Get help, advice and information on all your Computers and Technology issues. http://advice-and.info/Computers-and-Technology/drive.htm Mon, 04 Aug 2008 02:49:05 GMT en The hard drive is known as the workhouse of the computer. Therefore, the hard drive needs periodic tuning, so that the hard drive can perform its operations smoothly and efficiently without any interruption. In order to maintain optimal health of the hard drive, the user can follow the instructions given below: First of all, look at the short-cut icons on your desktop. As we know that, it takes time for your PC to find these icons when it boots up. Therefore, turn off these icons with a swift right click or delete them if you dont need easy access to them. On the other hand, if you dont need all those pictures and individual files on the desktop, then you can start categorize them into folders. You can also delete the files that you do not use any longer along with the duplicate files. These folders eliminate the clutter on your PCs desktop. You should empty the Recycle Bin after the removal has taken place. The user can sort and delete the temporary and unused files with the help of Disk C leanup. With the help of Disk Cleanup, you can free the space on your hard drive. As a result, the hard disk can perform its operations faster and smoothly. The data on the hard drive is stored in bits and pieces, wherever space is available. When the user opens a certain file, the hard drive gathers the data from different locations where it is stored. As a result, the whirring sound comes from the hard drive. Use the Disk Defragmenter to reorganizing that scattered data on your hard drive. The benefit of Disk Defragmenter is that it shifts the files at the beginning that you use the most. In this way the load time increases and the hard disk and PC can perform more efficiently. When the user visits a new website, the system stores the content automatically in the folder of Temporary Internet files. It is also called as cache. The Temporary Internet files use valuable storage space and therefore, slow down the hard drives speed. You can delete these files and clear the cache through the tools func http://advice-and.info/Computers-and-Technology/91254_Keeping_Your_Hp_Hard_Drive_Healthy.html Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:48:21 GMT The workhouse of the computer is the hard disk. Therefore, it is important to know the functions and working of the hard disk. The files that we save are magnetically recorded onto the platter. The platter is placed inside the hard disk. The platters in most of the hard drives are usually mounted on a spindle. With the help of this spindle, the platter is able to spin faster and the speed can reach up to 15,000 times minute. The platter is two sided, and is mounted on a single arm which has a slider. The head can move across the surface with the help of the platter is two sided. In this way the head can read and access the data. The unit of data held by the platter is tracksinch. The track is equal to 1 concentric ring around the disk. The track is further divided into sectors, and the sector is equal to approx. 512 bytes. The saved data on the disk is referred accordingly to its sector and track. The process of data collection can be made faster by de-fragmenting the hard disk periodically. The de- fragmenting can be done with the help of Windows Disk Defragmenter, which reorganizes the scattered data on the hard drive. Once, the de-fragmentation is done, the files on the hard disk run faster and more efficiently. The de-fragmentation process shifts the files to the beginnings that are used most often. This shifting of files is done so that the hard disk can load these files immediately when they are accessed. The SATA (Serial ATA) hard drives are the next generation of ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment) hard drives. The HP SATA hard drives have been developed and designed to offer its users the best and optimum prices for the entry level servers. The HP SATA hard drive also offers its customers the affordable solutions for external storage deployments in the environments with low workload. The hard disk Cleanup The Windows Disk Cleanup application sorts through the disk and deletes unused and temporary files. In this way space can be made available on the disk which speeds up the operation http://advice-and.info/Computers-and-Technology/91057_The_Maintenance_Of_Hp_Hard_Drive.html Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:51:08 GMT My friend Sharon called recently to ask for my email address. Her hard drive crashed and she was in the process of rebuilding a new drive--application by application and, it would seem, one email address at a time. Everything on her old drive was gone, including the photos from her recent vacation. Unfortunately, the backups she had been doing so religiously every night contained nothing. No one really expects a disk crash but drive failures do happenand often at the most inconvenient times. In addition to the