Top Strategies to Maximize the Life of Your Hard Drive by Alex Bezborodov
If I asked you the question: which part of your computer is the most fragile, what would you say? What if I asked: which part is most important to you? Often, the answer to both of these questions is your Hard Drive. Your hard drive is likely one the most important things you own. ... A very small power surge can fry a hard drive – use a UPS and turn off your computer when you can Another little-known fact about the fragility of your hard drive is its susceptibility to electrical failure. ... It contains work data, school data, emails, photos, music, movies, tax information, etc…...

What To Do If You Receive A "Drive Not Formatted" Error Message by Andrea Stone
Many computer users have experienced it, and unfortunately it can arrive at any time whether your computer is new or old. The dreaded "Drive not formatted. Do you want to format now?" error message. It can happen quickly and without warning leaving many users wondering what to do. ... It is important that you: 1) do NOT say "yes" to format the drive; 2) do NOT attempt to repartition the hard drive; and 3) do NOT attempt any "do it yourself" data recovery techniques. ... The data on the hard drive still exists, but a wrong response to this error message can damage or delete the existing data.

Building Computers: Connecting the Case Wires by Michael Quarles
Through most of my articles, I’ve tried to explain just how easy it is to build a computer. But there is one chore harder than the rest, and it’s one that most people don’t give a thought to, until they are confronted by it. This is connecting the case wires to the motherboard. ... For instance, the hard drive LED may be marked “HD”, or it may be marked “IDE”. ... These are the wires that lead to the reset switch, the LEDs for the power and the hard drive, and that annoying little system speaker that beeps at you when you make an error.

Backup Your Priceless Memories by Greg Duffield
Data loss can be a big problem for any business, but sometimes it’s an even bigger issue for home users. Think about all the family pictures you keep stored on your computer, the e-mails between family and friends, the home videos, etc. In today’s world, most home computers contain data that you... The man said he would pay anything…..anything at all…..no matter how big the cost, to recover the data on that hard drive. ... This is usually indicative of a major mechanical issue with the drive. ... The drive had been making some unusual noises, wouldn’t spin up properly, and was not seen by...

Hard Drive Recovery by Eric Morris
The hard disk drive is one of the important parts of the computer. It is the biggest data storage unit of the computer. The computer might become slow due to hard disk problems, or occasionally develop hard drive crashes, and then recovering data from the problematic hard disk is very essential. ... The first step is to copy the corrupt hard disk to a new one, using a sector-to-sector copy program that will mirror the broken hard drive. ... The scandisk sometimes makes hard drive recovery more difficult.

If You Want Flexibility And Portability Consider A Laptop by Gregg Hall
If you are one of those who works with a computer on a daily basis like me you should consider a laptop. I have actually owned three now and I think I would be lost without mine. I still use my desktop PC quite a bit at home but the laptop comes in extremely handy when I am away. ... If you need more space, you can do as I suggested and get a portable drive that will keep you from clogging up your main hard drive. ... If you travel quite a bit I highly recommend that you get a hard laptop case. ... I know that I sometimes need to be able to use the same programs that I would normally have...

Computers and Data Storage: How Much Disk Storage Do You Really Need? by Douglas Hanna
Even an “entry level” computer today usually includes an 80GB hard disk for data storage. But if this is an “entry level” computer, does this suggest that you, as an “experienced” computer user, really need more than 80GB on your hard drive? Let's consider what 80GB really translates into. ... First, let's suppose your operating system is XP Home Edition, which takes about 2.91 GB of your hard drive. ... If you store your photos in the JPEG (.jpg) format, they will probably average about 800 KB each – meaning you should be able to store at least 90,000 photos on that 80GB hard drive.

How to Build a PC by Richard Paley
Do you know what could beat the exciting feeling of having a new computer? Make your own PC! Making your own computer from scratch is not only fun to do but cheaper as well. You can get to choose the parts you want to use on your PC. This gives you the control in balancing the price and the... Before we show you the steps, here are the necessary parts of the computer that you need to buy: • Processor Cooler • Motherboard memory • Graphics Card • Hard Drive • CD or DVD Writer • Floppy Drive • Sound Card • Computer Case • Power...

First Rate Backup Devices by Buddy Shearer
I was on eBay not too long ago and I came across a sale of laptop hard drives for $25. A total of four came with the purchase so I bought the whole lot. It turned out to be the best buy this year. I quickly turned these 6 GB hard disks into backup storage devices for our executives. ... All to often I have need to transfer large files only to see that they were too big for a CD or floppy drive and even to big for a thumb drive. ... I also bought a couple of extra adapters for me in case they lost one of their adapters.

Part 1: Un-Install Programs, Update Windows, Defragment Hard Drives by Aaron West
This is the first of many more articles to come. I will show you step by step how you can take back control over your windows computer. Just follow my instructions and soon you will be using your computer to work or play again instead of spending hours trying to just keep it running. ... In most cases your main hard drive will be labeled the "C:" drive. ... Depending on the size of your hard drive, this can take several hours, especially if it's the first time you do this. ... Windows is not very efficient in where it puts stuff on your hard drive.