Yes today the support for Microsoft Windows XP Support ended. Here is a link to Microsoft end of support for windows xp http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/end-support-help . Here is another link to an interesting article from Hong Kong just copy and paste it into your address bar http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?we_cat=11&art_id=144351&sid=42009446&con_type=1&d_str=20140409&fc=2 . Here are a few videos below of what people are saying.
Windows XP Support Ending April 9th 2014: TWiT 448 by twit
How to Use Windows XP Safely After Microsoft Support Ends: The Tech Guy 1068 by twit
What you should do to keep using WindowsXP after April 2014 by PuppyLinuxWorld
Well I hope these videos are of some help to everyone out there. Just remember to keep your eye on the news just in case there is any big problems with virus attacks on windows xp. I suspect that it may be at certain sights people frequent where infections may come from, but that is nothing new.
Thank You for reading and stay safe.
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Sunday, March 30, 2014
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.
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.
Saturday, March 29, 2014
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.
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