Your Computer Crashes

[Janice]

Ok, say you only have one computer at home and it crashes. You are told by the only computer doctor that it will take two weeks to fix it.

1. Do you wait the two weeks without the internet?

2. Do you immediately go out and buy another one, cause you can't stand to be without one?

3. Other?

[bevgo]

buy another immediately--no way to be without internet--especially S2K

[southerngale]

That happened, but only for a few days. I now have a backup, ready and armed. lol

[wxmann_91]

I'd choose the second option. I can't live without Internet!!!!

[Hurricaneman]

Ill take choice # 2

[CaptinCrunch]

Ok, say you only have one computer at home and it crashes. You are told by the only computer doctor that it will take two weeks to fix it.

1. Do you wait the two weeks without the internet?

2. Do you immediately go out and buy another one, cause you can't stand to be without one?

3. Other?

2 WEEKS

1. If it's a Hard disk Crash (HD is no good anymore) it should take no more than 24 hrs to have someone fix it, depending on work load and if you provide the software (Windows OP System)

2. If it's a software (windows OP system) failure you can format the drive and reload the OP system yourself and install most software in about 8 hrs.

[Swimdude]

I guess i'll be the only one here who isn't being incredibly silly... It all just depends whether you have the money or not. Then again, you would have a back-up if you bought a new one.

[southerngale]

I guess i'll be the only one here who isn't being incredibly silly... It all just depends whether you have the money or not. Then again, you would have a back-up if you bought a new one.

Well, it's not necessarily being silly as it isn't just Storm2k we'd be missing. Some of us need the internet to work.

[mike18xx]

2. If it's a software (windows OP system) failure you can format the drive and reload the OP system yourself and install most software in about 8 hrs.

Doing that will hose ALL files on the drive. So instead...

* Buy a second HD
* Hook new drive to cables which attached old.
* Hook old drive to cables which attached CD-rom (or DVD) drive.
* Install OS onto new drive.
* When done, boot machine BUT DON'T MESS with old drive's files just yet.
* Obtain and install the following programs (if you use Windows):
- AVG7 (Anti-Virus-Guard)
- Microsoft Antispyware
- Spybot Search & Destroy (turn "TeaTimer" setting ON)
- Mozilla Firefox (and futher download the "AdBlock" extension, with latest adblock list)
- ZoneAlarm
- Ad-Aware Personal Edition
* Have AVG do a targeted scan of your old HD. Then have Ad-Aware and the others also scan.

[sweetpea]

depends on how old your computer is about buying a new one.
Also is there someone else you can call to come out?

[LAwxrgal]

That happened a couple years ago, actually.

I now have a laptop

[mf_dolphin]

I have 4 desktops in the house and 2 laptops networked.

[Pebbles]

3. Go rent a puter if it's cheeper then buying a new/used one... if it will end up costing more to rent then go buy a SUPER CHEEP puter that will allow access to the net and keep it as backup. Believe or not you can get some really really cheep out of date computers for internet backup for times your main puter goes down for only 100-200 dollars. You don't need all the ram/hard drive and fancy gizmo's for something like that.

Heck you may be able to get one for less the 100 bucks.. my old emachines 486 with 64mb ram and 15gig hard drive is more then enough for internet access and probably lucky to get 25 bucks for that. You already have keyboard/mouse/screen so all you need is a backup tower. Look around at garage sales, ask friends if they have a really old tower, or look in the used section of the newspapers or tradin' times for one!

[coriolis]

We have two creaky old second hand winME machines running, right next to each other on a desk. If one is down for maintenance or worse, I can slide down the bench to the other one. It's nice for looking up help on the internet if I get stumped on the one. There's been times that I'll be on both of them at once. I even went into chat once on both, and chatted with myself.

We have another old winNT tower in the closet that still works. I'd just have to swap some RAM back into it and it would be in business.

You can get lots of older used machines for cheap. Like Pebbles said, all you need is the tower. You might end up having to buy a network card or whatever you need for connectivity.

[drudd1]

Ok, say you only have one computer at home and it crashes. You are told by the only computer doctor that it will take two weeks to fix it.

Get a second opinion, two weeks is silly! If they say it takes two weeks, it means they are backed up, and won't start working on it until day 13.

[beachbum_al]

I know what it is like not to have the internet and it sucks.

My first computer literally caught on fire. Oh please don't laugh. One night my husband walked in the kitchen and notice smoke all over the place. At first we thought maybe the stove had malfunction or something but when I looked into my kitchen baywindow where the once sturdy computer was there was smoke coming out of the CPU. When it was taken apart the motherboard had literally caught on fire and did major damage.

Oh it gets better. I went without a computer last year for a while. During Ivan I didn't have a computer. And then in October I got a Emachine from my Dad's boss. A used one but I wasn't going to complain. It worked for six months and then again something happen. After talking to my bil who works on computers we decided it was once again the motherboard.

Fed up with used computer but not really complaining too much I ended up ordering a Dell in April. I love it! And I wished I had done this a while back. It was well worth the money not to have the headache of having a used computers.

So I would say buy another one unless it is the hard drive and just buy a new hard drive and install it.