Computer Drives & Storage

Occasionally, computer users with DVD/CD-ROM drives may begin to experience problems. This can vary from discs loading incorrectly to discs failing to load at all. Because of the delicate nature...

A cyclic redundancy check, often shortened to CRC, is a mathematical function used by computers to ensure the integrity of data as it is being transferred from one location to another. If there is...

DivX is a common, high quality video format. DivX files can be transferred to a blank DVD using a built-in disc burning mechanism found in most operating systems. You will need a capable DVD-RW...

It's easy to share family photos and informational files when you have a CD recorder built into your computer, and it's one of the quickest ways to make your files portable. Once a specialty item,...

Whether you are wanting to take some family memories with you on the road or simply backing up files on your computer, burning pictures onto blank discs is an easy process that only takes a couple...

Contrary to popular belief, a hard drive cannot partition itself. However, there are circumstances when a hard drive may appear to partition itself. The cause of this apparent self-partitioning is...

DVDs, like most things, suffer from the effects of time. They get stepped on. They get scratched. They get thrown like Frisbees. This is why it's a good idea to know how to back up your movies the...

From a music aficionado standpoint, one of the best parts of owning a computer is the ability to burn your own compilation CDs. No longer do you have to carry dozens of CDs from your favorite...

CD writer drives use a laser to burn data onto a disc. The laser is focused through a lens that regulates the way the laser light impacts the permeable surface of the blank, recordable CD disc. A...

If you would like to burn one file to two CDs, and are running Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7, your computer can do so with no tweaking and without installing extra software. Use the...

Music that's downloaded to a computer can only be of so much use to a listener. The listener can play the music through headphones and monitor speakers or channel it through an entertainment...

Even though CD players and CD-ROM drives are designed to be low-maintenance, sometimes they still need to be cleaned out. If your drive has stopped functioning properly, cleaning the drive is a...

DVD-ROM drives are fairly common in modern PCs, and Sony DVD drives, in particular, are a staple of the Sony Vaio desktop series. If your Sony DVD drive has suddenly stopped working the way it...

Although it may seem confusing when you first get started, burning DVDs is actually a straightforward process. Dell usually bundles some type of disk burning software with each computer they sell....

The are many reasons why a DVD burner won't recognize a blank DVD. It can be as simple as the disc being placed in the burner facing the wrong way or as complicated as a malfunctioning DVD player....

Before using a CD-RW, you must erase all the information on it and format it for your operating system. Once formated, you can save files onto the disc. CD-RW is short for rewritable compact disc,...

Burning a copy of a computer game is a smart thing to do for a number of reasons. If you're planning on taking your game on a long trip and don't want to worry about scratching or damaging the...

It's important to backup your files in case of a hard disk crash, theft or other disaster. The safest way to backup is to use an online off-site backup facility like Mozy (see Resources) You can...

A CD or DVD is worthless if the data side of the disc has nothing but scratches and dirt all over it. The CD or DVD drive being used to read the laser won't be able to access the data, essentially...

The longer your computer is operational, the more unwanted, or simply forgotten, software it will accumulate. You may wish to completely clean it out, whether you want to start fresh, or are...

There are several reasons why a user may want to reformat his hard drive. Recovering from a virus or spyware attack and reinstalling the operating system are among the most common reasons to...

Almost everyone has heard the term "burn a CD." But what does it actually mean? To "burn" a CD simply means to copy or write information onto a compact disc, or CD. CD drives that are capable to...

Burning a Divx video file to DVD can be useful if you have a DVD player that can read and display Divx files. That is becoming more common as technology gets more advanced. Burning multiple Divx...

Professionally produced DVDs are region coded, meaning that they can only be played on equipment purchased in the same part of the world where the disc was manufactured. For example, a DVD bought...

Most computers today don't have floppy drives, a trend started by Apple in the late '90s. Before that, however, floppies were the standard method of backing up and moving data for 30 years. The...

Although DVD burning is becoming less popular as larger and cheaper hard drives are manufactured, they are still popular for transporting large files, making backups of movies and archiving data....

An external DVD burner will often be faster and more feature laden than the one that comes with the computer. But there are some common problems that can keep it from working, regardless of...

The past fifty years have seen an incredible revolution in technology, and in few places is this more evident than in the world of computing, specifically in data storage. The evolution of the...

A CD and a DVD disc might look similar, but because a DVD holds more data on it, there are physical differences between the two disc formats. So It would be logical to assume that there are also...

Compact disc (CD) burning is a common task performed on computer systems today. Many different types of files can be burned to a recordable CD---including music files, documents, database records...

Cleaning out your computer will get rid of clutter you don't use, free up space, and increase performance of your machine. To completely clean out and restore a computer (otherwise known as...

LightScribe is a fairly new technology for at-home users. A device capable of performing a LightScribe will essentially "burn" or inscribe words and/or an image onto the top of an appropriate...

Burning a DVD can serve several functions. The most obvious is that of mobility, as DVDs allow for data portability between systems and archives of significant size to be stored remotely. Further,...

CD-writers provide a convenient way to save data on CD-ROM discs. CD-writers use optical lasers to read and write the information to the disc. If dust, dirt or damage affects the drive or the...

Copying data to a compact disc is a convenient method for storing music, photos or other large computer files. The act of copying files is often called "burning a CD."

DVDs provide crisp sound and magnificent video, but a simple scratch can damage and make discs unrepairable. Instead of replacing discs, take preemptive action and make backup copies of discs you...

I will explain how to upgrade the main hard drive in a computer. The hardest thing about this is the backup of data you want to save. If you are unsure of what to do after reading this id advise...

One DVD disc can hold up to 4.7GB of information---you can save a combination of various files, a movie or just your personal document files. DVD burning programs offer a variety of tools for...

Burning an AVI file has quickly become a basic computer user skill, as AVI files are now so prominent throughout the computing world. AVI files allow for normally large video such as DVD and...

Writing files to a CD is made easy with Windows XP. That's because XP allows users to click and drag files from one location to another---including from their location on a hard drive to a disc in...

Because of the portable nature of laptop computers, laptop CD drives can be finicky from time to time. Problems may arise with reading and writing to discs, which is a problem that has to be taken...

LightScribe CD's have a special coating on one side that changes in composition when a laser passes over it. The process creates a unique monochrome laser etched label with text, graphic or photos.

RAID configurations over SATA often require drivers to be installed prior to the installation of the operating system. This is done to ensure the hard drives within the RAID array are utilized...

DTS files are the format devised for Dolby Digital Surround Sound to carry high definition sound in up to 7.1 speaker configurations with qualities above and beyond that of CD specifications....

Lightscribe DVDs are specially designed discs that are able to be used in conjunction with Lightscribe DVD-writer computer drives. The non-data side of the disc has a specially printed surface,...

The standard size of a normal blank writable CD is 700 MB. This equals about 80 minutes worth of audio. What not many people realize is that you can purchase special high-capacity CDs that hold...

Dual layer DVDs, as the name suggests, possess two readable/recordable layers per side, which effectively double their data capacity. Dual layer DVDs are most often used for DVD movies in order to...

Many times hardware configurations including RAID and SCSI require drivers to be installed prior to a Windows installation in order for Windows to configure the disk or disks correctly. Without...

The CD-ROM was a huge breakthrough in modern computing, allowing for the moving of large amounts of data between computers. The CD all but killed the floppy disk once you could write and then...

Compact Disc Rewritable (CD-RW) is an optical disc that allows you to upload and save information for multiple sessions. Much like floppy discs, you can write data multiple times without any...