The German print magazine C’t (issue 24, 2009) recently published a good overview article of hardware analysis tools. In this post, I listed all tools that that have an English user interface and added a short description. Note that not all of the tools are free; I made a note if it is commercial program.

ASTRA32 – System information tool with support for driver trouble shooting and HDD health status checking. Prices start at $29.95

HWiNFO32 – System information tool. I reviewed the tool a few days ago.

SIW (System Information for Windows) – Is able to run in batch mode and can be used as simple inventory solution. Only free for private use; freeware version doesn’t support reports

(more…)

Windows once had a very bad reputation regarding stability. Windows NT improved the overall stability significantly, but perhaps Windows XP was the first Windows version that could be called stable. Due to sloppy programming of third party devices drivers, Vista’s stability suffered considerably. Windows 7 was remarkably stable right from the beginning, thanks to Vista’s groundwork.

Blue Screen of Death (BSOD)

It can be quite annoying if a system is continuously crashing with the famous blue screen of death (BSOD). There are several ways to find the culprit. The Windows Eventlog is always the first place you have to check, if problems occur. If Windows has already been already running smoothly for some time and only started bucking lately, then newly-added devices or updated drivers are most likely the culprit. As to my experience, applications rarely cause system crashes. But be aware that some applications install nonhardware drivers (anti-virus software, encryption tools etc.).

(more…)

The System Information Viewer (SIV) is a freeware tool that allows you to display information about your computer in remarkable detail. SIV is a tiny portable application that supports 32-bit and 64-bit Windows. The information is so detailed that if you are not a super geek, then much of the information will mean nothing to you. Nevertheless, this also assures that if you ever need any particular information about a computer, you will most likely find it in SIV.

(more…)

Rate this tool: (2 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

 Loading ...

Submit favorite free admin tool | Free admin tools index | Browse free admin tools

I am currently in the Philippines and it is a bit hotter here than in good old cold Germany. When I am working at the beach, I can literally feel my laptop sweating. It is a high-end laptop and its power adapter is as big and as heavy as a netbook; its components therefore produce a lot of heat. With CPUID HWMonitor I always have an eye on the temperature of various devices.

(more…)

Rate this tool: (4 votes, average: 3.50 out of 5)

 Loading ...

Submit favorite free admin tool | Free admin tools index | Browse free admin tools

Double Driver is a free standalone tool that allows you to backup and restore device drivers. This is useful if you have computers with pre-installed Windows and no driver disk, and want to re-install the operating system. Or perhaps you want to transfer a driver from one computer to another.

(more…)

Rate this tool: (1 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)

 Loading ...

Submit favorite free admin tool | Free admin tools index | Browse free admin tools

Device Remover can do much more than its name indicates. It has all the features of the built-in Windows Manager plus a few additional functions that can be helpful if you have to troubleshoot device driver problems. Here is a list of the most important features of Device Remover:

• In-depth information about devices and drivers
• Print device tree
• Displays hidden, non-present, and problem devices
• Searches device drivers
• Bulk removal of device drivers
• Backup device drivers
• Open and export device driver registry entry
• Start/stop, enable/disable device
• Update driver
• Save detailed driver information

(more…)

Rate this tool: (6 votes, average: 3.67 out of 5)

 Loading ...

Submit favorite free admin tool | Free admin tools index | Browse free admin tools

HWiNFO32 is a freeware hardware information and diagnostic tool. The information it provides goes far beyond the built-in Windows tools. To get an idea of how detailed the information is, please have a look at the screenshot, which displays data about the CPU. The Windows Device Manager basically only tells you the brand name, whereas HWiNFO32 has information about more than 100 different CPU parameters. Such detailed information can be useful if you have to fight with device driver problems, because you can use it to search on the Internet. These details are also helpful if you are planning to buy new computers and have to compare different PC models.

(more…)

Rate this tool: (5 votes, average: 3.80 out of 5)

 Loading ...

Submit favorite free admin tool | Free admin tools index | Browse free admin tools

Compatibility has been Vista’s weakest point since its release. Hardware compatibility was even more problematic than software compatibility, because Microsoft mostly depends on third-parties here. The fact that they have changed the driver model will pay off in the long run, but if you have to decide now whether to deploy Vista or not, this doesn’t help much if you can’t find device drivers. Kennedy boiled it down into two sentences:

When’s the last time you worried about driver support under Windows XP? With an installed base into the hundreds of millions, chances are you’ll still be finding XP drivers long after Vista’s grandchildren are being put out to pasture.

(more…)

Do you have users in your organizations who never logon to the corporate network with their laptops? In such cases, you have to make sure that they backup their laptops at home. I tried one solution with my own laptop and I am quite content with it. I connected the external hard drive Seagate Freeagent Pro via eSATA to my laptop. As backup software for my files, I used Autobackup which comes with Freegent Pro. To backup the whole computer, I used Windows Vista’s Backup and Restore Center.

Freeagent is available in three sizes: 320GB, 500GB and 750GB. I opted for the biggest drive because I like to keep old backups as long as possible. Amazon offers it for less than $200. You can connect the drive through USB or eSATA. For the latter you need an eSATA card adapter. I think, it is worth the extra 30 bucks because it is much faster. USB 2.0 supports up to 480 Mbps and eSATA 3 Gbps. You won’t always reach this speed, though, because there are bottlenecks like drive speed or the performance of your laptop.

(more…)

Josh from the InfiniteAdmin blog has an interesting post about solid state disk (SSD) encryption. He raised doubts that drive encryption tools such as TrueCrypt are secure enough if applied to SSDs. Like memory sticks SSDs are flash drives that usually work with NAND technology. Therefore, these concerns also apply to USB sticks.

(more…)

Even though USB memory sticks are quite reliable, there still is the risk of losing it, or even worse, that somebody might steal it from you. The data, you store on your memory stick is probably vital to you; otherwise you wouldn’t bring it with you always. Hence, it is important to backup your memory stick regularly and make sure that nobody is able to access the data on it, if it gets into the wrong hands. It is certainly no solution to just copy all files manually every now and then. It is the first law of any backup strategy: Never backup manually! The reason is obvious. It is easily forgotten, and the probability is high that if you ever need the backup its data is outdated.

(more…)

There has been much media buzz about the miracles that hybrid hard drives (HHDs) and Vista ReadyDrive performance with regard to power savings. It has been alleged that the power consumption would be cut by 70%-90%. However, a test in the German print magazine C’t (21/07, p.114-117) showed that the power savings are negligible. Only a laptop with a solid state drive (SDD) showed significant power savings.

(more…)

The German print magazine C’t (21/07/106-113) tested the performance of Vista’s ReadyBoost. The results are quite disappointing. In most cases, performance wasn’t improved, and under certain conditions it even slowed down the test computer.

(more…)

How long is the service life of a USB flash stick? Many store important data on USB sticks, but have no idea how reliable it is. And even fewer people know that there are variations between different types of NAND flash memory sticks according to their lifespan. There are two different kind of NAND flash memory: SLC Single Layer Cell (SLC) and Multi Layer Cell (MLC). They not only vary with respect to their useful life, but also support different read and write speeds.

(more…)

I think, the idea behind ioDrive is this: Use your computer like a TV. That is, forget about boot time, launch channels (applications) without any delay and don’t worry about data loss if someone pulls the power plug. Sounds like Science Fiction? If you believe in the announcement of the Utah-based start-up company, Fusion-io, this could already come true at the beginning of next year.

(more…)