My PC friends probably think I am crazy, but the weight of the decision of why I purchased an Apple MacBook Pro fell on five key points of comparisons to other laptop computers.

Apple MacBook Pro vs. Netbook PCs

1. Ease of Use
2. Quality
3. Versatility
4. Form Factor
5. Value (Price divided by the first four points)

My notebook story begins with searching for a good quality, fast speed, good display screen, a comfortable track pad, good software, ease of use, long life battery, ability to do videos and pictures well, but low priced netbook or small laptop for mobile/portable/travel use. I quickly found that there is no such creature like this.

I stopped in over at Fry’s and started playing with the various new Windows 7 Netbooks from Acer and MSI. At first glance I wanted to really like these netbooks, but it was only a short lived infatuation. There were more than a few barriers to taking these netbooks from a foolish liking to an in-depth affection. For one, they were small. Now, that may be good in one aspect for portability, but for another aspect of screen size, it was very difficult to get comfortable with the small screen size. Those of us that are requiring reading glasses are sure to find these screens are much too small. Sure, the price was low at around $350.00, but look at what you are getting for that.

With these netbooks, this really is a case of getting what you pay for. Slow processor speeds, low memory, no dvd/cd drive, and a new operating system with Windows 7 that is all déjà vu. The Windows 7 operating system loaded on these netbooks feels like an upgraded version of Windows XP, with things moved around a bit and other things very difficult to find. Of course, this is the dominate format for these netbooks. Simple things like how to change the icon sizes on the desktop took me 10 minutes to find. And, that was after I spoke with the sales people, though that brings up the topic of the sales people may not have the best of training either. That’s another story. In any case, three of the sales people that I spoke with could not figure it out. It wasn’t located in the Windows 7 control panel area, as one would think. Finally I did what would be a right click with a mouse on the desktop, though I am not sure how I did it with the netbook trackpad, but I was able to change the default icon size to a smaller size.

Speaking of touchpads or trackpads, I have grown up on a mouse in the house for both PCs and Macs. So, this really was my first time investigating and comparing track pads. The trackpads on these netbooks and mini laptops seemed to be engineering afterthoughts. Actually, they lacked quality engineering and no consumer testing. The one that bugged the heck out of me the most was the trackpad on the MSI mini laptop. It felt like sandpaper on the tips of my fingers after playing with it for 10 minutes. Actually, I ended up pulling another customer over and asking him what he thought of the touchpad. His thoughts were exactly the same as mine. The trackpad had a very textured finish that was not comfortable to the touch. I can only imagine what it would be like after navigating with this trackpad for an hour or so. I would have to put Band-Aids on my fingers. Definitely not a very good touchy-feely experience.

So, I decide that maybe I needed to move up in price and screen size. I moved up to the mid range for laptops. However, there seemed to be a void in the size from the 8.9 inch – 11 inch version mini laptops to the 15 inch larger laptops. Price started going up significantly as I wanted a more powerful laptop that could do various types of mult-tasking, and still stay with a useful but compact size. Next thing I knew, I was up around the $700.00 price tag. But, still I had issues with trackpads, and the lack of ease of use.

So, I ventured over to the Mac table. Being an equal opportunity user of both Windows PCs and Macs and am well versed in both the PC and Mac land, having owned many versions of Windows PCs and an iMac G5 for a number of years. I have also had the opportunity to have hands on experience by having friends allowing me to play with their MacBooks for various applications. When I went over to the Mac table, it was a breath of heaven to feel and touch the new MacBooks.

My First Thoughts on the MacBook and MacBook Pro

The first thing that stood out to me was the ease of use. The trackpads are very very easy to use. Having a Multi-Touch Trackpad that is large, smooth, extremely powerful, two finger scroll capable, two finger pinch zoom capable, two finger rotate, and even two finger right click or secondary click capable with the full complement of right click commands available. Additional trackpad features include three finger swipe navigation to go forward or back in browser history, four finger swipe left to right to switch applications, or four finger swipe up down for exposing the open applications. You can even set the one finger to tap to click, dragging, drag lock, and secondary click to bottom left or bottom right corner. Track speed, double-click speed, and scrolling speed can all be individually adjusted to just the way you want them.

