XP Still Tops

I suspect a lot of that is because several large organisations (basically anything to do with 'security') still insist on XP.

S

 

When Vista got such a bad name I decided to change to Ubuntu/Linux, I would not go back to using Windows. With XP having a limited update life, it will only be sensible to use it if it is not allowed near the Internet after the updates have finished.

 

Whilst I am using Windows Vista version, given the choice I wouldn't use it at all. When we moved out her I had a Macbook, best system I have ever used. Unfortunately it got damaged and cannot get it repaired here. So back to windows.

 

No, it's called built in obsolescence.

 

"If it ain't broke don't fix it."


I've never been tempted to upgrade, my XP home edition cost me £26 a few years ago. It works fine.

 

Yes, XP for me too every time.

I am thinking of buying a laptop and find that many of them have XP Home - great.
Anybody know if it is the same set-up?

I would be really pleased if it is. Some have XP Office.
Is there much difference between XP Office and XP Home?

 

While we're on this subject. Has everyone got a back-up hard drive?

I've a Maxtor 300GB on which I keep a copy of pretty much everything on my computer on it, all my photos, videos and mp3 files.
All my financial stuff is on that too, none of it is on my computer, so if the computer has to go away for repair, there's nothing confidential on it.

I also have an 8GB USB for my mp3 files and another for my main photo files and my financial stuff.
I also put the financial stuff on a floppy disc...err... and a duplicate.
I've also got a copy of my address book and my Internet Explorer favourites on the Maxtor too. It's a pain if your computer hard drive crashes as you're then in the dark.
So all my stuff is in either two or three places and the financial stuff in four, (might be a bit of overkill there).

I back everything up every three days. I was glad of this only this week as my 2010 financial file on the Maxtor got corrupted, so I only had a couple of days credit card spends to add to one of the duplicates and copy it to a new file to the Maxtor. A disc clean-up removed the corrupted file and I was able to use the old file description.

Everything apart from the financial stuff I leave on my desk top if it needs backing up, it acts as a reminder to get it done.

 

300GB Back-up Hard drive Doghouse Riley? - wow! Have you filled it yet :D
Seriously, that is very useful. Will have to consider something like that.
The nearest I have got is a 32GB Memory Stick and about 12 x 2GB Memory Sticks.
Trouble is with so many it is sometime difficult to find which one has an item I have saved.:dh:


Just looking at Acer Aspire Laptop from Argos has anybody tried it?

Only disadvantage I see is that I would have to buy an external DVD/CD player.

 

Having had a couple of computer crashes in the past, the thing I learned from it which was most important, was the backing up of e-mail addresses and Explorer favourites, also any e-mails you regard as important to save.

 

The price looks good, but if it suits your needs much depends on what you'll use it for. It's marketed as a 'NetBook' and has at 160GB HDD a relatively small hard drive and by current standards is on the slow side at 1.66GHz. However if you'll mainly use it for web browsing and emailing it should be just dandy, but if you want to use it for storing a lot of photos or for serious digital imaging it's pretty small and slow.
I'm not surprised you find keeping track of all your backups difficult with all those external USB drives. You'd probably be cheaper in the long run investing in a big external drive (or two) and some software to automate backups.
I use two external drives, one is 1TB and the other half that at 500GB. I use that smaller one to automatically create a 'disc image' of the main PC every Friday using a bit of software called 'Acronis True Image'. This means I could resurect the whole PC system in event of a crash. The bigger 1TB drive is set up to automatically copy all files in my "Documents" folder and I also use it to store a 'disc image' about once a month on demand.
Since a catastrophic HDD crash last year when I lost a lot of photos and the first draft of a book I was writing I'm now 'belt and braces' when it comes to backing up.