corrupted

Any kind of data file can be corrupted, but your MP3s are especially vulnerable to damage and corruption since there's a lot of them, they tend to hang around for years, and all kinds of programs handle them. MP3 Checker is a simple, free tool that scans your MP3s for any kind of corruption, as long as it's data corruption; it can't tell good music from bad, only good files from bad. With drag-and-drop and file quarantining, it's fast, easy to use, and safe.

MP3 Checker is a simple tool with an appropriately simple interface: a … Read more

New features on Google's latest Android mobile OS -- Jelly Bean 4.1 -- beef up the system's security over all other past OS iterations. With Jelly Bean's design, Google has aimed to defend against hacks that install viruses and other malware on mobile devices using the system.

"Android has stepped its game up mitigation-wise in the new Jelly Bean release," security researcher Jon Oberheide wrote in an analysis published this week.

Oberheide notes that the central difference between Jelly Bean and other Android systems is that it incorporates Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), which … Read more

We've seen many file-deleting utilities. Most are freeware offering "secure" file deletion by overwriting files on your disk multiple times until the data is unrecoverable. Kevin Solway's Delete Doctor is a bit different. It's designed to delete those files that just don't want to leave your system, such as viruses and malware, files in shared folders, and files currently in use. To that end, it offers four different methods for removing files from your system. This simple freeware also has drag-and-drop capability.

Delete Doctor's interface is compact but efficient, beginning with an entry … Read more

The man credited with inventing the World Wide Web has come out against the British government's contentious plans to monitor all Internet communication.

In an extensive interview with U.K. newspaper the Guardian, Tim Berners-Lee said the type of surveillance that the government was proposing was tantamount to the "destruction of human rights" and "the most important thing to do is to stop the bill as it is at the moment."

The plan being pushed by the government, which was announced this month, entails British intelligence agencies observing every U.K. resident's Internet use, … Read more

Generally when a file you download is corrupted, opening it results in an error or just the inability to read it properly; however, in rare cases corruption in executable files such as installers and programs can result in crashes and other unwanted behavior.

Periodically files you download from online services such as the Mac App Store or from Web sites may become corrupted and result in a verification error when you try to open them. If this happens, then it is recommended you avoid using the file, since while usually it will just not read properly there are instances where … Read more

Uninstalling media players can leave invalid Autoplay entries in your Registry that repeatedly prompt you to use programs that you've already attempted to get rid of. Autoplay Repair is a utility that can display these invalid entries and let users delete them for good. Although we like the idea of the program, it's not necessarily easy to use.

The program's interface is plain and doesn't offer a lot of direction for new users. A tabbed Autoplay Manager screen lets users view the installed Autoplay handlers for audio and video files, audio CDs, DVDs, blank discs, images, … Read more

Some users may experience an issue when attempting to update the firmware on their iPods where the firmware file cannot be found or is found to be corrupt.

If your iPod software update cannot be found or is corrupt, meaning that iTunes could not update or restore your iPod, you can delete the iPod software update files. iTunes will then be able to download a fresh copy of the latest firmware update from Apple, and you should then be able to install it.

According to a recent knowledgebase article from Apple, follow these steps to delete the files:

Microsoft Office handles so much business that eventually two things are bound to happen: 1) critically important files will be corrupted or damaged, and 2) there will be no backup. You'll then have two choices: 1) panic, and 2) attempt to recover the file. That's where Advanced Office Repair (AOFR) from DataNumen comes in. It's an enterprise-class tool for recovering and repairing not only Word, Excel, Outlook, and Outlook Express files but also Access databases. It can repair files on damaged or corrupted media like floppies, Zip drives, and CD-ROMs and handle legacy files, including Access 95, … Read more

Advanced Excel Repair is a simple but powerful tool for recovering and repairing damaged or corrupted Excel spreadsheets. It's designed for businesses and others who rely on Excel, for whom a lost or damaged file can be either a nuisance or a catastrophe.

Advanced Excel Repair has a simple, attractive dialog-based interface with tabs for Repair, Batch Repair, and Preferences, although Preferences covers nothing more than selecting a directory for temporary files and the internal process buffer size. The default tab, Repair, is dominated by a log display, a progress bar, and a Start Repair button, which offers options … Read more