'Can you conceive of a world without Windows? '

no! not even w/o xp now. I don't want to learn another one! dang it - lol!

I've had this Dell for a yr now and haven't figured it all out yet. haven't even loaded a photo prog on it yet. it's still in the box. I finally got it around Christmas...

I still have my old computer and will hook it up in my new place for dbf to learn on. he doesn't know how to operate one yet. he has several but they are both about 15 yrs old. one is at his accountants and one at his office. they are really too old to even learn on now... my old one is from 2000.

It's all Greek to me! Luckily for me, DH is a computer whiz, and if he's not around, one of my kids can usually help.

I've said this before:

I am constantly amazed at the amount of information that one can access via the internet. My husband has worked with computers for years, but I had my head buried in the sand (or my nose in a book), and wouldn't even consider the internet until I started looking for home improvement ideas last year.

And boy is he sorry that he gave me a laptop, and showed me how to use it!

Funny you mention this ML. I just bought the same in a 500 GB. Loaded one external drive from a friend of music onto it and barely made a dent. Will add the second External HD she also sent with music , about 90GB total I am thinking, and then will add my pictures and all just like you did. I think they are GREAT!!! Mine was on sale and with coupons off and money back on my credit card for use I would guess this one cost around 60 dollars or less. I considered the 1T but I do not do movies or books and I am sure the 500GB will be enough for me for now.

LOL to think my first computer was 2GB I remember having to constantly save to floppies with burners so expensive then.

ML Do down load Malwaye bites to keep it on your desk top. If you do get a virus it will NOT allow you do down load Malware bites when you need it so do it NOW. It is a small program to clean up bad things. I run it full deep scan about every two months or if I suspect some thing has gotten to me. It is FREE

Great information ML I do hope others do this as when computers crash it is so sad to loose it all. I was doing regular back up on disks of pictures and important files. But an external drive is wonderful.

One other thing is I tried to use it on my old windows 2000 machine and it will not run it and there do not seem to be drivers avaliable for it for down load any more. Darn.

I back up all the city computer information and I MEAN ALL of it on a thumb drive as I create the information and then burn a monthly disk.

And for some that can not afford to buy anything extra. When I worked for the cemetery district and we all know how important all that information is to keep safe I would email all changed files to a free Yahoo email account for safe keeping. I suppose they frown on that. But really it was not all that much stuff. I also burned disks and if I remember right it was only about 30MB of information in the maps and lists and financial pages.

I can not stress to back up enough if what you are keeping on your computer is important.

Chris

Despite the fact that I work with computers every day, and love the internet, I hate the things. I also hate all the programmable gizmos today, from the microwave to the cell phone. It seems I just get the hang of one thing, an another one comes out. My wife and I joke that 5 years after my son moves out, all of our electronics will be in the closet, and we'll be reading books by candlelight! I never tape anything because I can never remember how to set it up. We haven't gotten a DVR for this reason; no one wants to learn the thing. My wife's alarm clock has to be reprogrammed to turn the alarm off. Mine has a simple button- ON-OFF. How is her's progress? At some point, I'm going to say 'No more', and refuse to buy into any new gadgets!

My first computer was a Commodore 64, as in 64K! You can buy a wristwatch with a lot more memory than that!

LOL Well Jay I had no idea when I ran a Commodore what the 64 even meant. Heheheh Was my first computer too and it was at the real estate office where I worked. I did not get my own computer until many years later. They were up to Windows 95 then and 98 came out shortly after. Not sure when it went to ME. And then technology leaped forward.

I am all with you on tech toys. I do like the new little external drive but would not have bought it if my friend had not sent me a life time of country western music. I totally love music and there are thousands of songs. I saved all of it even when some of the artists I do not recognize.

I can barely work our cell phone. We have it for emergencies. I can work the stove and microwave. But I was shocked to see no over knobs on the stove when it arrived with no manual. I had to go online and find that and read how to work it. It is easy but shocking at first. I just sort of stood there and went???????????

Chris

Old...I remember going to the unveiling of the Apple. My thoughts were who cares about a stupid picture of a trash can or more windows than I can read. From an old IT career, really silly take. Should have bought some stocks. Wasn't any smarter with that one either.

Backup drives can be a life saver for your files. But they can also fail. Just ask me how I know this..............

Our 500GB drive failed last month! All of my important files are also on discs, but my son lost thousands of songs.
So it can't hurt to backup the backup. lol

My first computer was from Texas Instruments and it only had DOS! My son and I would spend hours entering text into it and then it would play a song!
I could live without a lot of things, but I have to have cable and a computer!

OH Boo Loretta. So sorry. I totally agree back up important files in more than one place. I also have my photos burned to disk. I have heard even disks have a shelf life.

Ok, the replacement DVD writer for my Dell laptop is here. I thought I could get Staples to install it for me. But the clerk told me that only so much could be done with laptops.
Hmmmm, so where else should I turn that could give me a fast turnaround time? I want to get it repaired while I wait!

