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Seriously, use an extension cord in series with a 1500 Watt power strip? Wake up folks. Aside from being extremely frowned upon by any Inspector from your insurance carrier and your local Code peeps, your will regret this move. Never mind the fact that the number of turns required to block the line impressed signal would take many more turns than the cord has length regardless of core material…

I would not be surprised if inside the power strip there is at least one small coil of wire (called an RF inductor) on a form shunted to the neutral or/and ground wire. It is being used as an RF Shunt and measured in Henrys (Henrys, milli and micro). It is this coil(s) that is shunting your impressed signal to ground. Better arc suppression power distribution units used them to perform what we call high frequency noise suppression on the a/c line. During the early days of X10 ? systems, these RF Coils were found to interfere with their line signals as well. Primary reason for these coils was to suppress strong, local AM and FM transmitter signals from causing chaos on sensitive equipments in labs, RF shielded test enclosures, etc. MOV’s in good condition have no sensitivity to low level HF (anything above 120HZ) impressed signals. Period.

Using a UPS to replace a MOV power strip is just plain stupid. Instead of replacing a burned up power strip once hit, you will be replacing the UPS or installing new MOVs into it. UPS’s should be used for the sole purpose of supplying line power during an outage or drop-out, perhaps with an uprated power strip in front of it to hopefully take the hit before it gets to the UPS. BOTH, are considered sacrificial equipments for surge suppression – just a matter of what costs more to replace / repair. UPS’s included surge suppression devices to improve their life expectancy but do take hits and the UPS dies or loses its protection waiting for the next hit that kills the digital circuitry inside down the road. APC warranties and others exist only to sell their product, given that the number of claims they get pushed into honoring are something like winning your local lottery, are more than paid for by the buyers falling for the warranty gimmick. MOV’s are the cheap person’s surge suppression tool. There are much better tools out there, but cost more money. MOV’s can initialize fires, but it is extremely rare as better ones are made of materials that do not burn, ever. They can and do blow up, crack, get extremely hot and arc, and ignite materials around them, but burn? Nah. These surrounding materials are what ignite. Buying a plastic cased strip could burn your house down. Use only metal housed, fast acting FUSED, strips with fire rated sockets. Circuit breaker protected and slow-blow fusing react too slowly as tested by many labs NIST. UL. etc. Yes, the Tripplite (ISOBAR 6 socket and larger) did make some of the better consumer products years ago, but I can not verify their current product line as meeting my criteria. Commercial level units will cost you hundreds, not tens of dollars. And for those with some deeper pockets, you can always buy a house-wide suppression device at your local electrical products supply house. It sits across your 220 VAC house feeds and shunts to a real ground (you know, the one located at your power pole, or like me, two 8 foot copper rods just outside my wall fed by two inch wide silvered braid), inside your metal panel if you are worried about line conducted surges, but it will do nothing for strikes in your back yard that set up a large radiated EMP spike near your TV. Anything you do not want to replace should be in fed through interactive surge suppression if you live in an area designated as prone to such things. Many utilities have added surge suppression to their lines but they too may eventually fail out leaving your plastic, $5 strip as the final barrier. Buy a line monitor, with or without a recorder, or a scope and tie it to your line and you will see for yourself how often stuff happens and what sizes your are constantly subjected to. Keep in mind that these devices protect ONLY line conducted surge spikes.

I have had probably twenty near-miss ground strikes (some depressions are still viewable) over the years, and untold line spikes of 1000VAC or more, and only lost equipment, once. Then I opened up some books.

School’s out.

If Disk Check worked, then you had corrupt data in the directory (or associated pointers) that windows could not decipher and therefore, could not delete. It will not touch locked or corrupt data performing delete functions. Considered a safety feature by some of us.

As stated by others, the OP asked about what hardware, not what apps or functionality to purloin. That makes the Admin wrong injecting that the loss does not occur when the HD(s) does (do) fail out if one imaged it. The HD will have to replaced and restored, regardless of the original restore hardware chosen. That data, you know, the 1’s and 0’s, are no longer accessible and will have to be replaced – it does not truly matter how that is accomplished within this thread so let’s not quibble about imaging herein, OK? I use two tape libraries as well as imaging of the O/S on 15K SCSI externals simply because i believe in having many options that are fast as possible and have higher reliability.

