:How to Monitor Hard Drive Or SSD Health & Performance With HDD Expert:

Monitor Hard Drive Or SSD Health & Performance With HDD Expert

Manufacturers are always pushing boundaries trying to make hard disks as robust and reliable as possible. Despite that, HDD failure and data loss remains an inescapable reality. Therefore, there are RAID configurations, backup systems and other solutions designed to prevent data loss and minimize the impact to an organization when drives simply stop working. While there are various ways to help you prevent data loss, one of the easiest methods is to keep a check on your hard drive’s health using monitoring tools. One such utility goes by the name HDDExpert. It is a free Windows application by KC Software that displays health & performance of your HDD or SSD, decodes S.M.A.R.T. attributes into readable form and recommends ways to maintain the health of your drives.

The program doesn’t confuse you with excessive technical jargon, unlike most similar tools. It’s simple interface makes it an easy tool to use even for novice users. It doesn’t confuse you with .

Once launched, HDDExpert scans through all drives and partitions in your system. It then displays manufacturer name, model, firmware, serial number, temperature reading and cache size of the disk(s). The app also displays warning messages for temperature and health, and lets you know whether a backup or spare HDD is needed or not.

The lower part of its interface carries information related to damage or errors at different sectors on the disk. In addition, the app displays total power cycle count and total operation time.

Right beside these readings, you’ll find three buttons labeled ‘Fans’, ‘Spare’ and ‘Backup’. The first two take you to an Amazon search page, which contains recommended products such as cooling fans and HDD replacement parts. The Backup button links to ‘Backup & Recovery 12 Home’, a paid program that you can install and use to create backups of the data on your disks. In the ‘Message’ section beside these buttons, the tool displays its verdict on the state of your drives and recommendations to prevent (Spare) or prepare (Backup) for failures.

All in all, a simple disk health monitoring software that could save your precious data before it’s too late. The tool can come in handy to test old drives as soon as they start posing problems, so you may get a replacement before complete failure of the disk and the loss of all the data on it.

HDDExpert works on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Download HDDExpert

EnjOy..:)

Bugs Of Techn0l0gy

How To Reset Google Chrome To Default Settings

The factory reset concept doesn’t need any introduction, and is commonly found in many devices and operating systems. Even Microsoft has now included the reset and refresh functionality in Windows 8. Mozilla also recently implemented the reset option in its Firefox web browser, enabling users to revert everything to factory defaults whenever they wish. So, it’s about time that Google brought this feature to Chrome. Using the reset option, you can reset the browser to its default state whenever you want. When you reset the browser, you basically turn its state to how it was when first installed: no extensions or other browsing data on it, and all settings reverted to original. In other words, in one step, you’re are allowed to completely erase any info and start over from scratch without having to manually uninstall and reinstall the browser. Although Google already had this feature on-board in Canary and Dev builds, it’s now natively available in the latest stable release. Here is a thorough and complete step-by-step guide on how to reset Chrome back to its default settings.

The reset function in Chrome can come in handy if you want to troubleshoot a damaged or corrupt installation. Likewise, if your Chrome is simply crashing at times due to some extension or malicious script, a reset can be a viable option.

The first thing you will need to do is open your web browser and head over the Settings screen. You can quickly access it by entering ‘chrome://settings/’ (without quotations) in the address bar. There, you will find a plethora of options, but the one we’re particularly looking for lies at the very bottom of the page.

Simply scroll all the way down in until you see the ‘Show advanced settings’ link (a blue hyperlink rather than a button). Click it, and further options will be made available to you.

The Settings screen will be expanded further and you will need to scroll all the way down again until you see ‘Reset browser settings’. Clicking this button will restore everything to default.

When you click this button, Chrome displays a confirmation popup informing what would be reset, which basically includes all browser settings, homepage, new tab page, search engine. The reset will also disable all extensions and unpin all your tabs. Furthermore, it will remove temporary data like cookies, cache and site data.

You can click Learn more to see further details. Click ‘Reset’ to confirm, and Chrome will go back to its default state.

