Matt Karls has a PhD in IT and is an Electrical Engineer. He works in management within the software development, IT and SEO fields and is the owner of Karls Technology. He has four kids and lives in the Phoenix metro area (when he is not travelling around to our different offices).
The new May 2019 Update will expand the list of PCs that will not be able to upgrade beyond their current version of Windows 10. Previously Microsoft removed support for Intel Clover Tail processors (see this TechNet note ). The new update will expand the list of Atom processors and other lower end computers that will not be able to support updates beyond the current one.
Microsoft has moved to software as a service model so if you cannot upgrade your version of Windows it will stop receiving support and updates after 18 months. The problem with this if those computers would have stayed on Windows 8 or 8.1 they would receive support and updates until 2023.
If you are a mobile computer user that uses a Roaming User Profile look out for the new update of Windows 10. Roaming Users that customize your start menu settings or any operating system settings will be reset after updating to May 2019 Update of Windows 10.
The biggest change in the draft security revision is that Microsoft is dropping the password expiration policy. Previously, Microsoft had set the default password expiration period at 90 days.
Microsoft explained the purpose behind changing the password expiration policies in the draft security revision:
When humans pick their own passwords, too often they are easy to guess or predict. When humans are assigned or forced to create passwords that are hard to remember, too often they’ll write them down where others can see them. When humans are forced to change their passwords, too often they’ll make a small and predictable alteration to their existing passwords, and/or forget their new passwords.
Which makes perfect sense. The purpose of password expiration policies are to force password changes assuming that someone’s password will frequently be compromised. If a password never gets compromised, there is no need to change the password regularly.
There are a handful of other important changes coming in the May 2019 Update of Windows 10. Some of the more notable changes are:
Removing multicast name resolution
Removing Data Execution Prevention for Windows Explorer
Removing Heap termination on corruption
Limiting NetBT NodeType to P-node
Creating a svchost.exe mitigation policy
Removing BitLocker drive encryption ciphers
Removing built-in Windows admin account
Removing built-in Windows guest account
Adding Kerberos authentication audit settings
If you are having security problems or any other issue with your Windows 10 computer and would like some assistance, please give us a call at 1-800-620-5285. Karls Technology is a nationwide computer service company with offices in many major cities. This blog post is brought to you from our staff at the Arvada Computer Repair Service, if you need computer repair in Arvada, CO please call the local office at (720) 441-6460 or schedule an appointment at www.arvadacomputerrepairservice.com.
If you have either an external USB device or SD memory card your computer will receive the error message:
This PC can’t be upgraded to Windows 10.
:when you try to update your computer. The reason for the error is that the new May 2019 update may cause inappropriate drive reassignment if a Windows 10 user has an external USB device or SD memory card.
As of now, Microsoft will block the May 2019 Update on any computer with an external USB device or SD memory card. If you want to upgrade immediately, before Microsoft resolves this bug, there is a really simple work around for the issue. Unplug any external USB devices and SD memory card adapters and run the Windows 10 May 2019 Update. Once the May 2019 Update is fully installed and you are back in a working Windows 10 environment, plus your external USB devices and SD memory cards back into the computer.
If you are having a problem with your Windows 10 computer and are receiving the This PC can’t be upgraded to Windows 10 error and would like some assistance, please give us a call at 1-800-620-5285. Karls Technology is a nationwide computer service company with offices in many major cities. This blog post is brought to you from our staff at the Arlington Computer Repair Service, if you need computer repair in Arlington, TX please call the local office at (817) 756-6008 or schedule an appointment at www.arlingtoncomputerrepairservice.com.
The last day of support for Windows 7 is January 14, 2020. After which, Microsoft will no longer provide security updates or support for PCs running Windows 7. With over half a year until END OF LIFE day for Windows 7 you should start making plans now. All Windows 7 computers can be upgraded to Windows 10 and as of today, Windows 7 keys are still authenticating for Windows 10 installations.
The other option is to replace your computer and have all your data migrated to your new system. Give us a call at 1-800-620-5285 and talk with one of our support specialists to figure out which is the best option for you.
