Not Formatted Would You Like to Format Now?

This is a common problem with external hard drives like the Western Digital My Book. The reason is that we as a USB using public do not “Safely Remove” the hardware before we turn off or unplug the devices from our computers.  A lot of the time... 

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Recovering from a RAID Controller Failure

There are many reasons why a RAID goes down.  A technician will normally assume that one or more of the drives have failed.  This is a common diagnosis as the diagnostic lights on each of the drives may be blinking, the lights may have gone amber, or... 

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Do It Yourself Dual LCD Monitor Stand

Cheap Do-It-Yourself Dual LCD Monitor Stand OK, so I was really wanting a dual monitor stand for my two LCD flat panel monitors, mainly to get them up off the desk more to give myself more desk space and to raise them up higher.  The cheapest I could... 

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Reload Windows Restore CD Hard Drive Data Recovery

I have been doing technical support for DTI Data Recovery for 3+ years now and there has been one constant problem across those years. Here is the scenario, a user will plug in an external hard drive and back off all of their important data to that drive... 

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My Files Have Disappeared

Recently I have had a situation where customers are calling to tell me that they have files that seem to have disappeared. After going through the usual questions, like are you sure you didn’t delete them, or maybe someone else deleted them? I will... 

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How To Remove A Laptop Hard Drive

So here is a little tutorial on how to remove a laptop hard drive. I only have Dell’s in my little arsenal but the method should be the same across the board no matter what laptop you have. The only exception I will make that is with the dell I... 

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System Area Of The Hard Disk A Look At A Partition

So here is the deal, I would say in about 99 percent of the calls I take, I talk about the “System Area Of The Hard Drive” and I am sure that must seem like techno babble to most people. Because of the specialization of this field of technology,... 

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Slave A Laptop Hard Drive To USB

This article and video will show you how to use a USB enclosure to slave a laptop hard drive. Many times laptop – notebook hard disk drives come in here that we are able to recover with data recovery software. This video will help you use a USB... 

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Spyware, Viruses, Malware (Part 2)

Spyware, Viruses, and Malware – What you may not know. (Part 2 – How they work and how to locate them.) Welcome back to my series of articles that pertain to Spyware, Malware, and Viruses and what you may not know about them. In my first article,... 

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What You May Not Know About Spyware and Malware

Spyware and Malware protection and removal and what you MAY not know! I have had the luxury of being in some sort of IT Industry in one way or another for the last 17 years of my life. I have worked in fields from standard PSTN Telecom, to basic PC building... 

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Windows Explorer: Un-Hide Files

Windows Explorer: How to change files from Being Hidden In my last windows explorer tutorial I explained how to open Windows Explorer, now I will start showing some of the functions people need to know. A lot of time a file we are looking for just doesn’t... 

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Windows Explorer: How to Open It

A lot of times when I am speaking to customers I need them to make changes to their files or look at their files in a specific way. I will often tell someone to open Windows Explorer and tell me what they see. In many occasion I have had customers open... 

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How To Remove Unwanted Software From Windows XP

This is just a mini tutorial on how to uninstall software you no longer want or need and is taking up valuable room on your hard disk. So, step by step this is what you need to do. 1.    Click Start 2.    After the start menu pops open you will... 

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How To Set Up Your Computer The Right Way

If I were a Technician how would I set my machine up to keep my data safe from Spyware, Malicious)ware and viruses? Although this article actually has little to do with actual “data recovery” if you are attacked by any of these issues it will cause... 

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Why You Should Defrag Your Hard Drive

I more then likely average about 3 to 4 calls a day from people who have formatted and reinstalled their operating system. Usually by using the manufactures (i.e. Dell) system restore feature, not realizing that this will bring the machine back to the... 

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RAID O or RAID 1 Choices In New Computer

RAID 0 or No? So recently I got myself a brand spankin’ new computer. Yahoo, right? I can finally play Vanguard with out lag. So, anyway it was set up with a RAID 0 a 64k stripe for speed since it is my gaming machine. The RAID contained two 80gig... 

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Beginners Guide To Computers: The Internet Protocol TCP/IP

Welcome to a new series of “Beginners Guides” that DTI Data is publishing to better assist novice to intermediate technicians and end users who are looking for a more clear understanding of basic computer, networking, and security knowledge. These... 

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Using Restore Feature With Dell And Compaq HP

I take a lot of time to evaluate, what the most frequent Technical support calls I receive are. After a thorough evaluation I have noticed that I receive an inordinate amount of calls referencing the go back or system restore feature that many of the... 

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