Don’t understand PC drive file and folder organization?

You may remember my last post about finding your lost downloads. Well I decided there should be a follow up post about drive hierarchy and how Windows organizes files and directories (now called folders) in your PC.

First let’s start by imagining all these drives together as being one big expandable file cabinet. Each drawer represents a drive. And this cabinet can have anywhere from 2 to 26 drawers depending on the system and the drawers can be very, very deep. The drawer’s width will depend on the size of the drive, the larger the drive, the wider the drawer, and more rows of files and folders it can have.

Now let’s imagine the (directories) folders are not standard folders, they have super expandable bottoms, and they can expand quite a bit. Each folder can hold many other folders and files inside of it. And each sub-folder can hold many other sub-folders and files inside of it, and so forth. It may seem as though they can expand forever holding an unlimited amount of sub-folder and files, but there is a limit, it’s just so large that it seems like it.

Now I need to let you know that there are many possible types of drives (drawers) that could live in your PC (or file cabinet). Windows organizes the drives by assigning each drive a letter. And they usually go something like this:

A:\ The old Floppy Drive, or even an old Zip Drive, or an old Tape Drive.

B: \ Second Floppy Drive (Whether there is a physical second floppy drive or not)

C: \ The primary Hard-Drive (The main drive that holds windows and your personal files)

D: \ Secondary Hard-Drive (Usually just additional storage, if none, then it be assigned to the Optical Drive)

E: \ The Optical Drive (CD-Rom/DVD-Rom, Readers or Writers)

F: \ Second Optical Drive, External USB Hard-Drive, or USB Flash Drive, and so forth.

G:\ And so on, and so on…

The drive letters can go all the way up to Z, although you will probably never see that many drives in one system. Today’s computers generally do not have floppy, zip or tape drives anymore, so you really don’t need to worry about the A and B drives anymore.

Now if you were to open the “My Computer” Icon, Windows will display a list of the drives currently installed in the computer. When you first open one of the drives (well say C) it will show you what we call the “Root” of the drive. For the use of our analogy of the file cabinet, imagine when you first open the C: drawer. Now, each folder you see when you first open a drive represents a new row in our very wide cabinet drawer. If you see any files setting there not inside of a folder, just imagine that they are sitting in a slot front of all the rows. We try not to keep files there, other wise it might become very messy. When you first buy a computer, you will see some files there, they have to remain there. They are important files that the computer needs to run properly, and sometimes some other programs may stick some files there as well, but for the most part you should only see a few.

They folders and files you see there will be listed in alphabetical order. On a new computer you should see “Documents and Settings”, “Program Files”, and “Windows”. There are also some special Hidden (invisible) files and folders that you should not mess with. In reverse order, the “Windows” folder is where the majority of the system files are that windows uses to run the computer. The “Program Files” folder is where all of the programs you install will put there folders and files they need to run. The “Documents and Settings” folder is where all your Personal Files and Personal Settings are kept.

For the most part, you can get to most of your personal files my clicking on the “My Documents” icon in the start menu, and to most of your personal settings by going to the control panel.

Now when it comes to downloads from the internet, most of the time they will download to the “My Documents” folder, or to a sub-folder inside of the “My Documents” folder sometimes called “Downloads”. My self I have a secondary hard-drive in my system that I keep all of my downloads on. I created a folder on the root of the D drive called “Downloads”. I organize this folder and all of the files by making use of sub-folders, and sub-sub-folders. For instance, I have a sub-folder inside the “Downloads” folder called “Games”. I have another sub-folder inside the “Games” folder called “Puzzle Games”, and I have yet another sub-folder inside the “Puzzle Games” folder called “Chuzzle”. I have another folder next to the “Chuzzle” folder named “Bejewelled”, And so forth. Now if I want to install the puzzle game named Chuzzle and I have already downloaded it, then I will find it using the following method:

1) Click on the “My Computer” Icon.

2) Click on the “D” Drive

3) Click on the “Downloads” Folder

4) Click on the “Games” Folder

5) Click on the “Puzzle Games” Folder

6) Click on the “Chuzzle” Folder

7) Click on the “Chuzzle Installer” File (Icon)

It would then open up and begin to install Chuzzle for me.

You can organize you Personal Documents in much the same way. As a matter a fact, Windows has already begun the process for you. If you click on the “My Documents” icon in the “Start Menu” or on the Desktop, it will open the “My Documents” Folder for you. You should notice some sub-folders already in place. The “My Music”, “My Pictures”, and “My Videos” folder were created by windows just for you. There use is obvious. Now, a lot of the programs you use will want to save your files directly in to the “My documents” folder without any sub-folders, depending on the program.

