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How to have two hard drives when you only have a single 3.5″ bay

Dave Farquhar Hardware May 29, 2011May 29, 2011dell, hp

Sometimes you need to put two internal hard drives in a system, but only have a single 3.5″ bay available. This is common in small computers, like HP Slimline and whatever Dell’s equivalent is.

There are two ways to do it. Both have tradeoffs.

Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.

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Android-ified.

Dave Farquhar Hardware April 12, 2011amiga, amiga os, android, Angry Birds, AT&T, dell, hp, samsung, verizon, VOIP, wi-fi

After agonizing for a few weeks, I bought an Android phone. Specifically, a Samsung Galaxy S 4G. Being a T-Mobile phone, it’s a potential dead end, but I opted to do it for a few reasons.

Why? I’m sick of not being able to play Angry Birds. Not really, but I like seeing people’s reaction when I say that.

Dave Farquhar

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Flaky networking? Suspect cheap NICs

Dave Farquhar Hardware, Servers and Networking April 3, 2011March 2, 20223com, Broadcom, d-link, hp, intel, netgear

It was 1998. I was getting ready to network my two PCs, so I asked my friendly neighborhood networking professional what to buy. He didn’t hesitate. “Intel or 3Com,” he said. “Cheap NICs will talk, but they’ll start acting flaky after a while, dropping packets in the middle of transfers, stuff like that.”

I couldn’t afford 3Com or Intel at the time, so I bought a cheap “SOHOware” brand bundle that included two 10/100 NICs, a hub, and cables for around $150. A comparable first-tier setup would have run me twice that. The hub died after a couple of years. The cards fared better. “After a while” took 11 years or so to come, and I finally got sick enough of it to retire my last one.

Dave Farquhar

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Can you set an HP slimline computer on its side?

Dave Farquhar Hardware March 30, 2011March 1, 20221980s, 1990s, hp

Here’s a question that came up the other day. Can you set an HP slimline computer on its side?

Yes.

How anticlimactic of me.

Dave Farquhar

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The tyranny of consumerization is real

Dave Farquhar security March 5, 2011December 4, 20181990s, 3com, android, apple, CIO, computerworld, dell, excel, hp, IBM, ipad, mainframe, micron, Packard Bell, RIAA, Token Ring, usb port, windows nt

Computerworld cites the Ipad 2 and increasing demand by end users to use such consumer devices in corporate environments as “The tyranny of consumerization.”

This has happened before. And if history repeats itself, the future will be better than today, but the road there is going to involve some pain.
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Dave Farquhar

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Windows 7 SP1 is out

Dave Farquhar Windows February 24, 2011dell, hp, new hardware, vista, windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP

Windows 7 SP1 is out, and showing up in Windows Update now. I won’t be installing it right away, as my system has actually worked for the last couple of weeks or so. If you’re not having problems, waiting a month or so isn’t a bad idea.

Dave Farquhar

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Depending on how you look at it, a free upgrade. Or bloatware.

Dave Farquhar Hardware February 14, 2011compaq, hp, netbooks, wi-fi

Here’s a tip for those of you who own HP or Compaq laptops and netbooks. Most of these machines ship with HP Wireless Assistant, which basically does two things: display a popup telling you if your wireless network is on or off, and in some cases, enable a wi-fi on/off button on the keyboard.

But some versions of it moonlight by causing WMIPrVSE chew up 20% of available CPU power. People sometimes pay hundreds of dollars to get 20% more CPU power, so that’s not exactly welcome.
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Dave Farquhar

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How I fixed an infuriating printer problem

Dave Farquhar Hardware, Troubleshooting, Windows February 9, 2011December 6, 2015hp, laserjet, windows 7, windows me

Windows 7 and my HP Laserjet 4100 weren’t getting along. And I was pretty livid about it. I paid $125 for my Windows 7 upgrade, and for that money, I got to mess around for 4 days trying to get better-than-1997 functionality out of what’s supposed to be the latest and greatest. I was about ready to trade it even up for a copy of Windows ME and Microsoft Bob. Because at least then I’d be able to print.

I finally fixed the problem, but finding the solution wasn’t easy. So I’ll present the symptoms and the ultimate solution here.

Dave Farquhar

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Contingency. Or how I escaped from Windows 0.7

Dave Farquhar Uncategorized February 7, 2011hp, laserjet, sp3, SUBSYSTEM, ubuntu, windows 7, windows me, Windows XP, WINE

I thought I traced my Windows 0.7 printing problem to the presence of a USB bluetooth adapter, but it turned out that was wrong. My wife called about mid-day to say the machine wasn’t printing anymore.

Fortunately, I’d never gotten around to downgrading my netbook from Windows XP to Windows 0.7. It saved the day.

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, 2011January 13, 20111990s, 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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