To combat this problem, I’ve decided its time for me to buy an external hard drive. I figure 500 GB is more than enough for me right now. What’s confusing me though is choosing which hard drive to buy. I’ve settled on a 2.5″ drive that draws power from the USB port so I won’t have to worry about an external power source. After a fair amount of research and considering my budget, I’ve narrowed my choice down to these two:

Seagate FreeAgent Go
Transcend StoreJet 25M

I’m getting a lot of conflicting reviews about both drives which is why I’m asking the Ghacks readers to help me make my decision. Here are some of my queries:

Multiple OS support: My primary computer runs Windows XP but I also own a laptop that’s running Ubuntu. I’d prefer something that works out of the box with both but I’m not averse to a little tweaking if necessary.

Partitioning: Would I need to partition my drive? I’m planning to segregate the data according to its format but can I just copy everything on it or should I create dedicated partitions? Should I leave some space free in case I want to install a portable version of an OS?

Durability: What’s the point in spending all that cash if my HD’s going to conk out after a while? Is build quality a factor and how long can I expect the drive to last?

What do you think of my choices? Have I missed anything out? What are you using for external storage and are you happy with it? Let me know in the comments.

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This all occurred to me when I recently bought my Palm Pre. After buying the device and returning to the car, I expected to use the same car charger I used for my previous Blackberry Curve to charge my new device. But when I opened the USB 2.0 jack I found out I was out of luck. So on my way to South Carolina I had to stop by a Sprint store and shell out nearly $30 for a charger. Why couldn’t Blackberry, Palm, Apple and Samsung agree to use the same type of charger?

That might have been one case, but it’s not the first, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who gets frustrated when they have to buy a million and one variations of the same cable to do the same damn thing. I’m not saying we have to compromise performance, but just like all (well almost all) cell phone manufacturers have agreed to use either miniSD or microSD in their devices, it’s the same thing that should be done to stuff like headphone jacks chargers and better yet accessories.

I have no idea what Google and HTC were thinking when they didn’t equip a standard 3.5mm jack on the G1. Or why do we need to have ‘Apple Certified’ accessories for our iPhone’s. Yes I know the answer, its just a way for these companies to make more money even after they sell a device, because since Apple and Sony have certified accessories for their iPod and PSP line (respectively), you’ll notice that they will void your warranty if they can prove you used an accessory that was not approved by them And of course the certified accessories are more expensive cause the manufacturers are going to transfer their licensing fees to the consumer.

Thankfully there has been progress especially with Bluetooth, FireWire, CF card, eSATA and of course the indispensable Universal Serial Bus. I’m sure it’s going to take a while before I’m able to transfer my Palm Pre battery to my Motorola Q or worse notebook, or use the same charger I have plugged into my notebook for charging my cellphone, but at least some progress is here. Will ya speed it up though?

What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below.

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The software program displays a list of all devices that are currently connected to the local computer system. The display is very informative and it is possible to get an overview of all the connected drives in a few seconds. Information like the drive letter, label, type, size, vendor or format are displayed. It is furthermore possible to filter the list to hide certain types of drives like those that are not mounted at the moment or network drives.

The header of the application contains links to several functions and options that can be used to manage the drives. It is for example possible to explore the drives, look at their properties and smart values (for hard drives), run check disk, hide them from the system or use the subst command to substitute drive letters.

Additional options are provided in the main menu that include benchmarking a drive, defragmenting it, ejecting CD or DVD drives or mapping network drives.

Drive Manager is a free and portable computer program for the Windows operating system. It can be downloaded from the developer’s website.

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The television is sold in different sizes (as usual) including 46″ and 55″ with all models sharing the same feature set which includes energy efficient backlighting (lead and mercury free, energy star compliant), 1920×1200 Full HD support, 120 Hz Auto Motion Plus refresh rate and Internet connectivity.

The ultra slim design of the LED 7000 makes it an ideal candidate for a wall mount. Only one screw needed to mount the TV which makes the process easier and more efficient. A wireless or wired connection is available to connect the television to the network and the Internet. It can display widgets on screen that can display news or websites. Not sure if that is a killer feature but it might come in handy in certain situations.

What makes me consider buying the TV is the energy efficiency, the image quality and the wall mounting capability.

Which TV would you buy if you could select one?

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First thing was to check the installed hardware in the Windows Control Panel. If you operate a different operating system you need to find and access the equivalent there. The LAN was not listed there anymore. That was bad. It could have been a driver problem so the next step was to check for hardware that was not installed yet. The LAN was not found there either.

Next step was to reboot the computer and check in the Bios. While doing that I verified that the LAN led was still on. The BIOS showed zero LAN configuration options. I knew that there were some before which gave me the confirmation that something was seriously wrong. Next step CMOS reset. This is done by setting a jumper on the motherboard. The LAN options did not show up then either. I could have tried installing a new BIOS but this sounded awfully risky with dead components on the motherboard.

You got two options basically at this point. The fast option is to add a new PCI LAN card and install it on the computer system. Good LAN cards should provide better performance than onboard LAN. That’s what I did. The other option is to contact the manufacturer of the motherboard and wait for an answer. Can take some days, usual result is a replacement or repair which can take weeks or even months. Not a good option if you need to be online most of the day.

To put everything in a list:

• Check if the operating system lists the onboard component.
• Check if it can be found by scanning for hardware.
• Check if the lights are on (if it has lights)
• Shutdown the computer and see if everything is connected properly
• Check the Bios for the onboard component
• Reset the Bios
• Replace the Nic or replace the motherboard or contact support.

Do you have any additional tips on how to cope with a dead onboard LAN?

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Driver Sweeper has been covered about two years ago at Ghacks. The software has been designed to cleanup device driver leftovers both on the hard drive and the Windows Registry. The software program comes as a portable version or installer and can cleanup driver and Registry leftovers of the following hardware devices:

• AGEIA – PhysX
• ATI – Display
• Creative – Sound
• Microsoft -Mouse
• NVIDIA – Chipset
• NVIDIA – Display
• Realtek – Sound

While that does not cover all hardware devices it does provide the means to cleanup several of the most popular. All the user needs to do is to select and check one or multiple entries from the list and click on the Analyse button afterwards.

The program will scan the system for files and Registry settings for the selected type of hardware and display those in a list. All entries are checked by default and can be cleaned from that window. It is also possible to uncheck certain entries before starting the device driver cleanup process.

The developers of Driver Sweeper are recommending to uninstall the hardware using the uninstallation routines provided by the Windows operating system and / or hardware manufacturer before running their product to find and cleanup the leftovers. They also suggest to run Driver Sweeper in Safe Mode so that the tool can safely delete the files and Registry settings.

The software has an option to create backups of the device drivers which is highly recommended before starting the cleanup process. Another possibility is the software device driver backup which we covered before at Ghacks.

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The disk storage format tool displays a simple dialog after execution. The connected and recognized USB devices are listed on top. After making a selection there the user can select a file system for the USB device including the NTFS file system. It is furthermore – but not at the same time – possible to make the USB disk storage device bootable from DOS which is an excellent way of installing new software or running diagnostic software programs on a computer system without having to boot in the operating system itself.

The HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool will recognize many but not all USB devices that are connected to a computer.

The disk storage format tool has a size of roughly 2 Megabytes and needs to be installed on the computer system before it can be used.

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A driver is a small software program that allows your computer hardware to communicate with the operating system installed on your machine. That means every piece of hardware right from the keyboard and mouse to your CD-Rom drive, video cards, etc. needs a driver if it’s going to function properly, irrespective of whether you’re a Linux or Windows user.

Almost all of us have faced driver problems at one time or the other. This can happen when you’re doing a fresh install, re-installing an OS, switching from one OS to another or for a reason you just cannot fathom. The easiest solution in most cases is to just re-install the driver. But what if you don’t have it?

For missing or corrupt drivers, Nodevice is your savior. The website boasts of a collection of more than 30,000 drivers on their website. Drivers are categorized either according to their use or the company who manufactures them. This way you can find the driver you’re looking for easily in case you know the model number of your device.

Nodevice has drivers available for all sorts of hardware, including mobile phones, usb devices, and mp3 players. To download a driver, click on the one you want, wait a few seconds (a la Rapidshare) and then save the file to your computer. The site also has a Help section for new users who need help with installing and removing drivers or finding which one is right for them.

A site like Nodevice is handy to have around when the driver you want is unavailable at the original manufacturer’s site. The only thing you have to be careful of is that you install the right driver for your machine.

What do you think of Nodevice? Is it helpful for new users? Do you know of any other sites like it? Where do you normally check for missing drivers? Let me know in the comments.

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Hardware: Trent (the author) suggests scouting around garage sales and social networks specializing in giveaways to find free or cheap hardware. This includes the CPU with a CD or DVD drive, a monitor, mouse, and keyboard. He also threw in speakers. His theory is that people are forever upgrading their computers and usually get rid of good quality equipment for free or at a throwaway price. According to him, this is the only step of the process that involves spending money.

Software: For the OS, Trent recommends the Linux distro Ubuntu. Like most Linux distros, this one is a free download or you can have the Ubuntu folks mail you an installation CD. Ubuntu comes with almost all the programs an average person needs on their PC.

My thoughts: While Trent’s PC building post suggests that a cheap PC is possible, I’m not so convinced. For one thing, picking up hardware at a garage sale can score you a good deal, you also have no idea what you’re getting. Not to mention the havoc someone can wreck with a hard disk that hasn’t been wiped clean.

My other source of hesitation is the choice of Ubuntu. While I have no problems with it, I don’t think it’s effective for computer novices, who are the recipients of this kind of PC. Thirdly, old hardware components are notoriously power-hungry. There’s no point in building a cheap PC if it’s going to feast on your power bill.

Overall, I think it’s possible to build a cheap PC but you may just get more than you bargained for. What do you think of these PC-building suggestions? Would you want to use a computer built this way? What’s the cheapest you think a PC should cost for a novice user? Let me know in the comments.

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Most companies do not seem to think that giving the user choice is a wise thing to do. If you have ever installed a Windows operating system you probably know what I mean. But this article is less about Windows but about the general lack of choice in consumer products and one of the best examples that is affecting me day in day out is the blue blinking light of my Nokia N73 mobile phone.

The phone is starting to blink blue every five seconds or so if it is in sleep mode. Sleep mode has the advantage that the phone is using less battery. It is only possible to turn off the blue light if sleep mode is turned off which would mean that the battery of the phone would drain faster.

Nokia did not think that it would be necessary to give the user the choice to turn of the blue light of the phone but still offer him the choice to keep the sleep mode. The phone has to be placed with the face down to avoid the blue light which is annoying at night.

That’s a case of bad choice on behalf of Nokia to give the user no choice at all but to live with it. I really cannot see the reason why they decided to construct it that way. I also fail to see why Microsoft is not giving its users more choice when installing Windows.

Most customers can probably live happily without facing choices which could make the products more difficulty but that’s where custom setups and settings come into play.Give the average user the default installation but please provide experienced users with a way to customize the product accordingly.

Have you discovered a product like the Nokia N73 that is giving you no choice but to use a feature that you do not need? Let me know about them.

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Some information about the drive. I ordered an OCZ 64 Gigabyte Core Series Sata II 2.5″ Solid State Drive which can be connected with the normal SATA cables. It’s pretty tiny, completely silent and I had to think a bit before I found a placement in my computer for it. Since I’m not moving my computer I put it on top of the 3,5″ bay.

It was immediately recognized by the Bios if my computer and by Windows without having to install drivers or do a Bios update. Keep in mind that I have a relatively new Bios from January 2008 though.

The only thing that I did so far was to install Windows XP on the drive and do all the driver and system updates. I have not installed any applications except for Firefox and Thunderbird yet.

Please point me to any benchmarking tests or other tests that you would like to have performed so that we can evaluate how fast the drive actually is. I’m thinking of benchmarking system start and startup of several applications that I will install on both hard drives. (I have another Windows XP system on my old hard drive).

So, if you got anything let me know and I will perform the test if I can grab the right software to do it.

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The matter is even getting more pressing if the supply is limited, say a limited edition of a computer game or a super duper price for a product that usually costs a lot more. That’s like putting more pressure on the consumer and it usually works.

I’m sometimes hard pressed to stop myself from buying a device after reading about it on the Internet. I came up with a system that is beating impulse buying fair and square and it will definitely save you some money.

It’s actually a pretty easy system. If I see or read about something that I want I think about it for a second. Do I really need the device right now? The answer would be yes in the case of a crashed hard drive but no for a gamin system or computer game.

