How To | Hi5 Software

How to Use External Hard Drives with Xbox One

While the capacity of games is getting bigger, the internal hard drive of your Xbox One remains the same! There are many games that are reaching over 100GB, and with the default storage on Xbox varying from 500GB to 1TB, your gaming console will be full soon.

Get more storage for your games through USB like external hard drive!

You’ll have to get an external hard drive for your Xbox sooner or later to increase your storage space for games and also for loading games slightly quicker.

Now you would ask how to choose an external drive? Well, we are here to help you with this guide how to select and use an external drive with your Xbox.

Choosing an external hard drive for Xbox One

The console supports the use of external drives, making it easy to expand your storage space for games and other content. When choosing a drive, your first consideration should be how much space you want. The console has a 16TB limit on external storage size, so for many, the sky is the limit. For context, 1TB externals run in the $60 range, though we recommend thinking longer term and going with at least 2TB. Drives with 4TB and 8TB offer a little more room to freely install games, especially for those on Xbox One X that take advantage of 4K assets.

Your other option would be picking up an external hard drive enclosure and stick the hard drive of your choice inside of it. This is a good option for people who already have a decent sized spare hard drive that’s collecting dust — you’ll just need to buy the enclosure. You can also recycle any old PC or laptop hard drives you have laying around, essentially making for a free drive.

Installing your hard drive

With your drive in-hand, it’s time to connect it to the Xbox One. The console doesn’t have to be turned off when you connect the drive, although connecting and disconnecting peripherals while powered down never hurts. Here’s how to get the drive up and running:

Connect the drive to a vacant USB port on your Xbox One
Select Yes when asked how to configure the drive
Enter a drive name
If you want to install games on it by default, select Yes when prompted

Managing your new drive

With your external drive installed and formatted, you’re ready to install and copy games onto it. We recommend moving all but the lowest-priority games onto the new drive so that they can benefit from the performance increase it brings. Follow the steps below to transfer games between your internal and external drive in bulk:

Go to Settings app on Xbox One
Scroll down to the System tab
Choose Storage
Select your internal drive
Select Transfer
Select the games you wish to move from your Xbox One console

Note: Ensure the storage required for the selected games is less or equal to the available storage on your external drive. Alternatively, you can choose Select all to automatically select the entire contents of your old console

Choose Move selected
Select which drive you wish to move games onto
Hit Move to begin the transfer

After you’re done moving your games, the “My Games & Apps” menu will now display the total combined free storage and percentage of used storage on the left side of the screen.

Xbox supports a wide variety of playing media files including videos like AVI, MP4, MOV and many more. You have Xbox 360 and an AVI video on it, but not able to play the file! Well, it indicates the corruption of video file. So to fix the unplayable AVI file on Xbox 360, make use of Hi5 AVI File Repair Software that can be easily installed on Windows as well as Mac operating systems.

Steps to Set Up an External Hard Drive on Your PlayStation

Are you using PlayStation? Don’t have enough memory to save new games and applications? Well! it is possible to upgrade the hard drive in PlayStation, but still, always there is the need for extra storage space. By considering this fact, PS4 version 4.50 update was released with the new benefit i.e. you can move the content of PlayStation to an external hard drive by attaching it to PS4. And, it also allows you to download and install applications directly to the external drive.

Here are the steps to add an external hard drive to PlayStation-

Connect USB 3.0 hard drive to PS4’s USB port
After successfully attaching drive to PS4, navigate to “Settings”
Then “Devices” and next select “USB Storage Devices”
Under “USB Storage Devices”, you have to click on X mark to choose the drive
Then, select “Format as Extended Storage” and hit Next button

Note: Ensure that you have the backup of PlayStation before selecting Format as Extended Storage option as formatting erases all the files present in the drive. In case, you have formatted the drive and lost all the data, then use data recovery software like Hi5 Partition Recovery Software, to get back your data. The data recovery tool can also be used, if you want to restore deleted files PS4 hard drive with ease.

Now, select Format option

After completion of formatting process, go to Settings, then Storage as Extended Storage, here your external hard drive will show up. Now, you can transfer your content to an external storage drive. Even, you can set it as a default location for saving games and applications. To change the default location to external hard drive, go to storage settings of PlayStation.

