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Fixing Problems with Your Hard Disk

All data on your computer is stored on the hard disk drive. Whenever you click on a file, the hard disk spins at thousands of rotations per minute in order to access the file. Over time hard disk storage has grown tremendously, while improving speeds all the time. These devices are also the most prone to errors and failures, which paralyzes your computer.

Not all hard disk problems are unsolvable though. Below are a few problems with your PC that boil down to problems with your storage device.

Disk full

Your hard disk needs some breathing space in order to function normally. When you fill your hard disk entirely with music, videos, documents and other files, it has to work harder to go to the file that you need. That is because files are scattered over portions of the disk. The more disk space you consume, the greater the seek time for your disk.

Ideally, you want your hard disk to be about 40% free. However, you should leave at least 10% free for optimal functioning of your hard disk. If you find your hard disk to be full and slow, try uninstalling any applications or programs that you don’t use. Over time, there is more software installed on your PC than you would like. Uninstalling them will free up a lot of space and make your PC run faster.

Add storage

Alternatively if you think that you need all the programs and files and don’t want to delete any of them, consider upgrading your hard disk. If you are running a desktop, you can buy a second hard drive and transfer all your music, videos and documents to the new drive, thus freeing up a lot of space for system files.

If you upgrade the hard disk on your laptop, you might need to reinstall Windows and all the applications, because there is no place for the older drive. You can also buy an external storage drive and transfer all your media and documents to it. Hard disks are quite inexpensive today. You can buy disks worth 1TB for less than $80.

Avoiding problems

If you use a desktop PC, and find that the hard disk slows down periodically, it might be due to excessive temperature. The hard disk operates at its best when its temperature is between 30?C and 40?C. Install a program such as SpeedFan. It monitors the temperature of your disks and alerts you when it runs too hot.

 

You might want to ensure that your desktop is placed in an airy part of your room so that it gets proper ventilation. Also take care to ensure that there are minimal chances of dust entering your PC. If you are using a laptop, place it on a raised platform, so that the base is completely touching the ground. The base has a few system fans that run to keep your whole PC cool.

Just follow the above few tips and you should have no problems with your PC and it will run just fine for a long time.

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Defragment Your Hard Disk

How to Defrag Hard Disk?

Fragmentation takes place whenever operating system does not allocate adequate continuous space for storing an entire file like a unit, but rather places parts in the spaces between the other documents (usually these spaces occurs since they earlier kept a document which the windows or other OS has ultimately deleted or for the reason OS or Windows allocated excessive space for those files in the initial place). Fragmentation makes your HDD drive to perform more slowly.

For Defragmentation of HDD drive open My computer right click > C:/, Now Click > Properties > Tools > Defrag Now and Click > Ok

This process is very simple and uncomplicated. If your PC does not have sufficient space on hard disk, then windows is not going to assist you with Defrag. This is one major drawback of this application. Once your computer becomes slow due to insufficient storage space, it is recommended that you free some space on your HDD drive and enhance the performance. It will be better for your computer if you run this application twice in a month. Furthermore, there are times when you might get a message stating “Window does not need to Defrag”, even then you must proceed and run this application. I would like to suggest you to use this utility to maintain your HDD more efficiently.

Our Conclusion

 

Defrag utility is the best utility to increase hard disk space at their best. I would recommend you to use this utility twice or thrice in a month. This utility does not harm your hard disk such as crashing, data lost and others.

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Download O&O MediaRecovey For Free

Download O&O MediaRecovey with Free License Code

O&O MediaRecovery is comprehensive and easy-to-use recovery tool that is specifically designed for the recovery of the multimedia files, which have been lost due to program crash, unintentional delete, and virus attack. It allows you to recover files such as images, music tracks, songs, etc.  The O&O MediaRecovery is also helpful for recovering data from portable backup systems like USB Flash drives, Memory Cards and Digital Camera.

