Computerday Part Recovery

Computerday Part Recovery
Hard Drive Recovery for Your Valuable Data
By: fortunewords
The most valuable assets of a company or an organization reside in files on computer hard drives. This is the main storage element in the system. In many cases the electronic evidence on the hard drive requires special skill and experience in data recovery to identify and retrieve the data. The current crisis of the system can be attributed to a number of factors, such as the inability to access a hard drive especially when back-ups are not available.

Hard drive crashes, Virus attacks or losing your valuable files through accidental deletion can be quite disturbing in your work. Unfortunately the data loss caused by such a failure will lead to financial losses in an organization, as well as to personal life. If the data disaster caused by a hard drive failure is not immediately managed properly, then the data loss can become permanent.

Hard drives are mechanical magnetic storage devices that are extremely susceptible to failure such as head crashes, circuit board shorts, electrostatic shocks, power surges, overheating, etc. To a major extent power failure could damage the hard drive. While Power surges and sags damage hard drives to crash and corrupt Windows systems, databases and other programs and services which need safer shutdown. Unless you have good surge protectors, UPS and backup generators, you can’t always believe to have good and safe data.

Hard drive crashes and Disk Failures in general can be broadly classified into five categories they are

* Firm ware corruption
* Electronic failure
* Mechanical failure
* physical corruption
* Logical corruption.

Like other software, firmware can have bugs. When powered on, if the hard disk spins up and is not recognized by the computer then it can be altered as firmware failure. Sometimes the computer will properly recognize the hard drive spin up, but during boot up process it just hangs up before it starts up. The hard disk firmware is soft and corruption in it will not allow the computer to interact with the hard disk. The data in the disk could be recovered if the repair in the drive is rectified and reprogrammed. Recovery requires small level of programming and manipulation of the hard drive.

An electronic failure problem is based on the controller board of the actual hard disk failure where the computer power supply also acts as a source of fluctuations on the hard disk.

Mechanical hard disk failures are due to components internal to the hard disk itself. The data on the hard disk will become inaccessible as soon as an internal component goes wrong .This can be diagnosed, when the system is powered ON it makes a tickling sound. Do not attempt to open a hard disk if you suspect a mechanical fault because there is also a chance that you will destroy any chance of successfully recovering the data. Most common in recovery is unusual disturbing, which a hard disk recovery specialist alone could handle.

When your hard drive is making a ticking or a scratching noise due to bad parts, head crash, water damaged hard drive, and fire damaged hard drive can be caused and will indicate a physical failure. The aperture arm in the hard drive can fail motors or the platters can become damaged and lose the data that they hold.

In case of logical crash the damage is caused by the user such as invalid entry in file allocation, accidentally formatting the drive, loss of file system on a fragmented drive.

Of all these crashes you either need a hard drive recovery specialist or hard drive recovery software where hard drive recovery can work on all kinds of damages.

Computerday Part Laptop

Computerday Part Laptop
Getting a New HP Computer
By: Joe Flips
Getting a new computer or laptop can bring up issues for most. If you have a career or business in which computers are an integral part, you may not have any problem choosing one that is right for you. This may not be the case for everyone else, though. What is important when looking for a new computer is firstly to know what features you want, and then to look around for the best deal and a brand you can trust.

After checking out many different makes and models of laptop, I finally choose a HP computer, a Pavilion laptop, and have been very satisfied with it.

I have had the laptop for just over a year and really have no complaints about my purchase. The one issue I did have was a common problem for HP computers. My power cable gave up. With that said, HP support did move very quickly to rectify the issues and I was sent a new one free of charge a couple of days later.

Many other brands aren't reliable and don't have such great support. HP computer this is definitely not the case. The seldom go wrong and when they do, they sort it out very quickly indeed.

Customer service wasn't actually a factor in choosing a HP computer though. What got me was that they are incredibly well priced for the features you get with them. Other machines I looked at were more expensive and had less programs installed. We all use our computers for different things so being able to cater for every one is an important factor.

HP computers have something for all. It was not very hard for me to choose what model I wanted. They were all pretty much the same except for memory capacity and processor speed, which can vary.

You can choose another model if a HP computer doesn't have a feature you require. I don't think that will be the case and if you talk to someone who has one I am sure you would get a good recommendation from them.

With their track record and my personal experience, I can honestly say that I am glad I bought a HP computer. It has been a great servant

Computerday Part III

Computerday Part III
Virtual Memory, Does It Have A Limit?
By: Victor Epand
'Virtual memory' is a term that is heard from the day we are born in today's society. Everything virtual is more natural to younger generations than the trees of a park or the rippling water of a shallow creek. It seems that more and more can be stored and done by virtual methods every day. But, have we reached the limits of virtual memory usage or have we simply not found the depth of the well to date?

If we are talking about the amount of virtual memory available on the average desktop computer, then the answer is both. Since we haven't yet capped the size of the personal computer in virtual memory capacity, we can't truly know if we have found the bottom of the well or not. What we can ascertain is whether each individual spigot to the well has a depth equal to the algorithm that rules the ratio of all virtual memory on a system to the amount of available and usable virtual memory on the same system.

