Other Devices

Taking Care of Solid State Devices

It's pretty easy to care for a solid state device.

1. Don't defragment. It will decrease the life span of the device and does not help anything.

2. Empty space: Leave a large percentage of a solid state drive empty (10% - 20% depending on the drive). These drives try to use the whole drive instead of using the same spots over and over, which would shorten the life of the drive. It needs a lot of empty space for this to work well.

3. Indexing off: These drives are so fast that you don't need to index files, which would add more read/writes to the pile, shortening the drive's life.

4. Removable solid state drives: Treat your external or removable solid state devices with loving care

a. Don't format unless absolutely necessary.

b. Keep the contacts clean. No smoke, dirt, liquids, etc. to mess up the contacts. Don't carry loose in your pocket or purse!

c. Don't crack the case or break the contacts loose by dropping, bending, or putting heavy objects on it.

d. Don't lose it!

e. Label the case in some way - to get it back when you lose it!
Alternate: Include a readme.txt file on the drive with your contact info. People often leave a drive connected to the computer when they leave class or a public computer. Can't return it if we don't know whose it is!

External drives	An external hard drive or solid state drive looks like a box attached to your computer with one or two USB cables. The computer can access the files on such a drive nearly as quickly as those on the internal drive. Disks of 1 or 2 TB (terabyte) capacity are common now. An external drive is just as sturdy or as delicate as the one inside the computer. Be careful that it does not get knocked off the desk!
Mass storage	Businesses with very large sets of data that need easy access use sets of cartridges with robot arms to pull out the right one on command.
Smart cards	A chip on the card itself tracks changes, like deducting purchases from the amount entered originally on the card. Smart cards are already used in Europe and at colleges instead of using a handful of coins at vending machines and at laundromats. Another use involves a new sensor technology which lets a smart card read your fingerprint right on the card. The digital image of the fingerprint is then transmitted to a database to compare it with the one on file for that card. You can prove you are really you!!
Optical cards	A chip on the card holds information like health records and auto repair records. They can hold more data than the smart cards since they don't need to do any processing.

The history of computing suggests that some new technology will take over the market in the near future. Guessing which one will win the race is what makes fortunes in the stock market!

Дата добавления: 2014-12-23