Newsletter Archives

• Tech I don’t miss, and some I do

  Posted on April 21, 2025 at 02:44 CDT by Will Fastie • Comment in the Forums

  COMMENTARY

  

  By Will Fastie

  There is much technology we’re glad to see gone. But “old” does not automatically mean “bad.”

  In her article today, Susan mentions dot-matrix printers. Do I want one? No. That technology dominated general-purpose printing and then personal printing for nearly two decades and worked very well.

  I remember being thrilled when we replaced 10-character-per-second Teletype 33 terminals with 30-CPS, dot-matrix DECWriters. I thought the Epson MX-80 was great.

  Nevertheless, rest in peace.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.16.0, 2025-04-21).

  Commentary Fax, HDDs, History, Keyboards, Laser Printers, Newsletters, Speakers, SSDs, Technology, Turbo Pascal, Visual Basic

• SpinRite 6.1 offers us help for solid-state drives

  Posted on December 16, 2024 at 02:43 CST by Ben Myers • Comment in the Forums

  BEN’S WORKSHOP

  

  By Ben Myers

  The latest version of SpinRite, long regarded as the go-to software to recover data from corrupted hard drives, adds testing and tuning of solid-state drives to hard drive rescue.

  Gibson Research’s famous SpinRite 6.0, circa 2004, recovers data from defective hard drives, repeatedly reading sectors to determine the original uncorrupted data with good statistical odds of success. SpinRite cannot possibly work on drives with failed circuit boards or drives that do not spin up.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.51.0, 2024-12-16).

  Ben's Workshop ClearDiskInfo, Newsletters, Performance, performance tuning, SMART, SpinRite, SpinRite 6.1, SSDs

• MS-DEFCON 4: 24H2 is a work in progress

  Posted on October 22, 2024 at 02:45 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 21.43.1 • 2024-10-22

  

  By Susan Bradley

  Every month, I look back at the issues and oddities I’ve been tracking to see whether they are merely corner cases or something more widespread.

  One thing is certain: I am not recommending the installation of Windows 11 24H2 now, especially for consumers and small businesses. I am testing and evaluating the release, and I will continue to keep you informed about bugs and problems. For everything else, I’m lowering the MS-DEFCON level to 4.

  Anyone can read the full MS-DEFCON Alert (21.43.1, 2024-10-22).

  AskWoody Plus Alert, MS-DEFCON Alerts, Always On VPN, KB5043950, MS-DEFCON, MS-DEFCON 4, Outlook (classic), Outlook (new), Patch Lady Posts, SSDs, Windows 11 24H2

• Log files are useful but annoying

  Posted on September 9, 2024 at 02:42 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  ON SECURITY

  

  By Susan Bradley

  Laboring over the Labor Day weekend, I spent a few hours rebuilding a computer at the office. It had suddenly stopped responding.

  I attempted to reboot it, to no avail — its SSD hard drive had failed.

  The major disadvantage of solid-state drives (SSDs) is that when they fail, they fail suddenly. But mea culpa: I missed a big hint that failure might be imminent. For several days before the failure, it was throwing off Volume Shadow Copy errors that were logged by my backup software. I didn’t notice those errors.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.37.0, 2024-09-09).

  On Security Activity logs, Apple, DCOM, Error logs, macOS, Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, SSDs

• Terabyte update 2024

  Posted on June 24, 2024 at 02:42 CDT by Will Fastie • Comment in the Forums

  HARDWARE

  

  By Will Fastie

  This year, the numbers are bouncing around and the trends are muddled.

  Except for the influences exerted by events such as floods in Thailand and global pandemics, pricing for storage usually follows a predictable trend line.

  Prices are behaving slightly differently this time around. I will offer some thoughts about why this might have happened, but I admit to a lack of clarity.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.26.0, 2024-06-24).

  Hardware HDDs, Newsletters, RAM, SD Cards, SSDs, storage, Storage Prices

• Continuing trends in computing — and your choices

  Posted on December 18, 2023 at 02:43 CST by Ben Myers • Comment in the Forums

  BEN’S WORKSHOP

  

  By Ben Myers

  Let Windows 11 and other major trends be your guide to greater productivity, reliability, and security.

  Computer hardware and software continue their relentless advances — mostly progress, sometimes a hiccup. Paying attention to the various changes in our world of computing can save you time and money — and, after all, time is money. These trends may influence your near-term buying decisions, as our annual two-month Black Friday buying spree morphs into the January White Sale of unsold gear.

