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Inexpensive flash storage for older PCs

Dave Farquhar Hardware January 24, 2011February 13, 2022pentium ii, thumb drive

I saw this lament in my referrer logs, of all places. Perhaps someone read it, then wondered if I had an answer? I’m not the only one searching for inexpensive flash storage for older PCs after all.

The exact solution the author sought, a USB-IDE converter to attach a thumb drive as an IDE device, doesn’t exist as far as I know. But I can think of two things that are almost as good.

Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.

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Apple and its controversial pentalobular screws

Dave Farquhar Hardware January 21, 2011June 13, 2022android, apple, hardware store, iphone, philips, sears, video game

I see the ‘net is overrun today with complaints about Apple switching to oddball Pentalobular screws (sometimes called “pentagram” screws–is that an accident, or people being snarky?) and the occasional person claiming to know where to get a Pentalobular driver for a few dollars, but few people actually being, you know, helpful.

So here’s where you can get one for $2.35, plus shipping. http://www.sw-box.com/Professional-Screw-Driver-Opening-Tool-For-Iphone-4.html
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Dave Farquhar

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Just say no to black boxes

Dave Farquhar Hardware January 16, 20111990s, atari, atari 2600, hardware store, nintendo, PVC, sony, video game

When the PS3 was released, one of its advertised features was that you could install Linux on it and use it as a Linux computer. I doubt many people did it, but it was a useful feature for those who did.

Sony later took that ability away in a firmware update. You could choose not to install that later firmware, but then you gave up other capabilities.

Now, some enthusiasts have figured out various ways to get that capability back, and Sony is so thrilled about that, they’re suing.

Sony is in the wrong.
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Dave Farquhar

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If I had to buy an off-the-shelf PC, what would it be?

Dave Farquhar Hardware January 13, 2011May 9, 20251990s, acer, amd, apple, compaq, dell, hp, IBM, lenovo, Packard Bell, toshiba

I got a question today. A someone who knows someone who knows someone kind of thing. Basically, wanting to know what to buy if, you know, they wanted to buy a computer rather than build something.

They’d had bad experience will Dell, so Dell wasn’t on their list. I did not argue.

Here’s an edited version of my response.
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Dave Farquhar

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The SSD Decoder Ring

Dave Farquhar Hardware January 12, 2011July 14, 2017cheatsheet, jmicron, kmart, ocz, podcast, thumb drive, XT

I occasionally get a question about an SSD, usually when one goes on sale somewhere. Inevitably, I’ll get an e-mail message with a URL and the words “any good?” with it. Often I’ll know off the top of my head, but depending on whose name is on the drive, I may not.

But here’s a cheatsheet with all the major drives on the market, and who makes the controller in them. http://www.pcper.com/ssd
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Dave Farquhar

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How to make HP and Compaq computers boot off USB

Dave Farquhar Hardware January 9, 2011March 13, 2021compaq, hp, toshiba, usb device, USB flash drive

Booting off USB is easy. You go into the BIOS, find the option that says USB boot, enable it, and then go into the boot order, select USB, and move it to the top. Well, not if you have an HP or a Compaq, you don’t. How do you make HP and Compaq computers boot off USB?

I’ll tell you.

Dave Farquhar

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Ways to speed up an aging laptop

Dave Farquhar Hardware, Software, Windows January 8, 2011December 19, 2015antivirus, bitdefender, ccleaner, firefox, intel, lifehacker, malware, McAfee, Microsoft Security Essentials, optimizing windows, samsung, symantec, visual effects, Western Digital

Yesterday Lifehacker did a feature on laptop tweaks and upgrades, that basically came down to reinstalling the OS, adding memory, and upgrading to an SSD. All of those are good things to do of course, but there’s more you can do. I posted a response there; I’ll elaborate a bit here, where I have more room to do so.

There are tons of links here to previous content I’ve written; optimizing aging machines is a recurring theme for me. I’ve been writing on that topic for 11 years now.

Dave Farquhar

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What the 2011 CES may mean

Dave Farquhar Hardware January 7, 2011April 2, 2025adobe creative suite, amd, CES, intel, netbooks, nvidia, ocz, pcie, windows 8, windows nt, x86

This week was CES, where companies make a big splash and try to show what’s going to happen in the consumer electronics space in the coming year.

In the coverage of CES, I saw three things that seem interesting, but only one of those three was a surprise.
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Dave Farquhar

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Who made that power supply?

Dave Farquhar Hardware December 31, 2010April 16, 2017antec, apple, corsair, IBM, micro atx, seasonic

I found a cross-reference for power supply brands and OEM manufacturers. It’s a couple of years old, but still useful.

Way back when, I knew that Sparkle Power actually made PC Power & Cooling Silencer power supplies. Since Sparkle units were cheaper, I bought those, and got good, reliable power from them for years until they were obsolete. That information is obsolete now too; Sparkle was bought out by FSP many years ago.

This chart tells you a whole lot more than that. And it validates that my current practice of buying Seasonic power supplies whenever possible is probably good, since Seasonic is the actual maker for several premium brands of power supplies today.

Dave Farquhar

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A free SSD alignment tool

Dave Farquhar Hardware, Windows December 29, 2010April 29, 2017command prompt, ISO, MBR, ocz, Parted Magic, raid array, vista, windows 7, windows 9x, Windows XP

We’ve talked recently about the importance of aligning your partitions on your SSD or your RAID array. What if I told you you could align an SSD or RAID array for free? Here’s where to find a free SSD alignment tool–it’s just not normally billed as such.

Alignment helps performance, sometimes tremendously, and it also dramatically improves your SSD’s life expectancy. Newer versions of Windows automatically align their partitions, but only if you do a clean installation to an empty drive. Older versions of Windows created their partitions starting at sector 63, for tradition’s sake. Maybe moving off sector 63 made dual-booting with Windows 9x harder.

Two readers, Jim and Xrocode, suggested utilities to do the job. One costs $30 and seems fairly automatic. One is free and requires a small amount of work. Grab the freebie here. It’s a 274 MB download, so it doesn’t even take all that long.

Dave Farquhar

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