Find Your Missing USB Drive in Windows 7 and Vista

Source: How-To Geek

Sometimes when you plug a USB drive into your machine you won’t see it in Computer or AutoPlay in Windows 7 or Vista. Today we take a look at how to change the drive letter so you can can access it.

The problem with not being able to see your USB drive happens quite often in XP. Our readers have pointed out, and we’re seen instances, where the same problem can occur in Windows 7 and Vista as well. If you’re still running XP and having this problem, make sure to check out our article on how to find your missing USB drive in Windows XP.
Locate and Access the USB Drive in Windows 7 & Vista
The problem is when you plug in a thumb drive or external USB hard drive…nothing happens. You hear the USB sound but AutoPlay doesn’t run, and when you look in Computer you don’t see the drive. More than likely Windows named the drive to a letter that is already in use.
To fix the problem right-click on Computer from the Start Menu or Desktop Icon, and select Manage.

In the Computer Management window, under Storage, click on Disk Management to see a list of drives connected to your machine.

You should be able to determine which one is the drive you’re trying to access by its size and format type. Here we’re trying to find a 4GB thumb drive. Right-click on the drive and select Change Drive Letter and Paths.

Now click on the Change button…

You can select from a list of drive letters to rename it. Make sure it’s not one already in use or could be in use at some point. Pick a letter toward the end of the alphabet for best results.

You will be prompted with a warning dialog making sure you want to change the drive letter…click Yes.

Here you can see we changed the drive from the letter “J” to “U”…

If you have AutoPlay enabled, you’ll see the familiar screen asking what you want to do with the drive.

You will also see it in Computer now and be able to access the files and programs from it.

That’s all there is to it! It’s definitely annoying when you plug in an external USB drive and Windows doesn’t give you access to it right away, but following these steps solves the issue.
Again, this problem happens a lot more in XP and the process of fixing it is essentially the same.
Find Your Missing USB Drive in Windows XP
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This article was originally written on 07/16/10

Getting Started With OneNote 2010

Source: How-To Geek


Have you heard of OneNote, but wonder what it is exactly and how you can use it?  Let’s take a look at OneNote 2010 and see how you can use it to stay more organized and connected.
Getting OneNote 2010
If you’re just getting started with Office 2010, you’ll get OneNote when you install Office.  OneNote is installed by default with all editions of Office 2010 except for the basic Starter edition, so whether you’re using Office at home or in a corporate environment you’ll have it.  You could purchase OneNote on its own, but we recommend getting it with an Office suite as this is usually the most economical route if you use 2 or more Office programs regularly.

OneNote 2010 may already be installed on your computer if you have Office 2010 installed.  You’ll find it in the Start Menu under Microsoft Office, or alternately just enterOneNote in your Start Menu search to find it quickly.

If you don’t want to purchase Office 2010 or aren’t using Windows, you can still try out OneNote 2010 with the new Office Web Apps.  This offers a feature-limited version of OneNote in your browser.  It’s a useful option even if you’ve got OneNote installed on your computer, so check out our Screenshot Tour of the Office Web Apps for more info about the OneNote Web App.

Finding Your Way Around OneNote
When you first start OneNote, you’ll be presented with an example notebook with some information and examples about how you can use it.

OneNote organizes your notes in Notebooks, each of which are broken into Sections and might have multiple Pages.  Your Notebooks are located on the left side, with sections on the top as tabs, and pages listed on the right side.

You can create a new notebook from the File tab.  By default, new notebooks will be stored online in the Office Web Apps so you can access them from anywhere and share them with others, but you can also have a notebook stored only on your computer.  Check out our article on how to Sync OneNote with Office Live and Edit Anywhere for more info.  Or, if you want to share notebooks with OneNote 2007 users, check out our article on how to Convert and Share your Notebooks in OneNote 2007 format.

You can create a new notebook section by pressing the tab with the star on the right.  Then, click in the middle of the window to create a new page, or press the New Page on the right.

You can drag pages around in the list to organize them like you want, and can group a note with another by dragging it to the right under the other page.  Then you can collapse groups of pages to keep them organized and tidy.

Taking Notes
You can enter text, pictures, and more anywhere on a page.  Everything you enter is contained in a container you can move around the page, which makes it easy to organize your notes.

You may notice that there doesn’t appear to be many editing tools, but these are simply hidden by default.  Select Home, Insert, or other tabs on the top to see the options and tools in the ribbon.

If you’d rather keep the tools always available, double-click the ribbon tabs or click the arrow under the exit button.

Notes don’t have to be boring; you can insert a wide variety of items from the Insert tab, including files, video, and screen clippings.  The screen clipping tool is very useful; either press the button or the keyboard shortcut Win+s to capture anything on your screen and add it to a notebook.

If you have a touchscreen or drawing tablet, you can create ink notes in OneNote, too.

OneNote also works great for creating outlines.  You can rearrange bullet points and outlines just like you can any other section of the notebook.

Since OneNote is designed help you keep up with all of your data, it’s only natural that it’s integrated with advanced search.  You can search for text in your notes, including in images.  Simply enter the text you’re looking for in the search box on the top right of the window, and OneNote will automatically start finding results from all of your notebooks as you type.

OneNote includes powerful OCR technology that it uses to index and search text in images, but you can also make use of it to copy text from pictures.  Check out our article on How to OCR Anything With OneNote.

Sending Data to OneNote
OneNote makes it easy to gather notes from a variety of programs.  By default, OneNote will load in your system tray so you can quickly create a screen capture or start taking a new note.

OneNote installs a virtual printer, so you can send info from any program to OneNote.  Just print from your program as normal, but select Send To OneNote 2010 in the print dialog.

If your edition of Office includes Outlook, you can also easily add emails to OneNote directly from the ribbon so you’ll never lose your important data.

Or, you can keep OneNote like a whiteboard on the side of your screen to easily jot notes down when you see something interesting.  Click the Dock to Desktop button near the top left of the window.

Now a simplified OneNote window will stay on the right of your screen, ready for you to jot down and save anything.

Conclusion
No matter what you want to save, OneNote 2010 makes it quick and easy to save notes, thoughts, screenshots, and more.  Since it’s now a part of all Office 2010 suites, chances are you’ll be able to try it out and see how it works for yourself.  We like the page design in OneNote that lets you move anything around, and the new Office Live integration helps you keep your notes wherever you are.
 
This article was originally written on 07/16/10Tagged with: Office, Office 2010, OneNote