Andy TaylorLeave a commentHardware, , , , ,

Adding a Hard Drive – “If All The Parameters Are In Place”

Adding a new Hard drive to the system should be easy and if all the parameters are in place, it will be. That’s the important thought however, “If all the parameters are in place…”

We received a Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB Internal Drive in to test out in the Media Center PC we are putting together and after putting the Motherboard and Processor in place, installing Memory, the Main Hard Drive (Western Digital 500GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache), Video Card and Windows 7 X64 (We’ll be testing with X32 as well) we were excited to add the WD Caviar Green 3TB Internal to the fold. After putting the rails on the drive and cables we booted the system up which located the drive. We selected the Create New Volume and after deciding to label the drive and choosing it as Drive M (For Media) we proceeded to Quick Format the Device. After about 30seconds the Quick Format failed and we then unchecked the box for Quick Format and decided it was possibly best to perform a detail and exact format. We knew this means it will take longer, but we were not expecting what happened next.

We started the format at 9:15am on Sunday 12/19/2010 and on Monday 12/20/2010 at 8:15am we were at 1%. Looking at the Storage Manager we could see that Windows 7 and the Intel Board could locate and visually see the drive however this was by no means normal. Without becoming all Sheldon on ya, this could in fact take 2 months, 23 days, 7 hours and 11.5 Minutes, give or take a month to format. Western Digital had sent a HPA Adaptor card which is a part of the 3TB Internal Drives, also the 2.5TB drives ship with this little card which plugs into the available PCI Express Port. We didn’t install the card since the Intel Board, the DH57DD was so new we assumed it should have no problem with the capacity of the drive.

If you aren’t aware, There are limitations in size for some boards accessing over 2.19TB. This little card that WD includes will help some boards be able to address the drive and welcome it to the hardware fold. WD even includes the plug in card with low riser and full size bracket for the smaller towers and regular sizes available. We plugged the card in, hooked up the drive and upon boot, the card was identified but the drive wasn’t. We let it boot and sure enough, nada was in the available drives. We shut it down, made sure the SATA Cable and power cable were connected firmly and rebooted. This time, the drive was seen and we proceeded to boot into Windows and begin the steps to reformat.

Once we deleted the previous volume and then reattempted in Quick Format Mode, it failed. We reattempted by deselecting the Quick Format and could see right away, the format was going to be a long process. Something just wasn’t right. We revisited the Western Digital website which features a very good video on adding a secondary drive with the WD Caviar Green 3TB and saw that all the steps we’d performed we’re inline. After a cup of coffee and racking the brain we decided to try one other step we hadn’t done, changing out the SATA Cable. We had provided this cable as the ones that came with the board were both used up.

Over the years you tend to amass a large quantity of cables and power cords, I always wonder if somewhere I forgot to hook up a cable because why do I have an extra!?
I located a SATA cable and connected it, rebooted the system went through the steps of deleting the old volume, recreating and performing a Quick Format. Viola! (Walla! for those not immersed in French..) Our Drive formatted and quickly. So, before you go calling Tech Support or heading back to Frys or Best Buy check the SATA cable to make sure that it isn’t the culprit. Also remember to toss the other cable since leaving it around will just cause you to put it in another system. Hopefully this helps somebody!!

Andy

Andy TaylorLeave a commentHardware, TechtalkRadio, , , , ,

All Nice and No Naughty – Scan those Photos!

We caught word that our friends over at Visioneer have a Contest taking place on their Facebook Page giving you the ability to share some of your fine holiday photos but also have a shot at winning a Visioneer 9520 Scanner. There probably isn’t any doubt that Digital Cameras will sell well during the Holiday Season. So many great new devices are on the market with Fill features, sequential photos for action and large megapixels for printing from the Digital Image.

One piece of technology that is still a constant for photo enthusiasts, archivist and those working with graphics is the Digital Scanner. Gloria and I bought our first photo scanner back in 1991 for our new Desktop Publishing business and its features were about 25% of what is available with today’s Scanners, pricing is now considerably less as well. In 1991 our scanner set us back about 700 bucks!

One of the companies that has offered affordable solutions for the consumers and business user is Visioneer. We’ve had several models over the years of Visioneer scanners that have served us well. We still have a need to scan those photos, logos and other documents into the computer and with today’s software, the user is really able to fine tune and achieve a great looking photo from a scan. Most users of scanners I’ve talked with have made photo archives of all the film photos in the home for safety and ability to easily share them online with sites such as Flickr and Facebook and then store the originals away for safekeeping. It is incredibly easy to scan a photo and save it as well.

The Visioneer 9520 scans at 4800DPI and captures in 48Bit Color. For those of you that have amassed a collection of Slides, the original way a slide show was presented, a built in 35mm Slide transparency adapter makes it easier.  One Touch scanning of the 9520 gives users the option of easily selecting Fax and Send, Send to Printer or open up the Scanning Program to scan to your specific program. The Visioneer 9520 also ships with Corel and Arcsoft programs.

While the website may seem a bit confusing in its support of Windows 7, Drivers for Windows 7 and Vista are available on the Visioneer Site. If you visit the site and select the Home Products, then the product itself, scroll down to the bottom right of the page you will find drivers and there you will locate the Windows 7/Vista drivers. Probably the easiest step is to visit the Visioneer Like Page on Facebook and participate for your chance to Win one of Three Visioneer 9520 Scanners.

A Photo of the 2001 Christmas Card with Ozzy
Andy Taylor and Family with Adopted Kid Ozzy

All you have to do is submit your Nice Holiday Photo in the Holiday Photo Album and the folks over at Visioneer will select a winner December 22nd 2010. I was thinking about submitting this Holiday Family Photo from 2001 with Gloria, myself, the girls and our adopted friend Ozzy but I already have a 9520 and wouldn’t want to take away your opportunity to win!

