New laptop?

**hunter63** · 02-22-2015, 01:04 PM

After the near death experience of the cira 2013 laptop......still alive but????......and being like a BIC, using them for a while then they just die.....Been looking for a new one.

Have been looking at the sale flyers in the newspaper.(LOL, yeah, news paper.....fire starter, try that with your Kindle)
Be nice to have one up and running before the "blue screen of death" shows up.

I had backed up almost everything, so most all files are on media, couple of different kinds.....SD cards and thumb drives.

If I do end up with a new unit soon....was seriously think about NOT loading all these file on a new unit.....or just loading up what I use when I need it....a couple of letters a month.

I have always used Office.....but.
Now as most all newer one are an 'ala cart where you need to buy (again) the Windows (newest version)...or that latest, buy a subscription to say, Office. ....I thinking I don't really need all that stuff.
Havn't really needed a lot since I'm not working.

I can a and do use my web mail from earthlink, so don't really need a separate e-mail editor/filter.....

Just makes me wonder if I can still open, edit, create doc's in "word" with out having it loaded(?)
Have a couple old X-cell charts but I don't need to edit.

Not really into touch screen....but may end up with one anyway and most all the newer one seem to have it.

Thoughts?

**Batch** · 02-22-2015, 01:38 PM

I am in a similar boat as far as my PC is starting to die.

You can use Google Docs for your docs and spreadsheets.

http://www.google.com/docs/about/?gc...PF8xoCW-rw_wcB

I am trying to figure out what I want/need.

**hunter63** · 02-22-2015, 02:23 PM

Will be interesting to see what you come up with.

I'm finding that I don't have much use for a lot of stuff I use to use when working

**finallyME** · 02-22-2015, 09:14 PM

If you don't NEED MS Office, then look at OpenOffice. It is free and can read Office files. The spreadsheet program isn't as good as Excel, but it gets the job done for 90% of users.
http://www.openoffice.us.com/openoff...e_us_Writer_EM

**hunter63** · 02-22-2015, 09:22 PM

FM thanks that will be the way to go......even the kid sales guy was telling me about this....

Let me ask you this.....and everyone"
Do you keep all you file on the computer, or just the ones you use....and store music and pic's off site on media....

No, I don't do "Cloud".

**crashdive123** · 02-22-2015, 09:29 PM

I keep all of my files on my computer. Lots of work related records and reports, industry related educational stuff (power point presentations and articles), tons of pictures and vids. I do back up to an external hard drive. Additionally, I back up off site with Carbonite. When I no longer need work records I will probably just back up to an external hard drive.

**Tokwan** · 02-22-2015, 09:35 PM

Just get one of those ASUS transformers..cheap and reliable and practical.

**wilderness medic** · 02-22-2015, 09:50 PM

I don't keep much besides a handful of videos and a bunch of music on mine. I try to keep most of my files on a 1TB external hard drive. I have a handful of files that are extremely important to me Afghanistan, family that passed, etc. and they stay on my laptop, external, and several thumb drives SD cards. Learned the hard way. If it's that important make sure it's in several places. Also like to keep my laptop somewhat cleaned up so when I edit videos it's not slowed anymore down.

I was going through about one PC per year. Friend convinced me to buy a MacBook. Haven't regretted it, and it's already paid for its self in what I was losing on PCs. And I love it waaaay more than I did my PC. Unless you're really into games maybe look at Macs if you finally get tired of that blue screen of death.

**pete lynch** · 02-22-2015, 09:57 PM

I back up my files to an external hard drive like the Seagate Free Agent or a Western Digital. Plugs into a usb port.
+1 on the OpenOffice suite. Have used it or LibreOffice for a while now.

**hunter63** · 02-22-2015, 10:05 PM

Thanks guys...easier to research when I don't really "need it" at the moment.
Will start looking into suggestions

WM...will Mac open Word?

**Tokwan** · 02-22-2015, 10:06 PM

It depends if that Mac can speak.

**wilderness medic** · 02-22-2015, 10:20 PM

Originally Posted by hunter63

Thanks guys...easier to research when I don't really "need it" at the moment.
Will start looking into suggestions

WM...will Mac open Word?

I don't believe it will open if you try transferring it over. They do make word for Mac, and you can download windows OS and install your old word but that kind of defeats the point.

I've been using Apatche OpenOffice. It was free and does more than I need for college papers.

**hunter63** · 02-22-2015, 10:24 PM

Just talking about all the doc I have stored, and don't really want to spend the time converting them.

**welderguy** · 02-23-2015, 12:55 AM

Hunter , since your laptop is not that old , and I am guessing windows 7 or 8 , why don't you just replace the hard drive , up grade the memory, and give her a good cleaning and it will be like a brand new one at half the cost. The laptop I have is a 2011 model and april or may of last year I replaced the hard drive upgraded the memory and replaced the fan cost me right around 100 bucks all new parts.

**hunter63** · 02-23-2015, 10:43 AM

Thanks I'll look into that.......

**finallyME** · 02-23-2015, 11:35 AM

My main computer is a desktop with 3 hard drives. I just add another hard drive when it starts to get too full. The main hard drive is FAST and doesn't have much storage...so it only houses the operating system. If my operating system dies, then it is only one hard drive, and nothing important is on that one.

Incidentally, if you have a lot of Word documents, and you don't plan to edit any of them.....you should probably convert them to PDFs. Less memory and you don't have to worry about being able to read them later.