Love “How-to” posts? We’re sharing some of our favorite How To posts to help make it easier for you to work with your laptop or desktop. Our first “How-to” is a step-by-step guide is how to create a power plan for your laptop or desktop. No matter which Windows OS you have, you can create a plan the same way.

Step-by-Step Guide

1 – From the START screen or desktop, right-click the battery 

2 – Click Power Options

 

3 – Click Create Power Plan

You can also set a power plan from the mobility center when you right click on the battery icon or from the start menu.

4 – Click a power plan and then click NEXT

5 – Choose the sleep and display settings that you want to apply

6 – Click Create

If you need help or additional instructions, we provide one-on-one training at SOBXTech. Please don’t hesitate to contact us through Facebook, email or by phone.

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About Us

SOBX Tech is Eastern North Carolina’s leader for computer services, computer repair, software installations and software upgrades.  SOBX Tech serves the Southern Outer Banks community and surrounding areas. Located in Eastern North Carolina, along North Carolina’s beautiful Crystal Coast, we’re happy to provide on-site service in your home or business, at no extra charge!

There are over 84 million XBox 360 consoles worldwide. Someone asked the other day, “Why would my son’s XBox say it needs a hard drive? Well, there is an explanation for that and the reason is, not all the consoles came installed with hard drives. There are consoles that have internal memory, so when something needs saving then it would be saved internally. We are also going to discuss how to install or replace a hard drive in your console.

The original model XBox 360 was first released in 2005. Various hard disk drives were produced that included options of 20, 60, 120, 250, or 320 GB. Inside, the console uses the triple-core IBM designed Xenon as its CPU, with each core capable of simultaneously processing two threads, and can, therefore, operate on up to six threads at once. 

Here is a look at my personal XBox and how to remove the hard drive and replace it.

Original XBox 360 Hard Drive Removal

Steps to remove the hard drive

1. Turn off the console
2. Locate the hard drive on the top of the console.

3. Press the release button on the hard drive

4. Lift the hard drive off of the console.

To replace the hard drive, position the hard drive against the back of the hard drive bay and push the front end of the hard drive down until it clicks in place.

The other two consoles different than the original 360 console.

 

 

 

What is a Computer Backup?

It’s World Back Up Day.  A backup is a second copy of all your important files — for example, your family photos, home videos, documents and emails.

Instead of storing it all in one place (like your computer), you keep another copy of everything somewhere safe.

The easiest way to explain it is, a backup is the digital copy of your data saved somewhere that’s not your internal hard drive. So, if you save your pictures to an USB flash drive, that’s a backup. Save your entire collection of funny cat videos to an external hard drive, that’s a backup. Using an online company’s software and servers to save your entire computer, that’s really good backup.

Backing Up Online

The correct question to ask is, why shouldn’t you backup? Fact is, files are precious and we need them on hand for a lot of things. Whether it’s baby’s first steps or a work portfolio template, certain information needs to be secured against loss and damage.

Which is why it exists. So use it, and feel free to kick back knowing even if someone accidentally smashes a hammer into your laptop, the backup is keeping the data all safe and secure.

Sounds like common sense right? Turns out common sense isn’t as common as its namesake. Check out these statistics:

• 113 phone are stolen every minute of everyday—costing consumers 30 billion every year.
• 29% of all electronic losses happen by accident
• 1-in-10 PCs are currently infected with a virus
• Over 30% of people never backup

To help prevent anything listed above from happening to you, please backup.

Women Backup Up Better Than Men

According to a survey conducted by Airbackup, the fairer sex are fairly better at keeping backups compared to men. The study also concluded that women are better at not losing their electronics, however the survey reviews were taken from personal statements, so take that as you will.

Chromosomes aside, there are things we should all do to ensure there is always an available copy of our data.

We should always endeavor to kick laziness in the butt and regularly backup our files, avoid using smartphones to process our data, and do so on an established routine. Because facts are facts, machines will fail, and when they do, there is usually no bringing them back. Human error is also lurking around the corner, backed up by cronies such as natural disaster, theft and sometimes plain bad luck.

But, it’s not just private citizens that need a way to secure their data, some would say businesses have the real raw and important data, and that stuff needs to be backed up proper before companies start losing customers and respect.

