Is your laptop hard drive nearly full

[tudorsailor]

I have discovered that it is relatively simple to extend the life of your laptop by putting a second hard drive into the bay where the CD/DVD drive normally lives. It gives more memory and faster speed. If anyone is interested in benefiting from what I have learned (and so avoid some of the errors) then I will expand.

In fact I have found that performance can be increased by adding a solid state drive to replace the original hard drive and then use the extra hard drive for just storing data

Tudorsailor

 

[trapezeartist]

An interesting idea, but it leaves you without a CD/DVD drive. My preference would be to buy a new bigger 2.5in hard drive (about £50) and fit that. Then buy an external drive case (about £10) and put the old drive in there for use for backup or any other mobile requirement.

Of course my system does require a new install of the operating system and software on the new drive, but it's probably time for a clean-out anyway.

 

[Happydaze]

There is no need to do a re-install if you buy a larger hard disk and copy an image of the original to this with Macrium Reflect or similar using usb/hd connector and just change them over.

 

[wotayottie]

I always thought that approach ledto problems with Microshaft cos the system recognises component IDs. Or is that just the processor ID?

 

[tudorsailor]

There is no need to do a re-install if you buy a larger hard disk and copy an image of the original to this with Macrium Reflect or similar using usb/hd connector and just change them over.

For daughters laptop full of music, 160Gb is just not enough. With 2nd HDD one can have 250GB!

On my laptop I am getting a solid state drive to run Windows and 2nd drive to hold the data. Meant to be super quick

I am putting the DVD writer into an external case

TudorSailor

 

[agurney]

For daughters laptop full of music, 160Gb is just not enough. With 2nd HDD one can have 250GB!

On my laptop I am getting a solid state drive to run Windows and 2nd drive to hold the data. Meant to be super quick

I am putting the DVD writer into an external case

TudorSailor

You'd be as well with an external USB drive, there are plenty of large capacity ones around that are rugged, fast, small and powered by the laptop.

You can even set one up to boot a different operating system, e.g. if you want to isolate work and leisure systems.

Alisdair

 

[st599]

For daughters laptop full of music, 160Gb is just not enough. With 2nd HDD one can have 250GB!

On my laptop I am getting a solid state drive to run Windows and 2nd drive to hold the data. Meant to be super quick

I am putting the DVD writer into an external case

TudorSailor

Windows will run fast on an SSD, for a short while, until it's ridiculous filesystem ruins the SSD by repeated write cycles.

 

[nimbusgb]

Windows will run fast on an SSD, for a short while, until it's ridiculous filesystem ruins the SSD by repeated write cycles.

Agreed! Solid State memory ( flash ) and windows are not a good combination escpecially if the primary partition is on the flash.

 

[Marmalade]

Best way to avoid a hard drive full of c**p...

don't run windows

or other bloat-ware for that matter!

seriously - extend the life of the hardware and have a faster-running, less flaky pc / laptop by running a more robust os such as linux (in one of its newer user-friendly variants) or OSX

 

[Tillernut]

Maplins. 1TB USB Hard Drive for £69.99.

 

[tudorsailor]

I do appreciate that one can buy external USB drives for data storage. This rather misses the point of having a laptop for portability. One does not want to cart extra bits around all the time

TudorSailor

 

[agurney]

I do appreciate that one can buy external USB drives for data storage. This rather misses the point of having a laptop for portability. One does not want to cart extra bits around all the time

TudorSailor

You only carry the bits around when you need them - do you always take your daughter's music collection with you?

You've already mentioned that you'll put the CD writer in an external case, but a USB HDD is much smaller and holds more.

Alisdair

 

[Searush]

When my last laptop died, I bought external cases for the HD & DVD & bought a little netbook - saved a fortune & still had all my old files available. Who cares if you have half-a-dozen plug-in bits when the laptop itself is tiny?

 

[elton]

I carry a 250GB 2.5" Seagate external drive in the bag with a 7" screen Asus laptop and it's so small and light you'd hardly know it was there. Plus, I have it fully encrypted (using TrueCrypt) so if anyone happed to lift it they wouldn't have access to any personal data.

 

[Major Catastrophe]

seriously - extend the life of the hardware and have a faster-running, less flaky pc / laptop by running a more robust os such as linux (in one of its newer user-friendly variants) or OSX

I would love to convert to Linux, but my business revolves around a 12 meg Excel spreadsheet I have 'built' and I get sent hundreds of formatted Excel and Word documents every month.

Does a Linux compatible spreadsheet and word processor have the same features and display properties as the latest and next gen Microsoft have/will have?

 

[cozzykim]

I would love to convert to Linux, but my business revolves around a 12 meg Excel spreadsheet I have 'built' and I get sent hundreds of formatted Excel and Word documents every month.

Does a Linux compatible spreadsheet and word processor have the same features and display properties as the latest and next gen Microsoft have/will have?

Have a look at Open Office here

I'm not sure about macros and esp VB but at least you can try it under windows first with some of your critical spreadsheets

 

[Major Catastrophe]

Have a look at Open Office here

I'm not sure about macros and esp VB but at least you can try it under windows first with some of your critical spreadsheets

Thanks I looked at Open Office before and when I used it to send some data out, some of the recipients - the major UK and US video games publishers - told me they were not authorised to open non MS Office documents.

That was five years ago, so I could see if attitudes have changed.

 

[cozzykim]

Thanks I looked at Open Office before and when I used it to send some data out, some of the recipients - the major UK and US video games publishers - told me they were not authorised to open non MS Office documents.

That was five years ago, so I could see if attitudes have changed.

Open Office will save files as MS doc xls etc and it's come a long way in 5 years.

I only use the SS for simple sheets, no calcs etc so I'm no expert on it, but I do prefer my PCLinuxOS with KDE4.3.4 over windows, it's much faster, lighter, safer, boots in a quarter of the time and everything is free

 

[Major Catastrophe]

Open Office will save files as MS doc xls etc and it's come a long way in 5 years.

I only use the SS for simple sheets, no calcs etc so I'm no expert on it, but I do prefer my PCLinuxOS with KDE4.3.4 over windows, it's much faster, lighter, safer, boots in a quarter of the time and everything is free

Thanks for that. I am ordering a new super computer next year and will seriously explore Linux.

 

[agurney]

Thanks for that. I am ordering a new super computer next year and will seriously explore Linux.

Before commiting, it would be worthwhile trying various flavours of Linux in a virtual machine to see how you get on with them. VirtualBox and MS VirtualPC are both free and work well with existing Windows systems.

Alisdair