Friday, December 19, 2008

Hard Drive Data Recovery - Computer Will Not Boot and You Need Your Files

It has happened to all of us. We are going about our business one morning and as we turn on the computer, a not so welcoming blue screen appears with a bunch of geek talk computer gibberish. What does this mean? Why won't my computer turn on to the desktop like it has done for the previous 3 years? Why haven't I backed up my files lately?

A feeling of panic enters your thoughts because you have so much information on that computer, not being able to access it anymore scares the heck out of you.

There could be many reasons why your computer will not boot up but the most important thing is that you get those files out. But what can you do? Well, there is a simple set of steps you can follow to try and get that data off the hard drive.

First you need to get the hard drive out of that computer. Make sure you follow safety precautions when opening up your computer case.

You can buy an adapter called and IDE to USB adapter which allows you to plug one end of the adapter to a hard drive, and the other end to the USB port on a computer.

Once you have the this adapter plugged in, your old hard drive should appear in "My Computer" on the new computer. Assuming this works, your hard drive will appear the same way a jump drive would appear.

The hard drive is now connected to the computer and you can either use CD or DVD burning software to extract all the needed files, or you can just drag those files into a folder on the new computer.

Sometimes this does not work and you need technical support A technical support company will have the right equipment on hand to help you out in a situation like this.

Dan Kornak has been providing NJ computer repair, technical support, wireless network setup to Mac/ PC users in New Jersey for over 10 years.

DKNJ Networks - For ALL Your NJ Computer Needs... dknjnetworks.com

Secured Backup Data Using External USB Hard Drive

One hard disk drive is required at least by every computer system for the storage of OS, user information, programs and applications. Usually the hard drive is internal, but with the evolution of different requirements, threats and working conditions, the external hard disk drives have gain popularity and their sales are also increasing. The access to internet exposes the computer systems to threats that include spywares, viruses and Trojan horses. So even after the employment of antivirus and firewall programs, it is very much difficult to protect the computer systems from these threats. Besides the online threats, different members of family who are using the same computer system, put their critical data at higher risk of loss or unintentional corruption.

More storage space is needed for the rapid increase in multimedia because of DVD burning, streaming video, picture files and MP3s as large storage space is required by them on hard disk drive. External USB hard drive is the solution to all these threats and requirements. The external drive remains outside the system with in its enclosure which is little bit larger in size and sometimes it also has a cooling fan. In this way the user can store the data on the hard disk drive that rests outside the computer system. Interface cable of high speed is used to connect the external hard drive to the computer system.

The communication, back and forth movement of the data between the external drive and the computer is done through this interface cable. Common typical interface types are firewire & USB (universal serial bus). External drive is very helpful equipment as it helps to store backup data of the important and critical documents separately and away from the main drive that can be effected by the offline or the online threats. The important documents, DVD images, music files, disk images and backup of main internal drive's content can be stored safely and securely on the external drive. External hard drive can be powered off when the user is online.

External USB drives benefits its users because it operates on the basis of plug & play and is also portable. Computer system that has the capability of firewire or the USB recognizes the external drive, and a letter is assigned to it for its designation as storage device. Afterwards the user can access the external USB hard drive just as the system's main drive.

External drives make is easy to transfer huge volume of critical data from your office to your home, or between your laptop and desktop. The favourite programs of the users can be made virtually portable by just plugging in the external hard drive and create working environment. If multiple members of the family use the same system, then the external drive is the best choice and solution for keeping the sensitive information safe and secure. The user can have all the data available by just by plugging in the external drive and can access the programs and data. When the user has finished his work, all he has to do is just unplug it and he can take it with him where ever he intends to.

There are many benefits of the external drive and that is why its users are increasing with the passage of time. The users can even use many external drives and then in the same enclosure they can swap them. They can use one of the hard drives for several purposes like data backup, images storage, multimedia storage etc.

For more details and online order, please visit http://www.tape4backup.com

Shawn Dave (Marketing Manager)
Tape4backup.com
34972 Newark Blvd, # 501, Newark CA 94560
Tel: 888-491-4949
Fax: 888-449-5050
Email: sales@tape4backup.com


Hard Drive and Computer Memory Buying Guide

Hard drive
When choosing one there is only to look after speed and capacity. For normal work you need at least 250GB of space and in terms of speed there are hard drives running with 7200rpm and some with higher performance at 10000rpm. Most use ATA or IDE connection with computer.

So what do you want to get?

If your computer will be used for:
Word Processing: 160+ GB, 7200rpm
Web Surfing: 160+ GB, 7200rpm
Light Gaming: 250+ GB. 7200 rpm
Heavy Gaming: 360+ GB, 7200 rpm
Digital Music: 500+ GB, 7200 rpm
Graphics Editing: 500+ GB, 7200 rpm
Digital Video: 750+ GB, 7200 rpm

If you look from this perspective: common mp3 song uses 5mb of space, common video from 700mb to 1,5GB. You know for what you will be using your computer so it is your choise.
ATA and IDE are quite similar, their only difference is that the ATA drive is more easy to install, and has less cables.

Memory

Also a very important component, it sends the message to the processor how to manage the orders which we have given to the computer.

There is never enough RAM. How much you need is relevant. If you play games which take a lot of ram or other memory consuming processes then you need a lot of it. Minimum amount is 1GB, middle 2GB and the best is from 4GB above.
The type is also important. DDR2 and now DDR3 are the most common today. Here are some RAM-s from slowest to fastest:

DDR2 400 MHz or PC2-3200
DDR2 533 MHz or PC2-4200
DDR2 667 MHz or PC2-5300/PC2-5400
DDR3 800 MHz or PC3-6400
DDR2 800 MHz or PC2-6400
DDR3 1066 MHz or PC3-8500
DDR3 1333 MHz or PC3-10600/PC3-10666
DDR3 1600 MHz or PC3-12800

The speed also very important. Why would we need a big capacity if it wont fill up enough fast. Memory can be upgraded very easily so do not bother buying too much or too expensive.