I've got a Sony Vaio, I think I got it late last winter, that's one of those wide-screen displays with computer parts built on its back so that there's no CPU box. It came with Vista Home Premium, and I've had zero trouble with it. Service Pack 1 came out the other day, and it took quite a while to download and install, but otherwise it's been clean and stable.

I haven't however, tried to upgrade any of our other 3 systems to Vista, even though they have the memory and all. On the new system, though, it's been just fine -- nothing special, mind you, but fine. HPH

 

OK...we will be wiping the hard drive of the old computer before getting rid of it. Have any of you done this yourselves If so, which software did you use? I know that the recommendation is for one that overwrites with binary 1s and 0s.

 

Unless you're planning on passing the old computer to someone I've always favored a hardware solution. Remove the drive from the case and drop it from as high a height as you can find on to a concrete surface without endangering the public.

It's very effective as well as to watch.

Otherwise I'd just use plain old fdisk to remove the partitions.

 

My buddy tested out an ak47 on one of his drives.
I'll go on record as saying that the media would be unreadable

 

Actually that is quite dangerous. The hard drive case is solid aluminum, and therefore the bullets can bounce or ricochet in all directions.

There are free softwares available on the net that will wipe a drive (reasonably well). Just do a search for "wipe disk" or something similar. I've used a program from IBM before and it did a good job of removing the data, there was also a program from Western Digital (a disk drive manufacturer) and others. It will not meet government requirements, but for casual users it is enough. By the way, just doing "fdisk" to delete the partitions is not good enough to protect your data.

If you plan to give the computer to someone else to use, it would be good to include a functional hard drive with it.

 

The hard drive is not very functional. The blue screen of death has been appearing lately, and the other night, right before the blue screen came up, it was making a horrible noise. So...the +1 is gonna trash it somehow. Probably not via bullets.

BTW - Installation of the new desktop turned out to be a piece of cake. No probs at all. And it has XP as promised.

 

The last time we had to dispose of a hd, we used the age old method of hammering it to death. It felt great!!
MsP, how do you like the 22 in flatscreen? I got one for my desktop and found that whereas I like the picture display, the larger screen is quite an adjustment. Although, I may now start watching some tv on it.

 

I agree! I just did that to the hard drives that had been taken out of the last 4 laptops that died - -you know, save the hard drive in case you need something. So I finally took the hammer to them. It was a nice stress reliever that day.

 

I'll suggest a hammer to the +1. Thanks. As for the 22" screen, it is an adjustment! You almost have to turn your head from side to side to read it, since it is so close. Not sure 19" wouldn't have been better.

 

Good luck with the new computer. I too avoided Vista when I bought a new PC.

Rick put the drive in the vise in the basement to "do it in."