Not waving but drowning, IT edition

[Tubby Isaacs]

My computer is dying pretty rapidly. For some time, I've intended to get all the music and art notes off there. What's the best way for me to do that? How do I find out what size disk I'd need to copy it to?

When this is done it will be replaced with one of the nice laptops you recommended for me a couple of weeks ago.

[caja-dglh]

Not waving but drowning, IT edition

Go into explore, then right click on C: which on one of the tabs will show you the disc size.

Assuming you have a USB port, I think you will easily get an external drive for less than 100 quid (I would expect a 500 gig is around that price now).

[Tubby Isaacs]

Not waving but drowning, IT edition

I've found used space of 59.1 GB

A quick look at PC World shows me

Toshiba

Alu-Case 320GB

3.5" External Hard Drive

at £50.

Is this right? Can I get smaller and cheaper?

[Tactical Genius]

Not waving but drowning, IT edition

What is the total disk size?
That is alot of free space there.

what is wrong with your current PC, maybe a memory upgrade as well as cleaning out old apps and a good anti-spyware scan should kepp it going for a year or two.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Not waving but drowning, IT edition

The screen flashes all the time when I switch it on, making it unusable. Sometimes it will settle down and I can use it (like now).

Partly though I want a laptop because I haven't got much space.

[caja-dglh]

Not waving but drowning, IT edition

TG can help on the machine rescue side. I would say go with that one, or something similar Tubby. As you add music and video, you will find that having an external drive for a laptop is really valuable and space can vanish quickly (especially when you make things save in non-loss formats, if that is your thing).

If you think you might carry it around, then size can be an important decider between drives.

[hobbes]

Not waving but drowning, IT edition

I've got one of these Tubbs. They've got built in backup software too, so pretty good for protecting your data. And they stack, so if you use up half a terabite, you can expand the storage.

[Ginger Yellow]

Not waving but drowning, IT edition

If you think you might carry it around, then size can be an important decider between drives.

Miniaturisation adds a lot to the cost, though. Tubby, a flashing screen doesn't sound like a hard drive problem, so I wouldn't panic. More likely to be a monitor/cable issue, or maybe a dodgy motherboard. If it does go, you could always plug the drive into someone else's computer.

First of all, I'd check all of your connections, and remove and reseat your graphics card and memory.

[G-Man]

Not waving but drowning, IT edition

Of course, backing up up to an external device is never a horrible idea.

[amp]

Not waving but drowning, IT edition

Tubby Isaacs wrote:

I've found used space of 59.1 GB

A quick look at PC World shows me

Toshiba

Alu-Case 320GB

3.5" External Hard Drive

at £50.

Is this right? Can I get smaller and cheaper?

I'd just like to sound a note of caution on buying a cheap external hard drive. They're cheap for a reason - especially at PC world.

Speaking from experience losing all your pictures/music actually hurts much, much more deeply than spending the extra cash on a good reliable brand. If you're gonna go cheap then buy 2 and back up regularly.

If you get drives with eSATA interfaces then you can configure them to automatically back up in a constant way as you write data to them.

Sorry if this is too much detail it's just that the memory of losing 3 years worth of photos still haunts me.

[Cavalry Trouser Tips]

Not waving but drowning, IT edition

As well as an external drive backup, you could also look into an online backup.

Spideroak offer up to 100GB for $10 a month and although I haven't used them myself, I've read a lot about them and how good they are.

[G-Man]

Not waving but drowning, IT edition

ALWAYS BACK UP ON DVD!

[Cavalry Trouser Tips]

Not waving but drowning, IT edition

BUT THEY ONLY HOLD 4.7GB, UNLESS YOU USE DUAL-LAYER, BUT THEY'RE EXPENSIVE AND EVEN THEN ONLY HOLD 8.6GB

ADDED TO THAT YOU CAN ONLY USE THEM ONCE (UNLESS YOU USE THE MORE EXPENSIVE REWRITABLES) AND TAKE AGES TO BURN AND ARE AWKWARD TO STORE.

I DON'T KNOW HOW WE DID WITHOUT THE CHEAP EXTERNAL HARD-DISKS WE HAVE TODAY TO BE HONEST.

[Guest]

Not waving but drowning, IT edition

I like my external 500g thing very much. All those awful 'experimental' photos will now live FOREVER.

I was blaming it for my computer woes, but it seems it might be innocent. I think me lsptop was overheating.

[Guest]

Not waving but drowning, IT edition

if you simply want to transfer the data then you can buy a usb adapter for the hard disk and connect it to your lappie.

Or buy a crossover cable and connect the two computers together.

Or if they're both wireless you can just transfer the data across.

It requires a very small amount of effort to share a folder and make it available.

If you're after backing things up reguarly and securely you could also look into something like jungle backup which does it over the net and so you have a cheap off site backup.

[linus]

Not waving but drowning, IT edition

What do you guys think of LaCie external drives? There is a 500G one on special for Can$90 at the local chain store.

[WOM]

Not waving but drowning, IT edition

Linus, that's the exact one I have. It came highly recommended and it's been great for me. I think I paid $139 at Best Buy last winter or early spring.

[Ginger Yellow]

Not waving but drowning, IT edition

STOP LOSING DATA

[WOM]

Not waving but drowning, IT edition

Again with the screamy caps?