5 Things to look for before buying a Hard Disk

Its said “Data Data Everywhere, Not a Byte to Store” and this is becoming true in today’s date where we all have data and data coming from all over and we don’t have much of space left. Either we keep on burning onto disk or we need to delete the data. So the best solution today is to get a bigger and better hard disk drive for your computer. What are those things which you must look for before buying a hard disk drive?

Storage space required :-
Decide the storage space required but buy the drive of more storage space then your requirements. If you require 160 GB storage space, then go for 250 GB storage drive. This is necessary as in future there is a high probability of getting more data then you think of.

Which Brand to go for?
Mainly there are two famous brands as in Nehru Place (Delhi) Seagate and Samsung. Other companies include Maxtor, Western Digital and Hitachi. These can be looked at as well. But the hot selling ones with reliable service and warranty are Seagate and Samsung only.

Speed of Disk :-
You need to look for the speed of drive, 5400 rpm or 7200 rpm, more the speed, better is the read and write operations. This doesn’t have great effects on the price. But speed is one of the factors in differentiating a model from another.

Warranty provided :-
Always look for the warranty issue. We usually leave this part, but in case of a crash, the service they give is what it matters. Samsung gives you a good service, but Seagate does this too, but the only flaw I heard in Nehru Place about Seagate is that they do not remove the Bad sectors from the drive, they just hide them. Can’t say how far this thing is true.

Additional software provided :-
Take a look at what all software’s are being provided by the company. These include software like Disk Manger, Disk Partition, Disk clean up, Disk Defragmentation and others. These software do help in managing and keeping your drive alive for longer period.

Also, you will come across certain terms which you might not be aware of. Cache, SATA, Platter and many other. You need not to think about it. All the drives available today have almost same specifications, but the only difference is how they mange those.

This is the list which you must look for. If i am missing on anything do remind me.

P.S. – SATA stands for Serial Advanced Technology Attachment, and every computer might not support the SATA drives, as it’s a new version of the conventional system PATA. Do confirm it from your vendor.

Enable/Disable Your Task Manager

Well, this situation might never arise when you need to Disable your Task manager. But more commonly it happens because of a virus attack. Viruses do disable the Task Manager. Now they do so by editing the Registry values. Even if you remove the viruses, the registry changes will remain and thy will continue to effect your system, until you correct them. This is easy and I will let you know how this can be done with just a small change in Registry. Here’s what you need to do.

1. Go to Start –> Run, and open Regedit.
2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
3. If you are infected by a Virus then you will see a Dword Value “DisableTaskMgr“, if not, then create this new value.
4. To Enable it, give a value of “0“, and to Disable it, give it a value of “1“

This is a very simple method by which Task manager can be Enabled/ Disabled. Apart from that, if you are in a network, and want to disable Task manager for a user, then you need to change the Computer Policies.

Disable Password Expiration

If you using Windows, you must have faced the issue of password expiration. Specially in Xp where it says “Your Password Will Expire In 14 Days”. There is a simple way through you can disable the password expiration feature, and the password for the user never expires. There are simple changes to be made in the user properties to do so. Apart from that, make sure that if you are in a network, you must have the proper permissions to do so. Follow the steps below

1. Right Click on My Computer and click Manage.
2. Select Local users and groups and further select Users.
3. Select the user you want and open its Properties.
4. Tick Password Never Expires, and you are done with it.

If you are using Windows 2003, then for doing the same for multiple users, you can select multiple users, but in case of XP, multiple users Properties cannot be edited.
If yuo want to apply for all the users then simple type net accounts /maxpwage:unlimited on Run and all the users will now be set to Password Never Expires.

Editing The Right Click Menu

When you install any software then they add themselves to the right click menu. This slows down the system as well, as it needs to get all the files ready when you right click. Especially the software like WinRar, which add lots of option to your Right Click menu. We don’t require all, and we require some options for some kind of files, so we can remove many options to make our menu open faster. This can be done through Registry editing. Here is the Registry Setting.

1. 1. Go to Run and type in Regedit.
2. Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers, This is the where programs attach to right click menu, This is a universal right click. To make the specific right clicks, you need to go to specific type of file in this section.
3. You simply delete the keys you do not want.

This is one of the ways to edit the Right Click Menu. Another way to do this is to use editing software with which things can be done with much ease and in detailed manner. File Menu Tools is a tool which will do this for you.

Through this software you can add more options provided by the software, and you can remove the contents you want. The only thing is that you should know which files to look for and editing which file will make the correct changes. It also allows you do edit the “Send To” menu.
Do try this software and customize your Right Click Menu according to your needs.

Import Contacts From Yahoo to Gmail

Most of us today have started using Gmail as our primary account as we moved from Yahoo or MSN to Google’s Email service. Many of us still feel the need to use Yahoo just because they might be used to it, and sometimes they don’t feel like adding again all the contacts from their address book. But most of them don’t know is that these contacts can be moved easily. Simply follow these to move your contact from Yahoo to Gmail.

• Login to your Yahoo Mail account
• In case you are you using Yahoo Mail Classic, go to Options –> Address Book –> Import/Export, and export it as a Yahoo CSV file.
• If you are using the New Yahoo Mail, go to Options –> Mail options –> Contact Option –> Import/Export and export it as a Yahoo CSV file.
• Save this file on your computer, and now login to your Gmail account.
• Click on Contact –> Import, and give the path to the file in the POP-UP window.
• Click Ok for the confirmation.
• Refresh it and you are done.

This process is not a flawless one, as I faced some problems with contacts. I found that it was not possible for me to edit the contact details, surprising isn’t it?Also the contacts added in the Yahoo Messenger only do come up in Yahoo Address, they didn’t match up either.These were some of the problems I found out, let us know if you find any more new problems.