How To: Format USB as NTFS File System

Matt Laboff May 3, 2010 Tutorials & How-To Guides

Format USB Stick as NTFS File System

Flash drives are getting very large in size these days, the new SuperSpeed USB 3.0 sticks are getting over 256GB capacity.Â With these larger sticks, the option to format the device as a NTFS file system is available, but what about the smaller USB sticks? By default, any USB stick under 4GBs in capacity will not have the Format USB as NTFS file system option, but we can fix that. Here is the How To: Format USB sticks as NTFS: Click Start > My Computer > Right click on the drive letter for the USB stick and select Properties.

format USB NTFS

Now, click the Hardware tab of the Properties pop-up window and select the drive letter of which youâ€™d like to change.Â In this case, itâ€™s drive letter F shown as â€œSimple Flash Disk 2.0 USB Deviceâ€œÂ From here click the Properties button.

format USB stick NTFS

The next step is click the Policies tab and Continue Reading No Comments

Chat Stick – USB Flash Drive To Recover All Her Dirty IMs

Matt Laboff April 13, 2010 Flash Storage & Memory, Tutorials & How-To Guides

Several weeks ago I reported on the flash drive which detects p0rn and today I’m letting you know about the Chat Stick.Â A flash drive which recovers all those dirty Instant Messages. The USB Chat Stick is loaded with software which scans the host computer for all instant message conversations, deleted or not, and uses recovery software to localize all those discussions into one, nice, handy place; the flash drive.

USB chat stick

So here’s the obvious spin about the USB Chat Stick.Â You can search a computers history for children IM conversations to make sure they aren’t sexting or worse, talking to on-line predators.Â Or, for the paranoid spouse, a great tool to finally put your curiosity to rest – are they cheating on me? But from a business perspective, I think this has a lot of value.Â For example, we spend many hours talking to suppliers overseas about flash drives, MP3 players etc and there are many conversation which get deleted away.Â Import business transaction information that, one day, you may need to recover.Â The USB Chat Stick can help. Here are the company’s talking points: Continue Reading No Comments

Review: USB Benchmark Software

Matt Laboff April 12, 2010 Industrial Duplication & Media Management, Tutorials & How-To Guides

Review: USB Benchmark software by USB Performance.

USB Performance has a nice USB benchmark testing program with lots of features besides read / write tests.

The USB performance testing software gives you the option to test at a File Copy level or a Bit for Bit copy level. The difference with the File Copy is the process includes reading from the File Allocation Table [FAT] and thus slows down the process. The bit for bit read/write tests will show the best possible performance your device will be able to obtain.

USB benchmark

Included in the USB benchmark software are some bonus features such as file recovery.

We all know with flash memory once you click delete, it’s gone forever. Well the USB Performance software will recover those deleted files. OR maybe you’ve lost data with a system Blue Screen or hardware crash, again the USB recovery feature should be able to restore those lost files.

Another nice feature is the backup function. The backup function will create a single image file on your PC.Â You can restore or backup the image file at any time. This nice thing about a single image file [rather than copying all the files off your USB stick] is that you wont accidentally delete a single file or folder, you’d have to really be an idiot and delete the entire image file backup.

usb performance test

Other nice features include the USB typology layout and bad sector scan function.

The USB Performance software is free for download with no time limit or expiration date, however, it does miss a couple features of the full [paid] version.

Bottom line, if you need some quick benchmark testing, this is the way to go.

Continue Reading No Comments

Infinite USB Plug – Good On Paper But Will Never Work

Matt Laboff March 23, 2010 Tutorials & How-To Guides

Here is another USB prototype design and it’s called the Infinite USB Plug.Â The pictures look great and the concept is clever, however it just doesn’t work.Â Never will.

Infinite USB plug

Designed by Gonglue Jiang, the Infinite USB Plug allows you to keep adding your peripherals without the need USB hubs or hot swapping your devices on USB ports when needed. The color coding on plugs will make it easy to identify which plug belongs to which device. The problem is the way USB typology works.Â When connecting multiple devices via USB you cannot daisy-chain them.Â You cannot piggy back them, it must be in a logical pyramid typology.Â Which means, this concept requires a hub.

Designed by Gonglue Jiang, the Infinite USB Plug allows you to keep adding your peripherals without the need USB hubs or hot swapping your devices on USB ports when needed. The color coding on plugs will make it easy to identify which plug belongs to which device.

