What are some raid configurations and how to save data

                                              RAID CONFIGURATIONS

    When setting up a raid configuration on a operating system you have various choices. A few years ago it was popular to set up what is called a stripe configuration. This would usually consist of two hard drives of equal size. They may have been two 80gb hard drives or two 160gb hard drives. The object was to make the two of them look like one big hard drive. The drawback to doing this was if something went wrong with one hard drive you would lose all your data. We don't see this much anymore because we have hard drives that are 500gb, 1tb or larger. There are some programs available to try and get the data or the other choice would be to send it out for data recovery by professionals. This choice can be very expensive. It could be $800 or more. Generally a business may go this route if the data is extremely important.

                      
                            This video is from 2011 ,Software vs Hardware RAID by Anders Brownworth


 The next type of raid configuration that is very common is a mirror raid. This is where two drives are installed in the computer. They are the same size hard drive such as two 250gb, 500gb or larger. The one hard drive is the main drive that the system boots off of. The second hard drive basically is an exact image of the first drive. This way if something goes wrong with one drive you still have all your data. You may be able to boot off the good drive if you longer want the mirror raid configuration. Also if you want the mirror raid to continue you can install another hard drive of the same size and run the raid program that comes up during the post test. You then enter the program and do what is called rebuild the mirrored raid array. I should note that not all raid programs have the rebuild choice. Now when you look in the system at the hard drives in my computer for example you will only see one hard drive listed. This is a good choice for a business. One drawback is that if you get a virus on one drive it will be on the other. So if you get the cryptolocker virus you will most likely lose everything.
                                         
                                 This a pretty good basic explanation of various raid configurations



 There are other raid configurations to choose from. They generally go from Raid 0 to Raid 6, but can go higher. There are various settings that will need to be set. Here is a link to a wikipedia page that will give some information on raid configurations. Just copy and paste the link in your address bar and press enter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID . Here is another link you can use as well http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2010/08/raid-levels-tutorial/ . This article from PC Mag looks like a good one http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2370235,00.asp .
  So you will notice that the videos are generally a few years old. I myself feel that raiding drives is somewhat old school. Hard drives have become much larger, microprocessors have become a lot faster and memory has become larger in amount of space. We are at ddr3 and moving higher resulting in faster front side bus speeds. There are also better ways of backing up data and well as systems with redundant hard drive replacing.  
 Thank You for reading and stay safe.

No Hope For The Cryptolocker Virus

They suggest many ways to protect yourself from getting the cryptolocker virus. Yet there isn't any way to get your data back. If you pay the high ransom fee in time you may get your data. I have also seen some information that Microsoft can decrypt your hard drive. I have a feeling that this may be very expensive. This web site has some good information. Just copy the link and paste it into your web address line and press enter to go to the site http://www.cmitsolutions.com/corporate/blog/5-ways-keep-your-computer-safe-cryptolocker-ransomware-virus.
                                   

  Microsoft is warning everyone about a new virus that is taking over windows vista computers. I have not seen this myself coming on any computers as of yet. Here is a link to the information about it http://rt.com/usa/windows-microsoft-vulnerability-tiff-327/ .
  My best advise is keep you virus software up to date. Do not open any email if you do not know where it's from and back up your data frequently.

                                                    
                                             If you have the time and want to learn about viruses watch this video.


  If you have windows xp just remember that support for it ends April 8th 2014. You could become very vulnerable to viruses getting in through loop holes. My best advise is update your computer and go to windows 7 or go with a new computer running windows 7, 8 or windows 8.1.
 The other choice is change over to a Linux system.
  Thank You for reading and stay safe.

Tick Tock Tick Tock April 8th Is Coming....No More Support For Windows XP

         BYE BYE WINDOWS XP ON APRIL 8TH


                                                            
           What you should do to keep using WindowsXP after April 2014 by PuppyLinuxWorld

 Just a reminder April 8th is coming and so is the end of support for windows xp. No more updates for windows xp and no more hot fixes. I have even had a laptop with windows xp that had a message from Microsoft Security Essentials antivirus software indicate that it will no longer be supported after April 8th. Other problems I just recently had with a computer was that Gmail Email is no longer being supported by internet explorer 8. Of course the highest version of internet explorer in windows xp is internet explorer 8. The only way around this is to either install Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome.
  There are messages coming up all the time on windows xp about no more support after April 8th. It seems to me that unless your computer is a stand alone machine and does not connect to the internet you may still use it. So do not share files on your computer from others, because of the possibility of getting an infection. It looks like Microsoft is almost forcing people to go to windows 7 or windows 8.
  One suggestion is to go with a dual boot system using windows xp, Linux mint, Ubuntu or my favorite Linux Zorin. This way you can go on the internet with Linux for web surfing and email. Thunderbird Email seems to work very well.

