Windows 7 Forums - Blogs - Windows 7 Forums Official Blog by Mike

Windows 7 Forums - Blogs - Windows 7 Forums Official Blog by Mike http://windows7forums.com/blogs/mike/ The best in Microsoft Windows 7 discussion, tips, support, and help. en Thu, 23 May 2013 02:57:48 GMT vBulletin 1440 http://dna.windows7forums.com/images/misc/rss.jpg Windows 7 Forums - Blogs - Windows 7 Forums Official Blog by Mike http://windows7forums.com/blogs/mike/ How To Make Your Laptop USB3 Compatible http://windows7forums.com/blogs/mike/607-how-make-your-laptop-usb3-compatible.html Fri, 06 Jul 2012 09:24:47 GMT

"In this video, I will show you how to make your laptop USB3 compatible, even if your laptop did not come with USB3 ports. The key to making this change is simply to use an express card in order to benefit from the new speed of USB3. The throughput and bandwidth capabilities of USB3 far exceed it’s predecessor USB2. If you have a laptop that does not have a Ivy Bridge or Sandy Bridge motherboard, chances are you are using USB2. The maximum write speed is about 20MB/s. To contrast that, the average write speed of a USB3 flash drive is about 120MB/s, with a maximum throughput of 5GBit/s. I’ll be demonstrating the USB flash drive for you right now. As you can see we have a M1330 laptop. This laptop was originally designed for compatibility for Windows Vista. However, it has seen numerous upgrades, including an upgrade to its network card, an upgrade to its memory, and an upgrade to its hard drive from a standard conventional hard drive to a solid state drive. Like many laptops of the Windows Vista generation, it is only capable of using USB2, however this is solved by using USB3 express card. The equivalent to a laptop PCI express card would be an internal PCI card installed on a desktop computer. These cards are often used specifically as graphics cards, network cards, wireless Internet cards, as well as Bluetooth cards, and anything you can possibly think of that would improve the functionality of your desktop computer. For example, you can install an internal PCI card to give you USB3 capability on a desktop computer as well. This, quite obviously, is a USB3 express card. It has a 5Gbit/s transfer rate, and it can be used, quite easily, by sliding it in to any basic laptop that still has express card ports. Typically, these do not have USB3 or eSATA capability. This is also an eSATA express card. These would be used for external serial ATA, which is a little bit faster, but usually requires an external power source. USB3 devices currently do not really require multiple power sources because they are powered by the USB hub. You will go ahead and find the express card. It is usually on the side of the system. We install the card carefully, sliding it in, and you see it light up right there. We have two ports for this card, and you’ll see it pop up in Windows. You may have to install drivers that come with the device, but in this case we already them installed. And of course, you can go ahead and eject that device any time you want. It is installed and working properly in Microsoft Windows 7. We will go ahead and now install our USB3 flash drive into this USB3 device. Once we do that we will have an excellent connection going into this system going at USB3 speed.

As you can see, we got pretty good benchmarks there, going at about 120MB/s. Launching Acronis True Image Home 12 shows us that the backup speed is going very fast. This is doing an incremental backup of the M1330, but a full backup was even made that took up to about 15-20 minutes. Traditionally, this takes a lot longer for a 128GB drive, but what you are seeing here is about 5GB of data backed up in less than approximately 3 minutes.

I certainly hope that you enjoyed watching this video. The USB3 flash drive can actually be used for multiple purposes. This includes the installation of operating systems, the execution of files that would normally be placed on a regular hard drive, and all sorts of different arrangements. You can use your USB3 flash drive as if it is an internal drive on your system. That’s how fast it is. These drives are pretty reliable; they are much more reliable than conventional hard drives. And you will find that using them is pretty easy. I hope you will join us on Windows7Forums.com. Thanks a lot." ]]> Mike http://windows7forums.com/blogs/mike/607-how-make-your-laptop-usb3-compatible.html Technology In A Changing World http://windows7forums.com/blogs/mike/606-technology-changing-world.html Mon, 11 Jun 2012 10:01:10 GMT The technological revolution of the 1990s, which traces its origins to research and development that took place in the 1960s and earlier here in the... The technological revolution of the 1990s, which traces its origins to research and development that took place in the 1960s and earlier here in the United States has changed our world. But, the world, itself, is changing too. As a small business owner, I struggle with priorities to keep my business alive. Yet, like many other working class people, I am aware of the fact that technology has and will change our world for the better and worse in my lifetime and beyond. The technological revolution that started in the 1990’s led to, quite literally, billions of individuals gaining access to a computer and the Internet. Even in struggling nations, where the rule of law has often been questioned, there are Internet cafes. In totalitarian societies, one of the tactics used to silent a popular uprising has now become censorship, or complete blocking, of the free flow of information and communication associated with the Internet. Some of the most prominently annoying spam that attempts to reach my website is directly from Vietnam, and designed to sell a product – something unthinkable a generation ago. The mass-murderer and reviled Osama Bin Laden even used a courier, with USB thumb drives, to communicate to his followers while in hiding in Pakistan. Has the Internet become the carrier pigeon of our age, or something much more important?

What does technology do to benefit mankind? We often think of technology, in terms of IT, computer systems, networks, the OSI model, and graphics as hitting three distinctive areas: business, home, and academia. We are forgetting some crucial areas, when we limit our understanding of how technology works and what impact it has made on our world. Technology has innovated the way hospitals are capable of treating patients. From life threatening illnesses to simple patient care, Windows-embedded computers can be found permeating the floors of nearly every hospital here in New York. A family member recently survived a quadruple bypass, and there is no question that the technology involved has saved his life. Not only that, but these systems, regardless of operating system, help in managed care of patients undergoing rehabilitation.

Computer systems permeate our entire society, whether it is in banking, shopping, defense, investing, the arts, architecture, construction, medicine, or any other number of areas. The innovation associated with the semiconductor itself has changed our world, perhaps permanently, whereas it is possible to clone our food, and perhaps, with the proper safety precautions in place, cure world hunger and child starvation.

