Once again, technicians talk and one poor guy came up with a customer issue about RAID 0.  A lot of the gaming machines or high-end desktops use the mythical RAID 0 set for hard drives. This is touted by many as something to help with speed of your hard drive, and it can, but at a heavy price.

Now, the bad thing: RAID 0 does absolutely NOTHING to help maintain data integrity. This means that when one of the hard drives in that RAID Array crash (you need at least 2 drives in RAID 0), everything goes away. This can also happen if your motherboard crashes as well since most cheap desktops and all laptops offering RAID do not use a dedicated RAID card. They use an on-board chip that has a nickname of “soft RAID” since it’s software controlled.

RAID 0 does work for speed, but it should only be used for temporary storage of unimportant data. When I worked with very large databases, we sometimes used RAID 0 as a primary (temporary) log storage area to speed the server up. It should not, in most technicians opinions, be used as a way to boot windows or store valuable data. If you’re going to use RAID for this situation, use RAID 1, RAID 5 or RAID 10.

If you’re confused about RAID levels, it’s best to speak with a professional so you understand the differences between all the different types. If you’re looking for data to remain intact during a hard drive crash, you’ll want RAID 1, 5 or 10. There are differences between them, and there are more levels to choose from as well, but these are the main types. For desktops, you’ll probably want RAID 1. Servers, depending on the age and data you’re storing, either 5 or 10.

As always, please feel free to contact Protocol16 for your questions or computer repair in Portland.
Justin

In a continuation of yesterday’s story about spyware and virus issues stemming from websites, there is one thing that I said in the beginning that can stop nearly all issues before they start…

The Admin account on your computer is the very first account setup under XP or Vista. In XP, this account can do anything on the computer, including install software – if you can double click on an icon and something installs, you’re in the XP Admin account. In Vista, this account comes up with prompts that says “Click continue to allow xxxxx to install”. That prompt, without a password, means that you’re using a generic Admin account (there is another one that is disabled by default).

If you’re using Vista and have turned off User Account Control (UAC) to stop the annoying prompts, that’s bad… This feature, while annoying at first, eventually goes away (the first month is the worst). In Windows 7, the feature is still there, but not as annoying. If you’ve turned this feature off, you can infect yourself and not even know it by using the same lame-duck security in Windows XP.

By using a Standard User account, you stop most of the infection types out there. When that prompt comes up after you’ve hit a random webpage, you know right away to get away from that site.

If a Protocol16 technician notices that you’re using an Admin account, they will automatically recommend against doing so and offer to setup a secondary account for you, after explaining the situation.

I would list how to change your account type to a standard user, but there are many things that need to be done so that you can still use your machine and data without problems. This includes creating a new administrator account and “locking down” your current account. This type of lock down normally takes about 20 minutes, then another 20 minutes checking things over to ensure that everything is working correctly. While you don’t have to have Protocol16 set this up for you, any computer repair shop should be able to do this without any major difficulties. If they try to talk you out of doing this, as a security precaution, I’d worry a little bit…
Justin

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Beaverton, OR —Sep. 9, 2009— Protocol16, a computer company focusing on on-site support, has formed a partnership agreement with Dell to provide workstations, computers and servers for it’s customers.

Protocol16 will offer the Dell line of computers when it is more economical to purchase a pre-packaged computer vs a custom built machine. Servers will also be offered to business customers that require new or additional hardware.

About Protocol16
Protocol16 was started in 2007 in response to a growing demand for technical services in the military communities of Germany. Since starting, Protocol16 has relocated to Oregon and launched a website and mobile computer repair business in the Portland Metro region. Headquartered in Beaverton, Protocol16 is quickly becoming a leader in mobile repair for businesses and consumers. Protocol16 maintains that customer satisfaction is the absolute primary goal of the business.

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