Did you find the above guide useful? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. Happy web surfing!

EnjOy..:)

Bugs Of Techn0l0gy

How to Manage Dropbox, Google Drive, SkyDrive & More From One Place With MultCloud

Using a large number of cloud storage services can lead to the nuisance of not being able to manage each of them efficiently. That’s where services like MultCloud aim to offer a handy solution by letting your control and manage your cloud accounts from one unified interface. Based entirely online, it lets you create a MultCloud profile, to which you can connect your other cloud storag services for easy access and management. The service currently supports most major cloud storage providers including Dropbox, SugarSync, Google Drive, SkyDrive, Box and Amazon S3.

MultCloud is quite easy to configure, and takes only a couple of minutes  for setting things up. It doesn’t require you to enter a lot of details – just your email address, name and password would do. Once you visit the website (via the link provided at the end of this post), you can click the ‘Create An Account’ button to get started. Once an account has been created, just make sure to verify your email address with the service from the link provided in the confirmation email that’s sent to your inbox.

Next, you just need to enter your email address and password at the login screen after the verification to finally log in to your account – it’s simple as that.

While design isn’t the main focus of the app, but it’s still pretty well crafted. The fine-looking interface of the dashboard makes the service fairly intuitive to use. From the dashboard, you can add the cloud drives of your choice to the service. To do that, simply choose one of the services from the available options, specify a display name for it, and click Add. After that, you will need to sign in to the service with your account (if you aren’t signed in already) and authorize MultCloud with the appropriate permissions when prompted.

Once a cloud service account has been added, you can do pretty much everything from it that could possibly be done from a dedicated client or web interface of that service. For example, you can easily view contents of your cloud storage, upload files to it, download existing cloud files to your local storage, and create new folders. MultCloud also offers a preview feature for some files such as images. Other than that, you can rename your files and copy and move them between different cloud folders.

Overall, MultCloud is a great service that keeps things simple while taking the hassle of controlling all your cloud accounts from different browser tabs or desktop clients out of the way. The service is currently available for free.

EnjOy..:)

Bugs Of Techn0l0gy

How To View The Date & Time When Windows Was Installed

So, you want to find out when was the last time you installed Windows on your machine? Since you’re reading this post, the answer to this question is probably yes. I’m not sure about you, but many simply feel that re-installing Windows at regular intervals – after a year, let’s say – keeps the system in optimal state. I wouldn’t argue with that theory, but in such a case, having a reference date of your last Windows installation does make sense. Or you might want to know about the date and time of your Windows installation just out of curiosity. Fortunately, then there are several different ways available to do that, which I will explain step by step, right after the break.

Windows Explorer Method

The first method comprises of taking help from Windows Explorer, and it’s surely the easiest (though not necessarily the most accurate) way of finding out the installation date and time. To do that, simply open the partition where the operating system is installed (usually drive C:) and right-click the ‘Windows’ folder followed by clicking ‘Properties’.

Under the Properties sheet of the Windows directory, you will be able to see it’s Created date and time. This date and time should be the same as when Windows was installed to your computer.

Earlier, I mentioned that this method may not be very accurate, and the reason for this is because since Windows Vista, many computers come with image-based installation media for Windows installation, which doesn’t exactly ‘install’ a new copy of Windows to the machine, but instead just replicates the image on the CD or DVD to the computer’s storage. As the date of actual creation of the Windows folder on the image-based installation media is not the same as the date and time at which you last used that media to reinstall Windows on your computer, the date will not be accurate. To cope with this issue, you can alternatively check the creation date of your ‘Users’ folder because this folder is created during Windows installation. Do note that this will give the accurate result only for the account that was created during or immediately after the installation.

SystemInfo Command Method

Another way of finding the correct Windows installation date and time is via the systeminfo command. Just open Command Prompt from your Start Screen or Start Menu.

Next, type the following command in the Command Prompt window, and press the Enter key:

systeminfo | find /i "date"

The tool will scan the information for youand show you your Windows installation date, as shown below.

