All computers are powered by a tiny silicon processor that carries millions of transistors too small to be seen with naked human eyes. The unique feature of the processor is that it can combine the power of the transistors to carry out a huge amount of calculations per second. This is what gives computers their incomparable computing power. Digital devices run a variety of software to harness this power and are able to surpass humans and mechanical devices in terms of performance and quality of work done.
Computers generate a large amount of data during their routine operations. To keep this data safe and sound even after the machine has been switched off, a number of data-storage devices have been invented. These differ widely in storage capacity, shape and size as well as price. Their capacity ranges from a mere 1.2 MB of the now-almost-extinct floppy diskette to an enormous 500 GB of a portable hard drive.
These storage devices use different technologies to store data. The optical disks, as the name states, use a laser to read and write data, while hard disks use an electro-magnet mounted over their head. The new-fangled USB drives use flash memory and electric charge to perform their storage functions. All these storage devices, though very useful in day-to-day computer work, have one thing in common – they can lose all their data abruptly and leave the user in the lurch. This data loss can occur due to a variety of reasons.
Hardware errors are quite common. These relate to defects and malfunction of the physical surface and components of the storage media. Hard drives are quite delicate devices that are susceptible to impact trauma. The most serious error that can occur to them is a head crash. Water and fire damage can also result in serious cases of data loss.
Optical disks may lose data due to corruption of their exposed recording surface. Then there are software causes. These relate to data loss due to some problem with the software programs and actual user data. The most common software errors are accidental deletion of a file by the user, accidental reformatting of the storage media and a virus attack.
Data loss for any reason is a serious business. It can lead to tremendous losses and financial setbacks for companies. For individuals, loss of critical files may result in a lot of inconvenience and hand-wringing. The moment someone’s data gets lost, the first priority is to get it back as soon as possible. Depending on the severity of the case, the cost and time involved in recovering data may range from negligible to phenomenal.
For data loss due to software causes, Do It Yourself (DIY) recovery software is a good option. There are many companies that sell these packages through their websites. You have to pay online using a credit card and download the software to your computer hard disk. DIY recovery is ideal for cases such as accidental deletion of files, file corruption and even reformatting of the storage media. The only danger in this is that if you are unlucky, the software files may get downloaded exactly on the same spot of the hard disk where your missing files have been residing. This will result in overwriting and may lead to permanent loss of the missing data.
Getting data recovered professionally is the only option in cases of data loss due to hardware causes and serious software errors. The professional recovery companies use specialized equipment and tailor-made file-extraction software to recover your data. They have a team of technically qualified and experienced engineers who extract the files carefully using a variety of techniques.
The most important asset these companies have is what is called a clean room. This is a small space enclosed from all sides in which the air is continuously recycled through powerful filters, removing all air-borne contaminants, even microscopic ones such as skin flakes, sweat, human hair, perfume vapour and chemicals. Entry into a clean room is strictly regulated and the technicians have to wear a moon suit.
Clean rooms are needed because hard disks are very sensitive to dust. Even a tiny spec wedged between the platters and head can make the disk to crash, leading to catastrophic data loss. In a clean room, the disks can be opened, repaired, resealed and handed back to the customer.
Professional recovery is not an inexpensive proposition. It can cost a lot of money because of the effort, technical skill and infrastructure required to extract the lost data. However, it is worth it if the alternative is the collapse of your business due to data loss.
Article Source: articlecircle.com
Friday, May 28, 2010
What Types of Data Need Regular Backup?
The average home user is now more aware of the uses of digital gadgets and has a storage device ready for every possible need. The type of data that we need to access everyday is highly personalized according to our lifestyle and profession. That is why the backup needs of a housewife will be different from those of a student, but both will depend on a certain database that absolutely must not be lost.
Backup – Its Importance
Surveys reveal that the people of the UK are more aware of viruses than they were before. Over 75% of all home users feel that it is important to have an antivirus installed. However, few update the software regularly. Apart from viruses, there is not much awareness about other causes of data loss. Operating System (OS) crashes are still unforeseen by most. Hardware-related issues are more common, especially the hard disk crash. These cases being rarely within the purview of laymen, mishandling is quite common. The other form of data loss which is steadily rising is through human error. A wrong click of the mouse, a USB drive that accidentally slides into a bowl of soup, or a CD that gets scratched while being taken out from the tray -- there are so many ways in which data can be lost by the owners.