Features of O&O MediaRecovey:

 

  • Speedy seek out documents, also on huge storage volume.
  • Improved wizards for research and restoration
  • Review data before restoring them
  • Supports almost all Windows compatible devices such as Hard Disk, Memory Cards, Removable devices, Digital camera, and compact flash.
  • Also, have the ability to recover data from those storage devices, which have been damaged through malicious software.

 

O&O MediaRecovey costs approximately $30 if you want to purchase it. However, from the promotion point of view, the company is providing O&O MediaRecovey 4 free of cost for a limited period of time.

To obtain the copy of O&O MediaRecovey 4 at free, visit the Promotional website and enter the required information to get the License code of O&O MediaRecovey.

Download O&O MediaRecovey here.

Sometimes when we are so very engrossed in our works, there are chances of we pressing shift and delete button by mistake. Losing important data could create a lot of issues in our works. It would also mean starting those tasks again from scratch. The very idea of losing hours of hard work and efforts sounds terrifying.

If you are working on sometimes sensitive project, there are chances that you could end up losing your clients is some important data gets lost. This surely is absolute handy software that everyone must have on their systems, in order to prevent any such data lost situations.

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Windows 7 or Vista Installation Procedure on Computers without Using the DVD

Windows 7 or Vista Installation Procedure on Computers without Using the DVD

Nowadays people are getting media-less Windows 7 and Vista licenses, where they just get an authentication certificate with genuine product key. This is really nice option for people who prefer quicker access to latest releases. Therefore, many people download the mirror image of windows DVD ISO from the websites.

It is very economical way to have soft copy of installation of windows when compared to having a external media copy which is more costly. People will need to have windows installation soft copy in ISO format. You can also burn it on DVD disc to use it for installation by inserting CD/DVD into DVD/CD drive to start installation process. In order to complete this process without the DVD, one has to have virtual box, virtual server.

However, for the users who do not have WinPE startup disc and does not wants to burn ISO on DVD disc, here is the method to install windows 7 and vista into computer’s hardware instantly with ISO without burning it on CD or DVD disc. This method can come really handy sometimes, especially during RC and beat period of new OS in making.

Here below, you will get iterative steps to know about how to install windows vista and windows 7 without DVD drive. It is the tutorial guide which takes you to the new advancement of technology.

By using this method, you can format your existing operating system and install fresh copy of operating system your computer. All you need is to just follow these instructions carefully and properly.

Here are the steps to follow:

1. Install virtual DVD/CD drive on your existing operating system
2. Build up the windows vista installation DVD ISO image using virtual drive
3. Now copy all files inside virtual DVD/CD drive, which is into some folder on partition of your hard disk to utilize it, in order to install operating system
4. Copy boot and bootmgr folders that presents in copied folder, to insert it in root directory of computer system boot drive.

For vista users:

Copy bootmgr folder from E:\Windows7 to C:\ root directory, copy

E:\Windows7\boot\boot.sdi file to same folder in C:\boot folder, and then copy bootsect.exe from the E:\Windows7\boot\ folder to C:\ drive.

5. Make new folder and rename it as an as sources under rot folder
6. Copy boot.win file inside\windows7\sources folder, which is to the source folder created in operating boot drive.
7. Now start command prompt(cmd) as administrator
8. Run this following command( you can change it C drive according to your configuration)

C:\boot\bootsect.exe /nt60 C:

For vista users:

C:\bootsect.exe /nt60 C:
9. Alter the label or name of boot system’s hard disk or partition to BDC, or you can choose any name which you can remember easily and type.
10. Reboot your computer
11. After booting computer will start installation process. Now select appropriate language to install and change some other settings according to your requirements
12. There is more important fact which is very vital. On the screen, the users will get install widows operating system option, but make sure that you do not click on that option. User need to click on Repair my computer link at the bottom of left corner. It means do not press install windows button
13. After clicking on recovery option, the user need to click on command prompt
14. Just run the format command that clean the hard disk- format c:/q
15. Once format completed, just start installation process of windows 7 or vista by running setup.exe manually from the copied folder. Remember this one is not located on boot drive which was created in first step. It was copied in other drive.
16. Now just relax your tensed muscles, and follow on-screen instructions to complete the installation process.

