My slave drive.....

[emuler]

Actually, Windows does tend to become sluggish over time, so instead of buying a new computer, just get ready to do a clean install.

1. Buy a new hard disk now. Not very expensive. See what has a good GB/price; 500GB or 1TB.

2. Put the new HDD into your computer. If you need it, I'm here to talk you through that process. Then proceed to save all your important data in neatly labelled folders on that drive. Save data from your main C drive as well as the slave drive you think is about to go. Remember your documents, bookmarks, downloads, pictures, videos, yada yada yada. Once you format and reinstall, they are gone, so be thorough.

3. Think about installing Windows7 64bit. I rather like it. Go to the website of your computer manufacturer and download all the latest drivers for your model, and put them in a folder ready to use. Burn this folder to a CD/DVD for later. Just to be thorough, do this for any other version of Windows you are considering installing.

4. If you are using any legal software remember to backup your licenses for each of them. Ask them now for help if necessary. They will not help you once you have formatted the HDD unless you have proof of purchase, etc., so get help now so that you will be able to install them again.

[Phuzzy4242]

Yes, good ole "winrot" - that's a techie term but accurate - happens over time just because Windows was written by a committee made up of several other committees and supervised by a different committee. I used to reinstall Win98 about every 3 months (of course, I do stuff with my system that the "ordinary" user never would ) but I've been on the same install of WinXP for over a year. Don't bother with Vista. Win7 is working out better than I first thought it would, even if I'm still running a release candidate version in a virtual machine under WinXP. Be prepared to hunt for everything again - MS, as usual, decided it's too logical to have stuff where you expect it, and they also wizard you to death. <sigh>More crap you can't turn off.

New hard drives are cheap - terabytes for $100US or less. Please please please don't waste money on Maxtor - out of the last 30 or so hard drive replacements I've done, at least 95% of them were Maxtor, many of them less than a year old. Slow, clunky, junk.

[FLL]

Think about installing Windows7 64bit.

Think that would work as well as XP on a 4 year old computer?

[Phuzzy4242]

Only if the 4 year old computer had some oomph to it. I wouldn't recommend much less than 2.6 GHz dual core with at least 1 GB RAM, more if possible (RAM is cheap too) and a decent video card with at least 256 MB RAM. Unfortunately, you may run into problems finding Win7 (or even Vista) drivers that'll work with your older hardware. I've run into this more than once, especially with laptops.

[emuler]

If you're on XP, don't bother with Vista. Go straight to Windows 7. Go for x64 if your hardware supports it. If not, x86 (32 bit) is fine. Vista was bloatware at its worst; Windows 7 is more accommodating with older hardware and fewer resources.

In most cases, Vista drivers will work with Windows 7. If the website has drivers specifically for Windows 7, so much the better.

Drivers for laptops are a pain. These are often highly customised by the manufacturer so in most cases generic drivers won't do. The manufacturers WANT you to buy a new one; they have no motivation to develop drivers for stuff you have already bought. Graphics drivers are the most problematic; http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/ is a good resource to try if you are stuck.

There is an Upgrade advisor tool available from M$ that tells you whether your system is capable of running Windows 7 (also available for Vista). Gives you some idea of what you're in store for if you decide to upgrade. However, a clean install is always the preferred mode of migrating to a new OS.

http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/window ... visor.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/window ... visor.aspx

[Phuzzy4242]

emuler is 100% correct - you DON'T want to upgrade to Win7, a clean install is the only way to go. MS only verifies the license over the web - there's no typing of a product key - so you MUST have a working previous version on the box. If the upgrade doesn't go correctly or you ever have to reinstall Win7, you have to first reinstall the prior OS, then re-upgrade. The horror stories about this abound. Of course, the full install co$t$ alot more than the upgrade, but upgrading an OS is like building a new house on top of an old one without tearing the old one down first - if you had leaky pipes before, you'll probably have them afterward too.

[Debaser]

Ok guys thank you.
Emuler as soon as im ready to do the clean install I will contact you

For ref my PC is a Dell Dimension 5150, Pentium D 2.80GHZ, 1GB RAM, RADEON X600 256MB HyperMemory, SP3. 300GB primary & the 250GB slave.

If I could afford it id love a new PC, but with the above spec maybe im ok for a while longer after the clean install.

[Phuzzy4242]

Sounds like you're good - I ran an 800 MHz Pentium 3 for 8 years. It did nearly everything the 3.6 GHZ AMD box I'm using now does, it just took alot longer.

[loverboy]

Nothing wrong with that system db......it will be fine for most purposes. A cheapish upgrade would be a bit more memory....I believe your motherboard will take up to 4gb which would liven things up, especially when encoding. I'd consider partitioning that primary drive.......you don't need 300gb if it's only going to contain the OS & programme files & would free up some space for other stuff.

lb

[Phuzzy4242]

Nothing wrong with that system db......it will be fine for most purposes. A cheapish upgrade would be a bit more memory....I believe your motherboard will take up to 4gb which would liven things up, especially when encoding. I'd consider partitioning that primary drive.......you don't need 300gb if it's only going to contain the OS & programme files & would free up some space for other stuff.

lb

I'm not sure I'd agree with partitioning just to separate OS and storage - you either make the partition too big and waste alot of space or too little and you're cramped. I've tried it both ways and it's worked out better having it all one chunk, with C: being OS and "working" storage, and other drives as "long-term" storage. If you do partition, make sure to leave a substantial amount free for temp files - most programs put their temp files on C: first and then move them (even eMule unless you tell it otherwise). Also, if you don't partition, using C: as your "working" drive, file copies and moves take a lot less time because the data itself isn't being moved, just entries in the directories. Really, though, it's whatever works best for you, everybody's style is different.