Bill opens up a computer hard drive to show how it is engineered.
He describes how the "head" reads the magnetic information on the disk; reveals how a voice coil motor and a slider controls the position of that head.
He also discusses how smooth a disk must be, and briefly mentions a mathematical technique that allows engineers to pack more information on a drive
CrystalDiskMark is a disk benchmark software. (Also Disk Information Tool)
Measure sequential reads/writes speed
Measure random 512KB, 4KB, 4KB (Queue Depth=32) reads/writes speed
Select test data (Random, 0Fill, 1Fill)
Theme support
Multi-Language support
TeraCopy is a compact program designed to copy and move files at the maximum possible speed, providing the user with a lot of features:
Copy files faster. TeraCopy uses dynamically adjusted buffers to reduce seek times. Asynchronous copy speeds up file transfer between two physical hard drives.
Pause and resume file transfers. Pause copy process at any time to free up system resources and continue with a single click.
Error recovery. In case of copy error, TeraCopy will try several times and in the worse case just skip the file, not terminating the entire transfer.
Interactive file list. TeraCopy shows failed file transfers and lets you fix the problem and recopy only problem files.
Shell integration. TeraCopy can completely replace Explorer copy and move functions, allowing you work with files as usual.
They describe their method as "five-dimensional" optical recording and
say it could be commercialised.
The technique employs nanometre-scale particles of gold as a recording
medium.
Researchers at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia have
exploited the particular properties of these gold "nano-rods" by
manipulating the light pointed at them.
The team members described what they did as adding three "dimensions" to
the two spatial dimensions that DVD and CD discs already have.
Holographic Data Storage. Holographic Data storage, using DLP/DMD optical recording with high density rates and high data transfer rates, writing data in three dimensions. Holography promises storage densities that can far surpass traditional magnetic and optical recording. Holography can break through these density limits because it goes beyond the two-dimensional approaches of conventional storage technologies to write data in three dimensions. In addition, unlike conventional technologies which record data bit by bit, holography allows a million bits of data to be written and read out in single flashes of light, enabling data transfer rates as high as one Terabit per second. (Fast enough to transfer a 2 hour DVD movie in about .1 seconds). With its powerful combination of high storage densities and rapid data transfer rates, holography stands poised to become a compelling choice for next-generation storage needs. (Note: the OPTWARE web site was off-line when last tried), . Toshiba buys into Optware's holographic storage plans
Fujifilm To Display Holographic Storage 3.9 Terabytes of storage. Technology at NAB.
Holographic Storage Offers Several Terabytes of Removable, Backward Compatible DVD-size Disc Storage For Film & Electronic Media Applications. Collinear Holographic Technology.
InPhase's 1.6TB holographic optical drive (InPhase Web Site). Holographic Overview. Holography has long held promise as a data storage technology. However, the major challenge was the development of a suitable storage medium. The fundamental materials research started at Lucent’s Bell Laboratories and completed by InPhase Technologies now brings this revolutionary technology to market. The tapestry™ media meets the commercial requirements of high capacity and performance, durable archive life, all at a competitive price. Additional breakthroughs in key imaging and optical components such as high-speed CMOS detectors used in digital cameras, digital modulators used in TVs, and new blue lasers have been incorporated into the tapestry™ drive allowing holographic storage leap from dream to reality.
SATA-IO encourages companies invested in SATA technology, (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment). A growing ecosystem of leading member companies dedicated to the advancement and promotion of Serial ATA technology worldwide. C. ntribution to the development and promotion of the Serial ATA specification protocol. Access to early revisions of Serial ATA specifications
SpeedItUp Free will speed up any computer system running Windows XP or Microsoft Windows
Vista. It works by using New Hard-Disk optimization technology that allows your computer to read data in some cases up to 300% faster from your Hard Drive.
SpeedItup Free then optimizes your RAM and makes other settings to speed up your Internet connection and overall computer performance.