WMIC Command Method

The third method is to use the Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line (WMIC). This method is also quite easy and displays accurate result.

First off, open Command Prompt as Administrator and run the following command. You can also refer to the screenshot below:

WMIC OS GET installdate

From the above screenshot, you can see that it displays a number. This number contains year, month,, date, hour, minutes and seconds of the installation date and time. According to the above screenshot, the number translates to 2012-11-05, 10:52:26

Registry Editor Method

The Registry Editor is another way of finding installation time and date on your system. This method is a bit more complex than the ones explained earlier, and require doing some manual calculation. Nevertheless, here’s how to do it.

Open Registry Editor via the Run dialog window or Start Screen.

Now go to the following registry location:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion

In the right pane that displays DWORD values, there will be an InstallDate DWORD. It carries the total number of seconds since 1st January, 1970 till the installation time, enclosed in brackets.

There can be a lot of ways you can use this number to calculate the accurate time. One way is to divide this number by 60, 60 and 24 to get the number of days between 1970 and the installation time, and then convert them to years by dividing with 365.25 (to account for leap years). There can be other ways too, including online converters that can calculate this duration for you automatically to show you the correct date and time.

This concludes our tutorial. If you have any additional thoughts or some other tips for finding the installation date and time, drop a line in the comments section below.

[via AskVG]

EnjOy..:)

Bugs Of Techn0l0gy

How To Install Android 4.4 KitKat Launcher On Any Jelly Bean Device

Last year’s Nexus 4 was an awesome device that proved LG can definitely make goodlooking phones. This year’s Nexus 5 is no different, offering the best specs and the most svelte design a $350 phone has ever offered. But it’s not just the hardware where Nexus 5 really shines; the new Android 4.4 Kitkat that it ships with is every bit as impressive. We’ve already covered a summary of new features in Kitkat, so you might want to check that out as well. Those who’ve been eyeing on the latest version of Android would be aware about its new Google Experience Launcher. The search engine giant has kicked up another notch by presenting the best looking stock Android launcher yet. If you can’t wait to get your hands on it, we’ve got some good news for you. The launcher files have already been uploaded to the internet, and you grab them to try it on your own device running any version of Jelly Bean. Just follow our full guide to get it up and running.

It’s worth noting that Google Experience Launcher may not work on all phones, and you may face force close issues. In our own testing, the launcher didn’t face any problem whatsoever on the international variant of Galaxy S4, but your mileage may vary depending on your device. We advise that you create a backup before proceeding.

Requirements

• A phone running Android 4.1, 4.2 or 4.3 Jelly Bean
• Google Experience Launcher files. The archive contains:
  1. PreBuiltGmsCore.apk (Google Play Services 4.0)
  2. Velvet.apk (Google Search)
  3. GoogleHome.apk (Launcher)

  

Procedure

1. Again, to be on the safe side we recommend that you create a backup first to avoid any issues
2. Next up, download the ZIP fie provided in the link above and extract its contents to an easily accessible location. You can download the file to your PC and transfer them to your device, or you can download it straight to your Android device and extract the archive using any file extraction app.
3. Now, install all three files available in that folder one by one by simply tapping on them, or sideloading them via ADB form your computer.
4. Once done, simply press Home and select the new Launcher as default.

   

Note: If you face Google Search Force Close issue, just long-press the home screen in the new launcher, select Settings and then tap Voice. Select Language to change the default. You can change to any another language and then again back to your own language by following the same procedure

EnjOy..:)

Bugs Of Techn0l0gy

Android 4.4 KitKat: A Summary Of New Features & Improvements

All the regular leaks and rumors have kept the Android community abuzz for the past few weeks, waiting for the next major update to Android. Well, Google announced Android 4.4 ‘KitKat’ some time ago, but they just formally detailed all the new features a few hours ago. In this article, we’ll be covering all the new changes you should expect when your device manufacturer ultimately rolls out Android 4.4 to your device.