With this MacBook Trackpad, you will quickly find out that a person can go from using a mouse to very easily using the Multi-Touch Trackpad in no time flat.

Another aspect of the MacBook that makes it a joy to work with, is the ease of use of the Mac OS X Snow Leopard. While any new software will take time getting use to, the learning curve for the Mac OS X is very fast. I think part of the reason for this is the intuitiveness of how the things are laid out. Apple also has some very good quick training videos that are quite helpful. Take a look at some of the Mac tutorials on how to do things.

Mac OS X Snow Leopard operating system is a pleasure to work with. It is very intuitive, which makes for a very easy transition to go from working with a Windows based machines to a Mac based operating systems. Of course, I am a bit biased in this area, since I have been using both Windows and Mac machines for quite some time. Never the less, some friends of mine who had been with Windows their whole lives, recently made the switch to Mac, and the operating system switch proved to be a very easy transition for them.

The high quality of the Apple MacBooks can not be overstated. Everything fits together like a form fitting glove. The opening of the screen display has just the right amount of hinge tightness. As I stated before, the trackpad is very smooth, and seems to just fit perfectly for your hands and fingers on the keyboard area. The keyboard has automatic backlighting, which in dim environments is great for quick reference. The MacBook Pro comes in a very sleek, 1.08 inches thin, aluminum unibody construction.

I bought the 13.3 inch MacBook Pro with the glossy widescreen display. This for me was the perfect fit for size and portability, but has plenty of desktop space with a screen of 1280-by-800 pixel resolution, made this one the ideal laptop solution for viewing documents, web sites, videos, and pictures.

The weight of the MacBook Pro 13 inch at 4.7 pounds is very manageable. It easily fits into a briefcase or backpack. I also suggest a carrying case to protect your MacBook. I decided to go with the Incase Nylon Sleeve Case for the Apple 13 inch MacBook Pro. The MacBook Pro fits perfectly in this padded case and provides extra storage areas on both sides for accessories. The case and the MacBook Pro worked out perfectly for a recent vacation trip from California to Florida with several layovers. The case added the extra protection and allowed me to quickly place the MacBook in my carryon suitcase, and quickly remove it for airport security checks. The case also comes with a removable shoulder strap and is available in three colors, black, graphite, and mustard.

The MacBook Pro is such a pleasure to use for all aspects of computing. For example, when it comes to viewing video on the screen, it is second to none. The display is rich in color, bright, and vivid to look at. Movies are cool to watch and when it comes to catching up on your television shows like Flash Forward episodes, it is incredible to watch it on the MacBook. It’s as though watching it on the MacBook Pro is better than on the TV screen. The stereo sound quality from the computer is great too. The audio level has decibels of sound to spare. You can actually make the sound too loud for others in the room. Forget trying that with any other netbook.

With the built-in iSight camera and microphone, doing a Google Video Chat was simply amazing. The camera and built-in microphone worked great together. I was able to use the camera in both low light and regular lighting conditions. The chat session was perfect. There was no audio feedback and the person on the other end said the audio and video were perfect too.

The battery life is rated at 7 hours, but that is under somewhat controlled conditions. Apple quotes the following from their website:

Testing conducted by Apple in May 2009 using preproduction 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo-based MacBook Pro units. Battery life depends on configuration and use. See www.apple.com/batteries for more information. The wireless productivity test measures battery life by wirelessly browsing various websites and editing text in a word processing document with display brightness set to 50%.

I typically like my screen brighter than 50%, and was able to generally get about 5+ hours of battery usage on three battery cycles. However, I was playing videos, browsing the Internet through wireless connections, and searching for other wireless Internet connections during this time.

The charging plug is held in place with a super strong magnet, which if someone catches the cord will simply pull the connector off the MacBook without pulling the MacBook down to the floor. Definitely a great safety feature. the charger is very compact, and fits nice and flat inside one of the Incase pockets I bought for the MacBook Pro.

The MacBook Pro 13 inch that I purchased has the 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB (two 2GB SO-DIMMs) of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM; which supports up to 8GB of memory, 250GB Serial ATA; 5400 rpm hard drive, and 8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW).