Disk Bench. How fast are my disks really. In a real life situation. Not in a synthetic benchmarking program that will display figures that your drive will never be able to meet.
RecoveryDesk File recovery software. You can easily recovers files created by Windows. FineRecovery recovers files from hard disk and removable media.
FineRecovery utilities recover files:
- Deleted without Recycle Bin, or when Recycle Bin has been emptied
- Removed by virus attack or power failure
- When the partition structure on a hard disk was changed or damaged
- FineRecovery can be run from a USB storage device
- Scan all files and directories on selected hard drives
- Utilizing a non-destructive, read-only file recovery approach
- Batch file recovery (recovers multiple files in one action)
- Works around bad-sector disk areas. Recovers data where other programs fail
- Supports standard IDE/ATA/SCSI hard drives, including drives larger than 1000 GB
Recovers deleted data from the removable media:
- Secure Digital Card (SD cards)
- CompactFlash (CF cards)
- Sony Memory Stick (MS cards)
- Multimedia Card (MMC cards)
- Flash Card/drive
- USB drive/store device
- xD Picture Card
- Smart Media Card
- Digital cameras
- hard drive
- and other
TDP x-Ray Lite is a visual disk
analyzer that enables you to spot large files and folder on your hard drives. It
displays a sunburst pie chart that sorts your files by size and location and
makes it easy to find the ones that take up the most space. You can click on the
chart to drill to the next level and also open, recycle or delete files. A Pro
version is available with features geared towards network administrators and
advanced users.
TDP x-Ray Lite you can easily find the answer to that question, and in a
very graphical way. This application analyzes the contents of your hard
drive and displays it in a colorful pie chart, where each section
corresponds to a specific folder or file and is sized accordingly. That
is, the bigger the section, the more space that folder or file takes on
your hard drive.
Recovery Toolbox for CD Free provides free service of data recovery, stored on DVD, CD, Blu-Ray and other optical discs. It costs nothing, just get this utility from our website and start repairing. The utility works with various formats and it does not matter which documents are stored on the disc beyond question, Recovery Toolbox for CD Free features the same efficiency on all computers. Get it for free, if you cannot access the information, stored on affected discs and other copies of input data are not available.
PCINSPECTOR Clone Maxx Finds partitions automatically, even if the boot sector or FAT has been erased or damaged. Recovers files with the original time and date stamp. Supports the saving of recovered files on network drives.
Recovers files, even when a header entry is no longer available.
Wise
Disk Cleaner is a user friendly, fast and easy to use application developed
to free up disk space by deleting junk files that are no longer used by any
software on your system.
Auslogics Disk Defrag Disk Defrag can speed up your computer by optimizing file system. It can defragment files, consolidate free space and move system files to the faster part of the disk. With Disk Defrag you'll get the maximum out of your hard drive performance. It is supplied with a powerful engine and smart algorithms which allow Disk Defrag to run much faster than similar tools. And with its comprehensive reports you will always be aware of what have been done.
- fast and safe defragmentation of the disk drives
- optimization of clusters' structure and file system for even better disk performance
- useful disk fragmentation map that displays defragmentation process in real time
- simple and intuitive user interface
- comprehensive defragmentation report
- extremely low system resources usage
Abyssal
Recovery can rescue corrupted or lost data from damaged, scratched, or
defective CD and DVD discs and copy the files to another destination on your
hard drive. More about
Disaster Recovery Planning. So how good is your Disaster Recovery
Planning? Are you ready?
Wondershare Disk Manager application was developed to be a handy tool for both beginners and experts to copy hard disk and manage partitions.
MyDefragPowerGUI application was developed to be a Graphical User Interface which allows you to easily select all the features MyDefrag.
DiskTriage
- Have you ever wondered where all your disk space has gone? Or what it is made
up of? Or who is using it? Windows does not provide easy access to any of this
information - but Disk Triage does! Disk Triage is a utility that sizes and
analyzes the contents of your disk space, providing the results via a wide
selection of tree views, graphs, reports and exports.
