Latest Storage How-To Stories
SEE STORAGE STORIES BY CATEGORY
Answer Line
5 things you can do with a second internal drive
Sure, you could just store more stuff, but other options range from virtual machines to games.
How-To
Tip: WinDirStat can help you free up storage space for GTA V (or anything else) in a flash
This tried-and-true program just helped me free up over 100GB worth of drive space in mere minutes.Hassle-Free PC
3 tools for finding and eradicating duplicate files on your hard drive
Do you have more files than space on your PC? These three tools can help you eke out a little more free space by getting rid of duplicate files and folders on your hard drive.How-To
Supercharge your PC’s storage with a RAID setup: Everything you need to know
Configuring multiple drives in RAID can protect against disaster and provide face-meltingly fast transfer speeds.
Answer Line
When to buy a flash drive, an external hard drive, or an external SSD
What kind of external storage do you need? This guide will help you decide how best to spend your money.How-To
It’s cheap and easy to make your own portable hard drive from an old PC drive
An external enclosure is all you need to give your old storage a new lease on life.Answer Line
Save money by not buying a larger SSD than you need
By the gigabyte, an SSD is much more expensive than a conventional hard drive. You may be able to save money by buying one with a smaller capacity.
Answer Line
How to test the speed of your USB drives
How fast are your flash drives and external hard drives? Here's how to find out.Hassle-Free PC
Get tough on stubborn programs with Revo uninstaller
Sometimes you just can't get the job done with an app's built-in tools. That's when you may have to turn to a third-party uninstaller.Answer Line
What to do when a second hard drive bricks your PC
You install a second hard drive, plug in the power, and turn on the PC. But Windows doesn't boot. Run through this checklist to fix the problem.Answer Line
Don’t use the same external drive for backup and storage
External hard drives can provide both backup and storage. But don't use the same drive for both.How-To
How to upgrade an old PC: No-brainer improvements anyone can do
Is your computer running too slow? Breathe new life into that aging PC with a few tune-ups and upgrades to get it back up to speed.Hassle-Free PC
Windows 8.1 Update tip: Clean up that disk space now
Now that you're used to the new Windows 8.1 Update, it's time to clear up some space on that hard drive.Answer Line
How to upgrade to a larger hard drive
Your hard drive (or SSD) is overflowing. You’ve just bought a new one with a larger capacity. Now what do you do?Answer Line
My hard drive is making scary sounds
A noisy hard drive is probably a dying hard drive. Here's how to get the files off before time runs out.Answer Line
How to archive files so they’ll stay around for years
Daisky wants to store files in a way that will make them available to future generationsHow-To
Find the right backup drive for your storage needs
If coming up with a backup strategy is one of your New Year's resolutions, maybe a backup drive should be on your holiday shopping list. We can tell you what to look for.Answer Line
When your PC doesn’t recognize a 2nd drive
Creeds installed an old hard drive into a new machine as a second drive. He's having problems getting it to work.How-To
The absurdly simple guide to backing up your PC
Backing up isn't difficult, it's getting around to backing up that's the challenge for most users. Here are the backup basics made so easy you'll have no excuse for not creating a safety copy of your data.Answer Line
How to make room on your Windows partition
Acharya1987's C: drive is running out of space. I offer my suggestions, as does the Answer Line forum.Answer Line
Recover files from a dead external drive
Xolelwa Mzili's PC no longer sees her external hard drive. Can she recover the files?
