revchuck Posted July 6, 2008 Share Posted July 6, 2008 (edited) Folks - I'm trying to decide whether to upgrade my current laptop or buy a new one. The one I have now works fine. It's a Compaq Presario V2000 - a couple of generations old, but it does everything I need. I have XP and Office 2007 on it, and have maxed out the RAM (2 gigs). About the only thing I think it could use is a bigger hard drive - the 40 gig one is getting full. If I get a new one, it'll come with Vista, which is basically a new OS from a user's viewpoint. I can get a refurb with XP, but I'm not sure how much longer MS is going to support it. Recommendations? Thanks! Edited July 6, 2008 by revchuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Martin Posted July 6, 2008 Share Posted July 6, 2008 (edited) If you are happy with the speed and are fine with the hard drive swap (including ghosting over the old HD to the new one) I say go for it. I just swapped my mom's Mac Mini HD (Laptop HD inside a desktop computer) upgrading her from 40GB to 120GB for $65 from newegg. I also added a USB hard drive case for less than $5. So I was able to stick the old HD into a case and she can use it as a backup drive if needed. Hard to beat less than $70 for 3x the space. Edited July 6, 2008 by Chris Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSMITH Posted July 6, 2008 Share Posted July 6, 2008 I'd stick with it, a laptop that works is something I can't replace. I have had a bunch of them and had problems with quite a few. When I get one that works I run it into the ground. If you can't get rid of anything on the computer I would suggest backing some stuff up to DVD or USB memory sticks, 8 gig cards were $40 at one of the big box stores the other day. 8 gig is a LOT of information/music/video/whatever. You can get other types of external memory too and it is all really cheap now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HighVelocity Posted July 6, 2008 Share Posted July 6, 2008 I agree with the above. Upgrade your HD and keep going. Use the money you've saved on primers and match fees. Gary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RePete Posted July 6, 2008 Share Posted July 6, 2008 Just upgrade the HD. Don't waste your money on a new one, but you may, at some point, require a new battery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajg308 Posted July 6, 2008 Share Posted July 6, 2008 I am a store manager for one of the "big box" stores mentioned. IMO you have a couple of options. The V2000 series are good laptops and will work for some time, but as software evolves it will become slower and slower. You can do 2 things to make it last longer. Easiest solution is to get an external hard drive and run everything you can off of it. You can run programs from it abd use it as storage as if it were an internal. The plus side is that you now have an easy platform to use when you get a new computer. If you want to upgrade the internal drive I would go with a 7200 rpm hard drive, it is the only thing you can now do to make it faster. Either solution is temporary and may buy you a couple years before advances make you get another. Laptops are now coming with 4 GBs of ram and 250 GB HDs, and that is for less than a $1,000, so don't spend too much money on keeping the old one running. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revchuck Posted July 6, 2008 Author Share Posted July 6, 2008 Thanks to Chris, I went to Newegg and found a 160 GB WD hard drive for $70 here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822136071 Does this thing just plug in? Do they come with instructions on how to transfer data from the old one to the new one? If not, could someone point me to a place on the web where I might find the info, or should I just use the program in XP in the startup menu? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Martin Posted July 6, 2008 Share Posted July 6, 2008 (edited) You will need to google instructions on taking your laptop apart to put in the new HD. MOST PC type laptops are pretty easy, some even just have a door on the bottom, near the RAM, that comes off and you pop the old HD out, pop the new one in. Others are more difficult and will require some time, a few TORX screw drivers and some instructions. If you can unscrew a screw and follow instructions, it'll be easy. Just keep each of the screws organized so you know where they go back in and you'll be fine. Remember to unplug the thing and pull off the battery. As for software, most of the PC techs I know use Norton GHOST. It will image an old disk and copy it over bit-by-bit and you'll have a perfect copy. I would get the USB HD enclosure mentioned in my post above. You put the new HD in the enclosure, boot the PC off the Norton GHOST disk, copy from the internal drive to the USB drive, then swap out the HD's. Once you have verified everything boots up OK, just put the old drive in the enclosure and use it as a backup drive. That said, there are free alternatives to GHOST, you just have to google for them. Personally, I'd probably just boot off a LINUX install disk and use diskdump or something, but I'm a UNIX geek. GHOST would be the easiest and fastest way, but it'll cost you a few $'s. ETA: All THAT said, also consider just installing from scratch. It's not a bad idea to start from scratch sometimes. It'll clean out all the crap that windows programs like to leave behind, it'll optimize everything and it'll probably speed things up too. Edited July 6, 2008 by Chris Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revchuck Posted July 6, 2008 Author Share Posted July 6, 2008 Chris - I've got Ghost as part of Norton Systemworks, so I guess I'm set in that regard. I just need to get the HD and the enclosure. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nik Habicht Posted July 6, 2008 Share Posted July 6, 2008 I'll strongly encourage you to get a 7200 rpm hard drive ---- the extra rotational speed is noticeable on boot up, power down, and any other hard disk intensive work..... Replacing a 4200 rpm drive with a 7200 rpm drive bought me two more years --- at a time when I was doing heavy photo editing on my first laptop..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bberkley Posted July 6, 2008 Share Posted July 6, 2008 I have basically the same laptop, an HP Livestrong (Compaq L2000). I would get the Seagate Momentus 2.5" drive, and a pair of 2.5" to 3.5" IDE adapters. Take a desktop machine, disconnect the CDROM and IDE drives, hook your original 40GB drive up to one controller, the new 7200 RPM 2.5" Seagate to the other, and boot from a ghost floppy or CD, clone the original drive to the new drive. The Momentus is a faster spindle-speed drive, more cache, and uses less power, thereby extending your battery life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revchuck Posted July 6, 2008 Author Share Posted July 6, 2008 Concerning speed - I'm not concerned about it. The only hard drive-intensive thing it does is boot up and shut down, and that's rare, since I usually hibernate it when transporting it from point A to point B. Re-booting is usually done only after receiving software updates; I usually wait until I go to bed and then re-boot it, so that it doesn't matter how long it takes. About all I do with this machine is web browsing, word processing and music. I don't see myself getting into photo editing or such; if I did (and may in the future) I'd probably just get a more appropriate machine. Battery life isn't important to me since it stays plugged in. On the rare occasions I use it in a remote location like a coffee shop or a restaurant, I can usually find a plug. I've only run out of battery power once. Thanks again for all the replies! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricW Posted July 7, 2008 Share Posted July 7, 2008 Swap the drive. With a fresh install of XP you'll think you just got a brand-new 'puter. It was probably time to refresh your OS anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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