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The LangaList
Standard Edition

2002-06-13

A Free Email Newsletter from Fred Langa
That Helps You Get More From Your Hardware, 
Software, and Time Online

Please visit our sponsors and help keep the LangaList S.E. free!

1) A "Magic" Modem Speed-Up That Works

No doubt you've seen ads or gotten spam for various modem speed-up software tools. Some of these tools are junk that do little; or use techniques that can create new problems. Others are a plain waste of money because they don't do anything you couldn't do for yourself, for free.

Generalizations are usually dangerous, but I feel comfortable saying this: Most commercial modem-speedup tools are scams, or nearly so.

For the most part, if you want to optimize your modem speed, use the FREE sites I've recommended, such as  http://www.dslreports.com and http://www.speedguide.net/ . See also http://www.tweak3d.net/tweak/modem/ and http://www.modemsite.com/56k/speedup.asp and many others, such as http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=modem+tweak+rwin+mtu .

But, as a kind of coda to the "Magic Fixes" discussion over at http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020530S0002 , reader Willard Matheson sent in this odd but valid hardware fix for an unusual kind of slow modem problem. If your setup is like his, it might help:

This is not magic, simple electromagnetic theory!  For too long I couldn t download faster than 28K with a 56K modem. My ISP insisted that was the best I could do with ten miles of overhead telephone lines between us.

After all the usual checks I finally found the problem an automatic fax switch. These devices are operated by 12 volts dc supplied by a 115 volt ac transformer. The magnetic field at the switch is just enough to keep the connection knocked down to 28K. Replacing the powered switch with a mechanical switch immediately allowed me to connect at 50K. (As an electrical engineer I should have thought of it sooner).

Thanks, Willard. Like the "Throbbing Monitor" problem we talked about in http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020530S0002 , electronic gear can interact in very unexpected ways. It may be fax switches, power supplies or transformers, fans, desktop or monitor-mounted speakers--- anything that creates an electromagnetic field may interfere with other nearby electronic devices. When all else fails, simply adding a little distance between electronic components can sometimes resolve otherwise intractable problems.

No, it's not magic, but it's very good to know about. <g>

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2) Dead Drive Fix, "Please.. Please.. Please..."

That plaintive plea was part of a note from reader Derek Crager, who suffered one of those "worst case" scenarios when his hard drive totally and completely died:

Any ideas on how to salvage info off of a physically dead HDD? I'll take any far fetched ideas you might have. I'm not a company that has $2000 to spend for recovery, just a garage mechanic PC guy looking for some help. We have a lot of family info here that is quite important that I want to get. And my wife would like all her e-mail msgs as well.

Believe it or not, I made plans to have my networked PC auto backup her info. I was literally a day late...

I'm even thinking of taking the HDD apart and putting the platters into a known good HDD, or switching the control parts. Either way trying to get it to work long enough to copy all info to another HDD. Ideas? I'm willing to be a lab rat... Please.. Please.. Please...

Indeed, you already know what the simple fix would have been: A current backup. Ah, well.

As for resurrecting the drive: If the drive spins but won't read any data, I'd try something like Steve Gibson's SpinRite ( http://www.grc.com ), or similar heavy-duty, low-level tools. If the data can be read at all, tools like that may be able to find a way to do it.

If the platters don't spin, you may have "stiction," where a head has become bonded to a platter. This can be very bad, and may result in at least the loss of some data because the disk's magnetic surface probably will be physically damaged at the point of contact. The drive's read/write heads themselves also are at risk and may become damaged or destroyed in the process of trying to loosen them. But if you truly are out of other options and have nothing to lose, try these last-ditch techniques:

With the PC powered off, gently remove the drive from the PC, but leave all its cables plugged in. Hold the drive horizontally (flat, so the internal platters are parallel to the floor). Start the PC. As it tries to access the drive, sharply rotate your wrist, as if the hard drive were a large nut that you were trying to screw or unscrew. The added rotational force may be enough to overcome the stiction, and get the drives spinning again.

If not, try a modest amount of "percussive maintenance," by gently tapping the drive from each of the four sides, in sequence. This may also jar loose the heads from the platters.

If either of these desperation measures works, IMMEDIATELY copy the data off the hard drive. This kind of fix is temporary at best, and the drive needs to be replaced right away. Don't shut down the drive or PC until everything is copied off the dying drive.

If none of the above works, you can try the platter-swap, although I doubt it will work. If you do try this, work in as clean an environment as possible: a closed room, with no fans, air conditioning blowing. Drives are manufactured and serviced in extremely clean environments; getting dust or dirt inside the drive's case would probably cause a new head crash, even if you are able to swap the platters to another drive. Also, you'll need to use extreme care when actually removing and replacing the platters so that the array of heads doesn't contact the surface of the platters.

The odds of all this working are low, but if you have nothing to lose by trying, then what the heck...

You may also try asking for help in a public forum, such as http://www.eio.com/public/harddrv/.

Good luck!

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3) Speaking Of Hard Drives...

