ssd

Microsoft appears to have fixed a bug that slowed down solid state drives (SSDs) in Windows 11. Despite the fix, some users are upset that the company doesn't appear to have publicly acknowledged that anything went wrong. Solid state drives don't ... use any moving parts like old-style drives which use both a spinning mechanism and an arm, a little like a vinyl record player. That means that SSDs should last longer without physical wear and can access data faster. The downside is that they tend to be more expensive. As a result, a common setup is to use an SSD to run Windows and applications and ... (view more)

Windows 11 users are continuing to report hard drives performing more slowly after mandatory system updates. The problem appears to affect solid state drives rather than traditional older model hard drives with moving parts. The Windows Latest ... website gathered together reports from its own forums, discussion site Reddit, and Microsoft's support forums. It concluded that the "performance issue doesn't appear to be widespread, but it is real." (Source: windowslatest.com ) One piece of evidence that something is actually amiss rather than it just being a fluke pattern is that those complaining ... (view more)

Newly-published tests suggest solid state drives (SSDs) are much more reliable in the long term than traditional drives. The tests only cover a specific use case, but it's one that could let users find a good mix of cost and performance. SSDs work ... in a similar way to USB memory sticks, with data accessed through a flow of electricity. It means they don't have any moving parts, unlike a hard drive that spins round and has a moving arm to access data, a little like a vinyl record player. That brings several key advantages - most notably that SSDs are quicker to access data. They are also ... (view more)

Older computers might feel a little faster after the next major Windows 10 update. That's because Windows 10 is going to get a bit smarter in the way it powers its search tool. Windows 10's Start Menu (accessed by clicking the Windows logo at the ... bottom left of the screen) includes a search box that doesn't just search the names of files, but also their content. Since the system's release, an update means it will now searches all files on the C drive - not just those in specific libraries such as "Documents" or "Downloads." File Indexing Takes a Toll To ... (view more)

A hard drive manufacturer has warned its solid state drives could effectively self-destruct after a little less than four years of total operation. HPE (Hewlett Packard Enterprise) says users need to apply a firmware fix immediately, while it's ... another reminder of the importance of backups. 20 different HPE models are affected, all in the SAS range, which are hard drives typically meant for enterprise. All are solid state drives, which have no moving parts. This makes them more expensive and much faster than traditional hard drives. (Source: hpe.com ) The problem isn't with the actual drives ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Phil P. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have installed Windows 10 32 bit and now I am trying to upgrade to Windows 10 64 bit using the clean install method. Since I'm installing Windows 10 from scratch, I am also going to upgrade my C ... drive performance using 2 x 2TB hard drives (for a total of 4 TB usable data) in RAID 0 configuration . The problem is that when I try to install Windows onto my RAID, it tells me that 'Windows cannot be installed to this disk. This computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disk's controller is enabled in the computer' ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Pam C. writes: " Dear Dennis, I recently purchased an SSD (solid state hard drive) and wish to transfer my existing copy of Windows (from a standard hard drive) onto the SSD. I used Acronis True Image to clone the hard drive to ... SSD, but when I try and boot from the SSD, I receive the error message that 'BOOTMGR is Missing'. I have also tried creating an archive backup of the original hard drive and then restored that to the SSD, but I have the same problem. How can I fix the 'BOOTMGR is Missing' error? " My response: This is a very common problem ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'Gloria' writes: " Dear Dennis, My laptop is set to go to sleep after a period of inactivity, but always freezes after it wakes up. When I press the power button to resume from sleep, the screen turns on but the laptop freezes and ... I can't input anything while I wait for it to wake up. This goes on for some time. At this point I usually power it off completely, then restart it with a cold boot because I hate waiting. How can I fix my laptop's sleep so it wakes up faster and so it doesn't always hang? " My Response: I don't recommend powering off your laptop to circumvent the ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader John R. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have a question regarding how to make a custom built external 2.5 inch USB hard drive (similar to the Western Digital My Passport drive). First, can you tell me: do external USB hard drives operate ... similar to 3.5 inch hard drives found in PCs? Also, are 2.5 inch hard drives just as reliable as the 3.5 inch desktop PC hard drives? Lastly, do you have any recommendations for external 2.5 inch hard drive enclosures? " My Response: For what it's worth, the Western Digital MyPasport hard drive is a solid unit (I own the 2TB model ), but it tends ... (view more)

A visitor chatted with me on the web site other day, and he had a question about the Windows Page file. He wrote: " I have a question in regard to optimizing Windows and its 'page file'. I have Windows 7 Professional (64 bit) with a 1 terabyte (TB) ... hard drive, and 8 gigabytes of RAM. My system uses a newer generation Intel processor (Core i5 or Core i7). My question is: do I really need a page file when I have 8GB of memory? In your opinion, which is better: having Windows manage my page file, or should I define a custom page file, or use no page file? " My Response: The short answer is that ... (view more)