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RAID is an acronym for Redundant Array of Independent Disks. When first developed in 1987, RAID stood for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks, but marketers didn’t like the association with inexpensive, so the name was changed. RAID technology combines multiple hard drives into a logical unit.

Data is distributed across the drives in one of several ways. These are known as the RAID levels, such as RAID 0, RAID 1, and so on.  These levels were made to express what each RAID was capable of doing, the larger the number was not necessarily what you needed.

RAID is now an umbrella term used in computer data storage schemes that divide and replicate data among multiple hard drives. RAID systems have two key goals: to increase data reliability and input/output performance. When multiple disks are set up to use this RAID technology, they are in a RAID array.

Disks in a RAID array distribute data across multiple disks.  However, the array is considered one single disk by the operating system. There can be several different purposes for using RAID.

Data can be mirrored on both disks, where both have a complete copy of the same information. This way if one disk fails, the other still has the information. The only problem is that usually both disks are the same age, and the second drive has been known to fail before the data can be moved to a new disk.

Another way RAID is used is by spreading out the information over several disks, so that each disk only has a portion of the whole. This can speed up data manipulation in many cases. Some systems are set up to protect themselves in case a disk is damaged.

Some RAID can also be set up through software using an operating system, and called Software RAID. There are also hybrid RAIDs that are partially hardware and partly software based. A hardware based RAID requires a special purpose RAID controller that could be a PCI expansion card or could be built into the motherboard.

Other non-RAID drive architectures also exist that can sometimes be referred to as RAID. Some other fun acronyms: a single hard drive can be referred to as a SLED, meaning Single Large Expensive Drive; while an array of independent drives can be referred to as JBOD, or Just a Bunch Of Disks. Make sure you know your are getting what you wanted.

RAID, a Redundant Array of Inexpensive (or Independent) Disks is a technology that allows computers to have increased drive speed and data redundancy. It combines two or more disks into one logical drive. This can be done on both hardware and software levels.

To connect two physical hard drives into a RAID system, they need to be the exact same. Creating a RAID array using two external disks, or drives, requires the use of software. It also requires the use of the two external drives.

Before you start, both external hard drives need to be connected to your computer. Make sure your computer knows they are there by going into My Computer and making sure they show up. They should be listed under your hard disk drives.

Now, to start this process, you will first click on the start button in the lower left of the Windows screen. Now you want to enter the text “compmgmt.msc” into the run box. Now press the “Enter” key.

Once you’ve opened the computer management window, click on the “Disk Management” heading in the left-most frame. Now right click one of the external disks you want to connect into an array. Select the “Convert to dynamic disk” heading.

From the dialog box that appears, select the other hard drive you want to add to the array. Now click on the “Convert” button. When prompted on whether or not to proceed, click “Yes”. Doing this combines the two external drives into one RAID disk.

This is accomplished through Windows’ dynamic disk service programmed in the operating system. Depending on the size and speed of the drives, the process may take several minutes. Once it has finished your computer will now be using RAID for these disks.

You must always use both hard drives together in RAID; they can no longer be separated. Be aware that any information previously on the external disks will be erased during this process. Make sure you only used a matched pair of drives, same manufacturer, same model, and same capacity.

SATA stands for Serial Advanced Technology Attachment, or Serial ATA. A SATA hard drive is a large storage device that connects to the motherboard of a computer using a SATA connector. SATA refers to the way the drive is connected.

SATA has several advantages over the older ATA or EIDE or Parallel ATA (PATA) interface. For one thing, SATA only requires 7 wires in the cable instead of the 40 required by the older cables. It also has higher signaling rates, which give faster data transfer.

SATA devices communicate through a high-speed serial cable over two pairs of conductors. The older versions used a 16 bit wide data bus and many support and control signals operating at a lower frequency. SATA does use the same basic ATA and ATAPI command-set so it can be compatible with older computer parts.

SATA has replaced parallel ATA in most applications. For computers, SATA has helped make the insides less crowded, as the cables are a lot smaller. Your hard drive operates much faster due to the increased communication speed with the SATA cable.

For a SATA hard drive to work in your computer, you must first find out if your computer supports SATA. You can check this through your computer’s documentation, or by looking at the motherboard. If your motherboard has a SATA connection, you are good to go.

If your motherboard doesn’t have a SATA connection, you may still be able to use SATA with a SATA host adapter compatible to the computer and operating system. The SATA host adapter needs an appropriate device driver installed on your computer as well. You can check the system’s manual for compatibility.

If you have an old computer and you install a SATA hard drive, your computer may not recognize it. Your older computer may see it as a SCSI or Small Computer System Interface device. This is especially if you are using the SATA host adapter.

Using SATA cables in your computer allows better airflow inside your case. This helps keep the heat down and allows your fans to perform better. A cooler computer prevents damage from overheating.

You’ve had your laptop for a while now, and have really enjoyed using it. The only problem is that it is getting so full of information, it won’t hold much more. It is full of files, folders, programs, and of course the operating system itself.