All Recent Nexus Devices Except Galaxy Nexus Will Support Android 4.4

Most probably due to its weak chip, the Galaxy Nexus will not officially receive Android 4.4 from Google. However, one can expect the active developer to rise to the occasion, and launch custom ROMs built on top of KitKat. It’s a shame considering how Apple has been able to support the three-year-old iPhone 4, while Google isn’t able to support a phone released just a year and a half ago.

Nexus 10, Nexus 7 2012/2013, Nexus 4, Google Play Editions of HTC One and Galaxy S4 will get Android 4.4 soon. Google used the words, “in the coming weeks.”

“Ok Google”: Quick Access To Voice Commands

Remember the “always listening” Touchless Control feature in Moto X? Android 4.4 packs something quite similar but very limited in comparison. You can use the “Ok Google” voice command to gain quick access to Google Now actions, but only if you’re on the home screen or within Google Now. Also, it is currently only supported on the Nexus 5.

Project Svelte Drastically Reduces RAM Consumption For Low-End Devices

The single biggest reason why Android caught up and subsequently leapfrogged iOS in market-share is because of its ability to run on low-end smartphones and tablets. The experience of using Android on these devices is often drastically different than high and even mid-end devices, so Google has announced ‘Project Svelte’ as part of 4.4 KitKat, which makes some clever optimizations to reduce the amount of RAM Android apps use. Low-end devices will get the most out of this, but higher-end devices will see benefits in the form of improved multi-tasking and generally better performance.

Apps Can Now Natively Go Full-Screen

The biggest advantage of using virtual buttons is that they can go away when you don’t need them, which gives you more screen space to enjoy games and videos. On Android 4.4 KitKat, it will be easy for developers to make their app take over the entirety of the screen. If you want to see the status bar or navigation bar again, swipe up or down (respectively) to see it momentarily. It is somewhat similar to how Notification Center and Control Center work on iOS.

Translucent Status & Navigation Bar

We’ve discussed tweaks to achieve this and ROMs that support this by default. From Android 4.4 onwards, both previously mentioned bars will be completely transparent, giving you a sense of extra space on your homescreen. Not a huge difference per se, but it’s a welcome one.

Smarter Phone App

Getting a call from an unknown number? The Phone app will automatically search for the number on Google in the background, and update it with the name of the restaurant, bank, or shop if found. This also works the other way: you can start typing the name of a nearby location on Google Maps and you’ll be presented with the phone number. Additionally, the app will remember who you call the most and show these contacts higher in the list when searching for them.

Hangouts Replaces Messaging App

After replacing the AOSP Camera app, Keyboard, Email, Browser etc. with its own proprietary solutions, Google has now replaced the terrible AOSP Messaging app with the latest version of Hangouts. As most of you already know, Hangouts now supports texting over SMS, and conversations over SMS or Google Hangouts are displayed seamlessly – it’s a long-awaited feature, but you should understand that it is another big step by Google to lock down Android by close-sourcing as many important parts of the system as possible.

Native Support For Printing

With Android 4.4, you will be able to connect to remote printers through Google Cloud Print and nearby printers over the same WiFi network to print the documents you carry with you on your device. This goes well with Google’s move to acquire Quickoffice.

Emoji In Google Keyboard

Though not that groundbreaking an addition, it is certainly one that has been deemed missing from the OS for a long time. Emoji will now be available everywhere, right from within the stock keyboard.

IR Blaster Support

Both HTC One and Galaxy S4 came with IR blasters for controlling your TV remotely, but the hardware didn’t work in Google Play editions of the same phones because of lack of software support. In Android 4.4, support for sending control signals over IR is built in.

Screen Recording

App reviewers and developers rely on screen capture tools to enhance the products of their labor, and there’s no better way to enhance app reviews and development than with recording a video of the screen. Previously, you had to rely on third-party apps, however, you can now record screen activity using Android 4.4 itself. It can be accessed over ADB, and we’ll show you how as soon as we get our hands on KitKat.

EnjOy..:)

Bugs Of Techn0l0gy