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How to Extract Data from a LOREX Fusion 4K N846A6-Z NVR System

0 Comments | This entry was posted on Feb 11 2024

The LOREX Fusion 4K N846A6-Z NVR System (Network Video Recorder) is a surprisingly sparse and light system for recording security camera footage.

A client was unable to locate her password and required data from the device for a divorce proceeding. The device was FedEx’d to me and my first step was to remove the internal 2TB Seagate SkyHawk Lite (ST2000VX007/2AY102-515) 3.5″ hard drive for cloning.

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The Proprietary Plight of the Drobo

0 Comments | This entry was posted on Nov 27 2022

There’s something intensely alluring about tech like the Drobo. I am reminded of a time when solving a problem permanently was a primary goal. A time when devices had clear purposes and switches had a satisfying click to them. The Drobo has both a satisfying power switch and also some auto-on creative capabilities.

Drobo front panel with lights
The Drobo 5D Front LED Panel

The proprietary BeyondRAID filesystem scheme which cleverly makes use of multiple drives in a JBOD-like-manner but with redundancy is also, it turns out, is its greatest weakness, preventing the product from being dependable over the very long term. The reason for this is simple: relying on a proprietary filesystem requires having a backup for the Drobo device itself. Sure, the data is still intact, but unreadable on anything but a Drobo. Worse still, the Drobo 5D is not compatible with the Drobo 5N for some reason. So, swapping the drives in that way could easily destroy all of the data.

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Celluon LaserKey CL850 Review

0 Comments | This entry was posted on Jun 15 2010

Yeah, I had to buy this. No, it wasn’t necessary. I decided on the Celluon LaserKey CL850 because it is the latest laser virtual keyboard and it supports a USB connection, unlike the CL-800BT which only supports bluetooth. I felt compelled to write this review because every other review I saw had awful low-res out of focus photos and didn’t show the product in enough detail. So, here we go.

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The Importance of Properly (Thoroughly) Testing Your Memory

0 Comments | This entry was posted on Jul 03 2009

When I used to teach high school, I would describe RAM (Random Access Memory or simply “memory”) as physical desk space, and virtual memory as putting stuff on the floor. So, stuff on your desk (RAM) is the stuff you can access right away, and when the desk is full, you have to put your stuff on the floor (the hard drive) which takes longer to get. Since all hard drives are slower than RAM, it’s always good to have plenty of RAM.

Over the years I have found it is pretty rare to find memory defects, but when they do exist, your system can become incredibly erratic. Having faulty RAM can cause your system to give you BSODs, lock up inexplicably with no warnings or error prompts, restart endlessly in a loop, not boot at all and can even cause a loss of data if you are able to run the system and a piece of software is attempting to access the faulty area(s) of RAM. I am not necessarily suggesting you purchase ECC (Error-Correcting Code) RAM, but I am suggesting that you take the time to test your RAM at least once — and test it the right way.

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How-To Transfer Data From Old Laptops

1 Comment | This entry was posted on Dec 14 2008

To be clear, this is really just a brief overview of how to take out a typical laptop HDD (hard disk drive) and then plug it into a desktop system in order to retrieve the contents. This happens frequently. Old laptops give out in one way or another, sometimes it’s the display, the PSU (power supply unit) or the motherboard. Whatever it is, after a certain number of years it typically costs less than the cost of a new computer altogether. Unfortunate and wasteful, yes, but that’s the reality.

When the laptop “dies” or doesn’t boot up, if you’re lucky, the HDD has suffered no mechanical failure and is just fine, even if somehow Windows won’t load (like an NTLDR missing error, for example). Chances are, your data will be just fine and the fastest possible way to get the data off is to simply take the drive out and deal with it at the source.

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HP Pavilion TX2500 Review

1 Comment | This entry was posted on Nov 15 2008

I have recently replaced my TX1000 with a TX2500 and despite a few little hiccups during the setup, I am very impressed with the improvements.The TX2500 is solid, light and sports a real touchscreen with wacom pen. Battery life is quite good and I recommend setting the power mode to “Balanced” rather than the standard “HP Recommended” that ships with the unit and manually adjusting the screen brightness to your tastes.

Physically, the TX2500 varies very little from the TX1000, where the major improvements lie are in the touchscreen and performance. My feeling about the TX1000 was that it was drastically underpowered and not up for the challenge of running Vista. The TX2500, however, feels powerful, balanced, and runs cool to boot.

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