The point the SuperM was trying to make is simple – segregation onto separate HD’s is usually a good thing for many reasons, such as:

1) If SCSI et al, both OS and DATA HD’s can be accessed at the same time saving interrupt time.
2) OS data gets read more often than DATA bits forgiving the running background Apps such as real time A/V, usually, and this relates to how fast the sectors wear out on each HD unless a Defrag operation moves it around the tracks ofter enough to minimize repeated hits on the same tracks.
3) If your needs are OS centric it would make more sense to spend more on a faster OS HD than a data bin HD, and / or the other way round. Depends on what the machine is used for.
4) Oh, I forgot, Win 8 is being discussed so all the benefits of real hardware optimization are moot.

Still using Win2K without issues of any kind despite losing support from many vendors such as Adobe, Malwarebytes and M$.

Wow, numbers, specs, joules, impedance? Only one of you posters seems to have a degree in EE, and even that I am not certain of.

Depressing to read most of these posts. I do not know where to begin, so I will begin here:

OP question: No, you should not realize speed degradation by simply using an in-line surge protector on your Cat 5/6 cable unless it is faulty – i.e. taken a hit. The question you have to ask is would you rather have to open your box to replace a card or the MB if you do take a hit, that can come from an array of sources, not just the line into your house. More on that later on.

Truly safe sources of AC source power are gotten from battery rooms that run inverters (the device that preceded what you now can call your home owner toaster-like UPS (of various types, some of which are very better than others – again more on that later on) that power the phone lines, computers, etc. however the cost of space, maintenance, lead, ventilation, load sizing, cooling, etc has taken its toll and now the old inverters are usually much more than that now, as they usually have line conditioners and auto-transformers that can cut or boost incoming voltage from the sourcing system as it can and will vary due to loading of the power source by the minute…

Near strikes around your environment will penetrate your environment by any and all means available to it, sometimes it will seek the less impeded path to ground but do not bet on it, and not necessarily the actual bolt is required to cause induced voltage to kill you, your appliances, your PC, TV, etc. Each bolt has an intense field around it that can reach close to a million or so volts – please note measuring these nodes is extremely difficult and there will never be any consistency in what is measured due to distance variables, initial arc-over currents, humidity etc. but to be certain, a strike in your back yard can and will probably be noticed by any and all things inside your house. The key is to mediate its effects on your property. The same is true for line conducted hits you can sustain from the power source, the landlines, the TV coax cable from your roof, your electric wiring inside your walls, your A/C outside compressor, contactors, etc. You get my point?

You begin by thinking about what is vulnerable. Everything that does not have a working voltage over 110-120 or 220-240 volts can and will be destroyed IF: duration of the over-voltage remains longer than the product is designed to withstand, and two, if the peak current induced in the device exceeds its rating. For example, some NASA hardware is hardened to specs very few people would comprehend due to its intended environment. Same for dishwashers in our homes. Older stuff that used mechanical controls usually never suffered from EMP (induced voltages from lightning, atomic weapons, and yes, even from solar flares. Most of our current technology runs on voltages in the tens of volts on down now and that makes things FAR more susceptible to EMP. And yes, your Fridge’s motor may come on and send a spike into your house circuits that can kill some sensitive devices once in a while once its start capacitor has failed out, as yet another example as most motors usually require high starting current and that does induce the voltage to spike… It goes on and on. Courses and probably thousands of books are readily available if you have an interest in EMP, ESD, grounding and other manners of engineering that seem to be completely missed herein.

Whole house protectors get installed inside your main panel and others if they exist. They are attached to both sides of your incoming 220-240 legs (120 to ground, neutral to ground and 120 to round and 120 to 120) and is then sent to the ground strip which is then run to a star ground system as close as possible on the outside of the house. Its purpose is simply to take very high voltages which more high currents coming in from your power source and shunt them to ground, HOPEFULLY reducing the high peak voltages to manageable levels further on inside using other means. They will help a lot on nearby AC line strikes that survive the power company protections in place. I recommend getting one most highly. You can buy them at almost any electrical distributor – forget Home Depot, et al. The star ground system is nothing more than five or so 8 foot ground rods in a star wired pattern wired directly to your inside box ground strip… simple if you have the motivation and the room.

