By Andreas Lee

external hard disk

External hard disk brings an extremely big change in information technology age. Every kind of people; musicians, businessman, students, etc. need this device to store and share their data.

Along the development of technology, external hard disk is being more comfortable while being used, offered fast data transfer abilities, fast data access, large capacity and more easiness to use, all in one small portable and comfy to be taken handy. That’s why this handy device became most essential devices for people all alike.

You certainly do not want to exchange your money with useless stuff. In the other word don’t spend your money on external hard disk before you read its reviews carefully. Product’s review helps customers to know deeper about the features and specifications that are offered by the external hard disk. With this information, the customers know exactly whether their desired product suits their needs or not.

You also need to compare your desired external hard disk features with its price, whether it’s worthy or not. Preferable to compare more than one external hard disk before you make a final decision.

Are the essentials like service center and warranty period of the external hard disk make you worried? The answer can be found on sites which provide detailed product’s reviews.

You can find more detailed about hard drive brands, offered features, pros, cons, and other news from these information resources which help you to stay informed with comprehensiveness of up to date information. Some reviews are written by third party experts. They will not only inform you about the detail, pros, and cons of products but also will inform how useful the products would prove itself for you.

Whatever kind, model or brand of external hard disk that you decide to buy, the research hold an important role for your satisfaction.

Please check also my other articles on: laptop hard drive and IDE hard drive

By Andreas Lee

Western Digital drives

Earlier, digital data storages are not simple machines but big mainframes that take half of your office space, work very slowly, and have low capacity. That era was over, and it is changed to small sized hard drives which have impressive performance and ultra capacity sized.

Recently, hard drives’ size has become one of most searched innovations in hard drive market. The best example in this small sized digital storages period is Western Digital drives that come in reliable form and large capacity.

Western Digital drives face the market challenge for big size hard drives’ capacity with high quality performance. In other words, Western Digital has created a distinctive culture in purchasing internal hard drives.

In early 2003, Western Digital Raptor (often marketed as WD Raptor) has become a part of Western Digital drives. This WD360GD raptor series is the first incarnation of raptor series satisfying the gamers with its unbelievable 10 000 RPM spindle speed run on one platter and has 16 MB buffer size with 36 GB storage capacity. WD360GD is the first ATA drive which operates at 10 000 spindle speed.

These internal Western Digital drives were synonymous with first class performance.

One year after that, Western Digital released the new brother of Raptor series, WD740GD that gave more space for users with 74 GB, quieter than the first generation, and had 2 platters.

Last year in April 2008, Western Digital created the fourth generation of Western Digital raptor series namely WD VelociRaptor WD3000. These internal Western Digital drives still have a same spindle speed and buffer size, the difference is only on their capacity. The newest Raptor has 300 GB storage.

WD VelociRaptor provides a constant performance same as its predecessor even if it contained hundred gigabytes of data. It offers fast data access, sustained data transfer rates, and IOPS. Moreover, the temperature and noise level of Western Digital drives kept down.

All of these features are not enough for Western Digital. The physical size of internal Western Digital drives managed to be kept as small as possible. Because of their size, they don’t look like common desktop drive but more similar to a laptop drive.

I suggest you to check out my other guides on: tips for disk recovery and camcorders hard drive

By Andreas Lee

Hard drive is a very complicated hardware in a computer. Firstly, you must know exactly either you want to attach it as Master or Slave when you want to install an IDE hard drive. Set it to Master if you want to load Operating System (Windows, Macintosh, Linux, etc.) from it.

ide hard drive

In another case, if you already have an IDE hard drive as Master and install a new one just for an additional storage, then set the new IDE hard drive to Slave. Jumper is required to be moved on the back of IDE hard drive each time this setting changed.

Most people think this is hard to do because they don’t know how to do it. Practically, changing an IDE hard drive’ jumper setting is very simple. You can find jumper configuration on the back of IDE hard drive which has a small label about jumper setting. Please check the label how to set to Master and Slave.

