hard drives

Why am I getting driver warnings?

Episode 1251

Rene from Long Beach, CA

Rene's hard drive was about to crash so she bought a new hard drive and reinstalled Windows. It's been updating, but today she's missing drivers and getting unknown device errors. She googled the driver error and Leo stopped her right there and said that Googling drivers is a dangerous thing to do because she could get a nefarious hacked driver. He recommends always going directly to the manufacturer for the latest drivers. Rene can go to Dell and look at the specific machine. Each one has a device number. She may be missing drivers from extra USB peripheral devices.

How can I recover data from a damaged hard drive?

NewerTech Universal Drive Adapter

Episode 1249

David from Orange County, CA

David has an external 2TB Seagate Baracuda hard drive and he hasn't been able to transfer the data from it, because it's damaged. Can he roll his own data recovery or does he have to pay for it to be recovered? Leo says that there are several levels of data recovery. Level 1 is a soft error -- a data error caused by a bad block. It's easily fixable with a good utility. Level 2, on the other hand, is a physical issue. This could be a scratched drive, a bent lever, etc. If he has a level 2 error, he's going to pay ten times the amount to repair it -- often in the thousands.

What do I do with a hard drive fail warning?

Episode 1248

Ann from Oceanside, CA



Can I replace the hard drive in my Mac Mini?

Apple Mac Mini

Episode 1245

Denise from Santa Clarita, CA

Denise has a Mac Mini with a 2TB hard drive and she's running out of space. Leo says that's a huge hard drive and it would be very hard to fill it up like that with regular use. First, she should empty the trash. Denise also had a power outage and Leo says that could have clobbered her hard drive and ruined it. At this point, it's probably best to replace the hard drive, which would be a challenge to do with the Mac Mini. Leo recommends taking it to the Apple Store.

How can I wipe my hard drive before I donate my old computer?

Episode 1243

Paul from Lake Forest, CA

Paul has an old Windows 7 computer and he's thinking of donating it. How can he wipe the drive effectively? Leo says most places that you donate to will promise to wipe the drive for you, but it's always a good idea to do it yourself to be safe. Paul should grab an external hard drive, plug it in and then drag and drop his data directly. Once he's done, he should download DBAN (Derick's Boot and Nuke). It will wipe the drive to the standards of the Department of Defense. It's very secure.

How can I speed up my computer?


Episode 1232

Kinan from California

Kinan has a Gateway laptop with a broken screen and he's got it hooked up to an external monitor. It's getting slow and he wants to speed it up. If he's never reinstalled Windows on the machine, it's a good idea to backup his data, format the hard drive and reinstall Windows from a known source. The hard drive may be wearing out, too. Another option would be to try Ubuntu Linux.