How To Find And Fix 5 Common Hard Drives Failures

Most of us who have a computer for more than 5 years probably experienced the misfortune of having to handling a harddisk failure. But how can you handle such an issue? Well the solving of this problem generally involves the reason why you had the problem. As a general rule, if your computer disk light still flashes and at the same time the disk is not making any strange noises there is a good possibility for the data on it to be recoverable.

This is the most common failure and there are a few simple to follow steps that would make the disk readable again. Also you will be able afterwards to copy that data to a new disk. On the other hand there could also be some mechanical failures. This can be recognized by the fact that the disk is no longer turning or is making “funny” noises. Don’t get alarmed because even in this case the data on the disk can be recovered. The only difference is that you should take the device to a repair shop and also expect some great expenses.

But let’s take the issues one by one and see the reasons, the solutions and what you need to know about each and every case of hard disk failure. We will begin with the virus problem. There is a chance that the computer is faulty because of a virus. This could infect system files and make the computer to no longer recognize its hard drive. As a general rule there are a few messages that appear: “Non-system disk “or” Disk boot failure.” The solution would be to try and boot from the system CD or DVD bypasses the bad hard disk files. This also allows the user to check the hard drive for damage.

Another thing you need to know about this solution is that sometimes running the computer from CD or DVD also allows the operating system to repair files and so, solving the problem. Always remember that running the computer in this way offers great access to your data and also allows to make a back-up copy. And this happens even in the case of a hard drive problem. Furthermore, even for more serious problems like bad hard drive sectors that are unreadable you can save the data on them.

Moving further away, let’s see what you can do when the hard drives are so badly damaged that you are unable to boot up from external CDs or DVDs. This is the step where installing the drive as a slave drive allows the user to access his data. This method allows you to install the damaged hard drive in either another PC or even in the original computer. After the installation is complete, you should mount it in a spare drive bay. Remember that you are required a new hard drive and operating system.  Also remember that in some cases you are required to change a jumper setting on the damaged drive to make it a slave. After making the plug of the power cord and signal cables wait for the computer to boot from the main drive. Now you should be able to read the previous unreadable files and start making copies of them.

If by now the problem isn’t fixed check the connections. This should be made in the situation where the hard drive seems completely dead and also your operating system appears to not be able to recognize it. It is very common for computers to have multiple connections for more than one hard drive. A good solution is simply changing the existing power and signal cables of the failed drive, and plugging in one of the other connectors. And also this comes very useful when having old aged computers where the cords are damaged by the passing of time.

There are even a few disk utilities that could repair your hard drive. This is a solution for those times when the disk simply doesn’t boot. With these tools you are able to read the hard drive and make the data accessible again. The apps are general created by hard drive manufacturers such as Seagate and Western Digital. 

In the Seagate case there is such a utility at http://services.seagate.com/diysoftware.aspx. Western Digital manufacturers offer free diagnostic software that could solve your problems at http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?wdc_lang=en.

There is another case that you should take in consideration and this is thermal variation. You should always keep in mind that hard drives are mechanical devices after all, that have bearings and joints. And because there are mechanical parts there is always the possibility of them becoming stuck in older, aged drives. As a general rule for all devices, thermal variations are expanding and contracting metals because of the temperature. Although you will find this a little strange, placing the hard drive in a cold compartment, like a freezer for example could be the solution you are looking for.

If none of the presented above cases match your problem then the simplest and most secure option would be to take your device to a local computer repair shore. This doesn’t 100% guarantee the data will be recovered, but will offer on the other hand a professional look for the problem. In most cases it can be fixed with the right equipment and knowledge.

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Microsoft Releases Windows Update To Fix Duqu Critical Security Hole

You probably remember the Stuxnet worm which infected tens of thousands IP addresses in Iran last year. It also infected other countries such as Pakistan, India and Indonesia, but the state of Iran has suffered the most because the countries nuclear capabilities were damaged.

Well, several weeks ago the multi-vector network attack called Duku drawn the attention because it was very similar to the Stuxnet worm. Because the code of Duqu resembled so much with the one of Stuxnet a lot of security software classified it as being Stuxnet. Stuxnet used four zero-day exploits which made it very powerful at that time, though they became old and inoffensive now. The problem was that Duqu had its own zero-day exploit. Duqu can be very powerful to Windows-based systems because even if it progressed a lot in the past few years, it still has its flaws.

