Hello my name is Shane Hale, I have been in the technology business for over 11 + years. I currently own a computer repair business and work as a network analyst for a major telecommunications company.
What is a hard drive? Often people think a hard drive is their entire computer system as they see it, and others think that it is something hard or solid in the computer. It actually is a storage device inside your computer, and yes, it is hard. . This is hiding inside your computer and is where all your data is stored when you save it. You may never see your hard drive unless you happen to open up your computer to fix a problem. A hard drive is merely one of the many components that contribute to your computer system as a whole.
It can be confusing when someone is talking about a hard drive and you call “it” a hard disk or hard disk drive. You think to yourself “what are they talking about?” Well this is crazy, but they are talking about the same thing. A hard disk and a hard drive have been made up over the years. Originally the main storage device was called a hard disk and we had floppy disk drives. Eventually the words got mixed up and blended.. That’s my theory anyway.
The picture below shows a 40 gigabyte (the size or capacity) hard drive, 7200RPM (the speed or revs per minute). The 3.5″ hard drive is pictured on the left. We used to only have one option when buying a hard drive, however now there are three or more types to choose from. See more pictures of hard drives
.
A laptop hard disk drive is considerably smaller than a normal desktop hard drive and also cost more. If you wanted to buy a 500gb laptop hard drive it would be very expensive, whereas a 500gb desktop hard drive is around $100. See more laptop hard drives
.
This is where you put a cd rom or a DVD disc in. It could be a drive that can also read and write on cds or DVD disks. Plain old Cd roms are nearly obsolete as everyone now wants a DVD burner.. With dvd rom drives
you can backup your dvd’s onto a DVD writeable disc. There is no point buying a cd rom when dvd rom drives
are the same price and have more features.
This is the smaller drive that takes those little plastic square shaped disks. They are rarely used now as they are no longer needed for a boot disk if you have a cd rom or DVD burner. In fact most new computers are sold without a floppy disk drive as they are obselette.
An external hard drive can come in two sizes like the desktop hard drive and the laptop hard drive. After all an external hard drive is just a case housing one of these hard drives. So if you have a 2.5″ external hard drive
, this means it contains a laptop hard drive.
Now days we every second household owns an external hard drive. They are used to store files on safely away from the computer you are working on. For example, you can save your photos onto an external hard drive and if your computer crashes they will still be safe because they are not stored on your computer. There is no excuse if you do not own one of these fantastic storage devices as you can buy a 1 TB external hard drive
for well under $100. That size hard drive can hold thousands of movie, songs, and more… It will store everything.
Shane
You can extend the wifi range of your wireless network if you experiment with various techniques. Because there are so many variables involved with consumer WiFi, you will need to experiment to determine what works best with your scenario, the structure of your home and the equipment you use. All of those things play a roll in the range of your network as well as its reliability. While we always try to find the cheapest solution, you may find additional equipment is necessary to achieve your wireless goals.
Centralize your router. This is one of the easiest things you can do to gain maximum coverage area for your WiFi network. Normal WiFi antennas emit signal outward in all directions. If your router is situated near a wall in the corner of the house, much of the signal is being absorbed by the wall behind it and leaking outside. If you place the router in the center of the living area, you will extend the range to all usable areas of your house.
Purchase a high gain antenna. If your router has a detachable antenna, you should be able to add a high gain antenna. These types of antennas are more directional than your standard antenna and allow you to focus your WiFi signal toward an access point or your computer. You can also make these, which are often referred to as “cantennas,” but you’ll probably have better results if you purchase one. High gain antennas are a great way to shoot the WiFi signal across a house or even a yard. But in order to achieve maximum range, you should have line of site to the target.
Add a WiFi Repeater. You can add a Wireless Access Point (WAP) to considerably extend the range of your wireless network. These are often referred to as “repeaters” or “extenders.” Depending on the size of your home or office, usually one repeater will be enough to cover the entire area. You will want to place the repeated as far as you can away from the router without losing more than twenty percent of the signal. The WAP will then reconstitute the signal pass it along to any devices within its range. Here is an example of a WiFi Extender Cisco-Linksys Wireless-G Range Expander WRE54G.
Change the wireless frequency in the router. If you do not get the results you want by moving the router, you can try changing the frequency the router uses to broadcast the signal. You only need to do this in the router itself, as the wireless devices should recognize the new signal automatically. All makes and models of routers have different menus, but all you need to do is login to your router through your web browser and look in the wireless settings. Experiment and see if changing the frequency helps.
Buy a new 802.11n router. The latest wireless standard is 802.11n. It uses Multiple-Input Multiple-Output channels and has nearly double the range of a wireless-g. Here is an example of a Wireless N router: Cisco-Linksys WRT160N Wireless-N Broadband Router
Cool article on replacing the HP Pavilion N5445 hard drive. I want to cover as many replacement tutorials possible on Pc Repair course to create a go to source online for many different models.
Source: http://www.edmartechguide.com/2010/04/how-to-replace-hard-disk-drive-andor.html
Also, added a video on how to replace a desktop pc hard drive
Unlike other laptops, HP Pavilion N5445 hard drive is located under the keyboard. So you will need to remove it first to be able to replace it. Here are the instructions to disassemble this HP Pavilion N5445 laptop: 1. Unplug your laptop's AC adapted and remove the battery.
