Silly Question??

[JuliaM]

I'm taking my laptop in to have a larger hard drive installed (imagine that, a PSE user needing more space! :eek:

My question is: Can I save my fonts and brushes, etc. on CDR's like I do my pictures and then re-load them to my new hard drive when I get it back? I don't want to lose the many, many extras I have downloaded.

If anyone knows if this is all I need to do to make sure I can keep everything that I currently have on my hard drive, please let me know. I currently use PSE 4 but want to upgrade to PSE 5. Is there a recommendation as to what size hard drive I should get? Or, are there alot of factors that determine that? (Can you tell how much I know about computers from this question...:confused:?)

Any information will be appreciated.

Thanks! :)

JuliaM

[baycruisers]

Before you spend the $$ to have a new HD installed on your laptop, have you looked at buying a large external drive? High capacity USB 2.0 drives are inexpensive compared to internal hard drives. Dollar for dollar you'll get more storage, you'll have a backup system, and if/when you buy another computer you'll have all your images and other important things on your external drive ready to access via plug and play. Also, you don't have to pay someone to do the installation--immediate gratification.

You can get a 500 GB external hard drive for about $150 at Circuit City/Best Buy.

[RobertSchuldenfrei]

I'm taking my laptop in to have a larger hard drive installed (imagine that, a PSE user needing more space! :eek:

My question is: Can I save my fonts and brushes, etc. on CDR's like I do my pictures and then re-load them to my new hard drive when I get it back? I don't want to lose the many, many extras I have downloaded.

If anyone knows if this is all I need to do to make sure I can keep everything that I currently have on my hard drive, please let me know. I currently use PSE 4 but want to upgrade to PSE 5. Is there a recommendation as to what size hard drive I should get? Or, are there alot of factors that determine that? (Can you tell how much I know about computers from this question...:confused:?)

Any information will be appreciated.

Thanks! :)

JuliaM
Hi Julia,

Symantec, the Norton Antivirus people, make a product called Ghost. It will take your small disk and copy it such that the new, big disk can use the information. This is nothing a novice should fool with, so if you go this route make sure you know the expertise of your geek.

The external drive is also a good idea. What is your backup policy? One of the reason I do not use Organizer is I back things to CD and DVD. Then I roll stuff off the hard drive (HDD) and place new stuff on the HDD. My 250 GB hard drive works well for me.

Cheers,

Bob

[JuliaM]

Mario & Bob,

Thanks so much for responding and for your information. I was planning on going to Circuit City for the hardware. I didn't even give the external hard drive a thought. I just browsed the Circuit City website and find that I would get alot more for my money going that route. My husband wasn't exactly happy about changing things out in my laptop since it runs well and I've had no problems with it (knocking on wood!).

I appreciate your advice. I always know I can count on members of the forum to provide great information! Thanks so much! :)

JuliaM

[Cmcburnett]

Julie, good luck. I agree, the external hard drive is the safest way to go. I had a tech that used Ghost when he installed a new internal HD on my computer and I ended up loosing a lot of documents. Now the EHDs are small and you can take them anywhere w/no problems. Hope it works out for you.

[RobertSchuldenfrei]

Mario & Bob,

Thanks so much for responding and for your information. I was planning on going to Circuit City for the hardware. I didn't even give the external hard drive a thought. I just browsed the Circuit City website and find that I would get alot more for my money going that route. My husband wasn't exactly happy about changing things out in my laptop since it runs well and I've had no problems with it (knocking on wood!).

I appreciate your advice. I always know I can count on members of the forum to provide great information! Thanks so much! :)

JuliaM
Hi Julia,

Right way to go. I have done Ghost successfully, but my heart was in my mouth until it finished:). I would have been so **** (this is a family site) if it had failed.

Cheers,

Bob

[BrianZero]

Hi
I use Ghost - not too easy to follow - but no problems
Hearing good reports about True Image [I will change eventually]

Agree another drive best way to go - do total backups
not just PSE stuff.
Covers you in case of drive failure [It happens]

[Jancy]

Hi Julia,
I just installed a new hard drive to my desktop. I added a 250 gig WDigital. I purchased Ghost and had trouble with it. It would not boot up the new drive as a master. I feel like I wasted 70 dollars for ghost and it didn't work after 3 tries, with the help of Symantec. I spoke with Western Digital and they had software that came with their drive. It did take forever to copy (my old 80 gig with 50 gig's filled )drive to my new drive using WD software because it copied through DOS but it worked great after the first try. Western Digital tech support help me through the process, they were great! It has been about a month now and I have had absolutely no problems. Good Luck.
Jancy

[smiles]

I agree 100% on the external drive, I've had mine for about 6 months, no problems at all.
Good Luck!

[JuliaM]

Thank you, everyone, for your wonderful advice and suggetions. I did decide to get the external hard drive after reading the responses. They actually had the Western Digital 320 GB My Book on sale at circuitcity.com for $99.99. I talked with a representative at Circuit City who also thought this would work well. He suggested that I give it a try and said that it could be returned if it did not meet my needs. Hopefully it'll work just fine. I pick it up tomorrow, so I'll let you all know. :)

Once again, thank you so much! :)

JuliaM