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vccservice · 4 years

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josephlrushing · 4 years

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Thanks to Seagate and LaCie, I Don’t Have to Purchase a New MacBook Pro

Back in 2016, when I purchased my MacBook, I thought that 1TB of storage would go far. At the time, I was using Dropbox to store larger files in an attempt to go all-in on cloud storage. Four years later, and I once again find value in having my crucial documents and files readily available without having to use a browser to get to them. And thanks to these LaCie and Seagate portable storage solutions, I’ve been able to do just that.

Over the past two months, I’ve been exclusively using LaCie’s Rugged SSD Pro and Backup Plus Portable hard drive. Both portable drives allow me to house all of those confidential and personal files and photos, but they are compact enough that all I have to do is toss one in my bag if I have to leave the house. LaCie was kind enough to allow me to pick not only the sizes but the colors that I wanted for each of these review units, but I tend to stick with black portable drives for no particular reason.

Lacie Rugged SSD Pro

The Rugged SSD Pro is available in Black only, with the Standard Rugged SSD model available in Orange. The Lacie Rugged SSD Pro is a secure and fast SSD system that allows you to not only have consistent performance but 256-bit hardware encryption for all of your personal information. This is typically my GO-TO hard drive for holding my work data, all of my backup GearDiary contacts, and personal photos.

Coming complete with a Thunderbolt 3 cable in the box, the Rugged SSD Pro can perform up to 2.8 Gbps, perfect for those more extensive libraries that you have taking up precious desktop space. Working from home, having this functionality allows me to quickly take large zip files, extract, and even combine them faster than I ever could using my alternatives of Dropbox or Google Drive — both of those require an internet connection and a monthly subscription. If I were to ever run out of space on the Rugged SSD Pro, I’d simply purchase another larger model for my stockpile.

The 1TB model that I have not only matches the 1TB of storage in my MacBook, but it manages storage like a champ. Being the first-ever SSD I’ve reviewed, coming from more traditional hard drives, this has been a delight to use. One caveat that I should mention, though, is that at ~5″, the included Thunderbolt 3 cable is pretty short. I found myself purchasing a separate cable for when I’m on the go until I had a friend show me how they attach their SSD to the back of their MacBook so they always have storage readily available and so they always know where the SSD is.

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Just thinking that Apple would’ve charged me another $6-700 to add more storage to my MacBook was enough for me to consider SSD. What I enjoyed the most about it, though, is it has password protection, which allows me to secure my files properly. Family Photos, Passwords, and any other data that don’t want just sitting up in the cloud, in a service that could potentially end up hacked or canceled.

Thanks to LaCie’s ToolKit feature, not only can you sync with your computer and use it for Time Machine, but you can individually back up essential files, restore lost files, as well as continuously sync. But, of course, to do that, the drive would have to stay plugged into the laptop.

A lot of my friends use their SSDs for photo and video editing. But in my case, I use it for when we podcast weekly using Zoom. When I have the rugged SSD plugged into my MacBook, I can have our podcast shows automatically go into the SSD, which makes it easier to store without compromising any data speeds transfers or potentially losing the file. Before this, I had Zoom connected to Google Drive, which could be a potential disaster if Drive were to crash completely, or if my internet speeds caused the file not to upload correctly. I also can’t tell you how many times have attempted to download a large document or just a large file that could have been maybe 2-300 gigabytes, not realizing that my MacBook only had around 400 gigabytes left. Now with the Rugged SSD Pro, I never have these problems.

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The Rugged SSD Pro by LaCie comes in 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB. My next goal is to get the 2TB or wait until LaCie eventually puts out more massive storage for the SSD Pro so I can use it to catalog my Plex Server with movies and TV shows on the go. The 1TB that I ve been using has a sequential read and write of 1000 MBps per second and a write of 950 MBps per second, which is pretty impressive.

Measuring 3.9″ long by 2.6″ wide by 0.7″ thick and weighing in at just under 100 grams, it is easy to see this is the “get up and go” SSD to beat. Not only is it able to survive drops, but its grippy design keeps it from sliding around on a desk or table. According to LaCie, it can handle drops up to three meters and even can be run over by a car, which is more than AppleCare covers on my relatively delicate MacBook Pro, so I’ll take it. The SSD is also waterproof, which I appreciate, especially when I’m working in a coffee shop. The waterproof USB-C port sits on the long end of the hard drive.

To test speeds, I copied my iPhone Pro Max Cloud backup folder from my desktop to the Lacie Rugged SSD Pro to see how long it would take. For the 8GB backup, it took a total of six minutes to download on standard internet. I’ve taken advantage of the workaround shown above to attach the SSD to my MacBook — using the cable and some 3M Adhesive tape that I stuck to the back of my MacBook case. So when I’m in a coffee shop, it’s not sitting on the table; it’s attached to the MacBook itself.

It’s worth mentioning that LaCie gives everyone who purchases the Rugged SSD Pro a one-month complimentary membership to Adobe’s Creative Cloud “All Apps” plan, which is fantastic. Adobe’s subscription model is overpriced, in my opinion, however. I haven’t used my complimentary membership yet, but I’m sure later down the line, I’ll check it out.

I like the fact that LaCie opted for putting the Thunderbolt 3 port at the top of the device versus on the side, because for some reason, I’ve had a habit of accidentally pulling the cables out while sitting at a desk, and that’s certainly not a good thing. On the side of the device, there’s a white power indicator that lets you know when it is connected to the computer and when it’s not, so that helps out a huge deal. The Lacie Rugged SSD is my go-to everyday SSD, and it travels with me in my tech bag everywhere I go. I used it while camped out in the hospital, and I found it to be durable and versatile. It got me through almost a week of horribly-postured typing sessions, including this article.

The Lacie Rugged SSD Pro retails for $401, and it is available from Amazon [affiliate link] and other retailers.

Source: Manufacturer supplied review sample

What I Like: Ultra-portable, and I can use interchangeably with my MacBook and iPad

What Needs Improvement: Thunderbolt 3 cable is a bit too short at 5 inches — Lacie should include a longer cable

Seagate Backup Plus Portable

When I’m using my standing desk at home, though, I tend to use my Seagate Backup Plus Portable. Available in a variety of sizes in terms of onboard storage, I opted for the 5TB model. I’ve been attempting to set up my very own Plex Server since I’ve been home, and over the past month, it’s been going relatively well. I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with portable hard drives because of their internal spinning, constant overheating, and the eventual death and loss of everything stored on them.

The Seagate Backup Plus Portable comes with a trial for Adobe CC Photography and a one-year Mylio “Create” plan, both of which I completely disregarded but might be of use to someone else. Aside from that, the 5TB hard drive has a smaller footprint than many other hard drives at 4.5″ long by 3.15″ wide by 0.8″ thick.

The Backup Plus Portable works with both macOS and Windows 7 or higher. I almost exclusively use this hard drive to house all of my media, including videos and shows for Plex. The Backup Plus Portable can house up to 500,000 high-resolution photos, which Jess and I will likely do within three years, at the rate we’ve been taking pictures of baby Skylar. If you are storing video media, you can expect it to hold about 165 hours worth. This is great if you’re beginning your cable-cutting journey, or you decide you want to go fully digital and get rid of that collection of DVDs sitting in your basement.

We all know that external hard drives are useful tools for housing all of your files and data, but I’ve been impressed by what I’ve seen out of Seagate and Lacie. Their ability to give you a mobile solution like the Rugged SSD or allow you to hoard all of your photos, playlists, and documents on the Backup Plus is truly remarkable considering their prices are modest these days, especially compared to cloud services. Instead of paying the reoccurring monthly or yearly fees on these services, either of these backup solutions would be a great choice.

The 5TB Seagate Backup Plus Portable retails for $104.99, and it is available from Amazon [affiliate link] and other retailers.

Source: Manufacturer supplied review sample

What I Like: 5TB is an insane amount of storage for the price; Small footprint, can easily slide into a back pocket or backpack

What Needs Improvement: Nothing

The post Thanks to Seagate and LaCie, I Don’t Have to Purchase a New MacBook Pro first appeared on GearDiary.

from Joseph Rushing https://geardiary.com/2020/09/16/thanks-to-seagate-and-lacie-i-dont-have-to-purchase-a-new-macbook-pro/

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suzanneshannon · 4 years

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Review of the Surface Book 3 for Developers

I was offered a Surface Book 3 to use as a loaner over the the last 5 weeks. I did a short video teaser on Twitter where I beat on the device with a pretty ridiculous benchmark - running Visual Studio 2019 while running Gears of War and Ubuntu under WSL and Windows Terminal. I have fun. ;)

Hey they loaned me a @surface book 3! So...I threw EVERYTHING at it...Visual Studio, Gears of War, Ubuntu/WSL2/Windows...*all at the same time* because why not? LOL (review very soon) pic.twitter.com/FmgGCBUGuR

— Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) May 14, 2020

Size and Weight

My daily driver has been a Surface Book 2 since 2017. The new Surface Book 3 is the exact size (23mm thick as a laptop) and weight (3.38 and 4.2 lbs.) as the SB2. I have had to add a small sticker to one otherwise I'd get them confused. The display resolutions are 3000×2000 for the 13.5-inch model and 3240×2160 for the 15-inch one that I have. I prefer a 15" laptop. I don't know how you 13" people do it.

Basically if you are a Surface Book 2 user the size and weight are the same. The Surface Book 3 is considerably more power in the same size machine.

CPU and Memory

They gave me an i7-1065G7 CPU to test. It bursts happily over 3.5 Ghz (see the compiling screenshot below) and in my average usage hangs out in the 2 to 1.8 range with no fan on. I regularly run Visual Studio 2019, VS Code, Teams, Edge (new Edge, the Chromium one), Ubuntu via WSL2, Docker Desktop (the WSL2 one), Gmail and Outlook as PWAs, as well as Adobe Premiere and Audition and other parts of the Creative Suite. Memory usually sits around 14-18 gigs unless I'm rendering something big.

It's a 10th gen Intel chip and as the Surface Book 3 can detach the base from the screen, it's both a laptop and tablet. I gleaned from Anandatech that TDP is between 10 and 25W (usually 15W) depends on what is needed, and it shifts frequencies very fast. This is evident in the great battery life when doing things like writing this blog post or writing in Edge or Word (basically forever) versus playing a AAA game or running a long compile, building containers, or rendering a video in Premiere (several hours).

FLIP THE SCREEN AROUND? You can also when docked even reverse the screen! Whatever do you mean? It's actually awesome if you want an external keyboard.

All this phrased differently? It's fast, quickly, when it needs to be but it's constantly changing the clock to maximize power/thermals/battery.

SSD - Size and Speed

The device I was loaned has a Toshiba KXG60PNV2T04 Hard Drive 2TB NVMe M.2 that's MASSIVE. I'm used to 512G or maaybe a 1TB drive in a Laptop. I'm getting used to never having to worry about space. Definitely 1TB minimum these days if you want to play games AND do development.

I ran a CrystalBenchmark on the SSD and it did 3.2GB/s sequential reads! Sweet. I feel like the disk is not the bottleneck with my development compile tests below. When I consulted with the Surface team last year during the conception of the Surface Book 3 I pushed them for faster SSDs and I feel that they delivered with this 2TB SSD.