How-To
Benchmarks don’t lie: SSD upgrades deliver huge performance gains
An SSD can breathe new life into an old PC, but exactly how much performance do you gain? PCWorld ran the tests. Here are the results.Answer Line
How to make good use of an old hard drive
Carol Hart has an extra hard drive hanging around. She asked me what she can do with it.Answer Line
How to change drive letters–even when the letter you want isn’t available
Jack McCabe wants Windows to identify his data drive as D:, but D: is already taken.Hassle-Free PC
How to add USB 3.0 to your desktop PC
The latest external hard drives offer USB 3.0 connectivity, but older desktops don't. Here's an easy and inexpensive remedy.Answer Line
How to safely remove a USB drive even when Windows says it isn’t safe to do so
Windows doesn't always allow you to safely remove a flash drive or external hard drive. Klaatu asked the Answer Line forum for advice.Answer Line
Add an external drive to your WMP or iTunes music collection
Kat Korsmo asked how to play music off an external hard in Windows Media Player library. (My answer covers iTunes, as well.)Updated
How to securely wipe sensitive files–or your entire hard drive
Rommel asked the Utilities forum for advice on cleaning files off a hard drive so that they can never be restoredHassle-Free PC
Add a hard drive-activity LED to a laptop that lacks one
Free utility Activity Indicator adds an HDD status light to your System Tray.Hassle-Free PC
With an SSD, backups are more important than ever
It's a lot harder to recover data from a dead solid-state drive, so plan accordingly.Hassle-Free PC
How to upgrade your external hard drive to USB 3.0
If your PC has USB 3.0 ports, you can get a big speed boost by relocating your external drive to a faster enclosure.Answer Line
Improve performance with a hard drive upgrade
Alloystory asked the Laptops forum about speeding up a PC by replacing the hard drive with something faster.How-To
The proper care and feeding of SSD storage
Treat a solid-state drive like its mechanical cousin and you could end up in a world of pain. Here's how to handle these exotic beasts.Hassle-Free PC
Why it’s a good idea to own a USB-to-SATA adapter
When the time comes to replace or upgrade your hard drive, you'll be glad to have one of these inexpensive tools.Answer Line
Should you leave a hard drive running when it’s not in use?
Mike Bell asked if he should shut down his hard drive when he doesn't need it. "Will that constant powering up [and down] add wear and tear…?"Answer Line
Backing up your entire drive: Cloning vs. imaging
Felix Luke needs to back up his entire hard drive. He asked me to explain the differences between cloning and imaging.Answer Line
Multiple hard drives working together: All about RAID setups
Stevey, admittedly confused regarding the benefits of RAID arrays, asked the Answer Line forum to explain these hard-drive groups.Answer Line
Answer Line: My PC doesn’t see the new, second hard drive
Elsullo2 installed a new, second hard drive into a desktop PC. But Windows doesn't see it.
How-To
Move data files from an SSD to a hard drive
PoloTiger has both a solid state drive and a hard drive, and the SSD is almost full. What's the best way to both move data files to the hard drive and make Windows understand that that's where they belong?Answer Line
-ROM, -R, +R, +RW? Understanding the optical drive alphabet soup
Nick248 asked the Answer Line forum about optical drives. I figured it was time to go ver the various types of CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs, and the drives that read and write to them.Answer Line
Can I recover some files and securely wipe others on a crashed hard drive?
Zeterjons asked the Utilities forum how to rescue files off of a physically crashed hard drive, while making sure that other files on that hard drive are destroyed beyond rescue.Answer Line
What do hard drive-related words like SATA, IDE, and RAID actually mean?
Brainout asked the Hard Drives, NAS Drives, Storage forum to explain some of the words used to describe hard drives and storage.How-To
Easy Ways to Clear Space on Your Laptop’s Hard Drive
Do you live with a thin-and-light laptop that has a small drive? Or just have a large drive that's filled to overflowing? Here's how to get some breathing room back.How-To
How to Build a PC for Photographers
The ideal PC for digital photography minimizes workflow hassles while maximizing performance and capacity. Here's what to look for.How-To
How to Undo RAID: Best Practices
Changing from a RAID 0-array boot drive to a single-drive boot should be easy, I thought, but the operation can be more complicated than may you anticipate. Here's what I learned from the experience.How-To
Top Ten Factors for Choosing a Gaming PC
When you're shopping for a gaming system, consider our ten rules of thumb before you pull out your wallet.Answer Line
Will DVD Drives Still be Around in a Few Decades?
Philip Peters asked if we will have drives that can read DVDs in ten, 20, or 50 years?How-To
How to Partition Your Hard Drive to Optimize Performance
We explain how to speed up your PC with an advanced technique known as "short stroking," which involves finding the optimal partition size and the fastest parts of your hard drive's platters.Answer Line
Back Up a Bootable CD or DVD
A41202813 asked the Answer Line forum for the best way to turn a bootable optical disc, like a CD or DVD, into a file that you could burn back into a bootable disc.How-To