Let’s say for instance you use Microsoft Word a lot. You use it to create resumes for friends and family. Well, they do tend to change and alter over time right, and the resume needs to be a little different depending on the field of work you are applying for. So then you should have a sub-folder inside the “My Documents” folder called “Resumes”. Now if all you had were just a couple, you could jut same them all right there in the “Resumes” folder, no further organization needed. If you had quite a few, then you may want to categorize, maybe by name of the person. So then you would have some sub-folders with people’s names. So maybe you have a sub-folder named “Dave Smith” and another called “Jody Belkawitz” and another “Larry Foster”. Now let’s say that Larry is very versed in a number of fields. You may want to sub categorize his folder sub folders by trade name. So then you may have sub-folders inside the “Larry Foster” folder called “Sales”, “Management”, and “Training”.

So if Larry came over and asked you to print out some of his Sales Resumes, you would find it by using the following method:

1) Click on the “My Document” icon

2) Click on the “Resumes” folder

3) Click on the “Larry Foster” folder

4) Click on the “Management” folder

Now choose the appropriate resume file and open it up to print it out for him.

Now you have a few different ways to organize. You can do it after the fact, or on the fly.

Using the resumes example, let’s say that you have accumulated 20 or so resumes in your “Resumes” folder and have not organized them as of yet. So with the “Resume” folder open, click on the “File” menu button on the top of the window, then choose “New” then choose “Folder”. It will instantly create a new folder inside the “Resume” folder ready for you to name it “Dave Smith” or what ever. Now you can click and drag each one of Dave’s resumes onto the “Dave Smith” folder to move his resumes into it.

Now lets say that you have done that and that’s it right this second. But you still have Jodies resume open and have not yet saved it. Go back to your Microsoft Word program and click on the File menu button on the top of the window and choose “Save As”. Now when it comes up to save the file it should already be open to the “My Documents” folder wanting to save it there. Click on the “Resumes” folder, now since your in the middle of organizing the “Resumes folder, you don’t want to just drop it there, instead you click on the little icon on the top of the “Save As” box called “Create New Folder” and it will instantly create a new folder ready for you to name it, so call it “Jody Belkawitz” then hit the enter key for it to save the folder name and open the folder for you, then you can change the name of the file to match what you need it to be, then click on the “Save” button.

Now you have learned the basics of Drive Hierarchy, how to find and organize your files and folders. I hope this helps at least a little.

Where did my download go?

I’ve been asked this question more times than I can count. “I can’t find my download that I spent hours waiting on to finish. How do I find it again?” Well there are many ways that I can answer this. The simplest one is to remember where you saved it, but I know that’s not always possible. So instead what I’m going to do is list a few of the simplest methods to use to keep track of and find your downloads.

First of all, know your browser. Your browser is the program you use to surf the web, whether it be (IE) Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome, AOL and the like. Every browser has some method of handling your downloads using a built in download manager. Throughout the different versions of each browser, there download managers have changed from a little bit to a lot, and the download managers can vary from browser to browser. But for the most part there are two basic methods to use it.

When you click on a download link it will do one of two things

1) It will just save the file in a standard location for all of your downloads (Usually in the My Documents folder, or a downloads folder inside the My Documents folder.)

2) It will ask you where to save the file. If you just click the save button it will save the file in the last location you saved a download to.

Depending on how your browser is configured in the options, you can do one of four things to find your download.

1) If it’s configured for option 1 above simply look in you’re My Documents folder.

2) If its not there than you can use the file search tool provided by your operating system.

3) Or you can open the browser’s options panel and there should be a spot in there to tell it where to save downloads to, Simply look there to find out where your downloads being saved to.

4) If it’s configured for option 2 you can go back to the website you got the download from and click on the link again, this time pay attention to where it wants to save the file and just don’t click on the save button and then open that folder that it wanted to save to, and your file should be there.

Some browsers like FireFox, you can click on the “Tools” menu button on the top of the browser window and then choose “Downloads” to open up the list of resent downloads and then you can right click on the file and choose “open containing folder”.

I hope that this was helpful.

Got a Palm Pre? A lot of people have lost there contacts, dont loose yours.

The new Palm Pre is a great phone, but it seems that Palm has an issue being able to restore contacts from a re-sync after replacing a broken or defective Pre.