There is a zeroday (meaning infection in the wild that was just publicly acknowledged and is infecting people) exploit for Windows 10 (and previous versions of Windows) combined with an exploit in Google Chrome . You need to make sure to update both your Google Chrome to the latest version and apply any pending Windows 10 (or 7, 8, etc) updates. Read more about it at:
Nearly all hard disk drives have two air filters. One filter is called the recirculating filter, and the other is called either a barometric or breather filter. These filters are permanently sealed inside the drive and are designed never to be changed for the life of the drive, unlike many older mainframe hard disks that had changeable filters. Many mainframe drives circulate air from outside the drive through a filter that must be changed periodically.
A hard disk on a PC system does not circulate air from inside to outside the HDA, or vice versa. The recirculating filter that is permanently installed inside the HDA is designed to filter only the small particles of media scraped off the platters during head takeoffs and landings (and possibly any other small particles dislodged inside the drive). Because PC hard disk drives are permanently sealed and do not circulate outside air, they can run in extremely dirty environments (see Figure 1-6).
FIG. 1-6 Air circulation in a hard disk.
The HDA in a hard disk is sealed but not airtight. The HDA is vented through a barometric or breather filter element that allows for pressure equalization (breathing) between the inside and outside of the drive. For this reason, most hard drives are rated by the drive’s manufacturer to run in a specific range of altitudes, usually from -1,000 to +10,000 feet above sea level. In fact, some hard drives are not rated to exceed 7,000 feet while operating because the air pressure would be too low inside the drive to float the heads properly. As the environmental air pressure changes, air bleeds into or out of the drive so that internal and external pressures are identical. Although air does bleed through a vent, contamination usually is not a concern, because the barometric filter on this vent is designed to filter out all particles larger than 0.3 micron (about 12 µ-in) to meet the specifications for cleanliness inside the drive. You can see the vent holes on most drives, which are covered internally by this breather filter. Some drives use even finer-grade filter elements to keep out even smaller particles.
Hard Disk Temperature Acclimation
To allow for pressure equalization, hard drives have a filtered port to bleed air into or out of the HDA as necessary. This breathing also enables moisture to enter the drive, and after some period of time, it must be assumed that the humidity inside any hard disk is similar to that outside the drive. Humidity can become a serious problem if it is allowed to condense — and especially if the drive is powered up while this condensation is present. Most hard disk manufacturers have specified procedures for acclimating a hard drive to a new environment with different temperature and humidity ranges, especially for bringing a drive into a warmer environment in which condensation can form. This situation should be of special concern to users of laptop or portable systems with hard disks. If you leave a portable system in an automobile trunk during the winter, for example, it could be catastrophic to bring the machine inside and power it up without allowing it to acclimate to the temperature indoors.
The following text and Table 1.3 are taken from the factory packaging that Control Data Corporation (later Imprimis and eventually Seagate) used to ship its hard drives:
If you have just received or removed this unit from a climate with temperatures at or below 50°F (10°C) do not open this container until the following conditions are met, otherwise condensation could occur and damage to the device and/or media may result. Place this package in the operating environment for the time duration according to the temperature chart.
Table 1.3 Hard Disk Drive Environmental Acclimation Table.
Previous Climate Temp.
Acclimation Time
+40°F (+4°C)
13 hours
+30°F (-1°C)
15 hours
+20°F (-7°C)
16 hours
+10°F (-12°C)
17 hours
0°F (-18°C)
18 hours
-10°F (-23°C)
20 hours
-20°F (-29°C)
22 hours
-30°F (-34°C) or less
27 hours
As you can see from this table, a hard disk that has been stored in a colder-than-normal environment must be placed in the normal operating environment for a specified amount of time to allow for acclimation before it is powered on.
This is an archive of Alasir Enterprise’s MicroHouse PC Hardware Library Volume I: Hard Drives by Rhett M. Hollander (alasir.com) which disappeared from the internet in 2017. We wanted to preserve Rhett M. Hollander’s knowledge about hard drives and are permanently hosting a selection of important pages from alasir.com.
