new computer

[Douglas JohnstonParticipant @douglasjohnston98463]

For the past couple of weeks every time I switch my computer on it gives me the following message : "hard drive failure is imminent- please back up and replace drive"

It is a tower desktop about 9 years old and I am thinking about replacing the whole thing and have spent many hours online looking at various options for a replacement computer and I am now trying to make sense of it all..

I don't like tablets or laptops so will go with some form of desktop, but what type? There don't seem to be many of the old style tower units, apart from the gaming ones which are not for me, so the choice there is limited.

There are a lot of the newer all in one types which do look nice but I have no experience of them. Can anybody with experience of one of those all in one pc's give me their opinion on them.

If anybody has had a good or bad recent purchase of a pc can I have your thoughts?

Doug

[Douglas JohnstonParticipant @douglasjohnston98463]

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

This means the error rate of the drive has increased and it may indeed fail soon.

My advice is to get a USB backup drive ASAP and copy all your files to it. You can get a 1TB external drive for about £50 in Tescos, Currys etc.

Then once your data is safe, think about a new computer!

Apologies if you already have a backup.

Neil

[Brian HParticipant @brianh50089]

I have 2 Lenovo All-in One PCs and have stand alone portable drives. So far, in 3 years, no problems.

Brian

[Gordon Smith 1Participant @gordonsmith1]

Just built my own computer. 3hrs work and works well. See Cary Holtzmann on Y tube for build examples.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

You can still get Tower Unit Desktops. Search for 'Business Desktop' to filter out the Game Machines.

A potential problem with the All-in-Ones is it may not be possible to upgrade them. Make sure the one you buy comes with everything you want! My daughters All-in-one would have been transformed by fitting an SSD and more RAM. Not possible because of the way it's constructed. She had to replace it.

Dave

[Alan JacksonParticipant @alanjackson47790]

I am happy with a ex business Dell T1700. It came with Win 10 professional and I have added a 500 gb ssd. Check out them on ebay lots to choose

Alan

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

By coincidence we got a new PC yesterday. We had a local company put it together according to our requirements. The only fancy work on it is Fusion 360 so that gave the base spec. Desktop case and a horizontal CD drive. The company cloned our existing C drive to an SSD. It's all pretty whizzy now. There is also a 1Tb hdd and several external drives for backup.

Rod

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

Douglas,

Whatever you do, don't ignore the warning! I did – twice and the next time I switched it on, the hard drive failed. In some respects it wasn't a problem in that it wasn't the main drive which held the operating system and program files, but was the second drive which had all my engineering and CAD files, etc going back five years or more. All lost. I had some backed up on a couple of USB sticks, but by no means all. A local computer data retrieval company could only recover a couple of text files and a photograph, though they did suggest a firm that does work for the "boys in blue" That would cost about £400, they reckoned.. I reckoned I'd just have to learn the lesson and keep my cash in my pocket. Needless to say, I now backup regularly to an external drive.

I've also bought a new-to-me iMac with Windows 10 and dual-boot capability, 1TB hard drive, loads of memory and a decent video card and 27" screen. Whipped the data hard drive out of the old computer and housed it in a separate enclosure. Job done – 'til the next time.

Here, if you are interested.

Good luck,

John

 

Edited By John Hinkley on 03/11/2019 16:50:57

Edited By John Hinkley on 03/11/2019 16:51:54

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

Seemed to be a good range of non gaming type desktops with various spec’s on the Dell website when I was looking last week.

I have no connection with the company but I used to run a Dell desktop myself when I was working for a living no problems with it.

Edited By V8Eng on 03/11/2019 17:05:16

[Robert Atkinson 2Participant @robertatkinson2]

If you are happy with the machine you have and don't intend putting any significant new software on it in the near future why not just replace the disk? If you fit a solid state (SSD) one you won't have to worry about mechanical failures. Most "retail pack" SSD's come with software to transfer your operating system, programs and data with minimal fuss.

Robert G8RPI.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, I always back up on at least two external drives, because even these can fail or become corrupt, no need to ask how I know.

Regards Nick.

[Stuart BridgerParticipant @stuartbridger82290]

I wouldn't bother replacing a drive on a nine year old machine. CPU and memory technology has moved on and the software has got bloated to match. Also other components will be deteriorating Personally I use Dell both for work laptop and desktop style home PC.

[I.M. OUTAHEREParticipant @i-m-outahere]

I build mine as i find the commercially available units always seem to be a compromise of one sort or another or have featured aimed specifically at gaming which I don’t need .

It really depends on what you need – things like a dvd player / burner , heaps of usb ports , 4k video etc .

You have more options than a tower , tablet or laptop these days starting with a pc stick through to the many small form factor units available then to getting a PC store assemble a unit tailored to your specific needs .

I never liked all in one units because you are stuck with a unit that is much more difficult to repair if something goes wrong and you are tied to a specific model of motherboard , drives and ram where as a with tower you can change these out easily and there are many more manufacturers that make boards that fit a common form factor like a tower .

