HARD DRIVE FANATICS

External hard drives are devices to store your files, from documents down to movies. But there is a limitation to it: can be used by one computer at a time. Therefore if you'd like your hard drive to be a repository of files from multiple computers connected in a network, without using a server (just to complicate things like in a business set-up), find a network hard drive from your favorite computer stores!

Network-attached Storage (NAS) drives are easy to use. Just connect it to your usual router using the ethernet cable then all the computers connected to the router (whether wired or wireless) can access and save information to the NAS drive! Technology is making our lives easier isn't it? , only if we use it correctly.

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ATA TO AHCI

On Dell computers, when I tried to upgrade the hard drive from 60GB to 160GB for Dell Latitude d360, there is a split of a second display of bluescreen (BSOD-Blue screen of death) then the computer restarts.
The operating system that I used during this installation is a company burned-cd that has files (*.tib) or an image file of the whole computer. They also have a boot disk and during the first step of installation, it asks for that specific file (located on a second cd). And so the installation went through until the Windows XP is showing then it continuously restart by itself.
I thought that there might be a problem with the cd or the capacity of the hard drive might be too much to handle, until an IT manager was contacted and advised me to just check the BIOS\Devices\SATA operation. The highlighted choice was ATA, he said to move it to AHCI.
And so I did, then I restarted the computer and there it went through. Tata!

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HOW SWEET IT IS TO BE LOVED BY YOU

I never thought of the idea, and this information was brought to my attention only today, 2 years after its first release in Paris! It was introduced by MEMUP, a French manufacturer of digital products, and they named their newest (for me) yet innovative flash drive “Sweet”. It ranges from 1-8 GB disk space and each flash drive has its own colour and distinguished perfume. That made the difference on the market. Fruits like strawberry, lemon and orange were used as the flash’s fragrances. Don’t think that it’s because they are different from the usual trend of a flash drive, they have limited performance. They are still using the speed of USB 2.0, compatible with both Mac and Windows operating systems, and above all, it has a security feature via a password lock system. Cool and promising. Now I know. Thanks to the source.

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DELL mini 10v with SSD!

What’s new about DELL? They have this product, even smaller than HP Pavilion dv2-1030! It’s called Dell Mini 10v. For the specs, it has the Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz proc, etc. Please check on this catalog for more information. It is available mid-May 2009.

I’d rather talk about a feature this netbook has: SSD. What is that? It’s a Solid State Drive. What does it do? It stores information just like the usual HDD (hard drive) that laptops are using. HDD are called Electro-mechanical Disks in the field of IT. What is the difference between the 2? SSD is less fragile due to introduction of no moving parts, unlike the other one. In addition to that, SSD has no mechanical delays so processing time is well improved. Reading and writing on the disk is far more excellent than the conventional HDD due to physical location of the data is negligible, thus creating no noise. What is more expensive? SSD. Lot of disadvantages are seen though, like it takes time to write, the writings on the HDD is up to 100,000 times only, and requires more power than the HDDs. As of the moment, the technology for SSD is still evolving. So check for news every now and then.

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Portable Applications

Yeah, the capabilities of a USB flash drive or the external hard drive in backing up your files are now extendable to even running your software from it. Unbelievable? It’s for you to find out.

I got interested in checking the capabilities of a hard drive when one of my customers came to me and ask if such thing is possible. Back then I have no idea if software will run from a host computer without installing the software from the hard drive. I told the customer that the installer is ok to be stored in the external hard drive but you must run it on the host computer, then uninstall when you’ll not use it anymore. That time I didn’t know that you can use the flash drive for both storing the installer and running the software not from the host computer but on the flash drive itself, and leaving no evidence that you used the software once you remove the flash drive from the computer. That would be amazing! Carrying software applications to one computer to another, leaving no traces behind.

Checking further, there is bundled application that you can download from the internet then run on your flash drive. Most commonly are Mozilla (an internet browser), open Office (just like MS Office), calendar, email, antivirus, etc. These are called portable applications. I just wish autocad can do that.

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Restore deleted files

Who doesn’t want to restore the accidentally deleted files from your computer? Who doesn’t want to bring back the files on the harddrive after the computer crashed? Who doesn’t want to return the files after a bluescreen appears on your computer and there is no way to make the computer working again but by reformatting the harddrive and installing everything all over again? Before, the technology is not that advance, but great on its own epoch. Human bearing brains with intelligence as high as the mountains of Everest is constantly looking for alternatives in making life easier, coz life itself is hard, or so I thought. Any technology new or old has corresponding tag price. And this innovative technology’s so amazing that it can recover the files erased forever from the harddrive with just a click of the button with a lower price than other companies offering the same expertise. What’s marvellous about it is it can work with Windows 98/2000/XP/Vista, no Mac, sorry. Come on. Click Here! am pretty sure that one of your wrinkles will disappear after for not worrying anymore about your files.

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HOW TO ADD PASSWORD TO FLASH DRIVE OR PORTABLE HARD DRIVE

Your flash drive or portable hard drive contains critical information that you alone would want to access. But what if your hard drive was lost and the information contained inside will be used against you? How do we prevent this from happening? As much as possible, we want our flash drive or portable hard drive has password so the owner can alone open the hard drive. There is software out there that supports this problem: TRUECRYPT, though you need to have administrative privileges on the computer to do this.

1. Install the product into your computer then run the application

2. In the TrueCrypt Setup window, select EXTRACT

Once installed, open the application

3. Go to Tools, select Traveler Disk Setup

4. Go to Browse, select your flash drive or hard drive letter

5. Select #2 on the picture

6. Click on Create at the bottom part of the screen

Yada! You have created a password for your flash drive or harddrive.

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TOSHIBA HDD RECOVERY UTILITY

Note: Not all Toshiba laptops has their own installed utility like this, always check the manual of the computer if it has this option.
Before doing the presented operation, it is wise for you to back up your files because doing the succeeding steps will format your hdd to original or factory settings.

1. Hold down the zero button then press the power button to turn it off.
2. Not lifting the zero button, turn the pc until you see the Toshiba logo, then the pc will load the HDD Recovery Utility. Sometimes, you need to tap the zero button when you see the Toshiba logo.
3. It will display "Please select the recovery method"
a. RECOVERY TO THE PURCHASED DATE - means you recover the hdd to factory defaults. Most often it is selected.
b. RECOVERY WITHOUT CHANGING THE PARTITION SIZE - means the C: drive will be deleted while other partitions will not be touched.
c. RECOVERY WITH SPECIFICATION ON THE PARTITION SIZE - means all the drives will be deleted. Then you can set the size of the C: drive later on the wizard.
From a-c, press Y (yes) for confirmation.
3a is the option to use to recover the pc to factory settings.

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How to perform "chkdsk /r" ouside windows

If windows is not loading and plugging the HDD into a working pc but the data inside the HDD is still not detected, perform these steps:
1. Boot to cd (it's like installing the windows again)
2. Press R (for recovery console, instead of "Enter" where installation of windows will take place)
3. On the C:\> prompt, type "chkdsk /r"
4. Wait until the check disk utility finishes.

Inside windows:
1. Go to run, type cmd
2. On the C:\> prompt, type chkdsk /r

Good luck!

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