Expert: Bobbert - 8/27/2011

Question
I have a dinosaur for a computer and I know zilch about them. I just know I'm saver I scan and save all pictures and documents. I love to use my Adobe Photoshop 5 I know it's old but I know how to use it and don't have the money to update it.I know that there must be some way to save all the things I want saved without using up all my computer space but I don't know what it is.I really need though to bet a newer computer because this one slows my Internet speed way down. I am on a very ,very low fixed income but was hoping you could tell me what would be the best fit for me. Thanks Pat

Answer
I'm not fully understanding what your requirements are, but there do exist a variety of machines that can automatically scan and file a large amount of documents; most of them are sold for office use (and can usually be found with relative ease at many retailers), some are marketed for archivists (these are generally very specialized, very fast, and *very* expensive).

Regarding storage space, you can add hard-drives or rely on external/removal media (like DVDs), depending on how much space you exactly need. I would suggest the hard-drive route, as it will be cheaper per GB of space. How much space does your existing machine have? What about the rest of its specifications? Adobe Photoshop 5 is is better than a decade old, so if the machine is in-line with that age, I would say it's very much time for some upgrades. Have you tried GIMP (The GNU Image Manipulation Program) in place of Photoshop? It should offer much newer features, and is available for free: http://www.gimp.org/.

There are also networked solutions, which would better integrate with the above digital filing machines, but this can get somewhat complicated depending on how "big" you'd like things to be.


Regarding the Internet slowdowns, unless your current machine is absoultely outdated, the issue is probably with your ISP - either you don't have a very capable service package, or you aren't getting all of the service you're paying for. It may also be related to the specific sites or servers you frequent online (some are older and slower). Again, if your machine is quite old, it will have issues with Flash and other graphics/multimedia heavy content, which will produce noticeable slowdowns on some pages.

If I can get a better idea of how much space you're using, how much space you have, and what your current computer provides, I can better suggest new hardware.

-bob