My desktop computer is around 3 years old and has had reasonably heavy use. The DVD player does not work, neither does the floppy drive and the CD-writer drawer opening mechanism goes on the blink sometimes.
My hard disk is OK but full of vital data and also a bit messy. I’m tempted by the idea of starting on a fresh system and only transferring the stuff over that I really need (or maybe keeping my current hard drive as a data one and getting a new system drive).
Cost is a factor. But if I get a new computer I don’t need fancy game-playing hardware: only the basics.
What do people reckon? Worth renovating the old computer or would it be easier to buy a new one? Whichever I choose, I’ll pay a shop to do the renovating or building.
Thanks for any suggestions.
I would suggest renovate
buy a dvd/cd rewrite combo
and a new hard disk.
How much? About NT$5-6000.
Forget the floppy.
Get a USB key drive.
That should fix it.
Kenneth
Thanks Ken.
I’m fairly ignorant about computer hardware so could anyone help me with these questions?
Renovating the old computer sounds like a cheap and environmentally friendly solution. I certainly don’t need a faster processor or anything like that. But I’m a little concerned that things such as the power supply, motherboard etc. may break at some point as they are 3 years old already. Should I worry about this or not?
If I make my current system hard disk a data disk and get a new system one, what will happen to the system portions of the old one? Will they just show up like any other kind of data and can they be deleted safely?
Also, what if I want to upgrade the OS to a newer version of Windows? Will that create problems for the hardware?
If I use a USB key drive, can I use that as a “rescue disk” if things go wrong? (Not that I’d know how to use one anyway; the only reason I ask is that AVG Antivirus seems to want me to make one.)
Thanks for any tips.
But I’m a little concerned that things such as the power supply, motherboard etc. may break at some point as they are 3 years old already. Should I worry about this or not?
power supply sometimes die, but they can affect your other components, too. I lost a HD due to a faulty power supply, I think. The power supply died about 2 weeks before the HD.
Never had a broken motherboard, though I guess it can happen.
What OS are you running now? Your pc should be able to upgrade to XP, but you might find that it runs a little slowly at times. i still use 98 on one system, but upgraded the hardware. Usually flies by.
If you make the new disk your c: drive, you will need to set up the OS again. I guess you know that. They will show up on other drives if you copy the files to that drive. On the other drive, they can be deleted without effect, usually. Please remember your system needs to run on the C:/ drive, so you either need to reinstall on the new hard drive from scratch or you need to copy the system partition to the new drive. Or better still pay someone else to do it! 
??? what if I want to upgrade the OS to a newer version of Windows? Will that create problems for the hardware?
Depends on the hardware.
If I use a USB key drive, can I use that as a “rescue disk” if things go wrong? (Not that I’d know how to use one anyway; the only reason I ask is that AVG Antivirus seems to want me to make one.)
Unless your system can boot from a USB, this is motherboard feature, I think, I don’t think it’s possible, though it’s a good idea… comments?
In AVG you can skip this step easily. I have done.
Kenneth
Thanks again Ken! I think that a fresh install on a clean hard drive would be the way to go. There is so much useless stuff cluttering up my registry, programs that won’t uninstall (not spyware; legit stuff that nevertheless got stuck) etc.
And yes, I’ll pay someone to do it.
I skipped the rescue disk thing on AVG. I just thought that as my floppy drive is bust perhaps that was something to worry about. But on the other hand I have never had to use a rescue disk in 7 years of Windows-based PC ownership, so perhaps I don’t need to start now.
One more question for you or anyone else who has time to answer: I was thinking of getting an external DVD-writer. That way I could back up all my stuff now before I make any changes to the internal hardware. Any reason why not? Could it be terribly slow?
Thanks!