My "new" computer which I bought about three years ago or so (just as Win 7 released) now gives me graphical problems with some of the more recent games.

Sigh.

I am considering purchasing another computer in advance of the Footsteps of Doom (Win 8).

So I'm looking to backup my current harddrive. In the past, I've done this manually on a Western Digital external drive. It's soooo much trouble. Even worse than a manicure!

Is there an online backup service you folks would recommend? I've seen mention of Cobalt, which sounds shiny! (Shiny is good, right?)

Is there any chance you can do a couple of upgrades on your computer? Or is it a laptop?

Have you tried using the built-in backup options in Windows 7? They are as easy as 2 clicks.

Draclvr,
This is Becky's computer (from one of her reviews)



Still a very nice computer -- except for the video card which is a bit on the low end side. That's really the only problem, though upgrading the card may mean the power supply will need to be upgraded as well. I think the Dell Studio XPS 8000 comes with a 350W power supply.

Becky,
If you're planning on getting Windows 8, I'd hold off on buying a new computer until they come with Windows 8.

I can't help with the online backup question. I've got way too much data to use an online backup service. I just use external hard drives and DVD's.

I do use Carbonite for on-line backup. But like Jenny says, if you have a lot of data, it takes as long as a couple of weeks to complete the first backup. After that, it's pretty simple with only a few minutes a day.

But, I've also used the Windows 7 backup option and it's really easy - especially if you already have an external HDD.

Unless you're really Jonesing for a new computer the Dell looks like it's worth upgrading with a better power supply and a stand alone video card.

EDIT: So far, I'm rather getting to like Windows 8. It still has a lot of design flaws in my opinion though. I have the Release Preview installed and I'm going to start throwing some games at it this weekend to see how it does.

Thanks for the help! I was, um, actually trying to avoid Win 8, which means that if I buy a new computer, I need to do it sooner rather than later, so the coming of Win 8 has concentrated my mind. At least as much as it can be concentrated.

I'll attempt the Win 7 backup option. I remember now that the backup system used to message me when I first got this computer, and of course I ignored it until it went away. I think I must have insulted it, somehow.

I'll also consider the upgrade option.

With the Windows 7 backup, you can also choose to create an "image" of your system. That is a complete snapshot of the computer including the Operating System.

I believe you do have to manage your backup drive space as I've never seen that the Windows 7 option does incremental backups.

I'll bet for less than $200 you could upgrade that computer to a nice little gamer that would get you several more years out of it! This computer I built 3 1/2 years ago is ancient by new technology standards. But I have a decent video card and recently installed a 60 GB solid state drive as a boot drive and it's amazingly speedy. And for the hard drive that has Windoes 8 on it, Windows 8 is so fast and smooth that I think I'll be getting several more years out of this computer.

Thanks for the extra info!

Just curious -- how do you keep all the multiple updates from causing eventual problems/conflicts?

Since Win 7 was new when I bought my computer, I've seen many updates of the OS, Windows Live, Direct X -- the printer software (at first all printer updates caused problems until HP got better at Win 7 updates), Flash updates (it took a year before the Flash update caused the random online crashes during animation to stop), anti-virus updates, anti-malware updates. Java updates. Shockwave updates. PhysX updates. Graphics driver updates. Steam frame updates. Big Fish Game Manager updates.

Almost all of the games I'm currently having problems with are via Big Fish and Steam.

By now the software on my computer is just one big patched bit of gobbledygook!

Maybe we should keep a computer three years, toss it, and start new with a non-messily-updated one?

(AM I jonesing for a new computer?)

Yes I think you are. You got that new computer fever thing going on.
If you want to do a thorough cleaning of your computer, you could probably use the restore partition to go back to factory defaults. Then you could do the Windows security updates before doing anything else. It would probably run almost like new, even after applying all the Windows Security updates. You'd still need a new video card though.

He, he... definitely jonesing for a new computer! I've never had an issue with updates yet.