Upgrading a computer for the first time

I grew up with 2 geek computer geniuses: My father and my bro. Bummer for me, I didn’t inherit the geek gene. Guess that makes me the Cool one! Lol! Kidding aside, let’s just say I don’t know much
about computer but I’m very at ease with it.

Some time ago, I noticed my computer slowing down. So I said to myself: I must have too many pictures taking memory space. I defragmented using the default window program but it didn’t seem to make any difference.

When ViewNX kept shutting down abruptly, I decided to burn some images on cd and remove them from my computer. I used NeroBurn as I once did for music but I ended up with a slideshow with the image partly recorded with lines in them. So I try a simple copy-paste trough the explorer but the computer kept asking to put in a cd when it was already in. I browsed on the net for an answer and stumbled upon Photoshop CS4!! and this article:

It basically says that a good procedure is to have 2 external hard drives of 1 TB each, one for computer backup and the other for backup of the backup. All my images could be there instead of in the computer. That’s a good idea! But, when it will be full, I will still have the same problem of being unable to burn cds. So I browsed again only to find that I wasn’t the only one having problem copying cd with Window XP. ARghhh ! Might as well switch to MAC!! But, I just ordered CS4 for pc… so I ordered Window 7.

Meanwhile, I asked around for recommendations on brand of external hard drive. I discovered that my computer isn’t short on memory space at all! I had many programs running in the back without me knowing about it or maybe even a spyware!! So I follow Stephen and TTurner’s advices (Click on it) and put my documents on the external hard drives because when you upgrade, everything erases!

When the UPS dude gave me my upgrade, I had the same message on my screen saying I had no cd in. WTF?? You’re kidding right? My disk drive is broken too? ARGhhh!! Before purchasing a new one and researching how to change it, I tried this disk drive cleaner. I wasn’t really convinced that these little brushes would actually do the job but I tried. It didn’t seem to do anything at all and again it’s saying that I have no disk in. Crossing my fingers, I put the Window 7 dvd in. A rare hair blow dryer sound surprised my ears, it worked!!! Well, almost, the screen froze… After that, I tried putting it back in with no luck.

The next morning, I opened my computer and the dvd started automatically!! I forgot the thing inside. Wahoo!!! It took many tries to get it to read CS4 also afterwards. No problem for Eye One, the calibration of the monitor was quite easy to do.

So now, I’m all set you figure, right? Na-han! I have another problem: my speakers are on strike. What now? Back on the browsing mouse! Now, the message changed to “your speaker are not connected” (but they are!) This was very hard to find but the solution was a quick fix. I had to update my sound card. I first downloaded a plugin for this website to figure out what sound card I had and then googled it and updated it. I re-used the ccleaner and voilà.

I tell you, if I knew beforehand I had to go through all this, it would have been easier and less expensive to simply buy a new computer! Phew!