Some Notes on the Machines

There is a utility, for Windows, Linux, and Mac, which will convert MBR disks to GPT without destroying data. (Please note that it does NOT preserve data if you’re using an “extended” partition!!!!) It is called “GPT fdisk”, and it is here:

http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/download.html

Binaries for Windows can be downloaded here:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/gptfdisk/files/latest/download

In Windows, gdisk.exe needs one parameter, which is a drive number followed by a colon. Drive numbers are not letters; they can be obtained using the GUI Disk Manager or using ‘list disk’ in DISKPART on the command line.

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 5.2.3790.3959
Copyright (C) 1999-2001 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: SITEFS

DISKPART> list disk

  Disk ###  Status      Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  ----------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online       232 GB  8033 KB
  Disk 1    Online       466 GB      0 B
  Disk 2    Online       932 GB      0 B
  Disk 3    Online       931 GB      0 B
  Disk 4    Online       931 GB      0 B

DISKPART> exit

All you have to do to convert, is to run gdisk on a given drive:

gdisk 3:

say yes to all of the prompts, and then use the single command “w” for “write” the new partition table, and confirm. Then you will need to restart the “Virtual Disk” service if it’s running:

sc stop vds
sc start vds

and then test your results using DISKPART from the command line; the GPT disks will be starred as such.

DISKPART> list disk

  Disk ###  Status      Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  ----------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online       232 GB  8033 KB
  Disk 1    Online       466 GB      0 B
  Disk 2    Online       932 GB  2550 KB        *
  Disk 3    Online       931 GB  2173 KB        *
  Disk 4    Online       931 GB  2173 KB        *

DISKPART>

Once you have ‘pip’, you can do:

sudo pip install repren

repren is very effective.

Windows, Linux, and MacOS:

https://etcher.io/

Previous favorites now come bundled with very unwanted adware. This one comes bundled with just the Google Toolbar, it works very well:

https://www.ccleaner.com/defraggler

Chocolatey is a great way to get the fundamentals into a new install of Windows. First we install it:

@"%SystemRoot%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe" -NoProfile -InputFormat None -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))" && SET "PATH=%PATH%;%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\chocolatey\bin"

And then we get everything we want in:

choco install -y GoogleChrome Firefox jre8 adobereader flashplayerplugin flashplayeractivex adobeair adobereader-update flashplayerppapi adobeshockwaveplayer

Beautiful!

A module called PSWindowsUpdate. Can be installed under that name using Chocolatey and also the PowerShell Gallery. A very good rundown on its use is here. PowerShell 2.0 and above.

AnyBurn seems to be possibly the new best light & powerful CD/DVD toolbox item:

www.anyburn.com/download.php

It’s available in 64-bit and 32-bit versions. ImgBurn was go-to for a long time, but it hasn’t had updates since 2013.

Here’s a great tester:

https://ftptest.net/

Wonderful tool, cross-platform:

http://www.httrack.com

This seems a very nice tool.

https://helgeklein.com/free-tools/delprof2-user-profile-deletion-tool/