Most liked posts in thread: My hard drive is dying

First, you need to decide your fundamental goal. If you really want a new computer and willing to start from scratch, then this might be a good time to do it. However hard drives are so cheap that the option of simply replacing the drive is hard to ignore. For $100-$200 you can migrate your drive to a new drive and continue using your computer like nothing happened. If you get an SSD drive, you'll also get a huge boost in performance. How large is your hard drive?

 

I'm right there with you! I made the switch for my personal computer and I wont look back. The 13 inch Macbook Pro that I bought to replace my barely 3 year old 17 inch Dell XPS is still going 4 years later with not a single problem. It has never even crashed once, say that about a 4 year old windows PC! Yes, Macs are more expensive, but they make up for it in the long run.

With that said, if its just your HD and nobody is really a power user, then I would just replace the HD. Save what you need to an external first and then just swap, its really easy unless we are talking about a windows laptop.

 

BACK UP!!!!

Back up in at least 3 different places. Lost my hard drive this summer. Not sure what I would have done had lost all my photos. :eek6:

 

Heh, backups. You can tell I lost a drive and a lot of info before by my backup plan.

1. Box has 2 main drives for O/S and stuff that won't move off of C:, these are mirrored SD drives.

2. All other data is on mirrored conventional spinning platter drives.

3. 2TB External drive stores a back up of the internal drives. Once a week the entire drive set is completely backed up, each evening a differential backup is performed.

4. Off site Cloud backup on Backblaze.

5. Once a month I gzip the entire content of the data drives. Then upload to the M/A server for safekeeping. The M/A server is backed up off site hourly.

Yeah, I'm paranoid about losing years of data.

 

Replace the hard drive with a SSD....
For what you use it for, you don't need to be on the bleeding edge...
The SSD speed will make it feel like a new computer for very little coin...

 

I was gonna suggest Viagra, Rick, until I read the rest of your post! :ihih::devil:

 

Like others have said BACK UP your machine to an external USB drive now. (NOW)

Then just get another smaller drive like 80 GB SSD drive for your OS.

Those little suckers are hyper fast.

I only have my OS on an SSD drive with a few things and (4) 500 GB drives for storage.

 

Stay away from apple. Just paying for a bunch of stuff you don't need pretty much.

 

If you have not tried using the new Windows you might try it before you decide.

I hate Windows 8, a Mac might be a vast improvement.

 

One thing...I personly like PC's...
But to be honest, all mac's are "business grade"...so most of the $$ is cause you are buying a better grade of hardware than a cheap " consumer" grade machine....(yes even a $$ gamer machine like an xps is PREMIUM CONSUMER... been there..done that...).
If you compare a business class PC to a Mac... Prices are within $50-100.
Heck...had friends who joke the best PC they have ever owned is a Mac running boot camp to dual boot windows....
If not for editing, a tablet would be news perfect for you....too bad!!

 

One suggestion....
BACK UP NOW!!
much simpler/cheaper than running a hard drive repair program like GRC'S spinrite....it is an awesome program...at about $70 it has been used on many friends and family PC's to rebuild the drive from bad sectors to flakey bits...good for nonmechanical issues related to "bit-rot". Has never failed me yet!! While it can take 24-72 hours to run...it has saved my butt when I have been behind on my backup schedule.....

 

Mac for me. All Apple stuff integrates seamlessly, they use top notch pieces (although they do charge a bit more than a comparable PC), no viruses. I'm not a power user though, don't need it for business (actually use a pc at work), but for music, pics, video, etc., Mac ease of use can't be beat IMHO. If you need it strictly for business or hardcore gaming, PC is probably the better option.

The new 15" Macbook pro got the top rating in PCmag; it's essentially a portable desktop the damn thing is so powerful. But it carries a hefty pricetag.

It's a funny thing--you see many going from pc to mac (like me), but very few go from Mac to PC.

 

The ole Mac vs PC debate, never gets old.

My take for me, at this time, doing the stuff I do is...

If it was not for the use of Madcap Flare to write technical materials for clients that pay me well, I'd be on a Mac. That tool does not fully work properly in Parallels or Boot Camp. I've tried.

 

I've had my old Mac g5 for 8 years and my wife has gone through 3 laptop pc's in that time and my old Mac is still faster....

 

Macs just work and do it well. THough the same can be said for a meticulously maintained PC, but thats a whole lot of work that your average user doesn't feel like taking the time to do.

With that said, if money is an issue, then go with a PC for sure. There are times I wish I had a PC sitting around, mostly like when I participated in the beta testing for Star Wars: The Old Republic. But other than that I do not regret buying my Mac, and when I upgrade in a little while, it will be to another Macbook Pro, and the old one will become a pure media center, or a around the house beater for whatever its needed for.

 

If you act quickly before it dies, you can clone (use Acronis or Ghost) your current hard drive onto the new one and never miss a beat. You can buy a new mechanical drive for well under $75 (sometimes under $50 if you look a bit). SSDs are much faster and will likely last a bit longer, but they are much more expensive ( $120 to $500) and still limited in size compared to the mechanical types. If its a laptop, You may want to consider an SSD. SSDs also seem to run a lot cooler than the others and draw significantly less power (think battery life).

 

I have Carbonite and it backs up continuously. It's not if a drive fails it's when, on any computer. I had a server drive fail a number of years ago and it cost $2k to get the data.

You can build and new box and have in it just what you want for less than a MAC or business PC. I've been building boxes since '86. Windows 8 isn't very good so try and find 7. I never to with the leading edge it's not worth the difference.