2. Remove the two (2) screws from the back panel located in the center of each hinge.
3. Open the LCD screen as far back at it goes. Use a small flat screwdriver to remove the top cover.
4. Unscrew the 4 screws that holds the keyboard and gently lift the keyboard.
5. Now you should see the hardrive sitting in the center. Remove the screws (4 of them) on each corner of the hard drive which connect it to the motherboard. 
6. Gently lift or pull the hard drive by using the black ribbon at the top of the hard disk drive.
7. Once the hard drive is out, carefully remove the IDE connector that attached the hard disk drive to the motherboard. 
8. Turn the hard drive upside down and remove the 4 screws which connect the hard disk to its carrier. You can now replace the hard drive with a new one. Remember that this laptop uses IDE type of hard disk drive, so be careful in finding a replacement. SATA drive will not fit/work in this one.
If you're replacing the CD/DVD Rom drive/writer, just remove the screw holding it in place and slide it all the way through. You will need to push the two clips at the top to be able to remove it.
Enjoy! Shane
Some of the most common problems in PC Repair or Mac Repair, usually come from the battery or power supply. Now more than ever, people are using laptops to perform desktop software functions and tasks.
Video rendering, digital photo editing and many process and power consuming tasks such as these will drain your lap top battery dry.
Also, make sure that your charger cable is not being pinched or bent by any foreign objects.
If you have extreme pressure on the cord, it can also loosen the solder bead that secures the power supply chip to the motherboard. This could cause a fire and cost you a ton of money to repair.
Usually, when your battery is dead, it could be from a faulty charger relating to a faulty cable.
For a laptop battery to die completely is not very common and can set you back a couple hundred bucks.
Check out some cool stuff I ran across online that will help you preserve laptop battery life.
http://www.pctechbytes.com/2010/08/24/extend-the-life-of-a-laptop-battery/
Is Your Laptop Battery Dead?
Check out video below on a Lap top battery hack that could save you money!
Shane Hale
While searching through some forums the other night I came across this short clip and thought I would share it. This is a huge windows vulnerability!
On June 10, 2010, security researcher Tavis Ormandy publicly disclosed vulnerability in the Windows Help and Support Center service in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. This vulnerability would allow a remote hacker or exploit hosted on a web site to cause commands to be executed on a vulnerable computer. The way this disclosure was released has met with numerous criticisms from other security researchers, reporters, and companies. Since then there have been reports of exploits for this vulnerability being found on web sites, which has led Microsoft to create a tool that will disable the vulnerability.
Microsoft has released as temporary workaround that can be used to disable this vulnerability until an official Windows update is released. This fix can be downloaded from the Microsoft knowledge base article #2219475, and when run, will plug the vulnerability. It should be noted that Microsoft has stated that "Unregistering the HCP protocol will break all local, legitimate help links that use hcp://. For example, links in Control Panel may no longer work." In my testing with the fix, I have found no issues after running it. In my opinion, regardless of what may become broken, it is better than being vulnerable to an exploit that could allows commands to be executed on your computer without your permission.
Link: Microsoft Security Advisory (2219475)
Link: Fixit information for Windows Help Center Vulnerability
Come visit the new PC Repair Course ! Thanks Shane H!
When getting into repairing or using computers, learning keyboard shortcuts is a must for everyone to save time everyday! Check out these cool links about keyboard shortcuts. Coming soon Pc Repair Course !
Windows Key + R : start run prompt (XP)
Windows Key + E : start file explorer (XP)
Windows Key + M : minimize all windows (XP)
Windows Key + Shift + M : restore all windows (XP)
Ctrl + Shift + Esc : start task manager (XP)
Alt+Space : show current application's window controls (XP)
F2 : in explorer and office applications : change the text of an object
F4 : within Office Applications - Repeat last formatting option
F5 : refresh or reload page (explorer, browsers, etc.. )
F9 : Office applications : refresh selected text links (for TOC)
Tab : Advance to next field or clickable object
Shift+Tab : Advance to previous field or clickable object
Ctrl+Enter : In Excel : insert whitespace in this cell
In Email : send email
F7 : Spellcheck (MS Office, Email clients)
Ctrl+N : start new instance of program, MS Office: new document
Ctrl+S : Save
Ctrl+O : Open
Alt+(underlined character) : enable drop down menu with this character
Alt+F4 : close application in focus
ALt+PrintScrn : Take a screenshot of active application only and put into clipboard ( alt+printscr , win+r , mspaint , ctrl+v, ctrl+s saves your screenshot -- start to finish )
Menu button : brings up a menu on the current object you've selected -- your keyboard doesn't have it, lots do ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menu_key )
Ctrl+Alt+Del : bring up login screen, can be configured to bring up taskmgr
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/pictures-story/189-shortcuts-keyboard-tips.html
Hello my name is Shane Hale, I have been in the technology business for over 11 + years. I currently own a computer repair business and work as a network analyst for a major telecommunications company.
Hello my name is Shane Hale, I have been in the technology business for over 11 + years. I currently own a computer repair business and work as a network analyst for a major telecommunications company.
Theme created for Posterous by Obox
