Hardware : Strategies to maximize the life of your hard drive

If you ask me the question: what part of your team is the most fragile, what would you say? What if I asked what part is most important to you?
Often the answer to both questions is your hard drive.


Your hard drive is probably one of the most important things you possess. It contains work data, school data, emails, photos, music, movies, tax information, etc ... Indeed, the hard drive is also one of only two moving components in the computer (the other is your optical drive). The following is a list of maintenance and monitoring techniques you can use to maximize the life of your hard drive and prevent data loss.



Hard disks are physically fragile - handle with care
Statistics show that 25% of data loss due to a failure of a portable unit. (Source: 2001 Cost of Downtime Survey Results)
Contrary to its rugged appearance appearance, the hard drive is a very delicate device that writes and reads data using microscopic magnetic particles. Of vibration, shock, and other negligent operation may damage the unit and cause or contribute to the possibility of failure. This is particularly important for notebook users, as they are at increased risk of drive failure due to physical damage, theft and other causes beyond its control. Therefore we recommend regular backup of laptop hard drives, as often as possible.
Possible solutions include external USB or Firewire drives (although these are prone to the same risks), desktop synchronization, or backup to a data center via the web.



Hard drives write data in a nonlinear forcing it to split.


When files accumulate on your hard drive, not just get written in a linear fashion. A hard drive writes files into small pieces and scatter over the surface. The most complete of its hard disc and becomes the more files you save and delete the worst of the fragmentation of files can be. Hard drive to increase access times to fragmentation and the unit must work harder to find all the pieces of the files. The more fragmented the data is, the harder the actuator arm has to work to find each piece of a file.

An example of this: Disk fragmentation is a common problem for users of Outlook Express and the database software. Each time you save the prospects for new mail, it does so in a different physical location of the previous time. This translates into extreme fragmentation, causing hard drive and access times, and forcing more tension in the head. This variety can lead to a crash, and often, which means an almost irretrievable drive.Finally, for a total accident, a fragmentation unit is much more difficult to recover a healthy defragged drive.

Fortunately, Windows makes it easy to defragment your drive, simply start the Disk Defragmenter utility (Start> Programs> Accessories> System Tools), choose which disk or partition you want to defragment and put to work at night or while they are not actively using your computer. Defragmenter will accelerate the team and ensure a longer life of your hard drive.



A very small power can fry a hard drive - use a UPS and shut down your computer when you can

Another little known fact about the fragility of the hard drive is its susceptibility to electrical fault. An electrical failure can be caused by an increase in power, lightning, power brown-outs, incorrect wiring, faulty or an old power supply, and many other factors. If a power comes into your computer, you can make an unpredictable amount of damage, including destruction of the hard drive electronics or heads crashing and possibly resulting in total loss of data.
The best way to protect your computer from such threats is to use a power bar or a nominal protected Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS). Although these devices do not eliminate the chances of an accident, will serve as an effective protection in most cases. Also, you can minimize the danger of an electrical problem and reduce the wear on your hard drive by turning off the computer or using the methods of saving energy whenever possible. It is a known fact that 100% of the units, the question is when will happen and will be ready? Be sure to check the base of the section of our website for more detailed information on how electricity affects their team.



Be smart, monitor the health of your drive to avoid unexpected accidents

All hard drives have a self-monitoring technology called SMART (Self Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology). What most people do not realize is that most hard drive failures need not be unexpected. Most failures occur as a result of long-term problems that can be predicted. By regularly monitoring the health and performance of disk, you can know about potential hard drive problems before losing any of your data.

Several excellent services are available, including the stellar DiskView and SMART standard IDE and SATA desktop drives. Also available are instruments that monitor the health of the SCSI RAID array and complete systems. Ariolic software offers a great utility called ActiveSMART.



The only foolproof test to avoid loss of data is ... Backup!

If only one of the suggestions here to heart, it is this: Always back up your important data. After all the monitoring and prevention measures are in place, the fact remains: not all disks. Regular backups will ensure that you're never caught without their critical data. For individuals, the simplest solutions include portable external hard drives, dvd's, and online storage. For businesses, we recommend renting space in a secure data center and implementing a disaster recovery plan, regardless of the size of your business.

