Most semi-tech savvy smartphone users will tell you that closing all of the "open" apps on your device will lead to better battery life. As it turns out, the practice is little more than a common misconception according to Android and iOS experts.
Quartz technology reporter Mike Murphy recently asked Hiroshi Lockheimer, SVP of Android, Chrome and Chrome OS, if closing apps on Android helped with battery life. Lockheimer replied earlier today, pointing out that Android is optimized for managing what's running and that messing with it would just cause more "thrash."
Thrash, in the context of storage, refers to overworking a storage medium by excessively moving information between a device's physical system memory and virtual memory. Or as Murphy concludes, frequently closing apps for no reason may actually slow down your device.
Just to clarify, Murphy asked Lockheimer if it was better to just leave everything open (assuming an app hadn't crashed). The Android expert said the system was designed to manage running apps so you don't have to and that yes, it's better in general to let the system do its job.
Does the same hold true for iOS? Here's what Apple's head of software, Craig Federighi, had to say on the matter.
A 9to5Mac reader recently e-mailed CEO Tim Cook, asking if he quit his iOS multitasking apps frequently and if it's necessary to help with battery life. Federighi replied to the message (the headers were verified, the publication says) and in short, he said "No and No."
So there you have it. Unless you have an app that has crashed or is otherwise causing problems, there's no benefit (and maybe even some harm) to force-closing apps
EVERYONE KNOWS THAT Wi-Fi signal strength begins to wane the farther away from the router you’re using your laptop. If your router is in the front of your house and your bedroom is in the back, you may be accustomed to seeing that spinning wheel of death while waiting for your Netflix to buffer. The severity depends on many things: your home’s construction, your router, your provider…lots of things.
Regardless of the other hurdles, where you put your router matters. An important thing to remember is that the signal from a router broadcasts in all directions from the antenna, so it’s useful to think of signal strength in terms of a radius of broadcast. If your router is next to a wall adjacent to your neighbor’s apartment, they’re getting that slice of your signal, not you (obvious pro-tip: password protect your Wi-Fi right now).
Here are some other tips for optimal placement of your wireless router to get a stronger signal.
Keep it central
Location is key. Try to find the most central home for your router that you can—and don’t consider the placement of your desktop computer or home modem to be a limiting factor. It’s worth buying some Ethernet Cat 5 cable and run the wire to the most central location you can.
Consider even mounting the router on a wall or in a corner by the ceiling if you have two floors because radio waves generally spread out and towards the ground, not up. Think about putting your router on the second floor if you have one.
Avoid impenetrable obstructions
Radio waves certainly travel through walls, but the thicker the wall, the weaker the signal will be on the other side. And if your home is fortified with brick or concrete walls, the signal is going to be absorbed by the wall and lose significant strength when traveling through it. Same goes for water, like your big fish tank, which can cause a lot of resistance for your signal.
Metal and mirrors are also your enemy because those materials actually reflect radio waves, so putting the router behind a TV or in a bathroom is ill advised.
Avoid the kitchen
When it comes to battling any potential buffering of your Wi-Fi signal, the microwave is not your friend. Microwaves and Wi-Fi routers operate using the same 2.4 gHz slice of the electromagnetic spectrum. When you use the microwave, it’s literally interfering with your Wi-Fi signal. Additionally, metal objects will absorb a signal, and with a metal fridge, stove, and other kitchen appliances, it’s probably best to just keep the router out of the kitchen.
The same frequency is also used for cordless phones—so don’t keep your cordless phone base station near the router either.
Play with the antenna
All the magic happens with the antenna. It’s the part of the router that’s broadcasting and receiving your wifi connection. Antennas usually can move side to side or sometimes pivot full-circle in their socket. If you’re trying to get your signal to spread horizontally, positioning your antenna vertically will give you the best spread. If you’re trying to get the Wi-Fi to broadcast between floors in your home or office, position the antenna horizontally.
It’s also not uncommon for the antenna to be detachable on a Wi-Fi router, and if that’s the case you can take your router to an electronics store and find a compatible antenna that will broadcast further (it’s called having a “higher gain”).