Bill Gates, the owner and chairman of Microsoft Corporation, has used his enormous wealth to nearly wipe out malaria in the third world. While other entrepreneurs may not be as generous with their use of funds, these acts of philanthropy represent the enormous benefit that the rich can endow on our people, through sheer generosity and concern for our survival as human beings, once their technological innovations reach mainstream acceptance.

While the country I live in, the United States, has exhausted its energy supplies of fossil fuels, and moved away from a manufacturing and industrial economy, I have noticed that intellectual property and the copyright of technology itself has become a major export, and something that the USA has often been noted for. Whether it was Edison or Tesla, the world has been forever changed by the innovations that have taken place in our society. These triumphs have not been limited to my country, as the knowledge has spread around the globe, to all corners of the earth, in many cases.

Hailing technology as the great triumph of our time is easy, but the advancement of technology has come with a great price. Throughout history, a pattern has emerged that is easy to identify. Over the many centuries, any time a technological advancement that changes the world is developed, we expect it not to be weaponized. But, as we have often learned, when technology moves too far ahead, it is weaponized, and with today’s technology, that is a frightening notion. Attacks by cyber criminals have resulted in severe loss of data and finances by many individuals and businesses, both large and small. If we discover or invent something that leads to technological innovation, it should be our goal, as members of a civilized world, not to weaponize such technology, if the opportunity exists.

When I think of the future of where technology is headed, I am excited. This is especially true in the area of medicine. We owe it to each other to use the benefits of highly advanced computer systems to protect our own interests, and that of all human beings. While my specializations in technology, admittedly, only go so far, it is my hope that the technology that we continue to develop as a global community is one that is healthy and preventative; not dangerous and reactionary. The difference between the two will have a strong impact on our world.

In conclusion, I strongly believe that these thoughts, ideas, and even concerns should be raised any time we think of technology. As many people use GPS, acquire smart phones, use their computer systems to keep in touch with friends and family, and even create their own business networks, the overall goal of technological development is sometimes lost. Science compels us to develop technological solutions to resolve difficult problems to help us better understand the world around us, and to solve what may seem unsolvable. It is therefore, with great pride that I continue to work in this field, even if that means providing the tools and skills available to me to help others in the way I have learned how. This does not preclude me from being mindful of what effect technology continues to have on our changing world, and the people in it that make it such a diverse and wonderful place.

Access to the Internet should be universal, governed by a moral sense of duty to one another, by one another, and computers should be affordable to even the least endowed, financially, in our world. Outside of shopping and pornography, there is an entire world to be discovered online, including one of research and self-education. The opportunities presented by computer systems being made available to everyone compel us to re-evaluate our place in the world and look forward to a brighter future by learning from our past. ]]> Mike http://windows7forums.com/blogs/mike/606-technology-changing-world.html CCleaner Professional Introduction and Tutorial http://windows7forums.com/blogs/mike/604-ccleaner-professional-introduction-tutorial.html Wed, 02 May 2012 03:00:00 GMT CCleaner Professional: A Beginner's Guide

Download CCleaner Professional (Fully supported)
Download CCleaner Basic (free)

IT Professionals Mitchell Anthony (Public Relations Manager) and Mike Fara (Administrator) from Windows 7 Forums take a look at CCleaner and offer up a quick how-to for new and beginner users. The CCleaner video tutorial uses CCleaner Professional: a version of CCleaner that is virtually identical to the free version of CCleaner, but includes one year of support and updates. We reveal all of the nifty features included in CCleaner, which is a great example of minimalism in programming. The application does what is required and does it well. Windows 7 Forums has teamed up with Piriform as affiliate partners and looks forward to more features for CCleaner Professional. Mike reveals that customers perhaps needn't worry, and suggests that important feature changes may be on the way. ]]> Mike http://windows7forums.com/blogs/mike/604-ccleaner-professional-introduction-tutorial.html Paragon Hard Disk Management Suite 12 Review http://windows7forums.com/blogs/mike/603-paragon-hard-disk-management-suite-12-review.html Tue, 01 May 2012 15:18:44 GMT

Buy: https://www.cleverbridge.com/80/?aff...art&cart=73607

Paragon Software Group’s marketing manager, Ekaterina Uchaeva, and the Paragon Technology Advisor Council’s Ksenia Schevjeva agreed to send Windows 7 Forums a license for technical evaluation, review, and demonstration of Paragon Hard Disk Manager Suite 12. The product combines the famous, world class, no questions asked backup and recovery system, that made Paragon famous, with additional must have hard disk drive utilities. These utilities make the maintenance, preparation, modification, migration, or re-installation of any operating system an easy-to-perform, reliable task.

Paragon Hard Disk Manager Suite 12 really shines in its ability to combine what would normally be two products into one master suite. The software promises to deliver reliable backup and recovery options with hard disk drive modification utilities and delivers, quite amicably.

In comparison to its world-renowned rival, Acronis, Paragon keeps it simple by providing the tools necessary to initialize or modify partitions, hard drives, SSDs, and flash drives into nearly any measure of storage. The ability to create, modify, merge, wipe, shrink, and expand partitions is a process that is made easy, and worth the extra investment, for anyone who wants to complete their backup and recovery option for home, home office, and small business use.

Paragon Hard Disk Manager Suite 12 suffers from some setbacks when creating the bootable rescue media; also known as the Paragon Advanced Recovery CD, due to what appears to be changes in licensing for the Microsoft Windows PE environment. A separate utility bundled with the software allows you to create the media with the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK). Once created, Paragon Hard Disk Manager Suite 12, and its entire assortment of features, can be run nearly flawlessly by booting from disc or USB flash drive - without the operating system in active operation. This procedure allows for more thorough and reliable backups, restores, and hard disk drive management.
Included in the software suite are utilities that make converting a standard Windows installation into a SSD-ready deployment simple, a way to convert any disk image into a GPT partition, and a method that can convert the entire disk into a virtual machine-ready file.

Ultimately, Paragon Hard Disk Manager Suite 12 stands out for its overall ease of use and reliability. While it may not share the updated looks of its primary competitor, with bundled features that would normally cost a fortune, Paragon Hard Disk Manager Suite 12 helps show us once again that slow and steady can win the race.