How to Fix Parameter on SD Card without Losing Files?

Encountered with the parameter is an incorrect error when you clicked on SD card to open it. This error crop ups due to reasons like abrupt ejection, bad sectors on the card, file system corruption, etc. Due to which, you will lose access to data stored on your SD card and also you can’t use your SD card to store new files. Therefore, it has to be fixed.

In this page, I will show you methods to fix your SD card showing “The Parameter is Incorrect” error and easy ways to get back data from it. Before trying to fix your SD card parameter error, make it recognizable on computer, by following the steps mentioned below-

Connect SD card to Windows
Go to Computer Management and select Disk Management from the left side of the screen
Then, right click on SD card and select Change drive letter and paths
Assign a new drive letter for your SD card and hit OK button

This method will help you to make your SD card recognizable in Windows. Now, proceed with below methods.

Phase #1: Fixing Parameter Error on SD Card

Method #1: Using CHKDSK command

Open command prompt for administrative account
Type chkdsk DriveName: /f /r (Replace DriveName with Drive letter of SD card)

It runs CHKDSK to find and fix system errors, bad sectors, etc. Hence, after completion of CHKDSK run, you can access the SD card.

Method #2: SD Card Reformat

If method 1 fails to fix the error, then reformat it. Right-click on SD card and select Format option. Or else, go to disk management and right click on SD card. Press Format button from the drop-down list. Even though you will lose data from formatting, it will help you to reset the file system of your SD card. So, you can access it without any error.

Phase #2: Recover Data from SD Card showing Parameter Error

Repairing SD card using above-mentioned methods may cost your data. To get it back, you need to opt Data Recovery Tools. I will suggest Hi5 Software Partition Recovery as it helps to restore data from SD card showing Parameter error and also restore data from formatted SD card. You can use it to recover data even before fixing the issue. After recovering data, you can use above-mentioned methods to fix the SD card Parameter error.

Steps to Use Hi5 Software Partition Recovery Software:

Download, install and run the tool
Select Partition Recovery option and erroneous SD card
The software scans and displays recovered data
Save them in any location

Way to Resolve Outlook PST Performance by Single Utility

You cannot imagine a single day at work without Outlook. For sending and receiving emails, organizing meetings, and so on, you rely on Outlook. So when Outlook doesn’t work, its performance slows down, or PST file becomes inaccessible then your work grinds to a halt. How to get Outlook up and running again? We tell you; read on to know the complete solution to resolve Outlook PST performance issues by using a single tool.

When Outlook PST performance starts to degrade, then the following symptoms are exhibited:

Outlook application crashes abruptly
The email client slows down
Outlook stops responding
Emails go missing all of a sudden

Try to install updates regularly to make sure Outlook PST works fine again. If this doesn’t solve the issue, and the email client’s performance is still bad, then try to fix the issue using Detect and Repair. Suppose this method doesn’t seem to resolve the problem, then the next step is to use ScanPST tool. if there are any errors or PST file corruption, then this can be fixed with the help of scanpst.exe. Outlook performance will also improve after the file is fixed.

Another important thing is to keep PST file size under check. Large files tend to slow down Outlook’s performance. Also, compacting PST file would help. Suppose any of these methods don’t work, then it probably means that PST file could be corrupted. In this situation, you need a PST File Repair software to quickly fix the file. Hi5 Outlook PST File Repair software is an efficient PST File Repair software which safely and quickly repairs corrupt or damaged PST files with ease.

This software will repair corrupt PST file, and recover its attributes. Even when mail folders get deleted or go missing, you can recover them with the help of this utility. Large sized PST file, password protected PST file, inaccessible file, etc., will be fixed in no time. Even error when opening PST file, while sending or receiving emails, and so on, can be fixed by this application.

Thus, this single Hi5 Outlook PST File Repair software helps to fix most of Outlook issues in a secure and easy manner. This one utility helps to resolve various Outlook problems, and resolve the performance issue. Moreover, the steps to fix the PST file are easy, and also the tool comes with a user-friendly interface which makes the repair process simple. It is a read-only tool which doesn’t alter the contents of the original PST file throughout the repair process.