Before we get started going over how to connect the iPad to a projector — let me ask you a question. Is the iPad a tool you bring with you to the office to help manage your daily routine? Or maybe a key tool in a teaching curriculum in a classroom? If you answer yes, you are not alone. Because two areas where the iPad has seen growth has been in the business and education field.
And one popular use for the iPad by both (Teachers and Business Professionals) is to use the device as a Presentation Tool.
So, if you want to present with the iPad, but are not sure where to start. Or what’s involved? Then you might want to stay close to this site.
n Overview of What’s to Come
My goal for the series is to provide you with not only the bare essentials surrounding the topic but to provide a deeper scope of all the things (from A to Z) needed to get you in front of your audience with the iPad. Regardless, if your presentation takes place in a Classroom, a Conference room or an Assembly Hall.
Questions Answered in the Series
What Apps are needed to create a presentation?
How do I connect the iPad to a Projector or TV monitor?
How do I present wireless to engage with my audience?
What are the best portable mini iPad projectors?
How do I send a slideshow to multiple iPads?
How do I share the iPad’s screen with others?
Now, let’s begin by answering one of the most popular questions on the topic of using the iPad as a Presentation Tool.
How To Connect the iPad to a Projector
What You Will Learn In This Post
How to connect the iPad to a Projector or TV monitor.
How to connect the iPad to the Apple TV and how this device can help you engage with your audience.
How to mirror the iPad’s screen using AirPlay.
How to create a Wireless Network with the Airport Express.
The simplest way to present with the iPad is to connect your tablet directly to a projector or TV monitor. Depending on the type of input port (VGA or HDMI) and iPad model, use the correct cable and adapter combination.
If a projector has a VGA input use a VGA cable with one of these adapters.
(Please know that some newer projectors may include both VGA and HDMI ports. I recommend going with HDMI if you had to choose.)
The advantage of using HDMI over the VGA port is very crucial if your presentation includes music. With one single HDMI cable, audio and video can pass through (together) to your projecting device. But if you’re using a projector with VGA, and your presentation includes music, you’ll need to connect your iPad using the mini jack (or headphone jack) to an external amplification system to hear the audio.
But none of these two solutions are ideal — if you want to go mobile.
If you want the freedom to move around and engage with your audience, you’re going to need the aid of Apple’s AirPlay technology.
Presenting With iPad: Wireless
With the introduction of iOS 4.3, Apple made it easy for iPad owners to share (or mirror) the iPad’s screen to external devices using AirPlay. Throughout the series, I’ll cover other ways to mirror the iPad screen but for now, we will look at one of the most popular methods.
What is Airplay?
In brief, Airplay is Apple’s protocol method for transmitting content like music, movies and photos wirelessly to other devices enabled with AirPlay technology.
One such device that’s AirPlay ready is the Apple TV. With a price tag of $149.00 for the 32GB model this square 3.9 inches little black box that resembles a hockey puck and fits nicely in any briefcase is the answer to present with the iPad mobile and wireless.
There are two important things you’ll need to know before investing in the AppleTV.
To connect (or pair) your iPad to the AppleTV it needs to be in an active Wi-Fi area.
AirPlay mirroring on the iPad has to be enabled.
The first requirement is not difficult to overcome since there are alternative ways to bypass not having access to Wi-Fi in a classroom or conference room. We’ll be covering this later in the section: “Creating a Wireless Network.”
But the second is important to note since AirPlay is only available for the iPad models 2 and up and requires iOS 5 or later. (If you have the first iPad — you’ll need to connect using a VGA cable as previously discussed.)
How to Mirror the iPad Screen
If you’re in a Wi-Fi enabled area, and you have the Apple TV and iPad in front of you, here’s how to mirror your iPad to the Apple TV.
How to Enable AirPlay on the iPad
From the bottom of the page – swipe up.
Locate the AiPlay icon, tap to turn it on.
Select Apple TV.
Turn on Mirroring.
(Note: You will not see the Airplay icon if you’re not in an active Wi-Fi area.)