possible loss of important data files, a disk crash can leave you with the daunting task of having to replace the dead drive and reinstall your operating system and all of your applications. While youre doing thisassuming you know how to do this, your computer remains nonfunctional. While this rebuilding time can range from mildly annoying to extremely aggravating for a home computer user, it can bring a computer-dependent small business, or even a large office, to a virtual standsti ll. Whatever you use your computer for, having a quick and easy-to-restore backup can eliminate both the distress and the expense of the prolonged downtime normally associated with a hard drive failure. When youre restoring from a drive failure, the best kind of backup to have is an image backup. Most backup software products are designed to provide a way to backup and restore individual files. There are, however, some backup software applications that make it possible to backup your entire drive. A complete drive backup is called an image backup or image copy. Some full-featured backup software products will provide both image backup and individual file backup. They allow you to make an exact image copy of your drive and then supplement this with regular (daily, weekly, etc.) file backups. This is useful because, while some files on your hard drive change frequently, many files hardly ever change and need to be updated only rarely if ever at all. An image copy is a drive to drive copy. In ord http://advice-and.info/Computers-and-Technology/90094_Avoiding_Disaster_When_Your_Hard_Drive_Fails.html Fri, 04 Jul 2008 01:45:24 GMT As new techniques and technologies are being introduced with the passage of time, it has become more important for the comapanies to adapt new techniques to have backup storage for the data. Therefore, the data storage medium must have fast data recovery ands storage speed. The data storage medium must be faster and reliable in order to compete in the market. For the purpose of backup storage, the magnetic tape is considered as one of the most rigid, reliable, effiecient and robust medium. The ultrium LTO (Linear Tape Open) tape offers its users the best solutions to solve the backup storage issues. It has the capacity to store and retrieve high volumes of data at a high speed. All the cryptosystems are based on the cryptographic algorithm techniques. The cryptographic algorithm techniques are described below: The secret key encryption The Secret Key encryption is also known as symmetric encryption. This Secret Key encryption technique uses one key for encryption and decryption as well. The secre t key is subdivided into two more classes that are the stream ciphers and block ciphers. The block ciphers operate on discreet blocks of data, while on the other hand the stream ciphers encrypt character by providing a continuous stream of encrypted data. The need of high-performance applications is supported by the secret key. Symmetric encryption is best suited for large amounts of fast moving data, usually encrypted in blocks. DES (Defense Encryption Standard), triple DES, AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) and Blowfish are typical examples of Symmetric encryption algorithms. The Hash technique of encryption The hash technique is also known as a Message Digest and one-way hashes. The Message Digest simply maps plaintext of any length into cipher text of a fixed length. This technique is widely used for primitive security checks for digital signatures, message integrity, or for password verification. Cryptographic hash functions are used to prove message integrity and create digital cer http://advice-and.info/Computers-and-Technology/89993_The_Advantage_Of_Cryptographic_Algorithms_In_Ultrium_Lto_Backup_Tape_Drive.html Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:34:21 GMT The LTO-4 format has the capability to encryptdecrypt data within the tape drive hardware. The LTO 4 ultrium backup tape does not require the software based encryption and its inherent performance overheads. The LTO-4 Ultrium Tape Drive allows data to be encrypted following compression maintaining optimum storage efficiency. Through compression, the tape drive hardware-based data encryption also improves the efficient use of available storage capacity. The other methods of encryption leave compression until after the encryption process has taken place, often producing random data that cannot be compressed. Encryption is a standard part of the Ultrium LTO4 format which requires that all drives must be encryption aware. All LTO 4 tape drives from any vendor will return the appropriate sense codes when presented with an encrypted LTO4 backup cartridge tape. The implementation of the encryption capability is, however, optional and consequently some manufacturer's LTO-4 drives may not have this capability. W here drives have encryption enabled, interchange of encrypted data is made possible by the standard nature of the format specification, regardless of manufacturer. The Ultrium LTO4 backup tape