It's totally, like, technology!

[nineveh_uk]

It's decision time, never a good season for me. Having finally got round to upgrading from Windows XP to 7 on Sunday, following a blue screen of death incident that forced the issue*, I have reached the inescapable conclusion that while my 2007 laptop is largely in good nick apart from needing a new battery (not an issue because I use it like a PC), its hard drive is full. So I get to take lots of my documents off it, store them externally, and run programmes only on the hard drive, or I upgrade the hard drive, or I buy a new computer. The first is annoying and liable to lead to worry about losing stuff. The third seems unnecessarily expensive and environmentally wasteful, given that I have a computer that functions fine apart from being full. So it may be screwdriver time. On the plus side, the manual does give instructions on how to do it. The relatively small cost seems worth a punt if I can put off spending a couple of hundred a while longer.

I went to see Beyond Clueless this evening. It was an enjoyable way to spend 90 minutes, and there was a lot of amusement in some of the montages, but ultimately I agree with Mark Kermode's three stars, rather than the more breathless review I read in the autumn. It lacks a real thesis, and fails to deliver analytical bite. Ultimately, the genre it's analyzing does the analysis better.

*Fortunately everything was backed up, not my standard state of affairs.

Comments

[executrix.livejournal.com]

I vote for buying an album that holds disks (the predominant brand here is Case Logic, not sure if it's true there), savings things you don't consult often to CD, labeling them, and putting them in the album, then deleting--that way, it's easy to leaf through the album on the off-chance you want to see something again. External hard drives are cheap, but it can be a chore actually finding anything on one.

[dbassassin.livejournal.com]

Jumping in as storage technology assessment is part of my job...

The life expectancy of a file on a CD or DVD burned at home using consumer equipment is 7-10 years. In my experience, the things people put on discs are the very things they shouldn't: low retrieval records that they want to keep for a long time (family photos, etc.). You're much better off using a hard drive for external storage, and refreshing your tech every five years.

File format obsolescence can be an issue, too, depending on what you're storing and the file format you've used. Discs are prone to loss, damage and in-built obsolescence. "Archival" discs are of no real benefit for long-term storage as they might give you a few extra years, but nothing significant. One of the principal problems with burning discs at home is that consumer-grade equipment is crap, Mac hardware being particularly bad.

Sorry for the thread hijack.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I am unlikely to go for CDs anyway, because I've got the blank ones and failed to ever do anything with them beyond create one CD.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

This would be a good idea, if I ever actually used the CDs that I already have purchased for this very purpose... Though I can see that once I'm sorted out I might back up on them as well (actually, my main resource is my private space on my work computer).

[dbassassin.livejournal.com]

I definitely support your approach; I hate to see usable tech being tossed for something easily remedied.

My old laptop is from 2007, as well, but being a Mac can't run the newer versions of OSX because Mac purposely builds their hardware to be crap and they want to lock their customers into a max. four-year refresh cycle. Which is why I've had two Mac laptops for a year now. *sigh*

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I know that I can be too inclined to hold on to things that are in fact obsolete (and hence I have to get rid of a Capsela kit that has sat in my wardrobe for 20 years and no longer works, presumably because some piece of metal somewhere has corroded, but if I'd faced up to getting rid of it sooner it might have been played with a bit longer, but that is sentimentality for you), but I genuinely feel that my laptop isn't. It has one thing wrong with it, that it can sometimes be too slow, and a clear reason for that, that it has about 2GB of hand drive free space. And I can fix that! (Hopefully). The other thing arguably wrong with it compared to a new one is that it is large and heavy. As I use it at home effectively as a PC, that's not a problem. If I'd used it a lot more out and about - well, it probably wouldn't be in very good condition any more!

I'm not bothering to replace the battery, though. The seem to cost a good deal more from reputable suppliers, and while c£30 for a hard drive seems a good investment, heading towards £80 total (plus P&P) is less so.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

I am in awe of your being able to install a new hard drive!

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I don't know that I am yet! But the instructions look reasonable, and I have done some fiendish bits of engineering with a pair of tweezers and an iron in the course of sewing. Also, I bet repair shops in Oxford would charge a fortune.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Good luck with that.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I am currently wondering if I can avoid it by identifying rubbish on the hard drive and cleaning it off (WTF files from before the last but one reinstall?),, but I am prepared to take the plunge!

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Ccleaner is a free utility that helps identify and delete unwanted files.

Another thing you can do is search for files above a certain size, and see if any of those can go.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip, I'll give that a go.

I did manage to find the videos I thought I deleted in 2011 and get rid of them, so I do at least now have 11GB to play with (as opposed to the 0.99GB at one point!).