Find the biggest files on your hard drive

Today I was quite shocked when I looked at my hard drive’s free space to find that over 70% was full, and I couldn’t work out why the hell it was so full.

So I thought I’d better check out where my biggest files were on the computer – but sadly Windows has no real way of sorting your whole hard drive into file size (at least not Vista, anyway) which is a bit of a bummer.

So I did a quick Google, and found a very useful free application which will search your computer for the 100 biggest files on your hard drive. It’s really easy to use and setup as there is no installation – you just download the 258kb file and run it. You can then navigate to the folders with the files you don’t want and delete them.

You just need to go to this site and download file with the ‘free download’ link. Then just run it and let it search your hard drive.

It helped me free up just over 12GB on my hard drive which was really handy since I need some space for the upcoming Windows 7 RC release.

Anyway, there you have it. A really handy application which I’ll place on the GEEK! Recommends page.

100MB broadband available for the first time ever in the UK!

It’s called Velocity 1, and a very small new building development in the UK has been given fibre optic cabling from the exchange right the way to the ethernet sockets in your living room. Tenants of Wembley City development in London are the first ever people in the UK to be able to get 100mb broadband on demand.

This means that for the first time ever, 100mb is not the theoretical outcome for the speed of broadband because the fibre optic cabling spreads the whole way from your local telephone exchange to the ethernet plug on your computer. No ancient copper cabling whatsoever.

However, there are a few small glitches. The main one being that it isn’t permanent – you pay £1 for 30 minutes worth of 100mb broadband on demand. It isn’t technically possible to provide 100mb broadband 24/7 in this country, yet. The rest of the time you’ll get either 8, 16, or 32mb broadband depending on what you are currently paying.

Still, you can’t get 100mb broadband anywhere else in the UK so it must feel good to be able to say you are one of about 30 people in the UK who can use 100mb broadband on demand. Pretty awesome.

Most of the UK generally gets a theoretical maximum of 8MB (megabit) per second. And most of the time that isn’t the case because of our poor copper cabling and long distances from our exchanges. But for the means of this, I am going to suggest that I did have 8MB (megabit) per second speed. Now think about the fact that a megabit is not a megabyte. 8 megabits translates to approximately 1 megabyte, so if you had perfect 8 megabit download speed, you could download a file at 1 megabyte per second.

Now, think about this – 100 megabits translates to 12.5 megabytes per second. That is pretty amazing. That means that providing the source server is fast enough, people with 100mb broadband could download three 128kbps MP3 songs in just one second!

Now that might seem like absolute gobbletygook to you, but considering the UK’s  current average broadband speed of 3.5 megabit (0.4375 megabyte) per second that is pretty awesome.

So, maybe in 10 years time a lot more of us will be able to indulge on 100mbps broadband. Unlikely, but it would be nice. We’ll have to see what happens.

Windows Vista Service Pack 2 released to manufacturers!

Microsoft recently confirmed that they have released Service Pack 2 of Windows Vista to manufacturers – which I guess means that they have completed work on it. They have also sent a RTM of Windows Server 2008 SP2 to manufacturers.

The official release of Vista and Server 2008 SP2 is not due until quarter two of 2009, but it’s good to know it looks like Microsoft are on track and ready.

According to Microsoft (quote-en-qoute), these are the key features of SP2:

  • Windows Search 4.0 for faster and improved relevancy in searches
  • Bluetooth 2.1 Feature Pack supporting the most recent specification for Bluetooth Technology
  • Ability to record data on to Blu-Ray media natively in Windows Vista
  • Adds Windows Connect Now (WCN) to simplify Wi-Fi Configuration
  • Windows Vista SP2 enables the exFAT file system to support UTC timestamps, which allows correct file synchronization across time zones.

So hopefully it’ll be good. GEEK! will keep you updated on any dates for the Service Pack’s launch as soon as they arise.

Guide: Convert your MP3 audiobooks into formats that iTunes will recognise as an audiobook!

Wow, long title! Anyhow, this is the first guide I am making that will be posted on the general blog. And today I’m going to be explaining how to covert your MP3 audiobooks into the format that iTunes will recognise as an Audiobook, and will place in the Audiobooks section on your iPod.

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Windows 7 release candidate date confirmed!

The Windows Blog yesterday confirmed the release dates for the Windows 7 Release Candidate. They have said there has been a lot of question as to when the release candidate is coming out, so they decided to post the date online.

Anyway, the Release Candidate will be available to MSDN/TechNet customers from April 30th 2009, and it will be available to the general public from May 5th.

Looking good Microsoft, but remember the havock that arised when the Beta was launched. Hopefully Microsoft will think about this and organise downloads a little better.

Anyway, something to look forward to. I’ll be reviewing it as usual in a couple of weeks time.