October, 2010 | TECHRENA dot Net

[Download] Sony Memory Card File Rescue To Recover Deleted Data From MC

October 3, 2010 by bharath

If you delete accidentally delete pictures (or even videos and other files) from your Sony Memory Card, and if you think that it’s very difficult to get them back, you are wrong. Here is one great recovery software from Sony, “Sony Memory Card File Rescue”. But Sony by default doesn’t ship this software disk to the customers who buy Sony memory sticks. The uses have to manually download the file from the internet to use it with their Sony memory cards.

This works well to recover deleted files from your memory card. For better recoverability, one shouldn’t copy or override other files to the card immediately after the accidental deletion.

The installer file MCFileRescue.exe (~13.7 MB) can be downloaded from the Sony’s website. The procedure for download is not very straightforward, requires you to go through a number of steps.

1. Go to this page and click on the “Download” button that appears toward the right-side.

2. You will be then taken to a new page, where you need fallout a form to proceed to the next level.

3. Here you will need to enter the model name and serial number of your memory card to be eligible to download the software.

>> The model name of the memory card might be of the following form:

MS*** –

SF-****

SR-***

USM****

Example:

Sony MicroSD model name

The model name of the memory card (microSD type) shown in the above picture is SR-4C4.

>> The next thing you need is the serial number of the memory card, this can be found on the backside of your memory card as shown in the pictures (positioned at different places for different types of cards).

Sony Memory Card Serial numbers in sd/sdhc

If you don’t want to go through this, just enter any 5 digits in the form and you should be able to download the file after entering the other details required in the submission form.

Sony Memory Card File Rescue download confirm

Memory Card File Rescue Download

4. Run the installer and let the software be installed on your pc. Run the program.

5. Select the drive to be scanned (i.e. the drive that contains memory card).

6. It’ll then show the size if of the files found and the time it’ll take to recover them.

7. Click on the “Run” button to start the recovery process. Do not remove the memory card while this action is in progress.

MCFR configuration

8. It will now show you the list of files that it has found. Select the check boxes against the data that you want t save or recover. Click on “Next” to continue.

Recover data using Sony Memory Card File Rescue

9. Provide the location on your computer, where you want to save the files that are to be recovered. Wait till the recovery process gets completed, after which you will receive a confirmation as shown:

MCFR recovery process successful

It can recover the files of the following formats:

JPG (DCF), MPEG-1, MP4, MP4 AVC file

Note:

1. If the device has been formatted using “Full Format” instead of “Quick Format’ in Windows, the data cannot be recovered from the memory card.

2. This is meant for use with memory cards manufactured by Sony, it can be used with memory card of other manufactures but there’s no guarantee that it will work in the desired manner.

[Tip] Using Goo.gl URL Shortener Without Google Toolbar

October 2, 2010 by bharath

Google URL Shortener logo

Google’s goo.gl URL Shortener is now available for public via the website Goo.gl. Google released the Goo.gl URL shortener service (along with Youtu.be URL shortener) in December 2009. According to a blog post on Google Social Web blog and another post by Matt Cutts, Goo.gl URL shortening service was initially launched for the requirement of Google’s staff in their products. But it has quickly got into popularity and even some pretty good browser extensions have come in (here’s one for Chrome). Until now the service was available via Google Toolbar alone. Not anymore! You don’t need any external add-ons or extensions or workarounds to use this service now. This is now available for public use via the website.

To shorten any URL, go to goo.gl, enter your and click Shorten. The good thing about this is, much like Bit.ly, Goo.gl will also show you the analytics of the links that you have shortened, provided you have signed into your Googe account. Without signing in, you can still shorten the links but you can’t keep track of the clicks coming from that particular short URL.

As you can see in the screenshot, the dashboard will show you the list of links that you have shortened using this too. It will also show the number of clicks received along with a “Details’ link, clicking on which will take you to the detailed analytics of your links.

goo.gl analytics stats

The analytics shows you the clicks received against a time line, the top traffic referrers, the countries from where the visits came, the browsers used, the Operating systems (or the platforms) used etc.

You can also generate a unique QR code exclusively with Google’s URL shortener. Which looks something like this:

QR code

The only thing that might disappoint is the inability to choose custom URLs that is very much possible with the market leader in this sector, Bit.ly.

