How to Watch Video Files Stored on Your Portable Hard Drive 

External hard drives have grown in popularity as people have started to use their computers to acquire and watch more large-file media. Movies, television shows, and other video items account for some of the largest files on many people’s computers. After downloading a few movies, a computer’s hard drive can begin to slow down and available storage is greatly reduced. External storage gadgets are an excellent solution to this problem, but a hassle arises when the user then wants to watch the video on their television. Historically, users would have to transfer the file from the external storage drive back to the computer’s main storage drive and then attach the computer to the television using cables. Fortunately, new technology has enabled users to watch files stored on their external units without moving the files.
1. Copy files onto an external drive or storage device.
2. Attach a portable video player (PVP) to your television. These gadgets are still being developed, but the current market leader is the Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player. Various connection options are available, including standard composite AV cables or high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI).
3. Plug in your external storage device. This can be a thumb drive, an external hard drive, or anything that connects via a USB port.
4. Select the video file you would like to watch. Once the external drive is attached to the PVP, the video, audio, and image contents will show up in a menu on the screen.
After identifying the file you want to watch, hit play and enjoy. When you have finished watching, there is no need to disconnect your external drive unless you wish to use it for something else. Supported video files include MPEG, AVI, WMV9, MKV, and MOV.

Create your own bootable USB pen drive in 4 steps

There are a number of ways in which to create your own bootable pen drive but we are going to show you the easiest way. To begin with you will need a PC with a CD/DVD ROM drive, the Windows CD/DVD, and a 2GB pen drive if you are creating a Windows XP bootable USB or a 4GB pen drive if the requirement is for Windows Vista/7.

BY MAYUR KHOKHAR

Create your own bootable USB pen drive in just four easy steps.

By Sandeep Balachandran

Netbooks have made their mark in the PC segment and are here to stay. What makes them worth the buy is the unquestionable portability that they offer over their laptop counterparts. They are small, light and are definitely easy to lug around. They might not have the processing power to execute intensive tasks but will easily handle office applications. Moreover some of them are even capable of playing high definition video which makes them decent all rounders. That said, these little entertainment boxes have one major drawback in them: the exclusion of an optical drive. No doubt that files can be transferred via pen drives but what if the need arises to reinstall the Operating System in case of a system crash or if the requirement is to install the new Windows 7? What then? Would you spend money on a new external DVD-RW or would you prefer upgrading or re-installing via a pen drive? Well, for most of us the obvious choice would be the pen drive.

There are a number of ways in which to create your own bootable pen drive but we are going to show you the easiest way. To begin with you will need a PC with a CD/DVD ROM drive, the Windows CD/DVD, and a 2GB pen drive if you are creating a Windows XP bootable USB or a 4GB pen drive if the requirement is for Windows Vista/7. To start with, download and extract the program �WinToFlash�. Once extracted execute the file called �WinToFlash� and follow these simple steps.

Step 1: Click the 'Windows Setup transfer wizard' and select 'Next'.

Step 2: Here you will need to define two paths where the 'Windows File Path' points to the location of the Windows installation disk and the 'USB Drive' specifies the location of pen drive that hat will be used for creating the bootable installation routine. Click on 'Select' and choose an appropriate path for both.

Step 3: Accept the 'Windows License Agreement' and click on continue.

Step 4: Don�t panic! The 'Warning' is just to remind you that the pen drive will be formatted before proceeding. Click 'OK' to proceed or 'Cancel' in case you inserted the wrong pen drive or want to check it.

That�s all that needs to be done to be able to create a bootable Windows installation pen drive. To be able to boot from the pendrive you will need to access the BIOS and change the boot priority to 'Removable disk'. If the settings are right you will be able to boot and proceed with the installation of Windows. 

Create Bootable USB Pen Drive for Windows 7

Create Bootable USB Pen Drive for Windows 7 

BY MAYUR KHOKHAR

Installing Windows from a USB flash drive has several advantages : First of all, the overall speed of the installation process will increase significantly, carrying a USB stick is much more convenient than a DVD, and finally it becomes possible to install the OS even on those systems that do not have a DVD drive, such as a netbook.

 

In this post, I will show you how to load the Windows installation on to your USB flash drive and make it bootable just like the DVD.

There are Two Options:

1. Windows 7 USB-DVD Download Tool.

2. Basic Option.

1. Windows 7 USB-DVD Download Tool:

Just Download this Tool and Installed in your Desired PC then follow some easy Steps:-

Click to Download 

or 

Click to Download

2. Basic Option:

Tools Required:

1. USB flash drive with a minimum capacity of 4 GB.

2. Windows 7 Setup DVD.

Step 1 : Plug-in your USB flash drive.

Step 2 : Open the PowerShell (OR Command Prompt if PowerShell Not Exist). If you are using Windows 7/Vista then open it with administrator rights*.
* Goto Start -> All Programs -> Accessories ->Windows PowerShell ->  Right-click on “Windows PowerShell” and select “Run as Administrator”.
Step 3: In the PowerShell, type

DISKPART

This will start the Microsoft DiskPart utility as shown below:

Now issue the following command:
LIST DISK

This will show you a list of  available disks on your system. Disk 0 is usually the hard disk. In my case, Disk 1 is the USB drive (this can be a different one in your case). Now issue the command as shown below:

 SELECT DISK 1

above command, 1 is the USB drive number on my system. If you have a different number on your system, then you need to replace 1 with that number.
Step-4: Now issue the following list of commands one by one as shown below:

CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
SELECT PARTITION 1
ACTIVE
FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK
ASSIGN
EXIT

Close Power Shell and proceed to the next step.
Step 5: Insert the Windows 7/Vista installation disc and note down the “drive letter” of your DVD drive. In my case, it is “H:”.

Open the command prompt. If you are using Windows 7/Vista then open it with administrator rights*.
* Goto Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Right-click on “Command Prompt” and select “Run as Administrator”.

Now type the following list of commands as shown below:
H:
CD BOOT
BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 G:(NOTE:
G: is your USB drive letter)

EXIT

Step-6: Copy the contents of your Windows 7/Vista installation disk into the USB flash drive.
Directly Copy-Paste All DVD file into Usb Stick Then…

Your USB stick is now ready to boot and install the OS for you. Don’t forget to enable the “USB Boot” option and change the “Boot priority to USB device from hard disk” in your BIOS settings.

How to remove BIOS password of Acer computer - Laptop and Desktop Both

How to remove BIOS password of Acer computer - Laptop and Desktop Both

by mayur khokhar softwere enginier 

Step by Step Tutorial to Remove Acer Bios password via Software. This has been done on testing machine Laptop Acer Aspire 3620/ Travel Mate 2420. Anyway, I'm not sure it will work on every Acer PC/Laptop so just consider to do at your own risk, I’m not responsible for any damages caused by this guide. Actually this information is intended for experienced users. It is not intended for basic users, hackers, or computer thieves.

BIOS password remove alternatives:

• Reset Password BIOS via Backdoor BIOS Password.
• Reset Password BIOS via Software.
• Reset Password BIOS via hardware.
• Reset Password BIOS via default manufacturers.

As we know most of Acer computer (Laptop & Desktop) allow us to setup BIOS in Microsoft Windows (9x/XP/Vista) environment. Great, this is the powerful that help us to remove the BIOS password cuz all we know if we enter Setup Utility at the boot time we have only three times of filling the password and if all wrong then the system will halt.

The program helps us to enter Acer BIOS setup in Microsoft Windows is “Acer eSettings Management” which comes with the CD when we buy Acer PC/Laptop. If you lost the CD then just come to Acer website to download the program.

Before you can install “Acer eSettings Management” you have to install program called: “Acer Empowering Technology” so you’d better to download both of them from Acer website and install & restart your computer to be ready for the job. Here is the link of Acer website, just come there and sellect right series/model of your computer to download these programs:

Code:

• ftp://ftp.support.acer-euro.com

or

Code:

• ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com

Another one program is also very important we will need called: “CmosPwd” - CmosPwd is a cmos/bios password recovery tool. CmosPwd is under GNU Public License. You can freely distribute it. It can be compiled under Dos, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD and NetBSD.

Download it here: Code: http://www.cgsecurity.org/cmospwd-5.0.zip

Guide to install CmosPwd and remove password:

• Download & extract to a folder. I put it in drive D like this: d:\ cmos
• To work on cmos memory, ioperm need to be installed and running. ioperm gives direct port I/O access for specified ports to user-mode process (ring 3) using Ke386SetIoAccessMap and Ke386IoSetAccessProcess kernel functions.

