Archive for the ‘ Software ’ Category

Install Custom ROM on Your Sony Xperia Phone

Disclaimer: Modifying your phone can lead to an expensive paper weight if you do it wrong. Do it at your own risk.

How to Install Custom ROM on your Sony Xperia Phone

If you root your Android phone, you can do virtually anything, right from enabling career-blocked tethering to installing a custom ROM. The android community is so active that chances are that you can get tens of custom ROMs for your phone model. If you have a Sony Xperia Mini Pro, you can have hundreds of custom ROMs from the XDA forums. These custom ROMs provide you with more performance, flexibility, and more.

In this tutorial, I am going to show you how to flash custom ROM on your Xperia Mini Pro. You can use the same method for any Xperia phone. Before installing a custom ROM, you need to unlock the bootloader of your phone, though there are a few custom ROMs that can be installed on a locked bootloader. But unlocking the bootloader is well worth it, meaning you can install custom Kernel that provide you with more benefits such as more battery life or overclocking.

Unlocking the bootloader

You have two options while unlocking the bootloader. The official method which includes using your IMEI to unlock from official Sony website. Though this is the official method, you lose your warranty, and DRM too.

The other method is called the ‘test point’ method which uses a tool called S1 tool and requires you to use a test point. Though this method seems a little complicated, it’s easy and reversible. By unlocking with this method, you won’t lose DRM and whenever you want, you can relock the bootloader. But even this method has a disadvantage. Not a disadvantage but a risk-you may make your phone into an expensive paper weight, if you do it wrong. But don’t worry, it’s safe if you do it carefully. I have unlocked the bootloader of my XMP with this method and it worked like charm. Follow the instructions from here or here to unlock the bootloader with the test point method.

***Ensure that your phone is charged at least 50% before proceeding***

What You Need:

1. Sony PC Companion

2. Flashtool

3. Preferably a phone with unlocked bootloader

4. Your custom Kernel and ROM

5. Stock ROM in FTF format. Search the XDA forums for your model number. You can also create one.

How to install:

Installing the custom Kernel and ROM is very easy. Follow these steps.

1. Make a backup of your phone data such as SMS, contacts, call logs, calendar, and so on using your favorite app.

2. Install PC Companion and Flashtool so that ADB and Fastboot drivers are installed. On your phone, go to Applications>Development>check the USB bebugging check box. Connect your phone to PC and let it install the ADB driver. This is important because, should something go wrong, you can always flash your phone stock ROM (FTF file) using Flash tool. So before proceeding, ensure the adb (and fastboot) drivers are installed. For more details, check out my previous post Root Your Xperia Phone Without Voiding Warranty.

3. Place the downloaded ROM in zip format on the micro SD card. You can do it through phone or using  a card reader.

4. Turn off your phone and connect it to your PC while pressing the specific button on phone to enter the fastboot mode. For my Xperia Mini Pro, it’s the Vol + to enter fastboot mode. Wait till the driver is correctly installed.

5. Open Flashtool and click the Flash (thunder symbol)>Fastboot Mode>OK.

fastboot1

6. On the Fastboot Toolbox window, click Select kernel to Flash button.

fastboot2

7. Navigate to the folder where you have extracted the Kernel file (.img). Select it and click Open.

fastboot3

8. After flashing is complete, remove the cable and reboot your phone. While the phone is booting, press Vol – or Vol + button repeatedly until the phone boots into recovery. (This recovery is installed along with kernel)

9. Do these: wipe data.cache partition, advanced>Wipe Dalvik Cache, and wipe cache partition.

10. Select install zip from sdcard>choose zip from sdcard>select the ROM file (zip) and press Yes.

That’s all. Reboot your phone to enjoy the new ROM.

What to do if something goes wrong and my phone doesn’t boot up?

While installing custom ROMs can be fun, it may also render your phone unbootable. If you install a custom ROM and and it doesn’t work, you can always flash the stock ROM using Flashtool and start all over again. Look for the FTF file of your stock ROM on the XDA forums. You will certainly find one. You can also make an FTF file of your stock ROM. Check out my post How to Create an FTF file of Your Xperia ICS Firmware.

2013
04/22
CATEGORY
Android
Rooting
Software
Leave a comment

Create a Multi-Bootable USB Drive with Linux and Windows

Unlike floppy disks and CD/DVDs, USB flash drives are portable, easier to use, and more reliable. If you are a long time Windows or Linux user, chances are there that you would have reinstalled the operating system several times. If you want to reinstall OS, you need a CD/DVD drive. But they are slow, unreliable and many laptops don’t even have a DVD drive. But with the use of a USB pen drive, you can now create a multiple installation USB key which has both Linux and Windows OSes. This means no more separate setup disks.

Update: The latest version of SARDU also supports creating multi bootable ISO or USB along with Windows 8.

Now I’m going to show you how to create a multi-OS setup USB key.

How to Install Multiple Operating Systems from a Single USB Stick

What you Need to Create a Multi-OS USB Drive:

1. SARDU

2. A USB pen drive – Preferably 8GB or more if you want more than two operating systems

3. The necessary ISO files

4. Internet connection (optional if you have all the necessary files)

SARDU is a really a versatile tool, using which you can create not just a OS setup drive but also make your pen drive an ultimate troubleshooter. Apart from operating system setup, you can create bootable antivirus, partition tools, password reset, password recovery, and much more, in a single pen drive. You can also create an ISO and make your own multi-utility DVD or BD.

To create a multi-operating system setup pen drive, follow these steps:

1. Extract Sardu.zip somewhere, preferably where there is a lot of disk space.

2. Open Sardu.exe. If you are using a 64-bit version of Windown open Sardu_x64.exe.

SARDU

Now, you will see that Sardu has a tabbed interface and different utilities are grouped under these tabs. All antivirus tools are grouped under Antivirus tab, partition and troubleshooting tools under Utility, Linux distros under Linux, Windows under Windowstab.

3. If you want to add an antivirus, click Antivirus tab and under that tab, click the desired antivirus. If you want to add any other tool under Utility, click Utility and click the corresponding button. If you want to add a Linux distro, click Linux tab and click the corresponding button of the desired Linux distro. Note that upon clicking these buttons, you will be prompted to download the file from internet. You need not search for these files on the internet as Sardu automatically does that for you (well, for most of the files). Clicking these buttons shows a popup window. Click Yes to add it to the download queue.

tabs

confirm download

4. Click the Downloader tab and click START. This will download all selected files.

start download

downloading

5. If you also want to add Windows to the mix, you must already have the ISO of the Windows version. If you have a licensed copy of Windows CD/DVD, you can make a legal backup of it. Place the ISO in /Sardu/ISO. (You need to rename the ISOs in a specific format. Hover the cursor on the buttons to know the specific file names).

Hover your cursor

6. Format your pen drive with FAT32 filesystem and insert to a USB port and click Search USB button in Sardu, then select the pen drive just under Select USB button.

search USB

7. To create a multi-boot USB key, click the icon that appears like the following image:

USB icon

You can also create a bootable ISO image by clicking the icon that appears like the following image:

make iso

In a few minutes, your multi-operating system setup USB key or ISO file will be ready.

success

Reboot your PC, enter the BIOS of your motherboard, and set it up to boot from USB. You may want to check the user manual of your motherboard for specific instructions.

Boot Menu

Live CD

To test your multi-bootable USB flash drive right under Windows, you can use Mobia Live CD.

Creating a multi-operating system setup USB flash drive is very easy using Sardu. It also lets you add lots more options. Do test yourself and provide your comments.

2012
02/27
CATEGORY
pc troubleshooting
Software
37 comments

How to Recover Lost Files and Data

How to Recover Lost Files and Data

Each and every day, we save hundreds of files like photos, documents etc. to the hard disk in our PCs. We also delete some of them as they are not needed anymore. It also happens that we accidentally delete important files only to find that they are gone, forever. Almost all of us have faced the situation and moved on. But what if the file is so important that you absolutely need it?

If you lose your data, you can of course go to a data recovery service provider. But did you know that data recovery is most of the times very expensive? While approaching a professional for help is a good idea, there are certain things you can do yourselves to try to recover the lost data before deciding to spend a huge sum. Though your data is deleted, it is not actually erased from your hard disk, it is still there. But you have to know how to recover it. If you accidentally deleted important files, you can easily recover the deleted files.

There are many tools available to recover lost files. One of the most effective and powerful tools is a free file recovery software called Recuva. With this tool, you can recover lost files after they are accidentally deleted. You can recover files even in the event of an accidental disk format.

What you should do in an event of data loss

1. If you accidentally deleted something, ensure you don’t save anything on that drive. For example if you delete a photo from D:, don’t save anything to D:.

2. If you lose something from C:, you should not install the recovery software or any software on C:. You should also not save any file on C:. If you don’t want to increase the chances of losing the data (especially on C:), shut the system down immediately and connect the HDD to another PC where you can install Recuva to recover the data.

To recover your lost files, follow the steps below;

1. Install Recuva and open it. Click on the Welcome Wizard.

2. The next window gives you the option to choose from different file types. Choose the one you want. For example, if you want to recover a picture, select Pictures. If you want to recover all file types, select Other and click Next.

Recuva1

3. The next window asks where you want to recover the file from, like My Documents, removable drive hard disk etc. and click Next.

Recuva2

4. In the next window, select Enable Deep Scan and select Start.

Recuva3

5. After the scan completes, Recuva lists all the found files. Select the ones you want to recover and click Recover.

Recuva4

Do note that Recuva can even recover deleted files from a pen drive or a memory card. Recovering lost files is as easy as it gets, provided you have not modified the partition in any way. Give it a try and most probably, you will recover your lost data.

2011
12/08
CATEGORY
pc troubleshooting
Software
6 comments

How to Partition a Hard Disk

When you assemble a new PC, one of the first things you do would be to partition your hard disk so that you can install operating system on the first drive and save your music and video collection on another.  Creating partitions has many benefits. While I’m not a big fan of keeping lots of partitions, having three disk partitions is more than enough in my opinion.

Though you can use fdisk and other similar tools to partition your hard disk, my take would be to install the operating system first and then create partitions. So how would you partition a hard disk?

How to Partition a Hard Disk

Though Windows has a built-in tool to create partitions, there is a much better and advanced alternative called Easeus Partition Master to perform various disk related operations. Above all it’s free.

What You Need to Partition a Hard Disk:

  • A Windows OS (already installed)
  • Easeus Partition Master Home Edition

Download the free partition manager and install it. Open the partition manager and follow the instructions given below to create a new partition.

The main window shows all the existing partitions. As you have just installed the OS on a new partition, there would be one partition.

1. Right-click the partition (C:) and select Resize/Move partition.

Easeus Partition Master

2. In the next window, move the slider on the right side to the left till you needed and click OK.

New Partition

3. Right-click the newly created unallocated partition and and Create partition.

Create Partition

4. Enter a partition label (some name you wish).

Dump

5. Click OK.

6. Click Apply.

See how easy it is to create a partition?

Now, if you have more than one partition, you may want to create the new partition either before or after the existing partition. If you want to create it before the partition (left), move the slider on the left to the right until needed and follow the steps 3-6. If you want to create the new partition on the right, move the slider on the right side to left until needed  (as shown in the figure below) and follow steps 3-6.

Creating a new partition is very simple and won’t even take a few minutes.

While there may be hundreds of reasons to have more than one partition in a hard drive, I don’t see any any reason to have just one huge partition. Nowadays, most of the laptops come with just one big partition and the engineers don’t even care to create at least two partitions. Having more than one partition helps you store your data in a more logical manner. You can keep  your music and video rips in one partition and dump everything else in another so that you can access the files easily. Even if your C: drive crashes, which is more likely than the other partitions, your files of the other partitions will be safe.

Have a look at this video to see how easy it is t o partition a hard disk.

If you want to increase  the size of C: drive or any other partition, see How to Increase the Size of C Drive.

2011
11/09
CATEGORY
pc troubleshooting
Software
1 comment

How to Increase the Size of C Drive

How many times have you been intimidated by the notification that says “You are running out of disk space on Local Disc (C:)…”? If you are a computer user, you would have seen the notification several times.

You have tried everything—right from uninstalling unnecessary software to clearing unwanted and junk files and you still aren’t able to get some free space.

How to Increase the Size of C Drive

We all know that the operating system and its associated files are almost always installed on the C drive. We are also very much used to installing everything on C drive which slowly drains the free space on C drive. Over time, it’s congested with lots of files which we are not able to remove for unknown reasons.

If you are getting the “No free disk space” error message, it’s time to increase the space of C: drive.

What you need:

Easeus Partition Master Home Edition

Easeus Partition Master is a free and basic utility to manage your partitions. What it can do for you is it can take away some space from the next partition and merge it with C drive, effectively increasing its free space.

To increase space in C drive, follow the steps below:

  • Install Easeus Partition Master and open it.

In the main window, you will see all the available partitions.

  • Right-click the partition which is immediately next to C: (Ensure it has free space to spare) and click Resize/Move Partition.

Easeus

  • Move the slider from left to right until needed and click OK.

easeus_modify

Now, you will get an unallocated space as shown below.

unallocated space

  • Right-Click partition C and click Resize/Move Partition.
  • In the resulting window, move the slider until end (to the right) and click OK.

Increase drive C space

  • Click Apply.
  • Click Yes in the next window.

Apply changes to partition C

Once the process is over, you will have the C: drive expanded. To confirm that, go to My Computer and check the disk space of C:.

Note: To make it work, ensure you have enough free space in the immediate next partition of C drive.

2011
09/09
CATEGORY
pc troubleshooting
Software
9 comments

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