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Wow that's interesting, how an operating system can mess up hardware. I'm only running Windows here - for now. Did it ruin because of the vertical and horizontal resolution? I found a 21 inch HP monitor that someone was going to throw away along with some other printers, and a dvd player. I happen to salvage the DVD player and 2 of the 5 printers, and 1 of two computer monitors.The problem with the monitor was is was acting all weird. It came on and everything but seemed like different refresh rates would not work no matter which resolution I used. Since I have no experience with fixing CRT monitors I had no choice put to take it to the local recyclers. Sad, it would of been better than my 19" monitor. I think it may have been fried by the previous owners.

Hey I too would like to jump on the mulit-monitor band wagon. I am currently using a 27inch Sony TV at 1360x768 with a VGA cable. My question is how does HDMI come into play. Like say if I want to invest in a 32-46" wide screen. What do I look for in a TV. And what would be compatible as far as video cards go. How would I get the best performance across all monitors? Hows does SLI or Crossfire come into play in multi-monitor configurations? Are there any good web sites out there which someone can refer me too>My current usage would be for photo editing (high resolution), photo studio (live camera caputure/display), gaming (graphic performance/response). And maybe video editing once I acquire a video camercorder.

I've seen some old school hard drives that were the size of 1 foot square with many platters. It looked like an old phonograph with mirror like disks.

After reading the above comments about keeping a pc cool and airflow considerations, I know and admit I don't have the best setup. First of all the case is like 10 years old. It is some sort of pressed metal/aluminum. Though I may not be the aluminum like today's PC's but this case can probably take a bullet. It has an ugly off white paint job which is getting yellow with time. There are some vents in the front plastic benzel and a 2"x10" grate like openings along the whole length of the back side. There is just a little 2"x4" rectangle on both lower side panels. The original fan for that mounts on the inside front is big, awkward and noisy. I unplugged it at first cause of noise concerns when listening to music and gaming, but now I removed it cause of possible air flow concerns and the noise is probably cause of bad motor or lint/dirt in the motor can't be clean.Last year I threw in a new motherboard with a Core 2 Duo setup. The power supply I'm sure barely meets the standards. What's awkward about the power supply is that it blows air inward from the outside. During the mother board installation the manual made certain references to a some pc case standard about installing in a case with a baffle which allows direct air flow across the processor. I don't recall what that standard was. Since I know my tank does not qualify I had to make some minor adjustments.At the time I was drinking some power aid (32 oz. sports drink) and thinking was I can do about this. I then did some measurements on the proper location of where the processor would be in relation to the case's side panel. I traced it the side panel and went outside with some power tools. I drilled some new holes in the case used the sports drink container as the airflow baffle. While I was at it, I then drilled as much holes as I could into the bottom side panels - to bring in that cool air from outside the case.That's how I modified my ugly case to run my new board. I guess it works fine but I'm sure if I had a something like a mechanism with an external HEPA/3M filter and an internal blowing fan mounted with the sports drink baffle, that would take care of my processor concerns.Has anyone done any case altering modifications that help with overall cooling with attention to keeping dust and lint out? I'll try to post some pic's when I have a chance.

If you do get errors make sure you know which RAM sticks have the errors. If you do the test with four (4) or two (2) sticks of ram in your PC/laptop make note of it. Then take a out a pair if you have four (4) and test again; or, if you just have one, take out one and run the memory test again. I know this may take time (time consuming) but you are trying to identify which memory stick is out of commission. Which is giving errors. Also if you need to RMA the stick. A photo or LPT print out of the screen might also help expedite the return/replacement.
Hard disks also have a temperature, a failure rate, and a life span called Mean Time Between Failiure (MTBF). So this should also be taken into consideration when you are using a drive which has been out for sometime. Usually I notice the number one problems from hard disks are incomplete shutdowns or power failure as a result of bad power supplies, laptop battery going dead or power outtage. Also some troubleshooting utilities also do not turn off the hard drive properly when you have to force a shutdown with the hard drive light still spinning. What I hate is that hard drive light blinking as a result of antivirus searches, caching programs, and anything that requires excessive use of the hard drive, especially when I want to make my laptop sleep or shutdown, cause you are usually interrupting a process.




Dont forget your thermal paste. Looks like it can get quite expensive in your step (4) and Step (5).

In addition to the initial topic post of "How To Erase Your Hard Drive", This advice will also apply for people who are upgrading their existing drive to a newer one with a new interface or more space (GB). I like to use the Ultimate Boot CD, which is available online -- just google 'UBCD' and download the .ISO image. Using your cdr recording software or a free one (I download and installed 'CD Burner Pro XP', also free.), insert a blank CD into your PC and select the options to burn from an ISO image.One you have the UBCD burned on the a CDR, you may now insert it in the computer/laptop you would like to erase the contents of hard drive (or other hard drive options). Press whatever keys are necessary to enter the BIOS. Then select/toggle the options in the 'boot order' to boot to the CD 1st (first).Reboot, your PC/laptop. It will boot unto the CD not your installed OS. Then you will receive a menu. Use the keyboard to select your options. You will probably want to select the Hard Disk options. This CD will have various software utilities from all the manufactures who make the drives as well as third party utilities.Select the proper utility from your hard drive manufacture. Then your pc/laptop will boot using the selected utility/software. From there you may write zeros to the beginning and end of drive (1-2 minutes). Or write zeros on the whole drive (20min to 6 hours, depending on make/model and size ), or copy your data to a new drive (2-18 hours, depending on different characteristics of both drives, size, amount of data involved, fragmentation, etc.).This is the typical way I reuse older drives or upgrade to new drives. I also want to add be wary of the about of time involved when it comes to using hard drive utility software, especially when you are working on someone else's pc/laptop and/or if you are going to get paid for the services.Also a final note, and I can't stress this enough. Make sure you have a back up all the data off the hard drive first, before you start attempting to use any of the above methods or utilities. And plan for time. And if this would be your first time, make sure you don't have any interruptions; power, people wanting to use the PC, having to move the pc/laptop, or you don't have enough time.Well this is all I can add on the subject. Questions?