If your system has 4GB of available virtual memory, then only 3GB can be accessed and used. The additional 1GB is used for operational resources that allow you to run all those applications that are using the available virtual memory. If it were available, there'd be no memory space for your computer to keep track of all the applications running on your computer.

Each year, personal computers grow larger as we begin to demand more space for our daily lives in the virtual realm. Many people work from home and are finding that running a business on a computer requires large amounts of virtual memory. Computer manufacturers and designers listen, increasing the much coveted space available virtually for our use.

If the trend of growth in the size of computers increases as it has been for several more years at least, then we haven't come close to the bottom of the proverbial well. We have only dipped a few buckets and withdrawn a sampler of what's available. With this in mind, our current limitations won't be the same as our future limitations.

If you do try to run more than your computer will handle, your computer will complain with a warning that it can't run the requested application because it is out of memory. At this point, you can shut down applications you may not be working on and then run the desired application, or you can invest in some memory upgrades. Keep in mind that not all systems are capable of being upgraded easily, as is the case of the laptop computers. If you are forever finding yourself out of memory, it may be best to cut back on how many applications you run simultaneously.

Technology will keep increasing our available virtual memory, but for now there is a limit in the infinite world of virtual memory upon our desktops and laptops. Perhaps in ten years, that limit will no longer exist. However, maybe we already have plenty of virtual memory since more memory only indicates more work, more hours spent producing, and less living.

Computerday Part Search Engine

Search Engine Optimization Tactics: Local Search + How To Use Graphics and Flash
By: Jeff Finkelstein
With the global economy struggling, acquiring new customers is top of mind for most organizations.

Did you know that 50-70% of consumer and business purchasers start with a search engine like Google? If your website doesn't appear at the top of a search engine results page (sponsored ads or organic search results), you're losing potential customers to companies that do rank higher.

What can you do? I'll share with you my top strategies and tactics that can help you acquire new customers via search engine optimization and advertising.

1. Local Search Engine Advertising. For businesses that serve specific geographic regions (i.e. Denver, Colorado), you can create search engine ads in Google and Yahoo that only appear to people in your area.

How does this work? A search engine like Google uses a computer's IP address and other information to discover where someone is searching (including city and state).

Why does Google care where a person is located? Google's mission is to give their end users the best search results possible. So if I need a someone to walk my dog in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, it does me little good to receive a paid search result from Arizona. This is a real example - my brother has a petsitting business, and I've used local Google search engine advertising to drive new clients to his organization.

Thus Google (and the others) tries to match search results to the geographic location of the person searching.

How does Google make money? Google gives businesses and organizations the ability to display paid advertisements (sponsored results) on search results pages. These ads are triggered by keywords you choose (more on this in a different strategy).

You don't have to pay for your ad to display; you pay Google only when someone clicks on your ad. The technical term is Cost Per Click (CPC) advertising. The more relevant your ad (more on this later), the less you have to pay for specific keywords, and the higher up you will appear in the sponsored advertising results.

Local Search CPC Ads. In Google Adwords, you can create an advertising campaign that will target someone in a specific city or state. You can even specify a 5, 10 or 25 mile radius from a specific location (like your retail showroom or office). Below your local ad, Google will place the name of your local area (i.e. Denver, Colorado)... making it more likely that someone searching in your area will choose your organization vs. an out-of-town competitor.

Local CPC Ads are usually a more cost effective option than a national search engine advertising campaign. As a general rule of thumb, the more geographically targeted and specific you can be, the less money you'll need to pay to acquire new customers. And make sure you have conversion tracking code placed on your site, so you can measure and track how much you're paying for each new customer via local search engine advertising.

2. Don't Confuse The Search Engines With Graphics. Search engines are really good at reading text. But they've very easily confused. And if Google gets confused when it crawls through your site, you won't rank very high in search results.

Search engines, for example, can't read words that are contained in graphics or flash animation. So if your company's name is only contained in a graphic on your site, this content is 'invisible' to a search engine. Same thing goes for product or service names.

The root of the problem lies with graphic designers. Graphic designers are really good at building graphics. And don't take this to mean I don't like graphic designers. (I employ a bunch of them, but they know how to do SEO-friendly design.)

But most websites are designed by graphic designers who are really good at building graphics, and less interested in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It takes a bit more time to have content placed in text, and use a stylesheet to format it so that a search engine can read it. Especially when it's just so easy to create a good looking graphic in photoshop.

Even if you're not worried about organic search positioning, but are doing paid search engine marketing (like Google Adwords), it's important that the content on your site is easily digested by a search engine.

Why? Google Adwords ranks the pages on your website, and compares it to your keywords and ad copy. The more relevant Google ranks the text on your site, the less you'll have to pay for a sponsored ad on Google (and the higher your position).

In Summary: Don't confuse search engines by keeping your content 'locked up' in graphics. It's a small little detail in the web design process, but one that will pay dividends for a long, long time with increased search results.

3. Title Tags & Why They Matter. When you search in Google, the search results on the next page each start with a blue underlined link.

What displays in this blue link is usually what is contained in the title tag of a web page. The keywords you placed in the search box are usually boldfaced in the search results.