The first thing I would suggest is to perform your own backup to gmail or exchange and not rely only on the built in Palm sync feature. Also update your phones software and firmware and then perform a backup.

The reason the data is being wiped when they replace a Pre is due to the firmware version on the two devices differ. If you already have a broken Pre and are getting a replacement, here is what you need to do:

This procedure will provide a method of updating the replacement webOS phone to the latest version of software before signing in to restore your Palm profile. Follow the steps below:


1. Ensure that the replacement phone is activated by your wireless service provider with voice and data provisioning.

2. Power on the replacement phone by pressing and holding the power key. After the phone boots, select “Create New Profile.”

3. Create a fake/”dummy” Palm profile using the following format (where x should be any random character) for your email address: xxxxxx@updatewebos.com . Create a password of your choosing to associate with this fake email address.

4. After the phone finishes the setup process, you will be brought to card view. If available and if your phone supports it, open the connections menu, and try to connect to Wi-Fi. If you cannot, ensure that you see Ev in the upper right hand corner of your screen. The data connection will be used to download a software update.

5. Ensure that your battery is charged above 30%. If it is charged below 30%, please charge your phone until it reaches 30% or replace the battery.

6. Go to Launcher > Updates

7. If an Update is available, download and install the update. If no update is available, continue to step 7

8. Go to Launcher > Device Info

9. Confirm that software version is webOS 1.3.1 or higher. If the software version is not 1.3.1 or higher, use webOS doctor (visit http://palm.com/rom), or check for an Update again in the Updates app.

10. Go to Device Info > Resets

11. Tap Full Erase twice

12. Your phone is now updated to the latest version of webOS, and ready to accept a new Palm profile.

13. Ensure the phone has a strong Ev data connection

14. Select “Sign In To My Profile.”

15. Enter your personal Palm profile email address and password (not the “dummy” profile setup in step 2). Your Palm profile will now restore on to the replacement phone using the latest version of WebOS.

DONE! No data loss!

So what the heck is SSD any way?

I write these articles when I've been asked more than a few times about a particular subject in the tech field. It still never ceases to amaze me when someone asks me about things I think of as common knowledge, but then I remind myself that I'm the one who works in the tech field, not everyone else. Which is why I started this blog to begin with. That being said, lets move on to this article.

You may recall my previous post about Flash (or Thumb) Drives. That memory technology is the leading reason why we even have this great new device. It's read and write speed capabilities, it's ease of use, and it's long term storage capabilities all play a big roll in SSD technology.

SSD stands for Solid-State Disk. Essentially its a newfangled modern version of a computer hard-drive. Its called Solid-State because it has no moving parts. The term SSD has been adopted to distinguish solid-state electronics from electromechanical devices. Since there are no moving parts, solid-state drives are less fragile than regular traditional hard disks and are also silent (unless a cooling fan is used).

There was a few previous versions of SSD's that I should point out. Basically it was a device that used regular everyday computer RAM chips to create a RAM Disk. It would combine all of the total ram chips sizes to create one large storage unit and it would emulate a hard-drive interface to the computer. They were nice because using SDRAM or DDR Ram is extremely fast compared to Flash memory. There are a few drawbacks to this type of SSD though. The biggest one is that because its not flash memory, once the chips loose power, everything that was stored on it is lost, making it completely useless for long term storage. Another is its total capacity is greatly limited. If the largest ram chips on the market are 2gb and there are only 4 slots on the board, then the total drive size will only be 8gb, not a very large drive. Great for the operating systems virtual memory space, but not for data storage. These have been used mostly by specialized computer needs such as enterprise level servers and military systems that move large amounts of data.

The SSD's that is all the rage now is based on Flash memory. Not quite as fast as the volatile memory in RAM chips, but still much faster than its mechanical counterpart. Flash based SSD's have a faster start-up because no spin-up is required. They have fast random access time because there is no read/write head. They have Consistent read performance because physical location of data is irrelevant for SSDs, which also means that file fragmentation has negligible effect. Because they have no moving parts, they are quiet and have a high mechanical reliability, as the lack of moving parts almost eliminates the risk of "mechanical" failure. They have Ability to endure extreme shock, high altitude, vibration and extremes of temperature, lower power consumption, and create less heat, this makes them useful for laptops, mobile computers, and devices that operate in extreme conditions.

On the down side, SSD's are more expensive per GB than traditional hard-drives, but the price of flash memory is dropping drastically making them more affordable to the consumer market. There capacity levels are lower than traditional hard-drives, but flash memory maximum capacities are increasing as fast as the prices are dropping. The physical size of the SSD gets larger as the capacity get larger, so the higher capacity SSD drives are physically larger then traditional hard-drives of the same volume. But I predict that they will overcome this size issue soon as they had to many times in the past with traditional hard-drives.

