My laptop just died - could someone help me pick a new one please?

[KatyMac]

Idealy I want:

17 inch screen
long battery life
reasonably portable (although I do have a case on wheels for a 17inch)
Good keyboard with a separate number bit
fairly fast delivery (by the end of the week?)

No need for graphics or anything gaming (but I do a bit of music editing/sampling - much against my better judgement)

My Dell has been lovely (I may give it a lovely memorial service), and I could be tempted for another - but I don't think I am in the right place to change to a Mac (as my degree is due in 2 weeks and I have 7000 words to write on it, a new computer is bad enough a new OS would kill me I think)

Thanks for listening to my ansgt & please, please, help me

I think the confusing the brain thing might be the issue

Esp as it shows fine at the right size on a 17 inch

I did look at a smaller laptop & a display for when I am in the office - but I wasn't convinced

OK, just something you had already looked at...

XP on a refurbished laptop may be best option if you wish to stick with something familiar...

I hadn't thought of 2 screens just a bigger plug in one.....iyswim

I'm not clever enough for 2 side by side.......only real geeks can do that!

LOL !! OK, geek admission alert...

I have 4 identical 24" LED flat screen TVs with HDMI and VGA input and plan to have the lot connected up to some future PC (needing video cards to drive all 4!)

Nowt to add on the laptop front, sorry (although chuckling at someone called Mac not wanting a Mac :o) but I had dual screens at work and I thought I was the dogs bollocks. Just saying :)

I think you're clever-er than me

They can fix it

The Hard Drive died, that's all. I back uo quite often so I'm generally OK. All I lost were outgoing emails (& I don't know how to back them up easily)

I'm so happy

Excellent news :) I've just changed my hard drive and it's a lovely clean feeling.

Great news katymac - the best solution of all! Good luck with the 7000 words, and your degree.

I get it back tomorrow

I will have to upgrade but not this week; I'm doing OK on the coursework on DD's computer - but I'll be glad to have mine back

Thanks everyone

What e-mail software were you using ?

A relatively easy way to have a 'backup' would be to BCC (blind carbon copy) the outgoing e-mail to an account of yours... KatyMacBackup for example "@" GMail.com or Live.com or Yahoo.com

That way you can easily search mail with just a browser, whether you are home / at work / in hotel / visiting a client... nice when there's a dispute and you know you can show them the e-mail sent years ago

(One of the directors at a client firm of mine has done exactly that in a Public Enquiry when he was appearing as an expert witness on behalf of one party... also highly embarrassing when he can point to some 'doctored' report where the original was sent as a locked PDF specifically to protect against someone altering the contents and then blaming him and his consultancy firm for 'wrong information'... They stopped sending word processor files to clients ages ago after finding what some of the clients are happy to do to the text...)

Oh, forgot... good luck with your course, and getting your laptop fixed.

Thanks

It's much faster and lovely now