How To Recover Data From A crashed Laptop Or Computer hard Drive

For a tech savvy individual, you already know that hard drive failures are inevitable. Possibilities are that sooner or later it will happen to you or to someone you know.  The good news is that there are lots of great recovery tools and methods that can be used to recover your lost data.

Connect the Drive to Another Computer
To start work on the crashed hard drive, remove it from the current laptop or computer and connect it to another laptop or computer as a secondary drive.  The best way to do this is to use a USB to IDE/SATA adapter, but  If you don’t have one available then you can connect the drive to another laptop or computer internally as a secondary drive.  If you decide to use this option, please ensure that the machine detects the drive in the BIOS or you won’t be able to access it once the laptop or computer starts up.

Try Copying the Data to Another Drive
After you might have succeed in connecting the drive to another laptop or computer either internally or with a USB adapter, check to see if you can browse the contents of the hard drive.  If you can, try copying the data that you would like to recover from the crashed laptop or computer.  There is a huge chance or possibility that only the operating system is corrupt and the user data is still OK.

Blue Screen Of Death Fix

Blue screen of death fix, the Blue Screen of Death also known as a Stop Error, Blue Screen, Blue Screen of Doom, BSOD, Bug Check Screen or Stop Screen is an error screen displayed by an operating system after a  crash. There is a great possibility that you will have heard of or seen the Blue Screen of Death. It turns the computer or laptop screen completely blue with an error code. A Blue Screen of Death is the worst type of error a computer or laptop can experience, unlike other crashes like an application crash, which doesn’t bring down or completely affect the whole system. A Blue Screen of Death is the result of low-level software crashing or a faulty hardware and it affects the whole system.

How To Insert And Remove A PC Card (PCMCIA)

How to insert and remove a  PC Card, a PC Card is credit card sized device that can be used for quite a variety of functions, which includes a flash memory card, network card, modem or hard drive. It comes in different types and they are further explained below

• Type I - Primarily used for adding or increasing the RAM of a laptop PC.

• Type II - Similar to Type I card; it has a 16-bit or 32-it interface, using two rows of pins.

• Type III - Uses four rows of pins with a 10.5 mm thickness, allowing the accommodation of larger connectors for peripherals. Since the removal of legacy ports from most modern laptops, type III ports are typically no longer used.

How To Extend The Life Span Of A Laptop LCD Display

How to extend the lifespan of a laptop LCD display, the laptop LCD screen is one of the most delicate part of a laptop, hence there is need to handle it in such a way that will enhance its efficiency and at the same time extend its lifespan.

The backlight is the light source of a laptop LCD display and without it, images on the LCD display can not be seen. Therefore, the life span of  the backlight is one of the factors that determines the life span of a laptop LCD display. When the backlight goes bad, the laptop becomes useless, until the backlight is replaced  by a functional one. Aside the backlight, there are some other things or factors that could shorten the life span a laptop LCD display and i have listed below ways through which you can overcome those factors and extend the life span of your laptop LCD display.

• Set the display brightness to the lowest comfortable level

• Avoid using a screen saver or any software that prevents the laptop from changing to Display-off or Standby mode after a timeout period. If you use a screen saver, enable the option to shut off the display after a time delay.

How To Lock The Hard Drive

The laptop enables you to lock its internal hard drive to help keep your information secure. When you enable the hard drive lock, the current BIOS user password (or administrator password if that is the only password
set) is encoded on the hard drive. If you move the hard drive to another laptop, you cannot access the drive until you set the user (or administrator) password to match the drive password. After you match the drive password, you can change the laptop (and drive) password. If you forget the password, you cannot recover your data.

• Select Start > Turn Off Computer > Restart.

• When the logo screen appears, press F2 to enter the BIOS Setup utility, for a step by step guide on how to run the BIOS setup utility click here.

• From the Security menu, enable Password Required to Boot.

• From the Security menu, enable Internal hard drive lock.

• Press F10 to save and exit BIOS Setup.

How To Set Up Password Protection On Your Laptop

You can protect your laptop from being accessed by another user when you set up password protection, which is available either through Windows and through the BIOS Setup utility. For complete protection, it is advisable that you set passwords in Windows as well as through BIOS Setup. To cancel password protection, set an empty password.

To Setup Password through Windows

• Select Start > Control Panel > User Accounts, then select your account. 

• Select Create a Password, then set the password.

• Select Start > Control Panel > Performance and Maintenance > Power Options.

How To Run The BIOS Setup Utility

How to run the BIOS setup utility, The BIOS (basic input and output system) Setup utility enables you to make changes to the laptop system configuration, and to streamline the operation of your laptop to your individual work needs. The settings made in BIOS Setup generally control the laptop hardware, and also greatly affect how the laptop operates. To enter the BIOS setup utility, follow these steps.

• Select Start > Turn Off Computer > Restart.

• When the logo screen appears, press F2 (on some laptop model it might be different) to enter BIOS Setup.

• The pointing devices are not active in BIOS Setup, so you will need to use the keyboard to navigate

• Press the left and right arrow keys to move among menus

How To Use A Laptop Touchpad

How to use a laptop touchpad, a laptop touchpad is an alternative to a regular computer mouse, a touchpad allows you to move the onscreen cursor, scroll through pages or click links on a laptop. It can perform the same function that a regular computer mouse is capable of, below are tips on how to efficiently and effectively use a laptop touchpad.

• The first step is to check if your touchpad is turned on, if it is not turned on, follow the steps below to enable it or get it turned on.

Go to Control Panel > Mouse > Settings

Click Enable

Spilled Water On Laptop, How To Clean It

Spilled water on laptop, how to clean it, when you spill water or a liquid on your laptop, the first step is to stop using the laptop immediately. Turn off the laptop, unplug the power adapter and remove the battery. The laptop should be disassembled as soon as possible and all internal parts should be inspected for liquid damage. Water or liquid spills on laptop can be very devastating and is capable of causing extensive damage to the laptop. For a step by step guide on how to take apart or disassemble a laptop click here. Take the following steps to solve the problem.

Step 1

Now remove the keyboard and take a closer look underneath it and search for water or liquid spills.

Step 2

Also check the motherboard for water or liquid spills.

How To Clean A Laptop Screen

Laptop screen is arguably one of the most delicate part of the laptop, personally when it comes to cleaning a laptop screen I do not recommend using abrasive cleaners on the screen display because they can damage the LCD screen, the screen has a very delicate surface.To clean your laptop screen, follow this simple process.

• Start the process by disconnecting the laptop from power supply, unlock the battery and slide it out from the laptop

• Get a soft and clean cloth, use it to wipe dust off the screen

• Dampen the cloth with water

• Do not use an excessively wet cloth

•  Then gently wipe the LCD screen display with the wet cloth

• Search and wipe away the fingerprint smudges that may have been imprinted on the screen. Wipe the edges and corners where dust and dirt may be lodged.

• Be very careful, so that you don't drip water on the keyboard as you wipe the screen

• Use a dry cloth, and dry the screen. Wipe away any moisture that may have been left by the solution.

• After wiping the screen, allow it to dry completely

• When you have confirmed it to be dry, then the process is complete