This is where the importance of backup comes in. No matter how prepared you are, and how safe you feel your system is, a data loss can catch you unawares. Five types of data that we commonly lose and that need to be backed up regularly have been listed below.
Personal Memo and Address Book
The address book and the personal memo are two important folders that are immediately lost in case the OS crashes. We usually keep them in the same drive with the program files as they come as a package, storing our precious information in them. Imagine trying to find out all the phone numbers, email ids and addresses of your friends and family, not to mention birthdays, etc. The personal memo sometimes contains little bits of information such as when you want the wall clock delivered from the service centre, the date for the renewal of your id card, and other data that can be very frustrating to lose.
Preserving Memories
We all like to preserve our precious memories. Photos and family videos have become an important part of our lives. They also take up a lot of space on the hard drive as media files are usually quite large, even if compressed. Therefore, they also stand more chances of getting corrupted or deleted. It is advisable to keep regular backups of these and not to load them on the hard disk at all. The moments captured in them will not come back if lost once.
Personal Library and Repertoire
Do you like reading? Maybe you have written a few stories or poems yourself. All music lovers keep downloading music and video clips from the internet. Imagine how sorry you would feel if your library or your repertoire vanishes one morning in a disk crash. Media downloads are prone to corruption and fragmentation. Ensure you run a virus scan before taking a backup of them.
Accounts and Vital Information
Many of us keep our personal finance details on our hard disks. This information can pose a threat if lost. You don’t want a crafty hacker to get access to your account or credit card details. Besides, if you have the good habit of keeping regular accounts, you should also try to preserve it properly for the tax people.
Working from Home
Many people work from home now, running their businesses, writing on the net, selling goods and services on the web, designing, having an animation or editing or sound studio – and all those activities that require digital backup. If you are working from your desktop or laptop, it is crucial that you take regular backup of your client data, too, apart from the work-related information. You will face the very uphill task of rebuilding the database and redoing everything again if you lose your business data.
Developing the Backup Habit
Taking regular backups is not expensive, but a matter of habit. There are CD, DVD, USB drives and portable hard disks available as cheap and handy options.
Article Source: articlecircle.com
Backup – Its Importance
Surveys reveal that the people of the UK are more aware of viruses than they were before. Over 75% of all home users feel that it is important to have an antivirus installed. However, few update the software regularly. Apart from viruses, there is not much awareness about other causes of data loss. Operating System (OS) crashes are still unforeseen by most. Hardware-related issues are more common, especially the hard disk crash. These cases being rarely within the purview of laymen, mishandling is quite common. The other form of data loss which is steadily rising is through human error. A wrong click of the mouse, a USB drive that accidentally slides into a bowl of soup, or a CD that gets scratched while being taken out from the tray -- there are so many ways in which data can be lost by the owners.
This is where the importance of backup comes in. No matter how prepared you are, and how safe you feel your system is, a data loss can catch you unawares. Five types of data that we commonly lose and that need to be backed up regularly have been listed below.
Personal Memo and Address Book
The address book and the personal memo are two important folders that are immediately lost in case the OS crashes. We usually keep them in the same drive with the program files as they come as a package, storing our precious information in them. Imagine trying to find out all the phone numbers, email ids and addresses of your friends and family, not to mention birthdays, etc. The personal memo sometimes contains little bits of information such as when you want the wall clock delivered from the service centre, the date for the renewal of your id card, and other data that can be very frustrating to lose.
Preserving Memories
We all like to preserve our precious memories. Photos and family videos have become an important part of our lives. They also take up a lot of space on the hard drive as media files are usually quite large, even if compressed. Therefore, they also stand more chances of getting corrupted or deleted. It is advisable to keep regular backups of these and not to load them on the hard disk at all. The moments captured in them will not come back if lost once.
Personal Library and Repertoire
Do you like reading? Maybe you have written a few stories or poems yourself. All music lovers keep downloading music and video clips from the internet. Imagine how sorry you would feel if your library or your repertoire vanishes one morning in a disk crash. Media downloads are prone to corruption and fragmentation. Ensure you run a virus scan before taking a backup of them.
