Data Backup Filter: I have about 6TB (yes TB, not GB) of data. I need to back it up BEFORE it crashes. I also need a good way to share it on the network. How can I do this? Details within... [more inside]
posted on Jul 8, 2008 - 28 answers
Can anyone help with a program to show total drive space in a PC across multiple drives? [more inside]
posted on Mar 30, 2008 - 4 answers 
I think I'm finally switching to Ubuntu on my main machine. I have two 160GB external drives, currently both with NTFS, currently mirrored (by software, not a RAID). With what and how should I format/use these guys? [more inside]
posted on Mar 14, 2008 - 8 answers
What's the best way to erase my hard drive for resale if I don't have original OS reinstall CDs to work with? [more inside]
posted on Feb 29, 2008 - 13 answers
How to recover from sync-ing a RAID 1 the wrong way?
[more inside]
posted on Feb 6, 2008 - 11 answers
How do I get my PC to recognize my Apple-formatted external hard drive? [more inside]
posted on Jul 16, 2007 - 5 answers
So it's come to this - I see no other option than to ask a "help me fix my PC" question. After some troubleshooting the STOP errors seem to have been resolved, XP now boots successfully but is excruciating slow to the point of being unusable. Details and specs below the fold. [more inside]
posted on Mar 4, 2007 - 25 answers
Is there a way to get songs off of a Mac-formatted iPod in Windows? [more inside]
posted on Feb 24, 2007 - 8 answers
Is it possible for Windows 2000/XP (or more properly, an NTFS disk volume) to "collapse" under the weight of too many files? [more inside]
posted on Feb 1, 2007 - 12 answers
Could turning on hard drive compression actually speed up access on my laptop? [more inside]
posted on Nov 25, 2006 - 10 answers
The new hard drive I installed on my XP machine has been having problems, and I think the problem could be directly related to a tock! tock! sound that something is making... [more inside]
posted on Nov 10, 2006 - 6 answers
TechSupportFilter: having problems with an ata harddrive [more inside]
posted on Aug 23, 2006 - 9 answers
How can I watch what is being written to my hard-drive? [more inside]
posted on May 31, 2006 - 4 answers
iPod newbie on Windows XP needs help... [more inside]
posted on Jan 5, 2006 - 10 answers
My laptop's hard drive is reaching capacity. How can I install a larger hard drive without having to buy a new version of Win XP Pro (which was pre-installed on the laptop when I bought it, and IBM will no longer send me a CD-ROM version of the OS at a reasonable price, since the machine is long out of warranty).
If buying a new version of XP is the only option, how do I install it on the new hard drive (or will the laptop just boot to the installation CD-ROM if there's no OS installed when the power is turned on?)
posted on Dec 27, 2005 - 16 answers
please help a mac user format a hard drive using windows. [more inside]
posted on Sep 9, 2005 - 2 answers
I just received a new Acer laptop. The hard drive is 100GB, but it arrived divided into two partitions. According to the Windows XP Professional disk management window, the drive is divided as follows ... [more inside]
posted on Aug 11, 2005 - 22 answers
Help me recover data off a (seemingly) dead laptop hard drive. [more inside]
posted on Aug 2, 2005 - 5 answers
The hard drive on my fiancee's Windows machine has died, with our wedding plans, five weeks prior to our wedding. I've managed to duplicate the drive (with Unix's dd), though not without errors severe enough to prevent me from booting it. Now what? [more inside]
posted on Jul 28, 2005 - 7 answers
My girlfriend has a fairly new Dell laptop that has suddenly developed a few problems. [more inside]
posted on Apr 24, 2005 - 12 answers
Earlier yesterday, I was about to translate into SVCD the newest episode of Doctor Who for my roommate, when I was simply unable to find the file. My media folder only shows files and folders from 0-AL, and nothing else. The funny thing is that the other files have not been deleted. When I have a direct link to a file, it plays perfectly. A direct link to a folder displays all the contents, but the folder itself doesn't appear in the root. Some investigation showed that there's a couple of bad sectors on the disk. Any suggestions so that I can get the main directory back, if only to make a backup of everything in case of a possible crash? [more inside]
posted on Apr 18, 2005 - 6 answers
Locally mounting physical Mac OS X drives/volumes in a Windows machine? [more inside]
posted on Mar 30, 2005 - 4 answers
SoftwareRAID0AndCan'tLogInToWindowsXPFilter: My userinit.exe is gone after a routine Windows update, and I can't use the recovery console or a boot disk to access my hard drives [+]
posted on Feb 14, 2005 - 8 answers
I've just bought a Lacie 160 gigabyte firewire drive. It's to be plugged into a Windows XP machine, but also to be written to and read by a Mac OSX machine. I want to format it with the FAT32 file system, but Windows won't let me. Is there a way to force the drive to format as FAT32? [More inside...]
