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Free Data Recovery Evaluation

Codrut Nistor — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 06:42:35 +0000

One of the best interior decorations I have ever seen is the 5.25″ hard drive hanging on the wall in the room of a friend of mine. One of the rooms, in fact, but the most interesting ones, primarily used as office and, sometimes, bedroom. Each time I go pay a visit and we spend some time chatting about design, brand identity, software, or simply sipping some beer and joking, I can’t stop admiring that old piece of hardware on the wall, while thinking about my own hard drive-related stories…

… and the most painful one to tell is about a drive that died on me after working flawlessly for over 9 months. Fortunately, it had warranty, so I got it replaced. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to recover any bit of data, and I only had partially backed it up, so… I would have gladly paid for a specialized data recovery operation instead of having a new drive and most of my data lost.

Now, we got to the topic of the day – free data recovery evaluation! I know we’re all looking to find the easiest data recovery solution, as well as the most competitively priced one, and I am not only talking about Maxtor hard drive recovery here…

… so if you’re one of the unlucky ones with a dead drive on their hands, DriveSavers Data Recovery can help you save some money these days, but the most important part is that they can help you get your data back, and that’s what really matters!

The big news is that the company is offering free evaluations for the 5-7 business day service, so you get to find out about the price before the work is done (so you can have time to sell your car to get money for paying the data recovery operation, haha!). No, no, don’t worry, I was just joking – you will be able to cancel it all if you think your data isn’t worth the recovery price.

If you really want to get to it, here’s what you should do – send the drive to DriveSavers, wait for 3-4 business days (that’s 3-4 days after they receive your drive, so if you’re not taking it there personally, it may last a bit longer) to have the results of the analysis ready, and then give it a no or give it a go.

One last thing that I am sure you’ll find useful, especially if you decided your data is worth the price, is the 10% discount currently available. Just mention DS20159 and you’ll be granted a 10% discount, all right? Good luck!

Norton Internet Security 2009 Free!!

Codrut Nistor — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:23:41 +0000

Since I just got through reading some comments (evil comments) made after I wrote about my user experience with a domestic product on some site, let me start this with a disclaimer: I don’t work for A-Data, and I am not being paid by them to write this, either! These being said, let me also add that I think being stuck to a brand is not smart at all, and I was able to see this recently, when after thinking about it for two days, I decided to get a Sapphire card instead of the same model from MSI. The reason was that there were no MSI cards available, and it was so hard to choose because Sapphire only provides two years warranty. Guess what – today, the Sapphire card is about 10% more expensive, and there weren’t any MSI cards available at all so far!

I know the introduction above may not be relevant to the topic, but it’s good to know that, at least sometimes, the best decision is to leave what you know behind and try something new. For example, Norton Internet Security 2009 free doesn’t ring any bell here, since I had some unpleasant experiences with Norton’s products a few years ago, but I may give this company one more chance, especially since they teamed up with A-Data…

… and the idea is very simple: you purchase some memory product from A-Data (a flash drive or some DRAM module), go to this page, follow those few easy steps described there, grab your Norton Internet Security 2009 free subscription and that’s it!

Unfortunately, you will only get a free 60-day subscription of Norton Internet Security 2009. Well, at least you get lifetime warranty for the memory modules… or that’s what it should happen, since I got my memory kit about two years ago, and there are plenty of different retailers selling A-Data products who have different warranty policies.

Now, let me tell you a little trick – if you purchased some A-Data memory product before 2008 and didn’t register so far, you’ll still be able to register it – just have that serial number at hand, and enter some 2008 day and month as the date of purchase. Ta-taa! Unfortunately, you may not gain access to downloading exclusive software, but at least you’ll get access to some hot product information, as well as various discounts and additional members-only stuff, so you’re not going to waste your time.

In my case, I got lucky – after registering my A-Data flash drive, I got access to this Norton Internet Security 2009 free 60 days subscription, so the conclusion can be only one – if you don’t succeed instantly, try again! Sure, the idea would be to look for the “Download Valuable Software” logo on the box of your product…

Use TV As Monitor, If You Can

Codrut Nistor — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:52:21 +0000

In the last few years, I started to think more and more about protecting the environment, especially because I see most people around me completely ignoring this. For example, I upgraded my video card not because I really needed more video juice, but because the new one draws less power, and now I am really glad that I’ll build a computer for someone who won’t need a monitor… and this naturally takes us to the subject today: if you’re not using a monitor, what are you going to use? Obviously, you’ll end up using your TV as monitor!

Unfortunately, not every TV can be used as monitor for your computer, but even if you’ll have to get a new TV, it’s better than purchasing a TV and a monitor, don’t you think? Since I won’t tell you “Get that model from LG!” or “You have to get a Sony LCD TV/monitor, they are great!” because it wouldn’t be fair at all, I will try to guide you in making the right choice for your needs and budget.

Ready or not, here you have the big things to think about before deciding to use TV as monitor…

1. Who is usually using the TV, and who needs the monitor? Let’s suppose that you’re living in a room with your girlfriend, and she wants to watch some soap opera exactly when you want to play some online game with your friends – in this case, you shouldn’t use TV as monitor… unless you don’t know how to make her leave you!

