Hard drive finally stopped: So the HD finally stopped on my 7 year-old Lenovo i5 desktop. Became very slow and then would not reboot, and got a message that "no OS found". This...

mikedent Loc: Florida

So the HD finally stopped on my 7 year-old Lenovo i5 desktop. Became very slow and then would not reboot, and got a message that "no OS found". This happened before on my work computers. So I took it to Staples and we decided on a new 2TB drive, 240G HP SSD for boot and programs, and I ordered 16g Ram from Best Buy to replace the original 8g. Should be faster than before. Also Staples will work to transfer files to new HD, esp Documents and Photos. Surprised at the amount of dust and lint inside the case and on the motherboard, even though I always wipe off the fan vents of dust. Anything I need to do differently now that I will have a separate SSD??

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Probably just get used to your data being on a different drive designation.

(Every so often I pop the lid and blow out the computer, with power off of course.
Dust is a heat insulator, it doesn't let things cool like they should.)

Scruples Loc: Brooklyn, New York

Supposedly, a Solid State Drive would be better since there are no moving parts. But I am a cranky old coot who refuses to change. The best I have doe is to place all my photos ONLY, on an external 2TB hard drive. I think that placing them on a computer Hard Drive is too susceptible to loss from hackers, glitches, power outages, etc. Placing photographs on the internal drive will take up space too.

Did I mention Im a cranky old coot?

anotherview Loc: California

Thank the stars you have been able to preserve your precious photographs in the process.

mikedent wrote:

So the HD finally stopped on my 7 year-old Lenovo ... (show quote)

Haydon

Make sure your case is raised from the floor to minimize the dust intake. I'm using the same CoolerMaster case I bought in 2009 with reusable air filters. It's kept most of the dust out of the inside. I just blow the filters free of the dust every year.

BlueMorel Loc: Southwest Michigan

I just got a new computer with a separate ssd drive. My programs are loaded on that drive and my data goes to the other drive. It requires me pointing to the new drive to give the programs the new path for data. My RAW files already go to my external drive but I also back them up to a second drive, along with other backups.
BTW you will be amazed by the bootup speed of your new computer! Enjoy!

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

I don't know what your costs are, but Costco is selling a Lenevo laptop with a little better specs than that for $1200

Lenovo LEGION Y545:
9th Gen Intel i7
16GB RAM
512GB SSD
1TB 7200RPM HDD
6GB NVIDIA Graphics

Rongnongno Loc: FL

bsprague wrote:

I don't know what your costs are, but Costco is selling a Lenevo laptop with a little better specs than .../...

Laptops are crap for photo editing unless you invest in one made graphic work. These run with a base price of $ 3k and go up into the $ 8k. Then you have the gaming option that run from 2 to $ 4k.

Issue with laptops? The damned screen, not the innards (if they have a good graphic card).

Beside the op mentions a desktop, not a laptop.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

You are right Rongnongno! The OP did write "desktop". I missed that.

Relative to your "crap" review, I find laptops a better choice for because I rarely sit at a desk and frequently do my photo work while traveling. Should I want a "real" monitor, I could plug one in. The Lenevo Legion Y545 I bought from Costco supports an external monitor, even 4K.

You may also me correct about laptops not working for "critical" printing where certain colors and tones have to be exact. I don't print that often and most of my prints are landscapes where "exact" is not a requirement. And, since most images are now shared and viewed electronically, a common quality laptop screen is sufficient.

jonfrei

Scruples wrote:

Supposedly, a Solid State Drive would be better since there are no moving parts. But I am a cranky old coot who refuses to change. The best I have doe is to place all my photos ONLY, on an external 2TB hard drive. I think that placing them on a computer Hard Drive is too susceptible to loss from hackers, glitches, power outages, etc. Placing photographs on the internal drive will take up space too.

Did I mention Im a cranky old coot?

If you don’t then replicate them to ANOTHER drive (hard drive, ssd, cloud, whatever, but SOMETHING else!!!), they will be lost just as permanently when that drive fails...

I keep all my photos on a primary online hard drive, which is replicated to two additional online drives hourly (the software is intelligent - if there is nothing changed, nothing gets written). I have an offline drive that I do not store at home that I replicate after every significant event I want to insure is backed up (with a weekly reminder on my calendar, just to be sure). I ALSO backup everything to the cloud (Backblaze) continuously.

Have I mentioned that *I* am a cranky old coot? ;)

linda lagace

Scruples wrote:

Supposedly, a Solid State Drive would be better since there are no moving parts. But I am a cranky old coot who refuses to change. The best I have doe is to place all my photos ONLY, on an external 2TB hard drive. I think that placing them on a computer Hard Drive is too susceptible to loss from hackers, glitches, power outages, etc. Placing photographs on the internal drive will take up space too.

Did I mention Im a cranky old coot?

I do the same thing Everything is on my external hard drive for the same reasons. Does that make me a cranky old coot. I do fit the old description.

jonfrei

linda lagace wrote:

I do the same thing Everything is on my external hard drive for the same reasons. Does that make me a cranky old coot. I do fit the old description.

The two are neither interdependent nor mutually exclusive — pick your poison... :)

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Scruples wrote:

Supposedly, a Solid State Drive would be better since there are no moving parts. But I am a cranky old coot who refuses to change. The best I have doe is to place all my photos ONLY, on an external 2TB hard drive. I think that placing them on a computer Hard Drive is too susceptible to loss from hackers, glitches, power outages, etc. Placing photographs on the internal drive will take up space too.

Did I mention Im a cranky old coot?

I've been using a 1 TB SSD as a boot drive for about 4 yrs. No issues. System boot Win 7) went from a glacial 3 minutes to about 25 secs. When I get a laptop I'll likely get one that has a pair of m.2 slots so I can do 2 SSD and a third in a standard 2.5" bay. I am about to be done with spinning drives, at least for active files. I have no hesitation at all using spinners for archiving on my NAS.

linda lagace

jonfrei wrote:

The two are neither interdependent nor mutually exclusive — pick your poison... :)

Old age may only be correlative to cranky cootness but it seems to really be causal to me

mikedent Loc: Florida

Thanks for all the updates. I do backup all my photos to 2 external drives plus Carbonite but hadn't done it yet for the France or Portugal photos. I still have all the SD cards so I can reload if needed. But I hope I don't have to!