drive can read the LTO2 format tapes and on other hand, reads and writes LTO3 format tapes. However, encryption is not a supported feature of either the LTO3 or LTO2 tape format or drives. The encryption function of the tape drive is controlled by two new SCSI commands that are approved by the SCSI T10 standards committee, Security Protocol In (SPIN) and Security Protocol Out (SPOUT). SPOUT is used to enable encryption and sets the key, while SPIN is used to obtain the encryption status of the drive. The Ultrium LTO 4 Tape Drive encryption standard is AES Galois Counter Mode with a 256-bit key. This is a secret key (or symmetric) algorithm, requiring the same key encrypt and decrypt data. To maintain security the key is not transferred to the tape cartridge under any circumstances and is only retained by the dr http://advice-and.info/Computers-and-Technology/89132_Ultrium_Lto4_Backup_Tape_Drive_Encryption.html Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:34:08 GMT When you delete whatever type of file from your computer, the file immediately goes to your Recycle Bin. When you empty the contents of your Recycle Bin, the contents go into oblivion. The typical assumption here is that the files have been completely deleted from your computer. This is actually an assumption that would make sense because you are emptying out the contents of your Recycle Bin after all. however, this is not the scenario that takes place at all. yes, the files are deleted from your system, and the physical files can no longer be seen in the folder where they once were found. However, the memory space that were once assigned to them are still in existence. With the use of topnotch software applications and programs, any hacker can retrieve the contents of those deleted files via the memory space that was once occupied by these files. This is bad news, especially when the files you deleted contain sensitive or classified information of any sort. This is precisely why all computer users have to go that extra mile in making sure proper deletion is implemented. And this extra mile can be reached when you wipe the hard drive of your system. We all know that the hard drive is the main drive that acts as the storage area for all files that you would ever create in your system. Thus, if there is one particular drive to deal with, it should be the hard drive. http://advice-and.info/Computers-and-Technology/84411_Importance_Of_Wipe_Hard_Drive_Applications.html Mon, 07 Apr 2008 08:21:08 GMT Everything You Need To Know About Optical Drive. What is an Optical Drive? http://advice-and.info/Computers-and-Technology/81466_Optical_Drive.html Thu, 13 Mar 2008 13:24:13 GMT It can be an advocacy but usually, companies that dispose old computers when they buy new units often donate the equipments to institutions and to some people who need personal computers. This is a widely acceptable practice. But are you ready to give much more than the worth of the personal computer you are donating? You might not be fully aware of it but when you are giving your old personal computer to other people, you are also giving the recipient the opportunity to access your old files and information saved previously on the hard disk. Even if you have deleted the files in the Windows operating system and in the Recycle Bin, there would always be traces of the deleted file somewhere within the hard drive of the computer. The simple process of deletion would only remove the shortcuts to the files. In actuality, the files are still there, though you could hardly trace them. But imagine if in the long process of donating, the personal computer goes to the possession of an expert who could be able to restore and retrieve the deleted files. There are many recovery and restoration software available in the market that could facilitate instant retrieval of deleted files. http://advice-and.info/Computers-and-Technology/74267_How_Computer_Programs_That_Wipe_Hard_Drive_Work.html Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:23:48 GMT According to most people, there are two types of hard drives: those that have failed and those that will fail. But for folks who use Data Recovery Services, there is a third type of hard drive: one that does not fail. A hard drive is the most vulnerable part of a computer; it has moving gears and is hence prone to wear and tear. So when you need hard disk data recovery, you must deeply consider the service and practice of the various repair companies in your area. A company that has been around the block more than a few times is ideal. http://advice-and.info/Computers-and-Technology/72425_Data_Recovery_Services_What_To_Do_When_Your_Hard_Drive_Fails.html Sat, 22 Dec 2007 22:11:45 GMT As computers become increasingly popular for use in almost every aspect of human endeavor, the question of data security also becomes important. That is, with the rise of computers also comes the rise of digital storage of information, since it is in this digital form that they can be accessed by computers. Digital storage comes in