  These trends are the distillation of my experience based upon hundreds of computers making a stop in Ben’s Workshop along their way — whether from a factory or an auction house, as a trade-in, or simply for repair — and then into the hands of people using them or off to my convenient e-cycler.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.51.0, 2023-12-18).

  Ben's Workshop BitLocker, Enterprise computing, Gaming, HDDs, Home computing, Minimum Hardware Requirements, Newsletters, NVMe, Small Business computing, SSDs, Windows 11, Workstations

• The death of a hard drive

  Posted on September 11, 2023 at 02:42 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  ON SECURITY

  

  By Susan Bradley

  I got a call. “Susan? Can you help me with my laptop? It won’t boot up, and it’s making a weird noise.”

  “Sure,” I said to the friend on the other end of the phone call.

  But when my friend brought the laptop and I turned it on, I went from feeling certain I would tame the tech (after all, it’s me) to knowing it wasn’t looking good and that I might not be able to help after all.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.37.0, 2023-09-11).

  On Security Backups, Data recovery, Data Recovery Services, Drive Failures, HDDs, Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, SSDs

• Terabyte update 2023

  Posted on June 26, 2023 at 02:45 CDT by Will Fastie • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 20.26 • 2023-06-26

  Look for our BONUS issue on Monday, July 3, 2023!

  HARDWARE

  

  By Will Fastie

  There are several important trend lines this year.

  In last year’s installment of this series, I wrote about being surprised that there were no significant price changes.

  This year, there have been some changes, which may mean some tangible trends are emerging.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.26.0, 2023-06-26).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Hardware HDDs, Newsletters, SSDs, storage, Storage Prices

• Large or small? Old or new? Borrowed and blue?

  Posted on April 3, 2023 at 02:42 CDT by Ben Myers • Comment in the Forums

  HARDWARE

  

  By Ben Myers

  Decade-long trends in computer hardware make for more expansive and perplexing choices.

  So you need to buy another computer, or two, or more? What do you buy — large or small, mainstream brand, traditional or custom, new or used?

  Running a cradle-to-grave computer business including the repair and resale of gently used computers, I originally expected to portray the various tradeoffs between buying new and buying used computers. Then I realized that the trends that have swept over the computer industry in the past decade can, and do, have great influence over what to buy. Trends first, new vs. used later.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.14.0, 2023-04-03).

  Hardware Desktops, Form factor, Hardware, Laptops, Newsletters, SSDs

• Real-life SSD reliability must be managed

  Posted on October 3, 2022 at 02:44 CDT by Ben Myers • Comment in the Forums

  HARDWARE

  

  By Ben Myers

  Solid-state drives did not have a very good week here recently, but it was not their fault.

  Here are the facts about a trifecta of mainstream laptops I handled recently, and why these laptops came up short. If you pay attention to the details here, you can improve the life and reliability of your solid-state drives (SSDs).

  I will also weave in my opinions and points of view on various related subjects.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.40.0, 2022-10-03).

  Hardware Hardware, Newsletters, Older PCs, SSDs, System Recovery

• Check the health of your systems

  Posted on September 5, 2022 at 02:45 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 19.36 • 2022-09-05

  ON SECURITY

  

  By Susan Bradley

  It’s time to ensure your computer is sound, the operating system is healthy, and your system is backed up.

  Why? Because a feature release is right around the corner: 22H2 for both Windows 10 and Windows 11 is due shortly. It’s not that I recommend that you move to those versions, at least not right away. But if you do decide to move ahead, it’s critical to be sure to do so safely, with your ability to retreat secured.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.36.0, 2022-09-05).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  On Security Antivirus, Backup, browsers, Drivers, Newsletters, Operating Systems, Patch Lady Posts, Security, SSDs

• Terabyte update 2022

  Posted on June 20, 2022 at 02:45 CDT by Will Fastie • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 19.25 • 2022-06-20

  HARDWARE

  

  By Will Fastie

  This year, the trend line for storage prices is harder to discern.

  In last year’s installment of this series, I wrote, “There has never been a time when I have been so uncertain about what comes next.”

  I’m glad I made that “prediction,” because I would never have guessed no change in prices. That’s pretty much what we got.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.25.0, 2022-06-20).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Hardware Hardware, HDDs, Newsletters, SSDs, Storage Prices
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