Long gone, but now back… sort of. :)
(Answer requested by Pavlov Pascale) Sure. If you have deep enough pockets, you can even buy USB pen drives up to a full 2TB — that’s TB, not GB — in size. Two terabytes is huge capacity in a pen drive, but the price is likewise outsized — something like $1000/TB, or roughly 10x more…
In a word: No. On this page, Microsoft states (emphasis added): “Starting with the May 2019 Update, the system requirements for hard drive size for clean installs of Windows 10 as well as new PCs changed to a minimum of 32GB.“ That’s Windows itself. MS Office also needs room, although the space requirements vary by type…
It depends what you want to use as the HD source. If the source is another PC or similar device (smartphone, tablet, laptop…), you can likely use any remote desktop, screen sharing, Twitch-type screen-streaming, or any similar type of app (that both devices support) to display whatever’s on the source screen on your Win8.1 PC’s…
Your question touches on two separate things. First, yes: Cloning can perfectly replicate everything that’s on a PC’s disk. If the PCs are truly identical (as in a managed corporate setting), and the OS is licensed for it, then you only need one Master disk image, which can then be deployed/installed more or less simultaneously…
A classic hard drive is a complex mechanical assemblage consisting of a circuit board, one or more spinning platters, a spindle, a hub, bearings, several read/write heads on actuating arms, at least two electric motors, and miscellaneous wiring, connectors, and other parts. (Examples.) In contrast, a SATA SSD contains just air and a circuit board….
(Answer requested by Anthony Dimpu) Sure. In general, drive cloning basically just hoovers up the ones and zeros from a source disk; and lays them down, unchanged and unexamined, in an exactly analogous pattern on another disk. It doesn’t matter to the cloning software what the ones and zeros represent, or whether the data is…
The general rule is: Put the operating system, and your other most-frequently-accessed files, on the fastest drive. NVMe drives can be faster than classic SATA drives; but the fastest SATA SSDs are faster than some run-of-the-mill NVMe SSDs. Plus, some of the spec-sheet advantages of NVMe may not matter all that much under real-world conditions….
Yikes! I hope that’s all that was damaged. Because the USB socket may still be receiving power from the PC, start by turning off the PC completely: Unplug it from the wall, and remove any battery (if possible), etc. With the PC totally off and inert, you’re free to use any small tool you wish…
Yup. It’s not a widespread practice, but floppies crop up in places you might not expect. One spectacular example: The U.S. is still using floppy disks to run its nuclear program ( https://www.cnn.com/2016/05/26/us/pentagon-floppy-disks-nuclear/index.html ) US nuclear force still uses floppy disks ( https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36385839 ) The Pentagon’s Huge Atomic Floppies ( https://time.com/4348494/pentagon-nuclear-floppy-disks/ ) Yes, The Pentagon…
It depends on what level of snooping you want to guard against. But in all cases, it’s smart to start by reformatting and data-wiping any kind of drive/memory that you’re discarding. So, that’s the first step. Next, you can deter casual snoops simply by destroying the physical USB package: Use pliers to break off the…