Solid state hybrid drives or SSHDs are a combination of a traditional Hard Disk Drive with a small amount of SSD storage built into one Hybrid enclosure. The partnership of SSD, for quick access data, and HDD, for long term inexpensive storage, means that users of SSHDs have the best of both worlds when it […]
Category: Hardware
RAID (redundant array of independent disks)
RAID (redundant array of independent disks; originally redundant array of inexpensive disks) provides a way of storing the same data in different places (thus, redundantly) on multiple hard disks (though not all RAID levels provide redundancy). By placing data on multiple disks, input/output (I/O) operations can overlap in a balanced way, improving performance. Since multiple […]
How to See if Your Hard Drive is Dying with S.M.A.R.T.
Hard drives use S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) to gauge their own reliability and determine if they’re failing. You can view your hard drive’s S.M.A.R.T. data and see if it has started to develop problems. Unfortunately, Windows doesn’t have an easy-to-use built-in tool that shows your hard disk’s S.M.A.R.T. data. We will need a […]
How to Resize Online Virtual Machine Hard Disks in Hyper-V
Starting with Windows Server 2012 R2, it is possible to re-size a Virtual Hard Disk for a running Virtual Machine on Hyper-V! It was not possible to do so before for an online Virtual Machine running on Windows Server 2012 and earlier Hyper-V versions. Let’s have a look at some of the benefits this feature offers and […]
What is a MAC Address?
Whether you work in a wired network office or a wireless one, one thing is common for both environments: It takes both network software and hardware (cables, routers, etc.) to transfer data from your computer to another—or from a computer thousands of miles away to yours. And in the end, to get the data you […]
Driverquery
The driverquery command generates a list of all hardware drivers installed in Windows. It’s good for giving you a report about installed drivers that you can save for later reference or for investigating the version number of a currently installed driver so that you can make a better decision should you be thinking of updating. […]
Check Disk / chkdsk
The chkdsk or “Check Disk” utility is used in Windows to scan through your entire hard drive and find problems… it’s like a lot like doing inventory… it’s boring, but it has to be done sometimes. I recommend that you run through a check disk every month or two. Open up Computer and then right-click […]