Format and Partition SD Card on Mac with Partition Manager Software

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Summary: This article will share a complete blog post explaining how to format an SD card on macOS and partition the formatted SD card. For partitioning the SD Card on macOS, you can use Stellar Mac Partition Manager Software.

Note: Before, you start formatting an SD Card, let give you some basic idea about what actually an SD Card is and why it is so much popular.

An SD Card or simply memory card is a small data storage device that is used for storing photos, videos, audio, PDF file and many other forms of data. When compare with CD, DVD, etc. SD cards are much more portable and compact device, which provide more data storage capacity. Along with this, SD card has many other added advantages in innovative technology like mobile, wireless devices, etc.

VLC Media Player not Playing MP4 Videos? How to Fix

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An illegal copy of an MP4 video file or probably a corrupted MP4 video file will certainly not play on VLC media player. Another valid reason for MP4 video not playing on a Mac or Windows based VLC player is due to incorrect “video output modes”. Improper MP4 file video codec also disables the MP4 video file and prevents it from playing correctly on VLC player.

Summarising all Problems

(1) Damaged MP4
(2) Video Output Modes
(3) Codec

Including above three extreme scenarios, below mentioned problems might also share an impact on the working of the MP4 video file:

(4) Virus/Malware Problem
(5) Damaged file extension
(6) Improper file conversion

I. Corrupt MP4

A corrupt or fake MP4 will not work smoothly on your VLC media player. Or it may not even attempt to launch itself on VLC player. The reason behind this could be the corruption of MP4 video file header. A damaged header will not read the video file at all and hence it will not play itself. Other than the header damages, an MP4 video file may receive sound, video movement and slider corruption making the media player play the file abruptly. You will receive the video, but it won’t play itself correctly. It may have blurredness, audio problems and video movement issues. 

Solution – there isn’t a free option available for repairing a corrupt MP4 video file through VLC or other media player. Perhaps, a part of video corruption could be fixed but certainly not the header file. Due to lack of a default video repair mechanism, a video file repair utility is required. Stellar Phoenix Video Repair fills this gap by fixing header, sound, slider and movement corruption of MP4 video files. Moreover, this product supports repairing of other video formats such as MOV, M4V, M4A, etc.

II. Video Output Modes

Solution – 

On Mac, run VLC media player and go to its System Preferences:

a) Go to Video, and check “Enable Video.”
b) Check “Window Decorations.”
c) In Output Mode select X11 video output(XCB)
d) Save all your settings

III. Video Codec

Your MP4 video file may not be corrupt but still you wonder why it gets failed to run on VLC player? Because of the incompatible video codec contained in the MP4 video file that isn’t supported by your installed VLC player.

Solution 

a) Update VLC media player on your Mac and Windows.
b) Download video codec packs from trusted websites like the CNET.
c) Use the third party video converter and to convert the MP4 file correctly.

IV. Virus and Malware Attacks

Viruses and malwares more frequently attack Windows PC than Macs. More and newer threats continuously make attempts to infiltrate your OS and corrupt the existing files. Many times, such malware and viruses damage the video file to an extent where they became non-playable.

Solution – Update your anti-virus application virus database and rescan the computers hard disk.

V. Damaged File Extension

The three letters suffixed along a file name carries immense importance in their execution. The ____.mp4 file extension is helpful for the OS (or OS X) to identify the type of file. If the file extension is re-written, removed or compromised then the video (be it MP4 or any) will be affected. 

Solution – Rename the file extension correctly. You may also take the help from free Exe fixers applications that can repair the file extensions.

VI. File Converter

A file converter application may not do the job correctly and hence your output becomes corrupted. 

Solution – Download a trusted video file converter application from CNET and try converting your video again. 

Free macOS Sierra 10.12 Data Recovery Software Alternatives

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Now and then Mac users are upgrading their previous OS X to macOS Sierra 10.12. During the macOS Sierra update and after-while, some users have reported the loss of their critical data. Though the macOS Sierra upgrade process is entirely risk-free at times, the upgrade may not go as expected. This causes loss of OS X data and absence of Time Machine backup make it worse than ever. Apart from the upgrade, several files are deleted accidentally; external storage devices are erased unknowingly, and lots of other activities happen unexpectedly which leads to loss of data on macOS Sierra 10.12.

