Tag Archives: Hard Drive

Q. Do I upgrade my Drive or my RAM?

Posted on March 7, 2020 by quill

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)

Posted on February 25, 2020 by quill

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?

Posted on February 20, 2020 by quill

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?

Posted on February 19, 2020 by quill

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

Posted on December 20, 2019 by quill

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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Q: What does “swap memory” do that physical RAM memory in a computer can’t do?

Posted on December 17, 2019 by quill

A: It can be bigger. Swap files on the computer’s hard drive are there for when you don’t have enough physical RAM, so the operating systems swaps data out of RAM space and writes a file on storage, to free … Continue reading →

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

Posted on October 17, 2014 by quill

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?

Posted on March 19, 2014 by quill

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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Installing hard drives in an Apple iMac

Posted on August 14, 2012 by quill

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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Q. I have a small drive, can iPhoto & iTunes go on an external?

Posted on July 21, 2012 by quill

While the programs themselves should remain in the Applications folder of your internal startup drive, the Libraries for iTunes and iPhoto can be placed on an external hard drive to save space on the internal drive.  Keep in mind that … Continue reading →

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

Posted on July 12, 2012 by quill

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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Western Digital sees Red, releases new line of NAS storage hard drives

Posted on July 12, 2012 by quill

Western Digital has made an addition to their drive line up, adding a Red series of 3.5″ SATA hard drives to complement their Blue (standard), Green (low power consumption) and Black (high performance) series. At the same time, they are … Continue reading →

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Q. How do I upgrade the hard drive in a Windows laptop?

Posted on June 30, 2012 by quill

Most modern notebook machines have hard drives that can be replaced with a larger, faster 2.5″ SATA hard drive or upgraded to a 2.5″ SATA Solid State (SSD) flash drive. Older notebooks may have 2.5″ IDE (Parallel ATA) hard drives, they can still … Continue reading →

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Q. Can I replace the drive in my 2012 or earlier MacBook / MacBook Pro?

Posted on June 27, 2012 by quill

The MacBook and MacBook Pro Mid 2012 and earlier models (excluding all MacBook Airs and the Late 2012 and later Retina MacBook Pro) have hard drives that can be replaced with a larger, faster 2.5″ SATA hard drive or upgraded … Continue reading →

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Q. What Memory and Drives fit my MacBook Air?

Posted on June 12, 2012 by quill

Apple MacBook Air machines feature Intel processors and an exceedingly thin Aluminum body. None of the MacBook Airs have internal optical drives, Apple sells an external USB Superdrive (make sure to check compatibility with your MacBook Air when buying a … Continue reading →

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