Blu-ray Disc standard optical storage Information
Your source for everything related to Blu-ray Disc (BD). We offer Blu-ray reviews, releases, news, guides and forums covering Blu-ray movies, players, recorders, drives, media, software and much more. For more information about Blu-ray,
Depositit automatically protects all the essential data you hold on your computer, laptop, mobile phone and PDA. Keep your data safe from damaging viruses, hardware errors & natural disasters.
THDDInfo is a nonvisual Delphi component designed to enabble you to vie low level information about IDE, SCSI and ATAPI devices.
Manxam is a program that can catalog your disks and files. Manxam has built-in support for identifying and analyzing many common file types, and can extract detailed information from those files.
MBR=Master Boot
Record.
FDISK /MBR rewrites the
Master Boot Record Note
Fdisk uses some 16-bit values
internally to calculate the size of the drive. Some of these variables
overflow when the drive size is equal to or larger than 64 GB. The Master Boot
Record (MBR) is the area of any boot drive that identifies where an
operating system is located so that it can be booted (loaded) into the
computer's main storage or RAM. The Master Boot Record is also sometimes
called the "master partition table" or "partition sector" because it
includes a table that recognizes each partition on the drive. A command
fdisk/mbr is sometime used to reset the MBR, do not use this command unless
you know what you are doing, it may write over-all partitions programs and
files on your hard drive making it unusable until it is repartitioned and
reformatted.
NTFS Reader DOS Boot Disk provides read access to NTFS drives from the MS DOS environment. It supports long filenames as well as compressed and fragmented files. NTFS Reader for DOS allows you to preview the files on NTFS and copy them from NTFS to FAT volumes or network drives. In order to use the software you need to copy the readntfs.exe file to a bootable floppy disk and boot from it.
You can use NTFS Reader for DOS to access NTFS drives in Windows 98 95 and 3.1. This is a DOS program, but it can be run from Windows.
Protogon.Windows 8 may perhaps be the OS that Microsoft will use to debut a next generation filesystem This new since the NTFS filesystem was introduced with Windows NT, reference to ITWorld’s Sando Villinger.
ClonePartition - Clone Disks and Partitions
Get 1 to 1 copies from your Partitions or whole Disk Drives. This tool is very small and don't need to be installed on your system. You can run it from a single floppy-disk.
DVD Flick aims to be a tool to convert various PC video formats to a DVD that can be played on pretty much any standalone DVD player. It's main target audience is people who know at least the basics about DVDs and video/audio files. DVD Flick is Open Source, meaning that anyone can download and view or modify the program's source code. It also means that it is absolutely free of charge
Disk Investigator
helps you to discover all that is hidden on your computer hard disk. It can also
help you to recover lost data. Display the true drive contents by bypassing the
operating system and directly reading the raw drive sectors. View and search raw
directories, files, clusters, and system sectors. Verify the effectiveness of
file and disk wiping programs. Undelete previously deleted files.
Video Help Helps you to make your own VideoCDs, SVCDs, DVDs, DivX, XviD, HD etc that can be played on your standalone DVD Player from video sources like DVD, Video, TV, DV, Cam or downloaded movie clips like AVI, DivX, XviD, WMV, Flash, etc. Includes DVD slideshow GUI offers a very simple way to make your own slideshows. Just import your images, export them as an authored DVD-image(.iso) and burn it! ISO Recorder Power Toy (Freeware). ISO Recorder is a Windows XP freeware utility that uses native Windows XP functions to write images to a CD. You can download this utility from the author's Web page. When the program is installed, it is automatically associated with the ISO file extension in Windows Explorer.
An ISO-9660 image file is an exact representation of a CD, including the content and the logical format. The most common use of an image file is to write it to a blank CD-R resulting in an identical copy of the original CD including file name and volume label information. ISO image files may also be opened and their contents copied to a local folder, much like ZIP files. ISO files may also be virtually mounted and accessed as a CD-ROM device.