So, just what is a title tag, and why does it matter for search engine positioning?

According to the World Wide Web Consortium (w3.org), the Title tag was designed to help people "identify the contents of a document." When people view individual web pages out of context (often via search), context-rich page titles help tell the visitor a summary of the page.

Instead of a title like "Introduction", which doesn't provide much contextual background, web designers should supply a title such as "Introduction to Medieval Bee-Keeping" instead.

Google and other search engines use these rich contextual clues as a way to hone its search results.

On a web page, the title tag is part of the HTML code. Here's what the code looks like on Customer Paradigm's site:
Title: Customer Paradigm: Website Design, Development, Email Marketing, Content Management, PHP programming

Most end users won't see the title tag*. But the title tag is what a subject ine is to an email campaign: It entices the end user to pay attention and open the page to read more.

Top Five Most Common Mistakes for Title Tags:

A. Untitled: When many of the popular programs create a new HTML page, it puts 'Untitled' into the title tag. It's up to the Web designer to change this... and since most users don't see it, sometimes they forget to change it.

B. No Title Tag: Like the "Untitled" tag, another key mistake is simply leaving out the title tag. If you do a view source (Internet Explorer: Right Click and select View Source), and the title tag doesn't appear... then you don't have a title tag.

C. "About" Tag: Another common mistake for title tags is to have the title tag refer to a section of your website. But a title tag that reads, "About" doesn't tell me much about what the company or website is "About." Instead, have it read:
Title: Customer Paradigm - About the Company: Website Development & Marketing, Email Deployment and php programming

This is sure to get more keywords into the title tag, and if you're searching for a company, you instantly know what they do.

D. No Company Name In Title Tag: We recommend putting your company name at the beginning of the title tag, so that people can quickly see your company's name when they search.

E. Same Title Tag on Multiple Pages: You should have a unique title tag for each page of the site. Why? As each page is unique, you should have a title tag that describes it's unique content.

* Here's where they might interact with the title tag:
- The title tag is displayed at the top left of most people's browser window.
- Page titles are used as the default description for a person's bookmarks when someone bookmarks a site.
- Visually impaired people use title tags to summarize the contents of a page before they have a text-to-speech reader read the contents of the page.
- These, along with Google's search results, are the only places end users actually see the title tag.

Computerday Part Upgrading Your PC

Computerday Part III
Crash Course on Upgrading Your PC
By: Kay Brener
Upgrading your PC is a great way to save some of your cash; swapping out old hardware for newer, faster components is often cheaper than buying a new PC, and if armed with some technical knowledge, can match the results, speed and pep, of a newer computer. It's wise to come up with a game plan before you start randomly upgrading parts, though.

Consider what your PC already has inside and make a note of it. There's no sense in upgrading your memory if you already have the maximum amount your motherboard will allow, and if you're seeking a performance boost, doubling your RAM can often be easier and cheaper than doing a CPU transplant. A good PC upgrade plan consists of knowing your current hardware, doing a little research, and finally, doing the hardware install.

We suggest that the purchase list for your upgrade starts with the RAM (random access memory). With a little investment, you can considerably improve the performances on your computer, but first, you need to make a little research on your computer to see how much RAM you can install on it and what type you should buy to avoid any conflict between the new component and the motherboard.

Here are a few things to ponder before obtaining more memory: If a memory module's access time is low, it'll support a CPU with a high bus rate, and if your CPU has a high bus frequency, it'll behoove you to buy high quality memory.

When I say graphics card, you see big cash saying good-bye to your wallet. Let me tell you something: you do not need an expensive, end of the line graphics card, unless you intend to run on your computer the latest 3D video games or complicated video editing software. If, instead, you do not care for all this and you are another type of user, then ponder more if you really need a new graphics card or not.

If you use your machine just for surfing the web, writing e-mails and Word documents, then take the graphics card off the list. Remember, we are talking hard cold cash here, and it will be too expensive to purchase a $600 graphics card just to play Solitaire. There are also other aspects, if your graphics card is too old and it is need of dire replacement. See what kind of slot your motherboard has for the graphics card - PCI, PCI Express or AGP and plan your purchases accordingly.

With MP3s, digital photographs, and videos quickly eating up precious hard drive space, a hard drive upgrade is a must if you don't want to run out of space for future files. Grafting on an extra 200 gigabytes to your system for your files to reside on is faster and less of a hassle than having to backup to a thumb drive or DVD.

Most hard drive upgrade kits sold provide software that will allow you to easily transfer the entire contents of your old hard drive. This saves you from the laborious job of backing up all your files and doing a clean install of Windows on the new hard drive. Swapping out your older hard drive for a newer model will typically decrease loading and saving times, resulting in a noticeable improvement of your computer

There are also other aspects to be regarded when upgrading your PC. If your model is a brand computer, such as Dell, HP or IBM, putting on a new motherboard may prove to be quite a challenge. So, changing the motherboard during your upgrade effort may require other expenses, such as a new case for your computer.

Upgrading the components in your PC can give your old computer a much needed spring in its step. But before you open up your wallet and your PC's case, be sure to have a game plan before performing transplant surgery on your box.