GPU - Gaming and Tensorflow

The 13.5-inch model now comes with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Max-Q GPU with 4GB of GDDR5 memory in its Core i7 variant, while the 15-inch unit features a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q with 6GB of GDDR6 memory. When running the Gears 5 Benchmark while plugged in (from the Extras menu, Benchmark) is has no issues with the default settings doing 60fps for 90% of the benchmark with a few dips into the 57 range depending what's on screen.

It's not a gaming machine, per se, but it does have a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti so I'm basically able to 1080p 60fps AAA games. I've played Destiny 2, Gears of War 5, and Call of Duty Modern Warfare on default settings at 60 fps without issue. The fan does turn on but it's very manageable. I like that whenever we get back into hotels I'll be able to play some games and develop on the same machine. The 15" also includes an Xbox Wireless Adapter so I just paired my controller with it directly.

I was also able to run Tensorflow with CUDA on the laptop under Windows and it worked great. I ran a model against some video footage from my dashcam and 5.1 gigs of video RAM was used immediately and the CUDA engine on the 1660Ti is visible working in Taskman. The commercial SKU has an NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000 that is apparently even more tuned for CUDA work.

Developer Performance

When I built my Intel i9 Ultimate Desktop 3.0 machine and others, I like to do compile tests to get a sense of how much you can throw at machine. I like big project compiles because they are a combination of a lot of disk access and a lot of parallel CPU work. However, some projects do have a theoretical maximum compile speed because of the way the dependences flesh out. I like to use Orchard Core for benchmarks.

Orchard Core is a fully-featured CMS with 143 projects loaded into Visual Studio. MSBUILD and .NET Core supports both parallel and incremental builds.

A warm build of Orchard Core on IRONHEART my i9 desktop takes just under 10 seconds.

My 6 year old Surface Pro 3 builds it warm in 62 seconds.

A totally cold build (after a dotnet clean) on IRONHEART takes 33.3 seconds.

My Surface Pro 3 builds it cold in 2.4 minutes.

I'll do the same build on both my Surface Book 2 and this new Surface Book 3 to compare. I've excluded the source folders from Defender as well as msbuild.exe and dotnet.exe. I've also turned off the Indexer.

A cold build (after a dotnet clean) on this Surface Book 3 takes 46 seconds.

A warm build is 16.1 seconds

A cold build (after a dotnet clean) on my Surface Book 2 takes 115 seconds.

It's WAY faster than my Surface Book 2 which has been my daily driver when mobile for nearly 3 years!

Benchmarks are all relative and there's raw throughput, there's combination benchmarks, and all kinds of things that can "make a chart." I just do benchmarks that show if I can do a thing I did before, faster.

You can also test various guesses if you have them by adding parameters to dotnet.exe. For example, perhaps you're thinking that 143 projects is thrashing to disk so you want to control how many CPUs are used. This has 4 physical cores and 8 logical, so we could try pulling back a little

dotnet build /maxcpucount:4

The result with Orchard Core is the same, so there is likely a theoretical max as to how fast this can build today. If you really want to go nuts, try

dotnet build -v diag

And dig through ALL the timing info!

Webcam Quality

Might be odd to add this as its own section but we're all using our webcams constantly right now. I was particularly impressed with the front-facing webcam. A lot of webcams are 720p with mediocre white balance. I do a lot of video calls so I notice this stuff. The SB3 has a 1080p front camera for video and decent light pickup. When using the Camera app you can do up to 5MP (2560x1920) which is cool. Here's a pic from today.

Ports and Power and Sound and Wi-Fi

The Surface Book 3 has just one USB-C port on the right side and two USB 3.1 Gen 2s on the left. I'd have liked one additional USB-C so I could project on stage and still have one additional USB-C available...but I don't know what for. I just want one more port. That said, the NEW Surface Dock 2 adds FOUR USB-C ports, so it's not a big deal.

It was theoretically possible to pull more power on the SB2 than its power supply could offer. While I never had an issue with that, I've been told by some Destiny 2 players and serious media renderers that it could happen. With the SB3 they upped the power supply with 65W for the base 13.5-inch version and a full 127W for the 15-inch SKUs so that's not an issue any more.

I have only two Macs for development and I have no Thunderbolt devices or need for an eGPU so I may not be the ideal Thunderbolt consumer. I haven't needed it yet. Some folks have said that it's a bummer the SB3 doesn't have it but it hasn't been an issue or sticking point for any of my devices today. With the new Surface Dock 2 (below) I have a single cable to plug in that gives me two 4k monitors at 60Hz, lots of power, 4 USB-C ports all via the Dock Connector.

I also want to touch on sound. There is a fan inside the device and if it gets hot it will run. If I'm doing 1080p 60fps in Call of Duty WarZone you can likely hear the fan. It comes and goes and while it's audible when the fan is on, when the CPU is not maxed out (during 70% of my work day) the Surface Book 3 is absolutely silent, even when running the monitors. The fan comes on with the CPU is bursting hard over 3Ghz and/or the GPU is on full blast.

One other thing, the Surface Book 3 has Wi-Fi 6 even though I don't! I have a Ubnt network and no Wi-Fi 6 mesh points. I haven't had ANY issues with the Wi-Fi on this device over Ubnt mesh points. When copying a 60 gig video file over Wi-Fi from my Synology NAS I see sustained 280 megabit speeds.

The New Surface Dock - Coming May 26th

I'm also testing a pre-release Surface Dock 2. I suspect they wanted me to test it with the Surface Book 3...BUT! I just plugged in every Surface I have to see what would happen.

My wife has a Surface Laptop 2 she got herself, one son has my 6 year old old Surface Pro 3 while the other has a Surface Go he got with his allowance. (We purchased these over the last few years.) As such we have three existing Surface Docks (original) - One in the kids' study/playroom, one in the Kitchen as a generalized docking station for anyone to drop in to, and one in my office assigned me by work.

We use these individual Surfaces (varying ages, sizes, and powers) along with my work-assigned Surface Book 2 plus this loaner Surface Book 3, so it's kind of a diverse household from a purely Surface perspective. My first thought was - can I use all these devices with the new Dock? Stuff just works with a few caveats for older stuff like my Surface Pro 3.

RANDOM NOTE: What happens when you plug a Surface Pro 3 (released in 2014) into a Surface Dock 2? Nothing, but it does get power. However, the original Surface Dock is great and still runs 4096 x 2160 @30Hz or 2960 x 1440 @60Hz via mini DisplayPort so the Pro 3 is still going strong 6 years out and the kids like it.

So this Surface Dock 2 replaces the original Dock my office. The Surface Dock 2 has

2x front-facing USB-C ports (I use these for two 4k monitors)

2x rear-facing USB-C ports

2x rear-facing USB-A 3.2 (10Gbps) ports

1x Gigabit Ethernet port

1x 3.5mm audio in/out port

Kensington lock slot - I've never used this

First, that's a lot of USB-C. I'm not there yet with the USB-C lifestyle, but I did pick up two USB-C to full-size DisplayPort cables at Amazon and I can happily report that I can run both my 4k monitors at 60hz plus run the main Surface Book 3 panel. The new Dock and its power supply can push 120 watts of power to the Surface with a total of 199 watts everything connected to the dock. I've got a few USB-C memory sticks and one USB-C external hard drive, plus the Logitech Brio is USB 3, so 6 total ports is fine with 4 free after the two monitors. I also Gigabit wired the whole house so I use the Ethernet port quite happily.

Initially I care about one thing - my 4k monitors. Using the USB-C to DisplayPort cables I plugged the dock into two Dell P2715Q 4ks and they work! I preferred using the direct cables rather than any adapters, but I also tested a USB-C to HDMI 2.0 adapter I got in 2018 with some other Dell monitors in the house and that worked with the Surface Book 3 as it had previously with the Book 2.

SURPRISE NOTE: How does the super-thin Surface Pro X do when plugged into a Surface Dock 2? Amazing. It runs two 4k monitors at 60 Hz. I don't know why I was shocked, it's listed on the support page. It's a brand new device, but it's also the size and weight of an iPad so I was surprised. It's a pretty amazing little device - I'll do another post on just the ARM-based Surface Pro X another time.

One final thing about the new Dock. The cable is longer! The first dock had a cable that was about 6" too short and now it's not. It's the little things and in this case, a big thing that makes a Dock that much nicer to use.

Conclusion

All in all, I'm very happy with this Surface Book 3 having been an existing Surface Book 2 user. It's basically 40-50% faster, the video card is surprisingly capable. The SSD is way faster at the top end. It's a clear upgrade over what I had before, and when paired with the Surface Dock 2 and two 4k monitors it's a capable developer box for road warriors or home office warriors like myself.

Sponsor: Have you tried developing in Rider yet? This fast and feature-rich cross-platform IDE improves your code for .NET, ASP.NET, .NET Core, Xamarin, and Unity applications on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Review of the Surface Book 3 for Developers published first on https://deskbysnafu.tumblr.com/

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philipholt · 4 years

Text

Review of the Surface Book 3 for Developers

— Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) May 14, 2020

Size and Weight

Basically if you are a Surface Book 2 user the size and weight are the same. The Surface Book 3 is considerably more power in the same size machine.

CPU and Memory

FLIP THE SCREEN AROUND? You can also when docked even reverse the screen! Whatever do you mean? It's actually awesome if you want an external keyboard.

All this phrased differently? It's fast, quickly, when it needs to be but it's constantly changing the clock to maximize power/thermals/battery.

SSD - Size and Speed

GPU - Gaming and Tensorflow

Developer Performance

Orchard Core is a fully-featured CMS with 143 projects loaded into Visual Studio. MSBUILD and .NET Core supports both parallel and incremental builds.

A warm build of Orchard Core on IRONHEART my i9 desktop takes just under 10 seconds.

My 6 year old Surface Pro 3 builds it warm in 62 seconds.

A totally cold build (after a dotnet clean) on IRONHEART takes 33.3 seconds.

My Surface Pro 3 builds it cold in 2.4 minutes.

A cold build (after a dotnet clean) on this Surface Book 3 takes 46 seconds.

A warm build is 16.1 seconds

A cold build (after a dotnet clean) on my Surface Book 2 takes 115 seconds.

It's WAY faster than my Surface Book 2 which has been my daily driver when mobile for nearly 3 years!

dotnet build /maxcpucount:4

The result with Orchard Core is the same, so there is likely a theoretical max as to how fast this can build today. If you really want to go nuts, try

dotnet build -v diag

And dig through ALL the timing info!

Webcam Quality

Ports and Power and Sound and Wi-Fi

It was theoretically possible to use pull power on the SB2 than it's power supply could push. While I never had an issue with that, I've been told by some Destiny 2 players and serious media renderers that it could happen. With the SB3 they upped the power supply with 65W for the base 13.5-inch version and a full 127W for the 15-inch SKUs so that's not an issue any more.

I also want to touch on sound. There is a fan inside the device and if it gets hot it will run. If I'm doing 1080p 60fps in Call of Duty WarZone you can likely hear the fan. It comes and goes and while it's audible when it's one, when the CPU is not maxed out (during 70% of my work day) the Surface Book 3 is absolutely silent, even when running the monitors. The fan comes on with the CPU is bursting hard over 3Ghz and/or the GPU is on full blast.

The New Surface Dock - Coming May 26th

I'm also testing a pre-release Surface Dock 2. I suspect they wanted me to test it with the Surface Book 3...BUT! I just plugged in every Surface I have to see what would happen.

