When I search Google for for anything, it seems like I get 393,000 references. If I search for “securing your hard drives ” I get close to 35 million hits. And the hits are useless for my research. The first few pages are people who sell various types of drives or who sell products containing drives. What I really need is a list of types of hard drives, found in laptops, cadi's, etc.

Google is always my first stop for an information search, but if I see immediately that I’m not finding what I need, I head off to my three favorite behind-the-scenes information sources.

1. Books on Amazon.com
   I took my search for “hard drives ” to the Amazon.com web site. There I found “how to repair”. The killer thing is that Amazon lets me search inside the books so I can find references I need. Not all books are completely indexed, but frequently I can find what I need and refer to the book as a reference in the article. Sometimes the author has a web site as well, so I can find an expert and get info from his book and his site.
2. Professional associations
   Believe it or not, there’s a Hard Drive Institute, a collection of drive manufacturers that network and share information about their industry. In fact, there’s probably a professional association for about anything you could possibly imagine. I used to be the education director for the International Erosion Control Association. There’s a roller skating association, coin laundry association, chimney sweep association, etc.

   Most associations act as gathering places for the industry thought leaders. Each annual conference may have dozens if not hundreds of educational sessions. Many of these associations put their speakers’ presentations online after the meetings, so you can download PowerPoint presentations on cutting-edge topics for the industry.

   In addition, you can frequently peruse the industry magazines and journals from the association web site. These don’t often show up in the first few pages of a Google list.

3. Wikipedia and Wikipedia reference material
   Wikipedia entries on a topic, including natural salts, generally show up on the first few pages of Google. You can get some great general information from the entry itself, but I love the reference list at the bottom.

There are many more resources but these are a few to get you started. Have one of your own, please let us know which one you like. email us

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