Technology

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Most of us have bought a new car by trading in our old one.  You don't take your old car to the dump and stick it in a van for shipment to China or India.  It has some value to somebody.

I had a perfectly good laptop and not dissatisfied with it, I bought a new one.... more memory, more disk space, bigger screen, faster, really good System 7 Operating System.  You get it, the new model with Chrome (literally).

The old laptop finally faded away as the main disk drive conked out after about 5 years of 24/7 operation.  What do I do with it?

I don't want to toss it in the E-waste van at the dump, nor do I want to take it to a repair shop.  I can fix it myself.  Here is a recipe concentrating on the disk drive alone:

1.  Find your model type and look on the Internet.  You will likely find a YouTube video designed to help you replace the drive or a well written description.  You'll find a lot, if you have a popular computer.

2.  Pay attention to the video.  In my case the Video showed me where the disk drive is located and all I had to do is remove 4 screws to take it out and two more to move some plastic from the old to the new drive.  It was a 2.5 inch form factor SATA drive at 5400 RPM.

3.  Look at the screws carefully.  They are usually tiny Phillips screws that require a good driver to extricate them.  They are usually magnetic.  If you try a clumsy big Phillips, you will bungle the job and strip the heads, so wait and go buy a good driver with a long handle.  The 'business' part of it will be small and sharp.

4.  Pay attention to the model type of drive.  If it's a laptop, then it will probably be a SATA drive.  They are a big standard.  You can look that up on Google, if you want.  You can upgrade the amount of disk storage you have too, while you're at it.

5.  Look the drive type up using Google.  You'll find a ton of places to buy them.  I use www.amazon.com or www.amazon.ca.  You'll get your new one in a few days.

If you've saved your installation disks, or better still your system restore files on CD, then you can use them to restore your system.

So you've bumped out the dents from the old reliable friend and given her a few more years of road life.

Why do this, if you have a new computer?  I personally like to use more than one computer at a time and multiple screens on individual computers.  Makes me feel like I have the Internet right where I want it!.  I use Dropbox to communicate between them and keep a synchronized backup of my files.  (see Dropbox article)

Ok, ok, you are retired and don't need  a warehouse of computers.  You can give it to a child who cannot afford a new computer.  You may not realize it, but they are as required in schools today as were pencils to us.

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Friday, January 20, 2012