2013/10/04

HDD LLF: how to low level format the Hard Disk

HDD Low Level Format is a free software tool ( for personal / home use only ) that allows the Low-Level Format (LLF) of hard disks (and mass storage devices in general).
What is LLF
"Typically this involved subdividing each track on the disk into one or more blocks which would contain the user data and associated control information. Different computers used different block sizes and IBM notably used variable block sizes but the popularity of the IBM PC caused the industry to adopt a standard of 512 user data bytes per block by the middle 1980s. " Source Wikipedia English

HDD- LLF has the following characteristics :
  • Supported interfaces: S-ATA (SATA), IDE (E-IDE), SCSI, SAS, USB, FIREWIRE.
  • Big drives (LBA-48) are supported.
  • Supported Manufacturers: Maxtor, Hitachi, Seagate, Samsung, Toshiba, Fujitsu, IBM, Quantum, Western Digital, and almost any other not listed here.
  • The program also supports low-level formatting of FLASH cards (SD, MMC, MemoryStick and CompactFlash) using a card-reader.


HDD- LLF can also work with external drives connected via USB, and Firewire as well as with supports SD , MMC, MemoryStick and CompactFlash .
There is also an option to quickly delete the partitions and the sector MBR (Master Boot Record) of HDDs .
The utility is available in two versions: can be installed on Windows or directly executed ( portable).

WARNING: After running this low level format tool, the whole disk surface will be erased.
Data restoration is impossible after using this utility!


PERSONAL EXPERIENCE :
I used HDD- LLF for low-level format an external drive connected with USB no longer wanted to learn to operate and above who do not " want to be" formatted by Windows. With both Windows XP and Seven, the format utility (which try to format only high-level) returned an error message and did not proceed . With HDD- LLF I managed to break the deadlock and then, through the utility of Windows XP " DISK MANAGEMENT " , I was able to format ( high-level) disk with the NTFS file system and now it works !
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2013/09/30

Skype Phone without a PC? Choose a RTX DUALPHONE 4088 Cordless Phone

The latest model of the Cordless Phone RTX is currently the DUALPHONE 4088. It can be simultaneously connected to two phone lines: 1 terrestrial analogue PSTN telephone line cable with RJ-11 and 1 VOIP (SKYPE) line through a RJ-45 cable and an internet connection. In this way, you can choose at any time which line is more convenient to use between the available for outgoing calls and you can be reached on two contemporary lines  with a single incoming phone.

DUALPHONE 4088.

One of the most important features of DUALPHONE 4088 is that to use, simply connect it with an ethernet cable (RJ-45) to a modem / router with ADSL internet connection FLAT broadband, so it is not necessary the connection to a PC (as required, for example, by the previous model DUALPHONE RTX-3045 ). 
The DUALPHONE 4088 allows you to receive automatically updates of the phone software (firmware) so it can be corrected and improved by the manufacturer if SKYPE modifies some functions! 
It also has a color LCD to better appreciate the characteristics of SKYPE (status icons, photos and pictures of the account) and allows you to manage 2 SKYPE account on the same phone!



PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: 
As previously said, I find it very useful and advantageous to have a cordless phone that can also use SKYPE without being connected to a PC, and this is precisely the DUALPHONE 4088! Furthermore it uses standard AAA batteries (not proprietary batteries) 
The Dualphone RTX 4088 is a good product but beware of the firmware versions you have on your phone or you may encounter some problems in configuring it. In fact, the phone works fine if the router / modem that handles the connection to the internet has preset the DHCP . 
To check it go to menu -> settings -> advanced -> internet settings 
check if  the way IP is set to Dynamic or Static 
The phone usually is preset to use the 'dynamic addressing' using just DHCP, but if you need to change the address from dynamic to static (you have to assign static IP addresses on your phone, the primary and secondary DNS, and default gateway) you have to keep in mind that with the firmware version 141 ... simply DOES NOT WORK! The phone accepts the input data (IP address, sub mask, primary dns, secondary dns, default gateway) but after saving everything the 0.0.0.0 static IP address appears again and a "network not connected" message is displayed! Unfortunately I lost several hours to try and try again, searching on the internet and calling for service, but there is nothing to do! However, it has been illuminating a telephone interview with the Italian seller (who was already awared of the problem but not of the solution). Several weeks later the confirmation came to me directly from the technical support of RTX, which confirmed the presence of the bug and its correction took effect in the fimware version 167 and later. 
The solution is to update the firmware to the latest available firmware version (currently version 171BEFORE and to do so you have to leave the dynamic addressing and connect the phone to a router with an enabled DHCP service. Only AFTER the update of the firmware to version 171, you can configure static IP addressing  of the phone, and then ... yes it works! 
A small gem: by pressing the menu button of the phone and typing the key sequence 1-3-9-7-5  a new menu with all the available firmware versions (beta included) is shown.  

Finally here is the list of steps to do if you wish to reset the phone to the factory settings

1) Base: Power on the base station and place a network cable in the base
2) Base: Press the reset button for 15 sec. ( the LED should flash shortly at 10 sec, but just be sure to press it for 15 sec. )
3) Base: Wait 10 min until the base station lights
4) Handset: Reset Handset – Menu –settings – advanced –reset
5) Base: Press the reset button (1 sec) again on the base station to enable the registration mode
6) Handset: Place the handset on charger, now it starts searching for open base station (if the handset still cannot find the base station, please try again from step 4 – 6 and put the handset on charger immediately after the base station enters to registration mode on step 5)
7) When the base station is found – follow the instructions described on the screen.

ATTENTION: due to a firmware or software (skype) upgrade is possible at times that some menus of the phone get stuck and not be able to access some functions. In these cases, prior to the RESET of the phone you can groped a less busy street just off the equipment. For example, on a phone that has always worked correctly, at one point, I happened to click on the CONTACT menu and instead of seeing the list of phone numbers, was shown the message "Download Contacts" forever! Probably in that case the phone was unable to communicate properly with its main base to retrieve the list of contacts, even though it was still possible to make and receive calls and access other menus without any problems. It was enough to turn off the phone AND EVEN the main base for a few minutes. Then the phone has started to function properly, allowing me to access the menu CONTACTS.

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED