Jargonbuster!
ISO
A filethatcontainsa complete
backup– knownasa disk
image– ofa physicaldisk,
typicallyCD,DVDorfloppy.
TheISOcanbe‘mounted’in
Windowsasa virtualdrive.LiveCD
A discthatcontainsa working
copyofanoperatingsystem
thatcanbebootedupwithout
requiringinstallationtoa hard
drive.Allchangesarelost
whenrebooted.4 AccessISO
AftercopyingtheISOfiletoyourlaptop,
simplydouble-clickit inWindows 10 andit’ll
bemountedasa virtualdrive.Youcannow
accessitscontentsorplayit likea video
DVDusinga programlikeVLCMediaPlayer
(www.vlc.com).3 Convert to ISO
One final option is to generate ISO
files from your DVDs on your main PC
- for data discs, use CDBurnerXP (https://
cdburnerxp.se/); for video DVDs you’ll
need something like DVDFab Passkey Lite
(www.dvdfab.cn/passkey-lite.htm).
“Upgrading your hard drive will not
affectyour current Windows 10 licence,
soyou’llbe able to continue using it”
alsoreportedsuccessafter
temporarilydisablingtheir
antivirustool.
Diskdrives
RECOVERLINUX-
FORMATTEDUSBDRIVE
Q I havea SanDiskCruzerBlade
16GBUSB.I recentlyused
BalenaEtchertoputZorinLiteon
theUSBstick.I thentriedtoformat
theUSBbacktonormalworking
orderinWindows7, butwhenI
removethestickandrebootit’sno
longervisible.HowdoI restorethe
USBdrivetoworkingorder?
PaulRoberts
Nick P’s solution
If you’re unable to get
the drive working using
the Disk Management
tool or a tool like Partition Wizard
Free (www.partitionwizard.com),
then you’ll need to prepare the disk
in Linux. The simplest way to do
this is with a Linux live DVD or USB
flash drive – Ubuntu LTS is our
distro of choice, and there’s a
complete guide at http://bit.ly/
TryUbuntuLinux – once created,
boot from the media and choose
‘Try Ubuntu without installing’.
When you reach the Ubuntu
desktop, plug in your misbehaving
USB stick, then click the ‘Show all
applications’ button and open the
Disks utility from the list that
appears. You should see your USB
drive in this list. Select it and click
the ‘–’ button followed by Delete to
wipe it clean.
Then click the ‘+’ button,
followed by Next. Enter a volume
name, choose whether to make the
disk NTFS or FAT and click Create.
Eject the disk, boot back into
Windows and the drive should now
be visible; if it isn’t, try repeating
the process but flick the Erase
switch on before clicking Create, or
simply erase the drive in Linux
and then reinitialise it in Disk
Management, where it should
now work correctly.Windows
PRE-REINSTALL
QUESTIONS
Q
I’ve just finished reading
your Windows 10 reinstall
article and have a couple of
questions. I’m going to be
upgrading the hard drive in my
old laptop to an SSD. Will I have to
format the SSD prior to installing
Windows, or will this be done
during the Windows installation?
Plus, will a change of hard drive
mean I have to purchase a new
licence, or will the licence linked to
my Microsoft account still work
with a new hard drive?
Mike SimsDan’s solution
Upgrading the hard
drive will not affect
your current Windows
10 licence, so you’ll be able to
continue using it with your laptop
with no problems. When it comes
to initialising the drive, most
should have been set up for
seamless use in Windows
– simply fit the drive, then use
the formatting and partitioning
tools provided during the
Windows 10 installation process
to set up the drive from scratch.
If for any reason the drive isn’t
recognised, you’ll need to initialise
it first in your old Windows
installation: open the Disk
Management tool, locate the
drive (it’ll be marked as ‘Unknown’),
then right-click it and choose
Initialise Disk.RECOVER USB Use
a Linux Live CD
to reformat a
misbehaving
USB drive.Do you have
a PC problem?
Get in touch...
Email full details of
your problem to the
support team and we’ll
do our best to help:
windowsmagazine@
futurenet.com
Or write to the support
team and we’ll do
our best to help:
Support Squad,
Windows Help &
Advice magazine,
Future Publishing Ltd,
Quay House, The
Ambury, Bath
BA1 1AUSupport
Technical help
March 2020 | |^65