For your chance visit http://www.facebook.com/visioneerinc

Andy TaylorLeave a commentTechtalkRadio, , , , , , , , ,

Upstaging the Gifts this Holiday Season

Photo of Andy Taylor holding a Prank Pack
Andy Taylor with the CoffeeTalkies Prank Pack

Nothing says loving, like a great holiday prank. The receiving end of a prank can be funny for the person pulling it off and in some cases, a bit of an embarrassment for those falling prey to it. I think most of us have seen the video on American Funniest Home Videos of the poor saps that scratched off a Lottery Ticket thinking they Won thousands only to be slapped with the realization it was a prank. I always felt sorry for those people thinking of how in their heads they had already spent the money and had those dreams taken from them of buying just about anything they wanted. I bet you a Wooden nickle that some of those had dreamt of taking those lotto winnings and developing products in the garage such as the Pet Petter or with today’s technology, the iArm. 

These are just a couple of products that have already been created though, at least in the minds of Ryan Dolan and Arick Nordby. These inventive geniuses behind the Company 30 Watt have created a Wonderful gift idea for that holiday season that could even upstage the gifts themselves. Prank Pack’s are boxes, and just that – boxes, that feature some of the most outrageous gift ideas imaginable. When we featured a few of the boxes during the TechtalkRadio Webcast, we had a few comments in the chat room of “How Cool” and “Why Didn’t I think of That!?” to the formidable Scooby Doo “Huuuuhhh?” 

Photo of the iArm and Pet Petter Prank Pack Boxes
Two fo Our Favorite Prank Packs

Imagine receiving a Gift Box with the Contents indicated to be a pair of  Swiss Navy Coffee Talkies with a 1200 Foot Range. Everything about the boxes feels real and not unlike anything you could pick up off the shelf next to the Camo Snuggie. The Prank Pack ships flat, similar to a New Year Calendar and can be opened easily to store almost anything from a pair of Socks to a shirt to even another box holding an iPad (Hint Hint). The Boxes construct to about 11.5 inches long, close to 9 inches across and almost 3.5 inches deep. Everything about these Prank Packs screams authentic with some of the most absurd but realistic photos and graphics on them. When the receiver opens either end of the box, they are greeted with the official prank. This isn’t a mean spirited prank, it is really designed to get a good laugh and that it does. 

The Creativity doesn’t stop with these guys as they have recently introduced the latest Prank Pack, good for the Entire family, the Family Blankeez. Great to cover a Family of eight or a Medium size SUV.  Again, while the idea sounds like a winner, it’s a Prank Pack!  From the Beer Beard to the iArm to the nine inventive and fun Prank Packs priced at just around 8 bucks, this will be one of the most shared and talked about gifts under the tree or at the Company Gift Exchange. For more info and to see some of the different Prank Packs available, take a look at http://www.prankpack.com or the company behind it all 30Watt at http://www.30watt.com 

Photo of the Family Blankeez Prank Pack
The Prank Pack Family Blankeez

Andy TaylorLeave a commentTTR Website

This Weeks TechtalkRadio Show

This weeks Full Show has been posted, In this weeks Cast we talked about a variety of Subjects including The Samsung Galaxy Tab and Why Andy isn’t going to CES but the Search is on for Sponsorship for Slick to Attend, Andy talks about the New Wirecast Interface and the Help from Steve of TechBuzz to get it up and Runing as well a look at the new Studio. Western Digital sends over the 3TB Internal and External USB 3.0 Solutions. A Look at Flock and RockMelt and Slick shares some info on Spike TV’s Coverage of the Video Game Awards December 11th.

Andy TaylorLeave a commentHardware, TechtalkRadio, , , , , , ,

Help, I am Out of Hard Drive Space

We’ve all been there! You want to do some work on your Computer and you keep getting a warning telling you the Hard Drive is Full. Going through your drive and deleting files would be the nice thing to do, especially those ones that just seem to be duplicated throughout your Hard Drive. If you don’t have time to do that, adding storage is always a great solution. In fact, with the pricing on Hard Drives currently, it is really to your benefit to plop down a few bucks and get that deal on the 1TB or 2TB drive you had your eye one. Getting some of that clutter and files off your hard drive can also help your system run better. A Good Defrag after moving a bunch of files off your hard drive is like a nice oil bath for C3PO, but I digress.

We talked with Wilson Tang from Azio Corporation on a New Hard Drive Enclosure the company is producing called the E377-U31. This Aluminum cased Hard Drive enclosure with a Slide Out Tray gives users the ability to Add a SATA Hard Drive with a Couple of easy steps. Seriously, it could get easier then this! The Power Connector and USB Cable, which was supplied, connect up in seconds to the Enclosure which offers a screwless design so after a couple of snaps the Drive is in place. Viola!

Pricing is great on this Enclosure system and it really looks pretty good on the Desktop. Users can opt for a USB 3.0 connection or go for the current standard USB 2.0. If you decide on the USB 3.0, you are backwards compatible with the USB 2.0 and USB 1.0 designs. You’ll need a USB 3.0 to get that full speed or you can purchase a USB 3.0 Expansion Card which can be placed in an available PCI Express Port and connected to an available Power Connector.

We like the Sturdy Design, Ease of Access and Side Mounted Fan on the Unit. Listen in to our interview with Wilson Tang of Azio at http://www.techtalkradio.com/hardware/azio.html You can also view photos of our tester unit on the page.