Computing Fundamentals Flashcards

A user installs a new 1 TB external drive, but Windows File Explorer shows its capacity as about 931 GB before any files are copied to it. What is the most likely explanation?

Answer: The manufacturer counts 1 TB as 1,000,000,000,000 bytes, while Windows measures in binary units (1 GB = 1,073,741,824 bytes)

Storage makers use decimal units, so 1 TB = 10^12 bytes. Windows counts in powers of 1,024 but still labels the result "GB". 10^12 ÷ 1,073,741,824 ≈ 931, so no space is missing. The two systems just measure the same bytes differently.

A technician installs 8 GB of RAM in an older PC that runs a 32-bit edition of Windows. After booting, System Information shows only about 3.2 GB as usable. What is the best fix?

Answer: Install a 64-bit edition of the operating system, provided the CPU supports it

A 32-bit OS can address at most 2^32 bytes (4 GB), and part of that range is reserved for hardware such as the graphics card, so usable RAM often ends up near 3–3.5 GB. A 64-bit OS on a 64-bit CPU removes this limit. Virtual memory, drivers, and slot placement don't change how much memory the OS can address.

A user keeps a laptop's work folder synced to a cloud storage service and thinks of it as a backup. Ransomware encrypts the local files. What is the biggest risk with this setup?

Answer: The encrypted files may sync to the cloud and overwrite the good copies, so recovery depends on the provider's version history

Syncing mirrors changes, including bad ones. When ransomware encrypts or deletes local files, those changes copy to the cloud and to every linked device. A real backup keeps separate copies from earlier points in time, ideally offline or unchangeable. Without that, you can only get files back if the service keeps version history or a recycle bin.

An employee needs a laptop to use no battery power at all while it sits in a bag over a long weekend, but wants to resume with all open programs exactly as they were. Which power option fits best?

Answer: Hibernate, because it saves the contents of RAM to the storage drive and then fully powers off

Hibernate writes the whole contents of RAM to a file on the drive (hiberfil.sys in Windows) and then cuts power, so it uses no battery and restores the session later. Sleep keeps RAM powered, so it slowly drains the battery. Fast Startup only saves the kernel state and closes your programs. Locking the screen leaves everything running.

A user wants to dual-boot an older operating system on a new PC, but the firmware stops it from loading and shows a message about an untrusted or unsigned bootloader. Which firmware feature is blocking it?

Answer: UEFI Secure Boot

UEFI Secure Boot checks the digital signature of each bootloader against trusted keys stored in the firmware. It refuses to run bootloaders that are unsigned or untrusted, which protects against bootkits and rootkits. The TPM stores keys and records boot measurements but doesn't block bootloaders this way. Boot order and Wake-on-LAN don't check signatures.

A user's 3-year-old laptop has a solid-state drive (SSD) that is getting slower. A coworker suggests running a full defragmentation every week. What is the best response?

Answer: Disagree, because SSDs have no moving read heads, and constant defragmenting adds needless write wear; make sure TRIM/optimization is running and free space is available instead

SSDs read any block equally fast, so a fragmented file barely slows them down, and moving data around uses up the drive's limited write cycles. The OS's 'Optimize' tool sends TRIM commands for SSDs, which tell the drive which blocks are no longer in use and keeps it fast. A very full SSD also slows down. Files on an SSD can still be fragmented at the file-system level; it just doesn't matter much, so the last option is wrong.