Windows 7 Forums recommends Paragon Hard Disk Manager Suite 12 for intermediate computer users who need a reliable solution for backup, restore, and disk management. It is clear that Paragon has spent the majority of its development time working on improving their product, and not anti-piracy activation schema as their main competitor, Acronis has. For many customers who may want to use the program on a desktop and laptop non-concurrently, this will prove to be a major relief.

Special thanks to Paragon Software for making this review possible.

Learn how to use Paragon Hard Disk Suite 12 and all of its feature set in this review and tutorial from Mike Fara. ]]> Mike http://windows7forums.com/blogs/mike/603-paragon-hard-disk-management-suite-12-review.html Cloud Storage Just Became Cheap Overnight http://windows7forums.com/blogs/mike/602-cloud-storage-just-became-cheap-overnight.html Thu, 26 Apr 2012 08:45:28 GMT This week, the horse left the proverbial barn, ladies and gentlemen, and now Microsoft, Google, Apple, Dropbox, Box.net, and a large number of other... This week, the horse left the proverbial barn, ladies and gentlemen, and now Microsoft, Google, Apple, Dropbox, Box.net, and a large number of other companies are competing in an arena that will help you backup and synchronize your files, forever, if you so desire, online, and at the lowest possible cost. At the end of April 2012, the price for these online services suddenly dropped dramatically, and became available from the world's top companies.

Any File, Any Time, Anywhere

Earlier this year, MegaUpload was taken down by the U.S. Department of Justice on a number of charges for operating a private file storage service. But now cloud storage, or the ability to back up and synchronize files over the Internet, just saw major price reductions over the last couple of days, with companies such as Microsoft and Google entering a market, at full steam ahead, that has been primarily ruled, at least since August 2011, by the Apple iCloud, the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (directly), Dropbox, and Box.net.

How It Works

To clarify, cloud file storage, often referred to in one way as a “box”, or a “drive”, typically allow you to store files over the Internet by installing the cloud storage application and placing your files into a designated folder on your computer. These files and folders then get synchronized onto the cloud service, and can be accessed from the service’s website, or by installing the program on multiple computers. Once these files are placed on the remote cloud service, they are typically backed up and available to you indefinitely, unless you delete them or cancel your account.

When the cloud storage application is installed on multiple devices, like a desktop, a laptop, and a phone, any edits made to the files on one computer are synchronized to the others. Cloud storage is especially convenient due to its cross-platform support. A user working on a Mac could still share a spreadsheet with someone on a PC, for instance.

These services can now function as a serious alternative to file servers. Because the files are hosted on the Internet, they can be kept private, made public, or shared at your discretion. This has the potential to make project management and cooperation between individuals that much easier.

But Won’t My Files Get Lost?

I have been a user of Dropbox for around 5 years, and not a single file has been lost that I did not delete myself. The important issue to remember about cloud storage is that your files are not just being backed up on one system, but on a number of them around the world. This technique, known as distributed file sharing, is often used on what are known as server farms – large datacenters with failovers so that you never lose your stuff. One of the reasons why cloud storage and computing is becoming a success is because the companies that are offering the services are international conglomerates. For example, companies like Google, Microsoft, Apple, and even Amazon operate countless servers around the world. A gentleman named James Pearn estimates that Google operates about 1.8 million servers and that this number will increase to 2.3 million by 2013. His estimates could be exaggerated, but he counted the floor space at all of their datacenters, looked up their location, and even used satellite imagery to make these assertions. One thing is for certain: The companies that have become the backbone of the computer industry and the Internet itself have an enormous amount of hardware resources that the typical person, or even business simply doesn’t have. When these servers aren’t performing at their full potential, it then becomes cost efficient for these large companies to start allocating additional disk space and development for cloud storage. They can use this type of service as leverage to expand their infrastructure or save costs on their existing servers.

Why Now?

Just days after Microsoft ramped up its Windows Live SkyDrive service, offering existing members a limited-time only chance to upgrade their storage space to 25GB permanently, Google released Google Drive. Both SkyDrive and Google Drive offer file synchronization and storage using cloud hosting, starting at 5GB for free. Similarly, Dropbox was a start-up that has been offering an excellent cloud storage and file synchronization service for the last several years. Only in the last few weeks, however, did they suddenly program photo synchronization into their phone application: When you take a picture on your phone, you have the option of having that photograph automatically uploaded to Dropbox, SkyDrive, or Google+, depending on what services you have set up.

This is important because these companies already have existing services for photographs and mail. Facebook, for example, just bought out Instagram, a service that allows you to share your pictures online and through your smart phone. Services like Flickr and DeviantArt offer specialized file sharing specifically for artwork and photography. But for years, companies like MegaUpload (taken down by the US Justice Department) have offered file storage on private servers.

What’s The Catch?

The biggest change that has come recently is that the price of cloud storage has been reduced dramatically. While SkyDrive has been around for quite a while, it looks like Microsoft will integrate the service with Windows 8, and you can therefore see how an entire computer profile can eventually be synced up – and backed up - to the service; accessible from any computer using login credentials. With Google Drive, you also get 5GB free, and Google Mail storage is increased when you buy more space. In addition, if you bought 100GB of file storage, it would cost, roughly $4.99 USD a month from Google. Similarly, Microsoft offers 100GB for about $50 USD a year, or roughly $5/mo. after tax. With SkyDrive, the benefits that you will get from using it with Windows 8 start to become obvious. Even in Window 7, you can start using libraries to save your documents, pictures, videos, and downloads to this service. With Google Drive, your space for Picasa Web Albums is also increased by whatever amount you buy. In comparison, services like Dropbox, which rely on Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud for their service, still cost a hefty price: After taxes, a Dropbox account that utilizes 100GB will cost around $200 US dollars annually. Initial tests show that Dropbox and Google Drive currently operate very quickly and have nearly flawless file synchronization. Microsoft’s SkyDrive currently seems to be operating much slower, but these services just became heavily commercialized this week.