My friend and I where discussing formatting hard drives: He has a 30 gig. hard drive. He said if he is using 20 gig. and has personal info on the disk; and formats it so no one can see his data... when his reformat is finished he looks at space and he has 30 gigs. back. I said he has access to 30 gigs. but all his pervious data is there; [and that there are] programs that can retrieve the data. He says it's gone. I say it there.

I know a format just writes cylinder and sector address, along with crc check data, and backward and forward pointers to pervious address. I tried for 2 hours to explain it to him. He gets your newsletter, and I told him I'll ask you... Thank you, Barry.

I don't know what personal data your friend has on his system, Barry--- in fact, I don't want to know. 8-)  But you're right: A standard reformat--- even with an FDISK--- does not delete data from a drive. It just makes the space occupied by the old data available for re-use. Until it's overwritten with new data (not a reformat, but actually written over with new files) the old data is still on the disk and *easily* accessible via simple--- even free!--- tools. (See http://www.google.com/search?q=free+unformat )

Even a low-level "factory" format does not completely erase the old data on a drive; it takes a little more effort to get at the data in this case, but specialized hardware and software still can read what's on a drive that's been low-level formatted.

And if you want to get really paranoid: High-tech lab equipment can sometimes even recover data from drives whose old files have been completely overwritten with new data.

This is a real issue in instances where a PC is being sold, given away, or sent in for service. Even if you've reformatted the drive and reinstalled the operating system, some or most of your old files still may be accessible. If the PC contained sensitive business or personal data, the new owners or repair techs may be able to get at it.

For more info, and for ways to make your data truly non-recoverable, see http://www.informationweek.com/837/langa.htm

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4) Bogus "Low Disk Space" Notification

I recently ran afoul of an annoying feature in XP: I'd recently gotten a new laptop, and had done my normal "new machine" setup routine. I'd gotten everything installed, working, updated, adjusted, patched, and defragged, and wanted to clone this perfected setup to a second partition on the hard drive, and to a CD, so I could quickly restore the system to that perfect operating condition in the future if--- or when--- I needed to.

Everything went fine: I created a new empty partition and then created a compressed image of the perfect original partition on the new partition, and later burned the image to CD.

I then resized the new partition so it was just large enough to hold the perfect image--- and that's when the trouble started.

Every so often, XP would fire off a "Low Disk Space" warning, telling me that the new partition was running out of empty space. But I *wanted* the partition to have almost no empty space, so the warning was unnecessary--- and after a few days, really annoying!

In earlier versions of Windows, it's easy to adjust or disable the low-disk-space warning, but there was no obvious way to do this in XP. So I went hunting and found this: http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/1051/

It's a 2 minute fix: You just add a new Registry value called "NoLowDiskSpaceChecks" and XP shuts up.

Peace at last. 8-)

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5) Disappointing Read

I read Stephen W. Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" years ago, and thought it was a truly excellent popularization of the state of cosmology, putting esoteric ideas into accessible form. Because of that, I really looked forward to his follow-on book, "The Universe In A Nutshell." I finally got around to reading it last month.

It was a major disappointment. It's scattered and erratic. It treats some topics in near baby-talk--- I felt like the early chapters of the book should have come with crayons. But later in the book, some complex ideas are treated in such compressed, telegraphic form that they're nearly incomprehensible without additional, outside reading: If you don't already know what he's talking about, this book probably won't help much.

It's too bad: I was ready to love the book, but instead I find I have to warn people away from it.

If you're looking for some fascinating reading, I still heartily recommend Hawking's original "A Brief History of Time" (see http://www.langa.com/books.htm#Time ); or the head-spinning "Elegant Universe" by Brian Greene ( http://www.langa.com/books.htm#TheElegantUniverse ). Both will reward you with hours of mind-expanding, pleasurable reading.

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6) Thanks!

Thanks to thousands of you, the LangaList has become one of the ten most-recommended "Computing & Internet" web sites, according to the folks at Recommend-It! It's a great feeling to know that this newsletter (and Langa.Com) is useful enough for many, many of you to have suggested it to friends and colleagues.
And, as a way of saying "Thanks!" there are two prizes you can win simply for making a recommendation. For example, if you use the Recommend-It service, you can win $10,000 (full details also available via this link):
http://www.recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=143182

Or, win a no-strings $30 Gift Certificate for any item at Amazon.Com--- books, software, hardware, kitchenware, toys... and more. To have a shot at winning, just use the following link to recommend the LangaList to a friend. Your friend just may find a new source of useful information; I just may gain a new subscriber; and you just may win a $30 Gift Certificate! (Full details also available via this link):
http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm

Either way, thank you again, and good luck!

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7) More Free XP Info Sites

Hi Fred, Just finished reading your latest "Plus" newsletter. Keep up the great work. I just wanted to pass on a few XP links to you. You might want to pass them on to your readers.

http://www.xpsc.net/  - a Windows XP Software Compatibility Site. Site states "Find out whether your applications and games will work on the new Windows Operating System".

http://www.tipsdr.com/windows-xp-tips.html  - WinXP tips...links to other windows tips (Win9x, office, etc).

http://www.dpdl07125.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/  - Lots of XP stuff here.