Log on to Windows as Administrator priviledges and do as follow: (see picture):

• Click Start >> Run: type CMD hit Enter on your keyboard.
• now us the CD command of Dos to come to d:\cmos\windows. (here is: d: hit enter; cd cmos hit enter; cd windows hit enter).
• when you are already in d:\cmos\windows in drive D then: type “ioperm.exe –i” hit enter.
• to start ioperm service: type “net start ioperm” hit enter.
• ok, type: “Cmospwd_win.exe /k” hit enter, we will see:

1 - Kill cmos

2 - Kill cmos (try to keep date and time)

0 - Abort

Choice:

Type 1 and hit Enter to clear cmos.

• run the Acer eSettings Management program: start >> program >> Acer Empower Technology >> Acer eSettings Management.

• now come to the: Bios Password to see: if you still see password enable, that means we fail but if we see they are Disable so we are done. Remember if we success remove password then we have to create a password for it and then remove it and click Apply to save to cmos memory. This is very important because sometimes we see it Disable but when reboot the computer they are Enable again cuz the password is still in the CMOS.

That’s all, good luck & don’t forget to set an easy password later.

8.15. BIOS Tips

by mayur khokhar 

8.15.1. Booting from CD-ROMs

A bootable CD-ROM has a special layout that is detected by the BIOS boot loader code, and executed if it conforms the specifications. This layout is called "El Torito Bootable CD-ROM Format Specification" and has been published by Phoenix and IBM. A copy of this spec is on Bochs tech specs page.
El Torito specifies 3 ways to have a bootable CD:

• floppy emulation boot: A standard floppy image is burnt on the CD. In this case the BIOS has to redirect all first floppy accesses to this image and the real floppy drive becomes the second one.
• a "no emulation" boot: In this case the BIOS is instructed to load an arbitrary number of sectors straight into memory, and execute it.
• hard disk emulation: A hard disk image is burnt on the CD. The BIOS has to redirect all hard disk accesses to that image. The real hard disks are still available, with BIOS numbers 81h and up.

In Bochs 2.0, hard disk emulation is not implemented in the BIOS. There are also subtilities about multiple boot-images CD-ROMs, that are not handled by Bochs. However, our BIOS may be more strict than real PC BIOSes, I don't know. But I would definitely be interested to know of any CD that can boot on real hardware, but does not in Bochs.
When failing to boot from CD-ROM, the BIOS outputs the reason of the failure as an error code, in the log file, and on the screen.
Here is a summary of what can happen when booting from the CD.

Table 8-2. CD Boot error codes

Error code	Reason
0x01	no atapi device found
0x02	no atapi cdrom found
0x03	can not read cd - BRVD
0x04	cd is not eltorito (BRVD)
0x05	cd is not eltorito (ISO TAG)
0x06	cd is not eltorito (ELTORITO TAG)
0x07	can not read cd - boot catalog
0x08	boot catalog : bad header
0x09	boot catalog : bad platform
0x0A	boot catalog : bad signature
0x0B	boot catalog : bootable flag not set
0x0C	can not read cd - boot image

0x01 no atapi device found
0x02 no atapi cdrom found

For the first two errors, an ata-*: type=cdrom is probably missing from the configuration file. This is what you get if no cdrom has been defined in Bochs conf file.

0x03 can not read cd - BRVD

For this error, the cdrom support has not been compiled in Bochs, or Bochs could not open the file or device. This is what you get if Bochs is not able to read the cd.

0x04 cd is not eltorito (BRVD)
0x05 cd is not eltorito (ISO TAG)
0x06 cd is not eltorito (ELTORITO TAG)

For these errors, the data has been read from the cd, but the cd does not conform to the El Torito specification. This is what you get if the cd is not bootable.

0x08 boot catalog : bad header
0x09 boot catalog : bad platform
0x0A boot catalog : bad signature
0x0B boot catalog : bootable flag not set

now the cd is eltorito, but the boot catalog is corrupted, or the cd was made to boot on a ppc system. This should not happen for a x86 bootable cd.

0x07 can not read cd - boot catalog
0x0C can not read cd - boot image

here, specific part of the cd could not be read. This should definitely not happen.