Go and give it a try at Goo.gl.

[How To] Rebuild Icon Cache To Fix Broken Icons

October 2, 2010 by bharath

Sometimes when you install some program, and place its shortcut somewhere on the desktop or Start Menu, the icon of the program might appear broken (display incorrect icons) in your Windows 7. As you can see in the following screenshot:

Program icon broken in Windows 7

It is very annoying to see such broken icons for any programs. Not only that they confuse you what program is it, particularly when you pin such a program to the taskbar. Follow this step-by-step guide to fix the broken or missing icons and show the original icons of the program, works in Windows 7 and Windows Vista.

Steps:

1. Close all the folder windows that are currently open in the Windows Explorer.

2. Launch the Task Manager either by using CTRL + SHIFT + ESC or by right-clicking on the taskbar and choosing “Start Task Manager”.

start task manager

3. Go to the processes tab, find “explorer.exe” in the list. Right-click on it, choose end process.

End explorer process

4. Go to File > choose New Task (Run..) from the menu.

Run new task in Windows Task manager

5. In the Create New Task dialogue box, type “cmd” and click OK to open the Command Prompt window.

Create new task in task manager

6. Type the following commands* one by one in the Command Prompt (Press “Enter” after each command).

IconCache rebuild commands

CD /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local
DEL IconCache.db /a
EXIT

7. Again go to the Task Manager, launch “New Task” from the File Menu. Type “Explorer” in the text filed and hit enter.

Explorer from Create New Task in Task Manager

Your icons should appear fine now.

Background:

This method actually rebuilds the icon cache. The first of the three commands is used to go into the directory C:\Users> username> AppData> Local. The second command will delete the hidden IconCache.db file. And then we restart the explorer.exe process to rebuild the deleted IconCahce file.

You can alternatively, set the Folder Options > Views and change the settings to Show Hidden files and then delete the IconCache.db to the Recycle bin and restart the explorer.exe process.

[Tip] Locking Google SafeSearch For Better Parental Control

October 1, 2010 by bharath

A simple Google search can give you access to a wide range of information which sometimes may even included the content that is not appropriate for your age. For the same reason, Google has “SafeSearch” feature to filter out content that may not be enjoyed by the users of all age groups.

But the SafeSearch settings aren’t kind of that hack-proof stuff. It’s even easier for your kid to change turn the SafeSearch off without much effort. One way you can ensure your kid browsers search through SafeSearch only is to lock the SafeSearch option for a particular browser.

Let me guide you to lock the Google SafeSearch settings for any specific browser. Follow the steps:

1. Go go any Google search results page.

2. Click on the “Search settings” link present at the top right corner of the page.

3. You will now be taken to the Google Preferences page, where you can find different sections like Interface Language, Search Language, SafeSearch Filtering, Number Of Results etc.

Focus on the “SafeSearch Filtering” section.

4. You will find a “Lock SafeSearch” link at the bottom of the three options.

5. When you click on the “Lock SafeSearch” link, you will be asked to log into your Google account. Provide your credentials and proceed to the next step.

6. When you proceed, you will be shown a warning about locking SafeSeach. Just click “Lock SafeSearch” to proceed further.

The SafeSearch will be locked across all Google domains, meaning all the country specific Google sites included.

7. A message will appear saying “SafeSearch is locked across all Google domains” will be displayed along with a text that tells you that colored balls have been added to all the search pages, denoting that SafeSearch is locked.

Sometimes you may get messages like “SafeSearch is partially locked”. This happens so when some of the Google’s domains don’t respond to the request sent to them from your browser. This is a minor issue and will be fixed automatically when you try the same after sometime.

That is it. You have now locked the SafeSearch settings for one browser. This would still work even if you log out of your Google account.

From now on, a group of colored balls will appear on search results page, to let you know that Safe search is being locked.

However, this isn’t hack-proof either. As these are stored via cookies, deleting all the browser cookies will change the settings again. Also you need to setup this kind of SafeSearch lock for all the browsers that you use. Read : additional parental controls to restrict your children from using applications and other settings on your Windows 7 machine.