Computer Spot

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Buying a Portable External Hard Drive


Remember how freeing it felt getting a 128 MB flash thumb drive about 10 years ago? Even up until a couple of years ago, getting a portable external hard drive that could hold 160 GB seemed like a great little personal luxury – you could carry your movies and your music and your data anywhere.

These days, even as these devices become extremely affordable, people do think twice before buying. They know that there’s cloud storage to be had for next to nothing at all.

If they buy their own personal hard drive, they figure, they could drop it or lose it or something. Cloud storage is forever. Why bother with a portable external hard drive, they feel.

The thing is, cloud storage isn’t as great as you might think. If you get a virus on your computer or if you any need to wipe your hard drive, it’s a lot easier to restore everything from a hard drive you have in your drawer than it is to download hundreds of gigabytes.

And anyway, who has the time or the patience to repeatedly stream a movie every time they want watch? In short, a portable external hard drive still makes sense.

Buying a drive, the choice today is between the USB 2.0 and USB 3.0. It would make a lot of sense to buy 3.0, because it doesn’t cost any more.

Of course, most computers don’t have a USB 3.0 port. But no matter, new computers that come out these days mostly have them.

Practically every computer should have 3.0 support withing a year or two. Until then, your superfast hard drive still can work with an old 2.0 port.

Stay away from FireWire though – that’s a standard that is nearly gone now. If you want something that’s even faster than USB 3.0, you should consider Intel’s Thunderbolt – something that’s only shown up on Apple computers so far.

Thunderbolt is pretty expensive. A mere cable for Thunderbolt costs $50. If you can find it. The upside though is that it can transfer data at twice the speed of USB 3.0.

Since Thunderbolt really hasn’t shown up anywhere yet, might not make much sense looking for a Thunderbolt hard drive. You might be able to use it with your newest Apple computers. You probably wouldn’t be able to use it on anyone else’s computer.

eSATA is a great option too, though that’s exclusively designed for hardware connections. Most new laptops feature eSATA these days. They’ll usually double up as a USB port too. If you get one of these hard drives, you’re in luck. They are as fast as USB 3.0.

Do consider springing for a network attached storage drive or a Wi-Fi drive. This is something that you don’t have to actually physically connect to your computer.

Basically, portable drives are dirt cheap. And they are super compact too. There’s quite nothing like owning a capacious 1TB hard drive that’s the size of the palm of your hand.

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External Hard Drives


For most people, the large amount of storage space they get on today’s computers is enough for whatever they can pile onto it.

However, there are some people that need more space. Instead of buying yet another computer, you can buy external hard drives that can store what you need without adding too much to what you have in your home.

These can be downright small, and can even be portable when you do not want to lug your computer when going somewhere. If you need more space, this is the way to go.

Those that store a lot of music on their computers find that they soon run out of space. If you write your own music, you are going to need tons of extra space.

You can buy almost as must memory as you already have on your computer for around a hundred dollars, give or take.

This means that you can have double the space for far less than you would if you were to buy a more powerful computer or if you had to buy a second one just for your music needs. Music tracks take up a lot of space so give yourself a break and get what you need. Read the rest of this entry →

Removable Hard Drive


Today’s computers are sleeker, smaller, and more portable than ever before. Some people use a smart phone for all of their computing needs, but those people don’t have a lot of use for many programs.

Everyone else either uses a hand held table, a laptop, a notepad, or a full sized PC or Mac at home. Whatever the case, each of these things has some type of hard drive, which is where all of your important information will be stored.

If you are smart,you will get something with a removable hard drive or you could end up losing more than just a machine.

If you have ever had a computer crash on you, you can start to understand why a removable hard drive might be a good idea.

Some of them are not, which means a fried computer will take your important files down with it, and unless you have backed that information up, you have lost it forever.

Everyone has the best of intentions when it comes to backing up computer files, but even the most ardent savers forget once in a while. Read the rest of this entry →

Installing Internal Hard Drive Basic


Installing up to four internal hard disk drives in some sort of Mac Pro is surely an easy do-it-yourself job that almost anyone can feel comfortable tackling. Even a fairly easy project runs better using a little progress planning, though. You can make the set up go swiftly and smoothly by setting up your work area before hand. You’ll need one or more hard shots off the tee.

The drives should adapt to either satas specifications. SATA is an extremely common form of hard drive, so it need to be easy to discover and obtain one, often locally or online.  A new screwdriver, if at all possible a Phillips #1, although from a pinch, a #2 will likely work. Your clean workshop. You will be working with quite a few small screws; don’t danger losing any advisors in any mish-mash of clutter.