posted on Oct 28, 2004 - 6 answers
WindowsXP, 250 gig shared backup hard drive, and a lab full of people with sensitive information that needs to be backed up on said drive but shouldn't be accessible by anyone other than the user who put it there. Security is giving me fits and I'd appreciate some helpful advice. [more gory details inside]
posted on Sep 13, 2004 - 6 answers
I have a new 160 gig HD that I partitioned into two drives. One of the partitions is exclusively for mp3s. Unfortunately, when I open the drive, XP treats it as a "My Pictures" folder. How do I change it to a "My Music" folder? Ordinarily, I'd go Properties>Customize, but when I go Properties on the root folder, I get hard drive properties. (General / Tools / Hardware / etc.)
posted on Aug 28, 2004 - 3 answers
Having trouble setting up 2 SATA hard drives as a stripe set in WinXP Pro. (more inside)
posted on Aug 23, 2004 - 5 answers
Yet another boring tech question: my main hard drive died on me. It's a Seagate, so I ran their diagnostic tool and it tells me I have 2 critical structure errors. What does this mean? Is there a way to fix it, or do I have to reformat, or worse, toss it out? Vielen Dank!
posted on Aug 20, 2004 - 9 answers
IDE hard drive conundrum: "Error loading OS" (more inside)
posted on Jul 6, 2004 - 14 answers
Would installing a new (smallish) hard drive in my machine and dedicating it solely to the Windows swap file (i.e., instead of having it on C:) improve performance?
posted on Jun 26, 2004 - 13 answers
Can I access a Windows 2000 formatted hard drive in an external hard drive enclosure with an Apple computer? [m-to-the-i]
posted on May 25, 2004 - 9 answers
I just did a full WinXP reinstall. In the process, I took an 80 gig drive which was partitioned to 10/30/40 gig partitions and repartitioned it to 10/10/20/15/25 partitions. Unfortunately, that 40 gig partition held my "My Documents" holding a bunch of Word documents spanning the years and a lot of digital photos that are irreplaceable.
I've tried a few file recovery programs with limited success (recovered around 20% of my files) however I think the problem is the repartitions have split a lot of the files across two or more partitions. Is there a way I can recombine these partitions and try the file recovery programs again??
posted on Apr 21, 2004 - 3 answers
I'm a Mac head formatting a partition on my Windows 2000 Prof box - What's the difference between NTFS and Fat32? Which should I choose?
posted on Mar 12, 2004 - 8 answers
I have 100GB and 160GB hard drives in my XP computer. I tried using Norton Ghost to move the 100GB info to my latter drive, and it worked but with serious partition errors (windows not booting). I then moved a large amount of data to my 160, the 100 not really having changed. Everything in windows functions, but when I use Partition Magic 8 I get the following error: "Disk 1 appears to have partitions created using a different drive geometry (255h 63s original, 240h 63 current) You should back up...." etcetera. More inside.
posted on Mar 7, 2004 - 3 answers
Windows XP question... My parents computer is set up that most items are stored on a 20 GB harddrive (or possibly a partition- listed as c:) while they have 100 GB available on d:... When I install software, is it perfectly acceptable to run it off the D drive, and is there a way to switch the set up so most items save to the d drive?
posted on Feb 23, 2004 - 9 answers
I have a WinXp machine with three hard drives, each one holding 100GB. I'm researching backup alternatives, and there are tons these days (tape drives, external firewire drives, jazz drives, etc.). I'd like to find a solution that strikes a nice balance between ease of use, cost and durability. Any suggestions?
posted on Jan 8, 2004 - 8 answers
