Laptop News

[jkahane]

My laptop died. Yes, my IBM Thinkpad 390 has died. I've had this laptop for around 10 years, and the laptop hasn't had a battery to make it really portable for a good four or five years. I've been running the laptop with OS/2 Warp on it since I first got it, as I don't use it for internet connections and the like - this is my writing computer,

Comments

[absinthe_dot_ca]

The T20-series of IBM laptops were good kit overall. When I was working at the IBM Software Lab that's what all the developers got. Of course, it's dated now, but for 2001 or so it was pretty good tech.

[jkahane]

The real question here is whether this is a good buy at $199.00, plus tax.

The machine doesn't come with a smnall disc drive, so how the heck am I supposed to transfer files from computer to computer, when I don't know what to use to do it without a disc drive. (I am not a technical person, you see.)

[absinthe_dot_ca]

If the other computer boots (which it sounds like it doesn't) then it's easy - either a network connection or a USB flash drive. If it doesn't boot, but the drive is still readable, then you may be able to find a drive adapter that allows you to remove the DVD or CD-ROM drive from the T-21 and put the second hard drive in the bay. Then it's a simple matter to copy the files to the new computer. If I still worked at IBM (and I was in Ottawa) I could probably get one to you, but I parted ways with Big Blue some 10 months ago now...

[jkahane]

No, the old 390 laptop doesn't even power up, let alone boot.

The real problem here is I'm not really a hardware person, and I hate having to deal with software these days. :(

[doc_mystery]

Many sympathies at not having a working lap-top.

As a suggestion, you might want to save backups of all your creative stuff up into the cloud (ie. save it into GMail), ditto backed up on an external HD or even a cheapie thumb drive.

::B::

[jkahane]

This is certainly true, but to be honest, I don't know what I want to do in terms of file retrieval and the like. And how do I transfer the files from the laptop to the Linux Suse machine? *sigh*

[mylescorcoran]

If you can't get the old laptop to boot I think you'll have to take the hard drive out of the old machine and connect it to the new one as an external drive. You can get a thing called a 'Magic Bridge' which allows you to connect a IDE or SATA hard drive (probably IDE in your case if it's an older drive) via USB to another machine.

I think they're about US$15 or so, judging by a quick online search (e.g. http://www.pcmicrostore.com/PartDetail.aspx?q=p:10504078).

Getting the drive out of the laptop is another matter, but it shouldn't be impossible. Again a quick search shows up http://www.bixnet.com/thin39026262.html as a short set of instructions for changing a drive in a 390, I think.

[jkahane]

Thanks for the comments and advice, Myles. To be honest, I'm a computer user, and *hate* (or should that be *loathe*?) having to deal with hardware and software issues, let along the grief and the like I've got to deal with now. :(

Add to that the stress of work before getting ready to go to GenCon and all, and well... :

[cornellbox]

My current laptop is a T41 ThinkPad which I've been very happy with. I think the T21 is probably an earlier round from the same general design.

USB thumb drives for file transfer are certainly better than shuffling floppies.

I hope it works out for you.

[jkahane]

Of course, that assumes that I can attach a thumb drive to the PC that I'm using, too.

The question is also whether I'm making a mistake in picking up a T21, given that these machines are, what? 7 years old, now?