Phantom CD, Mount your CD/DVD image files as virtual CD/DVD disc with Phantom CD. Use disc images for your CD and DVD backup. Replace your physical discs to avoid wear and tear on your optical drive, and to avoid disc problems resulted from heat, scratch, and dirt. Enjoy reading speed up to 200 times faster than a physical disc, allowing your application and games to start and run faster. More...
LightScribe It's easy to burn a label with LightScribe. Follow these short steps to start burning right away. Remember, making labels and burning your data are two separate steps. You may burn your data either before or after you burn your label. LightScribe lets you create discs with distinctive, unique designs. But did you know you can use your favorite photos for truly personalized label designs or collages?
It's easy to do. Here's everything you need to know to make it happen. LightScribe-enabled software will allow you to use your own photos. We've chosen two of the most popular suites to highlight. With any application, always preview to make sure your design looks right before burning it to a LightScribe disc.
Labelflash is a technology with which pictures and texts can be burned on the label side of a disc with
a laser.
YAMAHA CORPORATION and FUJIFILM Corporation jointly developed Labelflash „˘
technology. With a drive compatible with the latest developed laser
control technologies and a special disc with a dye layer on the disc
labeling side, images can be directly burned using the same laser used
for data recording.
All you need is a Labelflash „˘-compliant drive and disc, eliminating the
need for printers. Images last longer since the image surface is not
exposed and cannot be touched directly. These two points make Labelflash „˘
the smarter choice.
The difference between a Labelflash „˘ disc and an inkjet printable disc
is that a Labelflash „˘ disc can be printed on without using a printer.
The major advantages of this are; no printers or consumables such as ink
are required, no troublesome setting up of a printer is required,
you don't have to wait for the ink to dry, there is no ink-bleeding.
DiscT@2 (read aloud as "disc
tattoo") is a technology introduced by Yamaha that allows users to burn custom
motifs or images onto the data side of CD-R and DVD media when using a
Yamaha-branded or compatible drive. Other technologies such as NEC's LabelFlash
system allow the same functionality as DiscT@2, as well as the functionality
provided by systems such as Hewlett Packard's LightScribe. Yamaha stopped
production of CD/DVD burners in 2003.
LabelTag a circular label on
the data side of any DVD+R or DVD-R disc can be created containing basic
information visible by the eye. When burning the user data, the label is printed
directly behind that data in the same recording session, and on normal recording
speed on the same recording layer side. An older alternative disc labeling
technique was DiscT@2. To record the label on the opposite or back side of the
disc by the drive it self LightScribe and LabelFlash are current standards.
Besides that, printing using an inkjet printer is currently widely used.
UndercoverXP is a small program to
easily print CD and DVD covers. It supports
JPEG, GIF, PNG and BMP
formats and can automatically scale front covers, back covers, front +
inside, inlays, DVD Boxes, Digital Pictures and CD/DVD labels to the correct
sizes. Other formats can be easily added via a graphical format editor.
Disaster Recovery. Disaster recovery services, hard drive data recovery services and file recovery services for virtually all computers, devices, and environments at Vantagetech.com
Fast Defrag is a tool that can free and optimize RAM and the swap-file usage .It displays current memory usage and statistics and can also be run from the command line (useful for automation). Fast Defrag cleans only the memory that was filled by previous loaded applications and does not remove Windows components or active programs from memory.
XP's No-Reformat, Nondestructive Total-Rebuild Option. Fred Langa shows you how to completely rebuild, repair, or refresh an existing XP installation without losing data, and without having to reinstall user software, reformat, or otherwise destructively alter the
setup.
Free Disc Burner writes any files, folders (data) to any disk. Writes multi session disks (there is a possibility to write up files to the same disk), lets to erase information from a disk, supports Blu-Ray.