Accounts and Vital Information
Many of us keep our personal finance details on our hard disks. This information can pose a threat if lost. You don’t want a crafty hacker to get access to your account or credit card details. Besides, if you have the good habit of keeping regular accounts, you should also try to preserve it properly for the tax people.
Working from Home
Many people work from home now, running their businesses, writing on the net, selling goods and services on the web, designing, having an animation or editing or sound studio – and all those activities that require digital backup. If you are working from your desktop or laptop, it is crucial that you take regular backup of your client data, too, apart from the work-related information. You will face the very uphill task of rebuilding the database and redoing everything again if you lose your business data.
Developing the Backup Habit
Taking regular backups is not expensive, but a matter of habit. There are CD, DVD, USB drives and portable hard disks available as cheap and handy options.
Article Source: articlecircle.com
Backing Up Your Data - Do's and Don't and How To's
We all know we're supposed to back up data. Sometimes we might actually do so. Backing up your data is important, and yet it is often a neglected part of using computers. Data can be lost rather easily. Human error, a virus, or simply a computer crash can wipe out important documents, photos, contact lists and more.
Backing up your data is important to everyone, not just businesses. Imagine all those photos you took of your children growing up, now sitting on your hard drive. What about your video and music collection? Perhaps you've heard about entire collections of documents lost from your friends' or coworkers' computers. The stories are haunting. All those years of searching and collecting of that data, and it can be wiped out in an instant. Could you ever replace all that information?
Hard Drives Are Not Always Safe
The truth is that hard drives don't live forever. Even if you've never had an incident with a virus during the life of an existing hard drive, it will eventually wear out. Your hard drives are also always vulnerable to viruses, or from a power surge, which can also cause them to fail. You may try to use data recovery programs, but prevention is always better than hoping your data will be able to be recovered.
When hard drives fail, it might be difficult to replace all that information. If you use your computer for a business, it is even more important, as that could be hundreds of thousands of dollars of information that you are risking by not backing up your hard drives. Depending on your hard drives and virus protection alone is very risky when you have so much that you are responsible for.
How Often Should You Back Up Data?
This question is often debated. Some suggest every day, or a week, others suggest every time they upload anything new. Some are comfortable with simply doing it once a month.
How often you choose to back up your data is up to you. A good rule of thumb is to back up your data as often as you have new and important data to back up. For example, businesses that depend on contact data management programs and update important information daily might find it better to back up every day at the end of the day -- of just that data. Other documents and folders that are not updated quite as often can possibly be updated once a week or once a month.
It might completely depend on the type of data you want to back up. It is easy enough to set up a routine. Back up important data every day or week regularly and get into the habit of doing so. You can set your computer to remind you of when you need to back up. There are also programs that will do your back ups for you when you want it to. There's more information on these programs later in this article.
What Data To Back Up
It is true; you don't always need to back up everything on your computer. What you should decide now is what is important to you to save. Here's a list of things you should consider backing up.
Family photos
Films
Music
Stories and documents
Bookmarks
Address book (emails and addresses of families and friends or business clients)
To do lists
Presentations
Old emails
Work files and folders
Games
There might be many more types of files you want to save. You should go through your computer and think about any information you would not want to lose if your hard drive should fail.
How To Back Up Your Data
It is now easier than ever to back up your data. It all starts with knowing what data you want to save, and keeping it in centralized locations on your PC. If you know what to save, you know exactly what to do and to work it into a routine. Learn where your data is.
The next step is selecting what data you want to save and when. Perhaps you have documents that you wrote a year ago, but at the moment you don't want to use and yet you want to keep them anyway. Obviously such files only need to be stored once in your chosen locations. By separating your documents into when you need to save them, you'll find it easier to do back ups. It'll also take a lot less time to do a back up on just items that were updated recently, not all your files all the time.
Once you have your files separated, there's a couple of ways to back up your data. There's also a way to back up your hard drive so if it should ever fail, you won't have to remember all the programs you had and having to reinstall them again. We'll get to that in a minute.