8.15.2. Disk translation

Since the beginning of the PC era, disks have grown in size by a factor of 10000. Due to differences between the ATA specification and BIOSes implementations, when disks reached critical sizes, it became necessary to translate the CHS geometry (cylinders, heads, sectors per track) between the BIOS (int 13h) and the ATA interface. Please refer to the ATA-FAQ and Hale Landis' document for a complete discussion of the problem.
Unfortunately, there has never been any standard on the translation algorithms.
Bochs implements 4 well-known algorithms, selectable in the configuration file in the "ataX-xxxx: ..., translation='algorithm'" section.

Table 8-3. Disk translation algorithms

Algorithm	Maximum disk size	Maximum logical and physical geometry (CHS)	Description
none	528MB (1032192 sectors)	LCHS:1024/16/63 PCHS:1024/16/63	no translation is done. The CHS received at the int13h interface is sent as is to the ATA interface.
large	4.2GB (8257536 sectors)	LCHS:1024/128/63 PCHS:8192/16/63	a standard bitshift algorithm (named Extended-CHS) is used to translate the CHS between the int13h interface and the ATA interface. The translation is achieved by multiplying/dividing the cylinder/head count by a power of 2 (2, 4 or 8). (a factor of 16 could not be used because the head count would become 256, and MS-DOS thought this was 0) Note that the number of sectors per track is not changed, so a lower spt value will lead to a lower maximum disk size.
echs			synonym for large
rechs	7.9GB (15482880 sectors)	LCHS:1024/240/63 PCHS:15360/16/63	a revised bitshift algorithm (called Revised Extended-CHS) is used to translate the CHS between the int13h interface and the ATA interface. First the number of physical heads is forced to 15, and the number of cylinders is adjusted accordingly. Then, as in the simple extended CHS algorithm, the translation is achieved by multiplying/dividing the cylinder/head count by a power of 2 (2, 4, 8 or 16). The head count being forced to 15, it can safely be multiplied by 16 without crashing dos. Note that the number of sectors per track is not changed, so a lower spt value will lead to a lower maximum disk size.
lba	8.4GB (16450560 sectors)	LCHS:1024/255/63 PCHS:16320/16/63	a LBA-assisted algorithm is used to translate the CHS between the int13h interface and the ATA interface. The translation is achieved by first computing the physical size of the disk (LBA=C*H*S). Then the sectors per track is forced to 63, and the head count to 255. Then the cylinder count is computed (C=LBA/(63*255)) Note that the number of sectors per track is forced to 63 in the logical geometry, regardless of the actual geometry reported by the disk. Also note that the LBA-assisted algorithm has nothing to do with LBA access at the ATA interface.
auto			the best suited algorithm between none, large and lba is used

Setting a specific CHS translation should be done if you use a disk dump of an actual disk, or use a real disk as a block device. You need to know which geometry was used to format the disk, and which translation was used. You must not set the translation to 'auto'.

Note: rechs translation should only be useful for Compaq users who wants to use a disk as a block device. Please report if you know any other system that use such translation.

If you plan to create a new disk image (for example with bximage), format it and install an OS on it, select the "auto" translation for an automatic selection of the best algorithm based on the disk image size. Be warned that an image created with the "auto" translation might not be readable with previous versions of Bochs. Upward compatibility will be maintained.

Note: This translation applies only to int13h BIOS disk accesses. Older OSes (e.g. MS-DOS) tend to use them a lot. On modern OSes, disk accesses through BIOS int13h are limited to boot loaders. The usual rules and tricks of the installed OS still apply (ie 1024 cylinders boot limit).

The OTHER Way to Find Out What Video Card Is in Your Computer by Greg Chapman, MVP (retired)

