Sunday, December 5, 2010

How To Choose The Best Tape Drive Repair Depot

When your tape drive breaks and your backup is down it can become a critical decision making process choosing a tape drive repair company since so much rests on backing up your computers data. Many selection factors should be considered before you ship your backup device off to a tape drive repair depot if it is near by or across the continent. Some times the nearest repair company is not the best one.

The first point to consider involves the turnaround time or time it will take to get the repair done. Some depot repair houses for tape drives can get the work done in 1 or 2 days for an extra expedite fee. Some repair houses could take up to 4 weeks if they do not have the parts and need to order parts. Most reputable repair facilities can repair your drive in about a week. Make sure you know if they have ample parts to do the work before sending your drive in. And consider that this time period is not including shipping time into the facility or back to your location. So if you are in a hurry do not ship the drive across country via UPS Ground which could take 5 days to arrive at the destination. It might pay to ship the drive in overnight and have it shipped back overnight. The shipping in and back is paid by you not the repair house unless you make that part of the price.

The second point to go over involves the warranty on the repair. Is it 1 month, 3 months or 6 months in length or longer? Naturally, the longer the warranty the better. If you can buy an extended warranty even better. So compare apples with apples when it comes to the length of the warranty when choosing a repair vendor and comparing pricing.

Third, find out what is covered under the warranty? Does the warranty cover just parts replaced or does it cover the whole drive or unit? If it is only the parts replaced then make sure you know which parts were replaced. Ask for a detailed breakdown on the parts replaced when you get a bill or invoice. You may need this information if you have a warranty issue in the future. If the warranty does cover the whole unit the process is much clearer but do know what parts the warranty covers before you ship your drive out.

Fourth factor, find out how long the repair company you are considering has been in business, how long they have been repairing tape drives and how good is their reputation? This can be done easily by asking the company and checking via the Better Business Bureau and checking online. The longer the company has been in business and the better their reputation the more likely you are to get your repair done quickly and professionally. A tape drive repair company that is not well established may not be around next year to honor the warranty that you paid for. The company should have an established return RMA numbering process. The return material authorization (RMA) number should be assigned to your repair job in advance and that number is put on your shipping box and referenced if needed via communications with the repair house. Some vendors have this process online which is very convenient.

Lastly, when you add in all the above factors, how competitive is the price quoted for the repair job? Is the price a flat fixed rate or will there be extra costs added on later? Is the price quoted including the tape drive head? Note a complete fixed price or flat rate price will include the head but some vendors will get your drive in to their facility and then start adding costs on after they get your drive so ask in advance or get them to commit to a flat rate price even if the head is bad before you send the drive in. If the drive cannot be repaired do find out if a bench fee will apply also or not. If the repair is on an estimated basis or labor plus parts basis do get all the details on how that works before you ship.

Armed with the above information about your depot tape drive repair company you will be better equipped to choose or select the best place for your broken tape drive to be fixed.

Visit tape drive repairs to get more information on Pinnaclemicro's tape drive, autoloader and tape library repair services. All major types of drives are supported 4mm, 8mm, DLT, SDLT, LTO, MLR They guarantee to beat any competitors price by 5%.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

AIT Tape Drive Repair - Not all AIT Tape Drive Repair Companies Are Equal

One of the possible reasons you are reading this article is that you are searching for a guide on choosing an AIT tape drive repairs center. Or you are on this page because you have consulted a repair center previously that maybe you were not satisfied with their services and or products.

Some times it is really a tough challenge to choose a repair company especially now a days. It seems there are lots of repair center that can fool you by saying they are the best and they can fix anything under the sun. So, you need to put time and efforts into just finding the right service center that really specializes in tape backup products such as libraries, autoloaders and tape drives.

The right repair center must be able to provide repair, sales and support. The company should be able to diagnose, evaluate, repair and test the unit. It should also provide products for sale so that the spare parts that might be needed by your unit are readily available and so then you don’t have to wait for a number of days for the spare parts to arrive.

Friday, December 3, 2010

How To Select The Best Tape Drive Repair Company

When your tape drive breaks and your backup is down it can become a critical decision making process choosing a tape drive repair company since so much rests on backing up your computers data. Many selection factors should be considered before you ship your backup device off to a repair depot if it is near by or across the continent. Some times the nearest repair company is not the best one.

The first point to consider involves the turnaround time or time it will take to get the repair done. Some depot repair houses for tape drives can get the work done in 1 or 2 days for an extra expedite fee. Some repair houses could take up to 4 weeks if they do not have the parts and need to order parts. Most reputable repair facilities can repair your drive in about a week. Make sure you know if they have ample parts to do the work before sending your drive in. And consider that this time period is not including shipping time into the facility or back to your location. So if you are in a hurry do not ship the drive across country via UPS Ground which could take 5 days to arrive at the destination. It might pay to ship the drive in overnight and have it shipped back overnight. The shipping in and back is paid by you not the repair house unless you make that part of the price.

The second point to go over involves the warranty on the repair. Is it 1 month, 3 months or 6 months in length or longer? Naturally, the longer the warranty the better. If you can buy an extended warranty even better. So compare apples with apples when it comes to the length of the warranty when choosing a repair vendor and comparing pricing.