You’d like to upgrade your hard drive, but can you do that yourself on a laptop? The answer is yes. It is possible for someone with a bit of computer hardware savvy to replace the drive on a laptop.

When buying a new replacement hard drive, make sure you get the right sized one for your laptop. You may even want to look at the current drive so you will know its dimensions, etc. This will help you order the right one that will fit your computer.

When you are ready to switch out drives, shut down and close your laptop. Unplug it from the power outlet. Turn your laptop upside down, with the front facing towards you.

Look for the hard drive. On a Dell, it is likely located on the right side (of the upside down computer) close to the clasp end. Find a screwdriver that will fit the screw holding it in.

Static electricity can damage computer parts. Before proceeding, neutralize your static electricity by touching something metallic that conducts electricity.  Now remove the screw holding it in.

Slowly and carefully pull out the drive, grasping it with your thumb and fingers on the grooved lines on the bracket cover. Handle your drive carefully. If you have a static free bag, slide it in that, especially if you will be sending it in for repairs.

Carefully install the new hard drive and secure it with the screw. You will need to reinstall your operating system and other programs. If you have files on your old drive which you want to keep, it would be a good idea to first back them up to an external drive or another computer on your network so you can easily retrieve them once your computer is up and running again.

Your hard drive can suffer from fragmented files. These files are scattered about in pieces between other files instead of being in one block or space. When you go to open and use the file, it takes longer for your computer to find all the pieces and put them back together again.

Fragmentation is more of a problem on computers with nearly full drives. The solution to the problem is fairly simple. You need to defrag the drive so files can be stored all in one piece.

For our example we will discuss defragging an external hard drive. This is slightly more complicated that defragging an internal hard drive, but not by much. Defragging your drive will speed things up considerably when you are opening saved files.

The defragging will reorganize the data on the disk so that the used spaces are used more effectively. It puts the open spaces together for storing new information. This can be done on a regular basis to keep your drive working at maximum efficiency.

First you will need to plug the external hard drive into a power source, and then plug it into the USB port on your computer. Now turn it on. An AutoPlay window will pop up, so close it.

Click on the start button and type in “Disk Defragmenter” into the search box. Click on the Disk Defragmenter in the search results field. You will then click on the external drive under “Current Status”.

You will then click on “Defragment Disk”. This will begin the defragmenting process. This can take quite a while if you have a large disk full of data.

You can use defragmenting software on an external hard drive. You just have to have the external drive connected to the computer with the software. If you are worried about important information, you should back up your data before beginning defragmentation.

If you use your computer to hold a lot of photos, movies or programs, you may find your hard drive is getting full. Your computer’s hard drive is the physical disk drive that stores information on a metal disc or platter. When you are ready for more space, you can add a second drive for additional space, or get a larger drive.

SATA technology replaces the older IDE versions. The newer SATA is faster, and since the cords are smaller there is less clutter in your computer case. If you already have one SATA drive, adding a second one will give you more computer storage space.

Turn off your computer and unplug your power cord, then open your case. Usually your computer case will open by having the left side panel slides off towards the back. You may need to use a screwdriver to unscrew the screws on the back.

Locate a free space for your new hard drive. Usually you will be able to find one near your old drive. Your new drive should be able to slide into the slot easily, and you can secure it with the small mounting screws that came with it. Usually you will be fine with only screws on the open side, but if you want, you can remove the other side of your case to secure that side as well.

Using the special SATA cables, connect your new drive to the motherboard. The plugs for the SATA are usually toward the front and bottom of the case. The cable should fit easily if it is the right spot.

Now it’s time to connect the SATA power cables to the drives. Look for power cables coming from your power supply with black ends. Find the plugs that fit the power plug on the back of the drive.

When you’re done plugging things in, close your case and plug in the power cord. Start up your computer. You will now need to format the new hard drive using Disc Management.

Remember that when using several drives, it will increase the power demands on your power supply. It also increases the heat in your computer. Make sure to take precautions so you don’t overload your system.

To a computer, the hard drive may not be the most important part, but to the users it usually is. That’s because that is where all your data is stored. Any document you have written, all your digital pictures, music and video files, and all your programs are stored there.

It can be quite devastating when a computer stops working or has information erased accidentally. In many cases you can still recover your data. You may need to invest in a data recovery program to help you with this.

Following these steps can help you recover data kept in an external hard drive. Start things off by booting you computer up with the external hard drive attached. Now download the freeware data recovery program “PC Inspector” and follow the steps to install it on your computer.

Don’t try to install anything on your external drive as it may overwrite and erase your data.  Once you have PC Inspector installed, Run it. If you are trying to get files you accidentally deleted from your external drive, select “Recover deleted files.”

If you accidentally formatted your disk or had a system crash that damaged your data, select “Find lost data.” If you can’t even find the drive letter to access your drive at all, select “Find lost drive.” Are you with me so far?

Now you need to select the logical or physical drive that has the lost data. A logical drive is a partition or virtual drive. A physical drive is the whole drive.

