Protect Your Data with an External Backup Drive

Computers are a very important part of our society, both in a business environment and personally. Having a home computer has been very common for both fun and work purposes. It is common to have pictures saved on your computer as well as some of your financial information. Losing data due to a virus or computer crash can be devastating. The process of recovering all that information is very time consuming and expensive.

In many such instances the data is simply lost forever. If you have important information that you don’t want to be without you need to protect yourself now. Too many people wait to invest in an external backup drive until after they have experienced such a loss. You will find them readily available for desktop and laptop computers.

With an external backup drive, the data isn’t physically stored on your computer system. You will use a type of zip disk to store the information on. Make sure you label the disks accordingly so that you know what is on each one of them. Should you not be able to retrieve the original information that is on your computer you will be able to pull out these disks and continue using your data.

The cost of the hardware for an external backup drive depends on what brand you purchase. It also depends on the amount of storage space you need it to have. Generally you want it to have as much storage space or more than your computer does.

However, the investment is generally very minimal and you will find it to be well worth it. Just one problem with your computer will cost you more than a backup drive for data retrieval and the time to try to piece together or redo the information that you have lost.

It is a good idea to invest in good quality disks for the external backup drive as well. You don’t want to purchase cheap disks and then realize that the information can’t be retrieved from them either due to poor manufacturing.

Take your time to find an external backup drive that is affordable, offers plenty of storage space, and is easy to install and use. In most instances you can install the external back up drive in less than an hour. This includes downloading and installing the necessary software for it to operate. Once it is in place you can just make a few clicks to save information to the disks as a back up resource.

Being able to rely on your computer for a variety of tasks is what makes them such an important part of our society. Be prepared for the unexpected though and always use an external backup drive to protect your data. This is a much easier process than having the nightmare of trying to piece back what data you can retrieve and having to do without the rest of it. You never know when your computer will experience a problem or be the target of a virus. Don’t let these issues cause you time, money, or frustration.

What To Do When Your Keyboard Fail

Do you think the keyboard is important? Try using your computer without it.Your computer will be almost useless without the keyboard.And like all other PC peripherals,the keyboard can and will put you down.

The keyboard is a simple peripheral and when it does go on the blink,you will be much better off pyrchasing a new one rather than considering repairing it,unless the problem is something simple like a stuck key.

TROUBLESHOOTING BASICS

As we look into problems with the keyboard,remember the check the obvious first and as with all problem solving procedures,don't be tempted to take shortcuts. Follow these procedures to resolve common keyboard problems.

KEYBOARD WILL NOT RESPOND

1st. Restart the computer. This sometimes will resolve a computer that has froze or locked up during the first boot up.

2rd. Look behind the system unit and check to see if the cable is fully inserted into the connector. Check to see if it is in the keyboard connector and not the mouse connector.

Shut the computer off and remove the cable from the system unit.Check to see if any pins or connectors have been bent or broken.

If all pins and connectors are good.Try connecting another keyboard and restart the computer. If the new keyboard works,replace the old keyboard.

CHECK FOR KEYBOARD ERROR IN WINDOWS

If the new keyboard should fail as well,check the resource conflicts if your operating system is Windows 98 or Me.Click on Start,Settings,Control Panel,System, and Device Manager Tab in System Properties.

Windows displays your devices attached to your PC. Click the plus sign and scan the list for the keyboard. If you notice an exclamation point or a red X beside the keyboard,the keyboard has a problem.

Now highlight the keyboard,click the remove button, and click OK in the confirmation window. Close the Device Manager and restart the computer. The operating system will reconfigure the keyboard.

WINDOWS DID NOT FIX THE KEYBOARD

You have restarted the computer and the keyboard still does not work.Its now possible you have a faulty keyboard port.This may prove true if the second keyboard failed to work on your computer as well.

Though it rarely happens,an error message will appear if the keyboard get hot.Stuck keys are also causes of error messages appearing on your monitor at bootup.

POOR KEYBOARD PERFORMANCE

Keeping the keyboard free from dirt and dust,is essential to good keyboard performance. Liquid spills are common and can be cleaned with a can of compressed air.