Supported Media Types: BD-R / BD-RE (Blu-Ray ), DVD-R Double Layer, DVD-R Dual Layer, DVD+R / DVD+RW, DVD-R / DVD-RW, DVD-RAM, CD R / CD RW.
Supports XP, Vista and Windows 7. Supports .ISO (disc archive) files.
Device Features
- supports buffer protection technologies (BurnProof, JustLink, etc)
- advanced speed detection
- automatic selection of write modes
- erase functionality.
Data Features
- writes multi-session or disc-at-once to ALL supported media formats including Blu-Ray (BD-R and BD-RE)
- easy file/folder manipulation
- import existing data from any supported file system on from any session and append or edit
CD ROM Drive Remote Disabler. Allows you to easily enable or disable CD ROM drives on your Windows 2000, 2003, or XP systems - across your LAN.
Free Data Recovery Tools from ADRC - Free This is a freeware that enables users to backup confidential data easily. Deleted files can also be recovered with this software. Additional functions are disk image creation and restoration, boot sector editor or builder. RAID, (Redundant Array Independent Disks), Server and Hard Disk Data Recovery by ADRC (Singapore). RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks). A collection of disk drives that offers increased performance and fault tolerance. There are a number of different RAID levels. The three most commonly used are 0, 1, and 5: Level 0: striping without parity (spreading out blocks of each file across multiple disks). Level 1: disk mirroring or
duplexing. Level 2: bit-level striping with parity Level 3: byte-level striping with dedicated parity. ...
Auslogics Disk Defrag Disk fragmentation leads to system slowdowns, PC crashes, slow startups and shutdowns. Auslogics Disk Defrag is designed for fast optimization of Modern hard disks.
Asoftech Data Recovery is the ideal rescue package for those who have accidentally deleted files, emptied the Recycle Bin, or even reformatted a disk
XP's Little-Known 'Rebuild' Command There's an easy fix for "Missing
HAL.DLL," "Invalid Boot.Ini," and several other fatal startup errors, Fred Langa says. It usually takes a lot to stop XP in its tracks. Even in those rare cases when the operating system is badly damaged, you'll usually at least have the option of booting into the "Last Known Good" configuration, or to Safe Mode. But sometimes, especially after major hardware failures or part swaps (e.g. moving the operating system to a new hard drive), or after problems with dual- or multi-booting software, you may encounter seemingly intractable errors such as "Missing or corrupt
HAL.DLL," "Invalid Boot.Ini," or "Windows could not start..." These problems can seem hard to get past. For example, the first time I got a "Cannot find
\Windows\System32\hal.dll" error message, I thought I'd be clever and replace the missing file via a simple Copy command from the Recovery Console. I booted the PC, switched to the \Windows\System32 folder, and there it was: The HAL.DLL was already there. It wasn't missing at all. Why couldn't the operating system find it?
ASPI Menu is a Windows-based application, (from
Western Digital), that uses ASPI to
provide a generic interactive command interface to any SCSI hard drive. In
addition to providing interactive commands to a SCSI hard drive, this tool
provides advanced scripting features for writing functions such as testing
or applying updates to SCSI devices. ASPIMENU also has extensive help text
relating to SCSI.
HD Tune a hard disk utility which has the following functions: Benchmark: measures the performance. Info:
shows detailed information. Health: checks the health status by using SMART. Error Scan: scans the surface for errors. Temperature display, etc...
Hard Drive Monitor is a free hard
drive diagnostic tool. This program can monitor all your hard drives in your PC, and show you one detailed report about your hard drives, include drive status,
drive information, spin-up time, drive temperature and more, all data will be updated in real time. Hard Drive Monitor will display a HD thermometer in the
desktop tray, so you will be able to view the value at a glance, being very useful for identifying probable drive failures.