So this Surface Dock 2 replaces the original Dock my office. The Surface Dock 2 has

2x front-facing USB-C ports (I use these for two 4k monitors)

2x rear-facing USB-C ports

2x rear-facing USB-A 3.2 (10Gbps) ports

1x Gigabit Ethernet port

1x 3.5mm audio in/out port

Kensington lock slot - I've never used this

Conclusion

Review of the Surface Book 3 for Developers published first on http://7elementswd.tumblr.com/

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nd1ad · 6 years

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NVME SSD defeats

I’ve been trying for days (over the past month and a half) to get Windows cloned/installed on this m.2 SSD.

Here’s what I’ve got:

ASRock Z77 Extreme4 motherboard

Patriot SCORCH M.2 2280 256GB SSD

Samsung 1TB hard drive with 170GB OS partition and 700GB music library partition

Here is a list of things I learned/tried/etc since purchasing that SSD.

purchased an m.2 to PCIe adaptor (the SSD had PCIe in the title of the product so I didn’t realize I had to buy an adaptor to actually make it PCIe pluggable. Had to wait a few days for this to arrive)

flashed the BIOS with ASRock’s beta image for supporting NVMe SSDs

used an article from LifeHacker which recommended Macrium Reflect to clone the OS drive. Dragged the OS partitions to the SSD to clone. Did not boot to SSD.

changed the ordering of the OS partitions on the SSD clone a few times to see if that’d make it work better

tried to see if I needed to `bcdedit` to make the cloned OS believe that it’s ready for business but it didn’t quite make sense

tried to see if it was a MBR/GPT, BIOS/UEFI issue but that wasn’t relevant either

gave up for a few weeks, talked to a friend who cloned to his SSD using EaseUS (which had been coming up in almost every troubleshooting query I did about this stuff) so I gave that a try

cloned OS partitions to SSD and it literally made partitions on the SSD called “Clone of C” “Clone of *” etc which was dumb and no they weren’t system partitions lol

cloning OS partitions one by one seemed kinda bad, like maybe it would be more legit to clone the entire disk so I wasn’t handling the partitions individually, so I reluctantly backed up my Music partition from my OS disk onto another disk and deleted that partition so that all I had on that OS disk now was just the OS partitions

cloning entire disk to SSD didn’t work either. Basically the same result.

discovered the “Migrate OS” feature of EaseUS. I thought I had it this time, especially since Macrium Reflect didn’t have this feature, and the fact that EaseUS boots into its own thing with Windows shut down to do the work made it seem way more legit. But it did. not. boot. My Computer did not show the Windows OS icon on the drive at all. At least with Macrium Reflect it did show the Windows OS icon on the cloned drive. I have no idea what flags a drive like that. I’m not even convinced it matters bc none of this shit’s been working.

created system backup and system repair disk so I could “restore” the system to the new location (actual official Microsoft advice for migrating to SSD) but it gave a terse error that there was nowhere to restore to, even though the SSD definitely shows up in the list

meanwhile Windows started acting buggy. I think the latest updates I’d installed have been messing with it, saw similar complaints online about Windows started spontaneously powering off while booting, was happening for me about 1/3 of the time. So I think it’s not a bad idea to do a fresh Windows install. Might not solve that, really wasn’t preferred either, but I’m ready for it.

downloaded Win10 installer from Microsoft and had it set up a USB hard drive as the installation media

unplugged all other drives to be damn sure I wouldn’t install on anything else bc at this point I’ve been copying files, deleting partitions, moving data every which way memory wise and physically and I don’t want anything getting lost in the mix and I’ve already lost data this year which sparked this whole thing

windows installer recognizes SSD but says it can’t install to it: “This computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disk's controller is enabled in the computer's BIOS menu.” The BIOS def recognizes the SSD but okay

myriad of posts and videos about this issue. Lots of advice about what BIOS settings to choose. A web of possible values and combinations of settings that may or may not be available on my particular BIOS image. Lots and lots of rebooting and trying the installer again.

flashed newer ASRock beta BIOS image, turns out that doesn’t support SSDs. Flashed sketchy user-made BIOS image, didn’t seem to recognize my SSD the way the official beta image did. Still, was desperate and tried Windows installer again each time to see if there was any change.

tried changing SSD to GPT because that is newer and slicker than MBR and since I’m doing a fresh Windows install it makes sense to do so and someone said literally that day on a support forum somewhere that Windows was now requiring it for new installs and I am desperately believing everything I see on the internet now. Same error message.

I gave up for a couple more days. My computer has been sitting quiet, powerless, with all hard drives unplugged, case tentatively open on both sides, very much not seeding my 1800 torrents. And now today, just now, I submitted an order on Newegg for an m.2 to SATA adaptor. This kills me a little on the inside knowing that SSD speeds via SATA3 is 7x slower than NVMe. Sure, SATA SSD is still 5x faster than SATA spinning disk so it’ll still be nice. When I looked at the reviews for the product, there were people very matter-of-factly saying they got this because they didn’t have an m.2 port (all you need is a PCIe adaptor to get those sweet NVMe speeds though?!). Maybe enough people do this that I shouldn’t feel as ashamed.

I suppose I’ll try using EaseUS to migrate Windows onto the drive after I get the SATA adaptor. Or maybe I’ll still do the fresh install so I don’t inherit all the cruft. I can drag in settings and such from my old OS drive. We’ll see. My goal to finish this before I started my new job failed (I start Monday and the SATA adaptor gets here in the mail next week), but that’s okay, I’ll make sure to still get this done.

What I really want to know is why I’m having so much trouble?! Maybe someday I’ll know. But I’m stumped.

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spicynbachili1 · 6 years

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Best PC gaming deals: graphics cards, SSDs, games and more (November 2nd)

Remember, remember the 23rd of November, many savings, discounts and deals. I know of no reason why Black Friday season shouldn’t be a right old steal. That’s how the nursery rhyme goes, right? What’s that? It’s actually meant to be about fireworks and the 5th of November, describing the great gunpowder plot that failed to blow up the Houses of Parliament? You must have been misled as a child, dear reader, because everyone knows that November is about one holiday and one holiday only – the joyous and most beautiful deals jamboree, Black Friday.

There are just three weeks to go now before that fateful savings bonanza, but I know how much you all like a good deal in the here and now, too. Thus, your deals herald will provide. The Steam Halloween sale may be over, but there’s still plenty to be getting on with this week, including cheap Assassin’s Creed, lots more spooky game discounts and a whole lot of hardware. To the deals!

Game deals

Over at GamesPlanet, their latest publisher sale is all about Good Shepherd this week. Highlights include 85% off psychological survival horror show Pathologic Classic HD (pictured above), another 85% off 2D pixel platformer Atomik: RunGunJumpGun, 27% off action strategy fest Phantom Doctrine, and 15% off lovely squishy platformer Semblance to name just a few.

GamesPlanet are also doing a massive Assassin’s Creed sale, too, just in case you fancy playing every game in order (and have infinite free time) before you eagle-dive into Odyssey. Sadly, Odyssey itself isn’t part of the sale (Kassandra would sooner boot you off a cliff than be called ‘cheap’, probably), but you can get 52% off the pyramid-riddled Origins, 62% off London cockney caper Syndicate, 66% off French disastermasterpiece Unity… you get the idea.

Alternatively, if you somehow missed Halloween in all the chaos of clocks going backwards, forwards, who even knows-wards, then you’ll be pleased to hear Humble’s spooky deals are still going on for another three days. Even better, you can get Murderous Pursuits for FREE when you buy any game in the sale, which is most excellent.

Some highlights include the very good Oxenfree for 75% off, eerie, sci-fi horror ’em-up SOMA (also 75% off), alien strategy fest XCOM 2 (yep, you guessed it, it’s 75% off) and, er… Mount and Blade: Warband for a tasty 60% off. Not sure how that fits in with Halloween, but perhaps it’s got something to do with all those pointy sticks. Plus, if you haven’t played it yet, do yourself a favour and pick up Stories Untold. It’s 75% off – that’s £1.74 in the UK – and well worth your time.

If your favourite way of experiencing the world’s most popular sport is through a heck of a lot of spreadsheets rather than kicking virtual balls around, then Football Manager 2019 is currently 18% off over on Fanatical right now. That works out to just £31.15 in the UK, which is much cheaper than Steam’s £37.99.

If you also like experiencing the grueling reality of war not by shooting everything to smithereens but through the gritty, heartbreaking tales of civilians, then Fanatical are also doing This War of Mine‘s Anniversary edition for 77% off until 4pm GMT this afternoon (that’s 9am for PT peeps and midday ET).

UK deals:

There are graphics card deals aplenty this week, particularly if you like shopping at Ebuyer. These include the Asus ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1050Ti (4GB) for £161 (down from £185), the Zotac GeForce GTX 1060 Amp! Edition (6GB) for £240 (down from £282 and also comes with a free copy of Monster Hunter: World), plus the MSI GeForce GTX 1070Ti Gaming for £405 (down from £480, and comes with the same free Monster Hunter: World deal).

Over on the red corner, you have until tomorrow (November 3rd) to take advantage of AMD’s three free game deal, which bags you Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Strange Brigade and Star Control: Origins for freemans. You’ve still got until the end of December to actually redeem said codes, but AMD graphics card sales after tomorrow won’t come with all those free games attached.

So, with that in mind, why not consider the MSI Radeon RX 570 Armor OC (8GB), which is currently just £159 from Overclockers UK (down from £210), or the MSI Radeon RX 580 Armor OC (8GB) for £220 from Ebuyer (down from £310). Or, if you prefer something a bit more powerful, you can save £50 on the PowerColor Radeon RX Vega 56 Red Dragon, which is £350 from Overclockers UK, or £60 on the Gigabyte Radeon RX Vega 64 Windforce OC, which is going for £440 from Overclockers UK.

Over in monitor town, Scan is doing a bunch of discounts on MSI gaming monitors, including the 24in, 1920×1080, curved 144Hz FreeSync screen Optix MAG24C (£179 down from £220, the 27in, 1920×1080, curved 144Hz FreeSync-enabled Optix MPG27C (£349, down from £399), and its 1440p cousin, the MSI Optix MPG27CQ (£400, down from £469). I was a big fan of the latter when I had it in for testing, so have a read of my MSI Optix MPG27CQ review to see what you’re getting.

Asus are also giving away free copies of Blops 4 with new monitors at the moment, making monitors like the 27in, 2560×1440, 144Hz FreeSync equipped Asus ROG MG279Q even better value than before. This currently going for just £429 over on Box, down from its usual price of £519.

Alternatively, ultrawide monitor lovers will be pleased to hear the 35in, 2560×1080, 144Hz Nvidia G-Sync Acer Predator Z35 is going for £845 from Box right now (down from £995, read our Acer Predator Z35 review for more info), while its 120Hz G-Sync rival, the AOC AGON AG352UCG6, can be had for £735 on Box (down from £793, read our AOC AGON AG352UCG review for more info)

Meanwhile, there are loads of SSDs going cheap as well at the moment, with Samsung ones also netting you some free Assassin’s Creed Odyssey on selected drives. The best deals I’ve seen are on the Samsung 970 Evo (500GB), which is down from £195 to £130 over at Ebuyer (read my Samsung 970 Evo review to see how it compares), and the 1TB model of the Samsung 860 Evo, which is going for £165, also from Ebuyer, down from £250.

