Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2013 June 24

= June 24 =

Sandisk USB drive needs to be formatted?
I bought a SanDisk Cruzer USB drive and used it on my MacBook for a few days with no problems.

When I inserted it into my friend's Toshiba laptop running Windows 7 Home, I received a message that I need to format the drive before I can use it.

I removed it and reinserted it into my MacBook. Finder gave me an error message that the disk I inserted was not readable by the computer.

Disk Utility seems to think it is a Firebird 64MB drive.

Some Googling revealed that this sometimes happens to brand new Cruzer drives which were sold unformatted. However, I had already been using the drive for a few days with no problems. Perhaps it could be a difference between Windows and Mac filesystems (such as Windows trying to read the drive as an NTFS drive)?

How do I fix my SanDisk Cruzer USB drive and get my data back? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.7.178.163 (talk) 13:10, 24 June 2013 (UTC)


 * I discovered some very helpful suggestions on this page. Looks like there is a lot of freeware that can do exactly what you want; though there are other things to try as well. As for getting your drive back up and running, you'll probably have to format it, but try some of those methods in the link first. (also, I think for most of them you'll need to put it into a windows computer...) Good luck! --Yellow1996 (talk) 16:01, 24 June 2013 (UTC)

Samsung Galaxy Appeal
How many megapixels does this version of SG have? It doesn't show it at the back  Miss Bono   (zootalk)  17:31, 24 June 2013 (UTC)


 * It has a 3 megapixel camera. Read the full specs here. --Yellow1996 (talk) 18:19, 24 June 2013 (UTC)


 * THanks! Miss Bono   (zootalk)  12:03, 25 June 2013 (UTC)

Programming a bot to create city articles with census data for the Sorani Kurdish Wikipedia
Is anyone on here experienced in programming bots to create articles (like Rambot creating articles on the English Wikipedia on US cities back in 2003)?

A user from the Sorani Kurdish Wikipedia wants a bot to create articles on Iraqi cities in Sorani Kurdish. I found census data at http://cosit.gov.iq/pdf/2011/pop_no_2008.pdf (Archive) that has information on Iraqi cities. Would anyone know how to write a bot to automatically generate articles with this data?

Thanks WhisperToMe (talk) 17:59, 24 June 2013 (UTC)
 * Look at WP:BOTREQ. You can request a bot there, or follow the links to learn how to build your own.  RudolfRed (talk) 04:52, 25 June 2013 (UTC)
 * Thank you! I filed a BOTREQ WhisperToMe (talk) 02:24, 26 June 2013 (UTC)

Double USB on external Hard drive...?
A couple of days ago I discovered a 20GB (Toshiba) external hard drive in a junk pile (I'm not making this up!) And, sure enough, it works great. However, there's something odd I noticed about the USB cable - namely, it is a wire that branches off into two USB plugs! One of them has a thinner wire, and when plugged into my laptop does nothing except activate the green light on the front of the drive. The other plug's branch is a thicker wire, and when that one is plugged in I can hear the drive's inner mechanisms and my laptop recognizes it and I can remove/add files etc. One of the folders said it was modified in 1999 so I think it is an old drive; also the outer casing makes it very clear that it is using USB 2.0, which makes me think I might be right as to the age of it. So my question is: why the double USB wire? Has anyone seen something similar before? Thanks! --Yellow1996 (talk) 21:59, 24 June 2013 (UTC)
 * I've seen that before. The second one is supposed to give the drive extra power so that it doesn't overload the usb port, so its power demand is spread over two. 82.44.76.14 (talk) 22:22, 24 June 2013 (UTC)


 * Okay - makes sense; I had suspected it had something to do with power but wasn't sure because "one had ought to be enough!" ;) I'll have them both plugged in from now on (since I don't really ever have more than one device plugged into USB at once.) Thanks! --Yellow1996 (talk) 15:54, 25 June 2013 (UTC)