Computer Tips Archives - Page 175 of 231

Q&A: Do I need to replace a hard drive that fails the SMART Check?

Posted on August 13, 2017

Question from Eugene N.: Rick, I have a 2 year old laptop computer that I fear might have a failing hard drive. I’m a professional photographer and I primarily use this PC for editing my photos.

Everything was working fine until late last night, but now every time I turn the computer on I get an error stating that the hard disk is in danger of failing and I need to run the hard disk test in system diagnostics.

When I run the disk test it says “SMART Check: FAILED”. Do you think I need to just go ahead and have the hard drive replaced or is there a way to fix this error?

I sprung for a 2 year extended warranty when I bought the laptop, but I’m not sure it’ll cover the repair if it turns out to be a software problem. I’m not worried about losing any data though because I create a new system image after I download the photos from every shoot.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

How to use ‘File History’ to automatically back up important files in Windows 10

Posted on August 12, 2017

Windows 10 offers multiple options for backing up your important files, and they are quite easy to set up and use.

I have already explained how to create a System Image Backup of the entire hard drive, and I recommend that you do that fairly often just in case you have a hard drive failure at some point.

But there’s another backup option that can ensure that you always have backups of the most recent versions of your important files in addition to the “old” versions that are stored in your most recent System Image backup.

Once enabled, Windows 10’s powerful File History backup feature will automatically create “snapshot” backups of every file that’s stored in the folders you designate. [Read more…]

How business owners can track customer information via their merchant accounts

Posted on July 25, 2017

Did you know that when you offer credit card processing to your clients, your systems can do much more than just accept payments?

With Merchant Account Solutions options, you can collect customer information for later use, keep up with inventory from your store, and even keep up with employee’s schedules.

The amazing merchant services offered from the folks at MAS allow you to do a variety of tasks to make running your business easier than ever before. [Read more…]

How to hide and password protect folders in Windows

Posted on July 10, 2017

Important update: Chrome and Firefox have both started flagging the tool I recommend in this post as malware. I believe this to be a clear case of a false positive but I have removed the links just to be safe.

Original post continues below… [Read more…]

Back up your hard drive a lot faster with an external SSD

Posted on July 9, 2017

By now you probably know how important it is to create regular backups of the data that’s stored on your computer’s hard drive.

You also probably know that it can take a good long while to create each of those backups.

Luckily, there’s a simple and easy way to greatly speed up the backup process (and the restore process as well, should it ever be needed)… [Read more…]