Here is a link to the best online backup services from 2016 by PC mag

So, how do you backup your files? Most people backup their files in one of two ways: to an external hard drive, usb drive, or somewhere on the internet.

Backing Up Online

A simple way to start saving your files to the internet is by using OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon Cloud Drive to save the most important things you’re working on right now.

You can save certain files or you can backup the entire computer, which is what I recommend doing.

Different Operating Systems have different ways of backing up your data. Below is the way you would complete this task.

Windows 7

1. Click the Start button
2. Type “backup” into the search box
3.  Click on Backup and Restore.
4. Choose “Setup Backup”.
5. When Windows has finished preparing, select your external hard drive and click Next.
6. Click “Let Windows Choose”and press Next.
7. Click on “Save settings and run.”

Windows 8

Windows 8 is a little bit different than windows 7.

1. Open your start screen and start typing “file history settings”.
2. In the search results panel, tap or click “File History Settings”.
3. Tap or click “Select a drive”.
4. Choose your external hard drive from the list.
5. Click “Turn on”.

Windows will automatically save your files from now on. Make sure you leave your hard drive plugged in – or plug it in often.

MAC OS

1. Open the  menu (in the top left of your screen) and choose System Preferences.
2. Click on “Time Machine”.
3. Click “Select Disk”.
4. Choose your USB hard drive from the list and select “Use Disk”.

Linux

1. Open the HUD (click the Ubuntu button in the Dash) and type“Backup”.
2. Click on the search result “Backup”.
3. Click on “Just show my backup settings”.
4. Activate “Automatic backups”.
5. Choose the location to store your backup on the tab “Storage” (your external drive).
6. Choose how often to backup on the tab “Schedule”. The more often, the
   better!
7. Click on “Back Up Now” on the tab “Overview” to start backing up.

Here are a couple of our posts relating to your data and securing your files.

Data Back-Up

Laptop and PC Protection

Recovering From A Virus or Trojan Horse

Will you take the pledge with us.

Today is World Back Up Day 2016 and we challenge everyone to take the pledge.

THE WORLD BACKUP DAY PLEDGE

“I solemnly swear to backup my important documents and precious memories on March 31st.”

We are here to help so don’t hesitate to give us a call at 252-285-9592.

My first week of college, the instructor started off the first class by telling everyone to back up your info and data at least once a week.  From there on out he mentioned it every class.

There are a few different ways that you can back up your computer.

Choose a backup program

For personal computers, there are many options. If you are using Microsoft Windows, there is a backup program built in (Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Backup). You can also use third party back-up managers, ranging from small programs to full online backup services. If you use a flavor of Linux, there are many open source options available in repositories for all of the major distributions.  You can also back up on flash drives, portable hard drives or CD’s

Here is a couple of not to do when backing up your PC or laptop.

Backups protect you from hardware failure

Computers are more reliable than ever, so it’s easy to forget or put off backing up your data. We’ve all done it.

But, hard drives still fail, and usually, they give no advance warning.  One minute they’re working fine, and the next minute they’re toast.

And usually, when they fail, it’s impossible (or very expensive) to get any data off of them.

Backups protect you from viruses

Some computer viruses will corrupt your data and will  slow your machine down so much that you can’t log in.

If you ever “lose” a computer to a virus, most technicians will advise you to wipe the drive clean and reinstall everything.

Backups can be a life-saver in these extreme cases.

Backups protect you from fires, floods, and other disasters

We buy insurance for our homes and businesses because disasters happen.  Think of your backups as data insurance.

We don’t like to think about what might happen, but good backups can make any disaster a little more survivable.  All you’ll have to do is setup a new computer and restore your backups.

Do not use a computer while a back-up is in progress. If you change a file during the backup operation, you will not know which version was actually saved, or you could halt or corrupt the back-up. It will also slow your computer down.

Do not leave your backup media in an environment that has a tendency to get wet or is not climate controlled. Computer equipment is fairly sensitive, and there is a chance you will lose your back-ups.

If you have additional links, sources or ideas that might be helpful to our community, we encourage you to add them in the comments below. If you’ve enjoyed this article, please subscribe on our sidebar.