Category: Basic Computer Skills

In this lesson we will look at the principle of using multiple hard drives for backup or redundancy purposes. In later lessons we look at specific ways of achieving this.

As we know, the hard drive is where permanent information and data is stored in our computer.

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Sometimes hard drives can have mechanical failures. In this case we might lose all our data. This is why it is important to regularly backup our data.

Another means of making sure our data is safe is known as redundancy. Redundancy is where we have multiple copies of the data so if any one copy fails there is always another copy.

There are many ways of achieving this. One way is to have multiple physical drives in the machine. Then we can configure the computer to use the multiple drives simultaneously.

This is known as RAID, which stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks.

One obvious way of using a RAID configuration is to have several hard drives that all contain the same data.

So we might have Drive 1, Drive 2 and Drive 3. But our computer considers them all to be the same drive, “Drive C”. Every time we write to “Drive C” we actually write physically onto all three drives. This means that writing to a RAID in this way is slower, as we write everything three times. But if one of the drives fails we always have the other two drives as automatic backups so our data is safe!

There are other ways of configuring RAID. Each one has tradeoffs, as sometimes we will be increasing the time required to write data, or speeding up reading data, or having more redundancy or less redundancy.

For example, if we wanted to have very quick time to read data we might ‘stripe’ it across two drives. This means that when we go to read a large file we are reading part of it from one drive, and part from another drive, so we can read both at once. This makes it very quick to read data. However, this is more dangerous for our data as now we have two points of failure: either drive could fail and we would lose ALL the data.

Now you have seen the principle of using multiple hard drives simultaneously we will look at practical examples in the next lessons.

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Windows operating system is very powerful, but it does not have the ability to do everything
we might want to do with our computers. We can add new programs to our computer in order to increase our capabilities.

In this lesson we will install some example new software.

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First we must find the software we want to install. This can be by buying a physical copy of the software from a local computing shop. In this case you insert the included disk.

However these days most software is downloaded from the internet.

First we find the website for the software we want to install by searching for it.

CAUTION: Make sure you are on a trustworthy website before you download software. We will cover how to determine the trustworthiness of websites in a future lesson, but for now ensure you go to the website of a reputable company and find their download page.

For example, let’s install a new internet browser, such as Mozilla Firefox.

We know Mozilla is a trustworthy company that makes internet browsers, so we go to www.mozilla.org to look for the download.

Here we see a download button.

When we click the button our browser asks us to confirm what we want to do with this download.

Usually our browser will give us an option to immediately run the program, or to save it to run later. Since we want to install the program now we can click “Run” so the installation will begin as soon as it is downloaded.

Remember, even though we’re using Firefox browser as our example, the same process applies for installing other software, such as anti-virus or word processing or even video games.

Next the installation program runs.

These steps will vary for the different programs you install. Normally you have to click another button to begin the installation. For example:

After you click this button you are usually asked where on your computer you would like the software to be installed.

This normally doesn’t matter so you can leave it as the default, which is usually “C:\Program Files\” – this is the location on your computer where Windows places installed software.

If you have another hard drive you would like to install the software on (for example maybe you want to conserve space on your C: drive) you can choose a different folder at this stage.

There may be other installation options – all software has its own install process. Nowadays most software has standard install options so if you are unsure you can press ‘Next’ to continue.

And finally usually the install process ends with an “Install” button:

You can click this, and the software will automatically install!

Once your software is installed you can find it in the Start Menu (usually at the bottom left of your screen), or it may open automatically following the installation.

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In order to use a Windows computer you must log on with your user account. Here we see how to create a new account.
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The Start Menu has been a standard feature in Microsoft Windows ever since Windows 95. It has changed and evolved over the years but the essential idea has remained the same: it is the central place where you can find all of the programs installed on your computer.

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Originally the ‘Start’ button actually had the word Start on it, like this:

Eventually it became more colourful:

And in modern version of Windows it often doesn’t even have the word ‘Start’ on it!

However, the basic idea has remained unchanged. This is the standard way to access all of the programs installed on your computer.

You can:

• Click the Start button, and use your mouse to browse all the programs installed
• Click Start and begin typing the name of the program you are looking for.
• You can even press the Windows Key on your keyboard instead of clicking the button

Clicking the Start button shows you a list of all the programs on your computer. For example:

Each program has an icon and a name. Some programs are organised in groups:

You can click the name of the group to open it and see what programs are in that group.
Finally when you have found the program you want – either by looking through the list or by typing the name of it – you click on it to open the program.

If you right-click the Start button you can select ‘Properties’, and from here you can customize your Start menu experience by choosing the ‘Start Menu’ tab and pressing ‘Customize’.

Here are the possible options:

You can turn off options that you don’t often use to make it less cluttered for you!
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