No your computers NOT trying to hitch a ride with a USB Thumb Drive!

I cannot believe it. I would have thought that everyone would know all about these handy little gadgets by now, but I still keep getting asked what a USB Flash (or Thumb) Drive is, whats it for, and why do I need one. Hence the reason for this post in the "Todays Technology info for those Not in the Know" blog.


Well first a little background info.

The term "Thumb Drive" derives from the first Flash Drive made by a Singapore company back in 2000 who dubbed it the "Thumb Drive", and the name stuck for a while. IBM was really the first company to market in the US the same year with its Flash Drive dubbed "DiskOnKey".

I'm sure you remember the days of saving files to a floppy disk at a maximum storage of 1.44mb, then for a short while we got a larger version "Zip Drive" holding a whopping 100mb of storage.

(Just for reference for those who don't have a clue about digital storage space:

1000bytes = 1kb (kilobyte): 1000kb = 1mb (megabyte): 1000mb = 1gb (gigabyte): 1000gb = 1tb (terabyte)

The average generic text file is usually at least a couple KB in size. The average Word Document file is usually at least 1 MB in size. A Digital Photo can vary from a couple hundred KB to a few MB depending the picture resolution. The average Music File can vary from 2-20MB depending on the saved file format. The average digital home video clip can range from a couple MB to nearly a GB in size. The average full length DVD movie is usually around 2-3GB or an HD movie is at 4-7GB in size.)

Next came the Writable CD-Rom (CD-R) drive giving us 650 - 700mb of storage, but you can only Write on them once, so then we got the Re-Writable CD-Rom (CD-RW) Drives that gave us the ability to Re-Write a CD that you can fully erase and re-use approximately 1000 times or you can format it so you can keep it in the drive and delete individual files and write new ones without erasing the entire disk, but formatted it only held 350mb, but still more then a Zip Drive.

Then we got the Writable DVD-Rom (DVD-R) drive giving us 4GB of storage, then the Dual Layer DVD-Rom (DVD-R_DL) drive giving us 7.5GB of storage, again only to be written on once. Not so handy to grab a bunch files and take to work or a friends then re-use again.

That was the main problem with the larger capacity Optical Rom Drives, they held quite a bit of storage, but mostly to be used once for data backup (or maybe more times for long term storage), but to just grab a couple larger files from work or from home and take elsewhere was quite a pain, and wasteful.

Next we got the USB External Harddrives giving us much more storage capacity (today up to 2TB) that we can re-use over and over, great for entire system backups, and of system file storage, but still not to great to grab a few files and take elsewhere. Sure you can unplug it and just go, but the problem is that you have to be very careful not to drop it or jar it (especially when powered up) or you can damage the mechanical moving parts or even the disk itself where the data is stored. Not to mention its still a little big and bulky to be carrying around, and you have to have somewhere to plug in the power cord to use it.

Now we have the USB Flash Drive. Currently not quite as much storage capacity as the USB external harddrive (capacities range from 1mb - 256GB), but very portable. there small enough to put on a keychain, do not require a power plug, and they have to mechanical or moving parts to damage. All the data is stored on a chip, and the transfer rate at which the computer can read write files to and from the newest USB 2.0 (and soon USB 3.0) drive is much faster than any other drive to date. Not to mention the cost per MB is really inexpensive. Simply plug the drive into a free USB port, the computer sees it as yet another storage drive, copy files to it, unplug it, stick in your pocket and go.

I keep all of my all of my handy dandy computer repair utilities on one flash drive and personal or work related transfer files on another.

Having PC problems, and think you can't fix it yourself?

Has your PC been running really slow, or maybe barley running at all? Has is been locking up frequently, or programs take forever to load when not too long ago they ran just fine?

Aren't you just dreading taking your PC in to be fixed when you know it cant be that hard to fix? Don't you wish you knew how to do it yourself without screwing it up even more?

Well it might be easier than you think. Have you noticed that a lot of the time when you take your PC in for repair or a tune up, it comes back with nothing you had on it is there any more and you have to setup all your favorite stuff again, unless you pay a premium price for keeping all your favorite stuff on it or backing it up for you before fixing it?

You are about to learn the easy way they fix up most modern PC's factory built today and save you a lot of time and money.

