Hello! I need some help with my home IT situ please! I am looking at replacing my PC at home with a laptop but have no idea what size memory I need to get. My PC at home is nearly full in its memory capacity (I don't even know how to find out how much memory there is on it) and I don't know what size memory lap-top to buy. Also, does anyone know how I would transfer all my photos and music from the PC to the laptop? And how do I make sure there will be sufficient memory on my laptop?

I'm a complete no-hoper where IT is concerned so any help is greatly appreciated.

Hi lib

I suppose you'd be looking at a minimum of 100Gb + hard drive these days (the storage capacity of your computer) not to be confused with RAM memory which is normally 256mb, 500mb 1Gb, 2Gb etc

If i had a lot of data - photographs and music etc, i'd invest in a external hard drive - i saw an advert for one - 1Tb (terabyte or 1000Gb's) for £87 +vat - amazingly cheap but anything above 350Gb would be worth having.

They connect via a usb socket so just connect to the old PC, transfer/copy everything across and then plug it into your new pc and copy across etc or keep it on the external hard drive as a back up - always useful.

SOme come with extras like a one-touch button that automatically updates any files changed since last recorded etc as a back up device.

Laptops may have smaller hard drives (memory) than tower systems but with external storage so cheap and such a good idea, then it isn't a problem and could just be a blessing in disguise if you ever 'loose your data'.

I have a 240Gb hard drive on my machine - can't see me ever filling it.

Hope that all helps - i'm sure far more qualified people than I will 'tch - tch' at my basic suggestions above.

I'd worry more about processor and ram - go for a 2Gb min if you can afford and as fast a processor as you can afford - avoid celeron as they do tend to be slower than their Intel and AMD athlon counterparts.

Brilliant, thanks Jonathan. Would it be possible to find out the hard drive capacity on my current PC and with that knowledge I would know how much memory to look for in the lap top?

And if I were to just buy the laptop, how would I transfer the data, via a lead?

You could consider a portable lassie hard drive (the drive with the lead - not the 70's dog) where you can download all your stuff on there now and keep it safe - copy it onto your new laptop and still have a backup. Purple may have more of an idea on this one but that's what we've done in the past. Then if laptop crashes /has a mug a tea spilt on it (which we did once) you have a back up...

Hi Lib

If your Windows pc - go to start - my computer - right click on C drive (usually your hard drive) and select properties. it should give you a pretty pie chart showing how large in total, how much used, how much spare.

You'd connect an external drive via a USB cable - your pc should have one or two of even better a Firewire cable - used to be considered faster etc but with USB 2.0 nowadays I don't think there's much in it.

Be warned its roughly the same size plug / socket but the firewire skt is a rectangle on its side with a triangular tip at one end. Some PCs don't come with this connector so be warned.

USB is fine.

Transferring lots and i mean lots e.g 40gb of info can take a while but you only have to do it once.

oh and these external hard drives are roughly the size of a large paperback book if that helps. They should come with their own power supply but maybe now some drive off the power in the usb socket?

Thanks sooo much! Loads of help.

Thanks for this Purple - Deep has been a bit busy of late....

ouch.. I was pretty late here but Purple13 did a great job by taking care of the stuff :)

Personally, I would suggest a laptop with 2 GB of RAM and around 250 odd GB of Hard Disk.

If you are looking for a laptop for travel use then I would suggest a tiny one.. around 13" weighing around 1.75 KG should be good to carry. Otherwise for Home page 15.4" or 17" should be fine.

you see... this is why we have Deep - nicely wrapped up in 4 sentences what it would have taken me something the size of war and peace to get across.

Nice one Deep. Be ignored at their peril.