If you refer enough people to Dropbox, you can get yourself around 32GB of free space without ever paying for their service. Similarly, if you claim your free Windows Live SkyDrive space right now, for a limited time only, you will be able to lock in an additional 25GB of storage space free of charge. And Google Drive gives you 5GB for free. This means, by installing all three services, you could get anywhere between 15GB of free storage and 62GB without paying anything.

Out of all of the services, Google’s seems to be the cheapest, offering 200GB of storage for around $9.99 USD per month. They also offer storage going into the terabyte range, while others have limited their offerings to around 100GB. These services particularly come alive when they are used with smart phones and other mobile devices. If you maintain your own backups, then you know, for instance, that you would not need to backup all of your music files if you placed them on Google Drive, SkyDrive, Dropbox, or Box.net.

And out of all of the services, Dropbox still seems to be among the best, but its price is hefty in the comparison. Computer users who maintain most of their information on Windows Live, using services like Live Messenger and Live Mail (Hotmail), will likely move towards Windows Live SkyDrive. Similarly, users who have focused their attention on Google and their line of services will be more likely to use Google Drive. Computer users that still use Outlook or Thunderbird, and shy away from services offered by companies like Google, Microsoft, and Apple, may find themselves going with a proven alternative like Dropbox. Power users are unlikely to pass up the opportunity for free storage and will likely install all of the above. With Apple’s iCloud still costing $100 a year for 50GB, it looks like the game is on, and online file storage has turned into a fast growing new commodity overnight.

So what are you waiting for? Go claim your free storage!

The services:

http://skydrive.live.com
http://drive.google.com
http://dropbox.com/
http://box.net
http://icloud.com ]]> Mike http://windows7forums.com/blogs/mike/602-cloud-storage-just-became-cheap-overnight.html Intel Haswell: 10-20 Day Battery Life? 3D Transistors Hitting Market with Ivy Bridge http://windows7forums.com/blogs/mike/601-intel-haswell-10-20-day-battery-life-3d-transistors-hitting-market-ivy-bridge.html Mon, 23 Apr 2012 11:07:46 GMT While computer enthusiasts looking for the latest technology from Intel are no doubt frothing at the mouth about the recent Ivy Bridge developments,... While computer enthusiasts looking for the latest technology from Intel are no doubt frothing at the mouth about the recent Ivy Bridge developments, the successor to the Ivy Bridge is ambitious in scope. With most laptops now being shipped with Sandy Bridge architecture (native USB3 compatibility and eSATA, as well as support for 6 core Intel i7, i5, and i3 processors), Intel will soon begin rolling out Ivy Bridge. But reports indicate it has already begun work on its next-generation processing architecture: code-name Haswell.

For those who already have high performance computing rigs, servers, and workstations, the difference may seem negligible, and may appear, on the surface, to be yet another change of the motherboard architecture design that requires a new chipset and processor socket. However, there is more to the development in Haswell than meets the eye.

It has become apparent that Intel is attempting to compete directly with Britain's ARM Holdings Semiconductor. ARM is the company responsible for the highly miniaturized use of ARM-architecture central processing units (CPUs) and motherboards on modern smart phones and pads. Nearly every iPhone and Android smart phone is using ARM, and Windows 8 will reportedly be rolled out for ARM on smart devices in 2013.

However, if Intel's plans take off, ARM may be making a run for its money. For example, while the difference between programming design for the Intel x64 and x86 architecture may be extreme compared to ARM, developers are likely to be far more ready to program for Intel-based processors again than they are for ARM.

Like Ivy Bridge, the Haswell successor is likely to be based on a 22 nanometer (nm) manufacturing process, and will use 3D trigate transistors. The 3D trigate transistors designed by Intel use 50% less power and up to a 30-40% performance increase in processing power. The transistors will also reportedly be used in newer Intel Atom processors on netbooks and other miniature devices.

However, the one area where Haswell is said to compete in a major way is battery life. According to a report by BBC News and Intel's Kirk Skaugen, the goal of Haswell will be to give you 20x more battery life in standby mode and up to 10 days of battery life in constant operation. If these statements ring true, prepare for this technology to begin to appear in 2013 with Ivy Bridge, and become more apparent with the release of the Haswell architecture at a later time.

However, anyone who has used modern cell phones knows that battery life is a big deal. Here in the states, and likely throughout Europe, phones that have promised 20 hours of battery life have become big sellers. One example is the Verizon 4G Razr MAXX smart phone from Motorola, scheduled to be upgraded with Android's Ice Cream Sandwich OS in coming weeks.

According to these indications from Intel, 10-20 days of battery life would not be out of the question using 22nm processors. Such a proposition could shift the balance of power in the marketplace once again away from ARM and towards Intel and AMD, as a rift now exists between traditional desktop and notebook computers and smart devices.

Source: BBC News and Intel Corporation

]]> Mike http://windows7forums.com/blogs/mike/601-intel-haswell-10-20-day-battery-life-3d-transistors-hitting-market-ivy-bridge.html When Solid State Hard Drives Fail http://windows7forums.com/blogs/mike/582-when-solid-state-hard-drives-fail.html Thu, 05 Apr 2012 11:42:31 GMT http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSMZ7LbkyeU In this video, “When Solid State Hard Drives Fail”, Microsoft MVP and 7x Certified Information...

In this video, “When Solid State Hard Drives Fail”, Microsoft MVP and 7x Certified Information Technology Professional and Consultant Mike Fara, from Windows 7 Forums (http://windows7forums.com), takes a look at the frustration of identifying a SSD failure, the response from retail outlets, and the exceptional response of one man working at Crucial Support Services: Steven Rushton. In 2011, Mike took a look at the potential feasibility and performance of solid state hard drives in his video: “2011: A Year of Solid State Hard Drives”. Nearly a year later and Mike finds himself drawing a line in the sand.