After it is done, take a look on IDE cable which connects primary hard drive with motherboard, usually IDE cable’s color is grey and has unused second connector. If you set your new IDE hard drive as Slave, connect the second connector to it. In other case if you put the new IDE drive in as Master, you need to detach IDE cable running on your old hard drive and connect it to the new drive.

In both cases whether as Slave or Master, power cable is needed to connect on the back of new IDE hard drive to supply power. Therefore, your CPU must have at least one unused power cable.

ide hard drive jumper setting

Make sure the new IDE drive is fastened tightly on both sides of its slot. This is very important, because not well fastened hard drive can lead to files corruption.

Please check out my other guides on: disk recovery guide and Xbox hard drive

By Andreas Lee

computer drives

People use computer for their own purposes, so data lose possibility in your computer drives must be considered and also the consequences if this happen. This is the number one and very important factor which needs computer user’s attention. Whether your computer drives are used to keep your personal documents, your final exam files or your business files, your data in each of your drives are really valuable for you.

There are many ways to backup your data using computer hard drive. Along with installing additional computer drives for data storage, you can also use backup software. The second option is using external hard drive for data backup place. This kind of external computer drives can be connected through firewire, e-SATA, or USB cable.

As mentioned before that for the first option, you can combine backup software with a second computer drive. Setting them up is easier than you think. The good thing of this option is the minimum need of extra desk space and power consumption that the external drive requires. Other good thing of these computer drives are their performances which are much faster than external hard drive. Combined with backup software, you can make your backup data done easier by using automatic backup schedule and drag-drop feature.

Besides, other options are available to mirror your data in your primary computer drives. It works as additional computer drives but harder to set up. As soon as the files have been saved, it automatically duplicates the content of your computer drives to the others. Purchasing a new computer is a good choice to take this backup option advantage since a new computer has this backup feature available.

The second option which is also a best option is using external hard drive for backup storage. External hard drives are slower than computer drives because while in backup process your data has to travel through cables. But the most needed feature by using external hard drives is your data can be taken handy along with you. Some external hard drives also have data mirror feature, one of them is Western digital My Book Mirror Edition.

I also wrote another guide you might be interested in: flash drive 8GB and hard drive partition

By Andreas Lee

internal drives

Many parts compose a computer. One of the parts is the heart of computer, internal hard drive. All commands come from it to let computer knows what the user exactly wants to do.

All of information, even the most detailed can be remembered by internal drives. It knows exactly when you write and save a document, when you use certain applications and read email. A computer needs a mediator to convey information from internal hard drive to user, it is known as Operating System which is the main program that sends and receives commands between user and internal hard drive.

Through moving platters, internal drives encode digital information by using read/write head. Each platter stores information in the different parts. By detecting magnetization of platters’ material, the read/write head search for files that you are looking for.

You really give your internal drives hard task if you play games, watch high definition videos, use graphic and multimedia programs, etc. Those kind of applications require a real operation and that will make internal drives prone to physical issues.

In some cases like this, hard drive recovery is required since backup software can not help you to solve this problem, and hard drive recovery service which is the only way out charges you with very expensive fee, so do not give your internal drives more pressure by using many programs that require a lot of memory usage.

Internal drives are getting larger in terms of capacity, rotation speed, cache size, and transfer rate but getting smaller in their size. Those specifications make them able to receive more pressure from memory-hunger applications. These internal drives abilities reduce fault-tolerance level so take a closer look on specifications when you choose to buy an internal hard drive, make sure its specifications match your needs.

Other unexpected causes can bring serious trouble to your internal hard drive such as short circuit, physical shocks or even poor manufacturing. Therefore, make sure you buy a guaranteed product.

Also, take a look on my other helpful articles in: camcorder with hard drive and HDD laptop

By Andreas Lee

internal hard drives

Internal hard drives are the most essential installed hardware in every computer, it has both specification and physical size which are constantly updated.