Cheers, Ken Bateman

Thanks, Ken!

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8) They Just Keep Coming And Coming and Coming...

Over two thousand of your fellow readers have "Loaded the code." Please click over to http://www.langa.com/code.htm , and maybe you can join them! (If you've already "Loaded The Code" and are wondering if your site will appear here or on the Langa.Com web site, please see http://www.langa.com/link.txt )

Speaking of which: Here's another eclectic sample of reader sites--- some professional, some very personal:

View A Randomly-Chosen Reader Site
http://www.langa.com/randomlink.htm

Manually Browse All Posted-to-Date Sites Starting At
http://www.langa.com/readersites.htm

PegasusOne Consulting (Web sites)
http://www.pegasusone.net/

The Virtual I.T. Department
http://www.thevirtualitdept.com/

SeatPack
http://www.seatpack.net/index.htm

Hamp's WWII Albums
http://communities.msn.com/HampsPictureAlbum/shoebox.msnw

Wichita Alopecia Areata Support Group
http://home.swbell.net/roadbum1/waasg.html

South Bay Real estate
http://www.southbayproperty.net/

Tarzan and Tarzana, California
http://4tarzana.com/

The Computer Guy
http://thecomputerguy.us/

Wheeler Family
http://www.wheelerfamily.net/

Stoney Creek Tennessee
http://stoneycreeker.com/

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9) SpamKiller Down the Tubes?

Hi Fred: On the outside chance you weren't aware of the purchase of SpamKiller by McAfee--- I purchased and started using SpamKiller, awhile back after reading about it in my Plus! edition of your wonderful newsletter. SpamKiller is a really terrific program for dealing with spam. I had several occasions to contact their tech support about various issues. The program's author, Thor (sorry, I don't remember his last name), was ALWAYS VERY RESPONSIVE in helping me understand and tune the program.

Sadly, McAfee bought SpamKiller and is now providing truly dreadful support. For awhile after the sale, like 4-6 weeks, there was no support at all. Now, the support McAfee is rendering is of the typical moronic type we've all come to know and hate. Their responses are slow and usually meaningless. SpamKiller has gone from a program I've recommended to at least 100 people to one I won't recommend anymore. Very sad. --- Mark Perlstein

I don't have experience with the MacAfee version, Mark, so I can't comment first-hand. But anyone considering a SpamKiller purchase might want to check user groups or Usenet chatter before sending in their order....

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10) Just For Grins

Father's Day is coming up, but this list of "Why Moms Are Great" (sent in by Irwin Seitelman) still is worth a grin:

MOM TAUGHT ME TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE:
"If you're going to kill each other, do it outside, I just finished cleaning!"

MOM TAUGHT ME RELIGION:
"You better pray that will come out of that carpet!"

MOM TAUGHT ME ABOUT TIME TRAVEL:
"If you don't straighten up, I'll knock you into next week!"

MOM TAUGHT ME LOGIC:
"Because I said so, that's why!"

MOM TAUGHT ME FORESIGHT:
"Make sure you wear clean underwear in case you're in an accident."

MOM TAUGHT ME IRONY:
"Keep laughing and I'll give you something to cry about!"

MOM TAUGHT ME ABOUT THE SCIENCE OF OSMOSIS:
"Shut your mouth and eat your supper!"

MOM TAUGHT ME ABOUT CONTORTIONISM:
"Will you look at the dirt on the back of your neck?"

MOM TAUGHT ME ABOUT STAMINA:
"You'll sit there until all that spinach is gone!"

MOM TAUGHT ME ABOUT WEATHER:
"It looks like a tornado went through your room!"

MOM TAUGHT ME HOW TO SOLVE PHYSICS PROBLEMS:
"If I yelled because I saw a meteor coming toward you, would you listen then?"

MOM TAUGHT ME ABOUT HYPOCRISY:
"If I told you once, I've told you a million times-don't exaggerate!"

MOM TAUGHT ME ABOUT BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION:
"Stop acting like your father!"

MOM TAUGHT ME ABOUT ENVY:
"There are millions of less fortunate kids in this world who don't have wonderful parents like you do!"

And most of all.....
MOM TAUGHT ME ABOUT THE CIRCLE OF LIFE:
"I brought you into this world, I can take you out!"

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11) Plus! Edition Highlights:

• Free, Portable "Simple Contact Manager"
• Reader's Real-Life Office Alternative and Linux Experiences
• Repair A Burned-Out Surge Suppressor

Today's LangaList Plus! Edition contains all ten items above, plus about 30% more content including: a free, tiny (281K!) contact manager that's easily transportable from PC to PC; a free office suite for both Windows and Linux, plus info on a very slick, very polished new version of Linux; and an electronic tech's advice on how to inexpensively repair a burned-out surge suppressor.

A year-long subscription to the Plus! Edition costs just a buck ($1) a month! See http://www.langa.com/plus.htm 

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See you next issue!

Best,

Fred

Please recommend the LangaList to a friend! (And maybe win $10,000!I)

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