NTFS, (New Technology File System). An NT Disk System. The disk file structure used by Window NT and Windows 2000, , (yes you can use it with XP, etc), which has a Master File Table instead of a FAT, File Attribute Table. NTFS allow larger single file storage this is good for video and other large files files etc. The FAT32 file system has a 4 GB limit for the size of file that it can accept to be saved onto it. This means that any attempt to save a file that is larger than 4 GB will be met with an error message of Disk is full or Not enough space even though the hard drive may have a large amount of space still available. Windows 98 and Me accept only FAT32 partitions, but Windows 2000 and XP accept both FAT32 and NTFS partitions. NTFS partitions have no limit for file size, so NTFS may be preferable for saving a file that is larger than 4 GB.
To reformat the hard drive from FAT32 to NTFS, follow these directions, SeaGate information.
Duplicate File Finder - Freeware. Most people are unaware of how many duplicate files there are cluttering their hard disks. All those songs that have been downloaded twice, holiday photos uploaded multiple times,
documents copied and pasted, so that you have them in two folders at once. All that wasted disk space can be reclaimed by simply deleting duplicate files.
Iometer is an
I/O subsystem measurement and characterization tool for single and clustered
systems. It was originally developed by the Intel Corporation. Iometer is pronounced "eye-OM-i-ter, " to rhyme with "thermometer. " Iometer does for a computer's I/O subsystem what a dynamometer does for an engine: it measures performance under a controlled load. Iometer was formerly known as "Galileo. " Iometer is both a workload generatorIometer is an I/O subsystem measurement and characterization tool for single and
clustered systems. Iometer. The Iometer is both a workload generator (that is, it performs I/O operations in order to stress the system) and a measurement tool (that is, it examines and records the performance of its I/O operations and their impact on the system). It can be configured to emulate the disk or network I/O load of any program or benchmark, or can be used to generate entirely synthetic I/O loads. It can generate and measure loads on single or multiple (networked) systems. Iometer is an I/O subsystem measurement and characterization tool for single and
clustered systems. It can be configured to emulate the disk or network I/O load of any program or benchmark, or can be used to generate entirely synthetic I/O loads. It can generate and measure loads on single or multiple (networked) systems. (that is, it performs I/O operations in order to stress the system) and a measurement tool (that is, it examines and records the performance of its I/O operations and their impact on the system). It can be configured to emulate the disk or network I/O load of any program or benchmark, or can be used to generate entirely synthetic I/O loads. It can generate and measure loads on single or multiple (networked) systems.
Returning Spyware, keep getting a spyware report even after removal?
This may happen because of Windows XP system restore feature. This is able to restore your software to an earlier time. For example you've installed some software that has caused problems with your computer drivers and that even a standard uninstall does not fix it. In this case a system restores will be able to return your system back to before the time when you installed the problematic software.
System restore is semi-automatically able recovering eliminated files or the system settings for example if the where accidentally changed.
Windows XP keeps modified elements inside its hidden directory, called
_restore This is protected so that its contents can't be normally changed by anything else.
This feature is an advantageous if you need to return your system to an earlier state.
With anti-virus/anti-spyware it may cause an issue that while the anti-virus/anti-spyware may have removed the virus/spyware the
_restore files may still contain that virus.
The anti-virus/anti-spyware may detect again the infected file in the
_restore folder but it may not be able to remove it because the file is protected by the operating system.
How to remove anti-virus/anti-spyware from the System Restore folder :-
How to turn off System Restore option
Log on as the Administrator or with the details of
the user that has administrator rights.
Click with the right button of the mouse on My Computer.
Select Properties.
Click System Restore tab.
Click in the Turn off System Restore all drives checkbox.
This box should now have a tick in it.
(This may take a few seconds).
Click Apply and then OK.
How to reactivate the System Restore option, it is recommended that you have this option turned on.
Click with the right button of the mouse on My
Computer.
Select Properties.
Click in the Turn off System Restore all drives checkbox.
This box should now NOT have a tick in it.
(This may take a few seconds)
Click Apply and then OK.
After turning off the system restore, as sown above you may also need to download a program and install
WinDirStat
Will list out all your hard drives folders as well as in graphical
form.