Actually, Dell has the instructions online for replacing just about every single piece of this laptop. It all starts with taking out the main battery. I think the DVD is a very straightforward series of steps to take out the old one, disconnect the wire harness, put in the new harness, and then stick the new drive back in with reverse order of screws.

And do I really NEED to put that main battery back in? I never use the 12 volt power. I'm on the second battery for this laptop which I got on halloween 2006, and never tried to run it on battery power. I think it overheats the unit, don't you?

Anyway, that is why I decided to get the Passport Essential LE which holds 1T (about 1000gigs) of stuff. I have another one on order which I expect to arrive today, and THAT one will be my backup source. The first passport drive is my location for older photos but NOT the backup kind of files. I have over 16gig of photos on there. And I can edit them, and such, without having to retrieve from backup.

The Passport allows for retrieval from backup of one or more files, and to different computers as well. I like that. I fail to see the usefulness of backing up on my same computer, if that computer might fail to function at all.

Anyway, does anyone know of a nation wide quick turn around computer repair? I would not take it to Tandy/Radio Shack, since those guys treated me like Sandy's designer is treating her.

Latest update on computer repair.
Did you know that your laptop computer has a 5 year warranty on the hardware portion of it? Well, I did NOt.

It turns out that I jumped the gun by personally buying a new DVD burner to replace the one just like it that quit. Had I not done that, my warranty runs for another year on the OLD one. But it is deader than a door nail, so I was as usual impatient to get it FIXED.

Now I have an extended warranty for another year that will get a Dell techie to come to my HOUSE and work on the computer. I also paid a separate fee for him to install the new DVD burner AFTER he takes out the old one. I bought that new one from Dell too, but it is not covered by my computer warranty because it has never been part of my original computer. Bummer. But once it is INSIDE the computer, it WILL becovered under warranty.

I think I talked to someone in India today. I know I talked to someone in Manila, Philippines. And I think the last guy, who is the actual arm of Dell which sends dudes to your house, sounded just like he was in Texas. But they don't yet have any idea that the other locations have taken my money, not for another 48 hours, so they will call me when they get the message. I hope they call Alabama and not Massachusetts, because DH is deaf and won't answer the phone. They work both Saturdays and Sundays, though, so I will be calling them come Saturday morning if not heard from by that time.

Isn't technology wonderful? I've been clear around the world to have a local technician come to my house to work on my computer.

Glad you're getting your 'puter fixed! I did not know they would come to your house for an under warrenty laptop.
My last laptop had a h/d that crashed and had to be replaced. I 'talked' to the Indian tech online and figured out the problem (well, he figured it out, not me). It turned out to still be under warrenty and they sent me a new hard drive ASAP. It was easy to install and worked like a charm. I bought a new 17" last winter and the old one went to my DGD.

Idie, you are just the most capable person! I have a hard time understanding the accent of the Indians.
My computer is a 17 inch laptop, I want to keep it going until the stuff that MIT is doing reaches the market. Then I will look for a new laptop. No more desktops for me.

And I am rethinking wireless routers too. I stream via the router to my Blu-Ray disk player and play HD movies on my TV. It really works nice. But it is connected via cables and not wireless. The printer and laptop are wireless. In this house, with metal reinforcing in the stucco and the plaster interior walls, getting a signal is very iffy.

Well, Dell sent me a CD to tune up myy computer. Oh, lovely! Now what good is that with a bad D drive? Plus they had it in my brother's name not mine. And the repair place had not been informed of my order paying them to come to my house. So I got very irate when Dell sent me an email asking if they had resolved my issues satisfactorily....my email asked if they were keeping customer records on 3 x 5 cards in somebody's basement.

Well, this morning I took a chance and called the repair dept again, and they had the paperwork for my repair request, but it was in my brother's name too. Again, not communicating with my account registration at all, but not important to them, so I at least have the repair guy scheduled to visit my house between 8 - 10 the day after Labor Day. Their mission is to get the old drive removed, replace it with the one I bought from Dell, and get it to perform as designed. It is the exact same model as the old one, so I hope there is no problem with that.

Meanwhile, I cannot backup using the DVD writer, only through the WDigital Ambassador 1T USB2 external drive. Which I am growing fonder of every day. Boy is it a honey.
They also have models which store only 500g and are on sale for around $20 from WalMart I think. Real bargain. I keep my drive connected all the time, and have transferred all prior years photos to it, and they can also be eventually backed up to the DVD drive when that is working again.

I've learned you cannot have too many ways to backup your personal files.

The repairman came last evening and did the job. My computer is now working, and first thing I did was play my Pink Floyd PULSE dvd. Oh sigh, how nice.

He was a Dell contractor, not a Dell employee. He did me the favor of turning off some of the trash which wants to start up when I turn on the computer, and slows things down. This morning, I booted and loaded in short order.

I kept his business card in case we need to call him. It is nice having my laptop back up and running.