Dynex USB 2.0 7 port hub. [FAIL]

When it comes to being a technology addict, we tend to go a bit overboard with our USB needs. Fortunately USB  hubs can come in pretty handy. Unfortunately, they’re pretty tricky, unreliable, sometimes, and abruptly fail. One such product, the Dynex USB 2.0 7 port hub did just that. I had 7 external hard drives plugged into the hub, 3 of which had their own power source. All at once, my hard drives unmounted.When I checked each port on the hub, only one was left running. I had effectively killed the entire piece.

Who’s to say that it would have been fine had I distributed drives amongst another hub or two, but ultimately, it failed the test.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for a quick and easy way to recover your things from your laptop’s hard drive that just happened to get a nasty virus or a bit of corruption, Apricorn might have just the thing for you.

Apricorn Upgrade Kit

This handy dandy toy connects directly to your SATA drive and connects to your computer via USB 2.0. You can find this life saver at Best Buy or on Amazon. The actual kit comes with drive cloning software, but you may just want the adapter if you’re just wanting to get some files.

Priced $19.00 and up. Look for it on Amazon or Yahoo online stores.

Related articles

• USB 3.0 – Do You Need It? (lockergnome.com)
• Why doesn’t my laptop have USB 3.0? (news.cnet.com)
• New hard drives usher in the endless closet (theglobeandmail.com)
• PQI Takes USB 3.0 And Stuffs It Into A Tiny Flash Drive (crunchgear.com)

Image via CrunchBase

Using Windows Search can be tiresome, takes much longer than it should, and tends to bog down resources. Well kiss Windows Search goodbye, and say hello to Everything… quite literally.

If it’s on your computer, connected to your computer, and in some cases, near your computer, Search Everything will… search…. everything…yeah that’s about it.

No seriously…

When you type, your results appear automatically. It could be a folder, a file, on an external drive, a thumb drive, local, hidden, doesn’t matter. Everything will find it, index it, and the next time you search for something it’ll find it even faster.

Oh, and did I mention it’s free?

Download Everything

Everything Homepage

Everyone goes through it. Can’t find that program and it’s not on the Start menu; you’ve scoured the program folders, and you’ve even run a windows search for it. You know the name of it, but you just can’t seem to locate the darned thing. Did I overlook it? Did I uninstall it and forget? Launchy helps by finding all of your programs and shortcuts, and giving you real-time results as you type.

There are some interesting plugins for Launchy, as well as a wide selection of skins thanks to DeviantArt and similar communities. Launchy will also launch websites simply by typing the URL. No need to find your browser’s shortcut, and wait for it to load.

The best part? Launchy is freeware.

Download Launchy

Launchy Homepage