I get a small advantage over the other writers for TechTrax; I live with the editor. That means that once a month, she goes into seclusion and starts massaging all the words the rest of us put together. Only occasionally does she come out to eat, sleep and ask for assistance. So when she sends us all a notice that our articles are up, she also asks us to quickly read our stuff and let her know of any needed changes so she can put this month's copy to bed, finally. This month, the note came and I went to read my own work (hate doing that). While there, I noticed Vic Ferri with an excellent piece on using Debug to reset your BIOS password. It's a cool trick and I'm hoping he'll save me the effort of looking in my old notes for the routine that will wipe out the partition info from a hard drive for his article next month. (Big hint to Vic!) Vic's work made me think of yet another useful Debug trick that has saved me much grief in the past when setting up an old system with a fresh operating system install. In fact, it has even saved me when I couldn't believe the settings that Windows chose and I had to verify for myself just what video card is this computer using, anyway? Quite often, the Device Manager in Windows gives the barest of descriptions for the Display Adapter it has found and sometimes it was only able to use the generic SVGA driver in order to provide you with a display. 800X600 at 16 colors? Yecchhh! So how do you find out what video controller you do have without yanking the cover off your machine? And what if it's a laptop computer? Yanking the cover off is not a convenient or wise option to take in that case (for most of us). The answer, again, is Debug. Open a command prompt (this works for all versions of Windows except NT3.51 and earlier) and type Debug. If the system complains that it can't find debug, you're probably on some variant of Windows 95 or later. In that case, be sure to specify c:\windows\command\debug. You'll be greeted by Debug's ultra uninformative prompt which is a meager minus sign (-). At the prompt, type the following, then hit Enter. d C000:0010 You should get output similar to the following: C000:0010 44 45 4F 20 0D 00 00 00-F4 00 AE 12 00 00 49 42 DEO ..........IB C000:0020 4D 20 56 47 41 20 43 6F-6D 70 61 74 69 62 6C 65 M VGA Compatible C000:0030 01 00 00 00 80 10 87 D5-30 33 2F 31 34 2F 30 32 ........03/14/02 C000:0040 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ C000:0050 E9 5B 74 00 00 00 00 00-E9 F7 11 E9 FE 11 50 4D .[t...........PM C000:0060 49 44 58 00 5B 00 00 00-00 A0 00 B0 00 B8 00 C0 IDX.[........... C000:0070 00 5B FF 7F 4E 56 00 05-14 C5 53 F0 44 01 11 03 .[..NV....S.D... C000:0080 00 00 00 00 B0 B9 44 BB-F8 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 ......D......... Type d at the prompt and press Enter again. Here's the output: C000:0090 0C 01 50 00 8C 77 71 28-55 69 AF 69 3D 6E F2 6D ..P..wq(Ui.i=n.m C000:00A0 06 6E 9F 01 C2 01 FA C0-00 01 01 00 3F 3E 37 36 .n..........?>76 C000:00B0 B4 C0 69 52 6A 80 1A 06-00 40 0D 03 00 14 B9 64 ..iRj....@.....d C000:00C0 B9 6A B9 82 B9 8E B9 8E-B9 64 B9 C0 C2 C6 C2 00 .j.......d...... C000:00D0 00 00 00 CC C2 CF C2 00-00 00 00 00 6B D0 6A 00 ............k.j. C000:00E0 00 00 00 00 D5 00 00 D2-C2 F0 6A E0 6A 00 00 00 ..........j.j... C000:00F0 00 00 00 00 50 43 49 52-DE 10 12 01 00 00 18 00 ....PCIR........ C000:0100 00 00 00 03 6E 00 01 00-00 80 00 00 4E 56 49 44 ....n.......NVID And then type d and press Enter one more time to get this output: C000:0110 49 41 20 47 65 46 6F 72-63 65 32 20 47 4F 20 56 IA GeForce2 GO V C000:0120 47 41 20 42 49 4F 53 0D-0A 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 GA BIOS......... C000:0130 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ C000:0140 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ C000:0150 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 56 65 72 .............Ver C000:0160 73 69 6F 6E 20 33 2E 31-31 2E 30 31 2E 34 34 2E sion 3.11.01.44. C000:0170 42 34 20 0D 0A 00 43 6F-70 79 72 69 67 68 74 20 B4 ...Copyright C000:0180 28 43 29 20 31 39 39 36-2D 32 30 30 31 20 4E 56 (C) 1996-2001 NV As you can see, output reads in this order across the screen: Memory Location—that's the part that looks like C000:0010 What's in the memory at that location—All those Hex combinations like 49 41 The ASCI translation of those Hex values—the part that looks like words! Most video cards will have their BIOS signature showing in the first block of output. Some will start later in memory and still others, like the NVIDIA card in this laptop will have the rest of the information in the 3rd block. The character, d, to Debug, means Dump Memory and that's precisely what it's doing here. So, reading the above information, what kind of video card is in this computer? There it is at the end of the second memory block dump and most of the 3rd dump: NVIDIA GeForce2 GO with BIOS revision 3.11.01.44 Now you know that all you've got to do is go download drivers for an NVIDIA GeForce2Go video card and any Flash BIOS revisions to get things up to date and finally move to a nicer screen resolution! Windows Device Manager does a good job of telling you about your Display Adapter most of the time. But it's always telling you only which driver it has loaded and it never tells you exactly what's in your system unless you have precisely the right driver loaded. Now you know how to find out for sure what driver you should be using by unleashing the ancient powers of Debug!