At the other end of the SSD scale, you’ve also got the bargain-tastic Kingston A400 (480GB) going for £70 from Ebuyer (down from £98) and the WD Blue 3D NAND (250GB), which is now just £48 from Amazon (down from £68). To see how the latter stacks up against the competition, have a gander at my WD Blue 3D NAND review.

US deals:

If you’re in need of a new gaming monitor, you’re in luck, as not only do you have the aforementioned free Blops 4 dealio taking place on selected Asus monitors, but there are also some giant discounts to be had on Dell’s Alienware monitors right now. Starting with the former, you’ve got the 28in, 4K FreeSync-enabled Asus MG28UQ, which is $380 at Newegg (down from $450) and the 27in, 2560×1440, 165Hz Nvidia G-Sync screen, the Asus ROG Swift PG279Q, which is going for $692 from Newegg and is not to be confused with its 4K, G-Sync HDR cousin, the PG27UQ.

Then, over in the Dell camp, you’ve got until tonight to bag yourself $600 of the ultrawide, 3440×1440, 120Hz Nvidia G-Sync Alienware AW3418DW, which is currently going for $900 at Newegg (down from $1500). Plus, you can get an extra $100 off with promo code 24BFDLPC4. There are also big discounts to be had on the 25in, 1920×1080, 240Hz FreeSync monitor, the Alienware AW2518HF, which is down to $330 from Newegg from its usual $500.

As for graphics cards to make the most of these monster screens, this week’s best deals include the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1050Ti, which has had its usual price of $259 slashed to just $171 over at Newegg, making it one of the cheapest GTX 1050Tis cards around right now. There’s also the EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming (6GB), which is $255 at Newegg right now (down from $290), and comes with a free copy of Monster Hunter: World.

Remember, AMD’s free game bundle also expires in the US tomorrow, so if you want to make the most of 1080p card offers like the Gigabyte Radeon RX 570, which is down to $160 at Newegg, then you better hop to it. The same goes for the barga-riffic 8GB MSI Radeon RX 580 which is down to just $244 at Newegg as well.

Samsung’s 860 Evo continues its aggressive discounts as well, with the 500GB model going for just $87 from Newegg (down from $110), while its NVMe sibling, the Samsung 970 Evo (250GB) can be had for just $88 from Newegg (down from $180). If your budget doesn’t stretch that far, then how about the 500GB WD Blue 3D NAND instead, which is now $54 at Amazon (down from $69).

That’s all for your weekly deals heralding today. As always, some of these deals may get snapped up pretty fast, so apologies if some of these have already gone by the time you click on them. Until next week, happy deals hunting.

from SpicyNBAChili.com http://spicymoviechili.spicynbachili.com/best-pc-gaming-deals-graphics-cards-ssds-games-and-more-november-2nd/

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bharatiyamedia-blog · 5 years

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WD Black SN750 SSD Evaluation

http://tinyurl.com/y6trle8w Western Digital started a serious push into the SSD market in 2016. The corporate recognised that customers have been transferring away from spinning laborious drives however that the WD model was nonetheless very extremely regarded amongst PC lovers and DIY builders. The corporate bought SanDisk to leverage its experience in flash storage, and has loved some success although competitors is fierce. The WD Inexperienced, Blue, and Black laborious drive efficiency tiers have been translated to the SSD market, forming a household of entry-level, mainstream, and enthusiast-grade merchandise. Not all of them have been hits, however the firm has saved bettering. We’re reviewing WD’s third-generation Black SSD, which is known as the WD Black SN750. That is the corporate’s newest providing for the high-end gaming and fanatic market. This mannequin was launched internationally in January, although it has only just been launched officially in India. With costs having fallen drastically this previous yr, SSDs are extra engaging than ever, and even high-end, high-capacity fashions are usually not out of attain. Let’s examine if WD can tackle the may of Samsung, Kingston, Adata, and the opposite gamers within the Indian market. WD Black SN750 design Design is not often one thing that we have to discuss with an SSD, particularly high-end ones that at the moment are almost completely offered as tiny M.2 modules. Nevertheless what we see on this case is that WD is actually taking part in up its model identification, and all the things from the packaging to the labels to the product itself may be very slick. Whereas M.2 modules are tiny and laborious to customize, the WD Black SN750 is offered with and with out a pre-attached heatsink. We’re reviewing the model with the heatsink, and that is the place WD has had the prospect to precise itself. The system as an entire is surprisingly chunky, with the circuit board fully encased in steel. The diagonal ridged sample matches what we’ve seen on previous WD products and appears very high-end. It is anodized black however the ideas of the ridges are bevelled off, exposing contrasting uncooked steel which catches the sunshine at sure angles. This can be a shocking quantity of consideration to element for a part that may very doubtless be hidden away for everything of its helpful life. The heatsink has been designed in affiliation with EK Water Blocks, an organization well-known in fanatic circles for its high-end after-market liquid cooling options. WD says it lets the SSD maintain its excessive learn and write speeds for longer, and factors out that that is significantly essential for avid gamers as sport sizes hold ballooning. In the event you’re shopping for this model of the WD Black SN750, you need to verify very fastidiously whether or not it’ll slot in your PC. A number of high-end motherboards have their very own M.2 slot heatsinks, or haven’t got a lot Z-height clearance. The unit is 8.1mm thick, versus 2.38mm for traditional M.2 SSDs, so it positively is not an possibility for upgrading a laptop computer with. WD says it doesn’t advocate separating the drive and heatsink. After we put in the drive in our test bench’s primary M.2 slot, we discovered that our double-wide graphics card was resting on high of it. This clearly is not splendid for airflow and warmth dissipation. WD has revealed a list on its website of six motherboards that this SSD won’t match into and one other 19 that might want to have their very own heatsinks eliminated. WD Black SN750 specs and options The brand new WD Black SN750 SSD has been launched in capacities starting from 250GB to 2TB, and all however the 250GB model may also be out there with the heatsink. It makes use of 4 PCIe 3.zero lanes, which is the present commonplace, however lovers will need to regulate PCIe 4.zero SSDs which have already been demonstrated and can start transport this yr. WD has used its personal 64-layer 3D NAND and a controller developed in-house, but it surely would not present any details about these. As for the standard metrics, WD’s rated sequential learn and write speeds begin at 3100MBps and 1600MBps respectively for the 250GB model and vary as much as 3,470MBps and and 3000MBps respectively for the 1TB model. The rated speeds for the 2TB model are barely decrease, which is uncommon. Endurance, measured in Terabytes Written (TBW), scales from 200TBW for the 250GB mannequin to 1200 for the 2TB one. There isn’t any point out of drive encryption within the official spec sheet, which is unlucky. The guarantee is 5 years. One other characteristic that tells us precisely who this product is geared toward is the Gamer Mode in WD’s SSD Dashboard software program. On this mode, energy saving options are disabled in order that there is not any drop in efficiency. WD affords patrons a free copy of Acronis True Picture, however oddly there is not any point out or signal of it on the product’s web site or packaging. WD Black SN750 efficiency For this assessment, we’ve the 1TB model of the WD Black SN750 with the heatsink. We must always notice that this model is the very best performing of all its siblings. The efficiency scores beneath don’t apply to different capacities, and the heatsink might affect sustained efficiency so the bare 1TB model may carry out somewhat in another way as properly. We’re utilizing our common {hardware} check bench, consisting of an AMD Ryzen 7 2700X CPU, Gigabyte Aorus X470 Gaming 7 Wifi motherboard, 2x8GB of G.talent DDR4 RAM, a 1TB Samsung SSD 860 Evo boot drive, XFX Radeon R9 380X graphics card, and Corsair RM650 energy provide. Assessments have been run utilizing Home windows 10 (1803). Apparently, our Gigabyte motherboard is likely one of the fashions listed as “partial match” by WD. This mannequin has small heatsinks over every M.2 slot that are simple to take away. We observed the Asus Maximus XI Extreme, which we have used earlier than, listed as “doesn’t match”. This board has a much more elaborate multi-slot heatsink with built-in lighting results, and you may’t simply go away it off. We start our benchmarking course of with CrystalDiskMark 6. We measured sequential learn and write speeds of 3414.3MBps and 3018.8MBps respectively, at a queue depth of 32. This totally saturates the drive and exhibits off its theoretical most efficiency. These numbers line up with WD’s claims, however the random learn and write speeds of 278MBps and 183.3MBps are extra consultant of real-world efficiency. Subsequent, the Anvil benchmark gave us 5,995.02 factors for reads and 6,688.75 factors for writes. The general rating in its complete check was 12,643.77. What we see right here is an efficient stability between learn and write efficiency. The brand new WD Black SN750 is an incremental enchancment over its predecessor, the WD Black NVMe SSD (2018), and trades blows with the Samsung SSD 970 Evo Plus. WD’s SSD Dashboard software program has a particular black pores and skin for the brand new WD Black SN750 SSD. It exhibits the drive’s free capability, diagnostics, and temperature. There is a real-time efficiency monitor and instruments for checking drive well being, erasing it securely, and updating its firmware. Sadly, the software program nonetheless exhibits adverts for different WD merchandise. You may as well get a free copy of Acronis True Picture (WD Version) to again up or clone one drive to a different, which might come in useful when upgrading. VerdictWD has married design with operate within the WD Black SN750 SSD. Nevertheless, potential patrons ought to completely make sure whether or not their motherboards can deal with the cumbersome heatsink-clad model of this drive. We might additionally counsel ensuring that there is ample airflow over the floor of the heatsink. Efficiency is nice, and patrons can be very happy with this SSD. It is a strong various to the Samsung SSD 970 Evo Plus, but when you will discover the previous-gen WD Black NVMe SSD at a superb worth, you need to positively think about it as properly. Talking of worth, WD has solely simply formally launched the 1TB WD Black SN750 SSD with heatsink for an insane Rs. 50,000 (the MRP printed on the field), but it surely has been out there on the market for a while now at a way more affordable Rs. 23,199. WD formally factors patrons to Amazon.in, where it is listed for Rs. 29,490. It’s best to positively not be paying greater than this. The 1TB mannequin with out the heatsink goes for Rs. 21,500 or Rs. 23,999 on Amazon.in. These costs are decrease than what the equal previous-gen 1TB WD Black NVMe SSD was promoting for after we reviewed it in January this yr. We count on SSD costs to proceed to fall all of this yr, so 1TB is not too costly for lovers anymore. Costs (MOP): 250GB: Rs. 6,929500GB: Rs. 9,999500GB with heatsink: Rs. 15,9991TB: Rs. 23,9991TB with heatsink: Rs. 29,4902TB with heatsink: Rs. 51,999 Execs Wonderful all-round efficiency Helpful bundled software program Affordable road worth 5-year guarantee Cons No {hardware} encryption Heatsink too cumbersome for some motherboards Rankings (out of 5) Efficiency: 4.5 Worth for Cash: 4 General: 4.5 Affiliate hyperlinks could also be mechanically generated – see our ethics statement for particulars. Source link

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pauldeckerus · 6 years

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How I Handle Storage and Backup as a Photographer

I remember when I just started out with photography I would use external hard drives to save the biggest amount of my data on. I’m sure most of you reading have been there (or are still in this phase). The drive got full, and then I would get another drive, and because of technology and price, this one was often bigger… but eventually it would also run out of space.

