Sandisk Sansa E200 series Factory Format

This will delete all media and mods from the device and return it to factory defaults.

1. Turn off Device
   
2. Slide the HOLD switch to the hold position (Red visible)
3. Hold down the Record button on the side of the device then press the power button
4. It will say "Recovery Mode, Attache USB cable"
5. Attach the USB cable
6. When Windows creates a drive letter, open it
7. Right click in the window, select NEW >> Text File
8. Rename the Text file "sansa.fmt", do not put any data in the file
9. Unplug the Sansa Player from the USB cable
10. It will format
11. Resync your music.
    

Windows 7 & TrueCrypt Full disk Encryption

Currently installing FDE using TrueCrypt is not possible on Windows 7 without doing some trickery before you install the OS on your drive.

1. Start the installation like normal
2. Make sure you customize your install, don't just let it do everything for you.
3. When it gets to the part where you choose your disk, click the "advanced" disk setup.
4. Delete all your partitions.
5. Click "New...", choose the maximum size possible for your drive. Click OK
6. It will tell you that "Windows may create a partition..." blah blah. Click OK. You'll see a 200 MB partition in addition to another partition with the rest of your space.
7. Now delete the larger partition leaving the 200MB partition intact.
8. Now select the 200MB partition and expand it to fill the space. Click OK to the warning.
9. Now you should have a single partition, go ahead and install windows the rest of the way.
10. Encrypt your drive as normal.
    

Windows File Shares over SSH

Create a Microsoft Loopback adapter:

1. Add New Hardware
2. Yes, I have already connected the hardware
3. Add New Hardware
4. Install the hardware that I manually Select from a list (Advanced)
5. Network Adapters
6. Microsoft | Microsoft Loopback Adapter

Configure your new Loopback adapter:

1. Right Click => Properties
2. Make sure "Client for Microsoft Windows" is checked
   
3. Uncheck "File and printer sharing"
4. Click TCP/IP => Properties
5. Manually Set an IP, doesn't matter what I used 10.1.1.1
6. Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
7. Gateway is your "REAL" gateway
8. DNS Servers are your "REAL" dns servers
9. Click "Advanced"
10. Click "WINS" Tab
11. "Netbios Setting" should have "Disable NetBIOS over TCP/IP"
12. OK your way back out.

Set up Putty:

1. Open Putty
2. Enter your hostname or IP Address
3. Enter the correct SSH Port (default: 22)
4. Open Connection >> SSH >> Tunnels
5. In Source port type: "10.1.1.1:139"
6. In destination type "127.0.0.1:139"
7. Leave "Local" and "Auto" radio buttons alone, click "ADD"
   
8. In Source port type: "10.1.1.1:445"
9. In Destination type: "127.0.0.1:139"
10. Leave "Local" and "Auto" radio buttons alone, click "ADD"
11. Click On "Session"
12. In "Saved Sessions", type in a name and hit "Save"

Testing it:

1. Double-click your session
2. Accept the SSH Fingerprint, if requested
3. Type in yoru username and password
4. Open My computer, type "\\10.1.1.1" in the address box
5. You should have your shares.
   

Windows 7 & Adobe Premier Elements 4

Yes I installed Windows 7 and for the most part I really like it. The only problems I've been having are the occasional issue with installing some applications that do a OS version check before allowing the install to go through.

One such application is "Adobe Premiere Elements 4.0" which I bought for my Windows XP system that I just blew away in favor of Windows 7. Installing it proved to be a bit of a challenge, only because I'm used to things just working with XP.

The solution is not to use Adobe's autorun installer, rather to explore the disk and run the .msi installer version instead. That seems to bypass the stupid version checker that Adobe built in.

So there you go, hopefully someone out there will find this useful.