First off, have you noticed they always ask you for your disks that came with your computer?
Did you know that most factory built PC's six ears old or newer don't even need all those disks, and usually don't even come with them? That's because the hard drives in todays computers have gotten large enough to store all of the info from those disks in a special hidden partition and still leave plenty of room for the operating system and all of your favorite programs and personal files.

Before you begin any PC fix, make sure you have backed up all your personal files on an external source, weather it be on cd's, usb flash drive, tape drive, external hard-drive, or even the online backup sites like Carbonite or Mozy. Also make sure you have driver disks for all of the devices you have installed since you purchased the system. If you cannot find a disk, you can always download the drivers for your version of windows from the device manufactures websites and save them along with your personal files backup.

This first fix only works if you can get into Windows and it only has minor problems. You may need the proper Windows CD available if required.

Click on the start button then click Run. In the text box type "sfc /scannow" (without the quotes) then hit the Enter key. The built in Windows "System File Checker" will check the important system files to make sure they are ok and replace them with fresh copies if needed. All personal files will remain in tact.

The next two fixes are known as NON-Destructive Restore. This is where important Windows system files are replaced with fresh copies and Windows Registry entries are updated or restored accordingly. Your private files will remain in tact, but the programs they rely on may not. For example a saved excel spreadsheet file will remain, but the Microsoft Office/Excel Program may need re-installed.

First, if your PC is just not running right or suddenly acting a little goofy, you might be able to easily fix it by using Windows built in "System Restore" which you can find in the start menu, or if you hit hit the F8 key a few times when the computer is first booting up (when the screen is still black and showing white text or the manufactures logo screen) then choosing safe mode. Then when the computer boots into safe mode it will ask if you want to run system restore or go ahead and run in safe mode, choose system restore. Once the system restore programs comes up, choose "restore my computer to an earlier time" and then pick a date a couple days prior to when you noticed the computer acting funny, then click next to start the process. Once its done,d the computer will reboot and hopefully its running better.

Second, if your computer is not booting into windows at all, or the Windows built in system restore just did not do the trick, then you can use the manufactures built in system restore feature. To access it, if your computer came with system restore disks, then put disk 1 into the cd drive then reboot the PC, if not, then as soon as you power on your computer and it shows the POST screen (either the black screen with white text, or the manufactures boot logo screen) you should see some text that says press f10 for system restore (all makes and models are different, some say f9, f10, f11, or f12) press the button that it tells you. Just keep in mind that you only have a couple seconds to catch it, and you may have to press it many times durring that time for it to acknowledge that you even hit it. Now it should boot into a special manufactures system restore software and then you can choose to restore/repair the PC. Most of the time you can just pres the next button through the screens untill the process begins. Once the process is complete the computer will reboot and hopefully the computer is running smoothly.

The final fix is known as a Full Destructive Restore. This will completely wipe out the entire system and replace it with a fresh new copy of Windows and extra software, and it will be just like the day you purchased it. Your private/personal files will not be saved. Back up First. I recommend doing this once a year just to keep the computer fresh.

To access this fix is same as the last fix. When you first power on the computer, press the f10 or what ever key is says then when it comes up, instead of just pressing next, you will either choose Full/Destructive restore, or you may need to choose the advanced option then choose the full restore. Once you get the process started, it will take a while and the system will reboot a few times, and it will more than likely ask you a bunch of questions, but once it is complete, it will be completely restored and ready to re-install all your favorite programs and restore your personal files from backup. Keep in mind you may need to re-install drivers for hardware or devices that you have installed since you purchased the computer. If you do not have your driver disks for the devices, you can always download them from the device manufactures websites.

I hope this has helped you as it has helped me for many years.

Having a hard time getting a Paid TV account?

If you are having a hard time getting a paid TV account because of past indiscretions on you credit history, or maybe you live at a place that can not get satellite signal, or what ever the reason, there is a way to still get to watch your favorite channels.

Now I'm not referring to one of those hacked boxes or anything illegal. That would just be immoral to even mention it. No, what I'm referring to is something completely different. With this technology, you can even watch your favorite channels while your out of the house. You can watch at your office desk, on your couch, even while in the bathroom. And the really cool thing is that it will only cost you $20 or $40 with DVR function, for over 250 channels for an entire year and you will even get a second connection so you can watch one show while others in your house can watch another.

Not only will you get over 250 TV channels, you will also get live radio channels, weather in your area, movie channels, City view web cams from around the world, Video Chat, Social Networking and so much more. There are even Money making opportunities with this system. That's the beauty of IPTV-BROADCASTING By Matrix Inc. Watch on your TV, PC, Laptop, and coming soon, even your other web enabled mobile devices.

