External hard drives (HDDs) are commonly used for backup and for additional storage. They provide more control over data than cloud storage services, and they’re significantly less expensive than external solid-state drives (SSD). But while external HDDs are inexpensive and...

Seagate Technology has announced a new hard drive architecture utilizing a “nanophotonic laser,” which leverages heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology to allow for extremely high capacities.  HAMR isn’t brand-new tech, and many other manufacturers are experimenting with similar lasers. If...

If you need data recovery, but you can’t quite afford it, you might consider putting your hard drive (or solid state drive, or other device) into storage until you’re able to get the money together.  Clients often ask us whether...

For years, “unsafely ejecting” a USB flash drive was a serious misstep — one that could lead to corruption and permanent data loss — but in 2024, it’s not as big of an issue.  Here’s why: Operating systems have implemented...

Flash memory isn’t as susceptible to physical damage as hard disk drives (HDDs). Even so, physical damage occurs — particularly for microSD, SD, and other media formats that are designed for portability.  If you’ve accidentally bent an SD card, the...

While SD, microSD, and related formats are generally reliable, no storage device is perfect. One common cause of data loss is overheating — or, rather, damage to the components of the card caused by overheating. Heat issues are often caused...

If a hard drive can be plugged into your computer, it should work in most circumstances. You’ll need to format the drive to use a filesystem that is compatible with your operating system. For example, if you use Windows, the...

Recently, we had a client ask whether data has a physical weight. This isn’t a bad question — although if you understand the basics of magnetic data storage, there’s an obvious answer. A hard drive filled with terabytes of data...

Hard disk drives (HDDs) can function in a fairly wide range of conditions, but high operating temperatures can lead to mechanical issues.  Generally, manufacturers recommend that hard drives operate within a range of 77-133 degrees Fahrenheit (25-45 degrees Celsius). Your...

Solid-state drives (SSD) generally read and write data much faster than conventional hard disk drives (HDDs). After all, that’s one of the major advantages of the technology.  Hard drives must move their read/write heads to different portions of the platters...