PowerDVD 8 supports the best audio and video formats, to deliver
a true HD movie experience.

تحميل افضل برنامج مشغل افلام dvd - Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra v8.0.1730

..provides a storage capacity of 250GB, and is ETL-verified for fire protection at 840 degrees Celsius for a 1/2 hr and can be submersed under water for 24hours. (The Akihabara news)

I ran into a problem this morning as a client asked to install Windows XP on a brand-new laptop. As you may already know, newer PCs often come with Serial ATA (SATA) interface instead of the usual IDE. This is a problem for Windows XP since it was made in the bygone-era of IDE hard drives.

I went online and ran into these articles:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Install-Windows-XP-On-SATA-Without-a-Floppy-F6-47807.shtml

http://paparadit.blogspot.com/2007/06/installing-sata-hard-drive-with-windows.html

So I followed the steps of these articles (they describe one-and-the-same method). But to my surprise, when popping in the driver of the new MSI V-series laptop into my working machine, I couldn't find the Windows XP driver for the SATA interface! For some strange reason, there is only one driver for Vista, and after building an "enhanced-by-nLite" Windows XP installation CD containing this driver and trying it on, I know it doesn't work.

Great, now what, I thought. Dead end. I was in Singaraja at that time (a remote small town 100Km north of Denpasar, Bali), a place where no high-speed Internet has gone and I have to make do with a GPRS connection, so downloading a new device driver is definitely a no-go. I would have to get in touch with the client and ask if he would be willing to go for either Vista or a Linux distro. I personally don't like the idea of having to install Vista on low-end laptops, and I doubt Linux will appeal, although I am a big-time advocate of open-source software and Ubuntu has made a significant progress towards making Linux more accessible to general audience. And worse, the client wanted the computer that same evening.

So, refusing to give up, I looked around again, and presto! There is an option on the BIOS of the laptop that allows detection of SATA as an IDE interface! (You can usually find it in "IDE Configuration"). Well it is actually forcing the SATA interface to behave like the old IDE, instead of the great new AHCI that features things like hot-plugging. Read more about AHCI here.

So, if you run into this kind of problem, please do yourself a favour and try this method first.

The only drawback to this approach is you will then have to find the appropriate driver for Windows XP to later activate the AHCI. Otherwise you're stuck with the slower and less capable IDE. Not that it's bad or anything, but it means not using your hardware to its best potential. Simply installing your chipset driver should actually resolve this issue (according to the Wikipedia article, although your mileage may vary - the laptop I was working on was still producing Blue Screen of Death 0x7B when AHCI is enabled, even though I have installed the chipset driver).

P.S. I am officially a programmer and not a system administrator, but sometimes work demands that I become both, and sometimes even more!

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An interesting find by the people over at Tom's hardware have came across a big find in the world of SSD's: they don't save you power. In fact, they eat more power than your current HDD. Interesting huh?

The fact of the matter is, an HDD only hits peak power when the actuator has to move the heads while SSD's use full power when in use - which is all the time. Although it is more "green" it really isn't power efficient. I suppose being ecofriendly and protecting your data, though, outweighs power consumption.

Or not?

[Read via Engadget]

Dysk Seagate Barracuda ES; 500GB, Serial ATA/300, 7200RPM, 16MBcache, NCQ <- doskonała cena

The Maxtor OneTouch IV Mini series of 2.5" external hard-disk drives are, as the name suggests, manufactured by Maxtor, a subsidiary of Seagate Technology. Today, we'll look at the Maxtor OneTouch IV Mini 250GB HDD, the tiniest (tiniest indeed) member of the current Maxtor product line up.

First lets have a look at the build quality and design. The external drive is designed and cased well using metal and rubber. Being a portable drive, and a good one at that, Maxtor has done well to make sure the drive can survive some drops and dents. Its really small and thin, fits beautifully in your shirt pocket and is lite enough to remain there for a long time. The body frame is covered with rubber and so is the bottom. The upperside is built of aluminum and if you press it, you can actually feel the cushion system implemented in the drive by Maxtor because the aluminum roof visibly gets pressed inside!

It definitely looks good and elegant and unlike the glossy MyBooks it doesn't attract too many fingerprints, oil smudges and dust. It also does a great job of complementing my MacBook Pro and actually can easily blend in with just any cabinet and laptop because of its dual shade and perfectly done serenity.

On the length side of the frame is a Y type USB connector and on the breadth side is a bluish white activity light which also doubles up as the 'OneTouch' button.