Doing It Yourself
Here's the old reliable way of doing data recovery. You could back up your data on burned disks, and it is a good idea, but a disk can be scratched or lost. It's a good idea to utilize burning CDs with your information, but you should also have additional copies in other areas. If you burn a disk with important information, do yourself a favor and burn two copies, keeping the second one at a different location, like a safety deposit box.
Another way to do this is to get a flash drive. An additional external drive that you can store your files on. It acts as an additional hard drive. You could regularly back up your data files on these flash drives.
Both of these storage methods are rather inexpensive over time. A flash drive could cost $200 or so but is worth it for all the years it will save your data for you. CDs cost only $1 - $3 each depending on the type, and a CD burner costs as little as $50.
While using them is highly recommended, it is often the hardest habit to get into, even when you devote yourself to doing it regularly. It is easy to forget to back up your drives like this. If you don’t trust yourself to do this regularly, there's another method of backing up your files.
Internet Based Data Storage
There are companies now that will help you store your data for you.
Google Docs (http://docs.google.com/) does provide storage of your files. This would be for your Word, Excel and other documents. You can store and share your files online. Many people like it and use it for work documents. You still have to manually upload the documents every time though.
Another useful tool is Xdrive (http://www.xdrive.com/), which offers 5 GB of storage space for free. Their download also features a way to automatically back up your selected files as you need. Need more space? They offer 50 GB of storage for a fee.
Yet another utility, Mozy (http://mozy.com/) offers 2 GB free, and for a small monthly fee you get additional storage. They offer both home and professional versions of their services.
Ghost (http://www.symantec.com/themes/ghost/index.jsp), provided by Symantec, not only backs up your data, but also your entire hard drive. If your hard drive is ever wiped out, you have a Ghost to restore an exact copy of the last backup made. It'll store your software and files exactly as you had it before. It also constantly updates itself when you want it to.
Recommendations
To completely cover your hard drive, here's the recommended steps:
1. Section off files you don't need all the time, and perhaps those files you don't really access at all and store those files on burned CDs or flash drives, making duplicate sets, one for the office and one for off site. Replace them with updated versions with additional "no need" files once every two months or so.
2. Set files aside that you use every day, and set a system like Xdrive or Mozy to download in the evening when you sleep to store your data.
3. If you don't run a lot of software, or you have all your disks, or you wouldn't miss a lot of the software that you have there isn't much more to be done. However, if you do, and want to prevent having to re-install all those programs, and have an extra data back up feature, go ahead and get a program like Ghost, programmed to update at least once a month.
Article Source: articlecircle.com
Backing up your data is important to everyone, not just businesses. Imagine all those photos you took of your children growing up, now sitting on your hard drive. What about your video and music collection? Perhaps you've heard about entire collections of documents lost from your friends' or coworkers' computers. The stories are haunting. All those years of searching and collecting of that data, and it can be wiped out in an instant. Could you ever replace all that information?
Hard Drives Are Not Always Safe
The truth is that hard drives don't live forever. Even if you've never had an incident with a virus during the life of an existing hard drive, it will eventually wear out. Your hard drives are also always vulnerable to viruses, or from a power surge, which can also cause them to fail. You may try to use data recovery programs, but prevention is always better than hoping your data will be able to be recovered.
When hard drives fail, it might be difficult to replace all that information. If you use your computer for a business, it is even more important, as that could be hundreds of thousands of dollars of information that you are risking by not backing up your hard drives. Depending on your hard drives and virus protection alone is very risky when you have so much that you are responsible for.
How Often Should You Back Up Data?
This question is often debated. Some suggest every day, or a week, others suggest every time they upload anything new. Some are comfortable with simply doing it once a month.
How often you choose to back up your data is up to you. A good rule of thumb is to back up your data as often as you have new and important data to back up. For example, businesses that depend on contact data management programs and update important information daily might find it better to back up every day at the end of the day -- of just that data. Other documents and folders that are not updated quite as often can possibly be updated once a week or once a month.
It might completely depend on the type of data you want to back up. It is easy enough to set up a routine. Back up important data every day or week regularly and get into the habit of doing so. You can set your computer to remind you of when you need to back up. There are also programs that will do your back ups for you when you want it to. There's more information on these programs later in this article.
