PC myths: the truth

Posted on 14 Jul 2008 at 15:02

 

Gallery

It's easy to pass the buck. "Congestion at the exchange - blame BT" is a common response from ISPs when consumers complain about pedestrian downloads, but it's not always true.

"Switch ISPs and you might see an increase from 1.5Mbit/s to 4Mbit/s, so it can't be down to contention on the BT network," says Ferguson.

Formatting is bad for your hard disk
Credibility rating 2/10
Origin Formatting allergies

Confusion reigns over what goes on inside sealed hard disks during the formatting process. The biggest myth is that formatting a hard disk can reduce its life expectancy.

One common belief, with little to back it up, is that platters can be scratched by read/write heads during the format. However, the heads don't actually touch the platters, so they shouldn't scratch the surfaces as is sometimes claimed, nor will they leave a deposit on the platters.

Another misconception suggests that formatting puts the moving parts of the disk under enormous pressure, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Formatting is actually less intensive than normal read/write operations, where parts are pecking around for the right files. Formatting is a contiguous beast so is completed in a strict order across the disk's sectors, so the head actuators are relatively static.

While it won't do any harm, formatting doesn't repair bad sectors that already exist, even if it looks like it. According to researchers at Western Digital, the process merely hides the damaged areas from the operating system, so they are no longer accessed during data writing.

For the record, formatting a disk doesn't make the data therein unrecoverable, either. That happens only when the sector is overwritten with new data.

MOD scientists given Ladybird computer lessons
Credibility rating 5/10
Origin Former employees' excessive spare time

In the 1970s, when computers were new and exciting, Whitehall marched to the beat of the Cold War and carrot wine was a fashionable tipple, the Ministry of Defence realised that it needed to get to grips with the silicon age.

Not being all that well-endowed in the computing knowledge department, the ministry turned to a range of Ladybird books aimed at children. So started the government's IT outsourcing program.

Former Ladybird officials have accepted that the ministry approached them asking for an unbranded copy of How it Works: The Computer. Legend has it that the Ministry of Defence book had to be part of a special print run, because senior ranks in Whitehall thought it would appear unbecoming for the nation's top military brass to be learning the computing ropes from a book that was aimed squarely at children. All branding had to be removed.

Collectors with too much time on their hands have painstakingly contacted former employees from the Ministry of Defence and Ladybird. However, although many will admit that a special edition may have been produced, there is no actual evidence to back up the claims that a rebranded book ever saw the light of day. Furthermore, no collector or dealer has ever seen a copy of the book.

Author: Stewart Mitchell