Pendrive Show Empty Even When Data Exists

Pendrive Show Empty Even When Data Exists

Posted by Kiran.BL on Wednesday, August 29, 2018 in Microsoft, Windows,

Pen drive is the small portable device. It stores a huge amount of data which one can carry files from one place to another.

There are many people having pen drive is facing the same kind of problem. Hence, I have decided to write this post that will help you to fix a pen drive that shows empty even when data exists.


When you insert a Pen drive to a computer which is already infected with a virus, it will affect the pen drive. When we insert the same pen drive into a computer which is not infected with the virus, it shows empty. This is due to the virus infected that will hide the file in the drive.

In this situation, we should not panic. That's where this article helps you to recover from a virus attack.

There are several methods to see hidden files and folders in your pen drive.

Method 1: Using the Command prompt.

Open the command prompt.

 Right-click on the Start button. A Power User menu will appear on the left bottom of your screen. Then tap on Command Prompt (Admin) option from the Power User menu.

Note: You can also press the Windows key + X to get access to Power User menu.

Change to the drive letter assigned to your pen drive by the command shown in the screenshot.
Note: In my case the drive letter is G.

To view the files and folders hidden in the pen drive use the command.

G:\> dir/ah

Now you can see the contents of the pen drive.

Method 2: Use Google Chrome.

Yes, you heard it right, Google Chrome.

Launch Google Chrome.

Copy the address.

Paste the address in the URL bar and click on enter.

You can see all the files including hidden in Google Chrome.

Now let us jump to the solution part of this problem.

Solution 1: Scan Pen Drive With Anti-Virus Program.

Scan this drive using a reliable Anti-virus program available online. If the antivirus program detects any virus or malware then delete them.

Now check your pen and see if you can get access to the files and folders stored within it.

Solution 2: Un-hide Files and Folders of Pen Drive Showing Empty Space.

After checking if all the files and folders are intact or not.

Open Control panel.

Search for Folder Options.

Click on the first result.

Navigate to  View Tab > Check Mark “Show Hidden Files”.

Now check if you can get access to files and folders of your pen drive.

If not, then follow next solution.

Solution 3: Run CMD Command To Recover Inaccessible Files From Pen Drive Not Showing Data.

Open the Command prompt.
Now enter the following command: attrib -h -r -s /s /d g:\*.* and hit ENTER.

Note: g: is drive letter name of the pen drive. So, you need to replace “g” with your pen drive letter name.

A window will take a few minutes of time to fix the issue. Then you will be able to get access to data and information that is within the files and folders in your pen drive.

In this way, I solved my problem and I am sure that this will work on your PC. If you have any questions about it please do not hesitate to comment below.

Continue Reading

How to Convert FAT32 to NTFS without Data Loss

How to Convert FAT32 to NTFS without Data Loss

Posted by Kiran.BL on Tuesday, March 20, 2018 in Microsoft, Windows,

A file system is an index or database. This index or database holds the data of the physical location of every piece of data on a storage device. A file system has a format for specifying the path to a file through the structure of directories.

File systems specify conventions for naming files, these include:

• 1. Most number of characters in a name.
• 2. Correct usage of characters to name a file.
• 3. In some systems, how long the file name suffix can be.

There are two dominant file systems in the history of Windows operating system. They are FAT32 and NTFS.

Let's discuss some important points about both the file systems.

FAT32 File system:

·         FAT32 supports Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows 2003 and Windows 7.

·         Default cluster size as small as 4 KB, higher usage of disk space.

·         Supports drives up to 2 TB in size (Note: Windows 2000 supports FAT32 partitions up to 32 GB.).

·         Great stability and reliability.

·         The boot record on FAT32 drives will expand to include a backup copy of critical data structures. So, FAT32 drives are less susceptible to a single point of failure.

·         Allows for dynamic resizing of FAT32 partitions, being more flexible.

·         We can locate root folder anywhere on the drive. There are no limitations on the number of root folder entries.

NTFS File system:

·         Better compatibility. NTFS supports Windows NT family (all versions of Windows operating systems), Mac OS X, GNU/Linux.

·         NTFS is a newer file system that came after FAT.

·         NTFS is feature-rich, proprietary, undocumented at the raw bytes level.

·         NTFS is subject to change - even within Service Packs of the same OS version.

·         Faster access speed. To find a file, NTFS uses the least number of disk accesses.

·         NTFS allows file compression and provides advanced security.

·         Reparse points extend NTFS functionality, enabling new features such as volume mount points.

·         We can limit the space that the users consume by setting up disk quotas on an NTFS volume.

Now let us discuss how we can achieve a seamless transition from FAT32 to NTFS without losing any data.

Note: The disadvantage of FAT32 is that it does not support handling large files (over 4GB).

So, to transfer the files above 4GB, we have to format the disk to NTFS which supports the transfer of files above 4GB. But there is one problem, you don't want to lose your saved data. Gives an error "The file is too large for the destination file system".

Here are the steps to convert a USB drive from FAT32 to NTFS without losing data.

Note: I have chosen my SDHC drive (J drive) to convert the drive from FAT32 to NTFS without losing data.

1. Right-click on the Start button. A Power User menu will appear on the left bottom of your screen. Then tap on Command Prompt (Admin) option from the Power User menu.

Note: You can also press the Windows key + X to access Power User menu.

2. Type chkdsk J: /f and press enter.

where J is the letter of the drive to undergo conversion.

This command checks the drive for errors and fixes them.

Generic code: chkdsk Drive letter: /f

3. Type Convert J: /FS:NTFS and press enter.

where J is the letter of the drive to undergo conversion.

The above command will start the conversion process. After a few minutes, it says that conversion was successful.

Generic code: Convert Drive letter: /FS:NTFS

4. Once the conversion is complete, check the properties of the drive.

Note: Right-click on the drive and tap on Properties.

Conclusion:

Since Windows OS provides this function, it's easy to convert the storage from FAT32 to NTFS. But, this method is irreversible unless you format your partition.

When converting NTFS to FAT32, you have only two methods.

a. One is to format your NTFS partition.

If you have enough free disk space in other partitions, please copy data to free space. Then try to format the NTFS partition to FAT32. Once you complete the conversion, you can copy the data back.

b. The other way is to use a third-party NTFS to FAT32 converter.

 Please comment on this post. If you like this post, please like and share this post.

Continue Reading

A Basic hand-coded Calculator created using Notepad

A Basic hand-coded Calculator created using Notepad

Posted by Kiran.BL on Thursday, December 21, 2017 in Microsoft, Windows,

Making calculations using Windows calculator can get tedious. 

In this article, I'll tell you how to create your's personal calculator in a few seconds. 

Today let us try building our own command prompt calculator.

The following steps help you in building a simple calculator.

Step 1:

Press Windows logo + R on the keyboard, it will launch the Run window.

Type Notepad and press enter.

Step 2: 

 Copy the following code and paste it into the notepad.

@echo off

title Basic Calculator by Kiran

color 3f

:top

echo --------------------------------------------------------------

echo Welcome to Basic Calculator  

echo --------------------------------------------------------------

echo. 

set /p sum=

set /a ans=%sum%

echo. 

echo = %ans%

echo --------------------------------------------------------------

pause

cls

echo Previous Answer: %ans%

goto top

pause

exit

Note:

1. Use the format (without quotes as in the above code) title xxx in the above code have your own title. 

2. change the background and the font colour of the calculator

considering  2 hex digits — the first corresponds the background; the second the foreground. Each digit will follow the following values:

0 = Black, 1 = Blue, 2 = Green, 3 = Aqua, 4 = Red, 5 = Purple, 6 = Yellow, 7 = White, 8 = Gray, 9 = Light Blue

 A = Light Green, B = Light Aqua, C = Light Red, D = Light Purple, E = Light Yellow, F = Bright White

Ex: In the code, we have used 3f. This means, the background colour will be Aqua and the font colour will be Bright white.

Like the above example, you can have your own colour combinations. The format is colour XX. 

                 -> XX represents the colour combinations.

Step 3: 

Now Save Notepad in  .bat format

Note: 

1. It can only handle integers and those of a specific number of digits. It doesn’t handle complex equations.

2. What is .bat?

.bat is an extension of batch files. A batch file is a text file that contains many commands for a computer’s operating system.

Step 4: 

Double-click on a file you have created. 

A command line based calculator will appear on the screen. 

Step 5:

To calculate, type the number and press enter. You will see the answer.

Step 6:

Press any key to clear the previous calculation. Continue calculating with a different set of numbers. It will then display the answer of the previous calculation at the starting of the screen.

Conclusion: 

Like this, you can create your own calculator and use this in your Day-to-day life.

Please comment on this post. If you like this post, please like and share this post.

Continue Reading

How To Lock A Folder Using Notepad

How To Lock A Folder Using Notepad

Posted by Kiran.BL on Wednesday, December 20, 2017 in Microsoft, Windows,

There are many file locker applications available over the internet. We need to pay for some of the applications available. Here in this article, I will explain you about how to lock a file Microsoft way. This procedure is a bit difficult. But, secure than any other file locker software as this method is from Microsoft.