Third, find out what is covered under the warranty? Does the warranty cover just parts replaced or does it cover the whole drive or unit? If it is only the parts replaced then make sure you know which parts were replaced. Ask for a detailed breakdown on the parts replaced when you get a bill or invoice. You may need this information if you have a warranty issue in the future. If the warranty does cover the whole unit the process is much clearer but do know what parts the warranty covers before you ship your drive out.

Fourth factor, find out how long the repair company you are considering has been in business, how long they have been repairing your type of tape drive ( 4MM DAT, 8MM DAT, DLT, SDLT SuperDLT, Ultrium, LTO, Travan, Data Cassette, MLR, 9-Track, VXA, 3480, 3490, 3490E ) and how good is their reputation? This can be done easily by asking the company and checking via the Better Business Bureau and checking online. The longer the company has been in business and the better their reputation the more likely you are to get your repair done quickly and professionally. A company that is not well established may not be around next year to honor the warranty that you paid for. The company should have an established return RMA numbering process. The return material authorization (RMA) number should be assigned to your repair job in advance and that number is put on your shipping box and referenced if needed via communications with the repair house. Some vendors have this process online which is very convenient.

Lastly, when you add in all the above factors, how competitive is the price quoted for the repair job? Is the price truly a flat fixed rate or will there be extra costs added on later? Is the price quoted including the tape drive head or not? Note a complete fixed price or flat rate repair should include the head but some vendors will get your drive in to their facility and then start adding costs on after they get your tape drive for the head and other parts. So always ask in advance or get them to commit to a flat rate fixed price even if the head turns out to be bad after you send the drive in. If the drive cannot be repaired do find out if a bench fee will apply also or not. If the repair is on an estimated basis or labor plus parts basis do get all the details on how that works before you ship.

Armed with the above information about your depot tape drive repair company you will be better equipped to choose or select the best place for your broken tape drive to be fixed.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Plasma TVs : What To Consider When Buying One

If you have made the decision to buy a plasma television, you may be finding that choosing your particular model isn't so easy. There are an array of choices and decisions that you will need to make. The first thing to do is consider some different aspects concerning your personal usage of this television. What may be best for one person might not be best for another. Some of the issues that you will need to consider are 1080p vs. 720p, TV screen sizes, and choice of plasma television brand.


The sizes of plasma range quite dramatically. Plasma televisions start at 32 inches and you can find them as large as 63 inches. Of course, it is no surprise that you will need to take into account the size of the space where your plasma will be placed. If you have a very tiny living room, a 63-inch screen might seem overwhelming. By the same token, a 32-inch plasma can look too small in a huge open space. You might also want to take into account whether or not you want the television to be the focal point of the room. Be sure to leave room for speakers as well. If you want to get the most out of your home theatre experience, high quality speakers on the side of the television are an absolute must.


You will have two basic options for your plasma TV screen quality. These are 720p and 1080p. The less expensive sets are probably 720p and the more expensive sets are 1080p. Of course, if you want the best picture quality available, you will want to purchase a 1080p plasma TV. The colors will be very vibrant and stunning due to the higher resolution. Remember that 1080p sets only display 1080p quality when this is what they receive. These television sets are great choice (and are probably worth the extra money) if you enjoy watching Blu-Ray movies.


Finally, you will need to decide the specific brand that you want to purchase. Many find that reading consumer review websites can help them narrow their choices. There are many high quality brands of plasma TVs available including Samsung, LG and Panasonic. The choice of which to choose is yours. Choosing a plasma TV requires determining your needed size, quality and brand of set. If you spend a bit of advance time considering your needs, you will be more likely to be completely satisfied with the outcome.


Continue : Cheap Plasma TVs

Advantages of Online Backup

You may be wondering why there is a need for online backup such as keepit online backup provides, when you can keep duplicate copies of your important files in optical discs, another hard drive, or flash drives.  It should be pointed out that one important benefit of using web storage is that the user is not required to do anything during the backup process.  What this means is that once you have specified the files to be backed up on a regular basis and the days when the backup process should be done, you do not have to worry about it anymore.  As long as your Internet file storage provider is one of the best, they will conduct the backup procedure in such a manner that you may not even notice that it is being performed.  This is done by taking advantage of the idle times for the computer system and the Internet connection.

Still another primary advantage of online backup is that the duplicate copies are stored in a remote location.  This eliminates the need to bring your backup copies to another location to keep them safe in case something happens to the location of your computer system, such as a fire, burglary, earthquake and other unexpected incidents.  Moreover, the disaster recovery process will be much simpler, such as accessing the files stored in the provider’s server.  Some providers may even permit backup of the operating system, which makes the recovery process even easier. 

Another important benefit of online backup is the use of advanced encryption technologies to prevent illegal access to the files.  Of course, you may also use these encryption techniques manually for backup copies kept in physical media like CDs, hard drives and flash drives.  However, the benefit provided by the web service is that this is also done automatically.  You do not have to be concerned that you might neglect to encrypt the backup files because this is automatically done in your computer before they are sent to the data center of the provider via the Internet.  Another benefit is that even if Internet connection is lost while you are working on a file, this is not a problem because sync software will automatically modify the backup copy once Internet access is restored.

Meanwhile, a possible disadvantage is that the Internet connection may slowly down substantially if the file to be processed is too big.  Some providers try to avoid this problem by specifying a limit to the size of an individual file.  Moreover, it is also possible to set up the schedule of the backup during those times when you are not using the computer. Try Clicking here for more info.