Phone storage and home computer advice please

[UnderMajorDomoMinor]

I have loads (and loads) of digital photos. At the moment they are stored on an external hard drive which I transferred them to when previous desktop bit the dust. Also transferred to that external hard drive were other files. Since then that hard drive has stopped being supported (ie no updates) and I don’t totally trust it to be virus free.

‘New’ desk top is total crap. So slow and buggy. I don’t trust it. I do all banking etc on iPad and only use pc for photos, Microsoft office docs and storing audio series.

Pc is now totally doing my head in. Dunno what’s wrong with it really (it’s a Lenovo - maybe just crap?). I have new anti virus software and have run malwarebites but it’s just rubbish.

Wondering if I’d be better getting a laptop/more sophisticated tablet and binning PC but dunno what to do about photo storage and how to transfer things on to any new device without potentially passing any issues forwards.

Any advice welcome!

In a device I need photo storage, audio series storage and a word processing and excel type programs. Would I be better moving onto cloud storage? Do I need Microsoft home (seems strange to buy for my low use in this day and age)?

You have a PC that's not working to your satisfaction, but there's no information about it except that it's Lenovo (used to be IBM, so normally considered a good brand).

For your word processing and spreadsheets LibreOffice should be more than adequate.

Cloud storage is a mixed blessing. You need to trust your provider. I have both local back up (twin disk NAS) and cloud backup (SpiderOak) . That may be overkill, but if a fire destroyed my home backup, we can still retrieve my wife's precious photos.

I bet it’s your antivirus slowing everything down

So the pc has probably been buggy from the start. It’s always been slow but now it will open ok but to load anything takes ages. I suspect it is the virus protection but I’m not savvy enough to know what to switch off on it or to go off piste and buy virus protection which isn’t one of the known brands.

Thanks for the tip on libreoffice.

What’s a Twin disk NAS?

I think the core thing is photo storage. Whether I need a new external hard drive or another option. I feel I don’t know enough about cloud storage to know what to trust.

Thanks again!