Power supply – Is it possible (and safe/reliable/non-damaging) to use a 20-pin ATX PSU with a 24-pin ATX motherboard?

I have a reasonably-decent old 20-pin PSU which I want to use on a newer 24-pin ATX motherboard. I see that the ATX page on wikipediamentions that 24-pin ATX is backward-compatible, and I can find 20-to-24 pin adapters to buy for a couple of dollars/pounds at lots of places, but I can’t find any mention…

Read More

How to burn a disaster recovery CD?

How to burn a disaster recovery cd The most popular CD Burning Softwares, detailing how to burn a disaster recovery CD from the image file saved by Retrospect.

1. Nero Burning Rom (Ahead Software):

Start Nero and close the new compilation window, file browser window, and any wizard that appears. Choose Burn Image from the File menu. In the file selection dialog, change the shown file type to All Files, navigate to the disaster recovery ISO image, select it, and click Open. Click OK if Nero informs you it does not recognize the format of the image file. Nero presents its Foreign image settings dialog, which should have default settings of Data Mode 1, block size 2048 bytes, other values zero, and boxes unchecked. Click OK to work with these settings for the ISO image. Nero presents the Write CD window. Click Write to begin recording your disc.

2. Easy CD Creator (Adaptec/Roxio):

Start Easy CD Creator and cancel any wizard that appears. From the File menu, choose Open CD Layout. In the file selection dialog, change the shown file type from Easy CD Creator to All Files, navigate to the disaster recovery ISO image, select it, and click Open. In the CD Creation Setup window which appears, select your desired CD recorder, leave the write speed and options as they are, and click OK to begin recording your disc.

3. CD Extreme (Sony):

Start CD Extreme. At the default CD Starter window, click on the CD Extreme button/combo box in the lower right to go into the full application. From the File menu’s New Job submenu, choose Global-Image or Other Image. Click the ’…’ button at the far right of the Disk Image File area. In the file selection dialog, change the shown file type to Other Image, navigate to the disaster recovery ISO image, select it, and click Open. Click the Burn button to begin recording your disc.

4. B’s Recorder GOLD (B.H.A.):

Start B’s Recorder GOLD and close or cancel any assistant or wizard that appears. In the main window, drag the disaster recovery ISO image to the lowest of the three panes (which says it accepts Image files). Click Record at the top of the window to start burning the CD.

5. MyCD Pro (Sonic)

MyCD does not have the ability to record discs from ISO image files, but MyCD Pro does. Start MyCD Pro and close the Starter window to get to the main screen. Click the New Global-Image or Other Image button on the toolbar. A Global Image Job Setup window appears in the Job Setup pane. Highlight your CD-R drive in the Drive Status pane and select it by clicking the Select/Deselect as Recorder button on the toolbar. A red arrow appears on the drive icon to indicate it is selected. Click the Browse button from the Job Setup window. In the file selection dialog, change the shown file type to Other Image, navigate to the disaster recovery ISO image, select it, and click Open. (The path to your image file appears in the Job Setup pane.) Click the Record button to begin recording your disc. (The MyCD Pro online help includes icons in its instructions and the icons may help you better understand the steps to burn a CD from an image. Follow the help’s links from Using MyCD Pro to Global-Image Job and scroll down to Recording a CD from a Global-Image File.)

6. Macintosh OSX Disk Utility (Apple)

Open Disk Utility, which can be found in the Utilities folder. Click on Images on the menu bar and select Burn… In the Open window, browse to the ISO image file you want to burn, select the file, and click on the Open button. In the Burn Disk In: drop-down menu, select the CD burner drive that you will be burning the CD-ROM in. Click on the Burn button in the lower right hand corner. A Progress window will open that will show the progress of your CD being burned.

Read More

Hitachi Hard Disk Drive Business is now Western Digital

Hitachi Hard Disk Drive Business is now Western DigitalMarch 7, 2011 –  Hitachi transfers hard disk drive business to Western Digital.