Your settings in Windows may also be the culprit in poor keyboard performance.To check your keyboard performance,click on Start,Settings, Control Panel,and double click keyboard.

On the Speed Tab,you have the option to control the Repeat Delay,Repeat Rate,and the Cursor Blink rate.The Repeat Delay is the delay between the time you press a key and when it responds. The Repeat Rate controls just how fast the key repeats after it begins repeating.

Windows give you the ability to control features of your keyboard which will boost its performance, allowing you to perform your tasks quicker.

While the keyboard is replaced rather than repaired, it is imperative that you learn troubleshooting steps to correct most keyboard problems.You may have problems with the keyboard late at night and you may need to get it working to complete a document you may need for work.Know how to correct problems and help others that may experience keyboard failure.

5 Reasons to Choose a Notebook Over a Computer Desktop

Many of us are so used to working on a computer desktop that when it comes time to purchase a new computer, we don't consider other options. Today, computer notebooks - which were once called laptops - offer a number of advantages over a computer desktop. Here are just five reasons why you should take a second look at notebooks.

1. Mobility

You might be used to pulling up a chair to your computer, but it makes much more sense to pull your computer up to your chair. Laptops can certainly be used at your desk, but you also have the option of bringing them to the spot where you're most comfortable. Maybe you'd like to surf the Web in the evening out in the living room or catch up on your favorite blogs before bedtime. Notebooks with wireless connectivity can travel with you throughout your home, so you can check your email or do your Internet shopping anywhere.

Of course, notebooks also make sense for those who are on the go. Students can take laptops to class and to the library, while businesspeople can take them along while traveling. With WiFi so widely available, it even makes sense to have a notebook while on vacation. With the right notebook, it's easy to take photos with your digital camera, upload them, and email them to friends and family before you even get back home. Or you can use it to write a vacation blog and include those pictures from your digital camera.

2. Better Displays

The size and quality of computer notebook displays has improved so dramatically that there's little difference between laptops and a computer desktop. For example, you can get Apple's MacBook with a 13.3-inch LCD widescreen (1280 x 800 pixels), a 15.4-inch LCD widescreen (1440 x 900 pixels) or a 17-inch widescreen (1680 x 1050 pixels). Similarly, the Compaq Presario has a 15.4-inch display.

3. Lighter Weight

Just a few years ago, even the lightest notebook was a pain to lug around. Today, though, laptops are increasingly easy on the back. The MacBook is slightly over an inch thick and the Toshiba Portege weighs in at about four pounds. While that's still heavy compared to come of the new ultralight convertibles (Fujitsu's LifeBook U810 weighs only a pound and half), it's a significant improvement over the old seven-pound laptops.

4. Better Computing and Battery Power

Historically, two drawbacks of notebooks were their limited RAM, limited space on the hard drive, and short battery life. Times have changed, though, and laptops now have as much power under the hood as their computer desktop cousins. The MacBook, for example, has 1GB of memory (configurable up to 4 GB) and a hard drive that's configurable to 250GB. This means that your software will hum right along and you'll be able to zip through programs as quickly and as easily as you do on your desktop. Likewise, batteries in today's notebooks don't heat up and don't conk out.

5. More Features

In older laptops, the computer's size and weight limited the number and types of features available. Today, with smaller processors and other components, there's room to pack more features into notebooks. For example, the MacBook has a DVD player, built-in webcam, built-in wireless capability, two USB ports and a FireWire port, built-in microphone, and audio and digital input/output.

There are so many advantages to owning notebooks that, before you buy your next computer, it's worth your while to take one for a spin.

Troubleshooting PC system slowdowns (Part-2)

 10 common troubleshooting areas you should examine before you consider drastic steps such as reformatting and reimaging or buying new computers. (part-2)

6. Windows services 

Many Windows services are enabled by default. A lot of these services, however, are not required for your machine to run properly. You should review the services running on your Windows XP/Vista/7 computer and disable those that you don't need. 

