Some people might not know that defragging an SSD can be very bad. Actually, a specific SSD can be worn out faster than usual if someone has defragged it too often. Anyhow, in the video right after the break, I’ll touch on why it is so! For the bonus I show you how to turn off the Windows 7′s automatic defragmentation schedule for all hard drives, and then I also show you how to manually defrag the traditional hard drives.
Dropbox has proved to everyone that there is a huge market for cloud services. Nonetheless, not all cloud services are endearing by users, because some cloud services are just too troublesome and having a learning curve that only geeks would appreciate. Dropbox on the other hand has proved to be simple to use, and it stays out of sight so the users don’t really have to bother with it unless it’s necessary to be reminded of it, just like how a real hard drive works. Unfortunately, Dropbox’s free account only gives users 2 GB of cloud space, and so users who do want larger cloud space are going to have to pay. Cheapest plan for Dropbox is $10/month for 50 GB of cloud space. Although it’s quite affordable, but many users know that 50 GB isn’t enough for nowadays considering media files such as video clips can fill up 50 GB of cloud space in no time.
As users have to pay somewhat a high amount of money per month to sustain a huge cloud space such as Dropbox service, Bitcasa sieges the opportunity and offers users unlimited cloud space for $10/month. This puts Bitcasa in a straight path of competition against Dropbox. Mozy is another cloud service that had ended its unlimited cloud space since it was too expensive for Mozy to continue to offer such a deal. So, we have to wonder how on earth would Bitcasa think it could offer such a sweet deal (i.e., unlimited cloud space for $10/month).
According to Technologyreview.com’s article “How to make your hard drive infinite,” Bitcasa aims to use special algorithm that preserves one file for duplicate files across its cloud service. By using this very algorithm, Bitcasa can free up used cloud space to hold even more data. As for now, Bitcasa is only compatible with Apple’s products such as Macbook Pro, but Windows users will be able to use Bitcasa soon. Hopefully, Bitcasa will also keep Linux users in mind.
Although Bitcasa’s offer of $10/month for unlimited cloud space is a deal that cannot be refused for those hardcore cloud service users, but I think many more people will still think twice about getting on Bitcasa bandwagon. Why? Data are personal, and so some people refuse to use any cloud service in serious manners. Therefore, I think most people will save the data that they do not care about much onto cloud service, and they will store serious data onto local hard drives. This makes one wonder will Bitcasa be able to thrive with its proposal!
Feeling that your hard drive is going bad? But hold your horse cowboy before you go drastic on your hard drive! Instead of instantly throwing out your hard drive and buy a replacement, why not doing a diagnostic test on the hard drive just to make sure your instinct was right. Why? You never know it could be something else that makes your computer acts wonky, and so taking drastic measure on the hard drive might be a waste of money and effort! OK, so how can one do a diagnostic test on a hard drive? Read more and I’ll tell you!
There are many third party software that can help you do a diagnostic test on your hard drive, but why use third party software when Windows 7 got one already — that’s if you’re using Windows 7. A head up though, depending on what settings you pick for your diagnostic test of a hard drive, it can be a very long diagnostic test — so go grab your coffee or popcorn or hotdog or however you want to spend your time in waiting for your hard drive’s diagnostic test to be done. Oh, never mind, you have to follow the steps below first before you can go grab your things or do your things:
Go to Start button (i.e., an orb with Windows flag)
Go to Computer
Right click on the drive you want to have a diagnostic test to be done on. If you’re testing the C: drive, most likely Windows will tell you to schedule it for the next boot up, because Windows cannot run a diagnostic test on a hard drive that is in used.
Choose Properties
Go to Tools tab
Click on Check now
If you choose Automatic fix file system errors only and nothing else below, then the diagnostic test can be done a little faster. If you do not want to have Windows automatically fix file system errors and only want to have a report, then do not choose this option! (I recommend you to choose this option though)
Choose Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors to have Windows do a more complete and longer diagnostic test on your hard drive. Do not choose this option if you want a short test, because you can wait for a long time for this test to be done.
Choose Start to either schedule the test for the next boot up or just allow Windows to start a diagnostic test on your hard drive right away. Of course, if you are testing a hard drive that is in used, then you have to allow Windows to schedule for a test on such a hard drive at the next boot up.
That’s it! I hope you find this post helpful to your computer problem!
Vinh Nguyen