Connecting the iPad & Apple TV to a Projector or Monitor
Here’s how to connect the iPad, the Apple TV, and the projector or TV monitor together:
From the illustration above, you noticed the Apple TV has one HDMI port. If the projection device has an HDMI port (connect the two units using the HDMI cable) – then go ahead to the next step.
But if the projector is an older model and only has VGA you’ll need to use an adapter to convert HDMI to VGA. But don’t worry; this will not be a difficult task. You’ll need to get a converter adapter like this Kanex ATVPRO AirPlay Mirroring for VGA Projector found on Amazon.com (affiliate link).
5 Reasons Why I Recommend the Kanex ATV Pro
It doesn’t need an external power supply (one less thing to lose).
It includes an attached cable; that connects to the Apple TV (one less cable to buy).
It includes built-in stereo audio mini-jack (1/8 jack). As discussed before if your presentations have music, just plug a mini jack cable to an external speaker device here.
It’s a small unit, so it’s easy to carry.
It can be used to convert and connect other HDMI devices (e.g., a DVD player).
After making all the necessary connection power-up the projector or TV monitor first.
Then follow by powering up the Apple TV and then finally the iPad.
Our last step is to enable AirPlay on your iPad following the directions above.
When done, you will see your iPad screen mirrored on the screen.
Creating a Wireless Network
Sometimes there might be a situation where you don’t have access to Wi-Fi or due to technical hiccups in the matrix (e.g., the strength of the signal might be spotty) you prefer not to connect to the room’s Wi-Fi network. So how do you connect the iPad to the Apple TV via AirPlay?
There are two solutions I recommend to solve this problem.
Invest in a mobile hotspot device to create a WIFI hotspot (see your mobile provider).
Create your own (secured) wireless network.
Before explaining how to create a wireless network let me point out that if your presentation requires internet access — this will not work. You’ll still need access to the internet. What this does is to create a wireless network so that you can enable AirPlay and connect the iPad to the Apple TV.
To create a wireless network, I like to use and recommend to other Apple gadgets. The AirportExpress, which is also a small (white) unit similar to the Apple TV and the help of an iOS app called AirPort Utility.
Before your presentation (preferably the night before) define a Wireless Network using your iPad (or iPhone) and the Airport Utility app. Then connect the two units (the airport express and the Apple TV) via an Ethernet cable. You can define the connection between the two via wireless, but in this case, I prefer relying on the older method of connecting things via an actual cable than to do it wirelessly. (There are no technical advantages, it’s just my preference.)
By the way, if you think that this extra step and precaution might be a waste of time and money, ask yourself do I want to take a chance walking into the unknown?
Also, one huge benefit when creating a personal wireless network (besides not having to think about losing connection due to uncertain technology) is that you could set the network to be private (password protect ) or public.
Remember your goal during a presentation is to think about your audience and delivering value to them, and not about equipment failure or getting hacked.
In Conclusion
Now that you have learned how to connect the iPad to a projector you’ll soon be in front of your audience in no time. In the next post in this series, we’ll take a look at the apps that will help capture, create and communicate your message onto the big screen.
Raising a pup is very similar to raising a human baby. There is so much that you need to learn about- naps, feeding the pups, vaccinations, regular check-ups and potty training. Of course bringing up a puppy can be highly challenging but with these mobile applications to help you at every step, learning how to raise your fur-baby can be an enriching and very helpful process. We selected some of the best apps for all you new pup parents. So go ahead, download and happy parenting!
1) PetMD Symptom Checker
Sometimes you end up wondering as to why your dog is scratching or sneezing and that's when this mobile application comes in handy. This versatile application allows you to search over 2500 dog and cat health articles based on the symptoms your pet is experiencing. You don't need to worry about validation as all the articles available on the application are written and approved by veterinarians.
2) How to Train a Puppy
Are you new to the canine world? If yes, then this app will make things easy for you. This app allows you to train your puppy at home without much hassle. Different segments are available such as 'How To Train Your Dog To Protect You', 'How To Potty Train Your Dog' and 'How To House Train a Puppy in an Apartment'.