I had a bunch of external hard drives with different sizes from different brands, each one with labels on what was on there. And from time to time I would need to get back to an old photo or video and I would have to find it on one of the old drives.

At that time, I didn’t even care about backups. I wasn’t really a professional and I had some drives crash and lost files. This was life. But at some point, I decided this was not working well anymore.

I remember back in the day, I was always checking articles and doing research on what would be the best way to handle storage and backups as a photographer. There are tons of articles out there with a lot of information, but I tried to keep this one as simple as possible.

Nowadays I have a reliable storage and backup system, and in this article, I am going to explain what works for me. This doesn’t mean there aren’t other options or that my way is the best. This is simply my workflow and a workflow that has worked for me over the years of being a professional photographer.

I work with decently high megapixel cameras with my main workhorse being the Sony A7RIII. Raw images are around 50MB (compressed raws, if I shoot uncompressed they’re sometimes more than double). I often travel and when I come home I often transfer over 500GB of files from my travel laptop/storage back to my main storage. I currently have way over 15TB of photos and videos.

For me, the most important things about storage are:

Speed: I edit directly from my storage device. This means it needs to have an interface as fast as possible. I often work with files that are bigger than 1GB each (PSD files with a lot of layers). Storage being able to handle these files at a decent speed is very important for me. Therefore I need drives with decent speed, and a fast interface to communicate with my workstation at home, currently an iMac 5k 2018 with 32GB DDR and 1TB SSD storage.

Reliability: My main workstation is on for around 24/7. The storage is being used every day for extended periods of time. Being reliable is important to me. Even though I have backups in place, it’s still important that the device I use is reliable including the hard drives. If anything crashes it still takes time to fix or replace.

Expandability: As I mentioned earlier: it doesn’t work well to just keep buying new external hard drives and throw the old ones somewhere in your garage. Being a creative professional you start to work with bigger and bigger amounts of files and data. More often than not do you need to access old projects for clients. As a photographer, I often sell licenses from very old photos. I need to be able to access those quickly. If I run out of space, there needs to be an easy and fast way to expand.

My Workflow

Structure

I arrange my photos by date and location. My directory structure is as follows: year -> month -> date/ location. This way I can always easily find my photos. I catalog them in Lightroom with keywords so that I can always find old photos in a very easy way. Every time I come back from a shoot, I would make a new directory with the photos named date/location in my current month and simply update my Lightroom catalog to add them in there.

Storage Device

So what exactly do I mean with a storage device? A storage device is simply a device that handles your storage. It’s not just a hard drive that you need to replace when it’s full. A smart storage device takes hard drives and combines their capacity together as one. So you can increase the total capacity by adding more hard drives. These devices have a lot of advantages compared to normal external hard drives. The main advantage is that you can easily upgrade your storage by adding more drives into the device. They also often have smart functions, their own processor to speed things up, own software, backup options etc. There are a lot of storage devices and brands out there. I use devices from a brand called Drobo.

Full disclosure: Although I have been using Drobo devices for a number of years, I recently became a Drobo ambassador. This does not affect anything written in this article. Your choice of storage device is entirely up to you and there’s a lot of research and articles out there comparing different brands and different kinds of storage devices.

What I like about Drobo is the ease of use, the speed, and reliability. And it’s very easily expandable. I have been using the DAS systems of Drobo (direct attached storage). I prefer DAS over NAS. Because with DAS you directly connect your storage device to your workstation. With fast USB ports or currently Thunderbolt 3 this is simply faster than NAS storage. Working and editing photos and videos directly work much better from a device directly attached. There are a lot of other options next to Drobo, but Drobo simply works great for me because of the things mentioned above.

I currently use the 8D with 7 drives. It can take 8 in total. If it runs full it will give me a warning and I simply put an extra drive in it. It doesn’t matter if it’s the same brand or capacity than what’s already in there. You just put the drive and the device will do the rest. This is what I like about systems: simplicity. When I have the maximum amount of drives in it (like in my older Drobo 5Dt), I can remove a smaller sized drive and replace that with a much bigger sized hard drive and again, the Drobo device will do everything. I don’t need to shift files or anything. Everything is been done automatically on the device. This is another great advantage of having a smart storage device.

Hard Drives

This is a tricky one. Regarding hard drives I need speed. The speed of interfaces is so fast nowadays that hard drives simply can’t keep up. To get the fastest speeds we could get SSD drives, but getting 20TB SSD can be pricy. Also, SSDs are not built for 24/7 usage. You would think they would be more reliable than normal hard drives because they don’t have spinning parts, but NAS and DAS systems operate drives almost 24/7. SSDs are not built for that, or at least not yet. So I would currently not recommend having only SSDs in your storage device, but this will probably change soon. I currently use Seagate Irongate hard drives. They’re decently fast and are built to run 24/7 in these storage systems. Another nice thing is that they have a lifetime warranty, so if they die you simply replace them for free.

Drobo with detached front, 7/8 bays in use

Backup

If one of your drives crashes, you’re screwed. This is the nightmare of every creative professional so having good backups is a must. I would recommend backing up your stuff in different locations. Lots of storage devices have backup options in them via a wide variety of RAID systems, and my Drobo device does too. I can easily set it up to automatically backup my files. When 1 drive in them crashes, it will automatically rebuild the files on the space that is left on the devices. Then I simply replace the drive and everything is fine again.

This gives me a great feeling of safety. But it’s not enough. What if my house burns down or what if my whole house gets robbed? You need a backup in an extra place. I would recommend backing up data in the cloud. I use Backblaze myself (not sponsored in any way). I love simplicity and Backblaze offers just that. You can select what to back up in a few steps and Backblaze will run in the background, uploading all your files into the cloud. It costs 8$ per month for unlimited storage. I have about 12TB backed up in the cloud.

If you don’t have a fast internet connection backup up large amounts of data can take months if not years. If you don’t back up on the cloud I would recommend having a physical backup at another place than your main office or house, at someone of your family for example.

The simple interface of Backblaze

Summary

The following diagram shows my current workflow setup.

When I come back from a shoot, I simply copy all my files onto my storage device (2). This often goes with 500GB+ at once after a trip, so speed is really a thing here.

The storage device is directly connected to my workstation via Thunderbolt (3) to have optimal interface speed for fast data transfers.

The Drobo (2) already has a backup function built in, so I am safely protected against a simple hard disk failure.

But in case of a whole device failure, robbery, or fire I have my files completely backup in the cloud via (4) Backblaze. To recover my files I can simply download them. This will take a long time for someone with a slower connection, so Backblaze also offers to send hard drives with the data on it. A nice function. Fortunately, I never had to recover anything from Backblaze yet, but the feeling of having my files safe is very important.

So, as you can see, the workflow and system I use are not very complex. It’s straight forward and simple, mainly because of the devices and tools I use. It’s important to note that good storage devices and services cost money. But fast and safe data is very important, so I would definitely recommend that you invest in a workflow that works best for you. The most important parts are a proper storage device and cloud backup. This makes sure your files are always easy to access and properly backed up.

To close this article I would like to emphasize that photography is my full-time job and so I prefer to invest in a robust storage solution. The brands I pick work for me but that doesn’t mean other brands can’t do the same job. It’s entirely up to your preference and how much money you want to spend. But having all of your photos and videos in a safe place is important for everyone.

About the author: Albert Dros is an award-winning Dutch photographer. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. His work has been published by some of the world’s biggest media channels, including TIME, The Huffington Post, The Daily Mail, and National Geographic. You can find more of his work on his website, or by following him on Facebook and Instagram.

from Photography News https://petapixel.com/2019/03/13/how-i-handle-storage-and-backup-as-a-photographer/

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sailorrrvenus · 6 years

Text

How I Handle Storage and Backup as a Photographer

For me, the most important things about storage are:

My Workflow

Structure

Storage Device

Hard Drives

Drobo with detached front, 7/8 bays in use

Backup

The simple interface of Backblaze

Summary

The following diagram shows my current workflow setup.

When I come back from a shoot, I simply copy all my files onto my storage device (2). This often goes with 500GB+ at once after a trip, so speed is really a thing here.

The storage device is directly connected to my workstation via Thunderbolt (3) to have optimal interface speed for fast data transfers.

The Drobo (2) already has a backup function built in, so I am safely protected against a simple hard disk failure.

source https://petapixel.com/2019/03/13/how-i-handle-storage-and-backup-as-a-photographer/

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stephmolliex · 6 years

Text

How to back up your iPhone or iPad to an external drive to save space on your Mac

As good as iCloud backups are, you need to also backup iPhones and iPads to your Mac this but that eats into your storage space. AppleInsider shows you how to stop clogging up your Mac's drive. You are backing up your iOS devices to your Mac, right? Since iCloud backups were introduced in iOS 5 in 2011 ago, we were freed from ever plugging our iPhones into our computers. Except for how now, seven years later, iCloud still doesn't backup everything, and it's not what you'd call an instant retrieval if you need to restore. Really, iCloud backs up data about data. It includes your account details or your app purchase history so that you can later log back in or re-download anything. An iTunes backup copies the apps and everything in them. If you're helping new or inexperienced iOS users then you know they never think to backup to iTunes on their Mac. You also know that if they do, then the backups themselves can take up a lot of space. This can be a problem on Macs with limited storage. What you may not know is that you can do something about that. While still keeping the full backup and still keeping the simplicity of plugging the phone into iTunes, you can move the backup. Put it on an external drive. What's more, iTunes can automatically backup to that drive and restore from it, too, without you ever doing anything else. You need a minute in Terminal and a reliable external drive that, preferably, is always connected. If you're going to do this because you're on a MacBook Pro with very limited SSD space then it will still work. However, there will be the onus on you to always make sure you connect that drive before plugging your iPhone in. Overview We're going to physically move the backup from where iTunes defaults to keeping it, over to an external drive. Then, using Terminal we're going to create a symbolic link between these two places. If you've not had the need to use a symbolic link, you can think of it as a more deeply-rooted alias. Where an alias tells macOS where to find a file or folder, a symbolic link tells it that two places are actually the same. It's a subtle difference but when you're working with macOS features like iTunes backup, aliases don't have sufficient hooks into the system. Seek, locate, copy Create a new folder on your external drive where you want backups to now go. Name it something memorable but do not use spaces. Calling the folder "BackupiPhone" is fine but calling it "Backup iPhone" is not. Now find where iTunes saves backups now. In the Finder, choose the Go menu, then select Go to Folder or just press Command-Shift-G. In the dropdown dialog that appears, type this: ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/ There's probably just one folder in there and it will be called Backup. If you use backup apps like iMazing, though, you can have other things in this folder but they will be clearly named. Choose the folder called Backup and copy it to the new folder on your external hard drive. Wait until that copy is completed and then if you're brave, delete the original Backup folder. If you're less brave and more sensible, rename it to something like "OLD Backup". Something where you can see what it was and what it needs to be renamed to if you ever want to undo all of this. Symlink Make sure iTunes isn't running. Then launch Terminal and type the following with the usual care. In our case, the external drive we've chosen is called Sierra and the folder we created is called BackupiPhone. Remember that we've now copied the original Backup folder into that. This makes the command we need to type be: ln -s /Volumes/Sierra/BackupiPhone/Backup/ ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync Type that, hit return and when you get the prompt back, quit Terminal. The original Backup folder will now again contain something called Backup but it will be a symbolic link. It will have an alias-like arrow at bottom left and if you double-click on it, what opens is the Backup folder on your external drive. Into action You're done -- but you need to know that you're good to go for the future. Plug your iOS device into iTunes, click on the iPhone or iPad icon and look at the Summary page. In there you'll find a section for backups and the heading Automatically Back Up with options for iCloud or This Computer. Make sure This Computer is selected and then click on the Back Up Now button. After a moment, iTunes will start backing up. There will be nothing new in the original Backup folder but there will in the one on your external drive. Specifically, in the Backup folder on that drive, there will be a new folder named with some string of letters but also timestamped right now. That's where iTunes is now backing up your iPhone and it will always do so until you undo all of this. To undo it, you delete the symbolic link in the original Backup folder. The next time you backup via iTunes, it will go back to saving in there. You could also copy back the latest Backup folder from your external drive but we'd recommend treating that as a safety copy in case something goes wrong. When the phone is correctly and fully backed up to its original iTunes folder, then you can delete it. One more thing This is very specifically a solution to how you can lose a huge amount of space to backups. It's also a solution to making a safety copy on a drive that you can remove later but it's not the best or easiest answer for that. To just know that you've got a full backup of your iOS device on an external drive, you can use a utility such as Hazel or Keyboard Maestro to do timed copies. Lowest prices on external drives Electronics retailers, such as Amazon and B&H Photo, have a large selection of portable external drives on sale with prices starting under $65. Portable external drives 2TB WD Elements Portable External USB 3.0 Hard Drive for $64.99 ($10 off + free shipping) 1TB G-Technology G-DRIVE Mobile USB Portable Hard Drive (7200 RPM) for $69.95 ($3 off + no tax outside NY & NJ*) 1TB LaCie Rugged Mini Portable Hard Drive for $74.90 ($35 off + free month of Adobe CC for Prime members) 4TB WD My Passport USB 3.0 Secure Portable Hard Drive for $97.99 ($22 off + free shipping) 500GB Samsung T5 Portable SSD USB 3.1 External SSD for $127.99 ($37 off + free shipping) 2TB LaCie Rugged USB 3.0 Mobile HDD for $159.99 ($10 off + no tax outside NY & NJ*) https://goo.gl/UWAhfj