While solid state drives continue to be marketed as the ultimate reliability solution in comparison to conventional platter-driven drives, the limitations of flash memory (NAND), and their memory cells, may place commercial and retail SSDs into a state of disrepair much earlier than anticipated. While proponents of solid state hard drive technology previously saw the technological potential of a device that has no moving parts as potentially lasting for many years, if not decades, Mike has found that the degradation and failure of seven Crucial CT128M225 128GB SATA-II SSDs seems to be more than just a coincidence.

These solid state drives came with the benefit of a five year warranty nearly three years ago, but today, SSD manufacturers have cut that warranty by nearly half. The only SSD manufacturer that has not, Mike has observed, is Intel Corporation. If these devices are so reliable, and do not degrade over time and with use to a great degree, why have the entirety of major manufacturer’s chosen to lower their warranty standards? In this one hour video, Mike pulls out all the stops to show you the tools and methods he uses to do preliminary diagnostics and benchmarking on all types of hard drives. The video, designed for computer users of all levels, should raise some concerns and discussion about the feasibility of purchasing a solid state hard drive that is designed to stand the test of time.
After getting burned this hard, who would want to try again? One interesting aspect of the video is the fact that, besides Crucial during their initial sale, it would seem that SSD performance output listed on retail boxes by Samsung is rarely matched – even when using the most powerful systems. How is it possible, that the new Samsung 830 series cannot, at all, match its promise of anything close to a 520MB/s sequential read speed? This is a brand new SSD, directly from a major US retail outlet.

The answers may not so simple, but exploring the situation may be revealing, and may change your opinion on these devices. More importantly, Mike seeks more input from hard drive experts, who seem nearly impossible to find: the engineers who develop these drives and know their real performance and reliability limitations. Instead, Mike must use his own knowledge of the evolution of NAND, flash, and storage media to draw some unsettling conclusions.

Is a SSD worth buying in 2012? Was one worth buying in 2009? How reliable are NAND chips and their associated memory cells? This is a troubling question, and one that is unlikely to be answered by the manufacturers. In a world where broken hard drives are smelted down for gold, due to their value, once in a failed, unrecoverable state, being less than that of a large paperweight, one comes to the conclusion that something is amidst or being withheld from the public eye. Can solid state storage devices withstand years of prolonged use with power-on hours under a Random Array of Independent Disks (RAID)? Or is the technology a “gotcha” moment for the entire storage industry? Is there a medium somewhere up around the bend? Mike uses CrystalDiskMark to show off some benchmarks, and how some 4 year old Seagate Barracuda is capable of outperforming a Crucial SATA-2 SSD with 2 years of power-on hours. With Crucial drives using the Samsung MMC NAND, why is the brand new Samsung SSD 830 showcasing lackluster performance?

But there is one man who cares; one man who wants to make a difference. He may not even realize it, and he works at a Crucial Support call center. His name is Steven Rushton. Special thanks to Steven for making this video and documentary possible.

Are SSDs worth it and what happened to their golden promises? We look forward to your input. In fact, the Internet community may need it.

This animated logo showcased in this video was created for use on Windows7Forums.com and Windows8Forums.com and uses a proprietary and unique design. Windows7Forums.com is an open, unbiased discussion forum operated by and for technology enthusiasts. It is a member of the Microsoft Partner Program. We look forward to seeing you at http://windows7forums.com. Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, education or personal use also tips the balance in favor of fair use. The commentary made in this video does not reflect on any Windows7Forums.com affiliates, its partners, moderators, team members, or associates. They are strictly the opinions of the content publisher and video producer: Mike Fara. This video makes use of software videos to document, comment on, critique, and discuss solid state hard drives as a consumer product and hardware platform. The music at the beginning of this video is provided as royalty-free public domain music by GeeksAreSexy.net. This video has been uploaded by the publisher who owns the sole rights to its creation and distribution: Mike Fara. No copyright infringement has been expressed, committed, or intended.

Keywords:
“solid state hard drives” ssd “hard drives” intel Samsung “micro center” storage nand memory “intel rapid storage technology” raid “disk i/o” crystaldiskmark crystaldiskinfo “power-on hours” CRUCIAL_CT128M225 “Indilinx Barefoot” “Samsung MLC NAND” “buffer size” “Sequential Read Speed” “Sequential Write Speed” sectors “Samsung SSD 830” data ]]> Mike http://windows7forums.com/blogs/mike/582-when-solid-state-hard-drives-fail.html Acronis True Image 2012 Quick Review http://windows7forums.com/blogs/mike/581-acronis-true-image-2012-quick-review.html Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:51:57 GMT http://youtu.be/BOOLWYtxpTM Get Acronis: http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3605745-10446864 While I have been disatisfied with the latest versions...

Get Acronis: http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3605745-10446864

While I have been disatisfied with the latest versions of Acronis applications for SMB workstations, mid-range businesses, and enterprise environments, it is hard not to like Acronis True Image Home 12. The application is easy to use, making backup and restore of entire systems an easy task. The great feature set makes up for the strict licensing and activation agreement, but avoid, in my opinion, the online backup options, as there are better alternatives. ]]> Mike http://windows7forums.com/blogs/mike/581-acronis-true-image-2012-quick-review.html How to Uninstall Any Software Application With Revo Uninstaller http://windows7forums.com/blogs/mike/580-how-uninstall-any-software-application-revo-uninstaller.html Mon, 26 Mar 2012 10:57:10 GMT http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bi-LzPVK78M Download Revo Uninstaller Pro: http://bit.ly/H2JWXD In this video, I am going to demonstrate and...

Download Revo Uninstaller Pro: http://bit.ly/H2JWXD

In this video, I am going to demonstrate and review Revo Uninstaller. Revo Uninstaller is a freeware application that helps you to uninstall applications on your computer that would otherwise leave registry keys, system files, dynamic link libraries, and other errant files all over your computer, even after you uninstall the program. This is commonplace, with a lot of programs, especially when you look at anti-virus software and anti-malware software. In many cases, in order to fully uninstall a program like Norton or Symantec, you will have to go and actually download, even after you uninstall the program, an additional utility to fully uninstall the anti-virus program. This is kind of ridiculous, but the primary reason that this happens is because of the amount of development time that goes into the uninstaller of a program. When programs are developed, the enormity of the time is often spent on the development of the application itself, and not necessarily the installer or the uninstaller of the application. In fact, there are companies that sell software that help developers quickly create an installer and an uninstaller of a program. For example, you may have heard of TrustedInstaller, InstallShield, and MSI, which of course, is the Microsoft system for the installation, uninstallation, and deployment of applications.