One way to see which services are running is to use the Services applet found in the Administrative Tools menu. In Windows 7, click Start and type "Services" in the search box, then select Component Services. In the console's left pane, click Services (Local) to display the list of services, shown

Important information contained in the Services console includes the service Name, Status, and Startup Type. You can get more details on a service by double-clicking on it to bring up the service's Properties, shown

You can stop the service by clicking the Stop button. If you are sure that you don't need the service, click the down arrow in the Startup Type drop-down list box and set the service to Disabled. If you are not sure if you need the service, change the Startup Type to Manual. Then you'll have the option of manually starting the service if you find that you need it.

Another way of controlling which services start is using the msconfig utility. In Windows 7, click Start and in the search box, type msconfig. Click msconfig.exe.

Note that some secure Microsoft services cannot be disabled. These are considered essential for running the computer. For a list of some Windows 7 services you may be able to disable, see Disable unwanted services and speed up Windows 7.

7: Runaway processes 

Runaway processes take up all of the processors' cycles. The usual suspects are badly written device drivers and legacy software installed on a newer operating system. You can identify a runaway process by looking at the process list in the Windows Task Manager. Any process that takes almost 100 percent of the processing time is likely a runaway process.

We see an exception to this rule, however, if we click the button to Show Processes From All Users. On a smoothly running system, the System Idle Process should be consuming the majority of the processor cycles most of the time. If any other process were to take up 98 percent of the processor cycles, you might have a runaway process.

If you do find a runaway process, you can right-click it and click the End Process command. You may need to stop some processes, such as runaway system services, from the Services console. If you can't stop the service using the console, you may need to reboot the system. Sometimes a hard reboot is required.

For more detailed information about running processes, check out Process Explorer 12.04, This is a handy little utility written by Mark Russinovich that includes powerful search capabilities.

8: Disk fragmentation
As files are added, deleted, and changed on a disk, the contents of the file can become spread across sectors located in disparate regions of the disk. This is file fragmentation. All Windows operating systems subsequent to Windows NT have built-in disk defragmentation tools, but there are also third -party programs available that give you more options.

If you have traditional hard disks, disk fragmentation can significantly slow down your machine. The disk heads must move back and forth while seeking all the fragments of a file. A common cause of disk fragmentation is a disk that is too full. You should keep 20 percent to 25 percent of your hard disk space free to minimize file fragmentation and to improve the defragmenter's ability to defrag the disk. So if a disk is too full, move some files off the drive and restart the defragmenter.

Note that SSDs work differently and can access any location on the drive in essentially the same amount of time. Thus, they don't need to be defragmented.

9: Background applications

Have you ever visited an end user's desktop and noticed a dozen icons in the system tray? Each icon represents a process running in either the foreground or background. Most of them are running in the background, so the users may not be aware that they are running 20+ applications at the same time.

This is due to applications starting up automatically in the background. You can find these programs in the Startup tab of the System Configuration utility. Uncheck the box to disable the program from starting at bootup.

10: File system issues and display options

Some file systems work better than others for large disk partitions. Windows 7 should always use the NTFS file system for best performance.

Cleaning up the file system will also help speed performance. You can use the Disk Cleanup tool to: 

• Remove temporary Internet files. 

• Remove downloaded program files (such as Microsoft ActiveX controls and Java applets). 

• Empty the Recycle Bin. 

• Remove Windows temporary files such as error reports. 

• Remove optional Windows components that you don't use. 

• Remove installed programs that you no longer use. 

• Remove unused restore points and shadow copies from System Restore.

To run Disk Cleanup in Windows 7, click Start and type "Disk Cleanup" in the search box. Select the drive you want to clean up.

Another way to increase performance is by turning off some of the visual effects that make Windows 7 look cool, but use valuable system resources. In Control Panel, click the System applet and in the left pane, click Advanced System Settings. Under Performance, click the Settings button and then the Visual Effects tab. Here you can disable selected Aero effects or just click "Adjust for best performance," as shown below, which disables them all.

Conclusion

When troubleshooting a system slowdown, you should always look for potential hardware problems first. Then, investigate the common software problems. If you use a systematic troubleshooting plan, you should be able to improve the performance of most computers suffering from system slowdown.

Troubleshooting PC system slowdowns (Part-1)

10 common troubleshooting areas you should examine before you consider drastic steps such as reformatting and reimaging or buying new computers.