All information stored on a hard disk is recorded in tracks, which are concentric circles placed on the surface of each platter, much like the annual rings of a tree. The tracks are numbered, starting from zero, starting at the outside of the platter and increasing as you go in. A modern hard disk has tens of thousands of tracks on each platter.
A platter from a 5.25″ hard disk, with 20 concentric tracks drawn over the surface. Each track is divided into 16 imaginary sectors.
Data is accessed by moving the heads from the inner to the outer part of the disk, driven by the head actuator. This organization of data allows for easy access to any part of the disk, which is why disks are called random access storage devices.
Each track can hold many thousands of bytes of data. It would be wasteful to make a track the smallest unit of storage on the disk, since this would mean small files wasted a large amount of space. Therefore, each track is broken into smaller units called sectors. Each sector holds 512 bytes of user data, plus as many as a few dozen additional bytes used for internal drive control and for error detection and correction.
This is an archive of Charles M. Kozierok’s PCGuide (pcguide.com) which disappeared from the internet in 2018. We wanted to preserve Charles M. Kozierok’s knowledge about computers and are permanently hosting a selection of important pages from PCGuide.
The basic unit of data storage on a hard disk is the sector. The name “sector” comes from the mathematical term, which refers to a “pie-shaped” angular section of a circle, bounded on two sides by radii and the third by the perimeter of the circle. On a hard disk containing concentric circular tracks, that shape would define a sector of each track of the platter surface that it intercepted. This is what is called a sector in the hard disk world: a small segment along the length of a track. At one time, all hard disks had the same number of sectors per track, and in fact, the number of sectors in each track was fairly standard between models. Today’s advances have allowed the number of sectors per track (“SPT”) to vary significantly, as discussed here.
In the PC world, each sector of a hard disk can store 512 bytes of user data. (There are some disks where this number can be modified, but 512 is the standard, and found on virtually all hard drives by default.) Each sector, however, actually holds much more than 512 bytes of information. Additional bytes are needed for control structures and other information necessary to manage the drive, locate data and perform other “support functions”. The exact details of how a sector is structured depends on the drive model and manufacturer. However, the contents of a sector usually include the following general elements:
ID Information: Conventionally, space is left in each sector to identify the sector’s number and location. This is used for locating the sector on the disk. Also included in this area is status information about the sector. For example, a bit is commonly used to indicate if the sector has been marked defective and remapped.
Synchronization Fields: These are used internally by the drive controller to guide the read process.
Data: The actual data in the sector.
ECC: Error correcting code used to ensure data integrity.
Gaps: One or more “spacers” added as necessary to separate other areas of the sector, or provide time for the controller to process what it has read before reading more bits.
Note: In addition to the sectors, each containing the items above, space on each track is also used for servo information (on embedded servo drives, which is the design used by all modern units).
The amount of space taken up by each sector for overhead items is important, because the more bits used for “management”, the fewer overall that can be used for data. Therefore, hard disk manufacturers strive to reduce the amount of non-user-data information that must be stored on the disk. The term format efficiency refers to the percentage of bits on each disk that are used for data, as opposed to “other things”. The higher the format efficiency of a drive, the better (but don’t expect to find statistics on this for your favorite drive easy to find!)
One of the most important improvements in sector format was IBM’s creation of the No-ID Format in the mid-1990s. The idea behind this innovation is betrayed by the name: the ID fields are removed from the sector format. Instead of labeling each sector within the sector header itself, a format map is stored in memory and referenced when a sector must be located. This map also contains information about what sectors have been marked bad and relocated, where the sectors are relative to the location of servo information, and so on. Not only does this improve format efficiency, allowing up to 10% more data to be stored on the surface of each platter, it also improves performance. Since this critical positioning information is present in high-speed memory, it can be accessed much more quickly. “Detours” in chasing down remapped sectors are also eliminated.
This is an archive of Charles M. Kozierok’s PCGuide (pcguide.com) which disappeared from the internet in 2018. We wanted to preserve Charles M. Kozierok’s knowledge about computers and are permanently hosting a selection of important pages from PCGuide.
