Tag: Hard drive
November 20, 2008 by
Jason
It’s been estimated that over 60% of all computers have some kind of spyware installed and most of their owners are unaware! If you are tired of your PC running slow and filling your screen with those nasty pop-up then you will want to read the 10 warning signs listed below.
Afterwards check out my “action plan” and what you can do to rid yourself of your spyware infestation.
1. Browser Hijacks – When I used to get a call from a customer saying that their homepage had suddenly changed, without them doing anything, I knew to bring my anti-spyware fighting software. Malicious programmers love to change your browser settings to transfer your homepage to their “client’s” websites.
2. PC is Crashing – Without warning, your PC starts crashing, freezing or locking up, but you haven’t added any new software or updated anything recently.
3. Pop-Ups – You open your browser to visit your favorite blog site then “WHAM!” You are suddenly drowning in pop-ups! Your screen is full of brightly colored lures to porn, gambling or gaming websites. You click on the “Close” or the “X” to shut it down…uh, oh something is downloading to your machine! Read More»
Posted in Computer | 1 Comment »
November 09, 2008 by
Jason When you get a new PC that contains the latest specifications offered in the market, you will always be thinking of speed. Normally, a new PC will perform up to par but if you notice, at some point it will deteriorate and slow down.
A lot has to do with the programs you install and use. The more programs you have on your PC, the larger the load will become. A PC user cannot help but install as they wish the programs that they have and normally it eats up space and adds to the usual processes that a standard computer has to run.
Once that happens, you can notice a decline in system performance. You may even think you have a worm or a virus inside. But while that would be a good conclusion, do consider the fact that there is such a thing as overdoing it when it comes to your computer capacity. No matter how large the hard drive may be, it remains that processors and memory chips also have their limitations. Read More»
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October 22, 2008 by
Jason If it seems like your computer has gotten slower since you bought it, it probably has. One of the biggest factors that slows down your computer’s performance is fragmentation, a situation that occurs over time, in which files on your hard drive become divided into small pieces. Your computer must read a file to open, save, or close it. So when it reads each piece of a fragmented file separately, the effect is that the file can seem “slow” when you’re working with it.
Defragmenting your hard drive is the process of putting all the scattered pieces of files back together. Microsoft Windows XP includes a tool that will defragment your hard drive for you. To keep your system performing well, it’s a good idea to have Windows XP automatically defragment your hard drive every week. Read More»
Posted in Windows XP | 2 Comments »
October 20, 2008 by
Jason Normally, Mozilla Firefox operates from your hard drive, but it’s possible to run it completely in your system’s memory (RAM). It speeds up your browsing because computers can read and write from RAM much faster than it can read and write from the hard drive. The following instructions will walk your through a configuration with Windows.
Steps
1. Download and save Portable Firefox onto your Desktop (see Things You’ll Need below). Double-click on the ZIP file and extract the contents of the archive to the folder “C:\PortableFirefox”. You can use a different directory, but you will have to adapt the rest of this article to that directory.
2. Download RAMDisk and save it to the same location as the ZIP file (see Things You’ll Need below). Double-click RAMDisk.exe. This is a self-extracting archive. When asked where to save the extracted files, save them on your Desktop. This creates a directory called RAMDisk. Read More»
Posted in Firefox | 2 Comments »
October 06, 2008 by
Jason
If you wish to install Windows XP on a computer that comes with Windows Vista already installed then you will have to create a separate partition on your hard drive to install Windows XP onto. This effectively splits the hard drive into two, and keeps the different versions of Windows separate. To do this you need to open up the Computer Management screen by going to the Start menu and then right-clicking on Computer and selecting Manage.
From the Computer Management screen select Disk Management, right-click on your main hard disk where Windows Vista is installed and then select Shrink Volume. This opens up a window where you can choose how large you want the new drive partition for Windows XP to be. You need to select the size of the new partition carefully, as you will need enough space to be able to install Windows XP successfully (around 10 gigabytes) whilst leaving enough space for Windows Vista. After you have selected the appropriate amount of space click on the Shrink button to begin the process, and once that has completed you should be able to right-click on the new partition (which should be labelled “Unallocated free space”) and select New Simple Volume. Read More»
Posted in Windows Vista, Windows XP | 5 Comments »
September 14, 2008 by
Jason Despite all its quirks, Windows does do some things for a good reason. Some files need to be locked down when they are in use, otherwise you risk damaging the file or harming the Operating System. Unfortunately Windows XP seems to be plagued by files that cannot be deleted. These are frequently simple files like videos (AVI), MP3s or other seemingly harmless files. You try to delete the file, Windows waits a few seconds before announcing that access is denied, the file is currently in use and cannot be deleted. However, you know it’s not in use and you just want it deleted.
