Should I Replace the Hard Drive?

Here is a question asked in Yahoo Answers:

Q: I’ve had my computer for about a year and 5 months, a Dell Inspiron 1750. Yesterday I turned on my computer and Windows loaded fine. I tried to open mozilla firefox and it completely froze, leaving me with an arrow when I hovered over my desktop and a “waiting” circle on my bottom toolbar. I turned it off manually and turned it back on and now all it does is say “windows is loading files” and will go to the normal windows 7 login screen, but it’s all stretched, the arrow is bigger than normal, and no login or option to enter my password comes up. I’ve used F8 numerous times on other computers and I can always get to restore it that way, but on my computer it sends me to a blue screen “diagnostic test” and says that the hard drive failed the test. I don’t believe this was a virus or anything because my computer was scanning the night before and didn’t find anything, I believe it was just doing what computers do which is stop working on you when you least expect it.

I don’t know if I should spend the money to replace my hard drive on this 1.5 year old computer and risk something else breaking on it in the near future since I do use it everyday OR if I should buy a brand new computer that is cheap (around $500) but not a piece of junk.

 

Here are two answers to the question from Yahoo members:

A1: If it was me, I’d download a decent Linux, or Rescatux or one of the other rescue type programs, and boot that. Use the Disk Utility program that comes with Linux to thoroughly test the hard drive. If it finds any problems, backup all your data somewhere and then try reinstalling Windows (yuck, I know) from either a restore partition on the HD or backup disks (you made them, right?) and all will be back to new condition. If the rest of your HD is OK. Option B is to install the Linux you downloaded in place of Windows and learn to use that. If your HD test shows many errors, time for a new HD; you can install Windows from your install disk MAYBE, and activate it using the number on the sticker on the case. (Or, in half an hour, you could have Linux running on it.)

A2: If the windows recovery diagnostic test reported that your hard drive has failed, then it probably has.

You should get another hard drive. There is no reason to buy a new computer. Just get any 3.5in sata drive and plug it in and you’re good to go.
However, you won’t have an operating system any more; you would have to either buy Windows again (bad), or burn or buy recovery disks for the insperon 1750.

 

Hard drive broken can be a serious problem as  forgot Windows password if the data is not backed up. If you have any opinions about this question, please leave a comment.

Forgot Mac Password, How to Reset It?

When working with Mac OS, you’re required to use an administrator password to install just about anything. If you forget your password, or if you’re using a hand-me-down computer and you don’t know the previous owner’s password, there is no workaround to bypass the admin password. Your only solution is to reset the password with the discs the computer came with. This project has two phases. Changing the admin password is the first step, but you must also follow through and change the keychain login as well.

How to Reset Mac Password with a With an OSX CD?
Like Windows password recovery issues, we can also take the CD to reset Mac passwsord with ease.

Step 1:  Insert the Mac OSX install CD into your optical drive. Hold down the “C” key and select “Restart” from your Apple menu. Hold the “C” key until the system reboots. Release the key when your screen starts to load.

Step 2:  Note the Mac OSX installer screen. Select a language, then click the arrow at the lower right of the window to continue.

Step 3: Click on the “Utilities” menu in the Finder window and pull down to select “Reset Password.”

Step 4: Note the “Reset Password” dialogue box that opens. Click on your hard disk volume in the pane below the title of the window. Click on the blue arrow of the drill down field below the hard drive to select the user name for which you wish to reset the password.

Step 5: Enter a new password for the user. Enter a password hint, if you like. Click the “Save” button. Click “OK” on the “Password Saved” confirmation dialogue box that appears. Reset another password or click the “Close” button to get out of the “Reset Password” window.

Step 5: Restart your computer and log into the user account for which you changed the password to see the effect.

How to Reset Mac Password without a CD?

Step 1: Click the “System Preferences” icon on your desktop dock. This launches a window with a variety of different operating system options.

Step 2: Click “Accounts” under the “Systems” section of the System Preferences.

Step 3: Select your account from the left side of the screen. Click the lock button in the lower left corner of the screen to edit your profile. Type in your current password.

Step 4:Click “Change Password.” Type in the new password. Re-enter to confirm. Type in the old password. Click “OK” and the Mac password resets.

Compared to reset Mac password, Windows password reset issue can be easier for us if we lost or forgot the password, especially forgot Windows 7 password. You can take a password reset disk, another available admin account or a Windows password recovery tool instead.

How to Password Protect an Iphone?

The iPhone includes a security feature that requires users to enter a four-digit passcode, or password, to use the phone and its many functions. This security feature prevents your iPhone from being used by others. So if your phone is stolen or your friend borrows it without permission, it cannot be used. If you lose or forget your passcode, you must reset it.

How to Create a Password for Your iphone?
Step 1: Click the Home button to bring up the main menu

Step 2: Click on Settings

Step 3: In the Settings screen click on General

Step 4: In the General screen click on Passcode Lock

This will open the Set Passcode screen. Enter a memorable 4-figure code and re-enter it when prompted.
Setting an iphone password is neccessary in order to prevent from voyeur or confidential let-out. However, we offten forgot the password for logon our iphone, like we always forgot password on Windows 7. We are annoying for password recovery on Windows 7 as we can not download or view anything from the laptop. Iphone passcode lost issue can also let us down.

Then, how to recover or reset iphone password?
If you have forgotten your iPhone’s Passcode you will need to restore your phone via iTunes.

Step 1: First you have to put your phone into the restore mode which is a slightly fiddly process.

Step 2: Plug your iPhone into your PC or Mac with the USB cable

Step 3: Press and hold the power button at the top and then slide to power off the iPhone

Step 4: Press the power button to power the iPhone on and keep it held while simultaneously pressing the home button

Step 5: After a few seconds a yellow alert triangle will appear and the iPhone will say it is iPhone Restore Mode.

Step 6: Open up iTunes and click on the Summary tab

Step 7: Click on Restore to restore your iPhone.

Step 8: Click on Restore to restore your iPhone. This will reset all your iPhone’s setting to the factory defaults, including the Passcode. You should then follow the steps above to activate the Passcode with a memorable number

Some Different Ideas on Password Security

Quite frankly, a password is not the solution to security. It’s at best a hack (old term) to get by until someone thinks up something workable. The users aren’t wrong to reuse poor passwords. Insecure, yes, but not wrong.

With the vast number of websites people use, it is nearly impossible to have a unique password for each one. Password reuse is simply a natural consequence of using the web.

Complex passwords are hard to remember, and people want ease of use and convenience. Who wants to (or is even able to) remember twenty passwords that look like “sdfgh*7&456#56?7DGBFD”? FAQs about Windows 7 password recovery may result from frequent password change or complex password.

The “secure” alternatives are remembering a ridiculously complex password for every site, using a password management system that more than quadruples the login time for everything, or not logging in anywhere.

And then those get hacked because they were important enough, or the password management system was on their phone and it got compromised, or someone broke the security on a company’s server and got all the passwords, account information, or whatever else you were expecting it to protect, making all that complexity worthless.

Unlike the “install and forget” approach AV provided, password security is an ongoing, constantly time consuming effort, which gives users a feeling of wasted effort every time this happens. We as an industry are the problem, not the 99.99% of users who don’t follow “proper” security measures. Passing the blame on the vast majority of people is never a meaningful approach.