Not able to Open MSG File Saved with Outlook – How to Fix?

MSG file can be opened in various email applications including MS Outlook. If you ever received .msg file as the embedded item in an Outlook email and when trying to open all of the sudden Outlook is functioning improperly and you are not able to open the file?

If so, then read further…

Why MSG file cannot be opened in Outlook?

If anyone of the below reasons is true, then an Outlook user will not be able to access MSG file:

When Outlook has not configured properly
When the preview of MSG files generated by Hex editors is not understandable by users
When the file is already open and user is trying to open
If users don’t have rights to access the file
Trying to open MSG file using Outlook 2002/XP or earlier, that has been created in Unicode format

Let’s consider a scenario…

If you are working on Microsoft Outlook 2002/XP or below versions and you got a message from latest versions of Outlook i.e. Microsoft Outlook 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013 & 2016, which store MSG file in UNICODE file format by default, then Outlook would never be able to access the UNICODE MSG File in older version of Outlook. Basically, earlier versions of Outlook used ANSI format for their data mechanism (storage) which is an old file format system having many drawbacks. Due to the same reasons, Outlook 2002 and older version do not support UNICODE MSG file format.

Quick solution – Save MSG file in ANSI format

To resolve the issue of unable to open MSG file in Outlook, you have to contact to the sender and request him/her to send the .msg file again but always remember this time the .msg file should be saved in ANSI format before forwarding.

To create .msg file, you need to just drag and drop an Outlook email to desktop (or any folder/subfolder). But, the main task of changing format remains and to do this, follow the below steps and make default.msg file format from UNICODE format to ANSI.

Let’s have a look at how to change in different versions of Outlook.

Steps in Microsoft Outlook 2003 and 2007

Start “Microsoft Outlook” >> Click on “Tools” >> “Options”
Go to “Other” tab >> under General section, click on “Advanced Options” button
A new window will appear named as “Advanced Options”, uncheck the option: “Use Unicode Message Format when saving messages”

Steps in Microsoft Outlook 2010 and 2013

Start “MS Outlook” >> Click on “File” tab >> go to “Options”
An “Outlook Options” window will open, click on “Mail” option (at left pane) >> At right pane, scroll the window >> under ‘Save messages’ section, uncheck “Use Unicode format” option and click “OK” button
Whenever you save the .msg file with this method in Microsoft Outlook which is “File” tab >> “Save As”>> you need to change the “Save as type:” by choosing “Outlook Message Format” (.msg) instead of “Outlook Message Format – Unicode (.msg)”

If Microsoft Outlook is not installed on your system and you have an urgency to open .msg file, then in this situation you have two options. One is trying the manual method, while the other is using any third party source. The first method is to configure Microsoft Outlook and then opening .msg file. But, what if MS Outlook does not even work properly or encountered some issues while you open Outlook. So, in such a scenario you can move to any third party source that could open .msg file without Microsoft Outlook.

“If you are a regular user of Outlook and facing any issues, then fix those Outlook problems using Hi5 PST File Repair Software in easy steps.”

Merge Multiple Outlook PST Files into a Single File

There are times when Outlook users wish to merge multiple Outlook PST files into a single file. Managing all the files is not easy. Moreover, not everyone knows how to go about the process of merging PST files. It is not a difficult task as you can easily merge multiple PST files into a single file in Outlook. Read on to know the complete procedure….

There are 2 important steps involved in merging PST files in Outlook. They are –

To create a blank new PST file
To import all the PST files to the newly created PST file

So let’s start off with the first step i.e. to create a blank new PST file:

Open Microsoft Outlook application
Click on New Items, from the drop-down menu select More Items and then select Outlook Data File option
Next, select the location where the new PST file has to be saved and give a name for it. Click on OK.

