Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2017 January 7

= January 7 =

Symbols or Signs
1) I wish to enter the ‘tick’ and ‘cross’ sign on MS Excel. I can use the “Symbol” option for the ‘cross’ sign but I can’t find the ‘tick’. What do I do?

2) I wish to press “I” or “1” five times (11111) in order to receive a tally sign on an MS Excel field. What do I do?

103.230.104.29 (talk) 10:26, 7 January 2017 (UTC)
 * For the tick mark, the easiest thing to do is just copy it from here : ✓ . It's possible to enter it using the ALT key, but that requires making changes to the registry and rebooting - see Alt code for details if you want to go that way.  The tally marks will be a bit more tricky - you'll need a function or a macro, and possibly to install a suitable font.  This forum thread may be useful. Tevildo (talk) 22:24, 7 January 2017 (UTC)
 * An easier option for the ✓ is to add a rule for it into Excels' autocorrect. That way you can type something like "chekk" (or something else you are unlikely to type) and have it 'corrected' to the symbol. Avic ennasis @ 18:06, 10 Tevet 5777 / 18:06, 8 January 2017 (UTC)

Pass pord word Protecting Software
1) What is the estimate time for the 'Bitlocker' software to accomplish its task in a 4TB (3.63TB)? My PC/Laptop seems to slow down when making it work too much, e.g., I was migrating files and folders from one RHDD to another and the transfering speed slowed down, the fan started making louder noise, and so on...

Also, during the initialising period it states, “Do not remove your drive during BitLocker setup”. I wonder if it’s a good idea to ‘pause’ when the actual progression start, thereafter password creation phase. Reason for asking is, electric outage is quite common in the country I’m in, I would have to switch off PC if faced with the situation, will it create any problem, say if I restart the PC than retry from where I left…?

2) What other software could be use to protect an RHDD?

103.230.104.29 (talk) 10:26, 7 January 2017 (UTC)


 * (2) What other software ...? Comparison of disk encryption software lists a few possibilities. Mitch Ames (talk) 12:26, 7 January 2017 (UTC)
 * The difficulty rests on selection (as usual), a specific, reliable one that is trusted by many would be of help, which takes less time to accomplish its task... Its been 7 to 8 hours and its still initialising my drive... 103.230.104.12 (talk) 18:43, 7 January 2017 (UTC)


 * Clarification, do you mean "password" or "passport" ? StuRat (talk) 18:55, 7 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Note that there is no magic. A 4TB HD could easily take 6 hours or more to write the entire disk sequentially even with USB 3 or eSATA because of the limitations of the disk itself. If you are encrypting a hard disk which is mostly full, the only way you can do so is by reading and re-writing all the data, no matter what tool you use (well presuming it properly encrypts the whole disk) which will likely mean 12 hours or longer. If you're encrypting a whole empty or new partition, theoretically a tool only has to re-write small portions since it doesn't actually matter in most circumstances whether the extraneous empty space is nonsense or zeroes. However most tools are likely to avoid this, for numerous reasons including the fact that users may not realise that any data which they've previously stored is still recoverable (without needing to break the encryption) until it's overwritten.  So even with a new empty partition, you can expect the majority of tools are going to take at least 6 hours. It may be longer depending on the disk, your AES encryption speed etc. In particular, I do hope you're using USB3 as USB2 is going to be very, very slow. You may be able to find a tool which can recover from power outages while creating a partition but I expect that'll be rare since it's a feature which adds complication but won't be used much.  Since the hard disk is 4TB, I'm assuming it's a 3.5" with external power supply rather than a 2.5" which only uses USB power? (4TB 2.5" portables exist but they are much rare.) In that case, probably your best bet is to invest in a UPS of some sort. Since you're able to afford a laptop and 4TB hard disk, a low end UPS should be within what you can afford. Especially since if you have one 4TB removable, I guess this means you have at least one other hard disk or other form of backup as keeping a single copy of the data is a sure way to lose it all especially with unreliable power. (Or even two copies is one is on the laptop and one is on the removable and they're often connected.)  When you have your UPS, plug the hard disk into the UPS and nothing else. (Well if the UPS has USB for monitoring then you could plug USB into the laptop to more easily monitor the UPS.) Then use the laptop to create a new empty encrypted partition. If the power goes off, keep going until either the laptop or UPS has ~10% power left then hibernate the laptop. Probably the creation will survive hibernation provided you don't remove the hard disk. If it doesn't, try again next time and hope for the best your power will last long enough you don't need to hibernate. The alternative to a UPS would be to get a portable hard disk which doesn't need an external power supply, then you only need the laptop. Of course it would be better to invest in something able to power the laptop and hard disk for 15+ hours.  Nil Einne (talk) 05:18, 8 January 2017 (UTC)


 * Okay, I understand what you are saying, I'm still not satisfied. Just to clarify, I'm planning to use "BitLocker" since its the only thing available at hand as you all couldn't recomend any. If I pause during the middle of the encryption process, could I turn off my PC, go to sleep, wake up the next morning and start the encryption process from their onward...? 103.230.106.13 (talk) 19:18, 8 January 2017 (UTC)


 * Hibernation may work, but I can't guarantee it won't cause problems. One big issue is even if it normally works, there's no guarantee something won't break e.g. if the hard disk takes too long to startup for some reason. Your latest post is confusing. Earlier you are suggesting the problem was an unreliable power supply. Now you are suggesting you want to stop it when you sleep which is a different thing. I don't see any reason why you need to stop it while sleeping. If you are worried that the power will go off while you are sleeping, you can either set up an alarm to wake you up or set the laptop to auto hibernate when the battery or UPS is too low. Incidentally I was mistaken about the lack of ability to only write used space. Bitlocker at least does support this. Of course as I said above it's a moot point if your hard is nearly full. Although I'd note that if your hard disk is full, you really need backups of this somewhere especially if you are trying to encrypt it with an unreliable power supply (whatever your tool does or does not support) so you could always copy it back. Maybe an alternative if you have such weird requirements is to simply zero the drive. If you use a tool which notes how far it has reached, you can start from there later if needed (and definitely zeroing tools should survive hibernation again provided the disk doesn't disappear before or after). Once you've zeroed it you can use bitlocker and if you ensure you don't write any data which matters, you can simply encrypt used space which shouldn't take very long. And since you zeroed it and didn't write any important data where it was unencrypted, you don't have to worry about what people can recover from the unecrypted disk. Then you can copy back the data at leisure to the encrypted disk. Nil Einne (talk) 04:26, 9 January 2017 (UTC)