Transfer Files Lightning Fast with FastCopy

Lifehacker tip of the day:

“Windows only: Free application FastCopy is a portable replacement for the standard Windows Explorer file copying mechanism. FastCopy's interface is rather cluttered but the file transfer speeds are fantastic. Copying ISO files, thousands of pictures, and other test files was extremely fast. You can opt to not overwrite, overwrite by newest or biggest file, and sync when transferring files with FastCopy. We've covered another popular file copier replacement here before, TeraCopy, and you might be wondering how FastCopy stacks up against it.

In my informal testing FastCopy beat TeraCopy by a small to large margin depending on the type of file copy operation. When copying large batches of small files like 2-3MB JPEGs, FastCopy beat Teracopy by a nearly 800% margin. Performance decreased when copying larger files like DVD ISOs, but FastCopy still edged out TeraCopy by around 100%. Both programs can be used as portable USB apps, both have Windows shell integration with right click and drag and drop extensions, and both have a file transfer verification. TeraCopy has the ability to pause transfers, a feature absent from FastCopy. As mentioned above the interface of FastCopy is very cluttered and dull, so if looks matter, the vote definitely goes to TeraCopy for a much cleaner GUI. FastCopy is a free download for Windows only.”

How to Tell When Your Hard Drive is Going to Fail

You don’t have to be psychic to predict your hard drive’s imminent failure. You just need to recognize the warning signs.

Strange Noises

Sometimes hearing strange grinding and thrashing noises means your drive is beyond repair—for instance, if you’ve had a head crash, it very often is. Or it could just be that the motor has failed or your hard drive is grinding away because of noisy bearings. If you’re hearing strange noises then act very, very quickly—you probably don’t have much time.

Disappearing Data and Disk Errors

Computer won’t let you save a document? Or you’re sure that you had a file on your desktop yesterday that’s nowhere to be seen today? Programs that always worked suddenly stop working, asking where a file it depends on is store? These are all potential signs that your hard drive is on its way out. Of course, it could be that your kids moved your files for fun or a virus is eating through them, but disappearing data is never a good sign for your drive if you can rule out those alternative causes.

Your Computer Stops Recognizing Your Rrive

This may seem obvious, but if your computer no longer recognizes your drive chances are there’s a problem with it, not the computer. Test it in a friend’s computer and see if your hard drive is recognized by it. Often, this will be a logical failure—unless you can hear strange noises that indicate a severe mechanical or head problem.

Computer Crashes

Does your computer regularly blue-screen or suddenly reboot? Does it crash often, especially when booting your operating system? If your computer is crashing, especially at times when the computers is accessing files (such as during the boot sequence), it may indicate a problem with your drive.

Really Slow Access Times

It shouldn’t take half an hour to open a folder in Windows Explorer, or two hours to empty the trash. I’ve come across this problem plenty of times over the years, and it’s always followed by a failing hard drive within a month or two. If you have this symptom on your computer and your drive does not fail, please uninstall Vista from your 486.

If you notice these symptoms back up your data and get professional help ASAP!

Keep Your Hard Drive Clean with Auto Delete

Lifehacker’s Adam Pash writes:

“Windows only: Free application Auto Delete monitors any user-specified folder and deletes files older than a set amount of time, from 1 day to 1 year. When deleted, files can either be sent to the Recycle Bin or permanently deleted. There isn't much else Auto Delete can do beyond that, but it's one of those dead simple tools that does exactly what it says without much fuss, which we always like. On the other hand, if you're looking for a more robust version of Auto Delete—including options to move, rename, copy, or delete files based on multiple conditions—you might consider giving our very own automated file management tool Belvedere a try. Auto Delete is a free download, Windows only.”

Use Coca-Cola to Remove Scratches from DVDs

Coca-Cola Remove Any CD/DVD Scratches - The top video clips of the week are here

In an earlier post we recommended using toothpaste to fix scratched discs, and people have overwhelmingly agreed it works. Here’s another interesting suggestion from jackald at Metacafe.