That’s it with the first step. The second step is to import PST files into this newly created blank Outlook PST file. Let’s see how to go about it:

Open Microsoft Outlook, and navigate to File option
Select Open & Export followed by Import / Export option
The Import and Export Wizard will now open
Choose Import from another program or file option and click on Next button
Select the file type from which you have to import. Click on Outlook Data File (.pst) and click Next button
Click on Browse option in order to choose the file to be imported
Check the Do not import duplicates box and hit on Next button
Select the folder to import from. Don’t forget to check the Include subfolders
Check the box Import items into the same folder in and click on Finish button

Repeat the same steps for all the Outlook PST files to combine them all into one single PST file. Suppose you need to transfer Outlook data to a new computer, then just export this PST file. There you go; merging PST files is as simple as that.

This method is a little time consuming, especially if you need to do it for more than 2 PST files. Also, if you don’t follow the steps carefully while moving PST files, then there are chances of the file getting corrupted. You will require a PST Repair tool to repair corrupted Outlook PST file in this situation. So if you find this method to be difficult then you can use a third party tool to merge PST files. However, if you use unreliable tools, then PST files can get corrupted. So make sure to check for the authenticity of the tool before using.

How SmartScreen Works in Windows 10?

In Windows 10, there is a feature called “SmartScreen” that helps to protect your PC from downloaded malicious software and malware. You can see this feature in Task Manager with the file name “smartscreen.exe”.

Now, let’s learn about this feature in detail…

What is SmartScreen in Windows 10?

In Windows 10, you’ll get to see an improved version of SmartScreen when compared to Windows 8. Whenever you download an application or a file, the SmartScreen filter will take a tab on checking it against the MS database. If it finds the downloaded content to be known and safe, it will allow it to run. If it has been seen before and believed to be harmful, SmartScreen will block it.

If the downloaded stuff is not being seen before and when Windows is not sure whether it is safe or not, then it will prevent the app from starting and warns you that it may be dangerous. However, you can ignore this warning message and proceed.

This feature can also be seen it Microsoft Edge and Store apps to help prevent malicious web content. No matter what application you use to download files, SmartScreen will help protect you. It also helps you if you are using Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox as your browser.

Precisely, we can say that SmartScreen is another layer of security along with Windows Defender. However, having multiple security layers is important even though you run some other antivirus application or if your browser has its own set of anti-malware features.

How much CPU power and memory will be used by SmartScreen?

The process of SmartScreen runs in the background and uses no system resources or very little resources. Also, Windows may automatically close the process at times when it isn’t being used, so you may not even always see it running in the background.

However, if you have SmartScreen enabled and you download a new application or file, SmartScreen gets started. Windows launch it if it isn’t already running and you’ll see it use a bit of CPU and memory resources as it computes a hash of the file, sends that to Microsoft’s servers, and waits for a response to see if the file is safe. If it is considered as safe, Windows launches the application or file normally.

For antivirus checks, the SmartScreen filter is used, which are performed by the Antimalware Service Executable process if you’re using the default Windows Defender as your antivirus program. Further, the amount of CPU and memory used should be fairly small and the entire process should be very quick, although larger files will take longer to examine than smaller files. This check is only performed the first time you open a downloaded program or file, so it doesn’t just waste resources every time you open an application.

Disabling Windows 10 SmartScreen

Well, it is not possible to fully disable the SmartScreen process. Even if you turn off the SmartScreen feature in Windows, the SmartScreen process still launches when you sign into your PC. As it uses no CPU resources and only a few megabytes of memory, you can forcibly end this process from the Task Manager, but Windows just launches it again automatically when it’s needed.

Of course you can prevent the SmartScreen process from using CPU and memory resources in the background by disabling the SmartScreen feature. But it is not recommended though! SmartScreen is a useful security feature that can help protect your PC from malware. Even if you have other security software installed, SmartScreen can protect you from something your main security program might miss. However, it only uses a tiny amount of system resources.

If you still want to disable the SmartScreen filter, go to Windows Defender Security Center > App & Browser Control, and then set “Check apps and files” to “Off” in Windows 10.

So far, there are no reports of malware imitating the SmartScreen or smartscreen.exe process. This process is a part of Windows 10 and helps protect your PC from malware, although no security solution is perfect. If you still concerned about the malware running on your system, it’s always a good idea to run a scan with your preferred antivirus program just to check that everything is fine.

If your PC is not scanned properly and virus enters into your system, then there are chances that hard drive may go inaccessible and you need to format the drive in order to get back to the normal state. But if you want to recover Windows hard drive without formatting, then should make use of Hi5 Partition Recovery Software that helps in easy restoration of data in simple steps.

