Tuesday, December 4, 2012

More Computer Complaints

My computer is running slow and funky.   A computer repair company in town said they would scrub the hard drive and reinstall the programs I want for $200.00.  

My quandry is: should I put out $200.00 on a seven year old computer or buy a new cheap one for a hundred and fifty more?  

As I am not in the 2% the extry $150.00 is a concern for me. 

Has anyone had a harddrive scrubbed?  And if so, what was the results.

thanks
the Ol'Buzzard

5 comments:

  1. As you've probably already guessed, there's no good answer to this. I'm a computer geek, so if it was me, I'd be capable of reloading it myself... but I'd still be asking myself the question as to whether it was worth the time.

    Problem is, the mean-time-to-failure for a hard drive is around 7 years. I'm not exactly sure what they mean by "scrubbed" - if I was doing it, I'd reformat the hard drive, reload the operating system, and then reinstall your programs. Since they're talking about reinstalling your programs, I assume that's what they're proposing to do.

    If it's strictly a software problem, reloading the machine would fix your problems and make your computer run like it did when it was new, but you may or may not get your $200 worth of use out of it before the hardware craps. And sometimes moving the machine, plugging/unplugging it, and otherwise disturbing the status quo can precipitate a hardware problem that was just lurking in the wings waiting for an excuse.

    That said, I've got hardware that's in its teens and still running fine.

    Tough choice. Sorry this probably isn't much help in your decision-making process. Feel like trying the reload yourself?

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  2. I kept a first generation imac alive and kicking for over 12 years...I made it do things it was not designed to do...It ran OSX....but finally, the physical system began to go. I replaced circuits myself, but finally, I realized I was using something that should be in a museum.
    I broke down and brought a new computer....I paid a bit for it, but I am so happy...listen...check out ebay...if you want to buy Apple stuff, there are dealers who sell stuff for a fraction of the price..because they are selling old models...unused, but not the latest models...I am going to buy my wife a new laptop and when I looked at the prices that some of these dealers have on ebay, I flipped! Real deals for brand new, loaded powerbooks for a fraction of the price. If you use a computer regularly, this is what you should be thinking about. You don't need the headaches, the heartaches, the friking heartburn....just go look...give yourself a Christmas present...it qwon't be as painful as you think it might be.

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  3. You are asking for trouble if your machine is 7 years old, though as others have noted, many old ones still run fine. Ask how much to format the HD and reload the OS only and set it up. You can reload all the rest of the software yourself. Buying an older model that is unused is a good plan. That is how the stores here in Ukraine run such low prices on computers - they are all older models. they sell up to date too at up to date prices but there is nothing wrong with the older ones. You have been using one 7 years old...

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  4. I'm dealing with the same thing Buzz and refuse to put money into an old computer. For me, all I really want nowadays is the Internet and so I've been looking at Google Chromebook. It sells for $250 - $500. The reviews are fairly good.

    http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Delectronics&field-keywords=samsung+chrome+book

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  5. I used to buy good machines and paid others to fix what I couldn't fix but they really didn't last any longer. I've taken to buying a cheap E Machine every three or four years and transferring the shit from the old one to the new one.

    I'm beginning to question why I even transfer so much, I'm getting old and no one else is going to give a fuck about all the shit on my CPU anyway when I'm gone. It will all just become dust in the ruts of space behind us as we hurtle through the universe into the future.

    The only thing that may stay around for a while is the stuff you put on the internut.

    ReplyDelete

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