Update or refresh Vmware "Physical Drive" list

# Extent description
RW 498015 FLAT "\\.\PhysicalDrive3" 0

Change the number in PhysicalDrive to the correct one as seen in "Disk Management"

Remove disks appearing at boot due to internal multi card reader

Removable disks appear on booting Windows when you have a internal multi card reader. They appear in "Disk Management" (diskmgmt.msc) and in "My Computer". If there are no cards in them (which in mostly is) these drives do not open. You can't do anything with them. They just lie there. Its a nuisance to me.
The following steps describe way to prevent that from happening.

Steps:
1. Open "Device Manager" (Run devmgmt.msc). With the drives appearing it should look like this



2. Right click on "Universal Serial Bus controllers->USB Mass Storage Device" and click "Disable". You should get a pop-up message like this.



Click "Yes"
Your "Device Manager" should look like this now

Console window appears & immediately disappers on running code

When you run a code, the console window appears and immediately disappears. So you don't get a chance to see the result or enter and user inputs. This happens with some Windows based compilers.
The solution to this problem is to include either of the following statements at the end of your C/C++ code.

getch(); (Press any key to exit)
or
getchar(); (Press Enter to exit)
or
getc(stdin); (Press Enter to exit)
or
fgetc(stdin); (Press Enter to exit)
or
#include <stdlib.h>
system("pause"); (Not recommended)

Example

#include <stdio.h>
{
printf("Hello, World");
getchar();
}

Online C/C++ compiler: http://www.techbugs.org/wiki/OnlineCompiler

Format drives larger than 32GB using FAT32 in Windows

Microsoft states
"You cannot format a volume larger than 32 gigabytes (GB) in size using the FAT32 file system during the Windows XP installation process. Windows XP can mount and support FAT32 volumes larger than 32 GB (subject to the other limits), but you cannot create a FAT32 volume larger than 32 GB by using the Format tool during Setup. If you need to format a volume that is larger than 32 GB, use the NTFS file system to format it. Another option is to start from a Microsoft Windows 98 or Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me) Startup disk and use the Format tool included on the disk.

NOTE: When you attempt to format a FAT32 partition that is larger than 32 GB during the Windows XP installation process, the format operation fails near the end of the process, and you may receive the following error message:
Logical Disk Manager: Volume size too big."

Ref: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314463

To format a drive/volume larger than 32GB use the following tools

1. fat32format

Steps:
1. Download it HERE
2. Extract the fat32format.exe file to somewhere suitable
3. Open command/DOS prompt and navugate to where you extracted fat32format.exe
4. Use the command "fat32format X:" (where "X" is the drive label of the drive)

2. Linux mkdosfs for Windows NT/2K/XP

Steps:
1. Download it HERE
2. Exctract the downloaded mkdosfs.zip to somewhere
3. Open command/DOS prompt and navigate to "mkdosfs" folder
4. Use the command "mkdosfs -v -F 32 X:"(where "X" is the drive label of the drive)

3. Fat32Formatter

Steps:
1. Download it HERE
2. Exctract the downloaded Fat32FormatterEN.zip to somewhere
3. Run the exe

4. H2Format

Steps:
1. Download it HERE
2. Exctract the downloaded h2format.zip to somewhere
3. Run the exe

NB: You can also convert a FAT16 volume or a FAT32 volume to an NTFS file system in Windows XP retaining all your data.
Read HERE

Access or Delete folder created when you merge partitions using Partition Magic

When you merge two partitions using Partition Magic you have to create a folder where you have the option to copy all the contents of the partition to be merged. After the partitions have been merged you cannot access that folder or do anything with it.
The reason behind this is Partition Magic reassigns permissions on that folder.
To solve it do the following:-

Steps:
1. Goto "Start->Settings->Control Panel->Folder Options"
2. Goto View Tab
3. Put a check on "Show hidden files and folders"
4. Uncheck "Use simple file sharing (Recommended)"
5. Right click on the folder that you which to access and select "Properties"
6. Goto Security Tab
7. Click on your user type and select "Full Control" under "Permissions"
8. Click Apply & OK

Now you will be able to access the folder and do whatever you want with it.