What Data To Back Up
It is true; you don't always need to back up everything on your computer. What you should decide now is what is important to you to save. Here's a list of things you should consider backing up.
Family photos
Films
Music
Stories and documents
Bookmarks
Address book (emails and addresses of families and friends or business clients)
To do lists
Presentations
Old emails
Work files and folders
Games
There might be many more types of files you want to save. You should go through your computer and think about any information you would not want to lose if your hard drive should fail.
How To Back Up Your Data
It is now easier than ever to back up your data. It all starts with knowing what data you want to save, and keeping it in centralized locations on your PC. If you know what to save, you know exactly what to do and to work it into a routine. Learn where your data is.
The next step is selecting what data you want to save and when. Perhaps you have documents that you wrote a year ago, but at the moment you don't want to use and yet you want to keep them anyway. Obviously such files only need to be stored once in your chosen locations. By separating your documents into when you need to save them, you'll find it easier to do back ups. It'll also take a lot less time to do a back up on just items that were updated recently, not all your files all the time.
Once you have your files separated, there's a couple of ways to back up your data. There's also a way to back up your hard drive so if it should ever fail, you won't have to remember all the programs you had and having to reinstall them again. We'll get to that in a minute.
Doing It Yourself
Here's the old reliable way of doing data recovery. You could back up your data on burned disks, and it is a good idea, but a disk can be scratched or lost. It's a good idea to utilize burning CDs with your information, but you should also have additional copies in other areas. If you burn a disk with important information, do yourself a favor and burn two copies, keeping the second one at a different location, like a safety deposit box.
Another way to do this is to get a flash drive. An additional external drive that you can store your files on. It acts as an additional hard drive. You could regularly back up your data files on these flash drives.
Both of these storage methods are rather inexpensive over time. A flash drive could cost $200 or so but is worth it for all the years it will save your data for you. CDs cost only $1 - $3 each depending on the type, and a CD burner costs as little as $50.
While using them is highly recommended, it is often the hardest habit to get into, even when you devote yourself to doing it regularly. It is easy to forget to back up your drives like this. If you don’t trust yourself to do this regularly, there's another method of backing up your files.
Internet Based Data Storage
There are companies now that will help you store your data for you.
Google Docs (http://docs.google.com/) does provide storage of your files. This would be for your Word, Excel and other documents. You can store and share your files online. Many people like it and use it for work documents. You still have to manually upload the documents every time though.
Another useful tool is Xdrive (http://www.xdrive.com/), which offers 5 GB of storage space for free. Their download also features a way to automatically back up your selected files as you need. Need more space? They offer 50 GB of storage for a fee.
Yet another utility, Mozy (http://mozy.com/) offers 2 GB free, and for a small monthly fee you get additional storage. They offer both home and professional versions of their services.
Ghost (http://www.symantec.com/themes/ghost/index.jsp), provided by Symantec, not only backs up your data, but also your entire hard drive. If your hard drive is ever wiped out, you have a Ghost to restore an exact copy of the last backup made. It'll store your software and files exactly as you had it before. It also constantly updates itself when you want it to.
Recommendations
To completely cover your hard drive, here's the recommended steps:
1. Section off files you don't need all the time, and perhaps those files you don't really access at all and store those files on burned CDs or flash drives, making duplicate sets, one for the office and one for off site. Replace them with updated versions with additional "no need" files once every two months or so.
2. Set files aside that you use every day, and set a system like Xdrive or Mozy to download in the evening when you sleep to store your data.
3. If you don't run a lot of software, or you have all your disks, or you wouldn't miss a lot of the software that you have there isn't much more to be done. However, if you do, and want to prevent having to re-install all those programs, and have an extra data back up feature, go ahead and get a program like Ghost, programmed to update at least once a month.
Article Source: articlecircle.com
Basics Of A Pen Drive
USB Flash Drives have become increasingly popular as promotional incentives for a number of reasons. The promotional incentives market is always receptive to new and exciting ways to reach the target audience. Traditionally promotional products have been branded with a company’s logo to leave a lasting impression with the prospect. The usability of the giveaway is a key component to its success. This is the reason why gifts such as Pens, Notepads, Clothing and general business accessories have always been popular! The USB Flash Drive has taken this to another level altogether – now you can give potential prospects a USB Flash Drive and be confident your branding will hit home. The major innovation to the promotional incentives market is the way in which the device can be manipulated to suit the needs of various organizations.