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Delete Your Confidential Files Permanently From Your Hard Disk With Tiny Shredder

Delete Your Confidential Files Permanently From Your Hard Disk With Tiny Shredder

Previously, we have discussed earlier about few data deleting tools such as Disk Wipe and Disk Redactor. These tools are used to delete your sensitive and important data securely from the selected drives. However, if you think that these tools are very complicated to use, then you must try this one called Tiny Shredder.

This utility tool is specially developed keeping users convenience in mind. This application is very easy to use and delete files from the selected drives securely and completely without leaving any chance of recovering the data with any tool.

Once this utility tool is installed, you will see an interactive user interface similar to Windows Explorer. There is no need for you need to sign-up or register, but you just launch the application and start using it. To delete any files permanently, you need to drag files form one pane to another pane.

Now, these files are ready to be removed completely. However, you can customize the settings according to your preferences such as change the selecting procedure either you choose one layer, random data, or two layers.

Note: Make sure that you have chosen the exact desired files or folders to be deleted because once the file is deleted, it is irrecoverable. However, you will be prompted to confirm whether you want to delete or not.

Tiny Shredder consumes only 74kB of hard disk. This application is compatible with Windows system. It is free to download on your system.

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Tips To Install Windows 7/Vista Using Bootable USB Flash Drive Or Hard Disk

Tips To Install Windows 7/Vista Using Bootable USB Flash Drive Or Hard Disk

Sometimes you might need to install Windows Vista/ Windows 7 into a computer system that does not possesses a DVD drive. Or you might not like to spend time on installing Windows Vista/ Windows 7 via DVD media disc on a remote system where you can actually install the OS without a need of burning to DVD disk on a local PC which has the ISO file saved.

In any case if you feel that it is not possible to install Windows Vista/ Windows 7 via a DVD, it is possible that you install it from a Portable hard disk (HD) or USB drive. You can use Portable HD drive or a USB flash drive like an operating system installer. Moreover, the time taken to install an OS from Portable HD drive or a USB flash drive is lesser as compared to installing OS using DVD-ROM disc.

For using an external Portable HD/ USB flash drive to install Windows Vista/ Windows 7, you need to first make the Portable HD/USB flash drive bootable and copy the installation setup files for Windows Vista/ Windows 7. Use the below mentioned procedure.

Basic requirements for installing OS from Portable HD/ USB flash drive are mentioned as follows:

  • The motherboard of the target PC should be able to boot up using a USB device. You can check this support by going to BIOS.
  •  A Portable HD or a USB flash drive with a free space of 4GB or more.
  • Windows 7/ Vista ISO image.
  • An existing system running a Windows Vista/ Windows 7 OS.

Procedure to Format the Portable Hard Disk / USB Flash Drive

You need to format the Portable Hard Disk/USB Flash Drive in NTFS format using the built-in Format utility in Windows Explorer. Once formatted, you need to use diskmgmt.msc (Disk Management) for marking and activating the partition.

You may also use the command-line utility “diskpart” by following the below mentioned steps.

  • Go to command prompt with admin rights.
  • Run the DiskPart utility by using the command “diskpart”.
  • Check the number of the USB drive (Disk ###) by typing the command “list disk”.
  • If your system has only one hard disk and no other USB drives are plugged in, the disk number will be shown as Disk 1.

Important Tip: In case you have partitioned your Portable Hard Disk/ USB Flash Drive, you need to use the command “list volume” instead of “list disk” for selecting the volume number.

  • Now, you need to format your Portable Hard Disk/ USB Flash Drive with the commands mentioned below one after the other. “#” in the commands needs to be replaced with actual disk number. These commands will remove all the data from the Portable Hard Disk/ US
  • Flash Drive.

select disk #

clean

create partition primary

select partition 1

active

format fs=NTFS

assign

exit

You need to note that if you find errors when you create primary partition, you need to simply add size=4000 (i.e. 4.0GB) after the command “create partition primary”. For instance, “create partition primary size=4000”.