So, there exists some reasons that results in data loss on macOS Sierra. And to recover the lost, formatted and deleted data you have to pick up a Mac data recovery software that must support data recovery on macOS Sierra 10.12.

Top Free macOS Sierra Data Recovery Tools

1. Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery Free Edition

Features include data recovery from emptied trash, erased external hard drives, logically unmounted disks and partitions. Advance set of features that Stellar Phoenix Free Mac Data Recovery possesses is recovery from deleted or lost HFS, NTFS, FAT and EXFAT partitions. Further, it recovers from BootCamp partition (Windows OS). To add more advance features, Stellar Phoenix is said to perform data recovery from a Time Machine storage device and Time Capsule sparse bundle disk images. It also has the capability of recovering deleted data from an encrypted hard drive. Stellar Phoenix does include exclusive data recovery features for macOS Sierra 10.12 and below OS X versions. Source page - Register Free Mac Data Recovery

2. Disk Drill 3 for Mac

Features include – data recovery from an empty trash folder, erased media, startup disks and partitions. The best part of Disk Drill 3 for Mac is the inclusion of Android and iPhone data recovery into its interface. You can connect your iPhone to Mac and launch this application on macOS Sierra to perform data recovery of your files from iOS device. Further, the UI of the Disk Drill 3 is one of the best available in the data recovery software industry. You can run this application to launch ‘Deep Scan’ of the hard drive. Further, it allows a feature to repair the damages done to a particular HD or volume.  Source page - http://www.cleverfiles.com/

3. DoYourData Recovery

Not much is heard of DoYourData Recovery earlier, but it seems to have made its way recently into the data recovery industry. The best part is that it has a macOS Sierra data recovery utility which could help you just in time. Features include – trash data retrieval, formatted drive data recovery, partition recovery, support for basic audio, video, documents and applications. The interface seems to be one of the simplest available all around. Do try it for your purpose. Source page - http://www.doyourdata.com/

4. Ufushare Data Recovery

This application too support data recovery from a macOS Sierra system by allowing you to recover permanently deleted files, hard-erased storage devices (USB), and provides support for Apple's native files system (HFS,HFS+) to NTFS, FAT, EXFAT. This tool helps users recover data in 3 steps i.e. select the hard drive, scan and recover files. In between, you can also preview the files that it can recover for you. Source page - http://www.ufushare.com/

Hope this blog helps you choose the best data recovery software for macOS Sierra 10.12.

Best Repair and Maintenance Apps for macOS Sierra

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Summary: This article is primarily written to share with you some of the essential Mac hard drive repair application which also support latest macOS Sierra. 
If you are the self-administerative of your Mac OS X for taking care of all the Mac related problem, then you need certain apps which help you when your Mac doesn’t work properly. There arise various problems like: data loss; Mac running slow, or you want to improve the performance or the Mac hard drive. In all the situation mentioned above, the best Mac OS X repair and maintenance apps will prove helpful for you. And, today in this article we have compiled a list of all such Mac essential utilities which you can use on Mac system without any problems.

Essential Mac Repair and Maintenance Apps:

1.DiskWarrior 4: When it comes to selecting the best App for rebuilding and recovering data from a Mac drive, DiskWarrior comes in the 1st place. Diskwarrior is a Mac volume repair tool that comes handy for rebuilding all the corrupted directory structure of a Mac drive. It does this by building a new replacement directory instead of identifying and removing the patches from the current drive. It also acts as a data saviour tool and used by thousands of Mac users worldwide. 
Though, some Mac users dislike DiskWarrior due to its cost, as it is an expensive software and cost you $100+. So, as an alternative, you can try Stellar Volume Repair software which is not as costly as the DiskWarrior and provides the same set of features as provided by DiskWarrior.


2.TechTool Pro 7: Although, some people think Micromat TechTool as another data recovery software. But, besides a data recovery tool, TechTool pro can do a complete Mac memory test and check any hardware failure along with other important things, i.e. TechTool Protection. 
TechTool Protection helps users to create an extra start-up volume on their Mac HD. This feature is helpful for diagnostic maintenance related task. 