The problem is the way USB typology works.Â When connecting multiple devices via USB you cannot daisy-chain them.Â You cannot piggy back them, it must be in a logical Continue Reading No Comments

Printer Cartridge USB Storage Drive – Great Hidding Spot

Matt Laboff March 8, 2010 Tutorials & How-To Guides

GetUSB.info reports on all many differentÂ USB hacks which take ordinary items around your house or office and turn them into something different.Â Today we bring you the USB printer cartridge.

usb inkcartridge

This is a low tech project easy for just about anyone to do.Â I wasn’t going to report on this because of it’s simplicity, but then I got to thinking.Â This is a great way to have a USB drive with content you don’t want anyone else to find, hidden nicely in your inkjet printer.Â At least for me, the color inkjet printer we use only prints black because we really didn’t need color and the cartridges are too expensive. The full USB hack is laid out really well at Instructables website, but it boils down to 5 basic steps:

Step 1 = Gather up your tools Step 2 = Break into the USB stick and disassemble the inkjet cartridge [messy] Step 3 = Clean everything out Step 4 = Position the USB stick inside the case [ink cart full of silicon] Step 5 = Button it up and use.

Considering the simplicity of this project, you also have a low budget, about zero cents. Continue Reading No Comments

USB Hot Plate From Old CPU

Matt Laboff February 28, 2010 Tutorials & How-To Guides

Here is a simple and incredibly fun USB hack where you turn an old CPU into a hot plate for your coffee, tea or some liquid fragrance [in a dish].

USB hot plate

This very useful USB hack can be done in 4 steps.

Step 1) Tools and Materials

1. A dead CPU. (Ofcourse you can use a working one but it wonâ€™t be feasible.) 2. A USB cable 3. A Fan grill with screws. 4. Any box (I used a wooden tie box cover) 5. A rotary Tool (the best tool ever invented) 6. Epoxy 7. A creative artistic mind…[continute]

Step 2) The Idea

A CPU will still have some working electronic circuits even if it stopped functioning probably. And this project will use the heat generated by running some Volts in the CPU through a USB cable.Â First things first. Be Very Careful. Connecting a malfunctioning CPU to your computer may and will damage your computerâ€™s ports or even worse. If you donâ€™t have enough…[continue]

Step 3) The Steps

First, prepare the base. You have to find a thin box or a box cover to use as the base of the plate. I used a tie box cover made of wood because it has the same thickness as my laptop. Now put the CPU over the base you picked and mark a square to drill with your rotary device. The square must be a little bit bigger than the CPU. The reason behind the bigger hole…[continue]

Step 4) Preparing the hot plate

locate the ground pins in your CPU and that can be done by reviewing the CPU data sheet or simply by the devastating trial and error. Cut the USB wire and pass it through the hole you made previously in the base. Strip the USB cable and locate the black and red weirs (black wire = ground, Red wire = +5V). You can cut out the white and green data weirs for more space…[continue] Clearly this tutorial is from Instructables…Thanks Eric! Continue Reading No Comments

USB Hack: Motorola Android With USB Connectivity

Matt Laboff February 11, 2010 Tutorials & How-To Guides

I was given a tip today on how someone hacked the Motorola Android and now has USB connectivity. It’s a great little hack so now just about any USB device could potentially be connected to the Android.Â The question becomes what kind of drivers will the Android support so that printers, controllers, USB sticks etc can be used. The hack is fairly simply.Â With a little amount of effort, it is possible to enable the B port of the Android as a host interface, meaning the cable USB hack supplies power and acts as the bus controller for connectivity.

android hack

Youâ€™ll need to make two things, a micro-dongle to enable the port (you plug it in during boot time) and a cable with the right connectors on each end (for connecting your peripheral). To do this youâ€™ll need three cables:

A car charging cable (off-the-shelf at the Verizon store)
A Micro-USB cable (as above)
A USB extender cable (the teeny ones that sometimes come free with USB keys work great)

The full write up and USB hack can be found here. Continue Reading No Comments

Old Tech For New Gadgets — USB Fan

Matt Laboff February 10, 2010 Tutorials & How-To Guides

MSN did a nice article today about 9 new tech gadgets you can make with the stash of old stuff you probably have laying around.Â One which fits into the USB category, is this USB fan. Retro and cool looking, you can put together a nice desk fan with just an old tower or power supply fan along with solder and USB connector.

USB fan

Other new tech gear from old gadgets include a stone age cell phone tricked into a portable safe.Â Scanner table where you can display items under the glass cover of the scanner and a USB mouse turned up-side-down and carved out for a plant holder. Not the most impressive conversion, but a fun article to read on your break or lunch hour. MSN 9 Uses for Dead Tech Gear… Continue Reading No Comments

USB Recycle Bin For Flash Drives

Matt Laboff February 1, 2010 Tutorials & How-To Guides

iBin is a portable application designed for USB stick so users can restore files which have been accidentally deleted.Â Since Windows does not redirect a deleted file off the OS into the Recycle Bin, once a user clicks delete, it’s gone forever [well unless you use restore tools to get it back], but iBin resolves that problem.

iBin recycle bin

iBin puts your deleted files in a container on the USB drive itself and sits quietly until your custom flash drive gets to capacity, then you’ll need to do a bit of house cleaning. iBin includes a collection of management features to set the preferences of the iBin.Â Items such as confirmation of where to put the “deleted” file, iBin size, how to erase and when to dump the iBin data.

ibin usb delete

All in all, this is an excellent application for users to add one additional layer of safety for the delete button. This is a Windows based product and runs on all OS’ from Microsoft, including Windows 7. Continue Reading No Comments

How To: Turn Off USB Auto Play in Windows 7

Matt Laboff January 30, 2010 Tutorials & How-To Guides, USB News & Press Releases

How To: Turn off USB Autoplay in Windows 7

Windows 7 is much like XP in accessing the feature to turn off the USB auto play function.Â We don’t have a Window’s 7 machine, but I did find a great tutorial from DemoGeek.Â Here is the info you need to turn off USB Auto Play in Windows 7. Go to:Â START > SEARCH > type “group policy” From there Windows 7 will narrow down your options, select the “Edit group policy” option.Â Should be the first one listed.

autoplay windows 7

From here, it’s virtually the same as Windows XP. Go to: > COMPUTER CONFIGURATION > ADMINISTRATIVE TEMPLATES > WINDOWS COMPONENTS > AUTOPLAY POLICIES With having “AutoPlay Policies” highlighted, you will see on the right side of the dialogue box, “Turn off Autoplay” option.Â Click That!

turn off autoplay usb

On the dialogue box which pops up, select the “Disable” radial button to Continue Reading No Comments

Zap And Kill USB Sticks With Rfiddler Modified Nerf Gun

Matt Laboff December 24, 2009 Tutorials & How-To Guides

Some guy in Germany had a bit too much time on his hands and modified a Nerf gun into a electromagnetic USB stick stun gun.

rfiddler usb stun gun

This gun is by no means subtle and was modified from an old Nerf N-Strike Recon CS-6. Added to the mod was an MP3 player and amp for sound effects, a flash unit and 50-turn copper spool. The completed gun, including accupack, chips, LEDs, paint, and primer, cost around $75 to construct and still works as the original N-Strike gun. The video shows several RFID products killed so the signal no longer works, and the author also claims it will destroy USB sticks, and I would assume, many other electronic gadgets.

Clearly a fun and interesting product for the hobbiest, but very little particle use. Source:Â Pocket-Lint.com Continue Reading No Comments

How To: Turn Off Autoplay XP Home For USB Sticks

Matt Laboff December 3, 2009 Tutorials & How-To Guides, USB News & Press Releases

How to turn off autoplay XP home edition for USB flash drives.

Windows XP Home edition requires a different method to turn off the USB autoplay function than XP Professional [which we reported on earlier].

It’s not difficult to turn off the USB autoplay, just a couple easy steps.

Note:Â We are going into the Registry so be careful not to do anything other than what we suggest.

Got to>Â START > RUN > type “regedit“

Navegate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER
+ software
+ Microsoft
+ Windows
+ CurrentVersion
+ Policies
+ Explorer

**The “+” are the registry hives you must expand.

Now click the + Explorer directory just once so it is blue.Â On the right side you will see “NoDriveTrypeAutoRun“

Right click that and Select “Modify“

turn off usb autoplay xp home

Here you most likely have b5 listed in the “Value data” field.Â Simply replace that value with 95.

Click OK.