£400 ish basically just for browsing the web, storing photos and editing them and listening/storing music. Any good deals about?? Also would like something reasonably quick as I’m an impatient fecker!!

Theres a HP one on ebuyer (i got an email about it) think its about £329 reduced from £429. Looked good, 15.6 inch screen, i3 processor, 3gb ram. I cant send a link at the moment though.

storing photos and editing them and listening/storing music.

A computer is not a permanent store of data – budget for an external drive to keep a backup copy.

Yeah tried that cranberry with this useless piece of shit I’ve got at the moment, it’s get 90% through the back up then freezes everything, still don’t know if there’s anything actually been put onto the external drive!!!

Yeah tried that cranberry with this useless piece of shit I’ve got at the moment, it’s get 90% through the back up then freezes everything, still don’t know if there’s anything actually been put onto the external drive!!!

I am thinking of some of these at present:

https://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/laptop-sale

A computer is not a permanent store of data – budget for an external drive to keep a backup copy.

How is that any more permanent?

Be better off budgeting for online storage if you are concerned about backup (see Mozy, Carbonite, SugarSync etc).

Heres the link

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/257135

looks alrite but im not mega clued up on whats good and whats not

I’ve been considering a new laptop as my current one keeps crashing.

If I can’t fix it I’ll get a new one.

I bought my current one from Mesh Computers asnd the aftersales etc has been very good. Unfortunately they’ve recently gone into administration and have been bought by another company, so I’m not sure it’s a good idea at the moment. Although their laptops are well spec’d.

Oh…and following from the comment about storing photos.

An external harddrive is more reliable…mainly as it doesn’t have an operating system which could fail preventing you from accessing your photos. (although you could still retrieve them using an external harddrive casing)

Also a laptop is moved around more which exposes it to risk of being dropped, which can ruin a harddrive meaning the content cannot be retrieved except by a specialist.

I would recommend a network drive connected to your wireless router to store things you don’t want to lose. This means you won’t have to move it to connect it to your laptop therefore reducing the risk of dropping it etc.

On the external harddrive casing thing:

I’ve got a bunch of photos and music on an external hard drive, but the usb cable socket has snapped away from its contacts. If it makes any difference, it’s one of these

So I need to get inside it, remove the disk itself and put it in what? Can someone post a link to the kind thing I need, please? Is it an achievable task for someone who knows as little as I obviously do?

Sorry for the hijack, but it had headed a little way this way already!

You need a 2.5″ external HDD chasis.

I’ve just bought and Acer off amazon for £329, i3 processor, 4gb ram, 15.6″ screen, 320gb HDD, 64-bit windows etc.

Nice and quick.

That sounds ^^^ a good deal. I will also now hijack my own thread then, am I right in thinking then that I can take the old hard drive out of the current puter and put this in something and subsequently update this information on my new machine!! The main thing I’m after are the photos and my business contacts from my I phone.

Cheers McHamish! Got one on order from Mama Zon.

Not too tricky is it? Like replacing a cassette? Any chainwhip equivalent necessary, or just the usual screwdriver & lump hammer combo?

An external harddrive is more reliable…mainly as it doesn’t have an operating system which could fail preventing you from accessing your photos. (although you could still retrieve them using an external harddrive casing)

This isn’t correct, sorry. The presence or absence of an OS is irrelevant when it comes to data recovery; a disk with a broken Windows installation is no different to a disk without one.

You need a 2.5″ external HDD chasis.
…
Got one on order

Danger, Will Robinson.

Looking at that link, it says the disk is “ATA100” which means you need a caddy with the old ‘parallel ATA’ connectors. Most modern caddies will be SATA, which is a different connection.

Not too tricky is it? Like replacing a cassette?

It depends on the caddy. The ones that come without a drive are designed to be opened up, there might be a couple of screws but nothing particularly complex. The ones that are sold as “external disks” vary in how easy they are to open, I’ve seen some that are sealed units.