The following steps will guide you on how to lock a folder using notepad.

Step 1:
Press Windows logo + R on your keyboard, it will launch the Run window.
Type Notepad and press enter.

Step 2:

Now Copy the following code and paste it into notepad

cls
@ECHO OFF
title Folder Locker
if EXIST "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" goto UNLOCK
if NOT EXIST Locker goto MDLOCKER
:CONFIRM
echo Are you sure u want to Lock the folder(Y/N)
set/p "cho=>"
if %cho%==Y goto LOCK
if %cho%==y goto LOCK
if %cho%==n goto END
if %cho%==N goto END
echo Invalid choice.
goto CONFIRM
:LOCK
ren Locker "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"
attrib +h +s "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"
echo Folder locked
goto End
:UNLOCK
echo Enter password to Unlock folder
set/p "pass=>"
if NOT %pass%==type your password here  goto FAIL
attrib -h -s "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"
ren "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" Locker
echo Folder Unlocked successfully
goto End
:FAIL
echo Invalid password
goto end
:MDLOCKER
md Locker
echo Locker created successfully
goto End
:End

Make sure that you will replace type your password here with your own password in the code.
Now Save Notepad as FolderLock.bat in the desired location.

Step 3:

Now double click on FolderLock.bat file then a new folder named as Locker is created.

Step 4:

Save your files in Locker folder

Step 5:

Again, double-click on the FolderLock.bat, a Command prompt window pops up.

Step 6:

To lock the folder(Locker) press "y " in the prompt to lock and hide the folder.

If you want to unlock the folder to access that folder; please double click on FolderLock.bat. You will be asked to enter the password.

Please enter the password and press enter.
The Locker folder gets unlocked and you can access the files that you were in need of.

Conclusion:

Using the above steps, you can lock the folder and unlock it using Notepad.


Please comment on this post. If you like this post please like and share this post.

Continue Reading

Add application shortcuts to the Windows Desktop Right-Click Menu

Add application shortcuts to the Windows Desktop Right-Click Menu

Posted by Kiran.BL on Tuesday, December 19, 2017 in Microsoft, Windows,

We use a lot of applications in day to day life. Some of them are most important and we use those applications very often. We pile up shortcuts of often used applications on the desktop and use them. What if we have those applications listed in the desktop right-click menu. Simple registry changes will help you list of the often used applications in the right-click menu. This technique should work in Windows 7, 8, 10, or Vista.

The following are the steps that will help you launch those applications in the easiest possible way.

We’ll show you how to add Notepad to the menu, but you could add any applications you want instead.

Step 1: OPEN REGEDIT

Press Windows logo + R on your keyboard, It will launch the Run window.

Type REGEDIT and press Enter.

You will get a window like in the below picture

STEP 2: Backing up Registry (Important step)

I would recommend you to take a backup of the registry as a precautionary measure.

To take a back up please click on FILE menu and select EXPORT.

You will get a window to called EXPORT REGISTRY FILE, the name of the backup file should be in the format Backup DD.MM.YY.

Select the location where you wish to save and click on SAVE

STEP 3: Navigating to the Shell Folder

Once the backup file is saved, browse down to the following key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell

STEP 4: Creating an entry under the shell folder

You’ll want to create a new key underneath the shell key, the name of which is exactly what is going to show up on the desktop menu. Right-click on the “shell” key, and then choose New \ Key from the menu.

Give the new key the name that you want to show up on the desktop context menu. For this example, we’ll be using Notepad.

Next, you’ll need to create the command key that will actually hold the command used to launch the application. Right-click on the new Notepad key, and then choose New \ Key from the menu.

Give this key the name “command” in lowercase.

To complete this step you’ll need the full path to the application that you want to launch. You can use Shift + Right-Click to get the Copy as Path menu item to find this more quickly.

Now click on “command” in reg edit that you have created on the left side, and then double-click on the (Default) key on the right side to edit the string value

Paste in the full path to the executable that you got from the “Copy as Path” step above, or you can put in the full path yourself if you’d like.

Once you have clicked OK, it should look like this:

Now that you have set-up, Go to desktop and right-click on the desktop. In the context menu click on a notepad. you will see the application opened.

You can add as many applications to the desktop context menu as you’d like, just repeat the steps again with a new menu item name.

Please comment on this post. If you like this post please like and share this post

Continue Reading