HD Doctor Blog

Firmware is a type of software stored directly inside hardware components, such as hard disk drives or motherboards, that tells the hardware how to interact with your computer’s operating system. You would typically only need to upgrade your hard drive’s firmware if you installed a new motherboard or upgraded to a new operating system that the drive was not originally intended to interact with. Firmware upgrades are meant to be administered through a floppy disk, but with some extra work you can also apply them with a standard CD as well.

Note: Save a backup copy of each of your important files to an external source before attempting to update the firmware of your hard drive. If you stop…

If you’ve ever installed a hard drive, you may have noticed the green board on the bottom of the drive, and have probably made a few educated guesses as to its purpose and use.

The green board is known as the hard drive’s PCB, or Printed Circuit Board, and it’s one of the most complex and intriguing parts of a hard drive.

When hard drives fail, occasionally it’s due to a malfunction of the PCB board. Power surges can cause this type of a failure, as well as dust contamination and many other common computer problems.

Hard Drive PCB Failure Symptoms

Hard drive PCB failures usually render a drive unable to boot up. Depending on the brand and model…

With the economy being in such a precarious condition, many computer users are repairing and upgrading an existing computer rather than buy a new one. If you have a laptop or computer that requires offsite repair, you should take a few precautions to protect your computer files and sensitive information.

Note: If you are using a reputable computer repair technician, you shouldn’t have to worry about anyone accessing your private information. However, it’s best to take the necessary precautions to protect your information.

These precautions are not fool proof. Computer information can be retrieved even if it is deleted. However, taking these precautions makes it a little more difficult to access your private information.

Step 1: Backup your laptop/computer…

Q: Is the boot limitation for NTFS still 7.87GB?

A: No. NTFS volume size limit is 2TB.

Q: Where can I get a lot of details about the NTFS encryption and security ?

A: Security (NTFS) and Encryption (NTFS,NTFS5) are wide topics.

You can get a lot of information about it on Microsoft’s MSDN Web Site (http://msdn.microsoft.com)

Security Topics: File Security and Access Rights

Encryption Topics: File Encryption , Encryption, Sparseness, and Reparse Points

Q: How do you lock files from other machine users on NTFS file system ?

A: NTFS has built-in security feature. Owner of the object can assign certain rights to certain users to restrict access to the

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Q: Is it possible to convert a FAT32 Hard Drive to NTFS without losing all data on the drive? I like to change from FAT32 to NTFS, my operating system is Windows XP PRO, how can I do that? Without the lost of my programs?

A: Standard Windows utility that is called CONVERT serves this purpose

Just go to the Command Prompt and execute the command:

	C:\> CONVERT  C:  /fs:ntfs

Where C: is a name of the drive you want to convert.

After machine re-boot conversion process will start and you’ll have your FAT32 converted to NTFS without of data loss.

Q: How does NTFS compared to FAT32 in Windows XP, and which is faster?

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Sometimes we need to buy some computer parts online, here I offer a list of computer parts online stores, you can compare their prices before you buy.

http://www.microcenter.com/
Thousands of products to buy: desktops, laptops, monitors, build your own PC parts, upgrades, digital imaging, printing supplies, portable devices, audio equipment, software, video games, movies, tech books, plus repair service, store hours, directions, and employment opportunities.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/
A good Deals on Computers, Computer Parts, Computer Components, Netbooks, Electronics and more.

http://www.newegg.com/
Newegg.com offers computer parts, laptop computers, digital cameras, electronics and more with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. 

http://www.bestbuy.com/
Buy’s online source for electronics, televisions, DVD players, home audio, car audio, computers,…

The reason the data takes up more space has to do with the cluster sizes used to store data. Microsoft operating systems using the FAT32 file system use varying cluster sizes depending on the size of the partition.

The following chart gives a breakdown of the partition/cluster size relationship using FAT32

A cluster is the smallest unit used by the operating system to store data. Each piece of…