Reviews Archives - Rick's Daily Tips

Review: Carbonite online backup service

Posted on June 19, 2018

If you’ve ever had a laptop stolen or suffered a hard drive crash, you already know that losing your precious photos, music, Word documents and other critical files is even worse than having to replace the hardware.

If you didn’t have a current backup, you most likely lost every scrap of your irreplaceable data. That’s why always having a current backup of your hard drive on hand is absolutely critical.

But did you know that just backing up your data onto an external hard drive isn’t enough? What happens if a fire or flood destroys your home and everything in it? In addition to your computer being destroyed, you’ll lose your backup drive too! [Read more…]

Review: Bertech 2’x3′ Anti-Static Mat Kit with Wrist Strap and Grounding Cord

Posted on June 14, 2018

If you work on computers or other electronic items, one of the most important tools you can have on your test bench is a high-quality anti-static mat to protect your gear’s sensitive electronic components from static electricity.

I’ve used a number of different anti-static mats over the years. Some of them were good, some of them not so good.

I’m always eager to try new out ones, and I recently received one of the best I’ve ever used for review: the Bertech 2’x3′ Anti-Static Mat Kit with Wrist Strap and Grounding Cord. [Read more…]

Review: WD My Book 6TB USB 3.0 Hard Drive with Backup

Posted on June 9, 2018

Western Digital has been making some of the world’s best hard drives for decades, and their current My Book line of external USB hard drives are simply outstanding.

External hard drives are perfect for backing up large amounts of data, and the WD My Book 6TB USB 3.0 Hard Drive with Backup will store a ton of it.

6TB of storage is more than enough space to hold all of the average user’s data with plenty of room to spare. Photos, music, video…you can keep it all safe and secure with this excellent drive and its included backup software. [Read more…]

Review: Apricorn EZ-Upgrade SATA Notebook Hard Drive Upgrade Kit

Posted on June 7, 2018

Regular readers of this blog know that upgrading the hard drive in a notebook PC is a fairly straightforward process because I have written about it several times in the past.

Simply connect your new drive to the PC with a USB to SATA adapter cable, use disc cloning software to copy the contents of the existing drive to the new one, then remove the old drive and replace it with the new drive.

Sounds simple, right? Well, it really is pretty simple IF you’ve done it before AND you feel comfortable with the process. [Read more…]

Review: Acer Aspire E 15 E5-575G-57D4 15.6-Inches Full HD Notebook

Posted on May 30, 2018

In times past, the typical budget laptop came stuffed with cheap, inferior components that made for a frustratingly slow and inefficient computing experience. But times have changed.

Nowadays even many midrange laptops offer plenty of speed and power at affordable prices.

I recently had the opportunity to check out a very affordable midrange laptop from Acer, and overall I believe it’s a great machine for the money.

The Acer Aspire E 15 E5-575G-57D4 15.6-Inches Full HD Notebook is an attractive, sleek looking laptop that has everything the typical user will need in order to surf the Internet, peruse Facebook and Twitter, watch videos on Youtube, send and receive email, use Microsoft Office and edit photos. [Read more…]