Design and Build Quality:

Now coming up to its features and bundle.  Not much to speak here since it doesn't have many at all. One strange thing here is the connector cable provided by Maxtor. First of all, it has two USB heads (the normal ones with which you connect the HDD to your computer). One of them reads 'POWER + DATA' while the other one reads 'POWER'. This can be a real problem because most laptops only have 2 - 3 USB ports to offer and all of them captured by the HDD can be irksome. Though the drive works fine with just the Power + Data cable connected, Maxtor recommends to connect both heads and they also recommend against using a flimsy one headed cable, like the one that comes with your digital camera. The second thing thats strange about the cable is its length. The 3 headed (2 USB & 1 Y type) cable which is already so short is linked with the Power + Data USB in between rather the Y type. This causes a strange loop formation if the USB connecters in your computer are close (which is usually the case). But even after the strange cable, it is really nice and helpful to get rid of the AC adapter!

The software which ships with the HDD is, in one word, pathetic. | {The HDD comes formatted in NTFS so Mac users might prefer to copy the data before initializing the disk} | The Maxtor self designed and manufactured software is amazingly inefficient and irksome. On the Mac, it simply fails to recognize the drive forget about everything else. On the PC things improve but only ever so slightly! It manages to recognize and register the drive with Maxtor's website but beyond that its useless and a resource hog while performing stupefyingly slow and erratic backups. The only 2 nifty features of the software are the OneTouch button configuration and data encryption!

I would strongly recommend getting something like EMC Retrospect for performing backups on the PC and Mac (though there are some ways like the Automator to configure the button to perform a Time Machine backup instead!)

Features and Bundles:

And finally we come to performance. It is a really speedy drive, though not a monster, but far above average! With some excellent write speeds, it easily beats a majority of its competitors in the market. 

The performance charts :

All figures are time (in seconds)                                                                                                               Shorter bars are faster

Withe the fastest read speeds and equally blazing write speeds, its no brainer that the drive is a show stealer!

Performance:

Overall, the Maxtor OneTouch IV Mini HDD is a great external drive, highly portable and an excellent performer but unlike its cousin the Seagate FreeAgent Go, which bundles the stunning Creedo software, it fails to impress with its bundles! Whats more, at a price point of $99 (from BestBuy) for the 250 GB version its a great drive meant to both, stay on the table and in you pocket.

Price: ~$110

Overall:

Value for Money:

Good: Excellent performance, great looks and sturdy.

Bad: Horrible software package, strange irksome and short connector cable.

HDDの中身を読み取れなくするには、専用ツールでローレベルフォーマットを行う。これらのツールはWindowsなんかからは起動できない(OSはHDD上にインストールされてるから)。専用ツールは各HDDメーカがフリーソフトとしておいているので、それをブータブルイメージとしてフロッピーかCD-Rに入れて使う。

ツールのダウンロードページ

• HGST - Drive Fitness Test
• Seagate - DiscWizard
• Maxtor (2006年にSeagateに買収された) - SeaTools?
• Western Digital - Data Lifeguard Diagnostic

Stacja dokująca do twardych dysków wyprodukowana przez Unitek nie tylko posiada sloty na karty pamięci i 2 wejścia USB, ale także umożliwia wykonanie backupu danych za pomocą tylko jednego przycisku.

Urządzenie obsługuje zarówno 2,5- jak i 3,5-calowe dyski. Produkt jest kompatybilny z komputerami PC i Mac, ale funkcja One Touch Button do sporządzania kopii zapasowej działa tylko pod systemem Windows.

Rozmiary SATA HDD Docking Station to 165,5 x 110 x 102 mm. Za urządzenie trzeba zapłacić 53$.

Źródło & Obrazek: 4press.pl

Toshiba anunció una nueva línea de discos duros (HDD) de 1.8 pulgadas que adoptan una interfaz serial ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment), y que incluye el un disco con una capacidad de 160 GB. El nuevo disco, el MK1617GSG y el disco de 80GB, el MK8017GSG, ingresarán en su etapa de producción masiva durante el mes de agosto.  

Los nuevos HDD de 1.8 pulgadas buscan mejorar la velocidad de interfaz a 1.5Gbps y ofrecen una velocidad de rotación de 5,400 rpm. Al materializar el primer disco de 1.8 pulgadas de 160GB con una interfaz ATA de la industria, Toshiba quiere asegurar que las PC portátiles podrán satisfacer las demandas de los usuarios más exigentes.

El disco MK1617GSG es más ecológico que el actual modelo MK1216GSG (120GB) de Toshiba y aumenta la eficiencia de consumo de energía, de acuerdo con el estándar legal de Japón, a 0,00281W/GB, un 25% de mejora. El disco mejora la tasa máxima de transferencia de datos internos en aproximadamente un 17% y permite obtener un acceso de datos más veloz en la lectura y la escritura que mejora el rendimiento general.

Junto con los HDD de interfaz serial ATA de 1.8 pulgadas de 80GB y 120GB de Toshiba que ya se encuentran en el mercado, los nuevos discos proporcionarán a los fabricantes de productos una amplia línea compatible con diversas aplicaciones. Los nuevos discos también contribuirán con el logro de productos ecológicos en cabal cumplimiento de la directiva RoHS de los EU.