For example, the USB Flash Drive can be preloaded with data prior to it being given away. This allows useful information to be at the fingertips of the recipient. This could be in the form of a PDF, PowerPoint, Video, etc. This is the ideal way for companies to make sure that when a potential prospect leaves they have a permanent reminder of exactly what the company can offer. This could be in the form of a document, a price list etc.
They are typically small, lightweight, removable and rewritable storage devices. USB flash drives offer numerous advantages over other portable storage devices i.e. floppy disk. They are compact, faster; hold more data, and have superior reliability due to their lack of moving parts and durable design. In addition it has become common for computers no longer to have floppy disk drives. Conversely USB ports appear on nearly all PC and laptop’s nowadays.
Article Source: articlecircle.com
For example, the USB Flash Drive can be preloaded with data prior to it being given away. This allows useful information to be at the fingertips of the recipient. This could be in the form of a PDF, PowerPoint, Video, etc. This is the ideal way for companies to make sure that when a potential prospect leaves they have a permanent reminder of exactly what the company can offer. This could be in the form of a document, a price list etc.
They are typically small, lightweight, removable and rewritable storage devices. USB flash drives offer numerous advantages over other portable storage devices i.e. floppy disk. They are compact, faster; hold more data, and have superior reliability due to their lack of moving parts and durable design. In addition it has become common for computers no longer to have floppy disk drives. Conversely USB ports appear on nearly all PC and laptop’s nowadays.
Article Source: articlecircle.com
Basics Of A Pen Drive
A Pen Drive is a compact, removable storage device just like a floppy disk or a CD. Instead of the floppy device or the CD ROM that are used for reading a floppy disk and CD respectively, a pen drive can be plugged into the USB (Universal Serial Bus) Port of a computer. The USB connectivity makes the pen drive easier to use and data can be transferred faster to and from the pen drive.
Different Manufacturers have named Pen Drives they manufacture differently. Today, a pen dive goes by the names of thumb drive, USB flash drive, Jump Drive, Traveler`s Drive, USB key drive, USB memory stick and many others!
These pen drives are small, inexpensive, almost ubiquitous and extremely handy. They are available largely in the range of 1 to 8 GB which makes them of great use and has made floppy disks and CDs look like useless storage mediums.
The credit of inventing the pen drives goes to IBM. It was invented in 1988 to replace the floppy disks, but IBM never patented it. IBM contracted in M-Systems to manufacture the Pen Drive and the patent is now owned by them.
The pen drive is a modern floppy disk. The main difference is that a floppy disk has moving parts which makes the data stored on the drive vulnerable to loss. A pen drive, on the other hand is a solid state device i.e. it has no moving parts. This makes it possible to almost completely seal the pen drive making it dust-proof and the common magnetic fields. Hence, a pen drive is a much safer option for storing important data.
The latest operating systems like (Windows XP, Linux and Mac OS 2) can recognize these pen drives and mount them automatically. Once it is connected, recognized and mounted by the operating system, it appears just like any other partition of the hard disk except it is named as removable storage.
The pen drive can be removed any time after it is un-mounted (safely remove hardware in case of Windows) and can be re-plugged into the same or a different machine to be used again. A pen drive`s most important use is to transport data and files from one machine to another. For e.g. one can simply copy all the word processing documents, images and spreadsheets to the pen drive, carry it along and copy the files on his/her home computer and work on it at home.
Some users have found the pen drive useful in moving their internet browser History, Cache, Cookies, and other transient data. This improves their privacy and security as no traces of the work done on the machine is left on the PC. Once copied to the drive, the files can be made more secured by encryption or any other method of security.
The pen drives can also be used to store operating systems to boot the computer. This makes them popular for repair and diagnostic work. Instead of carrying tools and maintenance software applications on CDs, a pen drive can be used which is faster and can be manipulated easily in case the software is upgraded or is no more useful.