Skyfire: Add True Power to Mobile Browsing

Mobile browsing will never be the same after Skyfire, as reviewed by Joel Reyes:

"Skyfire is an exceptional free, mobile browser that delivers rich web media right to your mobile phone. The latest and recently updated version has just been made available to the public. This mobile browsing software is incredible. It allows you to play Flash content, video playback and utilize Ajax, with the support of Silverlight, Quicktime, and Windows Media.

Skyfire has been mentioned to be not as quick and “cunning” as Opera Mini once you start browsing. However it allows for a much quicker viewing of videos on sites such as Youtube with impressive tempo. One of the major differences between the two mobile surfing giants is that Opera Mini requires the use of JavaScript in order to start up - this can easily interfere with loading speeds.”

Click here to read the full review.

Convert Your PowerPoint Presentation to DVD

Samer from Weblog FreewareGenius shows you how to burn your PowerPoint presentation to DVD using three different methods:

• PowerPoint to video to DVD: using “EM PowerPoint to Video Converter Free” (PPT to AVI), then doing the DVD authoring using DVD Flick (AVI to DVD).

• PowerPoint to Flash SWF to AVI to DVD: using iSpring Converter Free (PPT to SWF); then using either SWF2AVI or CamStudio (SWF to AVI), and finally DVD Flick (AVI to DVD).

• PowerPoint to JPEG to DVD: using PowerPoint Image Copier (PPT to JPG) then authoring a DVD slideshow using DVD Slideshow GUI (JPG to DVD).

Read full instructions here.

Join Your MP3s Together with Merge MP3

If you’re in the habit of making MP3s out of the music on CDs, you might enjoy Merge MP3. Mark O’Neill explains:

“Whenever I buy a CD, I immediately burn a backup copy onto my computer so I can listen to it on my iPod and on WinAmp while I am working on the computer. But if it is a comedy concert or music concert, one of the things that annoys me is how the end of each ‘chapter’ of the CD can cause a break in the audio. If the comedian or singer / band is in full flow, I don’t like how the ‘atmosphere’ of the concert is suddenly broken because it is the end of track 2 or track 3.

So Merge MP3 helps by allowing me to join all the MP3 files together into one big MP3 file. This means that they can all play one after another without a break. I don’t have to think about whether the track is about to end or not. I can just hit ‘play’ and enjoy the music / comedy.”

Read more about Merge MP3 here.

How to Install Laptop Memory

If you've ever wondered how hard it is to install laptop memory you're not alone. This video will help dispel the fears surrounding this process with simple instructions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1oTz-F6xME

It may seem like a daunting task, but installing laptop memory is remarkably simple

Clean Your Discs with Toothpaste

Your toothpaste isn’t just a cavity-fighting whitener. It’s also a miracle DVD/CD/video game scratch remover, according to Wipeout44. That’s right—toothpaste. On your discs. Get a glob the same size as you'd use to brush your teeth. Then run it under lukewarm water and smooth it along the disc’s surface and voila! No more scatches, no more skips! The abrasion does the magic but be careful not to overdo it. DVDs are like sensitive gums.

What to Do if Your Computer is Slow Logging Off

Logging off should be nearly instantaneous, like flipping the switch on your hair dryer or smashing your alarm clock’s off-button at 6:00 AM. If you’re having log-off problems, you may be able to fix it with UPHClean:

“The User Profile Hive Cleanup service helps to ensure user sessions are completely terminated when a user logs off. It will clean up handles to allow unloading of the user profile hive. This can help speed up logging off, reconciliation of roaming profiles and prevent exceeding the registry size limit. Many log off problems as caused by improper coding in software which may cause registry access problems. UPHClean takes action to allow profiles to unload

Download the UPHClean software and install it. It will run as a service on your computer. It can also be removed if needed.

Supported Operating Systems: Windows 2000; Windows NT; Windows Server 2003; Windows XP”

Update: If you are running Windows Vista you will not be able to download UPHClean because it is already built into your system (see here).