Important Tip: In case you have already portioned the Portable Hard Disk/ USB Flash Drive and do not want to format it again, you may use the command “select volume #” in order to choose the partition that you wish to activate. You can determine volume number by using the tip mentioned in Step no. 4.

You need to skip the first four commands mentioned in step no. 5 and continue from the command “active”. You may also skip the command “format fs=NTFS” in case the partition is already empty.

  • Leave the command prompt open as you would need it in the next procedure.

Procedure to make your Portable Hard Disk or USB Flash Drive bootable

A disk can be made bootable by various different ways. One of the methods is by using bootsect utility which is present in installation disc or DVD ISO of Windows 7 and Vista.

  • Insert the installation disc or DVD ISO of Windows 7 and Vista into the DVD drive. In case you have the DVD ISO image only, mount it to a virtual DVD/CD-ROM drive which is powered by virtual drive program. The Virtual drive functions pretty much in a similar manner as a physical CD or DVD drive, but it works virtually in the OS.
  • Now go to command prompt and switch to DVD’s boot directory of the OS using the command mentioned below:

            cd x:\boot

In this command, “x” needs to be replaced with CD/DVD drive letter.

  • Install the boot instructions by using the command “bootsect /nt60 y:” and set USB drive as bootable NTFS drive. Replace “y” in the command with real drive letter of your Portable Hard Disk or USB Flash Drive.
  • Exit the command prompt.

Important Tip: In case your system possesses a disk image utility like PowerISO or WinISO, you may use it to write the entire ISO image of Windows 7 and Vista into the selected partition. In such a situation, you can bypass the procedure to make the USB bootable. You also do not need to copy the DVD contents over to the USB.

Procedure to transfer the set up and installation files of Windows 7/Vista from DVD to Portable USB Drive.

You can copy all the contents from the DVD or ISO t of Windows 7/ Vista onto the USB drive by using Windows Explorer.  You may also go for various file copy tools or just extract the ISO onto the USB drive. For instance, you may use the command “xcopy x:\*.* /s /e /f y:\” for copying the contents of the DVD to the USB. 

In the above command,” x:” needs to be replaced by DVD disc/image letter and y:  has to be replaced by USB drive path.

Your Portable Hard Disk or USB Flash Drive is ready for installing Windows 7/Vista. To start with the installation process, you need to reboot the destination PC and enter the BIOS. The boot priority needs to be changed from DVD/ hard disk to USB. You need to then insert the Portable Hard Disk or USB Flash Drive into the USB port of the system and boot up the PC.

The trick mentioned above works with 32-bit (x86) as well as 64-bit (x64) Windows 7 and Vista. In case you have a 32-bit Windows OS but wish to prepare a 64-bit (x64) Windows 7/ Vista  USB-based installer, you can run a 64-bit bootsect.exe from a 32-bit (x86) environment.

All you need to do is, simply use the x86 Windows 7/ Vista  disk while using the command boot sect, before copying the contents of X64 Windows 7/ Vista  DVD to the Portable Hard Disk or USB Flash Drive.

However, you may also use DVD/USB Download Tool for creating a bootable USB drive for installation of Windows 7 through USB.

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Create A Backup For Hard Disk With Driveimage XML For Free

Create A Backup For Hard Disk With Driveimage XML For Free

Nowadays, we are facilitated with high storage space, up to 320 GB or may be more, but we still fall short of the disk space. With the increase of storage space in our laptop or personal computers, the size of the files are also increasing. There are times when we urgently need to save a huge file and there is not enough storage space.

 

Overload of hard disk storage can cause permanent loss of some files and even total and permanent corruption of the hard disk. This means permanent lose all those files, videos, data and any important and very essentials documents that have been saved in the hard disk.