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colourmylearning · 6 years

Text

Just getting to know Raspberry Pi and wondering what else you need the get started? we list the must have accessories and add-ons for the small and affordable computer, now in its third generation, the Raspberry Pi 3 B+.

You’ve got yourself (or thinking of getting) the latest mini computer from Raspberry? The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ is not only faster with a 64-bit processor running at 1.4GHz (Broadcom BCM2837B0, Cortex-A53), it also comes with dual band 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless LAN, Bluetooth 4.2 BLE, faster Ethernet and Power over Ethernet support. It is essentially a complete mobile computer great to learn programming or to use as a dedicated gadget with some custom add-ons designed for the system.

Here are some of the things you can do with your Raspberry Pi.

A dedicated desktop computer running Raspberry Pi Desktop, Ubuntu Mate, Snappy Ubuntu Core, Windows 10 IOT Core, OSMC, PINET, RISC OS and more

A retro Arcade complete with colour coded buttons, joy stick, amplifier and speaker

A gaming console complete with dual gamepads

A roving robot or robot cat

A tablet computer

A surveillance camera

A set top TV box

A scrolling message display

A connected smart home kit

and more

There are many Raspberry Pi 3 B+ Starter Kits out there depending on the manufacturer. These have everything you need to get started. They typically include:

Power supply

Case for your Raspberry Pi or case with room for hardware attachment on top (HAT)

HDMI Lead

Micro SD card with NOOBA software pre-loaded

All you need to then is your own USB keyboard, mouse and monitor or TV.

Raspberry also has its own starter bundle, the Official Raspberry Pi Starter Kit with the following:

A Raspberry Pi 3 Model B

An 8GB NOOBS SD card

An official case

An official 2.5A multi-region power supply

An official 1m HDMI cable

An optical mouse and a keyboard with high-quality scissor-switch action

A copy of Adventures in Raspberry Pi Foundation Edition

Both lists serve as a rough guide as to what you will need for your Raspberry Pi. We’ll take a look at each of these in turn

A Case or Two to Protect Your Small Investment

To protect your small investment, a case is essential. There are many different cases out there from the official case to cases that support HAT (hardware attachment on top), value see-through cases made from clear plastic or acrylic, cases with heatsink and fan as well as cases that are compatible with Lego building blocks. These cases are quite affordable so you might think of getting a couple to suit different projects. Here are six different cases to meet different requirements. Use the links below to learn more about these cases on Amazon:

Raspberry Pi Official Case (Black or White and Red)

HAT Case (Various Designs)

Pi-Blox Case (Lego Block Compatible)

Pi 3 Value Starter Case (Clear)

Pi 3 Case with Heatsink and Fan (Black, White or Clear)

Retroflag NESPi Case Plus (Nintendo Entertainment System Retro Gaming Console)

Pi Desktop Computer Case (mSATA SSD up to 1TB support, clock and heatsink)

Raspberry Pi Case on Amazon

Raspberry Pi Desktop Computer Case on Amazon

Power Supply and HDMI Leads

Official Raspberry Pi Power Supply with international adapters (UK, US, EU and AU) and 1.5 meter micro USB lead is recommended but there is nothing stopping you from using your own phone or tablet USB adapter with the right cable. While the Pi 3B+ draws a much higher current compared to its predecessors depending on what you do with it (RasPi.TV has a chart to compare the current draws), chances are, your standard adapter will work just fine. The Official Raspberry Pi has a rating of 5V 2.5A. If you are unsure, check the rating on your adapter.

Official 5V 2.5A Power Adapter for Raspberry Pi 3

Displays

Your Raspberry Pi 3 B+ like its predecessor supports HDMI output. Meaning you can easily hook up a TV or display you have lying around. If you would rather have a dedicated display for your projects and not interfere with the family’s TV time then here are some standalone LCD displays. Like the Pi, these displays have different housing or case to choose from. Start with the 7-inch touchscreen display and choose a case to suit. Use the links below to learn more about these products on Amazon.

Raspberry Pi 7-inch Touchscreen Display

Touchscreen Case and Stand for Raspberry Pi with Building Block

RS Raspberry Pi 7-inch LCD Touch Screen Case (Black, Clear or White)

Pi-Top v2 DIY Laptop Kit (14-inch FHD display, up to 8 hrs battery life, keyboard and touchpad with Pi-Top Polaris OS included)

Standalone 7-inch HDMI LCD Touchscreen Display (available with or without case)

Pi-Top CEED All-in-One Desktop Kit (14-inch HD display, adjustable stand, modular rail and Pi-Top OS included)

Pi-Top v2 DIY Laptop Kit on Amazon

Pi-Top CEED All-in-One Desktop Kit on Amazon

USB Keyboard, Mouse, HDMI Cable and MicroSD card

To interface with your mini computer, you will not only need a display or TV, but the following peripherals and a memory storage card; USB Keyboard, Mouse, HDMI cable and MicroSD card. In essence, you need a way to load an operating system and to use it, be it the official Raspbian either by downloading it on the Raspberry Pi website or using NOOBS, the installer program for Raspbian.

Pre-installed NOOBS SD card is also available to purchase from different vendors. Once loaded, NOOBS lets you choose different operating system to install via a selection menu. You can also find third party operating system images such as Ubuntu, Windows 10 IOC Core, OSMC, LibreELEC, PINET and more. While some of these operating systems are available via NOOBS’s easy operating system installer menu, others will need to be downloaded and written to your memory card to load on Pi.

Remember, the memory card will need to be at least 8GB as the full NOOBS easy installer also contains Raspbiand and LibreELEC. Use the software installer guide to help you with the installation. Operating system permitting, you can also take advantage of the onboard Bluetooth adapter and set yourself cable free with wireless keyboard and mouse.

Raspberry Pi 3 B+ Starter Kits

If you would rather not have the hassle of picking and choosing the different components and perfer to hit the ground running then a starter kit is for you. Here are some very highly recommended kits available online. These may not always have everything you but you can always get add-ons and accessories to go with it. In most cases, you will still need at least a keyboard, mouse and/or display unless these are included.

1. CanaKit Raspberry Pi 3 B+ Complete Starter Kit

Easily the most complete starter kit, the CanaKit is popular with those who want an easy start. It has everything one would need to get up and running except for the keyboard, mouse and display. For the price, you get heatsinks, HDMI cable, card reader on top of the basic case, power and MicroSD card.

Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+

32GB EVO+ Micro SD Card preloaded with NOOBS

Premium Black Case

2.5A USB Power Supply and Micro USB cable with noise filter

HDMI cable

2 x Heatsink

GPIO Quick Reference Card

CanaKit Full Colour Quick Start Guide

[themify_hr color=”light-gray” width=”100%” border_width=”1px”]

2. Raspberry Pi 3 Official Starter Kit (Available in Black or White)

A little thin on bits given that the CanaKit included heatsink, HDMI cable and MicroSD reader, the basic Official Starter Kit is put together by Element 14 using only official case and adapter. One of the cheaper options if you already have your own HDMI cable or MicroSD card reader.

Raspberry Pi 3 Model B

Official Raspberry Pi 3 HAT comptible case with easy snap fit assembly

16GB Class 10 MicroSD card with NOOBS installer

Official Raspberry Pi 5.1V 2.5A Power Supply

You can find a more complete Official Raspberry Pi 3 Starter Kit put together by the Raspberry Pi Foundation but based on the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B with 8GB NOOBS SD card, case, power, HDMI cable, MicroUSB cable, keyboard and mouse. The starter kit also includes a copy of Adventures in Raspberry Pi book filled with fun guides to learn programming.

[themify_hr color=”light-gray” width=”100%” border_width=”1px”]

3. Kano Computer Kit Complete

A bigger version of the Kano Computer Kit, the Kano Computer Kit Complete comes with a 10.1-inch touchscreen and case that lets you turn your Raspberry Pi 3 into a desktop computer or tablet complete with battery and wireless keyboard.

But, the real treat is the custom operating system that includes exclusive coding challenges, perfect for STEM learning. When you are not learning programming to take over the world it serves as a tablet letting you browse the Internet and use apps like YouTube, WhatsApp, Google Docs, Maps, Codecademy, Wikipedia and more.

Kano Computer Kit Complete on Amazon

Raspberry Pi 3

10.1-inch HD Touchscreen Display

Battery

Speaker

Wireless Keyboard with Touchpad

Case and stand

Memory Card

HDMI and power cables

Sound sensor

[themify_hr color=”light-gray” width=”100%” border_width=”1px”]

4. V-Kits Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ Complete Starter Kit

Like the CanaKit, the V-Kits complete starter kit comes with everything you need to get up and running. Just plug in your keyboard, mouse and display and you are good to go. Apart from the latest Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+, the kit comes with the official Raspberry Pi Foundation five part enclosure, designed with Pi HAT’s in mind, 32GB Evo Plus (Class 10) MicroSD card preloaded with NOOBS, 2.5A USB power supply complete with Micro USB cable and noise filter. On top of that you get heat sinks, HDMI calbe, USB microSD card reader and Quick Start Guide with media center and retro gaming instructions.