1. Processor overheating
The processor fan may fail for several reasons:

• Dust is preventing the fan from spinning smoothly.

• The fan motor has failed. 

• The fan bearings are loose and jiggling.

If it is covered with dust, you can often spray away the dust with compressed air. But even though you might get the fan running again, its life span has likely been reduced because of the overwork. You should keep an extra fan in reserve in case of failure.
Often, you can tell if there is a fan problem by listening and/or touching the computer. A fan that has loose bearings starts jiggling and vibrates the case, making a characteristic noise. As time goes by, the sounds and vibrations will become so prominent that you'll change the fan out just to regain some peace and quiet.

Processors may also overheat because the heat sink is not properly placed above the processor or the thermal paste is not of good quality or was applied incorrectly (or not at all) when the system was built. This is more likely to be a problem with home-built systems but can happen with commercially manufactured ones as well. The paste can break down over time, and you may need to reapply it.

Case design is another element that can contribute to or help prevent overheating. Cases with extra fans, better vents, and adequate room inside for good airflow may cost more but can provide superior cooling performance. Small cases that squeeze components together can cause overheating. For this reason, laptops with powerful processors are prone to overheating.

Tip
Another common reason for processor overheating is overclocking. Until heat begins to take its toll, overclocking does allow for significant performance improvements. Because processor overclocking can really cook a processor, most dedicated overclockers do not use regular processor fans. Instead, they use complex -- and expensive -- water-cooling systems.

2. Bad RAM
Several situations can lead to RAM-related performance problems with a particular machine:

• RAM timing is slower than optimal machine spec. 

• RAM has minor flaws that appear only on detailed testing. 

• RAM is overheating. 

• There is insufficient RAM.

In the old days of Fast Page RAM, buying new RAM for your computer was a simple affair. You just needed to know what speed your motherboard supported and the maximum each slot would take. Today, there are many types and speeds of RAM, and the better motherboards may be tolerant of using RAM that does not match the motherboard's maximum specs. For example, your motherboard may support PC133 RAM but will still work with PC100 RAM. But be aware that you may see performance decreases if you install RAM that is slower than the maximum spec. Some motherboards will even allow you to mix speeds but will default to the slowest RAM installed.

In the past, no one worried about RAM chips getting hot, because they didn't seem to generate much heat. But that's changed with newer RAM types, especially SDRAM. To check for overheating, open your computer's case, power down, and pull the plug out. Ground yourself and touch the plastic on one of your RAM chips. Ouch! They get pretty hot. If you find that your RAM chips are overheating, you should consider buying a separate fan to cool your memory. If your motherboard doesn't support a RAM fan, you might be able to get enough additional cooling by installing a fan card that plugs in to a PCI slot.

Of course, one common reason for poor performance that's related to RAM is simply not having enough of it. Modern operating systems such as Windows 7 and today's resource-hungry applications, combined with our increasing tendency toward extreme multitasking, result in a need for more RAM. The minimal specified system requirements may not cut it if you're doing lots of multimedia or running other memory-intensive applications. 32-bit Windows is limited to using 4 GB of RAM, but 64-bit Windows 7 can handle from 8 to 192 GB, depending on the edition. If your system allows, adding more RAM can often increase performance.

3. Hard disk issues
Traditional hard drives are mechanical devices that eventually wear out. There are many signs of imminent failure before a hard disk finally gives up. Some of these signs include:

• Slow access times on the affected drive. 

• An increasing number of bad sectors when running scandisk and chkdsk.

• Unexplained Blue Screens. 

• Intermittent boot failures. 

• An "Imminent Hard Disk Failure" warning.

Detecting a failing hard disk can be tricky because the early signs are subtle. Experienced computer professionals can often hear a change in the normal disk spin. After the disk deteriorates further, you'll see the system slow to a crawl. Write processes will take a long time as the system tries to find go od blocks to write to. (This will occur if you're using a robust file system such as NTFS; other file systems will likely Blue Screen the computer.)

