Fix It

How to Stop CHKDSK from Running on Every Boot Up

by Michael Sheehan on April 25, 2013

in Application, Fix It, General, How To, HTD Tech Tip, Microsoft, Software

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Recently, my Windows 7 computer started running a CHKDSK each and every time that it booted up. For those that don’t know, the CHKDSK utility is a way that Windows validates the system file structure and integrity of your computer’s hard drive. You can scan your hard drive with it or run it with a fix (/f) flag to correct issues on your local hard drive. But, when time is critical, many of us don’t want to wait around while the system is scanned, especially if for some reason, it is happening each and every time you start up. When that happens, you either have a serious problem with your computer, or somehow your system has been automatically set to do this scan.

CHKDSK starting

CHKDSK starting

While I don’t condone stopping these scans, especially if your system does indeed have problems, having this run every single time you start up borders on maddening! So after some digging, research and testing, I have found the way to prevent this from happening.

Just a little disclaimer, while I did test this on my machine and it, thus far, did work, if something goes horribly wrong while you do the steps below, I’m not responsible for any data loss or corruption or any issues in general…you are assuming all the risks associated with these steps.

Steps to Prevent CHKDSK from Running on Every Computer Restart

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How To Fix a Broken iPhone Home Button – A Free & Easy Software Fix

by Michael Sheehan on March 13, 2013

in Apple, Cellular, Fix It, General, Hardware, How To, HTD Tech Tip, iOS, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Mobile

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Yesterday I received a panicked call from one of my daughters – “Daddy, my iPhone’s home button is broken!” Tears and wailing ensued. But, as with any broken gadget, I was up for the challenge, knowing that I could either replace the iPhone home button myself or figure out some other way to breath a few extra days or weeks of life into her iPhone 4 so that she could still use it. As it turned out, the “temporary” fix (which could be permanent), it quite easy to do and actually a pretty neat function that not too many people know about. And, it’s built into all iOS devices.

Broken iPhone Home button

Broken iPhone Home button

Normally, when hardware components fail on my iOS devices, I turn to the super-handy iFixIt.com guides. I have done anything from replacing batteries on iPhone 3GS & iPhone 4′s to replacing the power button on an iPhone 4 (let me tell you, THAT one is really hard!). So, I quickly scanned through the steps in the iFixIt guide and realized that even though the part itself was about $15 only, the level of effort to physically replace the button was HUGE. (Here’s the daunting fix-it guide.) So, I needed to find another solution.

Luckily, I remembered in the past reading about how you can reassign a button or create a gesture on a jailbroken phone so I knew there was a software solution out there. However, I didn’t want to jailbreak my daughter’s iPhone. There had to be another solution. And then I found it. What follows are the quick and easy steps on how to fix a broken iPhone home button.

How To Fix a Broken iPhone Home Button

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iOS Apps & Backups are Hogging Up Your Hard Drive – How To Easily Free Up Disk Space

by Michael Sheehan on January 9, 2013

in Apple, Application, Fix It, General, Hardware, How To, HTD Tech Tip, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Software

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I don’t know about you but I am always looking for ways to clear up my laptop’s precious free hard drive space. I have tools that clean caches, temporary files, language files, logs and files in my trash. But I never seem to get ahead of the game. I probably never will but a periodic cleaning is always an important thing to do.

One place that I have neglected is one that may seem incredibly obvious to many. It wasn’t to me until I spent some time doing some hard drive cleaning. And this is an area where most cleaning applications will NOT look – within iTunes.

Fat iTunes icon

I must admit, I’m not only an iOS device junkie, but also an iOS application addict. I install apps regularly, test them out and then delete them from my iPhone or iPad. That is great for my iOS device in terms of keeping it relatively clean (although I have several pages of folders filled with apps) – but it doesn’t help the “mother ship,” my laptop where I sync my iOS devices.

iTunes has made the process of getting and updating iOS apps (as well as managing your iOS device) pretty darn easy. The problem is, if you back up lots of devices and/or download lots of apps, you are consuming a massive amount of hard drive space, probably without even knowing it.

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How To Create a Bootable Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8) Installation DVD or USB Drive [Updated]

by Michael Sheehan on July 25, 2012

in Apple, Application, Gadgets, General, How To, HTD Tech Tip, Software

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As many people know, Apple’s new Operating System, OS 10.8 – a.k.a. “Mountain Lion,” is officially available for purchase and download. Just head over to the Apple App Store on your supported Mac and purchase and install Mountain Lion now! As part of the upgrade process, your Emergency Recovery Boot Partition will be upgraded to support re-installs of Mountain Lion without the need for an external installer. But what if you want to install Mountain Lion on another computer (that is supported)? There is a way to easily do this, but remember, you should only do this with computers that you own or manage (and you wouldn’t need to do this if you had all of your computers use your Apple ID in the App Store – you would just install right from there).

Mountain-lion-install

So, if you do want to create an installer DVD (and you could do this with a USB drive as well), here are the steps to do so.

NOTE: The expanded size of the Mountain Lion installer will NOT fit on a single-sided DVD. You MUST have a dual-sided DVD in order to burn the DVD.

UPDATE 07.26.12 – Thanks to commenter Benoit’s comments, you can now burn a single-sided/single-layer DVD. See updated instructions below.

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How To Set the Default Address Book in Microsoft Outlook 2010

June 28, 2012
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I recently got a new computer at my work and got Microsoft Outlook 2010 installed on it. However, I kept running into problems as I was trying to send emails to people within my organization. I would type in their name and Outlook wouldn’t find it. I would then click the “To:” button and no [...]

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How To Create a “Work” Menu Like Office 2004/2008 in Microsoft Word 2011 for Mac

May 4, 2012
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While I truly like Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac (you can see my review of it here on the Microsoft Office for Mac Blog), there are some folks who have complained about a feature being removed from previous versions, specifically, the “Work” menu that was present in previous versions of Word in Office for Mac [...]

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How To Fix Adobe Fireworks Hanging After Launch on MacOS

April 23, 2012
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Adobe Fireworks is the lifeblood of many web developers, artists and bloggers so when it stops running, I envision all of these groups running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Recently, I ran into an issue where when I launched Fireworks, it would run through the splash screen, loading extensions and the like [...]

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Video: How To Wrap a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro MagSafe Power Adapter the NEW Way

January 10, 2012
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I have been in search of a really good way to wrap up my MagSafe power adapter for both my MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. The reason being, if you simply wrap them up the “conventional” way, you run the risk of fraying the connections which increases the risks of electrical shocks or shorting out [...]

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