Ever wondered why you can’t format your USB drives to NTFS?

Format USB Pen Drive with NTFS File System

Its because Windows XP by default won’t allow you to do so except format either to FAT or FAT32. But its fairly easy to get over it and enable NTFS files system on your removable devices.

NTFS does allow you encrypt your files with Windows XP’s built in file encryption. It also lets you to add allow and deny permissions on individual files and folders for specific Windows users, something you can’t think of using FAT systems. On the down side NTFS file system won’t get detected in most linux systems, besides that the encryption is pretty much useless. However if you can get over this few demerits NTFS file system is very good for daily usage.

Here is how to format USB drive with NTFS

1. Plugin ur USB device
2. Right click My Computer>properties>hardware>device manager
3. under Disk Drives find ur pen drive and right click it>properties
4. goto policies tab
5. select optimize for performace
6. now format with NTFS as u wud normally format
   

Downgrading vista to windowsXP

Fed up of windows vista and wanna downgrade to xp but seemingly confused about it ?! Here's a working solution:

1. in usr xp cd and run the recovery console br pressing R at the first screen
2. you may be asked for the administrator password for the vista installation.in case u don't run the admin account and it is disabled,enable and change it's password from vista first by
   

typing lusrmgr.msc in run and navigate to c:\users folder and disable turn off the account for administrator
now change the password for this account and start over to the recovery console
3.now at recovery console tyep the following commands

fixboot
fixmbr
cd\
ren windows winvista

these commands effectively will deactivate the vista installation and replace the bootloader of vista with that of xp

4.now u can proceed with XP installation as normal and later on delete the inactive winvista folder
5. move ur user files just locate c:\users and restore ur files to new locations

Making vista bootable DVD from vista files

Here's an easy way to compile a bootable vista image from vista files copied into a folder
Just perform the following steps assuming you are in 0 level N' you will get success. Don't get modify any of the command below untill u r Sure what you are doing.
1. create a folder inside E:\ named vistaDVD
2. place all ur vista source inside the folder eg (E:\vistaDVD\*.*)
3. download oscdimg.exe
http://www.mediafire.com/?yn3nv3lxox2
4. copy oscdimg.exe to your c:\windows\system32 directory
5 open command prompt (Run--> cmd )
type this in ur command prompt

C:\Documents and Settings\admin>oscdimg -bE:\vistaDVD\boot\etfsboot.com -h -u2 -m -lVISTA_EN_DVD E:\vistaDVD\ E:\VistaDVD.iso

6. go to ur E:\ and locate a new file named vistaDVD.iso
7. burn that ISO with ur favourite burning software Eg: nero
8. Boot your system with the created DVD
9. must work if u go perfectly..


this is what it shud show up in the command prompt

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
© Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\admin>oscdimg -bE:\vistaDVD\boot\etfsboot.com -h -u2 -
m -lVISTA_EN_DVD E:\vistaDVD\ E:\VistaDVD.iso

OSCDIMG 2.45 CD-ROM and DVD-ROM Premastering Utility
Copyright © Microsoft, 1993-2000. All rights reserved.
For Microsoft internal use only.


Scanning source tree complete (109 files in 22 directories)

Computing directory information complete

Image file is 2603384832 bytes

Writing 109 files in 22 directories to E:\VistaDVD.iso

0% complete

Installing Windows98 within windowsXP with MS virtual PC 2007

hi guys!i remember those happy times i began my computing with that pretty old,reliable,"not-so-pretty" but classic windows 98.So just to get that nostalgic feeling back i decided to try it once again but this time using microsoft virtual PC 2007 as a virtual OS within my current WindowsXP

here's a step by step guide
1.download microsoft virtual pc 2007 from here
2.download the windows 98 virtual pc configuration package i created from here
3.after downloading the two you need to have a bootable windows 98 CD or even a non-bootable cd would do as i have added the boot image to the package in step 2. it's important that if u have a bootable CD then u shud delete the file Win98EBD.vfd from the package.
4.make an ISO image of the windows 98 CD
5.install ms virtual pc and do the following
click on new
click next
in the next screen
select add existing virtual machine
click next
in the name and location screen just locate the files extracted frm my package in step 2 keeping in mind that u have deleted/unchanged the Win98EBD.vfd file depending on the type of 98 cd u have bootable/non bootable

click next
a settings screen appears where u can modify the settings.if u want u can increase the RAM as i have set it to 64 MB only
now u'll see the newly created package on main screen.in this screeenshot the second one u see is the one i'm using and the first one is the one i have created for this topic

now to start the installation processs(for bootable CD)
1.make an ISO image of windows 98 cd
2.select your virtual pc and click start
3.from CD menu of the ms virtual pc select captureISO image and locate the win 98 ISO image
4.run the 98 setup in the normal way by starting with cd-rom support and starting setup.exe from d:(cd rom drive letter)
5.be sure to select release iso image from cd menu wnvr cmputer requires a restart or else it will continue booting from the ISO image!

insatllation with non-bootable cd
1.for this process you must already have allowed the Win98EBD.vfd to remain.
2.just click start and in the cd menu select use physical drive to allow you to use the cd-rom drive
3.after the installation has started delete the file and continue using just the cd rom drive


njoy!