copied everything I was able to. Well I had that very same problem today and I decided that someone out there must have solved this problem. Sure enough.

Y-Copy is a great free program that will continue to copy files even if one has failed. It keeps a log of files that have failed so you can let the user know what just didn't make it off the drive.

http://www.ruahine.com/download.html

Note: I first found another application that was supposed to do the same thing. It was actually part of the PC Repair System USB Key (That I wrote about before). Encopy is a good app, but I didn't like the interface or the usability as much as I did Y-Copy. There are many more features in Encopy so if you find Y-Copy lacking in options check it out.

http://www.micware.110mb.com/micp.htm

Fix corrupted software installs

If you have ever gotten caught with an installation that has crashed or have had problems uninstalling an application, this tool might be of some help. Many programs use "Windows Installer" to install themselves, and sometimes during installation or later when you are trying to uninstall you find that the installation information in Windows has been corrupted. This will sometimes keep the program from being reinstalled or uninstalled. The Windows Installer CleanUp Utility will clean out corrupted Installer data allowing you to reinstall the product (It does not remove the program).

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301

[Thanks Tim for pointing me to this]

If it's uninstall your having problems with check out the Uninstall Everything article for a great uninstall utility that will remove even corrupt installations.

A couple of FREE data restore utilities

I came across a couple of new data restore utilities that look very promising.

The first is called PhotoRec. I have seen lots of photo recovery programs but this one is open source and looks to be a very full featured program. I haven't tested it yet but I will definitely come back to this one the next time i'm in need.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

The second is called TestDisk. The feature list is quite impressive, and again it's open source. This one is a hard drive recovery program. It focuses on recovering partitions, and boot sectors. Again I haven't tested it but I like the look of the feature list and will try it soon.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

How to Stop a VM that is not responding AND How to Release files that give device or resource busy

Just found this posted in the VM forums and wanted to make sure and mark it. Looks like very good steps to take when you are stuck in this situation.

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-2290

Uninstall EVERYTHING!

Have you ever come across a program that just wouldn't uninstall? Either it threw some error while trying to uninstall, or there was no uninstall to be found. Or what about those programs that say they have uninstalled, but when you look around they have left TONS of files and registry entries. I came across a program that is the answer to all of your uninstall pains.

Revo Uninstaller allows you to run the program's normal uninstall, but then does some special Magic and scans for both files and registry settings left by the uninstaller. So if the program you are trying to uninstall fails, Revo Uninstaller will forcibly delete the program for you. Even if the program uninstalls correctly you will be surprised how many files and registry settings are left lying around.

Revo Uninstaller also comes with a great feature called hunter that allows you to drag a cross hair onto any program that you want to delete (even if it doesn't show up in add and remove programs) and it will forcibly uninstall it for you. There are many other tools packed into this little program such as a start up optimizer and cache cleaner.

Now for the great part... It's FREE! And it can run off a USB drive... That's right you don't even have to install it! So go ahead follow the link and get cracking... Er Uninstalling!

Revo Uninstaller Home Page:
http://www.revouninstaller.com/

First Look by Cnet:
http://www.download.com/Revo-Uninstaller/3000-2096_4-10687648.html

Free Partition Tools

Windows, and Linux:

Changing the partition sizes can be a pain, especially if you don't want to lose the data on the drive. You could buy something like partition magic, but I recently came across two alternatives that work just as good or better and are FREE. Both can change partitions sizes without needing to format or loose any data that is on the existing partitions.

Gparted:
Gparted is both free and open source (those two things are not always the same). It's part of the Linux GNOME protect. So if your into Linux this is a great tool for you, and if your into Windows it's also a great tool for you too! You see it supports NTFS, FAT, and FAT32 (Standard windows file systems). You don't even have to be a Linux guru, just use GParted Live. GParted Live can be booted from a CD, USB, or even PXE. You boot up the system and walk through a few easy steps and your done! I have used this twice already and its really great! It has a nice GUI and seems to work really well.

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/index.php
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php


EASEUS Partition Manager:
This is a Windows only tool I recently came across on Life Hacker (A really great Blog). I haven't used it yet but it installs into Windows and looks very easy to use. It's free for personal use, but not business. It does have a very reasonable unlimited licenses for businesses though and that version supports Windows2003.

http://www.partition-tool.com/