V-Kits Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ Complete Starter Kit on Amazon

Official Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+

Samsung 32GB Evo Plus (Class 10) Micro SD Card with NOOBS pre-loaded

Official Raspberry Pi Black Enclosure Case

Certified 2.5A USB Power Supply with Micro USB cable

HDMI Cable

2 x Heatsinks

Vilros Quick Start Guide

A basic kit with a see through case, heat sinks, power supply and Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ board as well as the Vilros Quick Start Guide is also available at a lower cost.

V-Kits Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ Basic Starter kit on Amazon

You might also want to consider the SNES Classic USB Gamepad if you intend to turn your Raspberry Pi into a retro gaming console.

SNES USB Game Pads for Raspberry Pi on Amazon

5. NeeGo Raspberry Pi 3 B+ Plus Ultimate Starter Kit with 7-inch Touchscreen Display and Case

As a starter kit, you can not get more complete that this. The NeeGo Raspberry Pi 3 B+ Ultimate Starter Kit stands out from the rest in that it includes a 7-inch Touchscreen display and case as well as a bluetooth keyboard with integrated touchpad. This is on top of the standard kit such as the Raspberry Pi board, 16GB microSD card with NOOBS preloaded, Power Adapter, Heatsinks, HDMI cable and Quick Start Guide. You may notice that it does not come with a microSD card reader. This you will have to sought for yourself.

NeeGo Raspberry Pi 3 B+ Plus Ultimate Starter Kit on Amazon

Learning Resources

Finally, we leave you with a great many online resources for Raspberry Pi to keep you busy now that you have your very own mini computer.

Raspberry Pi Projects

Raspberry Pi Foundation Learning Resources

adafruit Learn Raspberry Pi Guides

Raspberry Pi Reddit Community

CoderDojo Kata Raspberry Pi

Mod My Pi Tutorials

Raspberry Pi Geek

MakeUseOf has Retro Gaming on the Raspberry Pi, Build Your Own Cloud Storage with Raspberry Pi, Raspberry Pi Unofficial Tutorial and More

Essential Accessories & Exciting Add-ons: what else do I need with a Raspberry Pi Just getting to know Raspberry Pi and wondering what else you need the get started? we list the must have accessories and add-ons for the small and affordable computer, now in its third generation, the Raspberry Pi 3 B+.

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coolhuntingtapas-blog · 7 years

Text

SSD Hard Drive for Dell Laptop

My main computer is a Dell Studio 17 laptop from 2010 (specification attached). In my home office, I hook this up into a separate keyboard, mouse and monitor.

As a part-time university lecturer, I operate the usual software -- Microsoft Office, Adobe Illustrator etc -- and some specialist software like ArcMap, part of the ArcGIS package.

I don't have any problems with anything, but I am concerned about longevity and component failure. Should I be considering replacing the hard disk now? If this is the case, would it be much better to pay extra to go down the SSD path? However, if other components are very likely to fail, could I be better off replacing the whole thing today?

Either path will obviously entail transferring a large amount of data essential to my research and teaching. I really do have back-ups: I'm more concerned with ease of transport so that apps retain their paths and settings to data if possible. This is particularly vital in ArcMap, in which a map file will contain dozens of links to information spread over many different folders. Rebuilding these links could be very time consuming.

Just in case this makes it into your pillar, can I say for the record that I don't have any curiosity about Macs or Linux. Neal

The Dell Studio 17 has been a solid desktop replacement laptop with loads of power but not much portability.

Of course, hard drives are becoming more likely to fail after five to 10 years, but a lot of them fail within three years and no doubt some last more than a decade: there's no easy way to inform. Motherboard batteries also often fail after five decades. For example, hinges break, particularly in the event that you lift a notebook by its display, and electricity cables fray.

The pros and cons of SSDs

SSDs create your PC start up faster, and apps feel much more responsive. Programs can load data straight from an SSD without having to wait for a hard disk to spin up to speed, or even to get your read/write head to detect the right sector on the platter.

SSDs have no moving parts, so they are impervious to the shocks that could damage hard drives when laptops have been bumped round or even dropped. They also have less power, which prolongs battery life.

However, SSDs are still much more expensive than HDs for the same amount of storage. SSDs will also be prone to fail, though I believe that, today, they are less likely to fail than HDs.

(1) Connect the SSD for your laptop via an eSATA or USB cable or an external caddy. (2) "Clone" the present HD to the SSD, then unplug it from the laptop. (3) Close down the laptop, and get rid of the battery. (4) Unscrew the back of the laptop and then swap the SSD to your HD. (5) Restart the notebook.

Before doing any of that, check that your notebook's BIOS can encourage an SSD through AHCI, and find out whether the hard drive is SATA I, II or III. Later variants of SATA are faster but backward compatible. By way of example, a SATA II notebook should work with a 6Gbps SATA III drive, but it is going to only run at the rate of a less costly 3Gbps SATA II drive.

There is plenty of disk cloning software around. Some disc generates provide free software with their drives, and a few suppliers sell cloning kits. However, many backup programs will do the job, including Acronis True Image, EaseUS To Do and CloneZilla. The thing to remember is that you must make a disk-to-disk clone, not merely copy the Windows partition. It's also a good idea to produce a Windows start-up/repair DVD if anything goes wrong.

The procedure should be marginally easier for you since the Dell Studio 17 includes two drive bays, and you should be free. If so, you may install the SSD prior to cloning the hard disk.

Is it worthwhile?

Since you're using your notebook mostly as a desktop computer, you will not receive all the benefits of an SSD, for example extra battery life. However, the main problem is the cost.

For cloning to work, the SSD must be larger than the HD. Your Studio 17 has a 500GB drive with 50GB free, so you'll need a 500GB or larger SSD. Prices vary from approximately #100 to #200, but you could get a 500GB Samsung 850 EVO from Amazon.co.uk for #119, or even a vital BX100 for #146.86. (I haven't checked those for compatibility with your Studio 17.)

There should be plenty of choices, but #120 is quite much to spend on an older laptop.

1 solution would be to eliminate more than half your data so that you can clone the HD into a 120GB or 240GB SSD -- you can get these from approximately #35 to50. If you have 250GB of films, this could be simple. If your HD is filled with ArcMap documents, then it is likely not an attractive option.

Purchase a New PC?

Your Dell Studio 17 includes a 2.40GHz Intel Core i5-520M processor, which is from the very first generation of Core chips. It had been quickly in its day, but today it's lower mid-range. I reckon it'd rank around 290-300 in Notebookcheck's Comparison of Mobile Processors. Newer Core-i5 as well as Core-i3 chips ought to be noticeably faster.

Therefore, by way of instance, you could get an HP Envy 17 using a 17.3in screen, Core i5-6500U processor, 12GB of memory, 1TB hard disk and Windows 10 for #899.95. Also, the Nvidia GeForce 940M would be a massive update in your present ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5000 card.

There are cheaper versions of the Envy 17 around, based on specification and source. For example, you can get one with 8GB of memory for #699.97. Additionally, the old model using a Core i5-5200U and Windows 8.1 is more affordable at #749.99. Shop around.

Frankly, I'd stick with what you have got. You can keep running your Dell Studio 17 until it's too slow to do everything you want or the display or motherboard fails. If the hard drive fails, you can replace it with a comparable HD for #35 to40, or even an SSD. They'll probably be even more affordable by then.

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My main computer is a Dell Studio 17 laptop from 2010 (specification attached). In my home office, I hook it up to a separate keyboard, mouse and monitor.

As a part-time university lecturer, I run the usual software – Microsoft Office, Adobe Illustrator etc – plus some specialist software such as ArcMap, part of the ArcGIS suite.

I have no problems with anything, but I am concerned about longevity and component failure. Should I be thinking of replacing the hard drive now? If so, would it be better to pay extra to go down the SSD route? However, if other components are likely to fail, would I be better off replacing the whole thing now?

Either route will obviously entail transferring a large amount of data crucial to my teaching and research. I do have back-ups: I am more concerned with ease of transfer so that programs retain their settings and paths to data if possible. This is especially important in ArcMap, where a map file may contain dozens of links to data spread over many different folders. Rebuilding these links would be very time consuming.

Just in case this makes it into your column, can I state for the record I have no interest in Macs or Linux. Neal

The Dell Studio 17 was a solid desktop replacement laptop with plenty of power but not much portability. It’s already running Microsoft Windows 10 with 8GB of memory, so there’s no urgent need to upgrade or replace it.

Of course, hard drives do become increasingly likely to fail after five to 10 years, but many fail within three years and no doubt some last more than a decade: there’s no easy way to tell. Motherboard batteries also tend to fail after five years. Otherwise, many common problems are mechanical ones. For example, hinges break, especially if you lift a laptop by its screen, and power cables fray.

The pros and cons of SSDs

It’s often worth replacing a spinning-platter HD (hard drive) with a chip-based SSD (solid-state drive). SSDs make your PC start up faster, and programs feel much more responsive. Programs can load data straight from an SSD without having to wait for a hard drive to spin up to speed, or for the read/write head to find the right sector on the platter.

SSDs have no moving parts, so they are impervious to the shocks that can damage hard drives when laptops are bumped around or even dropped. They also consume less power, which prolongs battery life.

However, SSDs are still much more expensive than HDs for the same amount of storage. SSDs are also prone to fail, though I believe that, today, they are less likely to fail than HDs.

Installing an SSD

In principle, SSDs are easy to install, as follows. (1) Connect the SSD to your laptop via an eSATA or USB cable or an external caddy. (2) “Clone” the current HD to the SSD, then unplug it from the laptop. (3) Close down the laptop, and remove the battery. (4) Unscrew the back of the laptop and swap the SSD for the HD. (5) Restart the laptop.

Before doing any of that, check that your laptop’s BIOS can support an SSD via AHCI, and find out whether the hard drive is SATA I, II or III. Later versions of SATA are faster but backwards compatible. For example, a SATA II laptop should work with a 6Gbps SATA III drive, but it will only run at the speed of a cheaper 3Gbps SATA II drive.

There is plenty of disk cloning software around. Some disk manufactures offer free software with their drives, and some suppliers sell cloning kits. (Crucial’s kitincludes a special USB cable.) However, many back-up programs will do the job, including Acronis True Image, EaseUS To Do and CloneZilla. The thing to remember is that you must make a disk-to-disk clone, not just copy the Windows partition. It’s also a good idea to make a Windows start-up/repair DVD in case anything goes wrong.

The process should be somewhat easier for you because the Dell Studio 17 has two drive bays, and one should be free. If so, you can install the SSD before cloning the hard drive.

Is it worth it?

Since you’re using your laptop mostly as a desktop, you will not get all the benefits of an SSD, such as extra battery life. However, the main problem is the cost.

For cloning to work, the SSD must be bigger than the HD. Your Studio 17 has a 500GB drive with 50GB free, so you will need a 500GB or larger SSD. Prices range from roughly £100 to £200, but you could get a 500GB Samsung 850 EVO from Amazon.co.uk for £119, or a Crucial BX100 for £146.86. (I have not checked these for compatibility with your Studio 17.)

There should be plenty of options, but even £120 is quite a lot to spend on an old laptop.

One solution would be to remove more than half your data so that you can clone the HD to a 120GB or 240GB SSD – you can get these from around £35 to £50. If you have 250GB of movies, this would be easy. If your HD is full of ArcMap files, it’s probably not an attractive option.

Buy a new PC?

Your Dell Studio 17 has a 2.40GHz Intel Core i5-520M processor, which is from the first generation of Core chips. It was fast in its day, but now it’s lower mid-range. I reckon it would rank around 290-300 in Notebookcheck’s Comparison of Mobile Processors. Newer Core-i5 and even Core-i3 chips should be noticeably quicker.

