Head to the door.

After seven years' good service and two months' fair work, I think it's finally time I start searching for a new computer. The media players stutter and the external hard drive is getting hit with cyclic redundancy errors and requests to format it. So my guess is that it won't be long before everything winds down. I replaced the failing internal CD drive with an external USB one a little over a year ago, which I knew would only be a stopgap measure. So it's time to face facts and gird my loins and go computer shopping.

What bugs me more than the prospect of having to transfer everything is having to adjust to a new operating system and user interface. I'll most likely just go for another Dell, since they're pretty stable workhorses and suit my needs without fuss - primarily Internet/word processing/media with only incidental gaming.

Given that the problems are media-based, and mostly dreriving from the external hard drive, I'm not worried and fearful so much as I am generally concerned. And disgruntled at the prospect of having to reinstall so many programs. It's possible that replacing the main external hard drive will fix this, but hey, seven years and two months. I don't want to push things.