Internal hard drives have mechanical components like spindle and magnetized platters that are connected each other to read and write information which users are looking for. The spindle spins the platters in a constant speed known as rotation per minute (RPM). Internal hard drives have various rotation speeds. The fastest the RPM, the fastest the data access.

Via cable system or wireless, the digital data can be transferred to an internal hard drive controller. And through the controller, the digital data is made available to the computer’s components.

Every internal hard drive kept data in sectors and tracks, and then hard drive controller will look for certain data if you want to access it. That access speed depends on seek time which is a measurement of how fast the hard drive controller finds accessed data in its track. Fast seek time is much needed since computer’s users always access certain data in whole activity while using computer.

How much unused capacity in internal hard drives and how well the data is organized inside them also affect their performances. You can organize data through defragmentation and any internal hard drives can do this.

Internal hard drives are needed by every computer, even a powerful server system needs them. The technology that is offered by manufacturer ensures that every hard drive has its speciality in terms of storage ability, durability, reliability, and performances.

You can install additional internal hard drives in one Central Processing Unit (CPU) which has more than one hard drive slot and cabling.

Please also check out my other articles on: video recorder, firewire hard drive, and hard disk drives

By Andreas Lee

xbox hard drive

For gamers who play Xbox 360, Xbox hard drive is the best storage option and a must have item. The largest capacity is 120 GB hard drive to save downloadable game content, demo game, and Xbox LIVE arcade games. You can also store downloadable high definition movies from Xbox LIVE marketplace, game trailers, hundreds of television shows, and many more.

Save game progress is the most needed feature from Xbox hard drive for gamers. They also use it to save their Xbox Live gamer profile and install games in it because if you play games directly in Xbox hard drive, the games load faster.

Data transfer kit is included with Xbox hard drive 120 GB to make transfer data easier between Xbox 360 hard drives. Only within several seconds your gigabyte file can be stored quickly.

You can give your Xbox hard drive a name to personalize it. To give it a name, make sure the hard drive is completely attached in Xbox 360 console, Enter ‘System’ and then select ‘Memory’, point on the hard drive and select device options to give your hard drive a name.

To copy or delete a file, simply enter ‘System’ then select ‘Memory’, select the hard drive and choose the type of file that you want to delete or copy to another location, and finally select the specific file. Be careful, original file that is included with your hard drive can’t be restored if you delete it.

Xbox hard drive is a handy storage especially for online gamers to store their game updates which requires a lot of capacity, or you can store your music and share with your friends.

This video shows you how to attach an Xbox hard drive in Xbox 360 console.

Find the best price of Xbox hard drive 120 GB only on Amazon.

Please take a look on my other helpful information in: hard drive camcorder, hard drive partition, and refurbished laptops.

By Andreas Lee

refurbished computers

We certainly have seen a lot of refurbished computers sold at computer stores with a much cheaper price than the new ones. But the frequently asked question is why the prices can be so cheap? Surely there is something wrong.

Used computer which has problem will be returned by customer to the manufacturer. The computer will be checked which component is troubled and then replaced with a new one in accordance with the procedure. The computer will be re-sold as refurbished computer in a cheaper price.

Choosing refurbished computers is not as easy as choosing refurbished laptops because there are many complex moving parts and you must consider all of it are in good condition as expected.

Buying Tips

Things which must be considered when choosing refurbished computers are the reasons the product returned before being refurbished, product warranty, and components condition in CPU such as hard drive, VGA card, sound card, DVD-ROM, power cable, etc.

Perhaps, many components to be checked make you confused, especially if you are a technology dummy you might be fooled by the store owner. Even some outlets sell new computers which actually are refurbished computers with a high price, so be careful.

Another possibility if you are buying refurbished computer at unqualified outlets is they do not have refurbished procedure. So if your computer gets in trouble either within or after warranty period, and you take it to the outlet for reparation, you need to be careful that they may replace the damaged hardware or components such as DVD-ROM, hard drive, sound card, or power cable with the secondhand products. I let you know about this because I have experienced it.