If you have encountered this problem, here is a step-by-step process for trying to purge the files you can’t delete. It starts with the basics for Windows XP and moves on to more involved tricks. The process will work for all recent Windows releases, but Windows XP has been causing the most the problems, so we will focus on it. Please note: we are assuming that the file is not crucial to the operation of Windows – deleting important system files can cause havoc. Read More»
Posted in Windows XP | 2 Comments »
Some users are experiencing problems with their USB flash drive even when they have been guaranteed that they are compatible with Windows Vista. This is usually due to the wrong software drivers being installed. When you plug in your USB flash drive for the first time you may be required to install the drivers for it, however most USB flash drives do not come with a CD containing their drivers. The majority of drivers for USB flash drives will already have been installed with Windows Vista, so when you are asked to install the driver software for your USB flash drive select Locate and install driver software and then on the next screen choose I don’t have the disc. Show me other options, unless you do have a disc with the driver software on it, in which case allow Windows Vista to search the CD for the correct driver. Assuming that you do not have a CD with the software on it, choose Browse my computer for driver software and then instruct Windows Vista to look for the driver software on the hard drive where you installed Windows Vista. Make sure that the Include subfolders checkbox has been checked and then press Next to search your hard drive for the driver software. Once the software has been found a window may appear telling you that Windows cannot verify the publisher of the software, and as long as you are confident that the drivers are correct, select Install this driver software anyway. You may need to repeat these steps two or three times as new USB devices are found and it is important that you complete these steps for every device, otherwise your USB flash drive will continue to not be recognised. Read More»
Posted in Windows Vista | No Comments »
Learn how your hard drive and graphics card impact your system’s performance, and dig deep under the bonnet to discover and fix hardware issues.
In previous guides we have looked at improving your system’s performance by simply removing unwanted programs. The next area we want to understand is the impact your hard drive and graphics card have on your system.
Before we start examining your computer, we need to see what Windows Vista believes is possible from the system when it’s working at its best. Searching for ‘Performance’ in Start Search should lead you to the Performance Information and Tools analysis of your system. If any numbers are low, then you may wish to consider looking at these areas for replacement. My laptop has a lowest rating of 4.3, which is more than adequate, but should one number be low compared to the rest, I would consider replacing that element. If your computer is running low on RAM, for example, it will use the hard drive as an extension of memory, but this deals a fatal blow to your computer’s performance because the hard drive can be 1,000 times slower than memory. In my experience, a Windows Vista PC with just 1GB of memory will struggle unless your system is only lightly used. Read More»
Posted in Hardware | No Comments »
Windows Vista comes with loads of features that can help save you time, especially with tasks that you perform regularly. Try out these tips and see how much time you can save.
1. Send an email straight from your desktop
If there’s someone you often send mail to, you can add a shortcut to your desktop to create a new email. Make a new shortcut and type in mailto: followed by your recipient’s email address, for example mailto:example@pctipsbox.com. Click Next, give the shortcut a meaningful name and then click Finish. The new shortcut will appear on your desktop, and double-clicking it will open up a blank email in your default email editor with the recipient’s address already filled in.
2. Quickly check your network connection status from your desktop
You can create a shortcut to quickly check the status of your internet connection, saving you the effort of clicking through a number of windows and folders. Go to Start > Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center > Manage network connections. Right-click on the connection you want to check the status of and select Create Shortcut. This will place a shortcut on your desktop, and when you double-click it you will be taken directly to the status page of your connection. Read More»
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Whether you’re trying to destroy or erase data from your hard drives when the FBI knocks on your door, or just want to securely, and permanently do emergency data destruction to protect yourself from identity theft, before you sell or recycle your computer, there’s an easy solution.
The free open-source boot disk utility, called Darik’s Boot and Nuke (DBAN), automatically and completely deletes the content of every hard disk it can find on, or connected to, your computer when you run it.
The bootable DBAN can run from CDs, DVDs, thumb drives, and floppy disks. Read More»
Posted in Computer | 1 Comment »
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