MacBook Pro Features

Left Side View of MacBook Pro 13 Inch Model

Connections and Expansion Ports

• MagSafe power port
• Gigabit Ethernet port
• One FireWire 800 port (up to 800 Mbps)
• Mini DisplayPort
• Two USB 2.0 ports (up to 480 Mbps)
• SD card slot
• Audio in/out
• Kensington lock slot

Communications

• Built-in AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi wireless networking (based on IEEE 802.11n draft specification); IEEE 802.11a/b/g compatible
• Built-in Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate)
• Built-in 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet (RJ-45 connector)

Audio

• Built-in stereo speakers
• Built-in omnidirectional microphone
• Combined optical digital output/headphone out (user-selectable analog audio line in)
• Supports Apple Stereo Headset with microphone

Read more about all the MacBook Pro features today.

By the way, if a person really wants to have their cake and eat it too, in the form of Windows 7 on their MacBook, there is another feature that lets a person load any operating system they wish. Boot Camp is a utility included with Apple Inc.’s Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard" and v10.6 "Snow Leopard" operating systems that assists users in installing Microsoft Windows XP, Vista or 7 on Intel-based Macintosh computers. Boot Camp guides users through non-destructive re-partitioning (including resizing of an existing HFS+ partition, if necessary) of their hard disk drive and using the Mac OS X Leopard disc to install Windows drivers. In addition to device drivers for the hardware, the disc includes an applet for the Windows control panel for selecting the boot operating system.

In addition to Boot Camp, there are other avenues that are also available such as, VMware Fusion 3 and Parallels Desktop that provide the means of loading Microsoft Windows and other non Windows operating systems such as Linux OS onto the MacBook computers. Both VMware Fusion 3 and Parallels Desktop are helpful software applications that allow folks to run Windows applications directly and concurrently on their MacBooks and quickly switch between the two.

VMware Fusion 3

Parallels Desktop

VirtualBox

There is also an open source software, VirtualBox, available from Sun. VirtualBox is an x86 virtualization software package, originally created by German software company Innotek, now developed by Sun Microsystems as part of its Sun xVM virtualization platform. It is installed on an existing host operating system; within this application, additional operating systems, each known as a Guest OS, can be loaded and run, each with its own virtual environment.

“Presently, VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux, Macintosh and OpenSolaris hosts and supports a large number of guest operating systems including but not limited to Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Windows 7), DOS/Windows 3.x, Linux (2.4 and 2.6), Solaris and OpenSolaris, and OpenBSD.”

I have to say that the MacBook Pro is really a great all purpose laptop computer for business, school, and personal use. With ease of use, superb quality, immense versatility, and an awesome form factor, the value of this MacBook Pro computer is outstanding. You won’t want to leave home without it! Checkout the online Amazon Apple Store deals today.

Jim Warholic

Jim Warholic is President of Professional Web Services, Inc., an Internet Marketing Services firm specializing in B2B and B2C Internet marketing, SEO services, online advertising, and online branding strategies. Contact Professional Web Services today.

Sarah Scrafford of Web Design Schools Guide has put together a list of the top 20 iPhone Applications for Entrepreneurs and Consumers too. Learn how you can make the iPhone even a more powerful sales and marketing tool for your business, with applications such as voice recorder, language translations, expense trackers, maps, package tracking, personal budgets, news readers, calendars, events, and tasks. This is quite a collection that you need to checkout today. Go to Top 20 iPhone Apps for Entrepreneurs now.

Get your business found online today with Internet marketing services by Professional Web Services, Inc.

Best regards,

Jim

The Mozilla Forums have been talking about a weird Firefox 3 bug when trying to open an Adobe Acrobat PDF file within the browser window environment for some folks. I am one of those folks that is having a problem reading PDF files in Firefox. I feel like I’m hitting a brick wall on this one problem.

For some reason, when a pdf file is clicked on from the Web, Firefox 3 crashes and closes all windows abruptly and issues a crash report. This is also the case when trying to open a pdf file with the new Firefox 3 beta versions of the browser on my computer. However, the older Firefox 2.0 latest release runs fine and opens pdf files inside the browser window with no problems.

