Thinking About Hard Drives

Inside of a typical hard drive

Today, I have disks on my mind. (How Geeky is that??)

Now, you know that when you see “disk” – with a “k” – we’re talking about “hard drives”; which, technically, is a type of device used for “data storage” — you might know it as your “C: drive“.
(“Disc” with a “c” is a CD/DVD/Blu Ray “optical” frisbee-thingy.)

Now, you also know (if you read this site) that the nation of Thailand was not so long ago removed from planet Earth by a Great Flood and also know that Thailand was the only place that grew hard disks. This led me, and others, to warn all you PC lovers out there to buy now, while there still were computers being built (from the existing stockpiles of disks, which had been shipped before the flood happened).
Um.. Er.. or something like that.

Us Geeky types have seen many articles, such as this one, published today: Hardware makers slog through hard disk drive shortages

“Here’s a tour of how the Thailand flooding and a hard drive shortage affected three tech giants: Sony, Western Digital and Seagate.” Read more..

Today I have hard drives on my mind for two reasons:
1) if there really was a Great Flood, followed by a crisis due to no hard drives.. why am I still seeing multi-terabyte drives in the stores for under $100?
(I’m beginning to suspect that Thailand is still there.. still growing disks..)
and..
2) if I’m ready to finally get off my duff and get one of these new-fangled solid-state hard drives.

See, I have been told by owners of these new devices, for some time now, that they are the bee’s knees of the cat’s pajamas. From what I’ve heard – and read – they are faster than Wile E. Coyote on rollerskates with his rocket backpack on.

I mean.. I’m hearing things like a 20 second boot-to-Desktop. 20 seconds may not be “instant on”, but..

Maybe today’s the day I find out for myself..

Well, enough of my musings. I’ll be a bit more helpful to you before I go. Do you have a hard drive? (um.. yes, you do) Did you know they slow down over time? (um.. I am guessing, yes, you did) Here are some ABC’s hard drive owners should know..

Fortunately there are things you can do and steps you can take to improve your computer’s performance. (We Über Geeks call this “maintenance”.) Some are easy, some are free, and some are free and easy — keep reading!

Step 1 is to open your Control Panel, go to Programs and Features, and uninstall every program you recognize and realize you never use anymore (if you do not recognize it, leave it be .. or research it).

That’s the most important thing to do, but there’s more – much more you can do.

• Free: Windows comes with the tools (we Über Geeks call these “utilities”) you need (Windows 7 users have many of these enabled already [by default]). Please see, Revitalize Your PC With Windows’ Utilities

• Free And Easier: I have found that a few people prefer to download some “optimizer” and do all their “maintenance” with a single click. Fortunately for these folks, there’s a gazillion of these out there. But of these, I recommend the (free) Glary Utilities, or the (free) Advanced SystemCare.

Today’s quote: “Every survival kit should include a sense of humor.” ~ Unknown

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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