[Sable99]

My laptop has been doing some strange things lately and I'm a little worried that something "big" might happen. I have an external hard drive but its not reliable.

Does anyone have any external hard drive suggestions? I need something that isn't too complicated. I'm not a techie but can follow directions!

A friend has recommended a wireless Seagate that is on Amazon. But she is so techie that I think it might be too much for me!!

I help my 89 year old mother, 86 year old aunt and my Dad's 85 year old cousin with their laptops, iPads and cell phones! So, I know enough to get me in trouble!!

[Midvale]

I'd guess a Western Digital or Seagate external USB drive. I bought a 2 TB WD drive from Amazon for about $75 that works fine.

[villagetinker]

I agree with the above suggestion, I have been using a 1TB to back up 3 computers for about 3 years. These work well with their own bundled software or windows backup. Suggest you do a full backup with the bundled software, then have your PC checked for viruses. If any are found, you need to delete the backup you just made as it may contain the viruses and do a new backup.

Also, there are at least 2 Village clubs associated with computers that should be able to give you a hand.

[Sable99]

Thank you both for your replies. I think I will buy the Seagate on Amazon. If I run into any problems, I will take it to a club meeting when we are in TV.

[TNLAKEPANDA]

Check the specs... some come with auto back-up software included so it is a no brainer. Get one twice as large as you think you might need... Really!

[George Bieniaszek]

Hi Sable99!!

My laptop crashed and I have a bunch of files that I need to save, pictures, Word and Spreadsheet files, etc.

I bought a SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 Adapter. Basically what you do is to remove the hard drive from your computer that is acting a little funky and plug it into this piece. The opposite side is a USB cable.

Now you need a good working computer for the next step.

You then plug the USB cable into the good computer and it recognizes the funky hard drive as an external drive. Now you can transfer the files you wish to save into the working computer before it dies.

Google or go to Amazon and search for SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 Adapter and see if it is something that can help you out.

Going on a cruise tomorrow so this is a project when I get back

[Computer Corner]

Here is a great place to start when looking for a new external drive.

[ame]http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_8?url=search-alias%3Dcomputers&field-keywords=external%20hard%20drive&sprefix=external% 2Caps%2C195[/ame]

Really anything 1tb and over is good. If your computer does crash, we have the hardware to recover the data if need be. Also, if the computer is only several years old, it might be a good idea to replace the hard drive in it as well.