Some have said that this is no big deal, and just simply download the pdf files to your downloads folder, and then open it up with Acrobat Reader or some other PDF Reader program. I do have to say though, it is a big deal for me. I need to view PDF files regularly online, and I don’t want to clutter my downloads folder with pdf files that I don’t need. For example let’s take an online catalog that might have hundreds of individual parts sections, broken down by pdf file sections, that need to be quickly viewed to see which parts are the ones I am looking for online. If I have to download each section of the parts catalog before I know which one I really need, this can take much longer than simply clicking on the links and opening the pdf files in the browser window.

I have tried numerous things over the past month or two. I tried reloading Firefox 3, tried reloading Acrobat Reader 9, and tried disabling all the Firefox Add-ons with absolutely no success. I even tried going back to an older version of Acrobat Reader 8, but I still have the same exact problem with Firefox crashing and closing all the windows. In addition to all of those items, I also ran a registry cleaner program that fixes various problems with the computer software registries. None of this made any difference in the problem.

On top of this, I verified that PDF files will open in Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera, SeaMonkey, and Safari web browsers all work with pdf files on the computer.

There is one way I can get Firefox to open a PDF file, and that is through the IE Tab add-on. The Firefox IE Tab add-on mimics Internet Explorer so a person can open pages within Firefox as though they are Internet Explorer pages. Actually, this add-on is extremely useful for websites that require Internet Explorer to view properly or to edit the pages for an IE only editor. So, when I click the PDF file and open it in a new IE tab, the file is opened properly using the latest version of Firefox.

I am using Windows XP Professional 32-bit operating system software with 4 GB of RAM and Service Pack 3 installed. along with all the latest Windows XP software updates. Note that the memory is only addressable to approximately 3.37 GB of the total 4 GB RAM because of the Windows 32-bit OS software limitations.  The processor is an AMD Phenom 9850 Quad-Core Processor operating at 2.50 GHz.

If anyone has any suggestions I’d appreciate it. Jim

By-the-way, are you hitting a brick wall online with your business website? Get your business found in the search engine results today. Internet marketing by Professional Web Services.

Microsoft Windows Live Writer Multi Platform Blog Writer & Blog Editor Review
Five Star Recommendation

Table of contents posting was done with Microsoft Windows Live Writer to Jim’s Blogger account. See some of the cool features and read about Windows Live Writer blog editor software review below.

Jim’s Online Table of Contents For Internet Review

This is my year end table of contents for Internet Jim. Actually this TOC goes back a couple of years. I figured it was about time to have a quick review of some of the postings at this website. I created this template using Microsoft Windows Live Writer beta addition. Windows Live Writer is a cross platform, free desktop blog editor that allows you to quickly add tables to your blog postings. You can quickly and easily switch between multiple servers and blog platforms such as: Blogger, Windows Live, WordPress, SharePoint, LiveJournal, TypePad, Community Server accounts, and others. A number of features include quickly adding images, videos, maps, and tables.

The advanced tables feature was exactly the main feature I was searching for online, when I happen to stumble onto the Microsoft Live Writer software table solution. Tables, like a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet, are very useful when it comes to posting things in a logical order of columns and rows, with headings and descriptions included. Columns and rows can be quickly added and changed in size in a WYSISWYG, What You See Is What You Get, writing environment even if the cell, column, or row already has text or other information inside of it. Simply drag the columns or rows to increase their sizes and quickly set centering parameters for both the table and cells (horizontal and vertical parameters), and applying these horizontal and vertical parameters to entire columns and rows too.

Adding pictures into the middle of a blog posting is easy. Place your cursor where you want the image to be included in the posting, and click add image and have the text wrap too. There are some other cool features for images that makes if fun to just play around with the look and feel of what you intend to post online.

For example, you can quickly rotate an image and add watermarks to pictures that are on your computer to begin with, as the source picture, before uploading the image online. Add custom margins, borders, drop shadow borders, photo paper looks, reflections, rounded corners, and solid borders to images. Text wrap right (as the walking penny above), text wrap left (as the image is on the right), inline images, and image centering as the free form image below are just a click away. Linking to an image source or other url is easy without having to know any html coding. Images can also be added from an online source location such as Picasa Albums, Photobucket, ImageShack, Flickr, and other image hosting websites just by selecting the url of the image and adding it to the image prompt. You can also quickly size the image to any image size you need with customizable pre-assigned thumbnail sizes.