For all other actual wiring entering your home, the same rules apply – coax from your antenna on the roof, a coaxial lightning arrestor (gap or tube), again tied to the star ground system to keep the spikes off the center conductor of the coax cable helps. The antenna and mast must also be tied directly to the ground system as well but note that this will NOT keep a spike from getting through the center conductor to your TV, set top box, etc., only serve to keep it from actually entering your home via the roof structure. As to cable companies such as FIOS, Comcast, etc. I do not know what is used in their product placements but you can probably be sure there is sufficient protection built in to their interfaces, but then again, I do not KNOW this.

Inducted spikes coming through the air, and through your walls and into your house wiring are the usual modes of spikes that can do damage once the conductive issues are dealt with as above. This is where the strips and UPS and other devices can assist you in your protective scheme. These are most commonly dealt with using 1) Line conditioners, 2) Auto-Transformers, 3) surge protectors, strips, and UPS gear.

1) Line Conditioners are old hat. Their job is to condition the power by placing a standard load on the line using an large to very large inductor that can smooth the voltage out somewhat. Old hat and not all that effective compared to the newer stuff. And big. And heavy.

2) Auto-Transformers are used in better UPS, as well as sold by themselves. They actually boost or cut the voltage as desired so it puts out a more stable and correct range voltage. Some utilities actually try to source 125 VAC to help reduce their sags under heavy loading and when the larger loads are suddenly removed, the voltage goes up from 115-117 and leaves 125 or more on the line at times and this WILL cause incandescent bulbs to burn out faster, voltage sensitive motors to run faster, etc. You can actually buy 130VAC bulbs to prevent this if you have this problem in your area. Auto-Transfomers assist with this problem.

Surge Protectors come in different flavors and uses. Most are rated for the PEAK AC values they are expected to encounter during their life and that is called arc-over, working, gap rating, or breakdown voltage. The amount of power they can shunt to ground is usually rated in Joules. You can find how many joules means what in terms of current and voltage values – I will not go into greater depth than that other than the higher the Joule rating, the more accumulated hits it can take before wear-out and the larger single hit it can withstand without simply destroying itself. This is one of the major problems relying on surge protectors as their use is problematic and varies on its ‘expected’ incoming spikes and what’s not expected which can show up. They can fail out in a single hit or over a combination of smaller hits, and unless some form of monitoring is done, you won’t know it has becoming useless to your needs. These are usually MOV’s but can be made from quite number of other components as well and they all have pros and cons. They all work by shunting the spike from the hot to the neutral (if no ground present in the wiring), or from the hot to the ground wire, from the neutral to ground and from hot to neutral. Read up. Three for 110. Three if 220 and NO Neutral, otherwise Five if 220VAC line.

Surge Strips are endemic everywhere, are they not? They are generally power strips with either MOV’s or other form of spike shunting device and some have small filter capacitors and/or actual filter circuits in them to reduce high frequency line noise from one device in one AC plug to an adjacent one, a form of conducted small signal isolation. Older products as well as new ones can and do issue forth a small impressed AC “signal” out of their power supplies and this noise can possibly interfere with other devices on the same branch circuit and this filtering can help if you find yourself with this problem. It can also keep outside conducted sources of RF from gaining entrance to what is plugged into the device as well.