3) Dog-Translator
It could get difficult to comprehend your dog's bark. Just the way your babies howling may leave you confused, in the similar manner you sometimes fail to understand if your dog wants you to rub his belly or if he wants to eat. To make this simpler download Dog-Translator and follow three easy steps. All you need to do is press the record button while your dog is barking. Now let the app analyse the vocal tones and eventually you will find out what your dog is trying to say.
4) Figo Pet Cloud
This application serves as an organizer for your pets. The app makes managing the whole life of your pet supremely smooth and effortless. You could create folders for medical records. The app will also remind you about the shots and vaccinations that your dog might need. You could also search for hotels, pet parks and pet emergency hospitals around you anytime and the app also allows you to get your pet insured.
5) DogSpot
If you're an avid traveler and you're a pet owner too then we're sure most of the times you'd be searching for the perfect place to be with your dog. That's precisely why you should download DogSpot as this is your perfect solution. You could search for places where other dog owners enjoyed and you could also enlighten other pet owners about your experience.
6) Pet Names: Top Names for Pets
Confused about the name for your pooch. Why you worrying when you have hundreds of options to choose from. Pet Names is the best app for all of your pet naming needs.
Need to get a little more juice from your smartphone's battery? The Wirecutter did an extensive amount of tests to separate battery fact from fiction, and found that one surprising way to reduce consumption was to use an ad blocker.
Like anything online, ads use resources, and if your phone is downloading ad images and video, it's using up energy. How much? Here's The Wirecutter:
We ran an automated Wi-Fi Web-browsing session in Safari on an iPhone 6s, cycling through a set list of websites for two hours with no ad blockers; then we ran the same test with the 1Blocker ad blocker installed. Without the ad blocker, the test used 18 percent of the phone's battery, but with the ad blocker, it used only 9 percent-so viewing ads doubled the impact of Web browsing on the phone's battery! We ran a similar test on a 2015 Moto X Pure using the Ghostery Privacy Browser and got results that were even more dramatic: With no ad blocker, a two-hour browsing session in Chrome used 22 percent of the phone's battery, whereas the Ghostery ad-blocking browser (which uses the same browser engine as Chrome) consumed only 8 percent.
We know ad blocking speeds up browsing, but how it impacted battery life was always up in the air. Running ad blockers is a controversial affair where you're taking away revenue from publishers to reduce the annoyance that is mobile ads, so, regardless of that battery drain, make sure you whitelist the sites you like.
Over just a few years, the batteries in our smartphones have changed a lot. That means those old tips to stretch out your battery life just aren’t as true as they once were, yet we still share them like they’re gospel. Before telling someone to disable Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, let’s shed some light on those old myths.
Myth: You Should Completely Discharge Your Battery Before Plugging It In
Batteries used to be stupid. Older batteries would “forget” their full capacity, so they wouldn’t be able to fully charge again. So, you’d have to let a battery discharge all the way to 0% before charging it again. That’s not the case anymore, and it hasn’t been for a long time.
Smartphones today have lithium-ion batteries, which don’t suffer from the memory problems of older nickel cadmium and nickel-metal hydride batteries. Similarly, lithium-ion batteries count charges differently than older batteries, so you don’t need to worry about discharging it completely. Here’s how Apple explains it, and while they reference their batteries, the rules apply to any lithium-ion battery:
Charge your Apple lithium-ion battery whenever you want. There’s no need to let it discharge 100% before recharging. Apple lithium-ion batteries work in charge cycles. You complete one charge cycle when you’ve used (discharged) an amount that equals 100% of your battery’s capacity — but not necessarily all from one charge. For instance, you might use 75% of your battery’s capacity one day, then recharge it fully overnight. If you use 25% the next day, you will have discharged a total of 100%, and the two days will add up to one charge cycle. It could take several days to complete a cycle. The capacity of any type of battery will diminish after a certain amount of recharging. With lithium-ion batteries, the capacity diminishes slightly with each complete charge cycle. Apple lithium-ion batteries are designed to hold at least 80% of their original capacity for a high number of charge cycles, which varies depending on the product.