It will allow you to access the System Volume Information folder.
Highlight the "_restore{ .....}" folder and then go to the menu to choose
"delete". Then the folder will be deleted.
Delete System File Information Utility.
This Utility is a DOS batch file and is used to delete System File Information.
This Utility is provided as-is without any warranty, obligation or
guarantee of any kind. THIS MAY AFFECT THE WAY WINDOWS RESPONDS and
PERFORMS. DO NOT CONTINUE UNLESS YOU ARE SURE YOU HAVE NO OTHER WAY
OF SOLVING THE PROBLEM. Note that the System Volume Information folders will be
rewritten by Windows. Even if you have System Restore turned off Before using
Turn OFF System Restore See above video how to.
I also suggest you perform a full Registry Clean :-
CCleaner is a freeware system
optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your
system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space.
It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history.
Additionally it contains a fully featured registry cleaner. But the best part is
that it's fast (normally taking less than a second to run) and contains NO
Spyware or Adware! :)
Wise Registry Cleaner is one of the safest Registry
cleaning tools available in the market today. Its scanning engine is thorough,
safe and fast.
Advanced Registry Clear Designed to be a good free medic for your computer’s cluttered registry. With an intuitive and attractive interface, this program is suitable for users of all skill levels. Advanced Registry Clear appeals many beginners by its easy guidance at the left of the main window that allows you to check which step you are working on exactly. It will scan your entire registry and other aspects automatically whenever you open it, and scan your computer periodically if you enable the Automated Scan function. When the scanning is done, the problems will be listed on the right of the main window, and then you can choose to cure them or skip them all. After removing the obsolete registry entries, the computer will be more stable and run faster. For maximum safety, Advanced Registry Clear will make a backup of the repaired problems.
Advanced Registry Clear is more perfect for both beginners and experts with its fascinating built-in extras, including Auto Shutdown, Disk Checker, File Pulverizer, etc., which are waiting for your exploration.
WHQL, (Windows ® Hardware Quality Labs).
Sets the standards for device driver's certified by Microsoft® that are compatible with Microsoft Windows® and the respective hardware. Windows Hardware Quality Labs testing or WHQL Testing is Microsoft's testing process which involves running a series of tests on third-party (i.e. non-Microsoft) hardware
or software, and then submitting the log files from these tests to Microsoft for review. The procedure may also include Microsoft running their own tests on a
wide range of equipment, like different hardware and different Microsoft Windows editions. Also see Windows Logo Kit home page, Microsoft Windows Windows7, Vista. Windows XP, etc. and
Hardware. BIOS, Drivers, DLL files and Peripherals
WinDirStat is a disk
usage statistics viewer and cleanup tool for Microsoft Windows (all current
variants).
Drive Speedometer Helps to monitor the current read and writes speeds of your hard drives.
Benefits include:
· When your system is running slow yet your CPU usage and memory usage are fine, it is normally the hard drive being maxed out. Now you will be able to keep an eye on the hard drive performance.
· When a drive is slowly dying it will run slower and slower. Being aware of what your normal drive speeds are and seeing those speed drop over time is a great indicator it is time to replace the drive.
· When I have a program doing some work and appears to be hung up I can see if it is still reading or writing to the drive. This way I know the program isn’t hung up and is still working.
NTFSWalker is a simple, straightforward, and most importantly free utility for analyzing and "walking through " NTFS partitions on any media
readable by your computer, including hard disks, memory cards, USB flash drives,
and floppy disks. NTFSWalker takes you through the low-level structure of the
file system, and lets you view deleted files, regular files, as well as detailed
attributes for each file.
FATWalker is a simple,
straightforward, and most importantly free utility for analyzing and
"walking through " FAT partitions on any media readable by your computer,
including hard disks, memory cards, USB flash drives, and floppy disks.
FATWalker takes you through the low-level structure of the file system, and lets
you view deleted files, regular files, as well as detailed attributes for each
file.