Additionally there are some really cool, fascinating, and advanced features for image editing. Contrast and brightness are easy to slide adjust, once again in a WYSISWYG view. A very powerful, yet intuitive cropping feature is also available for your image. As I said before, you can rotate the image, but also the image can be quickly tilted in the posting itself. See below.

Free Form Image With Tilt and Reflection Advanced Effects Features

This cool free-form picture certainly adds another image reflection and a completely new dimension to what you can do with a free-form picture image. Note the optical illusion along the left and right side of the image which makes it look like the posting is tilted.

Before the posting is ever published on the Internet, Windows Live Writer has the option to display the post in a preview form of the template you are using on the Web. This feature will show the full affect of how it will look when it is published online. You can also edit the source html code too. You can post to your blog in draft mode or publish live. Once the blog posting is published online, then you can use Microsoft Windows Live Writer to do future edits directly from your computer desktop and then re-publish your posting to view it online live.

Of course, Windows Live Writer features include a real time spell checker, save as draft mode, automatically save drafts at a fully customizable set period of time (every one, two, or three minutes, or more), plus it also includes word count, characters counter (with and without spaces counts), and paragraphs counts too. Links, font sizes, font styles, colors, bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, headings, block quotes, bullets, numbered lists, left align, center align, right align, and justified text is easy with a quick click from the icons at the top of the editor. Right click on the mouse to display most used features such as link building, alignment, numbering, and bullets. Auto linking is another feature. Simply type in the url address like http://wow.jimwarholic.com or predefine keyword hyperlinks and the software program turns it into a hyperlink for you. Sidebar can be switched off or on which will display recently posted and open drafts, along with insert hyperlinks, pictures, tables, maps, video, and add plug-ins too. Download the Windows Writer Beta now with new features.

Wow! I have to say, I really am quite impressed on what Microsoft Windows Live Writer Blog Editor can do. There are more features to this blog editor software program then meets the eye. With over a hundred add-on plug-ins available to download online, with more being added, Windows Live Writer is likely to become a very powerful and useful online/desktop software blog editor tool. And, did I tell you the best of all, Windows Live Writer is available free of charge.

Are you looking for the answers of how to get your business website found online? Are you looking for more customers from the Web today. Then, you are just a short click away to learning more about how professional Internet marketing services business solution that can propel your business on the Internet. Contact Professional Web Services now to have an online salesman that never gets tired and works for you 24×7. So, for your business website, just like the lucky internet penny above, he will walk miles for you.

It is possible to install an extra monitor on an iMac G5 computer and have what is known as “screen spanning” which is an extended desktop mode of operation.

Screen spanning is where your screen desktop area is extended to include the extra monitor (not a duplicate of your existing display). There is a small Apple mini VGA to regular VGA plug short adapter cable that is required to go from the small VGA port on the back side of the iMac computer and plug the other end into the monitor cable.

The original Apple OS X software for the iMac G5s did not provide screen spanning capabilities. The hardware can handle it, but Apple chose not to enable it in the software. Not sure the reason behind Apple’s decision on that. Apple only supported dual monitors with both monitors displaying the same information on the screens at the same time. However, there is a free software modification that can make use of the hardware capabilities of the internal video card on the motherboard in the iMac G5 computers. The video card on the iMac G5 20 is a built-in nVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 directly mounted on the motherboard. The iMac motherboard essentially provides the means to have two monitors using the Apple Mini-VGA to VGA Display Adapter for a Mac. The mini-VGA adapter will cost you somewhere around $20.00, including shipping charges, to purchase from Amazon. You might be able to buy one for a little bit less.

You can download the latest version of the Screen Spanning Doctor (v0.3.3) software. Screen Spanning Doctor (0.3.3) supports Tiger. Click on the link to be sure your Apple computer is compatible and able to make use of this software mod. The software patch was for the iBook, eMac, and iMac computers. You can view which models are supported. Please note, the site has the following disclaimer that I would also have to echo too:

“Please note that I cannot be responsible for any damage that you might do to your computer. This site is for educational purposes only and you are responsible for everything you do with the given information. …”

The cool part about this addon monitor screen spanning mode of operation, is it can have its own separate monitor configurations for screen resolutions, and even the background picture for the desktop can be different too. The screen saver program can display different designs on each monitor. It doesn’t mean you can have different screen savers running at the same time, it just means that a Screen Saver like Cosmos, which has different images from the universe, each monitor will display a different image at the same time. I personally have installed the screen spanning software on my iMac G5 and it works terrific for me.