Clearing a Forgotten Adminstrative BIOS Password in Windows 9x by mayur khokhar softwere enginier
Here's a DOS trick for Windows 9x, that will reset (delete) your motherboard's BIOS password (aka CMOS password) without any need to open up your computer to remove the battery or mess with jumpers. This method can come in very handy in the event you ever lose and forget your BIOS password or if you acquire used computers where the unknown previous owners had BIOS passwords set (in fact, this happened to me long ago—I was given a used computer, but there was no way I could enter the CMOS to make changes). It's important to note here that the password we are talking about is only the one that prevents a user from entering the BIOS setup at bootup, not the one that stops you from getting past the boot. Normally, at bootup you can press a key (usually the DEL key) to access your BIOS allowing you to view it or make changes. With a password set, there is no way to enter setup. Though a password can provide a basic and very effective level of PC security, losing it can be a real headache if you don't know how to fix the problem. The MS-DOS command that will makes this trick possible is the DEBUG command (debug itself is a utility—debug.exe—which is located in your Windows Command folder). This is not a command to be taken lightly—in other words, it's not a command to play with! You can cause serious corruption with this command and can end up not being able to even boot your computer! Debug is used to work with binary and executable files and allows you to alter (hex edit) the contents of a file or CPU register right down to the binary and byte level. To begin debug mode, type debug at a MS-DOS prompt or you can specify a file, i.e., DEBUG FILE.EXE. There is a difference in screen output between the two methods. When you type DEBUG alone, debug responds with a hyphen (-) prompt waiting for you to enter commands. The second method, with a file specified, loads the file into memory and you type all the commands on the line used to start debug. In this tip, we will be writing to the BIOS, so the first method is the one that would be used. All debug commands can be aborted at any time by pressing CTRL/C. Accessing BIOS with DEBUG The basic trick will be to fool the BIOS into thinking there is a checksum error, in which case it resets itself, including the password. This is done by invalidating the CMOS and to do that we must know how to access the BIOS and where the checksum value of the CMOS is located so that we can change it. Access to the the BIOS content is via what are known as CMOS Ports and it's Port 70 and 71 that will give us the needed access. On almost all AT motherboards, the checksum is located at hexadecimal address 2e and 2f and filling the address 2e with ff is all you should have to do to invalidate the checksum. Here's what to do if you ever need to reset the password and have no other method, and you don't want to open up your computer to remove the battery or jumpers. Note! Do this at your own risk. I can only tell you that it has worked for me more than once and has worked for others as well. But I cannot make any guarantees. When I did this, I took a willing risk. The BIOS was Award Modular BIOS v4.51PG Restart your computer in MS-DOS mode. When you get to the C:\> or C:\WINDOWS> prompt, type DEBUG and press Enter. A hyphen (-) prompt will appear waiting for you to enter commands. Enter the following commands, pressing Enter after each one. Note: the o is the letter o and stands for OUTPUT. o 70 2e o 71 ff q After the q command (which stands for QUIT), enter Exit. Then try to enter your BIOS at bootup. The password prompt should now be gone and you should now have full access to it again. However, you will now be at the default BIOS setttings and may want to change them to your preference. You may also want to have your drives autodetected again. In closing, I should state that in the case of a lost BIOS password, your first step should always be to contact your manufacturer to see if a backdoor password is available that will allow you to bypass the forgotten password. There are many sites on the net that list backdoor passwords you can try, but beware that some BIOS that are set up to lock up if you enter the wrong password more than a certain number of times, usually only 3 times! For more Windows tips and tricks, join Vic's popular user group at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WinTips-Tricks/ For another debug use and example, see my article on creating your own color file: http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc2/v8/vic8.htm And speaking of color, if you happen to be gettting into the world of DVDs and are confused by it all, check out my new Experts Guides on video, audio, Playstation, and computers: