Quote:
Originally Posted by iceman
After a very frustrating hour or two with Photoshop and an extremely slow laptop, I've started the process..
Well, starting to start the process 
Have enough space on the home laptop to use as my backup, and will start copying the 200+ GB overnight.
Have ordered 8GB crucial RAM (2x 4GB DIMMS). It's a shame that international shipping is US$25!
Will then do the recovery option from the BIOS and start re-installing things one by one.. what a pain.
I just can't keep it like it is though. I can't afford a new laptop even though I want one, and I can't stand the frustration of trying to use Photoshop with the larger image files of the 5DMk2. It wasn't nearly as frustrating with the Canon 40D files, but this takes me over the edge
8GB RAM plus a fresh install will hopefully keep me going for a while. |
Hi,
Look your biggest problem with your PC isn't how much RAM you have, 4GB is more than enough for photo editing, if you look I doubt you would exceed that in the system resources.
That said a 64 bit OS with 8GB ram will run better than your current setup for photo editing, so that is a good move. But you can't do is the way you are trying to, ie you can't use the 'recovery' option. It's funny because I just replied to a similar post, and 99% applies to your situation. So I'm just going to paste it and fix it up a bit for your situation.
I saw you mention you want a new laptop but can't afford it, well thats OK, but seriously a 1.5 yr old laptop isn't old! I think you'd find the actual specs are pretty much the same as current market laptops. The processors would be the same, the ram would be the same (or 8GB which is what you are doing anyway).
So what's the point of buying a new laptop?
You are much better off spending $100-200 and buying a Solid State drive, or SSD.
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?...ducts_id=19276
The 60GB models are about half as cheap, and for most people 60gb is more than enough for the OS (say about 10gb-20 for win 7)
They are super easy to swap out.
I don't know what model you have, but this should give you an idea, but if you can swap the RAM you can swap a hard disk.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPeDh...eature=related
Having a 'smaller' C:\ drive is actually a good thing, because it will force you to store your data on an external drive, which you should then backup again depending on how serious you are. I have a 120GB ssd and then a 1TB in my desktop.
I cannot state the huge improvement in everything the laptop does, that you will get by putting an SSD in it. Even most in market laptops dont come with an SSD as a stock option yet, they are starting to come as options though. But it will boot faster, programs will start faster, programs will run better and faster, you can transfer files faster, everything you can imagine will run better with an SSD.
You could remove the DVD drive on the laptop (get a cheap external USB drive) and then you'd have space for a larger normal mechanical drive, if you wanted in the future.
2) Install the OS. Even if you don't have the media you can still install windows 7. There should be a sticker on the laptop which has your product key. Find out which version your license if for (Professional, home premium etc), then download the ISO here, just make sure you get the x64 version:
http://www.mydigitallife.info/window...-home-premium/
Once you've got the ISO downloaded, you need to make a bootable USB disk. Get a USB stick with over 4GB of space on it. Then use this tool to make a bootable disk, its basically the same as having win 7 on a DVD, but on a USB stick instead.
http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/...usbdvd_dwnTool
It's very easy to use. Heres a video of guy using it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up6pjd5wMjA
Just make sure you don't have any other USB devices like external drives etc plugged in because you might accidentally wipe the wrong drive! (I've done this before)
You can do all this before you take out the old hard drive and put the SSD in. So now you should swap the SSD in and the RAM. Make sure you've got the battery out while doing this (also your product key may be under the battery sometimes they put it there).
Now plug the USB into the laptop and turn it on. Watch the post screen because it will show you which key to enter boot menu. It's easier than changing the bios, because it just lets you change which device the laptop boots first from, for one time only. It might be F2, F10, F12 or even ESC. Just look up the manual for your PC. You will see a list of boot options like, Hard drive, DVD drive, but the one you want will be "USB HDD" Or something like that, just keep trying until you see "Windows is loading Files" start.
Now follow the prompts and install windows 7. Windows will scan your hardware and install 90% of the drivers you need. You may need to download and install some others after windows has started, like WIFI for example, it just depends on the model. Check in device manager to see which devices have not had their drivers installed, but generally the only drivers I would bother with getting from the manufactures site would be:
Video and
Network (IE Wifi etc)
Activate windows using your product key under the laptop!
All that might sound complicated but it really isn't. It would take you maybe 2 hours to do it, if that. I work at a large company in IT, and I reguarly do this to old laptops, for example one model I've been upgrading is a Dell D520, which is probably 3-4 years old. It's only got a dual core processor, and usually only have 1-2GB of ram. But once I stick an SSD in it and put windows 7 on it they are faster than most new laptops.
To give you a number typically mechanical drives can transfer data around 100 megabyte per second.
An SSD is capable of up to 500.
If you have any questions just PM me etc I don't mind helping!
But getting an SSD and reinstalling from scratch, added to the 64bit OS and 8GB ram your laptop will be literally faster than most new laptops all but for the very expensive ones.