So how do I get this program you ask? Well, first you need a High Speed Internet connection of at least 1.5 mbps or higher (recommended to view any Hi-Def Channels, 256 kbps for most non hd channels), and a PC or Laptop with at least a 700 mhz processor or better and recommended minimum of 512 mb of ram and Windows XP or newer. At this time if you want to watch on your TV you'll have to have a TV output card installed in your PC or Laptop. A new stand alone TV set-top box is in the works and is slated for release summer of 2010. A new version for the MAC and other web enabled mobile devices is also in the works.

If you meet the requirements and are ready to get started, simply head over to http://www.iptv-broadcasting.com and sign up to get started watching your favorite channels and making money on top it.

How to get around Satellite Service Requireing a Credit Card for New Customers

Have you been denied satellite service because of no credit card? Have you turned down Satellite Service because you do not want to give them your credit card info? If you answered yes to either question, then I will show you how to get around that issue.

First of all, a little background info on the reasons that the satellite companies require a credit card.

First they use it as a secondary form of ID. A CC number along with your SS number will give them a positive ID match. After all they are potentialy putting up to $1500 worth of equipment in your home, plus paying an installer a good chunk of change to install this equipment. They want to make sure that you are who you say you are.

Second, they use the pos id match to do a soft pull of your credit report to make sure your credit worthy. Don't worry about the credit pull damaging your credit score, the soft pull does not mark your credit score. What they look at is your past dealings with other TV service providers as well as telephone/cell phone and internet providers to see if you pay your bills on the NON-Necessity items.

Third, they want some sort of guarantee that your bill will get paid. After all you are signing a contract for service. If you fail to fulfill your contract they will simply attempt to pay off your contract with your credit card.

Now to get around giving them your cc info, or if you do not have one, then all you have to do is get a prepaid credit card. But not just any pre-paid cc, it has to be a bank issued pre-paid cc, and not a Debit Card either. Simply go to your bank that you have an account with, and ask them for one. It may cost a couple dollars to purchase one, most banks dont charge if you have an account with them, then put fifty dollars on the card to cover any sign-up fees, or shipping and handling fees for promotional gift items that may be available through the satellite retailer you choose to do business with. A Walmart or Walgreen purchased pre-paid cc will not work because they cannot verify name or address info with the cc. Only the bank issued cards attach your name and address info with the cards. Dont forget to activate the card before attempting to give out the cc number. To play it safe you should make sure its been active for at least a couple of days before calling to place your order.

After the order has been placed, your service has been installed, and any fees have been taken from the card, you can then use what ever money is left on the card to get gas or what ever.sate

You can save your lost data without a backup

Got a HDD (Hard-Disc-Drive)(AKA: Harddrive) with all of your important data that just crashed? Have you given up on your lost information? Did you forget to backup? Well don't give up just yet! I have a tip that may just get you data back.

This may not work in all cases, but in many it does. If your drive just died and you have not continuously tried to get it to boot over and over, even if its making the clicking noises, or if its making a lot of noises, but still runs, then there is hope.

The answer is simple. But first you will have to get a new HDD. After all, your current drive is either dead or really close to it, and you need somewhere put the data that you are about to retrieve from the old drive.

Remove the old drive from the computer/laptop. Install the new drive and get your OS (Windows/MAC/Linux...) installed and running. Then put old drive into a freezer bag and put it into the freezer for at least 12 hours. This is not a joke, it really works. Just remember that you must work quickly and get the files while the drive is still frozen, so make sure that you have the computer ready to transfer files. You may only get one chance at this. It does not always work a second time.

When you are ready, pull the drive out of the freezer and freezer bag and either install it as a slave drive in your tower or install it into a external USB HDD encloser while still frozen. boot up the computer/laptop and make sure that the OS can see the HDD and has assigned it a drive letter. If not, and you are sure everything is connected correctly and settings are correct, then you may be out of luck. If your computer does see it, then your good to get some files, maybe not all, depends on the drives condition. As quickly as possible, browse the drive and copy the needed files to your new drive. I would suggest getting the most important files first then on to the least important ones because your are running on borrowed time and who knows how long the drive will continue to run.

I hope this helps you as much as it has helped me out through the years.

did you know

did you know you can get you can get $500 in free groceries and $500 in free Gas just for signing up for satellite TV? http://www.dishnetwork.ws or http://direct-tv.ws.