Fortunately, Microsoft announced a temporary fix in all versions of Windows keep Duqu from infected the computer like Stuxnet did. The Microsoft officials stated that this fix is very important and needed to be done in time because if the problem went unfixed, the affected computers will be attacked. In other words, those who are using Duku could get inside and take control of any computer (that uses Windows) that is not protected.

The researchers from CrySyS identified an installer of the computer worm and they were surprised to find out that it exploited a Windows vulnerability that was unknown to them until now. The problem was found in the Win32k TrueType font parsing engine, which is a component of all Windows versions including Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008. The researchers discovered that the exploit can be distributed by a vicious MS Word document. The attacker choose his target sends the document using the email service and when the receiver opens the doc the attack is launched.

Microsoft has found a quick fix which is available for download and can be applied. But this is just a temporarily solution as a permanent one will be found in the patches that the software giant is releasing on a regular basis. Duqu is a critical Windows flaw that appeared at the beginning of September for the first time. Symantec, one of the most important computer security developer, explained that even Duqu is meant for a distinct purpose, it is very similar to Stuxnet.

While Stuxnet was meant for narrower targets like those designed to manage critical infrastructure in establishments such as the nuclear reactor in Iran, it seems that Duqu has been created to attack the whole population that has computers with Windows as the operating system and that connects to the internet.

The workarounds of Microsoft consist of several lines of code that can be run at an administrative command prompt. Microsoft stated that the users who install the workarounds might have problems with some programs which rely on embedded font technology. Further, the workarounds can be applied to Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 as to other Windows Server products.

The Microsoft advisory warned the Windows-based computers owners that an attacker that exploits the present vulnerability has the possibility to run arbitrary code in kernel mode. Also, the same attacker could mess with your system by installing various programs, view and delete your files, or create brand new accounts on which he would have full user rights.

Even if Microsoft promises to fix the problem related to the Duku multi-vector network attack, it seems like they can’t do it in time. Some say that it could take weeks. Costin Raiu who is director at the Kaspersky Lab company said that in order to fix the problem the guys at Microsoft have to modify the kernel code which is nothing easy. Also, testing the patches after they’ve been modified could take a while.

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How to Make Password Protected ZIP Files using WinRAR

Winrar is a popular archive management software that can be used to open or create archive (rar,zip etc) files.There are lot of freeware softwares like Axcrypt,Disguise Folders that can encrypt your files and password protect them.If you have winrar installed in your pc then you can use its inbuilt password protection feature

How To make Password Protected ZIP Files using WinRAR:-

• Right click on the folder/file which has to be  Password Protected and select ADD to Archive option.

• From the pop up window select the Advanced Tab.
• Now click on the Set Password.

• Enter and Verify your Password (Use both Alphabets and Numeric words to make a strong Password).

• Now a new compressed file will be generated at the same location of your original file

Now whenever somebody will try to open or extract the files in archive it will ask for the password.

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Hack brings down Linux websites

A number of Linux websites, including LinuxFoundation.org and Linux.com, have been pulled offline after a security breach.

The breach is believed to be related to the hack of the Kernel.org website that is home to the Linux Project, nearly two weeks ago.

In a holding message on its website, the Linux Foundation said that it had discovered a security breach on Sept. 8, which led to its taking down the Linux websites and their subdomains for maintenance.

The Linux Foundation infrastructure also supports services such as Open Printing and Linux Mark. However, it does not house the Linux kernel or its code repositories.

"The Linux Foundation made this decision in the interest of extreme caution and security best practices.

"We believe this breach was connected to the intrusion on kernel.org," the statement on Linux Foundation said.

While the Linux Foundation is restoring services, it warned users that their passwords may be compromised, and advised them to change them urgently:

"As with any intrusion and as a matter of caution, you should consider the passwords and SSH keys that you have used on these sites compromised. If you have reused these passwords on other sites, please change them immediately."

The foundation added that it is auditing all its systems, and will provide an updated statement when it has more information.