Most manufacturers still suggest you “calibrate” your battery by discharging and recharging it once every one to three months. Since your battery’s overall life diminishes over time, the time you have left on each full charge decreases a little with every full discharge. Essentially, every discharge shortens the battery life just a little bit. Discharging to 0% once a month helps the operating system calibrate the full life cycle of the battery so it knows exactly how much it has diminished over time.
However, more and more batteries have a digital calibration tool built into them. These “smart batteries” supposedly reduce the need to calibrate, though it’s still recommended when your battery behaves oddly. If you see the battery percentage on your phone jump around a lot (like you could have sworn it was fully charged, and now it’s at 20%,) it’s time to calibrate it. You don’t want to do this too often though. It’s actually bad for lithium-ion batteries to be regularly drained all the way to 0%. That counts as a full charge cycle, which in turn decreases the battery’s total life.
Myth: Charging Your Battery Overnight Kills the Long-Term Battery Life
In the same vein as calibrating your battery, it used to be possible to ruin a battery by “overcharging,” or leaving it plugged in all the time. When you plugged in your phone for long periods, older lithium-ion batteries could overheat (or explode, in rare cases), which in turn just reduces the charge capacity and long-term life of the battery (this can still happen if you have a case that doesn’t allow for heat to dissipate).
These days, chargers and smartphones are smart enough to prevent this from happening. Speaking with iFixit technical writer Andrew Goldberg, Popular Mechanics has this to say:
Something that’s not an issue is overcharging. Contrary to what you might think (or have been told), leaving your phone or laptop plugged in all the time is not bad for its battery. That’s because your gadgets, the batteries in them, and the chargers you attach them to are actually pretty smart about the way they do business. Trickle charge—what your battery gets when it’s connected and full—is way less detrimental to the battery’s health than a larger discharge would be.
That said, leaving your phone plugged in all the time can still lead to degradation, but it’s not enough that you’ll even notice.If you want to extend the life of your battery, you want to keep it between 40%-80% all the time. That sounds great on paper, but it’s pretty ludicrous for someone living in the modern world. The good news is leaving it plugged in overnight while you sleep, even if it’s close to full, doesn’t negatively affect it as much as it used to.
This is also a good time to point out that taking care of your smartphone’s battery is a little different than something like a laptop for one simple reason: you probably get a new phone at least every two years. The lifecycle of that battery isn’t as important as it used to be because the lifespan of a phone is so short. Of course, you may be the type to hold onto a phone forever,, but if you’re not, worrying about this stuff is unnecessary. Batteries will die and degrade over time no matter what you do, so don’t obsess over it too much.
Myth: Closing Apps Improves Battery Life
We like to think of our smartphones as little computers, and we treat them like so. On your laptop, having a bunch of apps open at once—especially ones that connect to the internet—strains your battery, so it makes sense that your smartphone would work the same way, right? Wrong. That’s not how smartphones work.
In the case of iOS, apps do not stay open the same way they do on a computer. When you leave an app, it’s frozen, doesn’t do anything, and doesn’t require any resources. Closing them does nothing for your battery— except it costs CPU power and battery to close everything. Former Genius Bar technician Scotty Loveless explains:
By closing the app, you take the app out of the phone’s RAM. While you think this may be what you want to do, it’s not. When you open that same app again the next time you need it, your device has to load it back into memory all over again. All of that loading and unloading puts more stress on your device than just leaving it alone. Plus, iOS closes apps automatically as it needs more memory, so you’re doing something your device is already doing for you. You are meant to be the user of your device, not the janitor.
The same is true for Android. Some people swear by task killers to handle close apps and improve battery life. The problem is, they don’t work, and do more harm than good. And, while some apps may close if you remove them from the multitasking drawer, many won’t—it’s all about how the app was coded.
Instead of closing apps all the time, it’s better to turn off the features that are draining that battery life, like notifications or data calls in the background. On iOS, it’s called Background App Refresh. This means apps can load data in the background, even when it’s not in focus. When they do this, they use CPU power, which drains the battery. You can prevent apps from doing this by heading to Settings > General > Background App Refresh and change the toggle for any apps you don’t care about. On Android, you can turn off background data by heading to Settings > Wireless & networks > Data usage and set “Allow background data” to “Restrict background data.” However, be warned that while it will save you battery life, some apps, like the Play Store, simply won’t work at all with the background data restricted.