Western Digital will acquire all shares of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies’s holding company, Viviti Technologies Ltd. The proposed combination will result in customer-centric storage company, with significant operating scale, strong global talent and the industry’s broadest product lineup backed by a rich technology portfolio.

Under terms of the agreement, WD will acquire Hitachi GST for $3.5 billion in cash and 25 million WD common shares valued at $750 million, based on WD closing stock price of $30.01 as of March 4, 2011. Hitachi will own approximately ten percent of WD shares and hold two seats on the WD board of directors. Steve Milligan, president and chief executive officer of Hitachi GST, will join WD’s existing senior management team as president.

The acquisition of Hitachi GST is a unique opportunity for WD to create further value for our customers, shareholders, employees, suppliers and the communities in which we operate. We believe this step will result in several key benefits-enhanced R&D capabilities, innovation and expansion of a rich product portfolio, comprehensive market coverage and scale that will enhance our cost structure and ability to compete in a dynamic marketplace. The skills and contributions of both workforces were key considerations in assessing this compelling opportunity. We will be relying on the proven integration capabilities of both companies to assure the ongoing satisfaction of our customers and to bring this combination to successful fruition.” – said John Coyne, president and chief executive officer of WD.

“This combination will bring together two industry leaders with consistent track records of strong execution and industry outperformance, together we can provide customers worldwide with the industry’s most compelling and diverse set of products and services, from innovative personal storage to Solid State Drives for the Enterprise.” – said Steve Milligan, president and chief executive officer, Hitachi GST.

Read More

10 Storage Technology Forecasts From Toshiba for 2012

Toshiba has developed in the forefront of digital data storage and protection because the start from the microcomputer revolution within the eighties. It practically invented NAND expensive, that is increasingly pervasive each day within the IT world, because of its ubiquitous use within mobile phones, tablet Computers, portable storage drives, servers, storage arrays, hubs and various other connected products.

Storage Technology,Toshiba Hard Disk Drives

Toshiba is another major disk drive and data center systems maker. The Japan-based company also offers a firsthand perspective around the IT world in the Off-shore Rim perspective, one which is also growing in importance.

HDDs Still the Mainstay Media
Spinning-disk hard disk drives will still be the mainstay from the storage niche for the expected future, in line with the development of data and also the petabytes of capacity only HDDs can offer.

Total Data Storage Rising to Zettabyte Scales in 2012
The quantity of content produced and duplicated in 2012 will exceed 2 zettabytes (2 trillion gb).

Greater Understanding of Disaster Recovery Needs
Recent disasters in Southeast Asia?anamely, flooding in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam?awill drive elevated understanding of the requirement for backup and disaster recovery for companies and customers.

Even Thinner Hard Disk Drives in route
Laptop producers will incorporate more 7mm z-height HDDs to aid thin and lightweight notebook Computers.

More Storage Tiering Visiting Data Centers
Enterprise data centers will expand their utilization of storage tiers to support large data growth, control operating costs, and make more flexible and resilient IT infrastructures.

Solid-Condition Drives Getting Good Play in 2012
Consumer SSD adoption continues to grow and earn a location within the greatest-performance segments of consumer Computers.

More Products for additional Storage Needs
Exterior storage demand continues to grow to supply backup solutions for a lot of products so that as “off-board” storage for all the different limited-storage products, for example media pills.

Self-File encryption Gets To Be More Common
Safeguarding private data remains a significant concern and using self-encrypting storage will expand make it possible for a far more seamless method of safeguarding privacy through the data’s lifecycle.

Cloud IT Concentrates on Scalability, Versatility
The still-emerging ways to use cloud computing inside it continues to pay attention to versatility and scalability with virtualized shared storage fundamentally of cloud architecture and value delivery.

SMBs Look Closer at Shared Storage Environments
Shared storage will have an growing role in small , midsize business conditions SMBs will implement shared storage to assist access data faster and their companies running more effectively.

Read More