To avoid such condition we should create a backup of the hard disk with the help of DriveImage XML software for faster and efficient work. It is free to download and too easy to use.

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Keep Your Computer System Running As It Is After Formatting Hard Disk

Keep Your Computer System Running As It Is After Formatting Hard Disk

Almost all software developers make use of volume serial number to restrict installed software on the particular computer. The number of activations permitted for a particular computer could be controlled by the volume serial number. Also it could be used to track all the information about the installed software.

The volume serial number is unique and when you format your computer, it will be changed. While you run some software in your computer after formatting, you would surely have a problem because it could not identify the previous volume serial number. If you would like to get the previous number in order to restore your computer, the Hard Disk Serial Number Changer will surely help you to do so. By using this utility, you could change volume serial number back to the original serial number.

The freeware utility, Hard Disk Serial Number Changer, is very easy to use. This utility can also set your preferred number as volume serial key. All you have to do is just note down the original volume serial number just before formatting.

To get your volume serial number, you have to go to the command prompt and type dir. Then hit enter button and you will see the list of volume serial numbers.

 

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>dir
Volume in drive C is OSDisk
Volume Serial Number is 12AF-AABB

After changing the volume serial number, just restart your PC for the change to be effective.

Hard Disk Serial Number Changer could be used for Windows 98, 2000, 2003, NT, ME, XP and Vista. It works with all file systems such as NTFS, FAT and FAT32. So, while planning to format hard disk and still ensuring the software compatibility, you should make use of this useful tool. To download, just go through the following link.

http://www.xboxharddrive.com/HardDiskSerialNumberChanger.exe

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Enable Disk Quota Management In Windows Vista To Optimize Hard Disk Space

Enable Disk Quota Management In Windows Vista To Optimize Hard Disk Space

Saving more and more files regularly in your hard disk without running the disk clean up or without moving them to external storage, could seriously decrease the space of your hard disk. For avoiding such hassle, a proper control of the disk usage is extremely important.

To control hard disk usage in Windows Vista, a special feature will surely help you. This is pretty useful feature, with which you could set the quota or allocation of your disk space usage. When this usage crosses the warning limit, the feature automatically triggers you.

Just go through the following step by step guide to enable disk quota feature in your Windows Vista OS.

  • Click on the “Start” button and go to “Computer”.
  • Select the volume on which you want enable disk quota. Right click on it and go to “Properties”.
  • Now, click on the button “Show Quota Setting” under the Quota tab.
  • 4.       When UAC is displayed, click on “Continue” button.
  • Now, check the checkbox namely “Enable Quota Management” and “Deny disk space to users exceeding quota limit”.
  • After that, select “Limit disk space”. Enter the amount of your desired disk space for which your want it to be limited to.
  • Now, just set the warning level amount.
  • Save the whole setting by clicking on OK button.

By using these simple steps, you could easily get you Windows system optimized having the enough space in hard drive for your routine works.

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Free Hard Disk Backup And Restore Software Based On Partition Imaging

Clonezilla is a backup and restore software based on the principle of partition imaging. The software is extremely efficient and quick since it works only that part of hard disk which is in actual use. It is ideal software in case you lose your data due to a virus attack or a hard disk crash. The software comes in two versions, the server edition and Clonezilla Live.

The server edition is used in a multiple system environment such as an office network where 40 to 50 computers can be backed up at the same time and at an amazing speed. The Live version is meant for a single computer. The software can work on MS Windows, Linux and MAC operating systems since it supports multiple file systems.

The server edition also has the capability to do the cloning remotely when Wake on LAN and PXE are supported by the clients. It can also be used to back up the entire disk if needed. Clonezilla is excellent open source software for all the requirements of backup and restore.

As on date Clonezilla has some limitations such as not supporting incremental backup and the requirement for the partition to be un-mounted before starting the backup. It is also required that destination partition size should at least be equal to that of the source and the raid implementation is done manually.

Download Clonezilla live and Clonezilla SE (server edition)