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Can the x86 Just Keep Going?

 In an industry known for its planned obsolescence, few technologies have lasted three decades and continue to grow more powerful with each passing year. The few that are out there, like DRAM and Motorola's 68000 processor, are chip-based.
Add to that list the x86 architecture, which stands alone in the broader computer market now that Sun Microsystems' Sparc processor is on life support. There have been many attempts to knock off the x86, from Sparc to HP's PA-RISC to SGI's MIPS to DEC's Alpha. But resistance proved futile; many PA-RISC and Alpha engineers now work for Intel on the Itanium, which was also supposed to retire x86. Intel's only real competitor any more is another x86 company, AMD (NYSE: AMD).
Meanwhile, the x86 keeps humming along; it now powers everything from the fastest supercomputers on Earth down to handheld music and Internet devices and PCs and servers in between. Soon it will be in phones. Name another architecture that spans eight-core processors to smart phones.
Still, Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) itself has tried to put the x86 out to pasture more than once and couldn't do it. There was the iAPX-432 in the 1980s, the i860 in the early 1990s and then Itanium.
"If you were going to bet on an architecture that would be around in 20 years, which would you pick? I could think of only two, the IBM mainframe, which has been around 45 years and counting, and x86. All these other guys came and went," said Martin Reynolds, research vice president and fellow with Gartner.
The reason, he argues, is that x86 as an instruction set is mature and fully baked. Anything that comes along is in addition to what is already there, but there is no changing of the fundamentals. This helps maintain backwards compatibility that would in theory allow Windows 95 to run on a Core 2 Quad machine and have more driver problems than instruction problems.
"When we were debating multi-core internally, all the focus seemed to be on rewriting these apps and I said to management, 'stop. What you should assume is no apps will be rewritten. They simply have to run.' What we're all about is making sure the new apps take advantage of this capability without a loss of compatibility," said Intel CTO Justin Rattner.
Preserving that legacy was Intel's smartest move, argued the analysts. "They are changing x86 architecture, but when they do it's always additive and always backwards compatible," Reynolds told InternetNews.com. "Every x86 has a different implementation. It may have a different microarchitecture but it has the same instruction set."
Because x86 is a cumulative technology that keeps the old along with adding new, this allows it to keep the old while adding new technologies. It has created a scenario where x86 can literally go on forever, adding enhancements while supporting its legacy, until something knocks it off the perch. Many have tried.

Taking a RISC

Rattner said the big change in the x86 was the advent of the Pentium Pro in 1996.
"Up to that point, it was all about instruction set architecture. We were all arguing instruction set architecture. Patterson and Hennessy were arguing for RISC, there was the ACE initiative and RISC is going to blow everything out of the water," Rattner, who is also a senior fellow at Intel, told InternetNews.com.
David Patterson is a computer scientist at the University of California at Berkeley who created the RISC design and authored a number of seminal books on computer architecture with John Hennessey, a computer engineering professor and now president of Stanford University. Both were advocates of the RISC architecture taking over from complex instruction set computer (CISC) processors like x86.
"Pentium Pro said I can deliver the performance of a RISC architecture and in some sense the simplicity of a RISC architecture and maintain compatibility with this growing body of legacy code," Rattner added.
Rattner thinks the x86 architecture has changed from a hardware structure to something more akin to an application programming interface. "It evolves, just like the Windows API evolves, the Mac OS API evolves. APIs are a little more robust here than the media formats," he said.
The RISC side of the argument fell short where it counted: it didn't produce the software needed to run that nifty processor, notes Tony Massimini, chief of technology with Semico Research.
"The RISC guys underestimated that Intel could continue to get performance out of the x86 and I don't think anyone really focused enough on the software," he told InternetNews.com. "They all said 'here's great hardware,' and I said 'ok, where's the OS? Where's the apps?' That was the question I kept asking in '94, '95 and there was never a good answer."
Since then, he said, x86 has steadily grown as a high performance processor and the CISC vs. RISC war has died off as x86 is pretty much the only major architecture for computing. "I can't tell you the last time I heard someone argue for or debated someone that one instruction set architecture is better than another," said Rattner. The x86 will be around "until somebody proves otherwise. The burden of proof is on somebody else to come along and demonstrably prove otherwise."
So far no one has, and Reynolds figures no one will. "It can go on in perpetuity. People don't write in x86 code. There was a time, but now they write in C or Java that something else translates to x86," he said.
Massimini doubts anyone will knock x86 off its perch, either. "Never say never in this business but right now you would have to invest so much it would be a very difficult task," he said.