Some drives are divided into multiple partitions so find the partition or drive you are looking for. Click on the green check to scan for data. Recover your lost data by saving it on your main drive.

Depending on what caused the problem, you may now be able to reinstall the data. If there is a mechanical issue with the drive, you will have to send it in to a hard drive recovery service. To prevent future loss of information, remember to back up important information in at least two places.

Partitioning a hard drive can give you some fun partitions to play around with, or use for back-ups or organization. After you’ve partitioned it, what if you decide you want to go back to having it all as one space? How do you remove a hard drive partition?

Just as creating the partitions wasn’t too difficult, neither is removing the partitions. Of course, you want to make sure you won’t be losing any valuable information. You also don’t want to damage your drive or lose your operating system.

To start things off, back up any data you have on the partition you will be removing. Removing the partition will wipe out any data contained in the partition. You can take things from the partition you will be deleting and move it to another partition in your computer

To access the partitions in your computer, first go to “My Computer” from your start menu. This can be accessed with the start button on the bottom left of your screen. Once you are in My Computer, double click on the desired partition on your list of hard drives to open it.

Once you have all the data saved that you need, close all your programs. Go to your start menu again and right click on My Computer. Go down to “Manage” and click on it.

If you are using a Vista operating system, click “Continue” when it prompts for your permission. Now select “Disk Management” from the menu on the left. This opens the disk manager interface.

At this point you will select your desired partition (make sure it is the one you want to delete) by left clicking on it once. Next, right click on it and select “Delete Volume” or if in XP it is “Delete Partition”. You will be warned that all data will be lost, and asked for permission to continue.

When you select “Yes” after the prompt, your partition will be deleted. You will now have one less partition on your hard drive. Just remember before doing this to get all the data you want to save out of that partition first.

Partitioning a hard drive gives you more possibilities. You can run different operating systems such as Windows, Linux or other installations of the Mac OS. Partitions also give you multiple spaces for backing up your computer files.

To partition your hard drive, in an open Finder Window click on “Applications” in the sidebar. Cursor down the listing to the “Utilities” folder. Now find the “Disk Utilities” application and double click to open it.

Now that you have launched the “Disk Utility” application, select the disk you want to partition from those available disks connected to your Mac. They will be in the left-hand window. Select the “Partition” radio button at the top of the “Disk Utility” application window to get to the partition preferences.

Once you’ve done that, select the pop-up button that is just under the “Volume Scheme” preferences in “Disk Utility”. Select the number of partitions you want on your disk. While holding the mouse down, drag it to select the number of partitions.

The partitions will automatically divide the disk into equal space. This means that for a 30 GB drive, 3 partitions will divide it into 3 sections of 10 GB each. Two partitions would divide it into half, or 15 GB per partition.

If you want to create custom sized partitions, you can make adjustments.  Click and drag on the “Re-size Bars” under and between each partition of the hard disk. This will create custom sized partitions.

To select formatting options for your new partitions, click on the “Options” button just below the Volume Scheme window. If you will be using the disk for an Intel based Mac, select “GUID Partition Table”. Select “Apple Partition Map” if you will be using it for a Power PC processor based Mac. Select “Master Boot Record” if you will be installing a Windows Operating System or sharing the drive with a Windows based computer. When you’re finished, click “OK.”

Next click  the “Apply” radio button in the bottom right corner of the “Disk Utility” window. Now click on the “OK” button in the pop-up warning window that will appear on top of the “Disk Utility” window. This will begin the process of reformatting and partitioning your hard drive and all data will be erased from your drive.

Your Xbox 360 has about 20 GB of space on the hard drive. If you find it getting full of photos and MP3 files, you may want to consider adding an external hard drive. Adding an external drive can give you more space for all your needs.

You will need to get an external hard drive with a USB 2.0 connection. Most recent ones use that kind of USB connection, so this shouldn’t be a problem. You need this kind of connection to be able to connect it to your Xbox console.

You need to format this external device to read FAT32 files. To do this, you will need a Windows PC to create a FAT32 partition and format it. You should use a program like Partition Magic as well.

While Windows can format it without Partition Magic, it can only do up to about 30 GB. Using Partition Magic, Linux Distro, or something like that allows you to format the whole drive into FAT 32. If you are using a larger drive, this can make a significant difference in usable space.

While the drive is connected to your PC, load what you want on it from your PC. You can put photo files, MP3 files, or any files that can be read on your Xbox. Once that is done, safely remove this hardware from your computer after making sure you are no longer transferring information.

Take your external hard drive and now plug it into your Xbox 360 console. Use the USB port on the console. After going to the Media menu on the Xbox screen, select “Portable Device”.

The readable files you saved on your external device should now be available on your Xbox 360. The Xbox’s connection with this new external drive is read-only. This means you will only be able to view files you have previously put on the drive.

You can’t save games or other things from the Xbox’s main drive onto the external drive. Having all your photos and MP3s on the external drive can help free up some of your internal space for games. It can also act as a safety back up for photos or other things kept on your computer.