Excellent lighting along with comfortable obtain make nearly every task visit more smoothly. If you happen to be like a lot of Mac Master owners, your Macintosh Pro might be under some sort of desk as well as table. The initial step is go the Apple Pro to some clean dining room table or desk within a well-lit region.
Discharge Static Energy

1. When the Mac Pro is working, shut the idea down in advance of proceeding.
2. Disconnect any kind of cables that happen to be connected to the Mac Pro, except the facility cord. The facility cord have to be connected, to aid you to discharge almost any static buildup from the power string and in its grounded electric outlet.
3. Discharge every static electricity that has built up on your system by touching the PCI extension slot protect plates. There are these sheet metal plates on the back from the Mac Pro, next to the DVI video clip connectors to the display. You will feel your slight static shock if you touch the actual metal include plates. That is normal; there’s for many who be concerned on your own or the actual Mac Expert.
4. Remove the facility cord from the Mac Pro.

to be continued…

Hard Drive Partition


Computer Utility helps you divide a disk drive into multiple partitions. Each partition will use on the list of five file format types pointed out earlier, or any partition can be left unformatted, because free breathing space for potential use.Partition a Hard disk drive

  • Release Disk Power, located with /Applications/Utilities/.
  • Current hard disks and databases will display from a list pane to the left side of the Disk Electricity window.
  • Hard disks are listed with to some degree cryptic titles, usually comprised of the tough drive’s size and the manufacturer’s identify and style number. An average hard commute name is actually 298 GIGABITE WDC WD3200. This means that a 320 GIGABITE Western Digital disk drive, with a new model lots of WD3200. The identify lists that formatted size in the hard generate (in the following case, 298 GB), not the particular raw size in the hard commute (in that case, 320 GB).
  • Volume names glimpse as indented items just below the hard disk drive they are associated with. There’s almost nothing to decipher right here; a volume’s name with this list is similar to the brand it displays to the Mac desktop computer or from a Finder screen.
  • Select the disk drive you want to partition in the list throughout Disk Energy.
  • Click on the ‘Partition’ tabs.
  • Use the dropdown list under the degree Scheme advancing towards select the quantity of partitions you would like to create to the selected disk drive.
  • Disk Utility will present equal-size dividers to fill up the on the market space to the hard drive.
  • Before Disk Utility may make volumes from your partitions you select, you’ll must select any name, arrangement, and size for each partition.

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What are Drivers and How and Why do you Replace Them?


Your computer is a machine with many different parts. There are the physical parts, such as the hard drive, the mouse and monitor, and there are the software items, including the operating system and the programs that run on it.

There are many different hard drives, and many different mice and other parts available in differing designs and from different manufacturers.

This gives the user a choice, both of the type of item they want and also the price that they are willing to pay for it. The problem is that they are not standard-each manufacture may make them differently.

These differences could be said to make the devices speak different languages to each other. A Microsoft mouse would speak a very different language to a Logitech mouse for instance.

How then, can the operating system speak to all of these different devices, in all of their various languages in order to make them work?

Obviously it would be inefficient to make a different operating system for each manufacturer, and if that were to happen it would still leave the problem of locking users into just one manufacturer for their entire hardware set. This is where device drivers come in. Read the rest of this entry →

Help With Data Recovery


If you’ve had something bad happen to your hard drive and find yourself looking for data recovery help, your probably in a hurry, not wanted to listen to hype or schemes.

Many individuals who have experienced the loss of their data cannot wait, and need to have their data now.  Businesses on the other hand, need to have their data up and working so that they can continue to carry out their normal day to day operations.

Anytime you experience problems with your hard drive, you can count on data recovery to recover your data.  There are a few options available, the first being recovery specialists that can actually come to you. Read the rest of this entry →

How to Avoid Hard Drive Overheating


Even though the hard drive stores data, it isn’t perfect by any means. Hard drive failure is very common with all computers, with no real way to prevent it.

Although there are several different reasons why a hard drive can fail, the most common is overheating. Viruses and crashes are common as well, along with theft and accidental deletion.

With the older style and mechanics of hard drives, the RPM speed was low, meaning that the drives wouldn’t overheat. The hard drives we use now days, have speeds between 7,200 and 10,000 RPM, meaning that they can get quite hot when they start working. Read the rest of this entry →

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What To Do When Your Hard Drive Fails


How many times have you experienced that sickening feeling when your hard drive suddenly fails?

How many times have you experienced that your hard disk just does not boot and all the data may be gone forever?

A hard drive failure is one of the most common problems and worst nightmares faced by computer operators all over the world.

Precious data is lost either at home or in big corporate environments. What can be done in these situations?

Well, there are certain solutions that can be performed by you in order to revive your hard drive. We will talk about the solution later. First, let us discuss why a hard drive fails. Read the rest of this entry →

Verbatim 320 GB USB 2.0/FireWire 400 Portable External Hard Drive 96527


Verbatim portable hard drive offers an easy and convenient solution for storage of data. I have recently purchased it and I am quite pleased with its performance.

For one thing, I like its size, its palm-sized and easy to take anywhere with you, and it is very stylish and durable too.

I would say it combines the best features of all hard drives. It comes along with the FireWire cable and a USB cable.

The USB cable can be used to obtain additional power as it is Y shaped. And due to the FireWire cable no external power supply is required.

The Verbatim offers quite a large space for storage, 320 GB is a huge space and you can easily use it to store your work information so that you don’t have to carry your laptop home.

However, there are a couple of things you will notice about it that might surprise you.

Firstly, the case looks like a metal case in the picture but when I bought it, it was actually a plastic silver case.

Secondly, the bottom of the drive heats up after one uses it for a few hours.

I would advise anyone using this drive that one should not use it for a long length of time. Otherwise it is perfect value for money.