Adventures in Windows

Sunday, October 25, 2009
Unless you've been living under a rock, you're probably aware that Windows 7 was released this week. So this has been a Windows Weekend here at the Big Yellow House.

First was the machine for my Hot Mom. She'd been limping along an oldy-moldy machine she bought about eight years ago, and was overdue for a refresh. So the Smart Man decided to put together a screaming machine for her as an early Merry Christmas present. He's been ordering pieces and parts for months, and installing them without her knowledge. Once the new OS came, it was simply a matter of loading it up and having the old machine's files backed up. After he was done with that, he upgraded his own machine, which was also pretty painless.

Today we drove up to Longmont to install Hot Mom's machine and get her ready to go. Again, painless. So Windows 7 gets a good grade from a usability perspective. The jury's still out on other aspects, but so far - it looks good.

As for my desktop, we need to wait on that upgrade. My current back up drive is only 250GB, and it doesn't have sufficient room to back up my iTunes library and all the other stuff I need to keep. So before I can plan to do the upgrade, I need to buy a larger external back up drive. I'm thinking I should just bite the bullet and get a 1TB one, rather than nickel and dime myself. But my pay structure changed on October 1st, I need to wait and see how my budget shakes out. Stupid budget.

Hope you're having a good weekend, Hot Chicks and Smart Men.

8 comments:

mom in northern said...

Office Depot is advertising a 1 TB for 119.99 and a 1.5 TB for 149.99 both Seagates. There is a Verbatim 1 TB for 104.99. Just write a check...isn't that how it is done?

Thordr said...

I put a 1.5TB raid 5 setup in my wifes machine for about $270, raid controller $110, and four .5TB sata drives 4x$40, big storage and ultra safe. takes up a slot on the board and 4 drive slots, but makes for a great home media server for the ps3 to play movies and music from

Thordr said...

if you look for the sales, you can add any size sata drive to that raid system, i think you can find 1TB drives for about $50 now, that would make for a 3TB of raided storage

Janiece said...

Thanks, Thordr. I have multiple drives inside the case, and I prefer an external drive for my backup needs.

Steve Buchheit said...

External drives are better in case of Zombie Apocalypse. It's harder to wield the chainsaw when lugging around a desktop case.

Fathergoose said...

If you decide to go with the 1T+, one option to consider is a networking drive. With it everyone in your house can back-up to the same drive and when you travel you can access any files on the drive. Also have you been to Micro Center?

Janiece said...

Fathergoose, that would be nice, but my iTunes library has all my music and all my audio books - being the greedy git that I am, I need a 1TB drive for myownself.

Plus - ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE!

Random Michelle K said...

Fucking zombies.