the form of compact discs, flash memory devices, and hard disk drives (which are currently the standard and usually are built into most computer setups). Now, physically securing the digital storage devices in question is of course an option. However this may not always be possible. For instance, these devices may be in regular use by many different people, and restricting access would just become counterproductive. http://advice-and.info/Computers-and-Technology/72159_Why_Wipe_Hard_Drive_Space_-_Better_Ways_To_Do_It.html Wed, 19 Dec 2007 13:21:10 GMT We have come a long way from the times when floppy disks were the mode to store and carry data from one computer to another. CD-ROM and DVDs replaced floppy disks for transporting data but all these were not very handy. Users of computers craved for something which they can carry easily in their pocket and although being small something which can store huge amount of data. The Pen Drives have emerged as a solution to this. Accessing and transporting data has been made quite easier with the use of Pen Drives. Pen Drives comes in shape and size of a normal small pen and weighs a mere 21 Gms.Though small in size it comes in massive data storage capacity ranging from 32 MB to 8 GB which is about 5600 times more than a 1.44 MB floppy disk. It is a dust proof, shock proof device without requiring any batteries. It is compatible to be used in PCs and laptops and does not need any cables or software but just a USB port on your computer. The USB Pen drives just need to be plugged into the USB port of your computer which will then automatically detect it. http://advice-and.info/Computers-and-Technology/72091_Pen_Drive_As_The_Ultimate_Mode_To_Transport_Data.html Mon, 17 Dec 2007 23:20:44 GMT A hard drive wipe refers to a secure deletion procedure that leaves no traces of the data that used to be stored on the wiped hard drive. This is usually performed using specialized software programs designed for this purpose. It should be noted that a hard drive wipe is different from and much more secure than simply deleting all the files that are on a hard drive. This is because when a file is deleted, it is not really entirely removed from the hard disk. What actually happens is that the file is simply marked as having been deleted, and the hard disk space that it occupies is marked as being ready for use. So the file is no longer listed in its directories. Also, the space in which a deleted file is contained may in fact be overwritten by new data being put into the hard disk. http://advice-and.info/Computers-and-Technology/70825_What_Happens_During_A_Hard_Drive_Wipe.html Thu, 06 Dec 2007 15:08:05 GMT Pen drive is the ideal for people who are looking for bigger space to store their data and want an easy-to-operate storage space. Transferring large quantity of data from one computer to the other has always been a problem, mainly due to lack of suitable data storing device. Storage mediums like CD, floppy and e-mails have always failed us in urgent times because of their shortcomings like small storage and large time-consumption for data transfer. Pen drive is the best solution to end this problem. These USB flash drives are integrated with a USB interface. They are small, removable, lightweight and rewritable. Their main advantages over other storage devices are that they are faster, more compact, can hold more data and are much more reliable thanks to their durable designs and lack of moving parts. It is the revolution of pen drives that more and more computers are being made without the floppy drive while the USB port has to be present on almost every mainstream computer and laptop. http://advice-and.info/Computers-and-Technology/67832_Data_Transfer_Made_Easy_By_Pen_Drive.html Sun, 11 Nov 2007 00:32:34 GMT Internal hard drives. External hard drives. Floppies. CDs. DVDs. They are all great for storing data--until they fail. Nothing is certain in life, and there is no certainty that the means by which you have been storing your important data will not become damaged and require data recovery. You may even be the cause of your lost data, by doing some accidental deleting. If the data which you are trying to retrieve is stored on an external hard drive, however, the recovery process and can range from simple to highly complicated. But external hard drive data recovery, for the most part, is similar to that used for retrieving lost files no matter where they were originally stored. http://advice-and.info/Computers-and-Technology/66443_External_Hard_Drive_Data_Recovery_Not_So_Different.html Mon, 29 Oct 2007 10:34:01 GMT CD burners were hailed as one of the biggest advances in home-computing technology several years ago, but now they are primarily used for recording music. While PC users once used 70- or 80-MB discs to backup data, the trend has shifted to the larger, easier, almost-infinitely-rewritable flash drive. WHAT IS IT? http://advice-and.info/Computers-and-Technology/61920_Why_Every_Pc_User_Should_Own_A_Flash_Drive.html Wed, 26 Sep 2007 03:56:35 GMT