I don't like RAID. The system I'm trying out, a Systemax Venture VX, is a good machine, with an Intel Core2 Duo E6700. The downside is it came with a pair of 250GB drives merged together using RAID 0 (also known as striped). The downside of RAID 0 is that if one drive hits the dust and stops working, there's no access to either drive.
You say you don't know hay about RAID? The quickest way to get a handle on it is to look at a neat bottled water analogy that explains all versions of RAID. So now you can use what you know about RAID as an ice breaker at dinner parties. "Hey," you might say, "did you ever realize Striped RAID is a lot like stacking two water bottles on top of each other?" Let me know if it gets you anywhere.
You might be curious and want the nitty-gritty about the other types of RAID, so take a look at "How to Set Up RAID on Your PC" by hardware expert Kirk Steers.
Getting Rid of RAID
I poked around the Web, my source for seemingly everything--except removing RAID. Oh, sure, I learned that I could format over the drives, but I was looking for a way to move the data from the striped RAID array to a new, single drive on the same PC. (Want another challenge? Try finding an easy way to switch an NTFS-formatted drive back to FAT32. Good luck.)
It turned out I already have the program that will do the RAID dirty work, and I've been using it for backing up for the last few years. It's the cloning tool built into Acronis True Image 10 Home and it did the job in no time.
All I did was install a new Seagate SATA drive into the PC, boot up the system and load Acronis, click Clone, and carefully go through the steps, pointing out the From and To drives. I rebooted when Acronis told me to and the system came to life on the new drive. I removed the RAID drives and disabled the RAID controller on the system board, which is easier than, say, making a decent macaroni and cheese dish. (Why disable it? I didn't want to see the RAID controller trying to find the drives each time I booted.)
If you don't have RAID on your PC, I can't think of many good reasons to install it. (I can see the RAID experts opening their e-mail programs...) And if you have RAID and want to dump it, now you know how.
Dig This: A bunch of eerie images of fiberglass resin sculptures have been floating around through e-mail for the last couple of weeks. They're super large, super realistic replicas of people. It's the work of Ron Mueck, a London-based photorealist artist. Get a look at a few at Art MoCo and a Washington Post
Free Tool: Microsoft Memory Check
If your system crashes frequently and you get blue screens loaded with error messages, your problem may be bad system memory. For a quick checkup, use Microsoft's Windows Memory Diagnostic tool; that's what I said in July's Hassle-Free column.
I received e-mails divided into two camps: "Thanks, that didn't solve my problem, but it's cool to have the tool around," and "Hey, you didn't tell me I had to create a bootable CD to run it."
Creating a bootable CD isn't difficult, especially if you have an application like Nero Burning ROM. But if you haven't bothered buying a commercial program and need a free way to create a boot CD, I have three sites you can go to for details.
Dig This: Breaking news--the entire Internet has crashed. It's true. No, really. Watch this newscast--and once you've stopped laughing, play it again (but this time, turn down the volume and read the news crawl at the bottom of the video screen). [Thanks, Brad!]
Free Tool: Try Agent Ransack for Fast Searching
I haven't used the search feature in Windows for years--and I don't miss it. Instead, I use Agent Ransack, a fast, free program.
I know what you're thinking: There are plenty of programs around for searching; X1 and Google's Desktop Search are a couple of good options. But I like to use Agent Ransack when I'm just looking for, say, files over 600MB, or files created before or after a specific date.
Agent Ransack is a standalone program, so it's not always running (and using system resources). I have it pinned to my Start menu for quick access.
The free version is adequate for most of us, but if you're a gung-ho searcher, take a look at the $30 version, FileLocator Pro. Its features include a file viewer, Boolean searches, and file attribute searches.
Steve Bass writes PC World's monthly "Hassle-Free PC" column and is the author of PC Annoyances, 2nd Edition: How to Fix the Most Annoying Things About Your Personal Computer, available from O'Reilly. He also writes PC World's daily Tips & Tweaks blog. Sign up to have Steve's newsletter e-mailed to you each week. Comments or questions? Send Steve e-mail.
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