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Category Archives: Microsoft

How do I remove the EFI partition on a drive from a Windows 8 computer?

17 Dec

I originally formatted a Western Digital Passport drive on a Mac for a SuperDuper! clone backup. But later I needed to use the drive on a Windows system. More specifically I needed to use the drive as attached router storage. The router would refuse to play nicely with any drive containing an EFI partition. Formatting the drive in Windows 8 using Administrative Tools left the EFI pattition intact. I found the solution was to dig into the Command Prompt and use a disk utility “diskpart” that ships with Windows to “clean” the drive.

Diskpart can be used to wipe a drive clean of all partitions. It will wipe EVERYTHING and require you to format the drive in Windows afterwards to a valid filesystem such as NTFS or XFAT before you can use it.

Here are the steps I successfully followed:

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Posted by on December 17, 2012 in How to, Microsoft, Windows 7, Windows 8

 

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Microsoft Kinect for Windows

09 Feb

The launch of Microsoft Kinect for Windows looks like another fantastic waste of time for anyone but software developers. It doesn’t do anything. Paul Thurrott writes:

Long story short, there’s only one reason to get a Kinect for Windows right now: You’re a developer that wishes to create Kinect-compatible apps for Windows. How Microsoft could have shipped this thing without at least a few games, or at least configuration utilities, however, is beyond me. It’s a weird chicken-and-egg thing right now: Users might want a Kinect to play games, but there aren’t any. Yet.

I have Kinect for my Xbox 360 and I’ve used it precisely once. I can’t imagine any situation where I’d ever want that technology attached to my computer. But if you disagree, you can get your Kinect Sensor for Windows now for just $249.99. And hope some enterprising software developer builds an application that makes the Kinect do something beyond stare back at you.

 
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Posted by on February 9, 2012 in Microsoft, Reviews

 

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Exaggerating the truth

26 Jan

Reading the comments section on popular tech blogs always humours me. These kinds of comments almost always make an appearance whenever an article about Bill Gates, Microsoft, Steve Jobs or Apple is published.

Mac fanboy:

I was writing a longer post but Windows 7 crashed on my work computer. Again. I will NEVER buy another Microsoft product. Ever. Oops, blue screen!

Windows fanboy:

That’s strange. We’ve had Windows 7 running on over 2,000 office PCs for over two years, and I’m using it on my laptop right now, and none of them have ever crashed. Ever. Windows 7 is the best operating system ever made.

I’m happy to see the Mac vs. PC war lives on for some people.

 
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Posted by on January 26, 2012 in Apple, Microsoft

 

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