Category Archives: Flash Drives

VHS TAPE CONVERSION FAQ

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We take our service of digitally converting your VHS and other tapes extremely seriously.  We know that these are irreplaceable family heirlooms filled with precious memories.

We are often asked a lot of questions regarding our VHS Tape Conversion Service – Here are some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) :

Do you do VHS conversions onsite?

We convert 100% of our VHS conversions onsite here in Minneapolis, MN

What kind of tapes can you convert?

We can convert VHS, Beta, SD Card, 8mm, Hi-8, Mini DV, Film Slides, Reel-to-Reel Audio

Have you ever lost a tape brought in for conversion?

No we are a small business and all of our VHS conversion happens on site by our own hands

Have you ever had a VHS tape destroyed?

No, some tapes have come in that are already destroyed due to mold, or improper storage.   We are unable to perform miracles

Do repair VHS tapes?

We can do some basic repairs as necessary on a best effort basis for simple situations like when a tape breaks

Have you ever lost customers VHS tapes to a fire?

No we provide our VHS Tape Conversion Service under a fire suppression system in our temperature controlled, secured commercial business park location.  Your tapes are likely more safe in our warehouse than your home

Are your VHS Tape conversions guaranteed?

Yes however we highly recommend that any digital files we’ve converted to you are uploaded to both an additional offline storage medium (hard drive/laptop) in addition to a cloud based backup such as google drive or icloud

Where are you located?

We are located centrally near the intersection of Hwy 169 and Hwy 494 in Minneapolis, MN (Bloomington technically)

Can you restore VHS Tape?

No, as with all conversion or archival, the quality of the output will be determined by the quality of the input

Will I charged if my VHS Tape is empty?

No, since there is no vhs tape content to be converted, there is no charge for empty tapes

Do you watch the Videos you’re converting?

No conversion is a 1-for-1 process.  A 90 minute Tape will take 90 minutes to convert.  Quite simply there are not enough hours in the day

How long will it take?

That depends on a how many tapes we have in the conversion queue and how many tapes you have brought us to be converted. If you have a deadline like a funeral or memorial please make sure to tell us at dropoff time

Do you take extra care with VHS tapes?

Yes we know these are your precious memories and we do everything within our capabilities to make sure that they are handled with care and converted for future generations to enjoy.

Give us a call at 952-944-0083 or Contact Us via email to discuss having your precious VHS Tapes converted to digital for long term archival.

Having a Problems Copying Large Files Onto a USB Drive?

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One of the most common issues when trying to load data onto a USB drive is when you know your drive is big enough but your computer is saying that there isn’t enough space on the drive.

USB Drive Formatting is Probably to Blame.

Most USB drives ship preformatted with FAT32 file system.

File Allocation Table (FAT) is a file system developed for personal computers. Originally developed in 1977 for use on floppy disks, it was adapted for use on hard disks and other devices. It is often supported for compatibility reasons by current operating systems for personal computers and many mobile devices and embedded systems, allowing interchange of data between disparate systems.[3] The increase in disk drives capacity required three major variants: FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32..

-wikipedia
Custom Printed USB Drive

FAT32 is often chosen by USB Flash Drive manufacturers because it is widely adopted having been in use for decades. It is also not a proprietary format meaning that they don’t have to pay a licensing fee. Businesses like when they can eliminate an expense.

The problem is because FAT was developed so long ago it is unable to handle contiguous file sizes over 4GB. Now back in the 90’s this was not a problem; file sizes were small, storage was expensive and people were stingy with their data. Today is a different story. High Def video files can get monstrous in size- 4GB worth of ones and zeros gets eaten up in the blink of an eye.

THIS IS THE MOST COMMON REASON THAT YOUR DRIVE REPORTS AS TOO SMALL WHEN YOU KNOW ITS A LARGE ENOUGH CAPACITY USB DRIVE. 

Your problem is not that your USB Drive is too small.  It is that you have a file that is too big to be written to the FAT file system.

What is the solution for Flash Drives that are formatted FAT32 if you need to load a file over 4GB?

Simply Reformat the USB Drive!

USB DRIVE REFORMATTING STEP 1.

Navigate to Windows File Explorer

USB DRIVE REFORMATTING STEP 2.

Right Click on your USB Flash Drive and Select “Format” from the drop down list.

USB DRIVE REFORMATTING STEP 3.

Under “File System” select either exFat or NTFS and click the start button. Windows will notify you once your formatting is complete. Both of these file systems are capable of handling larger files.

*Quick note – you may want to research with file structure is right for you. I believe that NTFS is better for linux and exFat is more native to Windows. These selections will be exacerbated by those looking to utilize their USB drives as bridge across OS. 

MAKE ABSOLUTE SURE THAT YOU HAVE THE CORRECT USB DRIVE SELECTED AND THE CAPACITY LISTED MATCHES!  YOU DO NOT WANT TO REFORMAT YOUR PRIMARY HARD DRIVE.