When you notice the system slowing down, run scandisk or chkdsk, depending on your operating system. If you notice a bad sector where a good sector existed earlier, that's a clue that the disk is going bad. Back up the data on the disk and prepare for it to fail soon. Make sure you have a spare disk ready so you can replace it when it fails or replace the disk as soon as you notice the early signs of failure.

Disk noise and scandisk/chkdsk are your best indicators for identifying a failing drive that's leading to a system slowdown. However, if you are managing a system remotely, or you can't take the system down for a full chkdsk/R, you can use tools that monitor disk health, such as Executive Software's DiskAlert.

You may also get a warning message from SMART hard drives that failure is imminent. Sometimes, you'll get these warnings when the hard drive is fine, due to problems with the hard drive device driver, the chipset driver, or the way the BIOS interfaces with the drive. Check for newer versions of the drivers and BIOS firmware.

Even if it's operating properly, your hard disk may be a bottleneck that's slowing down the rest of your system. See the next item for more information on what you can do about that.

4. Disk type and interface
Once upon a time, buying a hard drive to work with your system was easy. Today, things are more complicated, with many types of drives available, offering differing levels of performance. Most modern motherboards will support more than one type.

For best performance, you may want to dump the old IDE PATA type drives and upgrade to SATA, which comes in several speeds from 1.5 Gb/s to 6 Gb/s. Obviously, the faster drives will also be more expensive. Some new computers also have eSATA connectors for attaching a SATA drive externally. Other options for attaching drives externally include USB and Firewire/IEEE 1394.

Slowdowns may be caused by installing programs or often-used files on slow external drives. If you must use external drives for such files, go with the latest version, such as USB 3.0 (which is up to four times faster than USB 2.0) or Firewire 800. If you don't have ports to support the faster version, you can install a card to add support.

New Solid State Drives (SSDs), which generally connect via SATA, can often provide better performance than other drive types, but cost much more per GB of storage space. Windows 7 includes support for TRIM, which optimizes SSD performance. SCSI drives are still around, too, notably in the form of Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) with super fast access times -- but they're expensive and noisy and used primarily for servers.

5. BIOS settings
One frequently ignored cause of system slowdown is the machine's BIOS settings. Most people accept the BIOS settings as they were configured in the factory and leave them as is. However, slowdowns may occur if the BIOS settings do not match the optimal machine configuration. Often, you can improve machine performance by researching your motherboard's optimal BIOS settings, which may not be the same as the factory defaults.

There is no centralized database of optimal BIOS settings, but you can employ a search engine such as Google or Bing and use your motherboard name and BIOS as keywords to find the correct settings.

Troubleshooting PC system slowdowns (Part-2) - CLICK HERE

Things you can do with a USB flash drive

Run portable applications
In addition to storing your data, you can run portable applications from a USB flash drive. For example, OpenOffice, which is a complete office suite that includes a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool, drawing package, and database, is available as a portable application. Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird are also available as portable applications. When you combine the office suite with the ability to surf the Web and check email, you'll be able to take your most vital computing applications with you wherever you go -- right in your pocket.
 
If that's not enough, you can choose other applications to install on your USB flash drive from PortableApps.com. You can even install an entire prepackaged suite of applications that includes such things as an audio player, games, an antivirus utility, and a handy menu system.
 
Boot an operating system
If you want to do more than just run your own applications, you might want to consider booting an entire operating system from your USB flash drive. You can boot either Windows or Linux from a USB flash drive; however, the process is not an exact science and you may be in for a technical adventure.
 
Fortunately, there are some guides you can follow. To learn how to boot Windows XP from a USB flash drive, see the article Creating a bootable USB flash drive for Windows XP. To learn how to boot a version of Linux from a USB flash drive, see the article Puppy Linux teaches an old dog new tricks. 

Connect to a wireless network
If you have a wireless network, you can use the Wireless Network Setup Wizard in Windows XP or the Windows Connect Now (WCN) feature built into Vista to save wireless network configuration information to a USB flash drive. You can then use your drive to quickly and easily connect another computer or a WCN-compatible device, such as a router or printer, to your wireless network. To learn more about using the Wireless Network Setup Wizard, see the Help And Support Center, which is accessible from Windows XP's Start menu. To learn more about using the Windows Connect Now feature, see Windows Help And Support, which is accessible from Windows Vista's Start menu.