Fortunately, a hard disk drive is one of the more simple computer components to change though it is important to select the correct type or you will struggle.

Firstly, there are three main forms of hard disk drives. This is an internal 3.5" drive used on standard desktop computers, a 2.5" hard disk that is used on notebook and laptop computers and external drives, usually connected by USB, and almost always not a primary drive.

I would suggest that should you be in the situation that your laptop or notebook drive has failed then you seek advice from the manufacturer as to which hard drives are compatible and how straight forward or difficult it may be to change.

Assuming you have a standard computer then you will need to select a 3.5" drive but there are more options. On a standard computer you will need to ascertain which type of hard disk you have. The two main options are PATA (Parallel ATA) and SATA (Serial ATA). SATA is the newest type of hard drive about at the moment, so assuming your PC is a number of years old it is a pretty safe bet to assume you have PATA.

SATA can be identified in several ways but as you are removing the hard disk anyway you can easily tell by the type of connections to the hard drive. PATA has the typical 4 pin connection found on standard CD ROM drives and DVD ROM drives, likewise PATA uses an IDE cable which is about 2 inches in length and is the same type of cable that also connects standard CD ROM drives. SATA has two much smaller connections - about a third of the size.

Apart from the options I have mentioned you have further desicions to make,  these decisions will not stop it from working but increase or decrease preformance. These include hard disk speed - faster the better, and capacity, this is the amount of space you physically need as storage. Generally the average computer user will not even use 20% of the smallest capacity hard drives on the market today.

Many people visit a laptop shop without prior knowledge of the device and end up buying an expensive device. Based on your requirement, you should buy the device. So following are some of the important points that need to be considered before buying:

The most important point is the laptop price and the nature of work: First of all you have to fix a range, for example, you want to buy a laptop below the range of 700$ or below 30,000 INR. Your fixed budget would definitely help you in selection. Also, you should consider for what purpose you want to buy a laptop.

Laptop size: There are various categories of laptops based on their size. For example, the most common device sizes are 13, 14, 15 and 17 inches. In this category, the smaller one will be lighter than the bigger one. However, the 17” laptop will definitely give increased performance as compared to 13” laptop.

Processor, hard disk drive: Dual-core laptops are common. However, I would suggest you to go for Intel Core 2 Duo processor. As far as storage capacity is concerned, most laptops come in the range of 160GB HDD and 1GB RAM. However, 2GB system memory would be better for good performance.

Battery performance: You can classify laptop battery based on the number of cells it has – there are commonly 4-cell, 6-cell and 9-cell versions. Here also, the lower number battery cell would have lower battery life as compared to the higher number battery cell. However, the 4-cell battery would be lighter then the 9-cell.

Connectivity: This largely means the external connectivity, which include USB, Ethernet, and Firewire. Check out the connectivity option and also see whether you have at least 3USB port and a VGA/DVI port or not.

Warranty: This is again one of the most important points you need to consider while buying a laptop. You can choose either a 1-year warranty offer or an extended warranty option. The man difference between these two types is that in the latter case you can extend the warranty for a certain period. Definitely, you will have to pay some amount for that.

With Sony's PlayStation 3 console starting to build some sales momentum, EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich says that "with E3 around the corner, we can expect Microsoft to make some type of announcement regarding a hardware price cut."

If this does happen, Divnich expects to see Sony follow suit with their own price reduction within two months of an Xbox 360 price cut.

Another possible announcement at E3 for the Xbox 360 is the addition of a new SKU, bumping the hard drive capacity of the console from 20GB to 60GB for the standard console (the "Elite" version comes with a 120GB hard drive).

Look for these rumors to either be confirmed or shot down by the time E3 opens on July 15th.

[Via Engadget]

No se han dado cuenta que ultimadamente ya no les venden con el Floppy de 3.5" las computadoras?

Bueno, a falta de este artefacto pueden ustedes comprar el aparatejo que se muestra al inicio de la entrada (no se como se llama, pero se ve chida), ya que con el gadget podrán tener 4 puertos USB más, lector de memorias de cámaras digitales o inclusive poder cambiar un Disco Duro de 2.5".

Lo malo para la parte del disco duro es que uno debe de comprar el disco duro y armarlo, pero por $70USD es un buen precio para presumir de juguetito nuevo multifuncional :)

------------------------------------------

Reportando desde CrunchGear

Firma Toshiba wprowadza nową serię 1,8-calowych dysków twardych z interfejsem SATA i pojemnością do 160GB. Firma twierdzi, że jest to pierwsze wśród tego typu urządzeń o tak dużej przestrzeni na dane.

