External Hard drive

diveleader

Do you know what is taking up all of the space on your 30gig drive?
Go through control panel, add remove programs and see what you can uninstall.
Also, if you are sure that you do not need anything you may have deleted, try runing ccleaner (google it) to free up some more space.
You may be able to breathe some new life into your laptop.
As for USB2 I would think that it would be installed, allowing oyu to have faster connection to external drives.

MercilessKiller

bargains_galore wrote: »

MK many thanks for the information and taking the patience to reply to my stupid and long questions.

I think your first suggestion is the best one for me which is to bite the bullet and buy a new laptop as you said my laptop is ageing at an astonishing rate.

To pick your brains again, what sort of laptop I can expect to get with approx £300 I am however going to probably wait till the January sales.

Thanks all

After working in network support for a year, I've heard questions much worse than any on these forums So it's no problem at all

The laptop I've recommended to a close family member recently is:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/149335/show_product_reviews?offset=10&review_type=both&review_order_by=RUF

Ok it's a bit above the £300, but you get what you pay for in terms of specifications. It's a great laptop which will last you for many years to come

The thing is, for your needs a cheaper laptop will do just fine for the present time, so there isn't a need to strech if you can't... For that I recommend checking the "cheapest greatest laptop hunt" thread which is at the top of the techie forum section

MercilessKiller

loaner wrote: »

laptops don't "age", they either work, or they don't. There is nothing wrong with it if it is working, a new £120GB hard disk is about £35-40, or just tidy up the one you have for nothing. Run crap cleaner www.ccleaner.com for a start. A £300 vista laptop will probably be slower than the one you have

Fantastic technial advice they're loaner. I really hope you don't work in giving IT consultancy to any home users.

Applications are developed based on available resources for average home users. 5 years ago, applications were developed for low specification machines. In todays world, application used by many home users (including things like windows live messenger) are designed bearing in mind a higher ram and disk space availability, thus won't efficiently run on older laptops.

A £300 vista laptop with 2GB of RAM will run fine bearing in mind Windows Aero wouldn't be running.

If you're going to give advice, give a technical background for it Sure a £40 internal hard drive would do ok, but the OP would have to spend hours doing things he/she may not be comfortable with (replacing drive, reinstalling window, drivers, software, backing up and restoring etc..) on a recent machine that would be worth it. I think for the specification the OP posted an upgrade would be the sensible option.

EDIT: My advice also mentions it depends on the OPs budget, and I wouldn't recommend buying a new laptop if the cost is out of reach. If that's teh case a hard drive and some hard hours would do just fine.

spud17

I've got a bag of nails, and I'll change it when it fails.

I've only recently changed up from a 20gb hard drive, bit of music, photos, browsing and email.
I see people at work spending £00's on a new PC when all it needs is a few hours sorting, perhaps re-installing.

Put in a new hard drive.

If the laptop fails in a few months time, and you have to get a new one, buy a caddy, transfer the new hard drive, and you'll have your external hard drive for backing up.

bargains_galore_3

diveleader wrote: »

Do you know what is taking up all of the space on your 30gig drive?
Go through control panel, add remove programs and see what you can uninstall.
Also, if you are sure that you do not need anything you may have deleted, try runing ccleaner (google it) to free up some more space.
You may be able to breathe some new life into your laptop.
As for USB2 I would think that it would be installed, allowing oyu to have faster connection to external drives.

the main thing taking up my space is my music which is about 22gig's.

Ive got ccleaner and also defraged my computer but nothing has really helped. I have also been through the control panel and uninstalled everything i dont use. i think the main problem is space on my drive.

to add to my post i am tempted to get a new internal hard drive for my laptop but the only problem is that i no longer have the discs that come with it in order to reinstall windows and all the other drivers.

argh i dunno what to do!!

is it the common opinion that in my situation an external hard drive would not be appropriate??

Leopard

spud17 wrote: »

I've got a bag of nails, and I'll change it when it fails.

It's wiser to change it before it fails.

Selling it on eBay to someone who'll "change it when it fails" and finds that when it does it will be worth nothing.

Leopard

bargains_galore wrote: »

Hi,

Not too sure if this is gonna be the right forum for this question;

I have a Dell Latitude D600 laptop with
Intel Pentium M processor 1500MHz 239MHz
512 MB of RAM

I have disk space of 27.9 GB I only have 774 MB left.

I am looking to improve my laptop. I have been told by a friend that all I really need is more disk space and has recommended an external hardrive.

Whats the best one out there and I am looking if possible for a wireless one which I could access from any point in my house.

Thanks-

You asked the wrong friend.

The advice given you in this thread by MercilessKiller (:eek: ) has been wise (even if encountering him might not be).

spud17

Selling it on eBay to someone who'll "change it when it fails" and finds that when it does it will be worth nothing.

You've lost me, selling on ebay?

Been on the red wine again?

Leopard

spud17 wrote: »

You've lost me, selling on ebay?

Been on the red wine again?

Selling, on eBay, things that still work - before they fail and are worth nothing - pays for red wine and helps fund the purchase of newer kit better equipped to deal with advances in technology (and software) that challenge the capabilities of ageing kit.

It is all to easy to spend ever more money on upgrading old computers with components that cannot subsequently be used with newer ones - instead of investing it more wisely in a newer, more capable and more agreeable computer that can do things that the old one never will be able to.

That was the essence of MercilessKiller's advice - and it is sound. :money:

(We enjoyed white wine this evening - since you ask. We dined on fish. )

MercilessKiller

Don't worry Leopard. I'm harmless in real life.. it's merely a paradox of a name

The laptops warranty has no doubt expired, reason being the older they get the more likely they are to fail. Buying a new hard drive now is fine, saves money, gets the job done. BUT:

1) A lot of time needs investing in reinstalling windows
2) You still need an external drive for the backups
3) The laptop needs upgrading to handle modern day applications (including web apps)

Buying a laptop for 4 or 5 times the price of a hard drive is the result with the most value. If the OP had a newer laptop, it wouldn't be

Loaner.. post 2 was a recommendation for specifically what the OP asked for, but the OP is not technical thus I wouldn't want to give advice which would result in the OP needing to spend more money in a short period of time due to the age of the laptop.