UPS: Big topic. The best UPS simply put are the continuously on line type. They are NOT standby things most folks buy. The get their AC from the line and use it only charge their internal batteries. The batteries continuously run an internal inverter which is what powers your stuff. It has no switch over time and therefore can not drop off line any equipment until the batteries are exhausted. Very few people make these any more due to cost and market demands. They are usually over built to protect their expensive internals and come with both heavy surge and minor surge circuits, RF filtering and auto-transformer for cut and boost, and test loading and other really nice things, but again, the last ones I owned were made by Viteq, a 3KW and a Viteq 5KW unit and they weighed several hundred pounds… BUT, the charging circuits ran full bore and was hard on the electric bill. And, wore out batteries rather ruthlessly, but I never lost a piece of gear due to external EMP or power source issues in over 15 years. I now use commercial APC 3KW units for cost reasons although they are standby type – no losses yet. I buy larger power supplies than I need so I have some built in switch over time before they run down and that does indeed help the 4 ms switch times. These are also heavily protected surge wise and filtered as well. I do recommend them.

Lastly, and this is where personal preferences come into play. I have always thought it better to make a decent surge strip the sacrificial lamb so to speak, in that I would rather throw away a strip than repair a $2000 UPS any day. Meaning, a surge strip is always in front of the UPS gear that I own. Not after, though I do use unprotected power strips after for distribution.

Last but not least, sags, over-voltages and spikes and their induced failures. Sags can be handled by a good UPS or and auto-transformer quite well. (This does NOT apply to large motors, compressors, any large inductors or any kind as their current requirements are way above UPS available outputs.) During an extended sag, MORE current will flow and more heat will be generated in the wire and can melt the formvar (lacquer) insulation materials in windings, overheat bearings and their races, etc. Killers. Most electronics today will run fine on sags as long as the motors are frequency driven and the power supply has a wide input range that supplies less than line voltage as long as the voltage regulator does not drop below its drop out voltage to the motor such as turntable motors. However, hard disc drives will run hotter if their required 12V spindle voltage is under 11.5 and this shortens their life expectancy. Drop-outs are your main area of concern for hard disc drives as when power is interrupted for a certain time, the drive shuts down and unlike most devices that have lock outs on loss of power and keeps your AC compressor from kicking back on in the next second or two to keep from encountering a very high start up head pressure and shortening it life, hard drives attempt to spin up and this is hard on the very tiny motors they use. This brief loss of power is the prime hard disc drive killer. A UPS will save your hard disc drives!

Spikes and surges. Spikes coming from your power supply into your PC are rare from well designed units. However, it can and does happen. Yes there are MOV’s inside them, and yes, they can already be blown and you not be aware. The supplies themselves produce spikes – put a scope on their output lines and you will see them as during transitions in loading – actions like starting a recording on a DVD draws a spike of current for the laser, etc. Usually contained but can actually put 50 volt spikes out. The duration and rise time of the spike are what can cause films to break down, and semi conductors to arc over. It does happen, I have opened a many chip and resistor and other parts to confirm this, but it is rare.

Any and all lines in and out can be intercepted by inductive spikes than could harm the low voltage parts – start up a heavy duty vacuum cleaner on your PC branch circuit and watch the spike on a scope inside your PC! Everything should be protected by whatever means you deem critical. I have never lost a machine (out of several thousand over the years to power problems). But I have fixed a boat load of cheap peoples boxes and they learned from it.

If you see your light bulbs dimming, you had a very rapid drop out or an even longer voltage sag. None of these symptoms are good ones and it could be your house wiring arcing, your wife starting a heavy load such as a dishwasher or your power company is not supplying enough juice or a rapid short relay trip out. A good UPS, and I don’t mean the $75 – $150 unit either.

Certainty comes at a cost. You are the only one to determine your level needed. Best thing you can do? Get a book and learn about these subjects – do not listen to the crap that this forum seems to sponsor some of the time

Not one issue with all the offered updates including NET patches on my old Sony Vaio Laptop running XP Pro two days ago. I will not be certain of whatever M$ does intend to do to us. Their money path is shrinking with Win 8 disaster…

No matter which one you decide to use, do yourself a favor: use a thermal laser tool to actually measure the case temp at various places to confirm that your software reads the imbedded thermistor’s reading and how it compares. Most of the time, they do not compare accurately. Trust the highest case laser temp reading as more accurate.

For those persons capable of being able to perform a low-level format, which is NOT the standard format offered by DOS or Windows, generally four or more passes will render the media unreadable to most publicly available forensic softwares out there, however, reading of low magnetic levels and over-written magnetic media has come a long way over the past decade and can be decoded with a high degree of reliability for most sectors using the more sophisticated forensics. The day of “wiping a disk” is almost over if interest is severe. Rotation has to be rendered impossible so sync in the firmware can not be accomplished. Merely putting holes in the media will only obscure the data in the media area actually damaged by the hole(s), the disc can still be spun up and read in all other areas. Remove top cover, smash each platter into at least three pieces will render it secure. Almost anything less leaves holes in your strategy to be completely secure. Altering, renewing partitions to secure or obscure data is a myth. Partitions are not required nor needed to read the media data. Single overwriting merely leaves a stronger signal over top of a weaker one which will, using the current algorythms, produce data which can be recovered.

Memory testing using memchk should never show any errors unless they are bad, overheated, or have bad sockets. Please check it.

You most certainly can recharge them yourself.

There is nothing at all wrong using extension cords to other devices from the output of your UPS. Wives tale in force. In addition, I always use a quality commercial grade power strip with good three way MOV devices ahead of all my UPS’s since it is much easier to replace blown MOV’s or worn out discharge devices in them than it is to go into the UPS and replace them! This is from experience. Two of my 3KW APC’s have survived direct strikes but the two strips blew apart! Strips are cheap. 3KW APC units are expensive. I have also used auto batteries to run some 48 VDC 2KW APC’s and it works quite well other than the recharge times being quite long when exhausted. You have to know if your unit will put out enough recharge current to charge the larger batteries without straining itself. Yes, the batteries were outside with 8 gauge cables in the run.

Also used on-line Viteq 5KW units with car batteries without problems. Standby or on-line makes no difference.
Older laser printers could draw 10-14 amps powering up and in some cases, printing and not a good idea to run them with a UPS, but check the current consumption of your printers – its on the label or in the manual… Also, my Tektronix Phaser printers use quite a bit of current in the heaters so they do not get their juice from the UPS either.

speedball,

If you use a computer, you can never have real time operation. It does not exist in the digital world of computers. Interrupts are grabbing cpu cycles all the time. You can minimize the interrupts stealing time from your overall system by eliminating as much running services, operations and threads as possible and still be running but real time, not gonna happen. That is why there are loads of buffers in use in computers.

MS MSE and internal firewall are bare bones tools that do not deserve to be on machines that have anything more than cartoons on them. Seriously. Do you selves a favor and get almost anything else out there for better protection. Want verifitcaton? Go to sites you should not go to and see how ineffective both are after you have been infected.

MSE is well known to be only fair in what it is suppose to do and the OP is correct in that if something happens to its update progress, things can go quite awry. I have not seen an uninstaller for it back when I used it and disabling the Service is not that simple once things have gone west. Editing the Registry is the only effective way to rid your self of this not all that rare issue, but can be quite confusing as there are entries which do not seem logical to remove… MSE has been unremarkable for years. I do admit that I have seen cases where it has been the only successful method on the street to remove one or two infections over the past couple of years but I would never think of installing it on any machines., ever. Restores and complete reinstalls that many people seem to be using to clean many of the problems noted here in these forums are not the answer as much time is wasted and are not necessary if sufficient knowledge were brought to bear on the issues and additionally, other data losses occur doing these actions.

CD and DVD are written to using digital data, only. Analog data can not be written to them from your pc – it does not use analog data. It can take in analog data via some appendage such as a data analog to digital converter. the data can be anything you wish to put on them. Music is in digital format, pics are in digital format. IF you choose to make a music cd to play in your car player for example, it must be written in a strict format for it to play in your car cd player. If you have an MP3 enabled cd player in your car it will read both music format cd and data cd’s having mp3 file written to the cd. If you have a picture reader as part of your car’s video player, it will read the cd picture files such as JPG and TIFF just fine. it is all digital 1’s and 0’s, only the format of the file, the format it is written in and their suffixes may be different.

In your case you might try cleaning the burning laser lens and/or the reader lens if it has a separate laser for reading. Additionally, if that does not do the trick, your calibration from read to write is off and that is not repairable.