All this isn’t to say that apps aren’t the problem. Certain software, like messaging apps, absolutely destroy your smartphone’s battery life. So, turn off Background App Refresh for apps that don’t need it, disable notifications for apps that have no business notifying you, and delete any apps you’re not actually using. Apps can still kill your battery if they’re poorly programmed or just extremely demanding. Smartphones also now have great metrics so you can track which apps are doing so. On Android, you can head to Settings > Battery to see which apps are using the most power. On iOS, head to Settings > Battery to see similar information.
Myth: You Should Only Use “Official” Chargers with Your Phone
Smartphone manufacturers want you to use the official charger that comes with your phone. Look at any box or manual and they’ll often say it’s “highly recommended” that you don’t use any other charger. However, while you shouldn’t use cheap, sketchy knockoff or counterfeit chargers, affordable off-brand chargers are fine.
Modern USB chargers are standardized and while you’ll see different charge time results with different chargers, that doesn’t affect the battery itself at all. Ken Shirriff took a look at various chargers a number of years ago and found that while the time it takes to charge a device varied from charger to charger, doing so with a third-party charger has no effect on the battery itself. That includes using chargers that supply a different number of amps than the phone expects. Modern smartphone batteries are smart enough to only use the maximum amount of power it can handle regardless of what being supplied, so there’s no danger of overheating as long as the charger itself is providing the correct current. Knockoff chargers often pretend to supply more (or less) power than they should (or vary wildly even during a charging session,) which is where the trouble comes in. Off-brand chargers won’t do this.
Myth: Disabling Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Location Services Saves a Ton of Battery Life
It seems like every new feature added to smartphones, whether it’sBackground App Refresh in iOS or Google Now On Tap on Android, is a serious threat to your smartphone’s battery life. While that’s true, you don’t have to go through and toggle every new thing to “Off,” nor is there any use in disabling basic system services like Bluetooth or Wi-Fi just to save battery.
For example, MacWorld took a look at the toll system services take on an iPhone’s battery and found that many don’t have a huge effect. For example, leaving location services on for an app you’re not actively using has almost no effect on the battery life whatsoever. Similarly, turning on Airplane Mode, which cuts cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and location services, only squeezed out an extra 30 minutes of life, which isn’t that much all things considered (and this was two years ago, things have likely improved since then).
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth used to draw a lot of power, but nowadays they draw so little that toggling them on and off does little for your battery life. As for location services, let the apps that need it use it, but make sure you don’t have apps that are using your location all the time for no particular reason. That constant use will still kill your battery life, but thankfully you usually have the option to limit location services to only being active when the app is open. Of course, if you don’t use Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, just leave them off, but don’t feel like you have to do so.
What usually kills your battery the fastest is the screen. So if you’re really worried about battery life, just turn the screen off and put the phone in your pocket until you really need to use it.
Adding new hard drive devices to your PC is a quick and simple operation. With hard drives available to the discerning buyer for prices as low as $0.25/GB, greatly expanding the storage space inside your computer has never been cheaper.
That's right, inside. For half the price of an external hard drive and slightly more work, you can add a new hard drive inside your computer with ease.
To those of you afraid of opening up your computer:
Computer hardware isn t the mysterious bad-boy you always thought. It s actually more like the mysterious bad-boy who just wants to be loved. Once you show hardware acceptance, it ll open up and totally love you back.
Please note:
Opening up your computer comes with some risk. Always keep safety in mind when working inside your computer (as you should with any electrical device). That said, getting comfortable with cracking it open and fiddling around opens up a whole new world of options and upgrades to your personal computing experience.
Whether you're installing an IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics, aka ATA or PATA, common for older hard drives and optical drives) or SATA drive (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment - the newer, faster interface supported by most newer motherboards), the installation process is virtually the same and very easy. It's up to you to find out what interfaces are supported by your motherboard. As always, be sure to read your manual so that you know the in's and out's of your computer before attempting any installation.
