[JoshK]

I have a number of computer related questions not necessarily related to audio servers. 

1) First, I am looking for a new laptop as primary home computer.  I am not too interested in learning Mac and I telecommute from home sometimes.  I am tired of computer issues.  I can work on PCs and I am somewhat savvy, but I've had far too many problems in the last few years, and I'm tired of wasting time on a computer when I come home from work, so reliability is #1 priority.  Suggestions?

2) what to do with old laptop?  Its pretty noisey and a bit slow.  What should it be used for?  Dedicated porn surfing rig?  kidding of course...

3) what to do with old parts?  My storage closet is full of old PC cases, old boards, parts, harddrives, etc.  What to do with all this stuff?  I've procrastinated for a long time dealing with it, so I'm not looking to invest a lot of time here.

4) Protection from power cycles for vortexbox?  I am pretty sure that the last two towers I had died from power issues while leaving them on 24/7.  What are the best solutions for leaving the vortexbox on all the time but protecting it from potential issues?

5) best way to get data off old harddrives (5 or 6) that may not all be working 100%.  With all the PCs I've had die, I have a stack of drives with data on them that I would like to extract (resumes, papers, etc).  Would getting an external USB drive case be the easiest and convenient way to fetch data?  (some are ATA and some at SATA so I'd need both types).  Any cheap/free programs that help if the drive is quasi-faulty?


Would greatly love to hear good ideas on the above.  (I numbered them to make it easy to reference the question.)

[mcgsxr]

5) - http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3276554&CatId=3770 - I have used these in the past effectively for short term connection of both IDE and SATA drives.  I did use one continuously for a while, but it only lasted around 5 months.

4) - do you NEED to leave the VTB on all the time?  When I had that running, since it was easy to shut it down from the GUI via another PC, I typically shut it off at the end of the day.  Booted rapidly, so it was never a concern.  See my thoughts about your old laptop too below.  Assume you don't want/need a proper UPS.

3) - Craigslist or Kijiji, potentially as a lot - I just sold my disfunctional Dell SFF for $20, less the RAM, in as is condition.  I often see lots of HD's of mixed size going for low dollar amounts.  I assume that you are just looking to cleanse your place, vs extract maximum dollars?

2) - good question - my kids are using the oldest, slowest laptop I own.  I keep it in my music area, in the event I want to browse while they are playing down there, and tunes are going etc.  I am sure with a RAM update, it could be your Vortexbox by the way.  Built in wifi could be useful too, for locating it elsewhere, and with a battery in it, would it not survive brief power failures better than a standard desktop?

1) - no help!

[MaxCast]

Got any old pc2700 DDR ram in that closet?   

[TomS]

Josh,

#5 Whatever you do with them, be very careful with the old hard drives if you decide to donate, recycle, etc.  Trust me, there is NO wiping program other than an inferno that will keep your data completely safe once it is recorded on those platters.  If they're not useful to you or someone you trust completely, destroy them or just don't give/throw them away.  I used to be in the disk recovery/forensics type of business and it can be done with the right hardware/ingenuity/motivation.

#1 I went Mac for all or our laptops at home and never looked back in terms of reliability and maintenance.  Best decision I ever made. 

#4 I used to have my server on an old laptop but it still had a fan and spinning OS disk so eventually failed too.  I recently built a new headless VTB on an inexpensive Intel Atom 270 board with 40gb SSD primary drive and an external wall wart for PS.  The music drive is external so can be moved around.  All of my network stuff and this server are on a small APC UPS so no worries about short outages and interruptions.  I expect failures should also be much lower.

Tom

[JoshK]

Thanks for the answers so far! 

The more I think about #1, the more I think I should get my desktop up and going and keep it for work telecommuting.  My useage is about 10% telecommuting, 10% being audio DIY stuff (measurements, modeling, etc) and 80% being webbrowsing.  Then maybe get a netbook for webbrowsing wirelessly in the LR.

MaxCast: I'll look.  I just might. 

mcgsxr: Perfect for #5! Thanks!  That is why I ask.

I am not about to give away HDs.   I am too nervous about that.  Those will go in the trash.  The rest to Craigslist I guess.  I've never heard of Kijiji, I'll look into that and maybe backpages.

I have a vortexbox appliance, one that came configured already.  So I don't need to do anything there.  I just want to make sure the HD keeps spinning.  I have a backup, but I always forget to update it. 

[pjchappy]

I am not about to give away HDs.   I am too nervous about that.  Those will go in the trash.

Scratch them, rub them with neodynium magnets, drill holes in them, then trash them.


Paul

[rob-fi]

1- buy a gateway laptop, i have used them...and they are reliable.

3- ebay 

[Noseyears]

Perhaps you want to donate some... 

[Len_Dreyer]

5) Also consider a toaster case for your hard drives. I've been using one for a year and a half for backups and other things.

[planet10]

1/ Get a Mac. Much of the reliability issues of Windows PCs isn't the hardware it is windows. A MAc can also be a Windows PC with all the realted issues, but if you run Windows in a VM it is usually easier to deal with them. (Make a back up of your VM machine file, store your data on the Mac side, and then if you have a big problm, toss that VM file, make a copy of your backup and use it... away you go.

dave

[skunark]

Hello Josh

I'm a long time windows and Linux user and I feel your pain.   With any laptop you will have issues but to me it's about the ease to get one repaired.   I do concur with most here, get a Mac and install windows on it.   You will have one of the fastest and most reliable windows laptop out there.  I've owned dells, IBM, Lenovo(rebranded), and HPs, I had problems with them all, the only difference is I can drive to a Mac store (apple or official retailer) and get fast service.    I do about 90% of my work on Linux, 10 windows and now my music is 100% Mac.  Gaming well I go through spurts but right now I been clean for almost a year now but I keep a windows partition around if I do get the urge.     

As for spare parts, turn them into hand-me-downs or call the local high school and donate them to a computer class or club.


For vortexbox.  Consider running it on a laptop such that it shutdown when on battery that might force it to close cleanly.   Maybe others can comment