External Hard Drive Help

Sarah1970

I need to send my laptop for repair (its still under warranty) and as the language is 'messed up' it needs to be reformatted and taken back to its original manufacturers state in order to resolve.

I have been told that I need to back up my files etc and as I have loads and loads of photos etc I really could do without burning to disk so I am looking for alternative options that are quick and easy (both to transfer and to recover!!)

I am certainly not a techie person, though my initial thoughts are an external hard drive, but as there are so many out there, I really do not now which ones would be suitable/ compatible. Are they just a case of 'plug and play' and can I just drag my photo albums over to the external hard drive?

I really need to sort this as quickly as possible and return my laptop back before the end of March when the warranty runs out, so any advice on the best thing to do would be gratefully received

My laptop is a Philips which is running Vista Home Premium and has a 160G hard drive & sorry if I sound completely dumb!!

Many thanks in advance

alared

Plug and play external storage is the way to go.
Although you have a 160G hard drive,do you need as much for an external?
http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/58_9235.htm?WT.mc_id=2009-03-23-11-30

I`m not recommending this one from Aldi but just giving an example.
Western Digital is a well known good make.
No doubt others will give their 2p worth but external is the way to go.

macman

Certainly external HD is the best and easiest way, but as you will already have DVD burning built into any Vista laptop, that is the cheapest way to do it. A pack of say 10 DVD-Rs would do the job most likely. The tedious bit is sorting out your files and folders for back up, which you will have to do anyway.
The advantage of HD is that you then have a permanent backup resource for the future-which you certainly should have.

Baldur

If you don't anticipate the need for a 1 Terabyte drive, like the Aldi one, there are many available, such as this 320GB Toshiba at around half the price.

alared

Last year when I got the BSoDeath and completely lost everything I realised how vital an external back-up is.
As Baldur says there plenty of cheaper one with less memory,I ended up with a 80G for about £25.
You don`t need to back-up the whole system just what`s "vital" to you.

PeterPerfect

You have answered your own question in the sense of using an external HD. You will need to buy one in its shell with USB connection, NOT just a HD!
Note I have an external disk that uses 2 USB connections (one for data and one for power). Make sure you have the correct spare USB connections.

posted_2

One DVD holds 1000's of photos. Language messed up can probably be resolved by going into control panel, regional settings - is that what the "repair" is for?

Ice_2

buy one,
plug it in let vista do the work for you,
restart your laptop, bobs your uncle,
job done,
that simple,
then just right-click and send to or drag and drop.
I have 3,
2 I made myself,
1 I bought.
hths

Sarah1970

Hi

When I received my laptop back from repair yesterday (had a new motherboard because there was something wrong with the power in that it wouldn't charge and wouldn't work off the mains either) the keys down the left hand side of the keyboard, 1&2, Q&W, A&S, Z&X are double entering i.e if I hit q it types qw, if I type w it also types qw, and the same goes for the other keys mentioned above.

When I phoned the Tech Guys (Laptop still under warranty) they said the language was messed up and needs to be reformatted. It does the same in Safe Mode too.

Sarah1970

posted wrote: »

One DVD holds 1000's of photos. Language messed up can probably be resolved by going into control panel, regional settings - is that what the "repair" is for?

Hi

When I received my laptop back from repair yesterday (had a new motherboard because there was something wrong with the power in that it wouldn't charge and wouldn't work off the mains either) the keys down the left hand side of the keyboard, 1&2, Q&W, A&S, Z&X are double entering i.e if I hit q it types qw, if I type w it also types qw, and the same goes for the other keys mentioned above.

When I phoned the Tech Guys (Laptop still under warranty) they said the language was messed up and needs to be reformatted. It does the same in Safe Mode too.

macman

Just sounds like a faulty keyboard to me. Nothing to do with 'language'. A reinstall will not solve that-but I guess with Tech Guys that is their cure for everything.