Now that your USB drive is formatted to a modern file structure you should be able to drag and drop or copy your files larger than 4GB to the drive.

This covers one of the most common issues you will come across when data loading USB Drives. I hope it helps remove some frustrations you might have incurred. If you have problems you cannot solve or would like help with data loading a large quantity of USB drives we would love to help you out.

You can always reach us at 952-944-0087 or contact us via email.

Digitize Your CD Collection Today

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Frustrated that your entire music CD collection is now useless due to new vehicles shipping without a CD player?

Send us your CD Collection and we can scan and convert them to digital!

How does CD Conversion work?

  1. You ship us your CD Collection.
  2. We use automated robotics to scan your CD Collection and convert to digital.
  3. We export your music onto a USB Drive and return it with your music collection.

Pump Up the Jams
in your new car
with Digital Conversion
of Your Music!

Journey back in time to the first time you listened to your favorite album with your favorite people.

Why Digitize Your audio CDs Now

Future Proof your Music Collection!

Take back ownership of your tunes!

Forget about data limits!

Listen anywhere!

Is CD Conversion a Real Business?

We know, we know…believe me, we know! It’s a weird business. We all used to make our own mixtapes and custom CD’s all the time.

Heck we might have even made some of those albums you listened to.
We remember when computers and your brand new car all had CD players and we actually owned our music too!

Unfortunately most modern vehicles and computers no longer ship with CD players and drives. That means people can’t easily rip their old collections.

We had enough customers and car dealers asking for CD conversion service that we decided to provide it.

If that’s you we’d love to hear from you. Call us at 952-944-0083 or contact us and we can discuss converting your CD collection to digital so you can enjoy those tunes and get back to rocking!

International Disc and USB partners for North American Distribution

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We are helping International customers every day that need a partner to help with distributing their CD, DVD, Bluray or USB project to North American Customers.

We can help with:
* PAL to NTSC conversion and remastering
* Authoring
* USPS Postage Bulk Rates w/ tracking
* Affordable per unit fulfillment
* Graphic Design
* Unique Barcodes for merchandising
* Paypal or other payment options available
* Quick Turnaround
* Onsite in stock packaging options

Call us at 952-944-0083 if you need help getting your content to your US fans or customers.

Tips for putting your Graduation Ceremony on USB Flash Drives

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We are seeing a large uptick in customer inquiries about Graduation/Commencement USB projects as COVID-19 has altered the in person celebrations dramatically.

I thought it might be beneficial to some folks that are newly tasked with creating Graduation Video USBs to answer a few common miss-steps in regards to USB production.

When you’re getting ready to produce a USB project here are some key items to keep in mind:

1. Actual Size vs Marketed Size – Actual size is always smaller due to Gigabytes vs Gibibytes

2. Format Concerns: Most drives are preformatted Fat32 which limits continguous file size to under 4GB. ExFat and NTFS allow for larger file sizes but are a bit more limited in their universal adoption.

3, Speed Concerns – Read/Write speeds will be a key factor in projects that run directly from the drive. If you intend to playback 4K footage directly from the drive you may want to invest in USB 3 drives rather than USB 2.

4. Spoilage – 2-4% spoilage of Promotional grade USB flash drive is not unheard of. Buy a few extra so you are not scrambling last minute to fill your gaps at walmart or bestbuy.

These are just a few of the things to keep in mind when your gathering information or starting to think about utilizing flash drives for content delivery.

We stock USB drives in just about all capacities and print and data load for customers all over the world right here in Minneapolis, MN.

We are always available to discuss your next project and of course answer any questions that you might have.

Custom Printed Flash USB Drives Produced In House

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Fast USB Flash printing

When you need USB drives printed fast, you need a vendor that stocks and prints USB flash drives in-house.  We don’t use brokers and we don’t rely on outsiders.  We stock, print and data load in our own facility, with 100% control of your USB  or flash drive project.

When deadlines are tight, don’t trust your project to someone that outsources or brokers your critical project.

Controlling 100% of the production in house means we can color print USB flash drives and load your data extremely fast.  Getting your USB job done Today!  That means your USB are in your hands sooner and most importantly – Done Right!

Just this morning a customer in a pinch was in need of getting 3 different logos printed on 55 USB jump drives each for a total of 165 color prints. This is how it went  down:

Same Day Flash drives

  • 9:35am – customer calls in a panic
  • 9:43am – customer emails artwork for the USB printing
  • 9:55am – Techware starts printing 165 flash drives
  • 10:20am – USB print only project complete
  • 10:25am – Courier called to get the USB sticks into customer’s hand by 11:30am

While competition talks up same day, quick turns or expedited service – we are already done and literally eating their lunch. Total time from customers first phone call to project completion 1 hour and 55 minutes.

When you need quality USB printing fast with our without data loading call the best – Techware Distribution @ 952.944.0083