2. Check the back of your TV (or the one you want to buy, of course) to see the available connections; if you’re buying one, ask about it. To connect a PC, a DVI or VGA input should be enough. Speaking for myself, I think HDMI is useless for most people, but having the capability to directly play files from a USB drive is something you should also look for, since it becomes more and more popular and is decently priced.

3. See if your computer has DVI output – as long as your TV also has it, this is the best way to connect them, but using the VGA cable ain’t that bad, either. If you have a VGA input and only DVI output on your video card, don’t worry – adapters are not expensive at all, and they’re not hard to find, either.

4. Be sure to check the native resolution of the display, especially when buying a new TV/monitor – a lower end LCD TV with 1024X768 resolution isn’t such a smart choice to be used as TV and monitor…

5. Try to get only the additional features you really need – for example, a TV/LCD with good speakers could help you drop those computer speakers you had and gain some space.

I guess these are some major things to think about when trying to use a TV as monitor, and if you’re thinking about using that old TV your mother had for over a decade… it may be done, but using the S-video/composite connectors may not deliver good results at all, especially if you look around at these LCD TV/monitor wonders available for pretty low prices!

Laptop Vs. Desktop

Codrut Nistor — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:55:16 +0000

I know this is a pretty hot topic these days, but I just can’t stay aside and watch, so today we’ll talk about the laptop vs desktop fight. While most things are well known about this whole deal, I will share with you some of my own thoughts and true stories, so maybe this will all be a bit more interesting than just a list of good and bad for laptop and desktop computers (we’ll also have such a thing, don’t worry, but I’ll leave that for the last part of the article).

Almost two years ago, I got a new desktop computer. During those days when I ordered the parts, I was really pissed off by the fact that choosing was extremely hard, since I could have got a pretty nice laptop within the budget, but now I know I made the right choice. When I got the desktop computer, I put a 320 GB hard drive inside (the rest of the system was also average, with a Radeon X1950 Pro video card, 2 GB of memory, and a X2 4000+ CPU slightly pushed up to 2.4GHz).

One year later, I took that one out, placed it inside an external USB enclosure, and got a new 1 TB drive inside the beast. Needless to say, I got a machine with mid-range gaming capabilities, and even today I can try some new games without being ashamed of how slow they run. This is naturally taking us to the next part, where we’ll talk about the big things you need to keep in mind when choosing between a laptop and a desktop computer…

Laptop vs Desktop – The Price

For a long time, laptop computers were really expensive when compared to the desktops, but now those times are gone. Even laptop replacement parts come for decent prices, although they won’t send you into bankruptcy, as it was the case a few years ago. Anyway, if we draw the line, you will always get a better bang for your buck from a desktop, that’s a fact.

Laptop vs Desktop – Upgradeability & Warranty

Speaking for myself, I have 5 years warranty for all my hard drives, 3 years for the mainboard and video card, lifetime warranty for the memory, and so on. If something breaks, I just get it out, and get some temporary replacement to use until I get it repaired or replaced. While most laptops come with standard 1 year, maybe 2 years warranty, upgrading them is very hard, and if something gets damaged… there’s more likely to need a full replacement.

Even more, I heard enough cases of laptops with broken mainboards after the warranty period ended, and the repairs were expected to cost almost as much as a brand new laptop. Fortunately, it’s not the same with desktop computers…

Laptop vs Desktop – Mobility

While you can carry your desktop computer around, not even the all-in-one computers like the iMac can’t beat a laptop. If you really need to move a lot and have to carry your computer around… it’s obvious who wins here!

Laptop vs Desktop – Storage Space

I guess I said it earlier, but let’s make it clear – while a 500 GB is still large for a laptop, and can only be found in expensive models, grabbing a 1 TB drive for your desktop is really cheap these days.

Laptop vs Desktop – DIY Factor

I have seen only a few real DIY laptops so far, and the options available weren’t extremely rich. If you want to build your own desktop computer, the options available are countless… and you also get out much cheaper. A DIY laptop is considered something for geeks and priced accordingly, while desktop computer parts can be found virtually everywhere for decent prices.

Laptop vs Desktop – Gaming/3D Capabilities

I can’t say there aren’t laptops capable of handling 3D modelling/CAD tasks, but they come for really painful prices. Same goes for gaming. If you’re a gamer, then you surely know that “gaming laptop” is more of an utopy, than something real.

Laptop vs Desktop – Peripherals

Lately, more and more laptops started to include a camera, as well as various security accessories (fingerprint scanners, and so on), and this sounds great. With desktop computers, adding a bunch of external devices is easy, but may require some extra space and extra cash. If you’re using a lot of USB devices, you should be careful when deciding to get a laptop, because some of them may not have enough ports to spare.

That’s most of it, but if I forgot something, I hope you’ll step in and help. Just drop a comment below and let us know about your opinion – who’s winning the laptops vs desktop match in your court?