I am going to show you how this software works. First of all again, I would like to re-iterate that it is free, but this program will also help you quickly get rid of registry keys that are left over on your computer that will not be identified by registry cleaning software. It will help you to completely eliminate the files and folders that are left over by tens of thousands of applications, written by some of the best companies in the world, which simply just leave files on your computer. The reason why this is important is that, over time, your computer gets filled up with junk, you're running out of space, and all of a sudden you realize that you have a whole bunch of files on your computer from programs that you uninstalled years ago. ]]> Mike http://windows7forums.com/blogs/mike/580-how-uninstall-any-software-application-revo-uninstaller.html PerfectDisk Review: Slow Computers Are A Dark Problem Resolved http://windows7forums.com/blogs/mike/578-perfectdisk-review-slow-computers-dark-problem-resolved.html Mon, 20 Feb 2012 02:29:16 GMT http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXBoVm51GqQ Download: http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-3605745-10922438 Watch our review video as Mike Fara...

Download: http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-3605745-10922438

Watch our review video as Mike Fara demonstrates that a dark bane consumes the world of computers, and that bane is slow hard disk performance. The bottlenecks of disk I/O and disk fragmentation cannot be understated. Tonight, I delve into this world, and come to only one conclusion. Perfect Disk by Raxco Software. Here is my solemn review.

Statistics:

All laptop fragmentation reduced to 0%. Over hundred and fifty thousands file fragmentations are recorded as having been prevented. A second analysis showed no more than 1% fragmentation after 24 hours of prolonged disk read and write benchmarking. ]]> Mike http://windows7forums.com/blogs/mike/578-perfectdisk-review-slow-computers-dark-problem-resolved.html Malwarebytes Video Review http://windows7forums.com/blogs/mike/577-malwarebytes-video-review.html Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:05:05 GMT http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIPQq7MErGM Download:...

Download: https://store.malwarebytes.org/342/c...lwarebytes_pro

Explore the benefits of Malarebytes pro-active protection and on-demand scanning with both the freeware and paid versions of the software using this review. Malwarebytes has been a tool implemented in information techology for repair and system cleaning for years due to its reputation for identifying and eliminating elusive adware and various malware components. The software is reviewed with an overall focus on functionality, explaining the difference between Malwarebytes Pro and the traditional free edition.

Malwarebytes has been known by IT professionals as a great way to rid computer systems of malware, trojans, rootkits, and other nasties through its advanced method of completely analyzing, comprehending, and destroying threats. As a supplement to Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE), or any other anti-virus product, Malwarebytes is the absolute industry leader in cleaning up a compromised system. If your web browser habits lead you to browser hijacking, strange tracking cookies, or if you want to pro-actively protect your system forever, this is the program to get. While Malwarebytes is free and without nag screens, it requires you to manually scan your computer. The full version of Malwarebytes has a constant, 24 hour protection module. This module is preventative and not reactionary, meaning that known IPs are blocked from inbound and outbound traffic on your computer; the perfect supplement to your firewall. Malwarebytes blocks malicious website content and malicious file execution. Today, most industry experts recommend running both an anti-virus and an anti-malware solution. Malwarebytes is the best anti-malware solution in existence today ]]> Mike http://windows7forums.com/blogs/mike/577-malwarebytes-video-review.html Unreleased AMD Radeon HD 7000 Series On The Move http://windows7forums.com/blogs/mike/560-unreleased-amd-radeon-hd-7000-series-move.html Sun, 11 Dec 2011 11:46:03 GMT Gamers and video graphics enthusiasts should be excited about recent news that has been appearing about the AMD HD 7000 series of video cards, which... Gamers and video graphics enthusiasts should be excited about recent news that has been appearing about the AMD HD 7000 series of video cards, which as of now, still remain a mystery. The recent reports show photographs of the AMD Radeon HD 7900 “Tahiti” prototype, which would include 12 different memory chips, 384-bit memory, and 32-bit GDDR5. As with all speculative rumors, no one can be sure what the HD 7900 will have to offer to retail customers upon release, but the images of the prototype card look realistic. With any estimation, the HD 7900 series will be large cards: nearly 10” in length. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) provides semiconductors for NVIDIA, AMD, Qualcomm, and maybe even Apple. They announced in October that they were ready to roll out 28 nanometer technology. This will almost assuredly allow embedded video graphics in devices such as SmartPhones and tablets to become even more powerful, while utilizing less space and, likely, less energy. Of course, this process of miniaturization has been on-going, and will extend to the desktop realm as well. The AMD HD 7000 series is suggested to run on 28nm “Southern Island” GPUs. This next generation of video graphics cards will be important for more multimedia intensive applications, work projects, and games and the release of such new products will likely drive the price of existing video cards down to a more affordable level.

See also: http://www.theverge.com/2011/12/11/2...hics-card-leak ]]> Mike http://windows7forums.com/blogs/mike/560-unreleased-amd-radeon-hd-7000-series-move.html Security Jungle: Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Busted http://windows7forums.com/blogs/mike/498-security-jungle-microsoft-gold-certified-partner-busted.html Mon, 26 Sep 2011 12:46:02 GMT I recently published a video on YouTube about false computerized phone calls and identity theft. Interestingly enough, Corrine over at SecurityGarden... I recently published a video on YouTube about false computerized phone calls and identity theft. Interestingly enough, Corrine over at SecurityGarden reports that Microsoft removed one of their Gold Certified Partners over a very similar issue: telephone scams.