If you are thinking to use an extra monitor because your Apple iMac G5 20 or iMac G5 17 inch is having main display problems, your problem might actually be a bad motherboard. The capacitors for the video display unit located on the iMac G5 Mainboard go bad (burst open, leak electrolytic fluid, and dry up) along with additional filtering capacitors that blow up on other areas of the motherboard. Refer to the article I wrote about How to Repair Apple iMac G5 Motherboards and replace those bad capacitors. Or, the problem may be with your Apple Power Supply Unit.

When an extra monitor is plugged in to the port on the back of the iMac G5, the Apple software senses a new monitor is installed and provides the available screen resolutions for each, on each monitor. So, when you go to System Preferences, and click on Displays, the configuration settings appear on each of the monitors’ screens with each specific configuration particular to each monitor. Arrangement of the monitors can be on the left, right, top, or bottom by simply dragging the monitor to the position you would like. If you decide to have your monitors stacked on a shelf, one above the other, you can place the monitors under one another on the setup screen. If you wish to have them on your desktop, side-by-side, then place the setup screen on the left or right. When your monitors are set up the way you want, the mouse will track accordingly. For example, if you have your monitors side-by-side, then when you move your mouse to the right, you will then go over to the other screen. This is handy if you regularly have lots of windows open and wish to expand your Mac desktop area. Or, you can have one application on display on one screen and have another running on the other. Just drag the open software application screen to the other monitor. Colors can also be calibrated between each of the screen monitors too.

With the price on large screen LCD monitors having dropped significantly over the years, now is the time to add more real estate graphic exposure to your desktop area today.

Speaking of more graphic exposure, get your business discovered online with Professional Web Services, Internet marketing services. Learn how we can help grow your business on the Internet. Start earning more sales and gaining qualified leads from your website today. Find out how your website can work for your business as a super online sales and marketing tool.

Apricorn DriveWire – Universal Hard Drive Adapter

SATA 2.5″ or 3.5″ Hard Drives and Parallel HDs, IDE 44 Pin Adapter, or IDE 40 Pin Adapter for Laptop Drives & Desktop Drives to USB Interface

Have you ever wanted to get information off an old Windows PC internal hard drive or just a dead computer? Maybe you have a dead Apple iMac G5, G4, or G3 and need to recover the data off the hard drive. Have you ever wanted to be able to install a new larger hard drive in your notebook computer, MacBook, MacBook Pro, or other Intel-based iMacs, or a desktop PC and do it quickly, with all the drivers, and software intact? Well, I’ve got the answer for you.

Here is a cool device from Apricorn that makes it easy to plug in any new or used internal hard drive from a laptop or desktop (Mac or PC), to any external USB port on another Apple MAC or a Microsoft OS PC.

Apricorn includes both the DriveWire hard drive adapter hardware, with AC power adapter, cables, and USB cable, and software to be able to clone virtually any PATA/IDE or SATA, 2.5 or 3.5 inch, hard disk drives.

The DriveWire provides a hi-speed USB 2.0 interface to: SATA, 40 pin PATA/IDE, and 44 pin PATA/IDE.

DriveWire is bundled with Apricorn’s “Upgrade Suite” which features the award winning “EZ Gig II” cloning software for Windows and “Shirt Pocket’s SuperDuper!” for Mac

System Requirements

PC
Pentium CPU II or later, 64 MB RAM or more
Available USB 2.0 or USB 1.1 port
CD ROM or CD-RW drive
Windows 2000 Professional
Windows XP Home and Professional
Windows Vista

Mac
Apple G3 or later, 64 MB RAM or more
Available USB 2.0 or USB 1.1 port
CD ROM or CD-RW drive
Mac OS 9.2 or later, Mac OS X 10.2 or later

Five Star Recommendation * * * * *

I have used this universal hard drive plug-in adapter quite extensively myself for all types of applications. I have cloned Apple hard drives, tested old parallel IDE disk drives, used it to backup old computer systems, recovered files off a bad PC, and used it as an external connection for a spare hard drive for both PC and Mac computers. People have used it to quickly backup their system on an old hard drive and then placed that backup into a secure fire safe, not to be touched unless all else fails. The HD adapter has been a lifesaver for me. I don’t like to touch a computer system unless I have a backup to begin with. You do not need to install any backup software or other special device drivers if you are just plugging in various hard drives.