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How To Repair Slow Computers

Sometimes computers are very slow due to overloading of files and programs that leads to low hard disk space. It can also be slow because of spyware viruses and corrupt OS. There are so many solutions and steps that can be used to repair slow computer to reduce the demand of resources. There are more than ten ways that can help you solve this computer problem. You should always have a back up in your computer to make sure that your documents are safe. This is a perfect way to ensure that you do not loose documents after you engage the machinery to revive your computer.

If your computer is slow when performing tasks then it, means that you need to update your windows regularly. Automatic updates secure the computer from any threat originating from external mass storage devices like flash disks or CDs. Spyware is a small program that records information about the internet activity and relays it back to the users. By using spyware software to repair slow computer you can detect the sudden decrease in performance when there is a mar law infection and any spy wares. Viruses are small computer programs that you get mostly when downloading some of the applications and programs.

These viruses slow down your computer and most of the times it tends to crash. To prevent this you need to have a computer antivirus and it should be always updated at all times. The viruses also contribute to the slowdown and as a result, you have to be alert in case of any. The other solution to repair slow computer is the registry repair. The register is like a directory of all the computer programs and can be reorganized and cleaned up by removing all the unwanted files. This tends to increase your computer speed if it was the only cause of slowness.

You should make sure there is only one security suite by always removing one suite before installing the other. Turning off the unnecessary programs can also help to increase the speed. The security suite protects your computer and data and most of all your identity thus speeding up the computer. By use of a firewall protection to repair slow computer prevents any unauthorized data from been sent or received thus speeding the computer. The computer can also be slowed down by keeping many useless files or the programs that are not being used.

Removing the unwanted programs can increase the speed of your computer because the creation of space in the drive allows data execution to be faster. The computer can be slow with delay due to temporary and unnecessary files from your hard drive. Removing them can help in speeding up the computer. you can repair slow computer and saves time by running the disk cleanup on your computer. The disk defragmentation is the other way of speeding up the computer and preventing the data from being broken into pieces and making it harder to retrieve and update them. This makes it easy to save the documents and update them regularly

Other solutions of repairing slow computer include the system recovery, complete system restoring, free utility, removal of hardware that is old and finally checking the size of your memory. All these tips help to repair slow computer and mostly the fan and the heat sink requires regular cleaning. Turning off glitters helps speed up the computer thus reducing the consumption of charge being consumed. Avoid using shortcuts because they can have adverse effects on your computer. Consulting an expert can also be beneficial because there are faster tips that can revive your computer.

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Windows 8 Start Menu Shows Metro User Interface Creeping In

Another day, another Windows 8 screenshot exposed by Microsoft. This time, the company has revealed a new start menu that sports the "Metro" user interface found in Windows Phones and elsewhere in Windows 8.

The start menu appeared in a video that mostly focused on Windows 8's treatment of ISO and VHD files, as Engadget noted. In the menu, options for "search," "share," "devices" and "settings" are clad in the white Metro font on a black background, while the rest of the menu uses the traditional black-on-white look of Windows 7.

The contrast between these two styles is striking -- and an eyesore, in my opinion -- and underscores how challenging it'll be for Microsoft to merge its new Metro interface with the classic look. Microsoft should either commit more fully to Metro in the desktop version of Windows 8 or scale it back.

Start screen aside, the Metro UI also appears in Windows 8's welcome screen, as revealed in April. And of course, Windows 8's tablet interface is fully Metrofied (for lack of a better term), with big rectangular grids of information spread across the screen.

Microsoft has been slowly peeling back the layers of Windows 8 on its Building Windows 8 blog, showing off a revamped Windows Explorer and improvements to file transfers, among other tidbits. Many more Windows 8 details are expected at Microsoft's Build conference this month.

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