Every item where I come to the conclusion that I do not need it right away lands on my 90-days list. I add the date and the name of the product on that list. I check back after 90 days and see if I still want to buy that product. If I do I buy it but more often than not I don’t care anymore. Let me give you an example where this worked perfectly.

You might remember that I wanted to buy a SSD (Solid State Drives) for my new computer. SSDs were expensive and rare at that time and most could not really live up to the promise. I put that SSD drive on my 90 days list and ordered one just a few days ago because I still wanted one. Those 90 days however saw some great product releases of reliable and fast SSD drives and I was able to grab one of the fastest for a third of the price that I would have paid back then. As I said, it works pretty well and more often than not it saves you money.

Ladies, this works extremely well for non-tech related products like shoes, perfumes, clothes or books.

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The Netgear WGR614L Open Source Wireless-G Router is compatible to well known firmwares like Tomato and DD-WRT with several others in the making. You might be asking about the benefits of running an Open-Source router in comparison to one that is not. It all boils down to something that gets updated regularly with new features versus something that does not get updated anymore after some time has passed since the initial release.

Netgear seem to have at least one person on board that is proficient with today’s Internet. They have created a community website just for their new line of Open Source routers which perfectly catches the latest Internet trend: Social community.

The website contains blogs, a news sections, downloads, tutorials and a nicely populated forum that is slowly picking up pace. While the Netgear WGR614L Open Source Wireless-G Router is clearly aimed at Linux users Windows users can obviously use the router as well. It retails for a reasonable price of $69 and got mostly positive comments at Amazon and other online shops that sell it.

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Heavy Load is putting the system and its hardware to the test including CPU, Memory and Hard Drives.“HeavyLoad writes a large test-file to the temp folder, it allocates physical and virtual memory and it draws patterns in its window.”

A chart is displaying CPU usage and free memory during the tests but the only indication that the tests have not been successful would be a crash of either the application or the system. The user has the choice to start only selected tests by enabling icons on top of the program window.

It’s possible for instance to only stress the CPU to find out if it is working properly or the cause of problems. Experienced users prefer to use specialized applications like MemTest to test the memory of the computer instead.

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A waterproof keyboard on the other hand can be useful for most users. Did you ever drop some coke, coffee or other liquids on your keyboard before ? Chance is that the keyboard stopped functioning from that moment on or that some keys got sticky or stuck completely.

Waterproof Keyboards from Man Machine can be cleaned from liquids in no time. Most of their keyboards can even be drowned in water to clean them up. Their medical keyboards on the other hand top even this because it’s also contaminant proof. There are probably other manufacturers of waterproof keyboards out there.

I always thought of getting a waterproof keyboard to make the cleaning process easier.Taking the keyboard with you under the shower or in the tube to clean it up once every while. That sounds like fun, does not it ?

The downside is the hefty price tag in my opinion. If someone would produce a solid waterproof keyboard for $30-40 I would buy it but it is not worth $100 or even more in my opinion unless you need it in a special work environment.

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The keyboard comes as a professional and ultimate edition with the only difference between the versions that the ultimate Keyboard ships with blank keys which should be fine for everyone who wants to improve his typing skills the hard way. (the first weeks will be rather painful I believe).

Well, I would not want to pay $80 – $129 for a computer keyboard and I usually prefer simple solid keyboards from manufacturers like IBM or Logitech that come without all those extra “multimedia” keys that modern keyboards seem to ship with. My keyboards are cheap usually but provide great feedback when pressing a key on it. I really don’t feel comfortable with those thin Notebook like keyboards and those ergonomic keyboards that I usually throw at the next wall whenever I have to use them.

What type of keyboards do you prefer ? Classic ? Modern ? Ergonomic ? Uber ? Multimedia ? Let me know.

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It can also happen that dead or stuck pixels appear after using the LCD monitor for a while. It’s a good idea to test the LCD monitor before or immediately after purchase with a software that can reveal stuck or dead pixels. The best case scenario would be obviously a test before buying the monitor to be sure that it does not contain dead pixels.

The tiny application Is My LCD OK [via Shell Extension City] provides several test color schemes that reveal if pixels on the monitor are not working properly. It can be run from any location on the hard drive. The first start uses a German interface, press E to switch to the English interface.

The different test patterns can be loaded by pressing the corresponding button on the keyboard. If you press [1] the screen will change to a white background. If you should find a pixel that is not white you discovered a dead or stuck pixel. By viewing all test patterns you will be able to find all dead or stuck pixels on the LCD monitor.