How to Update Computer’s BIOS?

PC’s BIOS (Basic Input / Output System) is a chip on the motherboard that contains information to allow it to start up before the OS starts to load. You need to update the BIOS when the motherboard has to properly support a new hardware/processor. Even when bugs have to be fixed, PC’s stability or performance has to be improved, the BIOS has to be updated.

However, if anything goes wrong during the BIOS update, as if the computer gets turned off, then it cannot be booted and becomes useless. This is why you need to check if you really have to update your BIOS. Make sure to take a backup of all important data before updating BIOS. Likewise, creating a backup of BIOS itself is good. This will be done automatically, but if it needs to be done manually, then don’t forget to do it.

Follow these steps to update your PC’s BIOS:

Identify the model of motherboard

Look in the user manual of the mainboard. Make sure to get the full name. Also, note down the revision number. If it’s a laptop, then you need to look for the make and model of the machine.

Find the BIOS version

Bring up the Run window on your Windows system and type msinfo32. In the System Information window, select System Summary. The BIOS version will be displayed under computer’s processor speed. Note down the version number and date.

Download latest BIOS file

Go to the motherboard, or the laptop’s manufacturer website, then look for support link. Look for Drivers and Downloads, or something like that. Download the BIOS update for your model. Also, do read any instructions about the exact updating process for the BIOS.

Perform the Update

Run the downloaded installer or .exe file for BIOS update software. Sometimes you need to create a bootable USB drive or CD and copy files to it. Look for a ‘Press F10 for boot options’ or some similar option when the computer starts to bring up drives list.

Restart computer

Once the update gets completed, update programs will restart automatically. Some updates will request permission, while others will warn before starting an update. Few more will prompt to restart the computer. Power off your system completely, and then restart it.

Clear existing BIOS settings

This is not necessarily always. It depends on what features have changed between existing and updated version. To clear BIOS settings, look for “Restore Defaults” or “Load Fail-Safe Defaults” option. This might be on the main page of the BIOS utility or on the last page of a tabbed menu. To navigate use the arrow keys, and follow the on-screen instructions. After completion, save the settings and exit the BIOS utility.

Finally, you have to configure BIOS. If you know the settings required, change them now. If not, then it is not required to do so. Most computers will work just fine using the default BIOS settings. So now you know how to update PC. Make sure to follow the steps carefully else if anything goes wrong then your PC cannot be used again. Unfortunately, if something goes wrong and your hard drive stops working, then don’t worry. You can use Data Recovery software to restore data from dead hard disk drive. Even files from corrupted, formatted, crashed, repartitioned hard drive can be recovered.

How to Erase Corrupted Files Completely?

In general, a healthy file gets corrupted, due to several reasons may be like,

Faulty system
Presence of virus on system/storage media where files are saved
Flaws in the software used to modify or create the file
Improperly closing system such as force shut down or due to power outages
Ejecting the hard drives and portable storage media in a wrong way
Bad programming if it resulting in a hard restart

And, when a file gets corrupted, it can be used no longer. It just occupies memory on the device for serving no purpose.

When the user tries to open these corrupted files they fail to show up or screens errors. A corrupted file on your computer can even make the hard drive to crash or lead to the loss of data stored on the disk.

Some sort of corrupted files can be recovered, wherein few cases you can neither delete nor recover those corrupted files.

How to Recover Corrupted Files?

Some of the corrupt files can be repaired on your own using possible options available in your system.

For instance, you can repair corrupt Word, PowerPoint etc. Office files using inbuilt Open and Repair option available in the respective application. And, in some cases, you need to take external assistance to fix corrupted files.

In case, you no longer need a corrupted file and it is affecting other functionalities or files of your system along with consuming space then get rid of corrupted files permanently.

Caution: Ensure before you delete any file permanently. If you need it in future, then you will regret what you did now. So, instead of struggling to recover permanently deleted a file when you need it most, better take precaution like keeping at least one copy of it in some safe place.

How to Delete Corrupted Files Completely?