Napęd dysponuje prędkością obrotową 5400rpm i jest zbudowany z dwóch talerzy. Dostępny będzie także model z jednym talerzem o pojemności 80GB. Zdaniem producenta nowe dyski oferują zmniejszony o 25% pobór energii elektrycznej oraz szybszy o 17% dostęp do danych, w porównaniu do poprzednich modeli Toshiby w formacie 1,8”.

Urządzenia wejdą do masowej produkcji w sierpniu tego roku. Średni czas wyszukiwania wynosi 15ms. Waga dysku 80GB to zaledwie 60g, model 160GB waży niewiele więcej – 62g. Toshiba twierdzi, że nowe produkty są odporniejsze na wstrząsy, niż dyski o tej samej pojemności, ale w większym formacie.

Źródło & Obrazek: 4press.pl

Toshiba anuncia su primer 160GB 1.8-inch SATA HDD, es el primer HDD a nivel mundial en su clase. Estos pequeños y preciosos dispositivos alcanzan la velocidad de 1.5Gbps y ofrecen una velocidad de rotacion de 5,400 rpm, mucho mas rapida que la generacion actual del Toshiba 1.8-inch HDD (MK1214GAH, parallel ATA, 120GB).

Esperemos a ver los precios de estas hermosuras que sin duda le daran mas velocidad (aun mas velocidad) a mi querido Debian

--------------

Un nuevo lanzamiento desde NewLaunches

The storage capacities offered by the 160GB MK1617GSG and 80GB MK8017GSG mirror those of larger form factor HDDs, while reducing the storage footprint by nearly 40 percent compared with the 2.5-inch form factor. Combined with the new micro-SATA connector, Serial-ATA 1.5Gb/s
interface and 5,400 RPM spin speed, the MKxx17GSG series offers small and light-weight solutions at increased data transfer rates for enhanced performance in sub-notebook PCs. (link)

S.C. Valmari93 S.R.L.

www.valmari93.ro

Adresa : Ploiesti , Str. Marasesti nr. 12 In spatele Cinema Patria

Tel: 0244/597478

Id Yahoo Messenger : val93srl

E-mail : val93srl@yahoo.co.uk

link :  http://www.valmari93.ro/    Produsele in DETALIU inclusiv  OFERTELE !!!

Two big rumors are going around right now that the other writers on this site and myself have been talking about for some time now. Both are awesome and to help out their respective systems, both are needed.

The first rumor (that according to some sites) may be announced tomorrow (June 9th) is that the Xbox 360 will be shipping a new model of system, this one with a blu-ray player within it. That would be huge news right now for Microsoft and at a good time too. If you forget, all the writers on this site work in game retail and have seen a slight decline in 360 sales with people looking for a PS3 so they can have the ability to watch blu-rays. We'll see if this rumor is true or not sometime soon. Maybe not tomorrow like predicted but others say that if the blu-ray 360 model is true you may be able to buy it as soon as this upcoming holiday season. I might need to buy this considering my 360 is the original model and doesn't even have an HDMI port. What a good excuse to spend money on a new model of system that has a function my current PS3 has...

The next rumor floatin around recently is that the Wii may be receiving a HDD or disk drive attachment. This is very plausible considering a disk drive can be attached by USB and a patch from Nintendo may be able to make the Wii read from it. This rumor might become valid soon (hopefully, the Wii needs it badly) because of the recently announced downloadable content for the Wii version of Rock Band coming out in only a couple of weeks on June 22nd. As many of you may have seen on the 360 or PS3 musical games, the downloadable content takes up quite a bit of space and the Wii only has 512mb of internal memory and the use of SD memory cards which would also fill up quick with songs. These companies really want my money I tell you.

-written by junkfoodtony

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This is the LaCie Golden Disk. It is a stunning 500GB External HDD which you can plug n' play with a PC or Mac. It's not stunning because it's 500GB, which is nothing compared to 1TB monsters out there, but because it literally dazzles you. The freakin' thing SHINES. It's a smooth gold colour all over, with an actual small percentage of real gold. The distortion you see is caused by this wave on its surface, as the top is not flat.

Designed by Ora Ito, a young European industrial designer so revered people even want to buy his imaginary products.

I just wanted something she could put to good use. It was a bonus it looks realllly glam. I would've just settled for some plain looking one were it not for Bri, so thanks Bri. Well I'm happy she's happy. It's a change from always feeling the way I feel.

I'm glad she enjoyed her weekend at my place.

Программа не требует установки.

• CrystalDiskInfo 1.0 (0.6 MB, freeware).

Here's the catch; the distance between my mum and her camera is about 175 km, the distance between my mum and me is about 175 km, but... the distance between her camera and me is ... roughly 40 cm. Get it?

Check my video on Vimeo!

Vimeo camera, originally uploaded by Stewart Leiwakabessy. 21st May, 2008 -- ©Stewart Leiwakabessy ]]>