My hard drive crashed this morning. My desktop computer is not Vista compatible. Is this a good time to spring for that new laptop with Vista installed, or should I make every attempt to keep using XP by getting a new hard drive and reinstalling and upgrading my current XP program? My desktop is adequate for my needs. Opinions welcome.
ok, don't know your system,but you do have a rescue disk that came with it and dsl or hi speed net?
and how old is the system, and size of the hard drive?
and how much ram do you have
and are you happy with it ?
if you just go out and get a new vista basic laptop now you have a door stop and it will probably just sit in the back of a closet somewhere?
if you spend say $100 for a new hard drive it probably will be bigger and the system will be good for years
i tell anyone that wants vista to wait till at least sp-1 is out !!!
then there will be the usual oem's need some patches for it to even work !
not all the needed drivers or program support is out there yet! so you could have trouble installing older programs !
do you like clicking "allow" ?
you know that Intel corp and i think it was HP are not even going to install vista on their computers till after sp-1
the longer you wait for vista the more stable it will bee
and maybe it might be as fast as XP soon?
now if you really want a laptop with vista asap well do it, but what are you going to do with a dead box?
if you have the restore disk then you don't have to be a rocket scientist to get a new drive and get it up again !
you will need that damn decal with the windows number on it and have to have ms allow it but that should be no trouble for a hard drive !
i kinda like having a computer and a working "emergency computer" so my personel vote would be to gt a hard drive and then think of the laptop ;-D
my preference is when my XP dies with something i can't replace then i will just go to my Ubuntu system and forget ms as i am getting tired of every time i turn on the box ms wants to check in with mother before i can use it ( looking at the firewall log), tired of them making the specks bigger and the system slower,and have to upgrade hardware so i can spend $200 for the latest greatest system.
so i have
XP
Ubuntu Edgy
and a friend is giving me a old win98 box as too slow and obsolete, so i will hot rod it with more memory (512) and use it as a test box and load ubuntu feisty on it .
i just installed ubuntu on a win box a bit low on memory, it is a bit slow but the total cost of killing windows ME and installing ubuntu was $7 for a NIC, and it has everything that ms charges hundreds for ( open office and such)
QuoteMy desktop computer is not Vista compatible.
Sounds like it may have been around for a while.
I am most fortunate as I have Windows Vista Ultimate (installed with my MSDN subscription) so for the first time I don't have an OEM machine. But, as most of you know, I won the laptop (http://securitygarden.blogspot.com/2007/05/wow-finally-arrived-at-my-door.html) in a MVP BlogRocker contest. Otherwise I'd still be operating on the old XP Home Box.
Since I've only been using this machine for a short time, I don't have all the ins & outs established yet and am still discovering files on the old machine to transfer. However, so far, I can say that I like it a lot. UAC really is no big deal. I have no problems with it and appreciate that permission needs to be granted for a new program to install.
An off-the-shelf machine will have all working drivers. As to compatibility with other software, the major thing to consider is that 16 bit programs will not run on Vista. However, they would be pretty old.
If you opt to get a new laptop, get the most ram & largest hard drive (or 2nd hard drive) you can afford. That goes for the video card too. Should you find that prices are still pretty steep, consider a replacement hard drive but consider also that if you can't install it yourself and get it set up, you'll be paying premium to have the local shop do it for you. Not all of us have Mitch's skills under the hood.
if xp ran on your system, replacing the hd would be a good idea even with buying a new high-power wide screen dvd playing laptop.
you can put xp back on it (er, the existing old system... :lol: ) if you have the os disk or recovery disk or if you made a disk image of the hd.
failing that, as mitch suggests, perhaps a version of linux.
ubuntu that he suggests is supported by a millionaire who hires programmers and many many major software vendors are support-ed/ing by that.
i use pclinuxos 2007.
try em both on live cd; the download only takes a few hours on dsl/cable.
