Solid-State Drives Are the New ‘Standard’ In Hard Drive Technology

10 January 2011

Solid-State Drives or SSD are the thing to watch out for in hard drive technology.  Solid-State Drives are data storage media which use solid state memory, and are called solid states as they are built entirely from solid materials with the electrons and other charge carriers contained within one material.

Solid-State Drives are fast displacing mechanically rotating hard disk drives.  This is because as data storage media, Solid-State Drives are sturdier, faster and generally more reliable than magnetic hard disk drives.  The only drawback is the high cost.  But, as history in technology has consistently shown, prices would drop considerably through the years.

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Hard Drive Brands - Seagate

06 January 2011

Seagate is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of hard drives and storage solutions with a history marked with many breakthroughs.  The first product they produced was the ST-506, the first hard disk to fit the 5.25-inch form factor of the then famous “mini-floppy drive.” Needless to say, the hard disk was a hit, and was shortly after upgraded from the 5-megabyte to the 10-megabyte version, the ST-412.

It is the ST-412 hard disk which fueled Seagate’s early growth as it was the hard disk used by the first personal computer to contain a hard disk, the IBM XT.  Back then, IBM was the largest supplier of personal computers and purchased a volume of hard disks from Seagate that was large enough to propel Seagate to financial viability.

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Understanding How Identity Theft Works

05 January 2011

Identity theft is a crime where the thief steals or assumes another person’s identity to gain access to that person’s resources, credits or benefits.  The victim of identity theft can have his identity and credits used for the identity thief’s advantage.  In most cases the victim can even be held liable for the criminal actions done by the identity thief in the victim’s name.

Identity theft is actually a misnomer since it is not really possible to steal a person’s identity.  More accurate terms might be identity cloning, identity fraud or impersonation.  However, since 1964, that term has stuck.

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Why Businesses Should Never Fail to Backup Data

04 January 2011

Backing up is the process of making copies of original data as a contingency plan in case of data loss.  “Backup” is a noun referring to a copy of the original while to “back up” is a verb for the act of making copies.  Doing backup has become a necessity as there is always the possibility of losing data.  It is said that 67% of internet users experience serious data loss.

The urgency of doing backup increases with the degree of importance, the sensitive nature and volume of the data.   Important data include financial accounts, especially memorable photos, medical records, confidential information and military communications.

Businesses are the ones in serious need of good data backup because of the sensitive nature and large volume of data they handle daily.  There are two primary uses of data backup.  One is disaster recovery which is restoring to a state following a disaster.  The other is to restore a fraction of the whole data after a small part of the data has been accidentally deleted or corrupted.

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