This is true:

It is important to understand that being a Microsoft Partner, in any shape, whether Certified or Gold Certified, does not mean that the company represents Microsoft. Rather, it merely means that the company has met the requisite requirements, has paid the requisite fee and has earned the appropriate Partner Points for the Partner level. The requirements for both Microsoft Gold Certified and Microsoft Certified Partners are fully described at the eHow.com references…

http://securitygarden.blogspot.com/#ixzz1Z3opSvJl

In fact, we are a Microsoft Certified Partner, but do not rise to the level of Gold Certified Partner because we need a prerequisite of, if I am not mistaken, two or three Microsoft Certified Professionals and a multi-thousand dollar a year fee to put such a logo on the website. I think we also have to buy a Microsoft Action Pack Subscription for extra points, but who knows. The point is that to gain Microsoft Gold Certified Partner status, you simply need to be a company with a few skilled employees and a lot of money. This is an unfortunate reality, but it is the truth.

As a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional, I routinely receive NDA correspondence from Microsoft. I am also certified by Microsoft as a MCITP, MCSA, MCTS, and MCP. This does not make me a Microsoft representative, and it does not make our website Microsoft certified or sanctioned. However, we are led to believe, through the MVP program’s actions, that they have appreciated our contributions to the Windows community, by nominating MVPs from this forum site. Early in the site’s beginnings, we did have some of the developers register on the site, with one or two of them even answering a question. That was nice of them.

Similarly, you will see indications everywhere, from the footer of every page, to the Frequently Asked Questions area, indicating that we do not have a direct affiliation or relationship with Microsoft at all. Communicating with Microsoft and affiliating your entire business or organization with them are two major things. Our moderators have done an exceptional and awesome job answering questions and keeping the site on the straight and narrow.

We continue to work closely with Microsoft on many different projects. For example, we have contact with one of the mainstays of their anti-piracy group when dealing with posters who link or provide information that would allow you to infringe on Microsoft’s copyrights or trademarks. I will also be at the Microsoft Global MVP Summit in Redmond, Washington at the end of February 2012 to engage in workshops and other activities.

Some time ago, we had issues with members of the "Microsoft Outreach Team" coming to our forums and advising everyone to simply go to the Microsoft knowledgebase or the official MS forums for answers to their support questions. At one point, it got to an issue where they were just telling people to go to microsoft.com.

Investigations further revealed that these individuals, while given access to microsoft.com e-mail addresses, were third party contractors based out of India and outside the US. This practice was so repugnant, because this "Outreach Team" had no answers for anyone. They were paid marketers designed to send people off to Microsoft's website. We can only assume the firms were being paid based on conversions, since they would mask Microsoft URLs with TinyURL and Bit.ly, a practice that we became aware of that Microsoft frowns upon for security reasons. In fact, Bill Bright (MVP), I believe, suggested that the Outreach Team was banned from using these URLs.

They were tracking their own success/fail ratio and sending it to whoever was the lead contractor for the program by using these links, no doubt. It was a number of firms coming from IPs in India and this was very unfortunate, as the Microsoft.com e-mail addresses led us to believe they were legitimate employees. The cat got out of the bag when an honest one actually told us what was going on.

It is my contention a great amount of harm is done by these programs, marketers, fraudsters, as well as those who are paranoid of information syndication and awareness. Why put up a RSS feed or report news if you think syndicating it requires you file a federal arbitration claim using the DMCA? I guess that’s for an entire other article, but it does bring to mind that robots and criminals are more likely to use the phone these days than people. Corrine also informs her audience to hang up on people you don't know who are making strange unsolicited phone calls: a funny reminder to me that we are in the era of e-mails, SMS, instant messaging, and Facebook. A phone? You mean I actually hang up on people if they call me unsolicited?

Here's a tip if you live in the US:

https://www.donotcall.gov/

The National Do Not Call Registry prevents third party marketers from calling your telephone.

]]> Mike http://windows7forums.com/blogs/mike/498-security-jungle-microsoft-gold-certified-partner-busted.html Your PC: Leave It On or Turn It Off? http://windows7forums.com/blogs/mike/497-your-pc-leave-turn-off.html Sat, 24 Sep 2011 15:46:09 GMT The question has come to me in the past: A distant relic of a time gone by. But today, it is a featured story on both PCWorld... The question has come to me in the past: A distant relic of a time gone by. But today, it is a featured story on both PCWorld and Digg. This is an age old question for computer users by now, and especially technicians.Mr. Lincoln Spector from PCWorld writes:

Call me a tree-hugger if you must, but I see no reason to keep a computer on when it's not in use. That wastes electricity, which is bad for your pocketbook and bad for the planet. And it's probably bad for the computer.

Most consumer computers are made with low quality parts. They still using SATA or IDE hard drives and earlier processors. While they are monsters at power consumption, they afford no benefit to abruptly powering down and back up. The majority of the computers in the world are not home built and do not use modular power supplies. They use cheap ones. That can explode. Literally. Go on fire. And explode.Better power supply construction, power line filtering through UPS, and voltage regulating may make it easier to promote green computing. At an organization where I once worked, there was an effort at the main and remote offices to “go green”. An amicable goal, since federal grant loan money was being flooded into the main office. Who better than to fulfill these contracts than the one and only employee in the entire IT/MIS department with 150+ computers? Yes, I developed netlogon and power management scripts to deal with the role of performing all sorts of tricks while people were offline. At night. The computer would chkdsk, defrag, and perform all sorts of maintenance routines from the server command-line. After all, I had actually connected many of these client computers to the domain controller server for the first time, and brought about remote access via VNC and DYNDNS, instead of allowing them to remain dormant and un-updated.Suddenly, someone decided to “go green”. As you can guess, this destroyed my plans to actually create an environment where four to ten year old hard drives did not fail in Windows XP. Some of the employees kids might have been younger than the computers we were using. So I have a unique perspective about an enterprise environment “going green” to save electricity.

The intrinsic argument and belief system in shutting down the computer at night is flawed if any of the following are true:

The computer runs maintenance tasks at night that could not be performed during the day, under any circumstances, and would actually save more money on replacement costs over the long-term than short term electrical costs.