Step 1: Delete Corrupted Files and Erase the Folder

Move all healthy files to a new folder from the folder that has corrupted files. After you have moved the other files, manually delete the corrupted files and folder that has immovable (broken) files.

Step 2: Close Windows Explorer

If the folder fails to get deleted, close the Windows Explorer. To close Windows Explorer,

Press CTRL, ALT and Delete keys at a time
Task Manager window will open
Search Windows Explorer and right-click on it
Select EndTask option

Step 3: Restart the Computer

After closing Windows Explorer, restart the computer and verify deletion of corrupted files.

How to Handle Corrupted Files?

When a file is corrupted, it doesn’t allow you to modify (in most of the cases). At those times, you need to delete corrupted data using harsh sum or checksum. You can also try error correcting codes to fix the corrupted file.
If you feel the corrupted files are important, then don’t remove them immediately. First, try fixing the issue and see you can recover anything from the corrupted files.
Backup rest of the data saved on your device to avoid expansion of corruption.

Deleting Emails Did Not Reduce PST File Size?

When deleting a large number of Outlook items, especially emails from PST file, many users expect immediate changes to happen on PST file size. Unfortunately, deleting emails in an Outlook PST doesn’t mean that space will be freed up right away. It is not that how the concept of “deleting” works with Outlook!

“I archived and deleted a bunch of email messages in Outlook, in order to reduce the size of the PST file containing them. However, after doing so, the PST’s size is still the same. Outlook PST file size not reducing even after deleting emails. Can you explain what is happening?”

Well, there are two possibilities:

Even after deleting Outlook items, you have to empty “Deleted Items” folder
And a little patience is required after deleting

Now let’s understand these possibilities one by one.

Like Windows, your PST has an equivalent to the Recycle Bin called the “Deleted Items” folder. By default, when you delete an email message (or just about anything that Outlook stores in your PST), it’s not deleted at all, but simply moved to the Deleted Items folder.

Well, the idea of Deleted Items is to save you from disaster; a way to recover from “oops” moment when you didn’t mean to delete the item because things aren’t really deleted.

And of course, when things aren’t really deleted, there will be no free space!

The best part is you can make Outlook empty the Deleted Items folder when you exit Outlook, or you can simply empty it yourself. In the folder list, right click on the Deleted Items folder and click on “Empty Deleted Items” folder. This will permanently delete the items from your PST file.

But your PST won’t get shrunk. At least, not right away.

When Outlook actually deletes an email, the space taken up by that email is “freed”. Precisely, we can say that space within the PST is marked as unused, and made available for other email messages that might arrive thereafter. So your PST won’t get smaller right away, but it’s also quite likely that it won’t get bigger as new mail arrives either. The space freed within the PST by emptying the Deleted Items will simply get reused.

Further, Outlook is designed like a database and the space used by deleted items is not recovered until you shrink the database. Outlook may overwrite the now-unused space as new items are added to the PST, but the PST file needs to be compacted to recover space on the hard disk.

If you leave Outlook running, after some amount of idle time, it will start to perform something called ‘compaction’. Compaction is very similar to defragmenting your hard disk. During compaction, it moves all of the email messages and other “real” information in the PST to the front of the PST and moves all the unused or free space within the PST to the back. When compaction is done, Outlook can then actually make the PST file smaller by removing that portion of the PST that isn’t actually being used by anything.

Outlook won’t compact the PST file as soon as you move or delete Outlook items. It waits until there is 20% ‘white space’ (space used by the now-deleted items) and the computer is idle to begin compacting. When Outlook begins compacting, it may take several days to recover all of the space as it will stop when the computer is busy and restart when it’s idle.

Now that is where the patience comes into the picture! When you empty your Deleted Items folder, and just leave Outlook alone for a while, sometimes a long while, it will dutifully compact and shrink your PST.

However, if you don’t have patience, then you can manually perform Compaction process. To do this,

In folder view, right click on Personal Folders
Click on Properties for “Personal Folders”
Click on the Advanced button
Hit the Compact Now You’ll then see this small dialog for a while

Well, the time to free up space will depend on the size of your Outlook PST file. You may have to wait quite a while for large files.

Once it is completed, your PST will be freed up and will be small.