converting a FAT32 volume to NTFS and backups

With WCry and other malware in the wild, I wanted to take a full system backup of the Acer laptop. Decided to go with Windows built in backup - Start -> Run -> ntbackup

Around half an hour later, ntbackup complained that the drive it was writing to was FAT32, and does not allow files larger than 2 GB (or 4GB? I forgot). Decided to convert it to NTFS, retaining the data on it.

Ran convert from command prompt. It failed, complaining that there was insufficient memory. Moved over the existing files to another hard disk and then tried convert again. It again complained of insufficient memory. Probably a 2 TB volume is too much for it on a 32 bit system. So, Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Disk Management. Deleted the partition, created it again as NTFS.

While formatting the new volume, I wanted to see what would happen if I do not choose Quick Format. Format took 5 hours for the 2 TB drive!

And after that, the backup of C, D and E drives, creating a 239.4 GB single file, took around 12 hours. 

stopping unwanted notifications on Android

Some apps bring up annoying notifications. Examples - the activation messages for Cloud Messaging on Xiaomi phones, Airtel's and Paytm's "offers" and so on. An easy solution was to pull down the notification bar, click and hold the notification till a box appears with "App Info" - may be seen as an exclamation mark icon. Click on that, which gives an option to block notifications from that app. 

preparing Mandir Live Files for Download

From an email by PA.

Steps to process live files

1. Open finder and click on ‘Mandir Live Recordings’, click date modified

2. The first few files will be that morning's and the previous days

3. Open ‘Magic Cutter’, drag and drop the file with yesterday’s date. Morning file will end with ‘_1’ and evening with ‘_2’

4. Double clicking on the wave will give you the split marker. Place one marker just when ‘Omkar’ of vedam starts and one before ‘Omkar’ of bhajans start. (You will need to connect the earphones to the mac mini's 3.5 jack to hear the file)

5. Then click ‘Split’

6. Now it will ask for where to save. Click the drop down on top of the dialogue box and select the folder ‘Split Files’

7. It will take 2 seconds to complete. Then repeat the same for Evening file.

8. After both files have been split, close Magic Cutter. In the finder go to the folder ‘Split Files’ in the sidebar.

9. Once there, again click date modified. You will see 6 files with names different from the rest. Date followed by ’_01_01’ and so on.

10. Now delete the 2 files that have the announcement. (They will be the 2 files with least size)

11. Now rename the files just like the other files in the folder. Morning vedam and bhajan files should have the date and end with '_AM_VEDAM' and '_AM_BHAJAN' respectively
Evening vedam and bhajan files should end with '_PM_VEDAM' and '_PM_BHAJAN' respectively

12. After renaming, close Finder and open 'Filezilla'

13. In the menu right on top of the monitor, click bookmarks and select the bookmark, 'Split Files'.

14. Once the connection is established, transfer the files that you just renamed. Double-click files one by one, or select, drag & drop.