A pen drive is one of the most economical mobile medium for data storage in terms of cost per unit storage space. They are really light-weight and robust in nature which has made it a big hit and a very important and indispensable tool for a large number of users.
This article is under GNU FDL license and can be distributed without any previous authorization from the author. However the author's name and all the URLs (links) mentioned in the article and biography must be kept.
Article Source: articlecircle.com
Different Manufacturers have named Pen Drives they manufacture differently. Today, a pen dive goes by the names of thumb drive, USB flash drive, Jump Drive, Traveler`s Drive, USB key drive, USB memory stick and many others!
These pen drives are small, inexpensive, almost ubiquitous and extremely handy. They are available largely in the range of 1 to 8 GB which makes them of great use and has made floppy disks and CDs look like useless storage mediums.
The credit of inventing the pen drives goes to IBM. It was invented in 1988 to replace the floppy disks, but IBM never patented it. IBM contracted in M-Systems to manufacture the Pen Drive and the patent is now owned by them.
The pen drive is a modern floppy disk. The main difference is that a floppy disk has moving parts which makes the data stored on the drive vulnerable to loss. A pen drive, on the other hand is a solid state device i.e. it has no moving parts. This makes it possible to almost completely seal the pen drive making it dust-proof and the common magnetic fields. Hence, a pen drive is a much safer option for storing important data.
The latest operating systems like (Windows XP, Linux and Mac OS 2) can recognize these pen drives and mount them automatically. Once it is connected, recognized and mounted by the operating system, it appears just like any other partition of the hard disk except it is named as removable storage.
The pen drive can be removed any time after it is un-mounted (safely remove hardware in case of Windows) and can be re-plugged into the same or a different machine to be used again. A pen drive`s most important use is to transport data and files from one machine to another. For e.g. one can simply copy all the word processing documents, images and spreadsheets to the pen drive, carry it along and copy the files on his/her home computer and work on it at home.
Some users have found the pen drive useful in moving their internet browser History, Cache, Cookies, and other transient data. This improves their privacy and security as no traces of the work done on the machine is left on the PC. Once copied to the drive, the files can be made more secured by encryption or any other method of security.
The pen drives can also be used to store operating systems to boot the computer. This makes them popular for repair and diagnostic work. Instead of carrying tools and maintenance software applications on CDs, a pen drive can be used which is faster and can be manipulated easily in case the software is upgraded or is no more useful.
A pen drive is one of the most economical mobile medium for data storage in terms of cost per unit storage space. They are really light-weight and robust in nature which has made it a big hit and a very important and indispensable tool for a large number of users.
This article is under GNU FDL license and can be distributed without any previous authorization from the author. However the author's name and all the URLs (links) mentioned in the article and biography must be kept.
Article Source: articlecircle.com
NetIron MLX fuels Foundry vs. Cisco Battle
San Francisco, California January 30, 2007: With internet traffic increasing at unprecedented rates, service providers are ramping up their networks to support the bandwidth intensive applications of the ever-growing web. According to a recent Dell'Oro report, the worldwide market for service provider routers is projected to approach $9 billion by 2011. Targeted at Internet service providers (ISPs), cable network operators, as well as triple and quadruple play operators, Foundry Networks has made a power play for the metro network space with the NetIron MLX routers. Based on the flagship XMR series router, the MLX offers the highest 10GbE and GbE density available to address current and forthcoming service provider capacity requirements. With Foundry's compelling price of only $600/Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) port, industry leader Cisco Systems is starting to take notice.
After more than four years in development, the Carrier Routing System, or CRS-1 was released by Cisco in 2004 at a development cost of $500M. However due to changes in the IOS (Internetwork Operating System) and cost of almost $450,000 upon release, it only offered a rare glimpse of light for competition in the metro network space. Not surprisingly, competitors Foundry and Juniper quickly jumped into the ring.
Built on newer chip technology and advanced processors, Foundry's XMR series edge routers answered the demand for a comparable router that is almost 1/5th of the price. Released in 2006, the MXR 3200 and MLX-32 MPLS enabled routers were developed to
offer the highest 10GbE and GbE density and provide up to two billion packets per second (Bpps) of IP/MPLS routing in a 128-port system. These improvements targeted the Triple and Quadruple play service providers who host bandwidth intensive applications, such as video on-demand, broadcast television, and large scale Voice over IP (VoIP).