An external harddrive is more reliable…mainly as it doesn’t have an operating system which could fail preventing you from accessing your photos. (although you could still retrieve them using an external harddrive casing)

Whut?

You’re going to have to work out what balance of battery time, size, weight, horsepower, build quality, etc.

Dell 15R i3 (the first on this i3 list) £409
http://www.dmxdimension.com/dell-uk/inspiron-15-deals-codes-coupons/

Samsung R540 i3 (3 year warranty for £49) £350
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/samsung-r540-laptop-i3-380m-4gb-ram-500gb-hdd-hdmi-349-97-saveonlaptops-optional/954874

Vaio?
http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Sony_VAIO_VPCEB3J0EWI_1011070.html

Lenovo? – (3yr on-site warranty) I’ve had a play with this one and liked it, but I decided the 13″ would be more for me. (only in-budget when you claim £100 back a couple of months later)
http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Lenovo_Edge_15_1079088.html

This isn’t correct, sorry. The presence or absence of an OS is irrelevant when it comes to data recovery; a disk with a broken Windows installation is no different to a disk without one.

No need to apologise.

Storing stuff you want to keep on an external HDD is a better option than on a PC or laptop.

An OS can sometimes fail…in fact it has happened to me on a few occasions. If you know you’ve recently backed everything up to your NAS means you can just format and reinstall.

If you don’t back up to an external HDD regularly or at all, you’ll need to obtain a chasis for the faulty HDD, remove the HDD from the laptop, install it in the external HDD chasis, connect it to another PC/laptop, get what you want off it, put the HDD back in the laptop, reinstall windows, connect to the machine on to which you stored the data, and copy it back to the laptop again.

You can claim backing up to an external HDD isn’t a good idea…but you’re wrong.

For many PC/laptop users, retrieving your family photos from a drive with a borked windows installation would be too complicated to do on their own.

In addition, you don’t need to move a NAS about too much, if at all, which reduces the risk of damage. I have a HDD with a mechanical fault as I dropped the laptop, fortunately there was nothing on it I needed to salvage as everything had been backed up. Had there been something on it that I really couldn’t lose I would have had to send it to a data recovery company to retrieve it.

Whut?

As above.

Danger, Will Robinson.

Looking at that link, it says the disk is “ATA100” which means you need a caddy with the old ‘parallel ATA’ connectors. Most modern caddies will be SATA, which is a different connection.

I should have mentioned this in my post.

Cougar is correct you’ll need a SATA 2.5″ chasis.

Edit…ignore what I said here – I miss read Cougars post.

Looking at that link, it says the disk is “ATA100” which means you need a caddy with the old ‘parallel ATA’ connectors. Most modern caddies will be SATA, which is a different connection.

Cougar is correct you’ll need a SATA 2.5″ chasis.

Erm…no. He will need a PATA 2.5″ chassis if Cougar is correct

Apologies…I miss read his post.

* 500 GB storage capacity Insensitive to shocks, vibrations, dust, sand, spray water and external temperatures (-40 to +70 ?C) Tested and certified according to the strict “US Military Drop Test 810-F“ Simple One-Touch backup function
* Dimensions: (L x W x H) 129 x 79.9 x 13 mm
* Connection: USB 2.0
* Memory capacity: 500 GB

* Hi-Speed USB 2.0 compliant and USB 1.1 backwards compatible
* Easy Plug and Play installation
* Ultra-Portability
* Additional software pack :StoreJet elite (helps you manage your data)
* OneTouch Auto-Backup function
* Powered via the USB port. No external power or battery needed
* LED indicates power on and data access
* Warranty : 2-years

Technical Details

Weight:206g
Device Type:2.5″ SATA Hard Disk Drive
Operating Voltage:DC 5V from USB port
Interface:USB2.0

Anyway.

You can claim backing up to an external HDD isn’t a good idea…but you’re wrong.

Hang on, you are changing your arguement here. No one is saying backing up is bad. Implying an external HD is more reliable than a HD in a laptop was the issue.

