Tech-eee-ness again !!

Recovered 60GB of HDD space

I have always seen that my R61 thinkpad HDD occupied more space than it should be but I could not figure out which files or folders are eating up the HDD storage space.
Here's a few steps to locate and solve the same.

1. Go to download.com. Download WinDirStat. This has got high editors' rating. I found this software pretty useful. This gives you the list of all the folders and files with their sizes. (The "details" views don't give the folder sizes)

2. Via WinDirStat, I got a folder "Unknown" taking up 61GB of my HDD space. However this could not be located on HDD as no path was enlisted.

3. Through some internet search, I found out that this could be taken up by the files stored in C:\RRBackups folder (a hidden system file).So what's this folder? IBM Lenovo Thinkpads have a utility named Rescue &
recovery. This one takes scheduled backups of your system.

4. Open the utility through: Start> All Programs> Thinkvantage> Rescue & recovery. I have R&R 4.0. In the UI, you can see a tab " View all Backups". When clicked i found I had 5 backups, 4 of them dated back to 2007 and 2008 and each one eating up > 10GB HDD space.

5. In the menu of the UI, there's one Advanced tab. You have an option: Delete Backups. If you try to delete the backups, you might get an error message after some time: "Not enough memory space to perform the action." Two things should be done in this situation:
a. Check whether you have a set scheduled backup ( from "Set schedule and preferences"). Disable it.
b. Delete the backup files in bottom-up fashion.

As for me, all the backup files were deleted within minutes and I recovered 60GB of HDD space. Even more important, the speed of various running applications improved a lot.

6. Some useful links in this regard:
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkVantage-Technologies/bd-p/Special_Interest_Utilities
http://www.lenovo.com/in/en/index.html

I also called up Lenovo Support center for the same. They said it is recommended that I keep a data backup. However I am not too sure how much help will this provide me as there is already a Windows restore program and Windows backup utility. If someone can throw some light on this, it would be of great help.
I am anyways taking up a manual backup through R&R (not scheduled as I have already disabled the
scheduled option) just to see how much space it's taking up and whether I can afford to keep it.

I advise you to have a chat with them before you proceed to Step 5. Following are the details:
1800-425-2666 or +91-80-2535-9182
9AM - 6PM Monday - Friday (Except Holidays)
Keep your Thinkpad type, Serial no and series name ready.

A little bit of Tech-eee-ness !

Useful Softwares:

Some really useful softwares I am using:

1. Revo Uninstaller - This uninstalls not only the programs but also cleans up all the related registry entries which might not be cleaned by Windows Add/Remove utility
URL: http://www.revouninstaller.com/

2. Everything - A great search utility; it loads all the files and the folders in your system while booting and searches as you type.
URL: http://www.voidtools.com/download.php

3. WinDirStat - This gives all the necessary details of every files and folders in your system. So you can see which file/folder is eating up how much space.
URL: Download Here

4. CCleaner - Restore disc space through deleting all the unwanted temporary files (Temporary internet files, cookies, etc.)
URL: Download Here

5. Windows Defender - Check for unwanted or harmful softwares.
URL: Microsoft Download

6. Foxit reader - Much less bulky than Adobe Acrobat Reader. Also you can highlight, underline and many more - makes your reading easier.
URL: http://www.foxitsoftware.com/

7. Antivirus
a. Avira - Found this useful while surfing and downloading. It has given me the necessary warnings while
downloading freewares from the internet (those with trojan horses in particular)
URL: Download Here

b. AVG Freeware - I don't think I need to write anything about this one.
URL: Download Here

Top influences in my life

1. My Parents – For everything what I am today. I love you mom-dad.
2. Pritha – You have made me calmer, more composed, compassionate…………Love you
   