3.Stellar Mac hard drives repair application: Stellar Volume optimizer or Mac hard drive repair is another software in this list. This software repairs any corrupted Apple Mac OS X HD and finally rebuilds all the drive directory structure to resolve data inaccessibility issue. Stellar Volume Repair software fixs both the external drive as well as the solid state drives without any additional cost. Below we have listed a complete range of Mac volume errors that can be easily solved by using the help of this software

• Invalid table format error
• Invalid node structure error
• Invalid key length error
• Invalid directory item counts error
• Invalid extent entry error
• Invalid extent entry error
• Invalid record count error
• Invalid index key error
• Invalid B-tree node size error
• And many other…

4.Data Rescue 3: Data Rescue 3 software provided by Prosoft Technologies is another Mac drive repair and recovery tool which can be used to fix the corrupted Mac boot volume and save the valuable user data from any other problem.
Note: But, before using this software you need to make sure that data on your hard drive is not overwritten. 

5.OnyX: Onyx is a multifunction app primarily used for Mac OS X that can be used to repair and verify a failed start-up disk. It also regularly maintenance and other disk cleaning tasks like configuring various relevant parameters like Dock, Finder and some other Apple related apps to delete cache files. Though, the only thing you need to make sure that you use only the compatible version of Onyx with your Mac, otherwise this app will not work correctly.

Final Note from Author: The above discussed are the most popular and used Mac repair and maintenance application which also supports macOS Sierra version. If you know any other similar utility which deserved a place in the above list, then feel free to share it with us through the comment section.

Best iDefrag Alternatives for Mac OS X

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Often, Mac hard drives used to be a primary bottleneck and the fragmentation of data stored in them further slowdown them. However, adoption of new file systems like HFS, HFS+, and higher data storage capacity of the hard drive has significantly reduced the fragmentation issue up to a certain limit. But, still, defragmentation of Mac drive cannot be ignored completely. 
Also, if you are using a traditional non-flash drive that has to access its data storage capacity or is heavily fragmented, more chances are defragmentation of the hard disk will significantly speed up your Mac OS X.  And, when it comes to defragging a Mac based hard drive, iDefrag get the 1st place. But, it is not the only solution for defragging a Mac hard drive. There are certain other software’s that are best alternatives to iDefrag software. And, here in this article, we will share with you a list of best iDefrag alternatives for Mac OS X using which you can easily defrag your Mac hard drive and also improve its overall performance.

iDefrag Alternatives Software

1.Stellar Defrag Drive: It is one of the best iDefrag alternatives software. This software provides multiple Mac defragging options like Metadata defragmentation, Full defragmentation, Quick Defragmentation to defrag a Mac hard drive safely. You can also choose whether you want to defrag entire drive or some particular file from your hard disk.Another benefit of using this software is its compatibility with the latest version of Mac OS. Some of the exciting features provided by Stellar Defrag Drive Application are given below:

• Free Drive Space Optimisation: This app defrags the Mac hard-drive by collecting all the scatter space  in a single place. 
• Fragments shown in blocks: This app gives a block layout view of the Mac drive and gives completely different colours to ‘fragmented files’, ‘free space’.
• Option of email notification: Once the defragmentation of Mac drive is completed, this software will send automatically email about your hard drive health
• Support with Major Mac version: It is compatible with all the Mac version including the latest, Mac OS X El Capitan
• Bootable DVD Option: Using the help of Bootable DVD features, Mac users can easily boot their unbootable system within few minutes. 

2.DriveGenius: DriveGenius is another software in this list, which is a good alternative to iDefrag utility. You can easily use this software to defrag your Mac hard drive which results in an improved Mac performance. It deletes all the unused space, duplicate files, repartitioning to ensure that your Mac hard drive will work appropriately and smoothly.Some of the exciting features offered by DriveGenius Software are:

• RAID Support: DriveGenius provides support to Apple support RAID
• DrivePulses: DrivePulses is helpful in monitoring the health of Mac hard drive on a regular basis
• Improved defragmentation: Provides much-improved defragmentation to Mac files which results in better OS X system performance
• Scanning: It provides a real-time scanning of all the bad blocks exists in the Mac drive

Note from Author:

The software listed above are some of the well-known names which are perfect iDefrag alternative. However, they are not the final software which a Mac users need to use for defragging their hard drive. If you any other software that resemble the same functionality mentioned in the above software, then feel free to share with us through the comment section.