LINUX By Larry Ewing

What Do I Do With That Old Windows XP Computer

  One question I hear since windows xp will no longer be supported by Microsoft coming up April 8. Well one idea is to just plain recycle the old computer and save the hard drive for the data on it. You can also take the old hard drive, place it in an External Enclosure and make it into a back up drive. You can also use it to save data on such as pictures and documents. Another item you can usually use out of the computer is the optical drive ( DVD Burner) as long as it has a sata connection to the motherboard. If it is an ide connection, there are ide to sata adapters out there, but they may no be too reliable. I would reuse the SATA Hard Drive if it is 80 gigabytes or larger. if the old system is a laptop, then all you might be able to use is the old hard drive, depending on whether it is big enough.

By photo: Qurren (talk), with IXY 10S compact digital camera. (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

By Asim18 (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

  The second idea is if the computer is between two to three years old you may be able to just install Windows 7 Home Premium or Pro 32bit or 64bit on it. I would advise you to run the windows 7 compatibility checker to find out if there are any problems with the computer. If it looks like it passes then you can either install a fresh load of windows 7 or purchase a Windows 7 Home Premium or Pro Upgrade Package of software. I would check at the manufactures website to see if there are software drivers available for windows 7 32bit or 64bit. If you are trying the upgrade choice I would save all your data first. You never know when disaster will strike.

By AZorin (Zorin OS Developer) (The Zorin OS Developers, I asked them.) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

   The third choice is to go with a different operating system all together. By this I mean going with one of the Linux distributions. If you are new to Linux I would suggest doing some reading on the internet about Linux first. There are some distributions that will run some windows xp programs. If you do decide to go with Linux I would look at either Linux Zorin, Linux Mint or Ubuntu . You can download the iso file and burn it to a dvd disk. You can then boot off the dvd disk and run Linux from there. This is called a live cd and most function will run. It is a good way to see if you like it. I myself have Zorin, Mint and Ubuntu running on some of my computers. One is my old dell 8400 desktop and zorin runs in a 32bit system and has no problems. It is much faster than windows.

By Zorin soft (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

By Ubuntu (Ubuntu 13.10) [GPL (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

  The last idea is to just save your data, recycle the computer and buy a totally Windows 7 or Windows 8 New Computer. Also remember that Windows 8 is different than Windows 7. There are refurbished computers out there, but check on the warranty. The good part about a new computer is that you will have a new updated system with a warranty. I would just check and make sure your other devices such as the monitor,  printer or scanner will work in windows 7. If you use your old speakers, just make sure they have their own ac adapter to power them. There are older ones that were powered by the system such as Hewlett Packard polk speakers. These kind of speakers will not work properly.
  Thank You for reading and stay safe.
     

Starting to see more and more viruses on windows 8 computers

  I am starting to see more windows 8 computers with viruses on them. This may be due to the fact that more computers are being sold with windows 8 installed. As windows xp draws to a close with no more support people are moving on to windows 7 or windows 8.  As time goes on I am sure the viruses will get more sophisticated so they can do as much damage as possible. Your best course of action is to keep your virus software up to date. You should also have a current back up of your system that is not constantly connected to your computer.
  The best virus programs out there still seem to be Avast, AVG 2014, Various Nortons Antivirus Packages, Kaspersky, Bit Defender and Mcafee Antivirus Plus 2014. Just remember that no amount of virus protection is 100% safe. Also the crypto locker virus is still out there ruining someones day. It usually comes in through an email. My best advise is if you do not know who the email is from DO NOT OPEN IT JUST DELETE IT.
  Also if anyone calls you on the phone and says your computer is infected JUST HANG UP. I have a friend where they called him and said they were from Microsoft and his computer was infected. He proceeded to tell the individual that he does not use windows, but uses a Mac computer. I have even heard of these people threatening people. So my advise is do not talk to them and JUST HANG UP. You are not being rude you are just protecting yourself.
  The five viruses to be looking out for are the Alureon or TDSS , Cryptolocker, Zeus, Trojan win32/fakevsdef and the Zeroaccess. Of course there are lots of viruses coming out all the time. So if your computer all of the sudden seems slow, has pop ups or some virus program telling you that you that you are infected and you did not install it, yes you guessed you are infected. I would only advise someone who knows how to clean the computer to take on the job. If you do not know how to clean the computer or do not have a friend or relative who can take it to your local service shop that cleans viruses off computers.
  Well that's all for now so stay safe. Thank You for reading.