3. Shantanu, Sayan (Ghosh & Chat), Argha, Barun – friendship is what you taught me. The wonderful adda sessions we have spent for 6 continuous years…they were unadulterated fun. Miss it very much now. Hope someday we will all be in the same city again!
4. Jalu – Well, this is what we call our engineering college…Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College – a place I would never like to go again. But it taught me people skills – be it understanding people, dealing with ‘em, dodging their back-stabbings or mixing with ‘em even if not your friends and so on..
5. Arnab Mukherjee – Although we are not in touch now but this guy introduced me to Pink Floyd which made my college days so memorable. Arnab, a great quizzer, avid traveler but could not bond much with the peers with his urban charm and hence faced with many problems in those 4 years – a learning in itself.
6. Infosys – Despite certain shortcomings, Infy is arguably the best work place I have seen till date. The corporate etiquette, the numerous training sessions, the campuses, the respect you draw as an Infoscion..the list goes on – it transformed me from a college graduate to a professional.
7. IIM Bangalore – It is my first big college where I came to meet some of the best minds in India…Made me more ambitious, focused and aggressive
8. Prof. Trilochan Shastri – He enlightened us about the social sector. The way he taught, the things he taught was something…
9. Mumbai – I never thought I will fall in love with a city in such a short time. Before I visited Mumbai, I never liked it because it was expensive. But after staying there, the cost of living became a non-issue given so many things the city has to offer in its lifestyle, soul and people. I treasure Calcutta and I love Mumbai.
10. Friends, Boston Legal (US sitcoms) – Makes me laugh when I am alone.

My Childhood Memoirs......Wish you were here !!

I grew up in Calcutta. Every bit of my childhood memories is in the lanes of North Calcutta. We used to stay in a place called ‘Dum Dum’ Cantonment - ‘Dum Dum’ from the noise of the empty firings from the British cantonment. Our family had transformed from a traditional joint family to a ‘modern day joint family’ where multiple nuclear families stayed under the same roof. In Bengali, we say that it was not a “Ek Haadir Henshel”!

I enjoyed my childhood to the fullest. Well…obviously I am referring things beyond studies…I remember, when I was very young, every evening, we used to go out cycling. Whenever, there was a stretch of empty road, we used to race. As I grew up, I needed a bigger bicycle, but dad was unable to give me one at that point of time. One of my ‘Pada’ grandmas gifted me with a bicycle that was lying idle at her house. I really don’t know how many cities have these kinds of warmth!!

We went to play cricket/soccer in a huge ground called “Wireless er maath”. Basically it was a restricted area with wireless towers. We also used to play in the gully (Only after the lanes were pitched). And unfortunately our gully had drains (it still has!!). And we didn’t have enough money to buy a ball every now and then. So we made sure that the average lifetime of the ball is higher…How? Whenever the ball used to get drowned (because we played with rubber balls rather than the costlier tennis balls) in the drains, one of us (the fielder who missed it or the batsman who hit it) had to put his hand in that deep shit…searching from right to left…and the smell of it…yakk!! Nevertheless, the desperation to get the ball was much much greater than all of these. My aunt used to shout from the window, “You dirty fellas; I will not allow you to enter the house.” In the monsoon, we could not play as all the grounds were muddy. We used to play golf then. We found out a small patch of shaded land….made a hole in it and played golf with the cricket bat and ball.

Indoors, apart from carom, cards etc. me and my elder brother used to play a special kind of lawn tennis in the room. We used to tie a rope in the middle of the room some 2 feet above the ground and cover it with a bed sheet. That was our net. We used to use the floor tiles demarcations as our sidelines. TT bats were our rackets.

With time I learnt how to fly a kite. It’s such an addiction to me…shouting from “Bo-katta”, “Duyo Duyo” to running after kites….I always wanted to give “manja” (the process of making kite threads more sharper), but mom never allowed it as the process involved dealing with tube light pieces.

I went to school by rickshaw. I called the puller as “Rickshaw Kaku (uncle)”. He was such a nice guy. He used to buy me Re. 1 roadside kulfis, pickles, mouth-coloring ice creams and what not. But he never took an extra paisa from my parents for that. And he was a great fan of Mithun da. One day he raced me back home because 'Disco Dancer' was being shown on DD. Right after school, it was either cricket or the kites. Whatever be it, the study time started from 6:30 pm until 10. And quite normally I used to fall asleep while studying. The more I got scolded by mom, the more were the desperate measures to invent new styles of sleeping.

