Convert Audio files from WAV to MP3 Format

1. Open windows sound recorder form start menu then accessories then Entertainments then sound recorder or form start menu choose Run then type "sndrec32.exe" and press enter.
   
2. From file menu choose open then select the WAV audio file which you want to convert to mp3 format.
   
3. From file menu choose save as , the save as window will appear.
4. From save as window write the name of the new mp3 file in the file name combo box, then press the change button, the sound selection window will appear.
   
5. From the format combo box choose MPEG layer-3, then press ok.
   
6. Press save button in the save as window.
   
7. The conversion process starts.
   

Note: Download Fairstar audio conversion program

Repair Hard Drive's Bad Sectors

1. What is a bad sector?
   A bad sector is a part of a hard drive that you can't use because it has some errors.
2. Causes of bad sectors:
   a. A sudden shock to the hard drive:
   - Be careful when you install your hard drive.
   - Fix your hard drive well and in a suitable position.
   - If you have to move your hard drive to another computer, place it in a box with spongy,
   soft material inside, and hard material outside.
   - Avoid any vibrations to your hard drive.
   b. Bad power supply system:
   - Use a power stabilizer.
   - Avoid sudden power off.
   c. Errors in the hard drive's media:
   - Very uncommon. Use a hard drive from a reliable manufactures.
3. How do you know that the hard drive has bad sectors?
   a. During copying and creating new files, the system will hang and a blue screen will
   appear with an error message "Error Writing to Disk C:"
   b. Hearing strange voices from the hard drive may be happen.
   c. At startup the following message will keep coming out "One or more of your drives may
   have developed bad sector".
   d. When opening a file the following message keep coming out "Error Reading from drive
   C".
4. Repairing bad sectors:
   a. If you can't login windows desktop:
   There are two methods to manage bad sectors, the first method is trying to repair
   without formatting, the other one is performing low level format. Always try the first
   method first then when it fails, use the second one.
   - Using Norton Disk Doctor (NDD) :
   . Download NDD.
   . Unzip NDD file and copy it to CD.
   . Use windows startup disk to boot your system with CD support.
   . Change drive letter to CD drive command prompt letter.
   . At CD drive command prompt type "ndd.exe". . From the main screen, choose diagnose disk. . From select drive to diagnose screen, select
   your drive using space bar. . Press enter to start diagnose. The NDD will scan all clusters and mark the bad one as
   unavailable cluster.
   - Using Seagate Disk Manager:
   . Download Seagate Disk Manager
   . Put a formatted floppy disk in floppy disk drive.
   . Run the downloaded application. It'll create a bootable floppy disk manager.
   . Boot your computer from the bootable floppy disk manager created in the previous
   step.
   . From the disk manager main menu choose advanced options.
   . From advanced options menu select maintenance options.
   . From maintenance options menu select utilities.
   . Select the disk that has bad sectors.
   . Select zero fill drive. This will set the hard drive to the factory setting.
   . Note that: all partitions and data will be deleted. You may partition the hard drive
   using FDisk utility for DOS, or partition magic program for windows. Download
   the last version of FDisk here
   b. If you can login windows desktop:
   - Using windows scandisk utility:
   . Right click the drive icon and choose properties.
   . From properties window, choose Tools.
   . From error-checking frame press Scan Now… button.
   . From scan window check scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors.
   - Other utility programs:
   . You may use other utility programs to scan and repair the bad sectors (such as Norton
   utilities, Fix it utilities,….etc).
   
   

Five Tips to Keep your Computer Active

1. Create an image file:
   First thing to do is creating an image file, the image file is a file created by one of hard drive images creator (such as PowerQuest Drive Image 2002 or 2003, Norton Ghost, GoBack,….etc), it contains an image of the operating system which you're using, all applications that you've installed and all your documents that you've saved on your hard drive. You should save your image file in a DVD-ROM, another hard drive or partition. Usually the Image file is useful when the operating system is not functional or the blue death screen appears at the start up. Instead of formatting your hard drive and install the operating system, reinstall all the applications that were installed and setup your e mail accounts again, all what you have to do is booting from the bootable discs which provide by the drive image creator program, select the image file, and restore your system.
   
2. Back up your data:
   You can't create an image file every time you create a new document or modify an existing one, since the size of the image file is large, it'll consume more space on your hard drive. The alternate solution is backing up your data. There are many applications that you can use to perform back up such as NTI BackUp Now, or Windows BackUp Utility. By backing up your data, you ensure that your data is safe and up to date.
   
3. Clean your registry:
   When you uninstall an application, it may leaves some invalid registry keys behind, also when you delete or move a shortcut it leaves an invalid entry in your registry. On the long run those keys become a problem since they'll reduce the system performance. So, using a registry cleaner program (such as Registry Mechanic, Fix it Utility, or Norton Systemworks,….) will help you to get rid of those keys and keep your registry clean.
   
4. Use a reliable antivirus program:
   It's very important to protect your computer from viruses and worms, they can destroy your data, hardware, and some of them act as spyware to spy on your privacy data such as credit card number, bank account, and email. Using antivirus programs provide you such protection. It's not 100% protection, but it's quite enough. Also it's very important to keep updating the virus patterns of your antivirus program. Updating virus patterns ensures that when your antivirus program performs a scan on your computer, it's looking for the most recent viruses. If your virus patterns are outdated, newer viruses may go undetected.
   According to the last antivirus review 2006:
   "http://anti-virus-software-review.toptenreviews.com/?ttreng=1&ttrkey=antivirus+review", the top five antivirus programs are Bitdefender standard edition, Kaspersky, F-Secure antivirus, PC-Cillin internet security 2006, ESTE Nod32, McAfee antivirus, and Norton antivirus 2006.
   
5. Defrag your Hard Drive Regularly:
   When using a computer, you create and delete files and folders, install new software, or download files from the Internet. Computers typically save files in the first contiguous free space that is large enough for the file. If a large enough free space is not available, the computer saves as much of the file as possible in the largest available space and then saves the remaining data in the next available free space, and so on. After a large portion of a hard drive's volume has been used for file and folder storage, most of the new files are saved in pieces across the hard drive's volume. When you delete files, the empty spaces left behind fill in randomly as you store new ones. Now, your hard drive volume became fragmented. The more fragmented the hard drive's volume is, the slower the computer's file input/output performance will be. Thus, defragging your hard drive's volume is necessary to restore computer's file input/output performance.
   You can defrag your hard drive's volume using windows defragmenter (recommended) or another utility program such as Fix it utility.

You can download and try utilities software at http://www.softarchive.net/