So, for example, you could get an HP Envy 17 with a 17.3in screen, Core i5-6500U processor, 12GB of memory, 1TB hard drive and Windows 10 for £899.95. This is faster, has more memory, and twice the hard drive space of your Studio 17. Also, the Nvidia GeForce 940M would be a massive upgrade on your current ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5000 graphics card.

There are cheaper versions of the Envy 17 around, depending on specification and source. For example, you can get one with 8GB of memory for £699.97. Also, the old model with a Core i5-5200U and Windows 8.1 is cheaper at £749.99. Shop around.

Frankly, I’d stick with what you’ve got. You can keep running your Dell Studio 17 until it’s too slow to do what you want or the screen or motherboard fails. If the hard drive fails, you can replace it with a similar HD for £35 to £40, or an SSD. They’ll probably be even cheaper by then.

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seo-seox · 7 years

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How to revive your old iPod Classic with an SSD

Two years on, and this article is still remarkably popular. It seems that plenty of people miss the huge storage, battery life and chunky tactile feel that the iPod Classic provided so effortlessly. As time goes on, solid state drives have got cheaper, and if you have one lying around, there has never been a better time to give your iPod a fresh lease of life. Read on for Steve's instructions of how to install a SSD in your iPod, and make your old mp3 player your best friend again. Got an old iPod in a drawer? Don’t throw it away! An entire industry has arisen devoted entirely to bringing old iPods back from the dead. I’ve done the upgrade myself, and although it requires no soldering, it does hold a few traps for the unwary – and that’s why I’ve put together a walkthrough to take you through the whole process. Why revive an iPod? But wait! What is the point in digging up some crusty, fat old fossil when you have Apple Music, Spotify, a modern smartphone or an iPod touch? The answer is perfectly straightforward – it’s all about storage capacity. The iPod Classic became an enduring icon largely because it contained a compact, 1.8in 160GB HDD – that was something like two-and-a-half times more capacious than its closest competitor, and ten times the storage of an iPhone from the same era. And it turns out that there’s people out there who will use that space – and plenty more who complain about it not being quite enough.

"You can now upgrade that fusty old iPod with anything up to a 1TB mSATA SSD." Sadly, the demand for 1.8in drives was short-lived, and so 160GB became the hard limit for an iPod Classic. Until now, that is. Enterprising souls have created third-party add-in boards which make it possible to replace the spinning disks of yore with various types of flash storage, and that means one thing: you can now upgrade that fusty old iPod with anything up to a 1TB mSATA SSD. That’s enough storage to house more than 3,000 hours of uncompressed 16-bit, 44.1kHz CD-quality audio Storage isn’t the only hurdle, of course. One issue is that the batteries of a nine-year-old iPod are likely to be somewhat below their optimum capacity. The other is that the generations of iPod Classics capable of such upgrades are made from lumps of cast, stamped metal. Opening these devices is not for the faint of heart. Tools of the trade Getting inside one of these things requires some unusual tools. There are tack-welded springs down the inner sides of the back cover. These either hold on tenaciously or break with a momentum-inducing SPANG, ripping out the delicate headphone-jack ribbon cables and flinging them to the far corner of your workroom. Using a screwdriver means that your back cover – which is of course already scratched and dented – bends out of shape wherever the screwdriver goes. The best way to apply the required force is with a wide, flat, thin, springy but strong object – a wallpaper scraper. You’ll need a few other tools, and of course the required upgrade parts, but there’s no soldering required to complete the job, so long as your iPod is functioning (or suffers no greater affliction than a defunct hard drive). First, here’s the shopping list: Replacement rear cover: These are available on Amazon and eBay and vary in price between £5 and £25. Given the high forces required to get the old cover off, and the equally high likelihood that yours will be battle-scarred, I think this is a peace-of-mind purchase before you start. ZIF converter board: There’s a rich variety of these. Be aware, though, that some are missold on the big auction/buying sites, with sloppy vendor descriptions written by people who haven’t actually tried the upgrade themselves. You can opt for boards that use CompactFlash (CF) or mSATA storage formats: CF has the advantage that most home users will have a card reader that will take the CF card straight away; mSATA has the rather different advantage of going up to a whole terabyte of storage. Bear in mind that you’ll need a small pile of boards and parts to make the mSATA drive usable from a Windows PC, so that the vital last step of formatting the card to suit the iPod’s needs can be completed. I chose a Tarkan Akdam mSATA board, which fitted our seventh-generation iPod, was beautifully made, and was compatible with all the mSATA SSDs I tried. Replacement battery: This is an optional item; I found that our original battery was in good shape, especially given the much lower current draw inherent to the SSD. On the other hand, while the back is not clipped on, this will probably be your only chance to put in a new battery. The reason not to – which won out in the end for us – is that it’s impossible to gauge the quality of third-party replacement iPod batteries. A PC: If you are a Mac-only person, then you’ll struggle to complete this job, because one of the vital steps is to format your SSD as a FAT32 device. This isn’t a problem for small drives – but the whole point of the exercise is to upgrade the storage. To do this you have to either do a lot of very deep, very arcane research into the limits and disadvantages of FAT32 – or just take Tarkan’s advice and use the public domain extended format utility he recommends – which runs only on a PC. Of course you can get round that on a MacBook by running Windows in a virtual machine, but that may be more trouble than it’s worth. An SSD: Sounds daft, but don’t forget that Tarkan and his competitors are selling only the adapter hardware, not the actual solid-state drive that goes in it. In my case, I used a relatively humble 64GB mSATA SSD. There’s a software limit in iTunes that can stop you using storage above 128GB with some iPods – but clearly, there are ways around that too: Tarkan has videos of his 1TB fifth-generation iPod working just fine. Shop for SSDs on Amazon. A very small screwdriver or pair of tweezers: This is for easing open the very small plastic clamps that secure the three ribbon cables you’ll need to detach – the drive cable, the backplate cable (for headphones and lock switch) and the battery cable.

Upgrading an iPod with an SSD: A step-by-step guide

1. Remove the back cover. This is likely to be destructive, but only to the cover – even if you pull it off with some force, the ribbon connector that links it to the iPod motherboard will pull loose long before it causes any damage. The technique required is to push a sharp blade between the side joint of the front and back covers: look carefully at our finished case to see how the metal casting of the front is shaped underneath the steel stamping of the back – this is the best place to push your blade. DON’T try to carry on with the blade: you need a wide flat implement in there to lever the back away evenly. You can count on destroying the back in the process, unless you’re remarkably lucky. Remember that there’s a short ribbon linking the back and front, and that there are two fairly loose components (the battery and the hard drive) that will be moving about once the back is released. 2. Remove the battery Ease up the brownish plastic clamp on the battery cable connector and detach the battery. Many people forget that iPods are effectively powered on all the time: changing the storage subsystem is something you don’t want to do while the iPod is active. 3. Remove the hard drive Ease the ribbon cable away on the ZIF socket at the base of the hard drive. This slides parallel to the face of the iPod – don’t pull UP, but slide ALONG. 4. Format the SSD Format your mSATA storage card as FAT32. Larger devices will need a known-working partition tool, such as the AOMEI Partition Assistant utility recommended by some vendors – note that this software is PC-only. 5. Install the SSD Insert the formatted mSATA drive into the carrier board. Tarkan’s puts the mSATA drive on the outside and leaves the ribbon cable free of strain: if you are finding that the ribbon’s not long enough, then you’ve been missold an inappropriate board. Mine had little horn-shaped extensions on the PCB to provide a tunnel for the ribbon when everything’s installed. 6. Put everything back together Soft-assemble all the parts – reconnect the backplate cable, fold the mSATA board over and reconnect the battery. The iPod should wake up and warn you immediately that it needs help: this consists of connecting it to iTunes, which may take a couple of tries and an error message before reloading the iPod’s OS succeeds. This also requires the battery to be 100% charged before you start, since some of the operations on the SATA storage are a bit harsh on the iPod’s power consumption. Coming in and out of iTunes a few times and replugging the USB lead to the iPod may be necessary. 7. Fill your iPod with music Reload your music! Try playing a few tracks before you take the effectively irrevocable step of closing up the back of the casing, so that you can be sure the headphone cable and port on your shiny new back are all functional. And that’s it! You’re now the owner of a gloriously retro iPod with a fantastically modern amount of storage space. Now all that’s left is to find 3,000 hours worth of lossless, high-quality music to actually copy onto it. SIGUE LEYENDO... Ir a la fuente / Author: sasham Click to Post

#article #people #plenty #popular #remarkably #seems #still #that #this #years

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suzanneshannon · 4 years

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Review of the Surface Book 3 for Developers

— Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) May 14, 2020

Size and Weight

Basically if you are a Surface Book 2 user the size and weight are the same. The Surface Book 3 is considerably more power in the same size machine.

CPU and Memory

FLIP THE SCREEN AROUND? You can also when docked even reverse the screen! Whatever do you mean? It's actually awesome if you want an external keyboard.

All this phrased differently? It's fast, quickly, when it needs to be but it's constantly changing the clock to maximize power/thermals/battery.

SSD - Size and Speed

GPU - Gaming and Tensorflow

Developer Performance

Orchard Core is a fully-featured CMS with 143 projects loaded into Visual Studio. MSBUILD and .NET Core supports both parallel and incremental builds.

A warm build of Orchard Core on IRONHEART my i9 desktop takes just under 10 seconds.

My 6 year old Surface Pro 3 builds it warm in 62 seconds.

A totally cold build (after a dotnet clean) on IRONHEART takes 33.3 seconds.

My Surface Pro 3 builds it cold in 2.4 minutes.

A cold build (after a dotnet clean) on this Surface Book 3 takes 46 seconds.

A warm build is 16.1 seconds

A cold build (after a dotnet clean) on my Surface Book 2 takes 115 seconds.

It's WAY faster than my Surface Book 2 which has been my daily driver when mobile for nearly 3 years!

dotnet build /maxcpucount:4

The result with Orchard Core is the same, so there is likely a theoretical max as to how fast this can build today. If you really want to go nuts, try

dotnet build -v diag

And dig through ALL the timing info!

Webcam Quality

Ports and Power and Sound and Wi-Fi

I also want to touch on sound. There is a fan inside the device and if it gets hot it will run. If I'm doing 1080p 60fps in Call of Duty WarZone you can likely hear the fan. It comes and goes and while it's audible when it's one, when the CPU is not maxed out (during 70% of my work day) the Surface Book 3 is absolutely silent, even when running the monitors. The fan comes on with the CPU is bursting hard over 3Ghz and/or the GPU is on full blast.

The New Surface Dock - Coming May 26th

I'm also testing a pre-release Surface Dock 2. I suspect they wanted me to test it with the Surface Book 3...BUT! I just plugged in every Surface I have to see what would happen.

So this Surface Dock 2 replaces the original Dock my office. The Surface Dock 2 has

2x front-facing USB-C ports (I use these for two 4k monitors)

2x rear-facing USB-C ports

2x rear-facing USB-A 3.2 (10Gbps) ports

1x Gigabit Ethernet port

1x 3.5mm audio in/out port

Kensington lock slot - I've never used this

Conclusion

Review of the Surface Book 3 for Developers published first on https://deskbysnafu.tumblr.com/

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