In those days, the cable TV penetration was very low. In our pada (the lane), only one or two houses had them. We were more used to the DD programs. I remember I missed the cable TV most during the Sharjah tournament. The nearest cable TV was at “Bappa Da’s” house. So I used to go there and we used to have a great non-stop fun of 7 hours. Thanks to Jethima, there was non-stop supply of homemade snacks. We loved Sachin’s centuries, we hated the Pakistani bowlers and we cursed the Indian team whenever they lost.

I had many pets (if I may say “Pets”) during my childhood. Started with Fish…. Big glass jars were the aquariums. I had Gold fish, Black fish and Fighters. It was fun watching them playing and jumping on the food. But I couldn’t continue with them long. Most of them used to die during the summers because of the heat. It was painful giving up on them. Then came the rabbits – my most beloved pets till date. They are the cute little creatures. Chasing them and feeding them Spinach, carrots and other vegetable was real fun. I had 2 of them. The rabbits used to stay at the porch. One of them was a real mischief. He used come down and sit in our vegetable basket having a cocktail. You should see the baby rabbits. The only visible things were their marble-like red eyes. Amazing stuff!!! I had to give them up when we shifted to our new apartment in Salt Lake.

Today what I am socially - may be because of those beautiful childhood experiences. They have taught me a lot. I owe a lot to all my friends, my pada uncle and aunts and everyone else around me. Thank you for shaping up my childhood days and ......Wish you were here !!

My First(s) !!!

My First Vote today as well as my first post........

I registered on this site quite some time back but till date haven't contributed anything. But I couldn't stop myself from writing today. I am very excited because I voted for the first time. Well I am 27 but could not vote because for the last 9 years as I am staying outside Kolkata. So today when I got my chance, I exercised it. :)

The Calcutta Times edition for today had some news on Bengali celebrities and their feelings on Voting. Surprisingly, some of them said they don't like to vote because they don't like the candidates or hate politics. Obviously it's their personal opinion, but I expected much more responsible answers from them. Many youngsters follow them. It's my right to Vote and I should exercise it. I doubt how many of us like the candidates actually but that should not deter us from voting. We should choose the best one among them. And I feel that's the case everywhere. You won't get a black & white choice most of the time.

While discussing with my relatives regarding election et al. , I got a feeling that most of them vote from their hearts. May be that's the conventional Indian mentality. I voted for the candidate I believed will have a say in the parliament for the well-being of my Constituency (depending on his past political record and my gut feeling on whether UPA/NDA will come to power).

The worst feeling for me was the poll violence. West Bengal saw an unprecedented number of paramilitary forces deployed this time. Still they happened and people died. "Ten persons, including a 30-month-old baby, were killed in a week, leaving a gory trail since phase I of polls in the state on April 30!!!" (Read more - TOI, May 10). I get an empty feeling while reading these news - What is our judiciary and the legislation doing? Aren't there any ways to stop them???

For the first time voters, I think the following things are important:

1. Know whether you have the necessary documents to vote. Click here to know more. Also, if there are any errors in your EPIC, you can fill up Form 004 (ECI-EPIC-004) or Form 003 (ECI-EPIC -003) in case of defects in EPIC & issue of duplicate cards and submit it to The Electoral Registration Officer of your Constituency. (I found out that my DOB information is wrong but I voted as I was registered in the voter list. If you don't have an EPIC, then you can take any one of the following:
• Passport,
• Driving License,
• PAN card,
• Govt or Semi-Govt service ID
• Passbook of any Nationalised Bank/ Post-Office/ Kishan issued before a certain date,
• SC/ST Certificate,
• Pension Document etc.

2. Know your Candidate. Visit http://myneta.info/
3. Know how to Vote. Click here for Election Commission's Video on Youtube (Part1, Part2, and Part3).


Waiting for the results like never before.... :)

Spread Awareness. Voting is your right. Exercise it!!!