Follow the simple instructions and make sure to set your IDE PATA hard drives only, to “Master mode” (not cable select) with the jumper setting on the hard drive, and you are set to go. Note, master mode is a jumper setting that only applies to 3.5″ PATA hard drives and determines which hard drive is the main device on the ATA bus. Most newer PC Bios systems and motherboards utilized cable select mode jumper settings on the hard drives to automatically identify which drive is the primary and which drive is the secondary based on cable hookup. In “Cable Select” mode, the black cable connector plugs into the primary master drive, gray cable connector plugs into the secondary slave drive, and the blue connector attaches to the computer motherboard or host IDE controller.

Once you have confirmed this important “master” jumper setting on the HD, then simply plug in one hard drive at a time to the DriveWire adapter and plug the USB cable into your USB port, and it shows up on your “My Computer” on a PC, or your desktop on a Apple Mac. You can copy and retrieve information from an old HD drive. That is the beauty of this plug-in device. Fast, easy to use, reliable, and really really handy too.

Pictured below, from left to right is the Apricorn adapter, USB cable, AC cable which plugs into AC adapter, AC adapter with drive plug, and software disk with both PC and MAC software included.

This device is great for IT departments, techies, and even the ordinary person that simply wants to easily plug in a hard drive to see what is on it. Check out the video on how easy it is to use.

Apricorn DriveWire – Universal Hard Drive Adapter How To Use Video

How To Instructions For Cloning or Copying Old Laptop Hard Drives to Large Hard Drives – Article Addendum 12/15/08

Here is a question from a reader in Internet land about his laptop hard drive.

I have a question. I have a small laptop hard drive (dara-206000), 6GB ATA/IDE IBM Travelstar. I want to transfer all the data from this small hard drive to another hard drive with the same features. Does this universal hard drive adapter would work for me?

Here is the answer.

It depends on how you intend to use it. First off, if the hard drive is still in the laptop, then you need to have a USB 1.1 or USB 2.0 port available on your laptop to clone directly with the adapter to the computer’s internal hard drive. Then once you’ve done that, simply pull out the internal HD and replace it with the new higher capacity laptop drive.

If you have the hard drive in your hands, then you can copy the entire drive onto another computer then copy the the contents back directly onto your new hard drive and then install the new hard drive into your old laptop with all the software intact. You will probably need to use the included backup software to get all the system files transfered. You can also use backup software such as Acronis. See: Upgrading Computer Hard Drive and Backup Software

It’s important to note that the adapter is designed to only hook up one drive at a time to the output port of the adapter and then hook up the input to a USB port of a computer. The hard drive will show up as an external hard drive on the computer’s “My Computer” page for a Microsoft Windows OS PC or display on the desktop for an Apple Mac OS computer.

The Adapter is for SATA 2.5″ or 3.5″ Hard Drives and Parallel HDs, IDE 44 Pin Adapter, or IDE 40 Pin Adapter for Laptop Drives & Desktop Drives to USB 1.1 and 2.0 Interface.

Buy it Now: Apricorn Drivewire Universal HDD Adapter USB To 2.5IN & 3.5IN Sata & Pata

Hope that helps explain the details of how to go about transferring the HD information from one HD to the other. By-the-way, you could even use the Apricorn DriveWire adapter to clone to a solid state hard drive – SSD HD too.

Best regards,

Jim

PS Learn more about quickly retrofitting to a SSD, Solid State Diskdrive in a laptop, notebook, and Apple & PC desktops too.

Don’t make the mistake, before it is too late; backup your system now. And don’t forget to get your business discovered online with Internet marketing services from Professional Web Services today.