Therefore, you must buy directly from the manufacturer’s website. You can consult with customer support about the condition of refurbished computer which you want to buy, they will not fool you. Manufacturers have refurbished procedure so you do not need to worry.

Please read another helpful guide on: Seagate hard drives and ATA hard drive

By Andreas Lee

Technology always makes everything easier for us, isn’t it? One of the tools which can make all of our works done more easily is called network hard drive. Similar to external hard drive as storage media, but like its name network hard drive, this tool allows you to share files to multiple computers in the same network, which means other computers can access your data which is stored in it.

Sharing videos, photos, mp3, and pictures with family is a fun activity in this technology era. You do not need to save data on flash drive first or external hard drive before giving it to your family members. Just save your files on network hard drive so your files can be accessed by any computer as long as those computers are still in the same network.

To start a small business, does not need to spend a lot of money to buy a server considering complicated installation and maintenance. Just buy a network hard drive, and you can share files with other computers in your office. For small business, its better to buy a pretty fair capacity, 1 TB or 2 TB is large enough.

At home, I’m using ‘Maxtor Shared Storage II 1 TB Single Drive’ for sharing files, which allows you to create your family members personal accounts using EasyManage software, and it has a large enough storage capacity to accommodate your photo and video files. I’m choosing the large capacity since larger photos and videos data size also require a larger capacity.

Maxtor Shared Storage II 1 TB Single Drive

network hard drive

Network hard drive which its target markets is for small business, support for Windows and Macintosh, provides the needed performance for sharing files, fills up your needs to have access from multiple computers at the same time. Do you worry that it is getting hot if used too long? Don’t worry. I’m using this network hard drive for more than 12 hours a day, and it’s just a little warm when I touch it. For extra care, I put a small fan besides it when used.

Shared storage drives, Ethernet cable, Maxtor EasyManage CD, Maxtor backup and easy manage software, user’s guide CD, power adapter, and 1 year limited warranty are included in the box. For installation you can see on user’s guide, just basic network hard drive installation, easy to understand. Understanding how to use it through user’s guide is important before you start using it.

Specs

• Capacity : 1 TB
• Rotation speed : 7200 rpm
• Buffer cache size : 16 MB
• Weight : 4 lbs
• AC Voltage : 100-240 VAC
• Minimum PC requirements : Pentium III, 500 MHz equivalent processor or higher, Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher (for management interface), Windows 2000/XP/Mediacenter, Internet connection for system updates, and 128MB RAM

Before you spend your money on it, make sure your computer’s specification fulfills the PC requirements.

Articles you may be interested in reading: computer hard drives and laptop hard drive

By Andreas Lee

hard disks drives

Hard disks drives are a device that is needed in the world today since the industrial era changed over the technology era. This computer hardware stores important information in the data form which works as document storage. Hard disks drives are even much more efficient because of its small size, it can save hundreds thousands data, and does not use a lot of space in your room, compared with using document storage to store your files.

Accesses to the hard disks drives are also much easier than opening your document storage. The time needed to access your data from it is 10 milliseconds after you click on the mouse. You also do not need to spend much time to store your files. The time needed to store the files is 10 MB per second that means the hundreds of files can be stored in less than 15 seconds, just a few clicks on your mouse and your important files will be saved quickly.

Various devices have installed hard disks drives within it such as camcorders which can record your important moments and save them. The other device is laptop / notebook, which provides a lot of efficiency such as saving and accessing your files anywhere.

Along with the development of technology, now you can take handy hundreds of important files by storing them into the external hard disks drives. Compare if you take hundreds of them without using this hardware, it’s impossible to take a walk with your storage.

Portable external hard disks drives can be easily carried, lighter and smaller than internal hard disks drives, you can also access the external hard drives through the home computer, office computer, your friend’s computer, or on the laptop.

Please also check out my other articles on: computer hard disk drives and SATA hard drive