Just this month, semiconductor developer Cadence Design Systems announced they would be integrating the NetIron MLX as part of their new centralized data center network. With a price/performance level that rivals any router on the market, Foundry has raised the stakes in the competitive 10Gbe market. Rival Cisco has already started to position itself as a provider of a broad range of management solutions targeted towards the coveted triple-play sector. The release and initial positive market response to the MLX series will likely prove a challenge to Cisco's previously uncontested dominance.
Article Source: articlecircle.com
After more than four years in development, the Carrier Routing System, or CRS-1 was released by Cisco in 2004 at a development cost of $500M. However due to changes in the IOS (Internetwork Operating System) and cost of almost $450,000 upon release, it only offered a rare glimpse of light for competition in the metro network space. Not surprisingly, competitors Foundry and Juniper quickly jumped into the ring.
Built on newer chip technology and advanced processors, Foundry's XMR series edge routers answered the demand for a comparable router that is almost 1/5th of the price. Released in 2006, the MXR 3200 and MLX-32 MPLS enabled routers were developed to
offer the highest 10GbE and GbE density and provide up to two billion packets per second (Bpps) of IP/MPLS routing in a 128-port system. These improvements targeted the Triple and Quadruple play service providers who host bandwidth intensive applications, such as video on-demand, broadcast television, and large scale Voice over IP (VoIP).
Just this month, semiconductor developer Cadence Design Systems announced they would be integrating the NetIron MLX as part of their new centralized data center network. With a price/performance level that rivals any router on the market, Foundry has raised the stakes in the competitive 10Gbe market. Rival Cisco has already started to position itself as a provider of a broad range of management solutions targeted towards the coveted triple-play sector. The release and initial positive market response to the MLX series will likely prove a challenge to Cisco's previously uncontested dominance.
Article Source: articlecircle.com
Server Host: Where Does My Web Page Go?
For those of you who don't really understand where or how your web page is sitting on your hosting server, this is a basic over view of how it works.
A server is basically hardware and software and protocol. We will go over these three basics of your hosting server.
Server hardware.
Server hardware is so similar to your old PC hardware that the price of server hardware has come down considerably. Down enough that it's tempting for a lot of us to host our own server. But that's a whole different article. All a server is:
Very fast processor.
A large amount of RAM.
A vast amount of Disk Space.
Connection to a T1 line (access to the outside world).
The hardware is housed in very large office buildings. There are many racks of servers filling these climate controlled rooms. Most of the server host brag of their 99% or better uptime. This is very impressive and another reason to use a server host. How often have you re-booted your PC in the past?
Software. (Operating system)
There different operating systems on the market. Most likely the software on your server is running Apache on Linux, an open source product. Servers need to be secured and an open source application is more likely to be less buggy and more secure then their larger competitor Microsoft. These servers use an interface for you to access and configure them, a control panel. Some control panels are more complicated then others. Depending how technical you are, this is a point of concern when picking a server host.
Article Source: articlecircle.com
A server is basically hardware and software and protocol. We will go over these three basics of your hosting server.
Server hardware.
Server hardware is so similar to your old PC hardware that the price of server hardware has come down considerably. Down enough that it's tempting for a lot of us to host our own server. But that's a whole different article. All a server is:
Very fast processor.
A large amount of RAM.
A vast amount of Disk Space.
Connection to a T1 line (access to the outside world).
The hardware is housed in very large office buildings. There are many racks of servers filling these climate controlled rooms. Most of the server host brag of their 99% or better uptime. This is very impressive and another reason to use a server host. How often have you re-booted your PC in the past?
Software. (Operating system)
There different operating systems on the market. Most likely the software on your server is running Apache on Linux, an open source product. Servers need to be secured and an open source application is more likely to be less buggy and more secure then their larger competitor Microsoft. These servers use an interface for you to access and configure them, a control panel. Some control panels are more complicated then others. Depending how technical you are, this is a point of concern when picking a server host.
Article Source: articlecircle.com
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