Hard Drive Heatlh

Chose this topic because mine started showing signs of ages this week. Strange clicking noises i never noticed before. Founds a nice (free!) program to read smart data found in most HDD after Y2K. I wanted to put pictures but the Main site is actually fairly detailed. NEVERMIND discovered that it was a different site. can't find it now.

http://www.panterasoft.com/

Main page for HDD Health

HDD Health shows Smart data and runs silently in the background. Running it computer for 2 days it came up with the date of my HDD crash time. I have as little as six months until it crashes at current use and as much as two years before i need a replacement. Until then I'm keeping it defraged and backing up frequently. I will migrate my information as soon as I know I get another HDD. For everyone else who might experience a HDD crash I recommend that you buy a new HDD next weekend. Sure your current HDD might not crash for a year but what if it happens sooner? If you get the drive now you'll put stuff on it and take strain off the current HDD. And you don't run the risk of losing any files.

extra information will be added at request :P

So i fell behind

life intervened and i forgot to update (seems not to matter tho since i have about 0 readers at this point but hey i can use a time waster).

i have seen alot of ways to boost PC performance recently. Most of which you need to pay for (go figure) the easiest way is to do as all the other blogs keep telling you. Uninstall programs you don't use. Remove programs from startup and of course get a virus scanner.

But by far if you have done everything short of completely reformation you computer to a "like new state" then i suggest you buy more ram. most carriers have it for 30-50$ per stick of 1 gig

US Modular ram 4 GIGS

or

centon 2 Gigs

both of those options (while not free) will be more then sufficient for running a Home PC. It wont be capable of high end gaming but if you only surf the Internet and type word documents then you will see vast improvements in Computer speed.

Recommended Programs to use (won't be providing links since i assume everyone knows how to search google :P)

AVAST (free antivirus)
Spybot Search and Destroy
Ad-Aware 2007
CCleaner
Comodo personal firewall (get 2.X version 3.X is just horrible with Defense+)

Optional Programs
TuneXP (Very advance program do not use unless you are willing to fix anything you break)

CachemanXP (nice for Computers with less ram and want to free up as much as possible)

AVG Anti Spyware