Sometimes the simplest products are actually great products.  If you remember the good old days when people played tapes instead of CD's, you would remember the Cassette boxes they came in.  The idea was simple, use the box if you didn't want to damage your cassette.  These boxes weren't the “be all, end all” for protection, but they did an adequate job of protecting your tapes from accidental splashes and dust.  In addition to that, they made organizing your collection easy because they were uniformly shaped even though our cassettes were oddly shaped.  Hard drives are no different.  They should get the same kind of love and attention that our beloved cassette tapes did in the 80's, but instead they are stacked on our shelves naked and lonely waiting for dust and coffee to find them.  Fear not solution seekers, there is an answer!  ineo (yes, that is a lowercase "i") has produced a simple hard drive protection box, but does it cut the mustard... or the cheese?

Read More...

The tools in my toolbox are just as important as the IT skills I have learned over the years.  After all, what good is the knowledge to accomplish something without the means to do so?  That is why my arsenal of tools in my office is as important to me and my customers as is paint and a canvas to a painter.  When companies like StarTech start offering tools that can accomplish more than one task and do them all well, it not only saves me time, it reduces the amount of "crap" I have all over the place.  StarTech has already impressed me with their S354UFER, let's see if they can keep me tuned in with their SATDOCK22RE.

Read More...

My data is extremely important to me; the irreplaceable memories, music, and movies that I keep on my home server are duplicated across multiple drives in a Windows Home Server.  WHS provides me with some peace of mind by implementing a feature like folder duplication, however implementing only that type of protection is not enough.  There are many solutions by many different companies out there to tackle my server backup that claim to be easy and are not, seem to be inexpensive but have hidden costs, or just don't offer enough storage space.  Well, where the other solutions fail, StarTech shines.  Enter the S354UFER. Read More...

iStarUSA is a company that I have become a big fan of over the years.  They manufacture products that are higher than standard quality and pay attention to the people buying and using their products.  iStartUSA has released a 4-Bay trayless RAID box and at first glance, it is sexy.  The need for affordable and easy storage solutions is a quest that many of us have been on; let's see if the v7AGE420-ES can compete. Read More...

It seems that the world is going crazy; everyone wants everyone else's information.  Some companies are going to great lengths to protect their data.  Laptops have gone missing or stolen with tons of important data on them, copy machines have latent images on the hard drives that can contain vital or important private information on them.  So what can be done about all this?  Some companies, including my own, have started encrypting hard drives.  This is nothing new as types of encryption have been around for thousands of years (ever watch an Indiana Jones movie?), but it seems as soon as something makes the news, the purchasing departments or C level staff finally listens to IT.  Read More...

I have a lot of friends that are becoming more and more aware of what is going on in the computing world.  As this development matures, I am confronted with more and more questions about the state of technology.  Sometimes, I can very easily explain the idea behind things, but the actual workings of it are somewhat foreign.  Recently, a friend of mine started building his own home server (WHS) and purchased a bunch of hard drives.  This normally wouldn't be cause for concern, but the website he was purchasing from delineated these drives as 4K Sector drives.  So... what does that mean? Read More...

As someone that is expected to fix everyone's computer in my family, there is nothing more than "WOOT!" that can  be said about a product that makes my family obligations easier.  My family isn't exactly the most "in touch" when it comes to computing (you will read an article / rant soon about that) and they make a bunch of dumb mistakes... most of which ends up with them contracting a I.T.D. (Internet Transmitted Disease, a.k.a. VIRUS!). That's when the frenzy starts, the claims that the world is collapsing, the seas are rising, they can't send email!  I must work quickly and efficiently to alleviate their ailments.  With that said, products like the USI-2535 makes my job easier. Read More...

Eagle is a company that I am fast becoming a fan of.  They are consistently releasing practical affordable solutions to some of the needs I have been faced with lately.  I can already hear it... can you? It's saying, what sets this enclosure apart from the THOUSANDS of others out there?  Simple, its made by Eagle... AND, it is DUAL BAY! Read More...

For many years, the role of a backplane was primarily in the server environment.  With home computing and server environments becoming intertwined the roles of devices like this are becoming skewed.  Backplanes are no longer just for SCA SCSI devices and are now being found more and more in other arenas as SCSI is no longer the king. SATA/SAS has taken the performance per dollar championship.  iStarUSA thinks they might have the answer to the industry's needs with the BPU-340SAS RAID Cage. Read More...

People like to customize things.  With that said, I ran across an individual that had an issue with his WHS.  He imaged his existing hard drive to a larger hard drive, but was left with the original disk name in the Windows Home Server Console.  This poses no problems, but is more of an annoyance than anything.  If you want to change the name, you can.

Read More...