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re: Current recommendation for a cheap simple home use laptop
Posted on 7/4/26 at 9:01 pm to DownshiftAndFloorIt
Posted on 7/4/26 at 9:01 pm to DownshiftAndFloorIt
Don't worry about the choices, just pick the right price and description.
Andouille is right, especially as your only PC, do *not* get anything with a spinning disk hard drive (HDD,) only get one with a solid state drive (SSD.)
I'm paranoid ever since I lost a semester's worth of work back in the 90s, but I would advise backing up to a service like BackBlaze ($99 a year). You can also back up to a cheap external drive, but if your laptop gets jacked or your house burns down, local backups don't do you any good. It doesn't sound like you need it, (I'm guessing you have photos backed up to iCloud, your tax returns are on TurboTax.com, etc.) but keep it in mind. Your issue isn't an SSD failing as much as it is ransomware encrypting everything so you can't get to it.
Andouille is right, especially as your only PC, do *not* get anything with a spinning disk hard drive (HDD,) only get one with a solid state drive (SSD.)
I'm paranoid ever since I lost a semester's worth of work back in the 90s, but I would advise backing up to a service like BackBlaze ($99 a year). You can also back up to a cheap external drive, but if your laptop gets jacked or your house burns down, local backups don't do you any good. It doesn't sound like you need it, (I'm guessing you have photos backed up to iCloud, your tax returns are on TurboTax.com, etc.) but keep it in mind. Your issue isn't an SSD failing as much as it is ransomware encrypting everything so you can't get to it.
1
Posted on 7/5/26 at 7:38 am to LemmyLives
quote:
do *not* get anything with a spinning disk hard drive (HDD,) only get one with a solid state drive (SSD.)
Well thats good to know because my external hard drives are old school. I should probably replace them with SSDs.
I dont have my stuff backed up anywhere. All my money stuff is with the money lady, so I dont worry about that. Really pictures are the only critical thing I need to worry about and im trying to work up a good way to do that. I tried to get my wife printing them and putting them in books old school style, but she clearly isnt dedicated enough for that because she hasnt done it yet.
Posted on 7/5/26 at 8:59 pm to DownshiftAndFloorIt
And there's the rub. SSDs are not perfect, but far more reliable than spinning disks. I wouldn't want them on a laptop just because it's so easy to steal. Thieves don't know the difference between a $2k MacBook and a $400 laptop for back to school.
You can subscribe to a cloud service (OneDrive, Proton, etc) which backs up all your photos automatically. It costs you, but it's a choice on how much you want to learn. ETA: you may be able to use a free plan from DropBox, etc. to accomplish the same, I don't know how much storage you need.
TMI: BackBlaze publishes failure rates on drives it backs up through the Internet, and can predict failure rates. I have spinning discs in my NAS, but I detected that sequential serial numbers tend to fail within a few weeks of each other. So I have two brands of drives, bought over the course of a year, in my 5 drive NAS to spread the failure risk. #geek /off
You can subscribe to a cloud service (OneDrive, Proton, etc) which backs up all your photos automatically. It costs you, but it's a choice on how much you want to learn. ETA: you may be able to use a free plan from DropBox, etc. to accomplish the same, I don't know how much storage you need.
TMI: BackBlaze publishes failure rates on drives it backs up through the Internet, and can predict failure rates. I have spinning discs in my NAS, but I detected that sequential serial numbers tend to fail within a few weeks of each other. So I have two brands of drives, bought over the course of a year, in my 5 drive NAS to spread the failure risk. #geek /off
This post was edited on 7/5/26 at 9:06 pm
Posted on 7/5/26 at 9:15 pm to LemmyLives
quote:
wouldn't want them on a laptop just because it's so easy to steal.
Well the good thing is this one wont hardly ever leave the house so its not a SUPER serious concern. I also dont keep anything on the laptop itself. It all goes on a hard drive that I keep in a safe so unless some home theft professionals want my $800 cash and a hard drive with pictures of my kids on it, I SHOULD be safe???
IT is pushing us to onedrive for security and I believe we get a discount through work for personal accounts. I guess ill have to look into it.
Posted on 7/5/26 at 9:33 pm to DownshiftAndFloorIt
quote:
onedrive for security and I believe we get a discount through work for personal accounts
If you only have one PC, M365 (which includes OneDrive backup) is $99 a year from Sam's. It's reliable.
The Chinese will steal what you think is useless data, and figure out what to do with it 15 years from now.
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