Search Results for: create system image

Q&A: Will an SSD go bad just sitting on a shelf?

Posted on December 3, 2023

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Question from Glen: A while back I read your post about replacing a computer’s hard drive with an SSD and it sounded like a pretty good idea.

I finally ended up buying a Crucial MX500 1TB SSD to replace the hard drive in my old Acer laptop, but the laptop’s screen went bad before I had a chance to make the switch.

I really didn’t want to spend a lot of money to have the Acer fixed so I just replaced it with a new Dell laptop.

The new Dell has a 1TB hard drive so I don’t really need the SSD at this time. Can I put the SSD on a shelf and keep it for a backup in case the hard drive ever fails, or will it go bad after a while if I don’t use it? [Read more…]

3 reasons why you need an external USB hard drive

Posted on August 14, 2023

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External hard drives used to be expensive luxuries that transferred data between the PC and the drive at a relative snail’s pace.

But thankfully, that has all changed thanks to the proliferation of incredibly fast, yet very inexpensive external USB hard drives.

In fact, prices have now dropped to where you can pick one up starting at around $50.

I now believe that every computer user should own at least one external USB hard drive, for the following reasons: [Read more…]

Q&A: How do I decide which programs to install on a small SSD?

Posted on December 25, 2021

Question from Larry: I read your post explaining the advantages of installing an SSD a while back and I’ve wanted one ever since to go in my HP desktop PC.

I ended up buying a 120GB SSD (I got it for $20!) and installed it as the boot drive in my HP desktop computer. I left the 750GB hard drive in there for extra storage.

I installed Windows 10 from scratch on the SSD and now I’m ready to install my programs. The thing is with only 120GB of space on the SSD it won’t hold anywhere near all of my programs.

I have a couple of questions for you:

1 – Which programs should I install on the SSD and which ones should I leave on the hard drive?

2 – Should I leave the original Windows 10 files on the hard drive or is it safe to delete them to free up that space?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

6 tips for doing your own Tech Support for most any tech problem

Posted on January 2, 2026

Want to get my easy to follow Tech Tips in your email?

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I often hear from readers how much they hate having to contact “Tech Support” when an issue arises with their computer or one of their other gadgets.

As you probably know, calling Tech Support is usually about as much fun as having a tooth pulled without an injection of Novocain.

Well, truth be told, the Tech Support experience is often intentionally designed to be frustrating because some companies would rather have you resolve the issue on your own instead of utilizing their Support system.

Luckily, there are a few things you can try that just might help you resolve your issue without having to call Tech Support at all: [Read more…]

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Search Results for: create system image

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