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RAID: Something geeks often do because they can

HelpMeRick.com is not a geek website so I'm not even going to get into what RAID is other than it is something geeks do to their computers.

However, I will say that I have had a number of clients over the years who have had a friend, relative or computer salesman talk them into going with a RAID setup and it has turned out to be a giant problem.

Often RAID is installed as a "backup" system. Essentially this type of RAID setup uses two hard drives. Whatever happens on the first hard drive is automatically duplicated on the second hard drive.

Quick tip to determine how much space is left on a disk

Free disk spaceBefore I get to the meat of today's tip, let's discuss the definition of disk. A disk is any computer device that can store data. Many times, computer users only think of floppy disks or CD's as disks, but hard drives, USB flash drives, and memory cards are all considered disks.

It is important to know how to determine how much free disk space you have on some of your disks. No matter the type of disk, you can figure out how much space is being used and how much is free by following these very simple steps:

Backing up pictures to flash drives

Flash drives have become extremely popular over the past year. And why not…they are spacious, getting cheaper all the time and dare I say sexy? However, they still cost more per megabyte than any other backup medium. I did a little research tonight to illustrate why you should still use CD's or DVD's for photo and music backup rather than flash drives.

Consider this:

Type of Memory Capacity Cost Cost per megabyte
USB Flash Drive 512 mb $15.00 $.03
CDR 700 mb $15 for 50 disks $.00000000000004
DVD+R 4700 mb $30 for 50 disks $.0000000000000003

I will admit that flash drives are extremely easy to use and work well, but the economics just aren't there for long term storage…yet.

Alphabetize your Favorites (or Bookmarks)

Sort menus alphabeticallyThis question came up a couple of times on the show on Saturday and numerous times recently via email; How do I alphabetize my favorites or bookmarks?

Internet Explorer

  1. Click Favorites from the menus
  2. RIGHT Click on any item in the favorites list
  3. Click Sort by Name from the menu

Mozilla Firefox

  1. Click Bookmarks from the menus
  2. RIGHT Click on any item in the bookmarks list
  3. Click Sort by Name from the menu

That's it! You can do that as often as you need to keep your lists in order. Incidentally, you can apply this same technique to your programs menu…

IPCONFIG and NETSTAT Options

Ipconfig Switches

Switch Effect

/all

Produces a detailed configuration report for all interfaces.

/flushdns

Removes all entries from the DNS name cache.

Basic Programming

One caller today, John, was looking for a basic programming application to teach his grand daughter computer programming. We found this site that has a free basic program available for download.

Myron, from Ontario, wrote in and suggested the following:

The father may wish to check out Python as a modern alternative. It has a simple syntax and encourages good programming habits. One can get into Object Oriented Programming as well as traditional Procedural programming styles. It has been ported to just about every operating system there is!

http://www.python.org/

DSL Reports

DSL Reports is a great web site for testing your Internet speed and tweaking Windows settings to take better advantage of your high speed connection.

Rethinking “old” computers

With Vista now being the only main stream choice for a new computer, I have stared to develop a new strategy to look at "old" computers. Computer users who have late model Windows 98 machines (bought in 1999-2000), they might be able to get a few more years out of their systems and get a more updated operating system by switching to a Linux based system. I plan on doing some testing over the next few months of revamping older systems with Linux and of course will post my findings here at the site.

For Windows XP users (computers bought between 2001-2006), XP should work fine for most people for many years to come. Early models of XP machines and later bargain models, however, came with only 256mb of RAM. With the early editions of XP, 256 was adequate, but with the 100+ updates that have subsequently been released and larger need for security software, 512mb is now a minimum for XP and I encourage my customers to strongly consider 1024mb (1 GB). If a computer user isn't careful about security and updates, a reformat and reinstall is necessary, but the computer will be running top notch again afterwards. 

Will the world end on March 11?

We have had several calls from people concerned about something they have read or seen on the news about how the new daylight savings time changes will cause computers to crash around the world.

If you are using Windows XP or Vista or Mac OSX, you need not worry. The changes will be made through regular updates.

If you are using Windows 2000 or 98 there may be patches on the way that will fix the problem, but even on systems where the problem goes unfixed, there shouldn't be any major problems.

Most of the problems it may cause can be resolved by changing the system and Windows clocks to the correct time on older machines. If your computer isn't trying to sync its clock with the Internet then your computer really doesn't care what time zone it's in. Windows 98 machines and most Windows 2000 machines don't sync time with the Internet without additional software.

Rick posted a link and a short article as well on this subject earlier this year. Click here to read that article.

Temporary Internet Files – Don’t let them stack up

Cleaning out temporary files on our computers (see the archives for Disk Cleanup) remains an extremely important step in keeping them running clean and error free. Programs and Windows create temporary files, when needed, to perform certain functions. The Internet uses temporary files to store cookies, and recently visited web sites and their graphics.

Temporary Internet files serve a useful function when you visit web sites on a regular basis. By storing the graphics and some of the text, our browser doesn't have to re-download the files, thus the page loads faster. On the other hand, these files are extremely small and too many of them on our computer (10's of thousands in some cases) can cause a sever performance drop in our computers.

All Rights Reserved © 2026 Rick Castellini
All Rights Reserved © 2026 Rick Castellini