My Lockbox is a security software enabling you to password protect folders on your computer. The protected folder is hidden and locked from any user...
SysTools BKF Open backup file free viewer tool which is a powerful and resourceful tool that can be used to open MS backup file free without any modification in original files and folders. If due to some reasons like, unexpected system failure, Human errors, Virus or Trojan attacks etc your backup file got corrupt, then you will need a third-party tool to open BKF file. More Backup Utilities More Anti-Virus software
The continually increasing size of hard drives means we can all store more pictures, music, games, and so on, but as with the transistor counts in Moore’s Law, those increases don’t come easy. Companies like Toshiba, TDK, and Seagate are forever looking into ways to increase the number of bits they can store inside a drive. It’s already an astounding amount, but they always seem to find a way to improve it further.
Today’s advance comes from Singapore’s Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, where Dr Joel Yang has figured out a way to fit several times the number of bits in a given area. The secret? A little salt in the mix.
Hard disks have a surface covered in tiny magnetic granules, each only nanometers across. Groups of them clump together to form tiny, semi-regular islands. The hard drive head flies overhead and flips these islands one way or another to create 1s and 0s.
Those tiny granules are formed by exposing a certain solution to a nanolithographic process (but of course we all knew that already). Dr Yang found that by adding a bit of salt to solution, they were able to produce superior grains. They’re not actually smaller, but instead of having to clump a bunch together in an island, each individual grain can be manipulated individually into a bit storage unit. This means that the data density of the disk’s surface can be increased immensely.
They’ve demonstrated data storage at 1.9 terabits per square inch, which is about four times what the very best hard drives today are capable of. And they’ve made granules small enough that drives based on this new process could reach all the way to 3.3 terabits per inch. That means that your drives could hold as much as 18 terabytes in the near future.
Yang actually developed the salty solution when he was at MIT, but it looks like IMRE gets to reap the rewards, at least if they can commercialize it. We probably won’t see drives based on this tech for a couple years, but the improvement is notable regardless. The full paper can be read here. News form Techcrunch
Renesas Electronics.USB 3.0 PCIe Card with two USB3 Ports
Used with the Juucee USB 3 2.5" External Enclosure using a USB 3 port.
This failed to improve speed for me but I believe this is ether due to bottleneck I have e.g. slower harddrive, PCIe x 1 card, too many Anti-Virus software running scanning files during transfer of those files.
USB Loses Connection to External Hard Drive. If your USB looses/drops Connection to External Hard Drive this may help.
If you encounter problems when you move data over USB from a Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2-based computer that has an NVIDIA USB EHCI chipset and at least 4GB of RAM see Microsoft USB from a Windows 7 64 bit Link
Notes and updates of trying to fix this:-
I wasn't even using the USB drive and even after using this method it lost and reconnected itself for no reason I can see. So using the method here fails for me. It may help for you but I doubt it, sorry.
I have tried moving the drive so that it is powered via a UPS but the problem still occurs, so it doesn't appear to be the power supply. I noticed when moving the computer the USB drive disconnected and reconnected but moving the cable and connector has not reproduced this issue. Sill testing will try a different USB port soon as possible.
Just tried different USB. I noticed that moving the USB plug vigorously did cause disconnect/reconnect. I unplugged it blow into the plug, (will try Isopropyl alcohol later if this still fails), then vigorously moved and it did NOT disconnect/reconnect, for now... (Some times contacts can get dirt on so a few unplugs/plug in's may help).
NO... This blow/plug/in/out/in Failed. (After some time it went mad, on/off/on/off quickly).
USB Loses Connection to External Hard Drive. If your USB looses/drops Connection to External Hard Drive this may help.
Sill testing will try a different USB port soon as possible and update here :)
Seems to be much improved since adding computer case fans, the computer used to get quite hot.
Now loses connection due to electrical spikes, waiting for capacitors to try to smooth these electrical spikes out. UPS, if spike on on same circut. Still it is now much, much better.
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