What you'll need:
Hard drive device or optical drive
The appropriate interface cords (should be included with your hard drive)
Phillips screwdriver
Needlenose pliers (IDE only)
Your computer
For my sample installation, I'll be using the IDE hard drive pictured above.
Step 1: Install new drive software
In many cases, the hard drive will come with software to run before installing the drive. To be sure, read the manual accompanying your hard drive. Most of the time hard drive installation can be successfully completed without taking this step, but this included software can be very helpful when it comes time to format and set up the drive.
Step 2: Prepare your computer
To get your computer ready, you need to make it safe. That means turning off the switch on the back of the power supply unit. (If you're going to be using your PSU as a grounded metal source, you'll want to keep it plugged in. If you have another ground, it's best to unplug the computer completely.) After turning off the power supply, wait at least 10 seconds before cracking open your case to allow the motherboard's capacitors to discharge. Once you've done this, you can sigh a deep breath of relief - you've circumvented the most dangerous aspect of installing your hard drive - electricity.
Once you've rendered your computer powerless, it's time to open up your case. This process varies from case to case, but it's relatively simple, especially with newer cases and usually involves the removal of a couple of screws and a side panel. This should give you easy access and plenty of room to install that hard drive.
While working inside your case, be mindful of static electricity. To avoid building up a static charge that could potentially short out a component, some people use an anti-static strap to ground themselves (available from most computer hardware retailers). I prefer not to use the strap. Instead, remember to touch a grounded metal surface from time to time to prevent a static charge from building. Touching your computer's power supply unit (provided it remains plugged in and turned off) should do the trick.
Step 3: Find an empty space and mount the drive
Generally the hard drive bays are located toward the front of the PC. It should be easy to find an open spot near your existing hard drive.
To keep your hard drives cool, it's a good practice to keep an open hard drive bay between your installed drives if you've got the space.
Mounting the hard drive in your enclosure varies from case to case. On my case, the hard drive mounts to a slide that can easily snap in and out of the hard drive enclosure. Other cases require you to mount directly in the case. Either way, this isn't difficult. Just line up the screws with the holes in your hard drive and mount away. Some cases require you to mount to the side of the drive, others mount to the bottom.
Step 4: Find and connect the proper cables
From here out, it's a simple of matter of matching square pegs to square holes. First, find a free power connector and connect it to the hard drive.
Next, connect the interface cable to your hard drive (see below). In my example, the cable is an IDE connector, but it's the same idea with an SATA drive. If you're installing an IDE drive, you can often piggy back off an existing drive's cable (for 2 IDE drives per channel).
Step 4: Set the drive jumper (IDE only) [*]
If you've installed your hard drive on the primary IDE channel as a second drive and it's sharing a cable with the your current drive, you need to designate your new drive as the Slave drive. However, if your new drive is going to be used as your PC's new boot drive, you want to set the jumper to the Master setting.
Setting the drive jumper is simple. Consult your drive's documentation to verify the jumper settings (jumper settings are generally printed on the drive). Using a needlenose pliers, move the jumper to the appropriate setting for your installation.
Note: In addition to setting the drive jumper on your new hard drive, check to make sure your original hard drive is set to the appropriate jumper setting as well.
Step 5: Finishing up
It's all pretty simple from here on out. Replace your computer's side panel and screw it into place. Plug in your power supply unit (remembering to flip the switch back on) and boot up.
Now you're back in the realm of software where you're the undisputed master. Check out your new drive to see that everything's looking good (and why shouldn't it be?).
Easy, right? Who knew installing new hardware in your PC didn't involve soldering guns and blowtorches? Your newfound ability to install hard drives and optical drives should take care of those nagging low disk space warnings, at least for the time being.
And when the low disk warnings do start popping up again and you can't bear to rid yourself of the hundreds of episodes of The Simpons stored on your new drive, you've got the know-how to install another larger drive. Or follow the same instructions to install a DVD-R drive and backup your files that way.
Whatever you choose, you should never have to delete beloved media from your computer again.
[*] SATA hard drives may have jumpers, but they don't serve they same purpose as their IDE counterparts. Generally they enable advanced functions like power management and should be left with factory settings.
Locate the AiPlay icon, tap to turn it on.