Hopefully though there will be none or that much that you can return the monitor for a new one.

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They were able to compare the Asus Eee PC models 701 and 900 in white and the 701 in black. Both white models are using the same keyboard while the black keyboard looks and feels different and the assumption can be made that the black 900 model will have the same keyboard as the black 701 model.

The first obvious difference becomes obvious when you place the black and white keyboards next to each other. The black keys seem to be a bit smaller and use a wider spacing than the white ones. They also go deeper which means that the user will receive more feedback from the keyboard in comparison to the white keyboard.

The texture of the black keyboard uses rougher plastic which makes it easier to grip. I have not tested it myself but it looks like the difference between a notebook keyboard and a usual desktop pc keyboard at first glance. Maybe the difference are not that big but the comparison seems valid.

It’s still strange that Asus would create different keyboards for different colored models and the reviewer at Laptop Mag came to the conclusion that this may be caused by the manufacturing process and not by design itself.

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The second reason is to make sure that the hardware is working properly. If your computer ram is faulty you can run into all kinds of difficulties from crashes and bluescreens to severe data loss.I use several applications to test a new computer to reduce the chance that I will run into such difficulties.

I consider the first start the first test of the computer. Why ? Because if the computer boots properly I know that all the devices that are needed to boot are working properly at that time. I usually check the BIOS first which normally does come with a PC Health menu that displays PC temperatures. This first step is essential.

If the CPU temperature for instance would look very high (consult the CPU booklet or website of the developer if you don’t know the values) then something went wrong with the cpu cooler. It could be that the cooler has not been properly placed on the cpu or that the cooler does not have the capacities to cool it effectively.

I usually only test the memory and the cpu of the computer. Especially the memory is essential. The applications that I use for testing purposes are Prime95 (Torture Mode) and Memtest86. Memtest86 is available as a bootable ISO version which means that you can run the application before installing the operating system.

I suppose there is some Live CD that is offering additional applications, anyone having a good tip about that ?

Both applications stress test the computer and should not display errors or cause reboots and shutdowns. A reboot or shutdown usually means that the computer has a cooling problem or faulty hardware. I normally run both applications for at least six hours to make sure everything is alright.

Keeping an eye on the computer temperatures is essential in the beginning. It’s not only the cpu that is important, hard drive, video card and system temperatures are important as well and should not rise to critical levels even when stress testing the computer.

The first application that I usually start after installing the operating system and the drivers is one of those system analysers. Something like Sandra Sisoft or Everest Ultimate. The trial versions are sufficient for my needs and I uninstall the applications after a while again.

Both display the temperatures of all important components and they usually come with their own system stress tests as well.These programs are also excellent for comparing the build in hardware with the hardware that you did purchase.

Gamers can also run 3D Mark 2006 to test their system and observe the temperature level of the video card and cpu afterwards.I usually run Speedfan all the time for the first week which display all temperature sensors of the computer and has the advantage that it is a tiny application that does not use a lot of system resources.

Do you use other programs to test a computer ? Let me know about them.

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The new PC basically consists of an Intel Core 2 Duo Wolfdale cpu, a Gigabyte DS4 motherboard, 4 Gigabytes of DDR2-800 RAM, a Samsung Spinpoint 1 Terabyte hard drive and a Leadtek 8800 GTS video card with 512 Megabyte RAM. I did add some other stuff to the mix to break the 1000€ goal. My plans are to write an article about the building process with lots of pictures and details about the hardware.

The second purchase was a Xbox 360 Elite video game system. I never thought I would buy one but this offer was just to tempting. The German Amazon website is currently selling each Xbox 360 system, that is the arcade, normal and elite system with a free copy of GTA IV, a free HD DVD drive and a free 3 month XBOX Live GOLD membership. I did pay 374€ (about $600) for the complete set.

I first thought a normal arcade version would do it but I have hopes that I can eventually add XBMC to the XBOX so that it can replace my old Xbox as a media center. The package with the Xbox 360 Arcade sells for 200€ (roughly $320) currently. If you wanna take a look here is the link to Amazon Germany. Remember those are European prices, they are not comparable to US prices.

I probably will have to purchase a new television soon to gain the full benefit of the video gaming system. Any suggestions on a good LCD TV ?

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