Case Studies – Page 8 – PC Doctor Godalming

Windows 10 Recovery Notes

30/03/2017 by James

Carry out the following steps to fix Windows 10 boot error, e.g. BSOD 0c000007b error:

Boot Windows 10 ISO USB
Click ‘Next’ on main screen after selecting appropriate language options
Select ‘Repair Computer’
Select ‘Troubleshoot’ > ‘Advance Options’
Select Command Prompt and run following commands – note SFC and DISM can take some time to complete
- CHKDSK D:/f
- MKDIR D:\Scratch
- DISM /Image:D:\ /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /ScratchDir:D:\Scratch
- SFC /Scannow /OffBootDir=D:\ /OffWinDir=D:\Windows
Exit Command window back to Menu
Select ‘Troubleshoot’

Mount EFI Partition from Linux

25/02/2017 by James

This blog (http://www.pjc.me.uk/efi-gpt/) is the only one that gets to anywhere close to answering this question. However you need to substitute “auto” instead of “fat32” in the mount command to get it to work. “xfs” and “fat32” threw out errors – actually the mount command after mounting shows it was “vfat”!

Here’s how I mounted the EFI partition on my external 500GB drive:

sudo parted -l print
Model: ATA ST3500630AS (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt

Number  Start   End     Size    File system     Name                  Flags
1      1049kB  135MB   134MB                                          bios_grub
2      135MB   345MB   210MB   fat32                                  boot
3      345MB   479MB   134MB   fat32                                  msftres
4      479MB   54.2GB  53.7GB  ntfs                                   msftdata
5      54.2GB  108GB   53.7GB  ntfs                                   msftdata
6      108GB   162GB   53.7GB  ntfs                                   msftdata
7      162GB   172GB   10.7GB  ext4
8      172GB   184GB   11.8GB  ext4
9      184GB   185GB   1074MB  linux-swap(v1)
10      185GB   228GB   42.8GB  hfs+            Apple_HFS_Untitled_2
11      228GB   282GB   53.6GB  hfs+            Apple_HFS_Untitled_3
12      282GB   335GB   53.6GB  hfs+            Apple_HFS_Untitled_4
13      335GB   389GB   53.6GB  hfs+            Apple_HFS_Untitled_5
14      389GB   488GB   99.2GB  hfs+            Apple_HFS_Untitled_6
15      488GB   489GB   650MB   hfs+            Recovery HD
16      489GB   500GB   10.9GB  hfs+            Apple_HFS_Untitled_2

sudo mount -t auto /dev/sdb2 /mnt/test

cd /mnt/test/
ls
boot  EFI

Use kdesudo Dolphin (as Root) to view and edit files on the EFI partition

Note use of Parted (supports GPT drives) to get the partition number

Windows 10 Free Upgrade

11/02/2017 by James

For Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users only

Windows 10 free upgrade for customers who use assistive technologies
Click on “UPGRADE NOW” button to start.

Alternative method using Media Creation Tool

Download Windows 10 Media Creation Tool
Click on “Download tool now” button. Open downloaded Setup file and click Yes, Accept, choose “Upgrade the PC now”, then click Next.

Note: you may be asked to enter your Windows 7 or 8.1 product key.

Windows Reset Network Adapter

09/12/2016 by James

When having problems connecting to the LAN or Internet the following terminal commands may clear the problem.

Reset IP stack; Winsock catalog and firewall

netsh int ip4 reset
netsh int ip6 reset
netsh winsock reset
netsh advfirewall reset # beware resets rules to default

Restart computer to effect changes

Renew IP address

ipconfig /release
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /renew

If losing network after sleep check adapter settings under “Power Management” to ensure the interface is not powered down to save energy.

Recover Fatally Damaged Windows 10 Nuke Method

03/12/2016 by James

After battling for days trying to install Windows 10 AU on my Vbox Windows 10 Guest I ended up with an unbootable machine and no where to go!

To solve the problem and to at least get back my activated copy the following worked for me:

Download the latest Windows 10 AU update ISO from Microsoft
In Vbox Manager Settings > Storage add downloaded ISO as an optical drive
In Vbox Manager Settings > General >

Increase VirtualBox Hard Disk Size

24/11/2016 by James

From the Host Command line use the VboxManage resize option to increase the disk capacity

VBoxManage modifyhd \path-to-vdi-location\Windows\ 10\ Pro.vdi --resize 35840

This example is from a Linux host and increases the total size of the disk to 35GB (35 * 1024MB)

Once this is completed start the image and and use Windows Disk Manager to extend the volume to use the unused partition space.

Manually transfer Windows program to another computer

21/11/2016 by James

This method should work for most Windows stand-alone programs.

This example shows how to transfer a legacy program called ACT! v5.0

On the target PC use Windows to Create a Restore Point to backup the target Registry
Connect drive to target PC to access backup of source machine for the purposes of this example we will call it drive g:
On the target PC using Windows Explorer set View Hidden Files and System Protected files.
On the Desktop (target machine) create a folder called “ACT”

How to mount NTFS volume

11/11/2016 by James

ls /media
If you don’t see a folder for your Windows partition, you should create one with the following command:
sudo mkdir /media/windows
Next, mount the partition in read-only mode onto this folder with this command:
mount -t ntfs-3g -o ro /dev/sda3 /media/windows

Remove VirtualBox from Ubuntu

22/10/2016 by James

If you need to completely remove VirtualBox, e.g. because a new version install fails preventing future installations then from the Console run commands below:

List VirtualBox installations

sudo dpkg -l | grep virtualbox

Example below

sudo dpkg -l | grep virtualbox
rc virtualbox-4.3 4.3.30-101610~Ubuntu~raring amd64 Oracle VM VirtualBox
iW virtualbox-5.0 5.0.28-111378~Ubuntu~trusty amd64 Oracle VM VirtualBox

Purge these installations in sequence replacing 4.3 and 5.0 with your versions and answering ‘Y” to questions

sudo apt-get purge virtualbox-4.3 virtualbox-qt

sudo apt-get purge virtualbox-5.0 virtualbox-qt

After reboot you should be able to reinstall VirtualBox without errors

Mac Clean Install

15/10/2016 by James

The steps below are for Catalina but it should be the same for other versions of macOS.

Ensure you have a Time Machine backup and have iCloud configured to backup important app settings, e.g. Documents, Device Settings, Mail, Contacts, Keychain, etc. and everything is synchronised to the iCloud server.
Make a list of installed Applications for later use as follows:
- In Finder open Applications folder and press Command+A to select all apps, then press Command+C
- In TextEdit,

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