The processor has automatic power state and stepping change support.If the systems can go into relative standby or hibernation, there is no reason to create a power management policy that completely shuts them down. The difference between full power-on and standby can be 100 watts+ vs. <10 watts in standby without hibernation.Link-state power management allows devices, including hard drives, to stop spinning, even if the entire system is left on. This means your computer reduces significant peripheral electrical usage even when the computer is left on.

If the computer was built with dual core or higher technology, the power exerted by the CPU is so low when the system is idle, there is no tangible benefit from turning the system off.If the graphics card is on-board or embedded, it likely uses very little electricity. Similarly, newer video graphics cards from NVIDIA and AMD use less electricity when not in use.

Mr. Spector continues:

A shutdown PC will give Windows a fresh start, clear of any digital cobwebs it acquired since its last boot. A hibernated PC will wake up where you left it, with the same programs, files, and windows open.

Unless you use hibernation, turning the computer completely off will always save more electricity than leaving it on. But the question is whether or not this is really cost effective. In my opinion, that answer is almost always absolutely not: There is no benefit to turning the computer off unless electrical fees outrun the cost of replacing a power supply, hard drive, or other modular component. While environmental factors may be an issue, they are extraordinarily minimized when a system is in a low power state of readiness.

This is a matter of measuring power efficacy vs. hardware reliability and making both a risk assessment and policy that is based on logic and not on a whim or political theater. Leave your computer on if you want to maintain your PC’s longevity. The small nuances of powering the system on and off 365 days a year have the same hosing effect as turning a light on and off, except you are potentially dealing with tens of thousands of dollars of equipment when this policy is employed in a group environment. Administrators at data-centers do not simply turn all of their computers off every night, even on systems that may only have time-based roles. Perpetual and constant changes in temperature, as well as the millisecond over-volts that can and do take place when powering on a system, severely damage the longevity of the motherboard, CPU, hard drive, and graphics card. SSD or SAS disk drives are another reason to leave the system on, as the memory-based storage of a SSD does not run on magnetic resonance and moving platters. SAS/SCSI drives are made for industrial use and designed to read/write 24 hours a day.

However, even conventional hard drives, as we said, can and will shut down, using link-state power management, when the option is configured correctly. Leaving a computer on 24/7, for literally years, will result in minimal hardware issues.Sending 150 watts of electricity and .5-1.5 volts of electricity to a motherboard and microprocessor 365 days out of the year, however, is likely to ruin you. Constantly parking and unparking hard disk headers on a conventional SATA drive and the blast of wattage that goes directly into the device is no joke, and bursting a transistor on a motherboard should not be left out of the equation.

Often times you will see companies that make consumer motherboards like Gigabyte boast that their motherboards support 100% ferrite cores. Their ferrite cores help conduct electricity more effectively and prevent transformer meltdown, reduce resonance noise coming off the board, and restrict interference. These high quality components attempt to shield a computer from misuse, and from the abuse the computer will no doubt take form being shut down and turned on every single day of the year. A computer is not a person and does not need to go to bed at night. In fact, it actually makes the computer much more tired and age more quickly.If you don’t believe me, just look at statistics. Powering systems on and off kill power supplies, while switching power states from S1 to S6 do much less damage.

Mr. Lincoln Spector seems to be far removed from the subject he is writing about. Instead of using scientific, or even extemporaneous data, he seems to ramble on about cobwebs. In real IT, we clear out cob webs with cans of compressed air.He could have used this statistic: “Turning the computer off can save your company money. According to the study, a U.S. company with 10,000 PCs will waste $260,000 in energy throughout the year due to computers that are powered up when no one is using them.”Instead, he talked nonsense. The reality is that computer components suffer from power on/power off, but are increasingly designed to withstand that blow. Look to see how much it would cost to replace 10% of those 10,000 PC’s if your power management schema inadvertently leads to data retention and/or system failure.With power consumption requirements decreasing, and, arguably, semi-volatile memory becoming in vogue for mass storage, I say leave it on. And with incompetent government agencies still looking to "go green" to get just a few more thousand dollars of that federal stimulus money, you bet I'm a bit perturbed. All the best. ]]> Mike http://windows7forums.com/blogs/mike/497-your-pc-leave-turn-off.html ESET Smart Security 5 Review http://windows7forums.com/blogs/mike/495-eset-smart-security-5-review.html Thu, 15 Sep 2011 13:49:50 GMT *ESET Smart Security 5 February 2012 Review: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN1ISPQtca0* *ESET Smart Security 5 Original 2011 Review:*... ESET Smart Security 5 February 2012 Review:

ESET Smart Security 5 Original 2011 Review:

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ESET Smart Security 5 is the latest version of ESET's full system protection suite. It includes the components of NOD32, as well as strong prevention against Viruses, Worms, Trojan horses, Rootkits, Adware, Spyware, Potentially unsafe applications, Potentially unwanted applications, Denial of Service attacks (DoS), DNS Poisoning, Worm Attacks, port scanning, TCP desynchronization, SMB relay attacks, ICMP attacks, E-mail ads, Hoaxes, Phishing attacks, and Spam scams. In this video, Mike Fara installs, reviews, and fully demonstrates software functionality.

Our latest video review of ESET Smart Security (combined with NOD32) shows that this software excels in areas where freeware applications may often be lackluster at best. The software suite has matured over the years, and even while it was outperforming Symantec, McAfee, and all the major front runners, it often went unignored in the US marketplace. Today, go to any MicroCenter, and you will find copies of ESET Smart Security on the front rack of the software section. That is simply because this software is the best in stopping viruses in their tracks, especially those in the wild.

This review of the new software doesn't pull any punches, and attempts to show viewers that the software is worth its weight in gold. As a user of the software for over five years myself, and having deployed the solution in both small business and enterprise environments, I am proud to say that it can be relied upon when called. The sad part is that most users who encounter systemic errors through their entire operating system may have no idea their system is infected. They may be inclined to provide credit card information to 3rd party phishing sites, or become the victims of identify theft. This lack of security are how large bot nets, or networks of hacked computers, are formed. With ESET's solutions, there are no compromises.

Download ESET Smart Security ]]> Mike http://windows7forums.com/blogs/mike/495-eset-smart-security-5-review.html