If you ever have the need to make changes to your hard drive partitions, rather than immediately going to the commercial options, check out the open source GParted.

GParted fully supports NTFS and FAT as well as the two major Linux file systems (ext2/ext3) along with lots of other files systems. You can shrink, grow, copy, move (and more) partitions which should just about handle any needs you may have. Additionally, GParted can easily be configured to boot and run from a Live CD or USB stick which is the ideal way to deal with any partition changes you might need to address.

Of course, before you make any changes to your partition structure, you should be comfortable with the process as well as make sure your import data is backed up in the event of a disaster.

I am always looking for ways to make my computer quieter, cooler and consume less energy (usually they are all one in the same). On that note, here is an interesting walkthrough on how to build your own hard drive silencing enclosure.

The idea is quite simple: sandwich a hard drive between two layers of gel packs which will absorb the sound and vibrations. One thing you will want to be sure of if you try this method is to make sure there is enough ventilation to allow heat from the drive to escape.

When you think about it, fastening a hard drive via screws to a rigid metal case is pretty stressful on a hard drive as the case isn’t going to give much to absorb the vibrations of the drive. At the very least, if you can put rubber gromments around the screw connecting to the hard drive, this will help reduce the vibrations some.

There are numerous utilities out there for Windows users to check the health of their hard drives (just do a Google search or look through some of the older tips I have written), but for Linux users a tool for you is GSmartControl.

The description of the product is what you would expect:

GSmartControl is a graphical user interface for smartctl (from Smartmontools package), which is a tool for querying and controlling SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) data on modern hard disk drives. It allows you to inspect the drive’s SMART data to determine its health, as well as run various tests on it.

You can read the full description of the program here and Linux.com has a nice review on the program as well.

I would recommend everyone have a program on their OS which is capable of running SMART checks on your hard drive (and use them periodically) as it significantly more convenient than having to boot to a CD to run utilities. So Linux users, if you don’t have something already, go get GSmartControl.

If your hard drive is getting full or you notice the space is filling up fast, a handy tool to use in order to find where all your space is going is TreeSize.

TreeSize is a free utility which shows a “rolled up” view of all the space consumed on your hard drive by particular folders. By drilling down into the folders, you see the size of all the sub-folders and files which total to the size of the parent folder, making it easy to quickly identify where all your space is going.

I can see this tool being useful for locating log and other such files which can grow very large if unchecked.

As with all technology, it gets cheaper over time. Now you get the (currently) monster-sized 1TB hard drive you wanted for a price that’s right.

Up until very recently 1TB drives had a stubborn price point but 3 have managed to bust the $200 mark.

All 3 drives listed here are SATA 3.0Gb/s.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31000340AS
Price: $199.99

Western Digital Caviar GP WD10EACS
Price: $189.99

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ
Price: $179.99

To note: The Samsung and the Seagate currently have a free 3-day shipping promotion going on so you can save a few extra bucks.

What makes the Seagate the highest price of the lot? A 5-year limited warranty including parts and labor.

And to think.. I remember when 1GB was huge. Man, I’m gettin’ old.

As you probably know, your hard drive is the most important component in your computer because it houses all your data. Unfortunately it is the most likely device to fail. While virtually all modern hard drives have S.M.A.R.T. technology built in to detect failures, one important factor you can monitor is your hard drive temperature with HDD Temperature.

HDD Temperature is a free program which, simply put, monitors and warns you when temperatures get to high on your hard drive. You can customize the temperature warning level as well as how the system responds to a tripped warning.

The free version is limited to a single hard drive, so if you have multiple hard drives in your system, or you want to monitor a server, then the pro version might be a better fit.