I hope that the above techniques give you an idea of the importance of hard drive maintenance and provide some ideas of how to protect yourself from data loss.

hardware PC : Cleaning and Organizing Your Computer

It's a good idea to think about your PC as an office. Store files, programs, photographs. This can be compared to an actual office files, equipment and decorations. The operating system is the boss. With this picture in mind, consider that you have visited an office that is slow and inefficient. There are probably many different reasons for the inefficiency. This is the same with a computer. There can be many elements that slow down your computer. Perhaps the most commonly overlooked is disorganization and disorder.

Disk Cleanup

An office can accumulate a large amount of unnecessary files, machines, equipment and decorations. This is the same with your computer. One of the best ways to control this disorder is a utility to perform periodic cleaning. Windows cleaning utility called Disk Cleanup. " It removes a wide variety of files, depending on the options you have selected.

To perform a clean Windows XP disc, you can simply click on My Computer in the start menu. Right click on your "C drive" or "hard drive" and select Properties. Click "Disk Cleanup" and follow the instructions. When selecting files to clean or delete it, Windows will give you information to help you decide. Looking at the list of file types, simple click the name of the file type and read the description below in the description area. This lets you know if the files can be deleted. To select the file group just check the box next to the name of the group. When finished selecting press "OK" to finish.

Now, do a disk cleanup is not much time, only a couple of minutes and can save more time at the end by making your computer run faster. However, a disk cleanup be performed regularly and not just once in a while. One way to make this run periodically to make it a scheduled task. This will allow your computer to start automatically with intervals of the day and time determined by you. However, you can run by itself without a regularly scheduled task.

Add or Remove Programs

The information above can help you get rid of some unnecessary files, but you may also need to clean some and unnecessary programs. This can be done using the "Add or Remove Programs" utility in Windows. This is located on the control panel and lists all programs currently installed, along with an option to uninstall them. It'sa good idea to navigate through the Add / Remove programs utility from time to time just to make sure that all programs are useful.

If there are programs that are no longer used, just highlight the program and click uninstall. Windows to start the process to uninstall the program. In most cases, to finish uninstalling a program, you should restart your computer. This dump file and that are held temporarily.

The Add or Remove Programs utility is very useful, but not all programs are listed in advance. Programs that come preinstalled on the computer and the Windows operating system can also be removed. For example, Outlook Express is a default email program that comes with the Windows XP operating system. If you do not use this e-mail program can uninstall it. Click "Add / Remove Windows Components" in the Add / Remove Programs utility and follow the instructions.

Defragment

Many offices contain a large number of files and programs that are valuable and can not be thrown away. In fact, they may contain files that are not used yet, but have yet to be withheld for any reason. Although these files must remain in the office, they must be organized. This is why we create file folders that hold groups of files that are related. What you save on cabinets that are arranged in alphabetical order.

In a computer, saving files placed on your hard drive. However, they are placed in terms of time saved. Therefore, if you open a Word document and save the file as "file A" and to open another document and save it as B, which has a "file A" next to "file B. "This is fine, but if you open a" file "and then save it again, adding that the information is stored next to" file B. "

When the files are divided in this way is called a fragmented file. This means that the team must find the first part of the file, and then find the second part of the file to open a Word document. This may make your computer run slower. However, Windows has created a utility that is designed to rearrange the files so that they are no longer fragmented, but sit next to each other.

You can run Disk Defragmenter by selecting "all programs" on the start button. Then select "accessories" and "system tools" and you will see "Disk Defragmenter." In fact, this is also an alternative way to select the Disk Cleanup has been mentioned above. Before you start defragmenting your hard disk can be analyzed to see if Windows recommends defragmentation. Ie, whether or not you should defragment at this time.

If you need to defragment your computer, simply click the Defragment button. It may take a while for the team to finish this task depending on the speed of your computer and the number of files defragmented. It could take about 15-30 minutes or more. However, you can still use your computer while Disk Defragmenter is running.