World's biggest tech myths

What's common between the Lochness monster, Yeti and radiation from PC monitor causing cancer? Well, they all are myths!

One of the long timer in the list of tech-related myths is that switching off power without shutting down damages the PC.

Also, many believe that as their email account is password-proof it can never be hacked.

Well, with little grounding there are many such myths that haunt the tech world.

Here I bring you some of the most common technology myths :

No magnets near my PC

This would have been true in the case of a floppy drive, however, hard drives and laptops are immune to magnetic radiation as they are free from magnetic composition.

And like this, thumbdrives, memory cards and CDs too are, so don't get hyper and go crazy with those fridge magnets.

Most of the storage devices, like SD cards are immune to magnetic fields.

PC monitor radiation causes cancer

No! It won't. Radiation from your cell phone might give you a brain tumour, but a monitor is harmless.

The radiation from your monitor is too weak and also at a different frequency, so rest assure you are totally safe.

In fact, according to several studies the amount of ultra violet radiation produced by a computer monitor is only a small fraction of that produced by florescent lighting.

Cookies track every move

Cookies do track your activities on a website. But they are simple things which will make sure that your next visit to the site is simple and hassle free.

Cookies are basically small text files that help the browser remember specific information like your ID and password, preferences, shopping cart information etc. Plus, they are usually deleted when you shut down your browser.

To delete cookies in IE, go to Tools, click Internet Options, click the Privacy tab, and click Advanced to override automatic cookie handling.

Stop a USB device before unplugging

This applies only in a few cases. This is said to ensure that the USB device is not unplugged while data is being read from or written to it.

Doing so would corrupt the file being transferred or maybe damage the USB drive. However, when the USB is in an idle mode it can be unplugged without going through the entire process of 'Safely Remove hardware’.

For devices like keyboard, mouse, printers and scanners, you can just unplug them when not in use.

Never switch off before Shut Down

Many believe that turning power off without shutting down PC physically damages its hard drive. However, this is an age-old myth and has no grounding.

However, users do lose their data if they were working and have not saved before switching off the power.

Also, many users believe that one should shut down PC every couple of hour so that it can rest. The thought may be nice, but shutting down your PC every few hours may actually be harmful to your PC.

Components in the PC are most stressed when they have to either boot or shut down. Doing that every few hours will keep it under constant stress. However, this doesn't mean you must keep your computer on forever. Operating systems do need a shut down once in a while, because even the best operating systems crash if not given a rest.

Clearing recycle bin deletes data forever

Well many may relax when they delete their trash files.

However, this is no reason to cheer. In fact, Windows just marks the area of the disk occupied by such files as empty, but does not delete the data.

There are many file recovery software available such as TOKIWA DataRecovery that enables you to undelete files, even if they have been removed from the recycle bin. Such programmes can track the deleted files in the hard disk.

Recovery of the deleted files is possible as long as the disk area is not overwritten by any new disk.

Anti-viruses are foolproof

Though an anti-virus is a must-must, but one cannot just relax especially in a 24X7 connected world.

No single antivirus programme can completely safeguard you against virus, trojan, malware and spyware attack.

There may be chances that the anti-virus programme loaded in your PC may not be effective against spyware or other kinds of malware not classified as viruses.

Also, in case of a bigger attack, the security vendor may take long time to issue a security update.

Hence, users should make sure that their PCs are loaded with anti-spyware programme. Also, keep regularly updating your anti-virus software.