Storing stuff you want to keep on an external HDD is a better option than on a PC or laptop.

An OS can sometimes fail…in fact it has happened to me on a few occasions. If you know you’ve recently backed everything up to your NAS means you can just format and reinstall.

Why not just use the laptop hard drive as usual for your media storage, they ship with 250gb+ drives for a reason, and keep a cloned backup on an external. Drive goes down, then just restore the image/partition etc. If the drive is properly knackered then you won’t just be able to format and install anyway.

For back up storage consider a NAS unit that can mirror.

I think Netgear do a nice little unit. Looks like a little toaster.

It has two drives in it and writes the same info to each one so if you have a drive fail then you just get another pair and load the surviving ones data onto the new pair! 🙂

If you can stick it in a fireproof box with a UPS then you really are sorted! 🙂 Better than finding your online storage company’s just gone bust and wiped everything! (I believe there was a photo storage site that did something like this recently? eek!)

Hang on, you are changing your arguement here. No one is saying backing up is bad. Implying an external HD is more reliable than a HD in a laptop was the issue.

Personally I can get stuff off a harddrive with a failed OS, some people might struggle…in which case for the average computer user, the HDD in the laptop is less reliable.

Let me put it another way…an operating system can fail, right?

So if you could remove an element that could fail on a HDD that would make it more reliable wouldn’t it?

So an external HDD (i.e. an HDD without an OS) would be more reliable…wouldn’t it?

Yes, you can retrieve stuff off it, but for many people they’d need help.

There you go! Not as toastery as the older models but now with added cubyness

Netgear toaster

And when you run out of space, just chuck a couple of bigger drives in!

I think I’ve moved this thread away from it’s purpose…

In my opinion (and experience)…

Dell laptops

They are reliable and you get a good after sales servise – the wife has one, she had a problem with the HDD and they sent a courier to collect it and it came back with a new HDD (and the old one) a few days later.

The build quality isn’t great, I had a work laptop from Dell years ago and the shell wasn’t particularly solid, the keyboard would flex while typing. That said it has never failed in 3 years of use.

Samsung

I have a Samsung P200 as a spare travel laptop at work, it’s nice and small and has worked for 3 years without failing. The build quality is good and it feels robust. The OS has recently failed and our IT support guys needed to reinstall it…not sure what the cause was as it’s a work one and I don’t care!

My younger brother has recently bought a Samsung laptop (not sure of the model) for around £600, he seems happy with it, although he says it runs a little hot.

MSI

I have a MSI GX700 Extreme laptop that I bought from Mesh about 3 years ago…it’s not portable and is a desk top replacement really. I had an issue with it and Mesh sent out a replacement without arguing…although as per my first post in this thread, Mesh have gone into administration and have been bought by another company.

Viao (in my opinion)

These are over priced

Apple (in my opinion)

These are also over priced, but the service from Apple is apparently excellent. I had a Macbook Pro for 2 weeks but took it back as I wasn’t that impressed with it and you can get a better Windows based laptop for less money.

Acer

Never had one, but they get some bad press. I have no idea if this is warranted.

Blimey, that was easy! 4 screwsto open up, unplug the interface from the hard disk, plug on the new interface, slide it into the housing and secure with 2 screws. Didn’t even need to use the hammer.

I’m an electrical engineer! 😀

I’ve had a Dell Inspiron for about 5 years, I’m sure something newer would be quicker, but it seems to be doing what I want it to do as well as it did when I bought it – photo editing, basic video editing, usual net stuff, and standard MS office.

Screen’s really nice too, 1680 x 1050, seems high resolution screen are reserved for higher end stuff these days, and it’s not a thing Dell let you upgrade.

I think I’d go with Dell again. not as sexy as some, but good bang for your buck. I’d quite like a Macbook Pro, but way more than I’d actually spend. I’m sure if if I was in that price bracket, I’d find plenty of others worthy of my money too.