New year, new computer

Well that seems to be the way that it goes with my life! In 2007 a cup of tea executed my trusty Dell Inspiron laptop and I replaced it with my MacBook Pro 15". This year old age finally did in the motherboard on desktop that Computer Builder's Warehouse (remember them?) custom made for me on our show around 2003. I had been getting close to maxed out on the 60 Gig hard drive and the old processor kept shutting down mysteriously until one day it started no more.

So it was time to go shopping. I had been thinking about buying an iMac 20" or 24" all-in-one desktop but I simply couldn't afford the "Apple Tax". No matter what other Mac Boys and Girls may tell you, generally speaking, comparably equipped PC's are at least 20% cheaper than their pretty Apple counterparts. I know that this is heresy but more and more of us former Windows folks who switched are saying it and even the great Leo Laporte admitted to it on one of his podcasts this past year.

Being short on cash, I made a pilgrimage to Micro Center in Madison Heights where my friendly salesman, Jeff Kurz, suggested I look at the Dell Inspiron 530 desktop which was on sale for $399. So I gave up my Mac dreams and went for the PC! The machine is basically my wife's for email, documents and the occasional picture. I also use it for back up of some key programs such as my Pro Tools LE recording software.

Here are the specs: Dell Inspiron Dual Core 2.20 Ghz processor, 2 Gig Ram, 250 Gig Hard Drive, DVD RW, Card reader ports, Win XP Pro (upgrade disk to Vista Home Premium included).

So far it has been a pretty fast little machine and real pleasure to work with. The only problems I am having right now are trying to get the Documents and Settings from the old hard drive. Problem: it's just the hard drive, the computer died and I hooked it up externally to the new machine with a USB drive. I just can't get my wife Ginny's or my Contacts to switch over. Any suggestions?