Maybe have a talk to a local PC store and see what they can do for you as well .

[MichaelRParticipant @michaelr]

As a very satisfied customer have a look at this company Here I have had my computers built to my requirements by this company they will give you all the help you need in choosing what you require.

I have a All in One built by the above.

MikeR.

[An OtherParticipant @another21905]

+1 for the suggestion from Robert Atkinson, but just a word of warning:

If the machine is 9 years old, it probably has an IDE interface to the internal hard drive. (The cable to the drive is a wide flat ribbon). If you replace the drive with a new SSD drive, they (almost all) use a SATA serial interface (a narrow cable) – it is unlikely the older computers have this interface available, so you will not be able to connect it. HDs with IDE interfaces are still available if you look, but most are SATA2 or SATA3. Some support IDE as a legacy feature, but not many. For this reason, you might have to get a new machine.

[Douglas JohnstonParticipant @douglasjohnston98463]

Well, thanks for all that information, even the scary bits! I agree with Stuart, at 9 years old I think it is time for a replacement. I have noticed that a lot of machines now come with either a single SSD or a combination of SSD and large HDD. I am told that SSD drives are much faster, but wonder if that is true in the real world. My comment about the lack of tower desktops was only based on a tour of the local PC World store.

Is there an easy way of backing up the Windows 10 operating system since you don't get a hard copy DVD these days?

Doug

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

Often the local CEX shop has ex Business HP or Dell desktops for around ?80 to ?100 – our local auction house usually have similar machines for less than ?30 but they will be running Win7 or even XP – one attraction of these older machines is that they often have both PATA (the wide cable) and SATA (narrow cable) interfaces and are easily made to run Linux which allows straightforward copying of older hard drives to the newer and generally larger SATA drives

You can of course merely extract the computer motherboard and move it to your existing tower as all fittings were standardised by IBM many years ago

Should also add that upgrading these older machines to the maximum memory 4GB or 16GB is usual limit is again very cheap and will give you an even better response than a SSD.

Edited By Frances IoM on 03/11/2019 18:21:39

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Posted by Robert Atkinson 2 on 03/11/2019 16:56:26:

If you fit a solid state (SSD) one you won't have to worry about mechanical failures.

… but don't get the idea that they have an unlimited lifetime. There are limits to how many times each cell can be written. It's steadily improved over the years and is pretty good these days but there are limits nonetheless.

That said, I use them for boot drives in all my machines … not to mention a couple in NAS boxes (which gives fast access).

[Stuart BridgerParticipant @stuartbridger82290]

As well as backing up the existing system, I would recommend not powering off. Most failures tend to occur at startup.

[Clive Brown 1Participant @clivebrown1]

Posted by Douglas Johnston on 03/11/2019 18:10:09:

Well, thanks for all that information, even the scary bits! I agree with Stuart, at 9 years old I think it is time for a replacement. I have noticed that a lot of machines now come with either a single SSD or a combination of SSD and large HDD. I am told that SSD drives are much faster, but wonder if that is true in the real world. My comment about the lack of tower desktops was only based on a tour of the local PC World store.

Is there an easy way of backing up the Windows 10 operating system since you don't get a hard copy DVD these days?

Doug

No doubt that an SSD is much faster than a traditional HDD, this speed is most noticeable in machine boot-up time. An SSD is perhaps best used in conjunction with an HDD with the OS and programmes on a fairly small SSD for speed and cost effectiveness with data stored on a larger HDD .

The OS can be cloned as back-up if you so wish, but Windows 10 OS is readiy available as a download for re-installation on a machine that already has a legitimate activation code

[Douglas JohnstonParticipant @douglasjohnston98463]

I have backed up as much as I can so will just keep running the machine until it gives up. If it keeps going until Black Friday I may be able to pick up a bargain!

There is so much technical jargon with regard to the internals of computers, it is difficult to know what is best to get. I just want a machine that loads up fast and does the basics well, nothing fancy needed.

Doug

[Douglas JohnstonParticipant @douglasjohnston98463]

My windows 10 was obtained via the free conversion from an older version when Windows 10 was introduced, so where does the activation code come from? I assume there is software out there for cloning the operating system, I must have a look.

Doug

[Nick Clarke 3Participant @nickclarke3]

I have been a very satisfied customer of these people for a long time – they have taken over the Morgan Computers business. Most recently an A1 reconditioned iPad **LINK**

Remember a new system will probably have Win10 installed perhaps unlike your present one – many people don't like this and some of your present software may need updating, but with win7 going out of support it is hard to recommend a different version if you are going down the Microsoft route.

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

Out of 14 SSD's that I have bought, from 32 to 500 Gb, only one has failed, a 120 Gb. I have had 4 hdds fail over the years. If I was going to buy a new pc, I would look at what Novatech have to offer in the UK. Or something like this if second hand:

**LINK**

[Author]

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