Category Archives: Hard Drives and SSD

Questions and answers on storage, hard drive, SSD, flash, backups, network NAS and RAID

Q. Some manufacturers sell Pro, Business, or Enterprise lines of SSDs. Are they worth it?

Q. Why should I invest more money in a Pro, Business or Enterprise line of Solid State Drives instead of the cheaper consumer SSD’s? A. In order to answer the question, we need to dive into how SSD drives are … Continue reading

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What SSD drives and RAM fit Late-2012 and newer Macintoshes?

Starting with the Late 2012 models, Apple changed the format of drives and memory in most Macs. ( Link to pre-2012 model list ) MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models (including all the “Retina” screen models) lost the ability to … Continue reading

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Q. Do I upgrade my Drive or my RAM?

Q. What is better, a SSD Drive upgrade versus a RAM upgrade? A. It depends a lot on what you are doing with your computer, whether you have an adequate amount of either right now, and what your goals are. … Continue reading

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How to test a hard drive (Windows)

First. last and always – Back up There is no substitute for having regular and verified backups of your data. If you don’t have a backup routine, you need to establish one, ASAP. How do I know a drive is … Continue reading

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Q. My old MacBook Pro is dead. How can I run its internal drive with OS X 10.11 as an external drive?

A. First, what year and model of MacBook Pro is it? If it is a 2012 or older, it is simple, because it is a 2.5 inch SATA drive. You’ll remove the hard drive and put the drive into an … Continue reading

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Q. I have a broken iMac Mid 2011. Can I re-use the iMac’s SSD drive with a Windows machine?

A. Your iMac Mid-2011 came standard with a 3.5 inch hard disk drive. (Note: The Apple Fusion drives were not brought out ’til the Late 2012 model, so your particular iMac has no socket for a SSD blade). Therefore, the … Continue reading

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Q. What is the difference between NVME, M.2 and SATA?

A. M.2 (formerly known as NGFF) is a standard for a computer expansion card socket, and the cards that can go into it. M.2 – Wikipedia M.2 cards are named after their size: the most popular is M.2 2280 – 22 … Continue reading

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Q. Why does it take much longer to copy a large file to a USB flash than to an external hard drive?

A. USB “keychain” flash drives are slower because the flash drive has much poorer writing performance than an external hard disk drive. The real world speed of writing depends both on the performance of the interface (USB in this case) … Continue reading

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Where did the screw holes go? 8 and 10 TB hard drive mounting issue

So you’ve got your shiny new Seagate IronWolf or Western Digital Red Pro 10 TB hard drive and your’re itching to install it in your MacPro or NAS appliance.  You pull out the drive tray and grab your screwdriver and… … Continue reading

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New MacBook Pros and USB C (and Thunderbolt and video, and network, and power)

The new MacBook Pros announced October 27 2016 have taken the plunge that we guessed was coming: All USB Type C ports, all the time.  (for a refresher on Type C, see our article here) Following on after the opening … Continue reading

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What is the state of Thunderbolt drives? (October 2014 edition)

Thunderbolt drive news (Note 4/2020, many of the products introduced in 2014 are now out of date in 2020) Apple has left Firewire and adopted Thunderbolt as their recommended high speed connection for external hard drives (and monitors and other … Continue reading

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Q. What is a NAS drive and how would I use it?

NAS stands for Network Attached Storage.  It means any stand-alone hard drive or storage unit that is connected to an Ethernet network, and can be shared by the devices on that network. This is distinct from a USB or Firewire … Continue reading

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Q. Where did OCZ Technologies go? What happens to my warranty?

OCZ Technologies (OCZ Technology Group) was a leading edge producer of performance computer products – at first RAM memory and power supplies for gaming and overclocking, then they took on SSD solid state drives and abandoned the RAM and power supply … Continue reading

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Installing hard drives in an Apple iMac

Note: Installing hard drives in an iMac requires disassembling the machine and should be attempted only if you have experience. If you are not confident, please refer the work to a competent technician. Intel iMacs  require the glass LCD screen … Continue reading

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Add an SSD drive to a MacPro for fast booting and loading times

The MacPro Xeon tower machines are incredibly fast workstations. You can make yours even faster by adding a Solid State Drive (SSD) as a boot drive and/or as a scratch file drive.  An SSD equipped machine boots very quickly and … Continue reading

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