Replacing Primary Drive with Solid State Drive

I have recently converted both my wife’s laptop and my desktop to an SSD as the primary drive.  SSD pricing has come down to where converting your primary drive to speed up your machine is worth considering.  My machines are all using SATA 3, and don’t support NVMe, so the fastest SSDs can’t be used, but SATA SSDs still give a much appreciated speed improvement.  I put a Western Digital Blue 1 TB in her laptop, and a SanDisk 1 TB in my desktop.  These two SSDs are the same unit (SanDisk is owned by Western Digital) but the SanDisk was two dollars cheaper.  May have been overkill, but we won’t run out of space, and the bigger drives have a little better performance.

There is one caveat I have to pass on.  It concerns any instance where the current machine contains a small SSD as a speed up device for a normal HDD installation.  This was the case with my Dell XPS 8700 SE, which was purchased from Costco in late 2013, and contained a 32 GB Samsung PM830 SSD mounted in an mSATA socket on the motherboard.  It never reported as a separate drive in Windows, but is listed in the Dell BIOS.  A casual user would never be aware of it.  It contained some of the Windows boot files, and led to some speed up but only when booting Windows.  The only other place I was aware of any improvement was with CCleaner, which evidently used some of it as a cache.

I have one problem to report, which appeared with the SanDisk.  The instructions suggested downloading and installing SanDisk Dashboard software for measuring SSD performance.  When I used that software to report on my new SanDisk, it gave blank results.  I later discovered that this was caused by the small 32 GB SSD, which confused the software.  I had cloned my HDD to the new SanDisk SSD using MiniTool Partition Wizard on my laptop.  All the Windows boot files had been on a reserved partition of the HDD, and were now on the new SanDisk.  I no longer needed the small SSD, so I removed it physically from the motherboard socket and rebooted into Windows.  Everything works OK, and the SanDisk Dashboard now reports as it should.

The point I am making is that if anyone who has a system that might have a small SSD in it for fast boot, such as a Dell XPS or similar, and is considering switching to an full size SSD for drive C, the small SSD will be superfluous, and is no longer needed.  Just a heads up.

Bob

By Bob Mugge – TVCUC Instructor
Revised 4/10/2017

Contact: home: 865-458-2544
Cell: 865-803-2699

bob.mugge@tvcuc.org

 

 

Abstract
The Basic Spreadsheets course is for people who have never used a spreadsheet program before.  It teaches the fundamentals of how to get around in a spreadsheet and through the use of step-by-step keystroke instructions given in three sessions, creates a small spreadsheet file.

Three other existing spreadsheet files will be examined and analyzed in detail, covering a wider range of Excel capabilities so students can better create spreadsheets for their own use.

Files required are listed below:

• Basic Spreadsheets – Sesson 1.docx
• Sales Data – Reference 1.xlsx
• Basic Spreadsheets – Sesson 2.docx
• Sales Data – Reference 2.xlsx
• Basic Spreadsheets – Sesson 3.docx
• Sales Data  – Reference 3.xlsx
• Formulas in Sales Data – Reference 3.xlsx
• Basic Spreadsheets – Supplementary Files.docx
• Mortgage Amortization blank.xls
• Explaining the Mortgage Amortization template.docx
• Bridge Score Sheets.xlsx
• Making Bridge Score Sheets.docx
• Trip Calendar.xls

This abstract, course documents, and Excel files are available for download here Download Files

Decision Making Using Excel

Abstract

This course is intended for those students who are familiar with the fundamentals of working with spreadsheets, but want to know more about using Excel logic functions to solve problems.

For those of you who have taken my older 2016 Basic Excel class, it is a total replacement for all the material related to the file “StockPurchasingTable.xls”, and contains many enhancements.  So even if you understood the older file, you will probably benefit from examining this new course.

All files and documents pertaining to StockPurchasingTable are now deleted.

The material in the new course is based on an investing concept (the same as before) but is considerably expanded, and appears to possibly have application in other areas, such as retail sales.  I am working on the retail aspect, but it is not mature enough yet to be included in the course at this time.  If anyone is interested in working with me on the possibilities for a retail application, please contact me.

This course uses four new Excel files and three Word supporting files, listed below:

For Part 1:

1. Decision Making Using Excel-Part 1.docx
2. Redistributing A-Z – Initial.xlsx
3. Redistributing A-Z – Equalized.xlsx
4. Formulas Used in Redistributing A-Z.docx

For Part 2:

1. Decision Making Using Excel-Part 2.docx
2. Redistributing A-Z – Final1.xlsx
3. Redistributing A-Z – Final2.xlsx

This abstract, course documents, and Excel files are available for download here===>> Download Files

Contact Bob Mugge at  bob.mugge@tvcuc.org

By Dave Crowden:  This article from TechHive was published in early September of this year, so its recent and very current.

The article may be helpful in answering some of the TVCUC members’ questions about “what kind of antenna do I really need?”    Flat-panel antennas appeal to many, because they are not obtrusive and ugly and can be easily hidden with a little imagination.  One of the drawbacks may be that, if you have multiple TVs in your house, you may need one for each TV, depending on how far apart they are from each other.   You can buy a separate splitter that adds number of TVs you can connect to one antenna, but then you have to figure out where and how to hide the cables running to the other TVs in different rooms.  Also, in this article, the author points out that spending more money on one of these flat-panel antennas doesn’t alway equate to better reception.

From my own experience, your home’s viability of using an over-the-air (OTA) antenna depends largely on location and construction of the house.   Why location and construction?   Location, because the terrain around your home may affect signal strength.   For example, if your house is situated in a valley or bowl, the OTA signal may be blocked or disrupted by that terrain.   Broadcast signals are line-of-sight, so if you’re house is in a low area, you might not be a good candidate for OTA reception.   Construction, because some homes are made with materials that also block the signal.   For example, a metal roof or attic insulation with aluminum foil-like backing will also block much of the signal.

A typical flat panel antenna costs about $35-$40 and can be installed inconspicuously.  Whether it is in your attic, garage or basement, the antenna can be connected into your “cable” system, especially if your house has been pre-wired for TV cable to various rooms.   Remember, you can have any number of TVs with OTA reception.  You don’t need to have a “streaming device” on all of your TV sets, only those on which you want to use the streaming services.    Streaming services, you ask?!?  That is another subject for discussion.   See the past Cord Cutting presentations available on the TVCUC web site!!

So, the reason for posting this article is simply to pass along some information on those fancy and attractive flat-panel antennas that are in many of our local stores and available on line, often for more money too!  You don’t need a special HD antenna to gather the OTA signals and, even if you don’t like the way the simple flat panel antenna looks, one can be installed in a surprisingly inconspicuous manner.  A flat panel antenna can provide great reception and can feed all of your house’s TV-connections needs.

Read the entire article Here.

If you are interested, we have a TVCUC member who is an expert in flat panel antenna installation, and may be willing to survey your house and recommend whether a flat panel installation could fit your specific needs and expectations.