I have never done an upgrade from XP to Win 7, so can't be certain, but the most important thing for the performance of netbooks is to keep the used resources to a minimum, it is just too easy to overload them.

Windoew 7 is very good at memory and resource management, so my gues is that it would be better overall.

The other no brainer for using Win 7 (Business or Ultimate) is that it has bitlocker drive encryption although with the Aspire 1, you would need a USB key to boot it.

Cheers Opto

After updating JAVA is it correct and/or possible to delete earlier updates

Try this : http://www.java.com/en/download/faq/remove_olderversions.xml

Or go to 'Start' 'Control Panel' 'Add or remove programs' & see how many Java programs are installed. Check to make sure of the latest Java program number release before you start so that you know which are the older versions. Then highlight each individual program you want to delete & click the 'uninstall' button. (Assuming you are using XP)

Very grateful - thank you

I am doing a media collection for a time capsule.

What do you think has the best chance of lasting the longest as a storage medium?

DVD, Memory stick, hard drive mass storage or something else?

Cheers

Moses considered all of those and went for stone.

And where are those tablets of stone now?

:-)


You can get very high quality DVDs and CDs which are designed for longevity, but I'm not sure I'd trust them.

Good point. Go for punched cards. OK maybe not :-)

It may depend on where you intend to lodge the archive.

Maybe etched titanium.

Paper and ink? Remember the Dead Sea Scrolls?! ;o)

Look guys all very helpful but I am trying to save video and jpgs in a sealed capsule, in a wall in a house.

What's the shelf life of our current technology.

M: The service life of DVD-R (specifically DVD-R, not other DVD variants) is estimated at more than 100 years. I woudn't give a hard drive that much chance of working after that time (rotating medium, lubrication, bearings, heads resting on disc etc) and I don't believe that flash media (USB sticks etc) are that stable over a long period of time either.

Not done much research, just based on my own knowledge.

That assumes they're still making something capable of reading DVDs in 100 years time. Technology is bound to move on.

How would you be feeling now if you'd taken a VHS video and put that in the time capsule as recent as 10 or 15 years ago?

It might also be an idea to also put something into the time capsule capable of reading DVDs. How big is the wall?

:o)

Holographic tablets as featured on Star Trek?

Martini

It's some time since I looked at this issue, but the last time I did, hard drives were likely to last 20+ years and CDR's 2+ years and DVD's more. The only thing that was guaranteed to last was the Iomega REV cartridge that at the time was guaranteed for 30 years.

I would guess that all of those estimates have now increased but I would be surprised if they are expected to last 100 years.

If you want to play safe, use DVD's, 2.5 inch hard drives, micro SD cards (because they are modern and ave the highest storeage density and my well last beyond their 20 year expectation) and an REV cartridge if you can get one.

Connection will be a problem. We certainly will not be using SATA or USB, but for the hard drive, you can get some cases that have USB, Ethernet and Firewire connectors, that should give the best chance.

Also, enclose hard copy of all the equipment specs, don't use cheap ink.

Thanks optimist. CDRs only 2+ years ??

M

Yes that was what I read some time back. The 2 year figure was a minimum, clearly many of them will last a lot longer than that though my experience suggests that quality may not have improved since I saw that figure. The main difference between CDR and DVDR is that with CDR the media layer is coated on the outside but with DVDR it is sandwached between two pieces of plastic. Hence it is protected.

Opti: The 100-year life expectancy for DVD-R is, amazingly, correct. However, not all discs are equal: a high-quality brand is more likely to survive than some no-name from a cheap stack. A DVD-R uses silver in the sandwich and is sealed from moisture and contaminents at its edges. However contact with sulfates should be avoided.

The point about having equipment to read them is valid: "What is this thing? Oh, I remember seeing pictures of these in use - they used 'em as bird-scarers back in the old days . . ."

MM

I did not mean to doubt your figures, I was merely giving the reaso why CDR lifedpan can be so poor.

I still think it best to store things in every possible format. The way I see it is that the last DVD player will be made in 10 or 15 years time. Virtually every device we now use depends on some form of flash memory, if the estimates of 20 odd years for flash memory are anywhere near correct, then it will be down to luck if anything we save now can be read after even 50 years. .