Create a password reset disk
A password reset disk can really come in handy if you forget the password to your user account on a Windows system that is not a part of a domain. If you find yourself in that situation, you can use the password reset disk to reset your password and quickly get back into your user account. In Windows Vista, you can use USB flash drive rather than a floppy disk as a password reset disk. For details on how to do so, see the article Create a Vista password reset disk using a USB flash drive.

Boost performance
If you're running Windows Vista, you can use a USB flash drive to speed up your system with the ReadyBoost technology. ReadyBoost can use the storage space on a USB Flash drive as an additional memory cache to aid the memory cache on your hard disk. And because flash memory is more responsive than a hard disk, with its physical moving parts, the memory cache provided by ReadyBoost can significantly improve system responsiveness.

Using ReadyBoost is easy. You just insert your USB flash drive into your Vista system and follow the onscreen prompts to configure and use ReadyBoost. If you want more details, check out the article How SuperFetch and ReadyBoost work together.

Manage it
If all you really want to do with your USB flash drive is transport data, and you're running Windows XP, you can do so more efficiently with the Microsoft USB Flash Drive Manager. Once you have installed this manager, you can easily copy files to and from your drive, back up and restore the entire flash drive to and from your hard disk, change the drive label, and even create an autorun.inf file to launch Drive Manager automatically when you plug in the drive. To learn more about and download the USB Flash Drive Manager visit the Microsoft TechNet Magazine site.

Use it as an MP3 player
Would you like to be listening to music when you're using a computer at the office, but you don't have an MP3 player? If so, you can use a USB flash drive as an MP3 player along with Windows Media Player and a set of headphones. Just copy your MP3 files to your USB flash drive, plug it into your computer, and direct Windows Media Player to build a library of the songs on your drive. You can use all of Windows Media Player's playback features, such as playlists and favorites, to easily customize your music listening experience. And best of all, you won't have to worry about running low on battery power.

Password-protect it
If you use a USB flash drive to transport sensitive data that you would prefer to protect from prying eyes, should you lose the drive, Rohos Mini Drive can safeguard that data. This security tool allows you to create a secret partition on the drive and then password-protect/encrypt that partition, thus protecting any documents you copy to that partition via the utility's file manager. You can download and read a review of Rohos Mini Drive at CNET Download.com.

Run a Web site from it
If you are a Web developer, you may be interested to know that with Server2Go, you can easily run a Web server that supports Apache, PHP, MySQL, and Perl right from a USB flash drive. You can use Server2Go right out of the box without any installation. It runs on all versions of Windows, supports most common browsers, and is completely free. To a developer, the benefits of having a portable Web server on a USB drive are numerous. For example, imagine being able to carry a live Web site demo into a sales pitch meeting. For more information about this package, visit the Server2Go site.

Lock your PC
Have you ever seen a movie in which a person in some secret government installation simply inserts and removes a card to log in and log out of a PC? If you thought that idea was cool, you'll definitely want to investigate Predator. Once installed and configured, this little freeware utility will allow you to turn a USB flash drive into a key you can use to lock and unlock your computer.

While the USB flash drive is connected to your computer, everything works as it normally would. Once you remove the USB flash drive, your computer is locked down -- the keyboard and mouse are disabled and the screen darkens. To unlock your computer, you just plug in the USB flash drive and the computer will be unlocked and you can begin using it. To learn more about Predator, and/or to download it, visit the developer's Web site.

Parts of a Computer

As a starter, it might be a good idea to take a quick refresher course in computer basics before you open your system unit. We'll start by looking at each of the parts of your computer system, from the system unit and everything inside to monitors, mouse and keyboards. 

Here are the major components of a computer. As you can see, it consists of system unit, monitor, keyboard and mouse. 

An important first step in understanding how a computer works is to know where to find and identify the parts that combine to make up the whole. 

Remember, this article is just an overview; we'll go into more detail about each of the components inside the system unit as shown on the table of contents below.

Also, we will do the reviews for the majority components of a PC so you can have a better understanding on each of the parts and best deal for every components.