:lol: i was posting as corrine was! hence my comments about only mitch's comments...
http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/SubCategory.asp?SubCategory=380&CMP=KNC-GoogleAdwords&ATT=HardDrives
For these prices, I'd consider getting a new hard drive (assuming nothing else is wrong with the lappy). Then down the road you can get a new lappy with all the bells and whistles.
if you do a google for "how to replace a hard drive" you will see it is remove 4 screws, remove the power plug, remove the ribbon cable
then do it backwards. (ribbon cable,power plug, 4 screws)
with the restore disk it will do all the scary stuff of formatting and partitioning !!!!!
or have a friend do it, it is not scary at all
and on Ubuntu, heck you don't even need a hard drive to see if you like it
i ran it as a "live cd" and it used only the cd and memory to run ! so i was able to surm and e-mail and other things, but since it is a live cd it can't write anything to the hard drive for storage so when powered off all your changes are gone ;-D
but you can see about it IF YOU WANT to try something different?
i am not the biggest fan of the only computer being a laptop !!! they are a one of a kind monster, the only place you can get anything done is with that manufacture, and there is not one standard item in a laptop. and every part cost 3 times as much as a desktop part !
i think the reliability just isn't there as i have yet to see a lap hard drive last for years ! or run without needing some repair !
"back in the old days" i had to repair a major brand of laptop and you need to be a ex watchmaker to even replace the keyboard !
and now time for my fav speach:::::
what do you do for a backup program?????? there are several out there and i am sure you can ask what people use ( NOTE i will not mention GHOST again as never did support cd )
i make a full backup about once a month ! that way if the world comes to a end i have only lost one month of stuff !
when i lost the hard drive in my XP with my backup program it took me about two hours to be back online ( note i had to drive to the store and get a drive and home and that took a bit over a hour to do )
Thank you all very much for your time and suggestions :mitch:
A quick trip to several computer places (a local shop, CC and Office Depot) was enough confusion for one day, but I came away with the feeling that I wouldn't be happy with the keyboards on any of the laptops.
I think I'll just have a new hard drive installed on trhe desktop. I found my original XP installation disk and somewhere in a pile is my SP2 disk. If I can't find it, I guess I can still dl SP2 and all the patches (I hope).
:thanks:
QuoteI can still dl SP2 and all the patches (I hope).
They are still available via Windows Update / Microsoft Update. :)
Aaron
Oops, I misread your first post ... thought you had a lappy that failed.
Here are some prices for desktop hard drives: http://www.newegg.com/Store/Category.aspx?Category=15&name=Hard-Drives
Last time I needed one, I went to Best Buy or Circuit City ... there is always something on sale ... I bought whatever was the best deal at the time.
you could always order the CD: for service pack 2... Also please remember after you install SP 2 you are still going to be a long way from being right up to date you will probably need to up date on line the patches that have come out since service pack 2 was released..
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sp2/default.mspx
The latest Service Pack for Windows XP—Service Pack 2 (SP2)—is all about security, and it's one of ... If you cannot download SP2 via Microsoft Update, you can order it on CD.
Order link...http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/sp2/cdorder/en_us/default.mspx
numbnuts.. :breakkie:
I can't quote specs on my computer, but I think it's about 2 GHz (speed), and has 2 hard drives, each either 40 or 80 Gb. Not sure of the ram, but never had a low memory problem. It's fine for everything I do. Finally found the sp2 disk I ordered (unopened), so I guess I can reinstall the operating system on a new hard drive. I was using the other hd as a backup for photos (actually, the backup program saved everything, so I might have lost a month or so of stuff, since I only did a manual backup). I took my computer back to its Aug 2002 birthplace (The Computer Place, Gaithersburg, MD) as their rates are very reasonable, and it's worth it to me to avoid the frustration of some simple overlooked procedure to get it up and running. Meanwhile, I have to share this ancient laptop, but what the hell, it's a Dell.
Thanks again for all the suggestions. :thanks:
:lol: you made a poem!
even @ 5 yrs old, your pc is more than adequate for anything but creating full-length dvd movies... :)
Dave, at "The Computer Place" was able to recover all the data on my faulty hard drive and 'ghost-ed' it over to a new drive. All the stuff (photos, emails, account info, checkbook register) was still there.
I'm grinnin' from ear to ear!! :D :D :D :D :D...
The first thing I did when I got 'er up and running was to do a long delayed (since Dec 2006 :() backup to the F drive.
Dodged a bullet on that one.
Great news!!! :mitch:
Close calls will make a back-up zealot out of you ... :D
Slendiferous !! Lucky Lady Lena ! :mitch: We are all bouncing with joy. Cause those of us that have been there done that, know. :thumbsup: