Drive Performance
Linda's hard drive was showing 100% usage most of the time. You can see the performance statistics on a Windows PC in Task Manager:-
- Right-click on the Taskbar and select Task Manager.
- (Windows 11) On the left-hand side, select Performance.
- (Windows 10) Click More details. Then select the Performance tab.
You will see a percentage figure showing how busy the drive is. 100% usage for a large percent of the time could suggest the drive is wearing out and having to re-try several times to access data. One option could be to replace the hard drive with a Solid State Drive (SSD), which would always speed up a system considerably.
Laptop vs Desktop
We had some discussion on the pros and cons of a laptop and a desktop PC. The main advantage of a laptop is its portability. Desktop tower systems are advantageous if you want to make changes and/or additions to the system. However, most people don't want to do that, so a laptop or a mini PC might be appropriate. A mini PC is a small form-factor such as this ASUS system on Amazon:-
https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-Ultra-compact-i3-1220P-Graphics-Processors/dp/B0CGLXGS89/
Mini PCs and modern laptops may use the "M.2" form-factor SSD, which is small printed circuit board rather than something that looks like a hard drive.
If you like having a large screen and keyboard but still want the option of portability, you can attach the large screen, keyboard, mouse and other devices to a laptop - in effect, using the laptop as if it was a small tower PC. Then, if you want to work elsewhere, just unplug the external devices from the laptop and you are good to go.
OneDrive
Microsoft’s cloud storage is called OneDrive. Linda asked for more explanation of how it works and how you can use it. I think the last time I tried to explain this was at the January 2021 Club:-
https://computerclub100.blogspot.com/2021/01/
Basically, OneDrive is cloud storage from Microsoft. By creating a Microsoft Account, you automatically get 5GB of OneDrive storage. Subscribing to Microsoft 365 not only gives you the Office apps such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc, but also gives you 1TB of OneDrive storage. You can access OneDrive at:-
onedrive.com
You can simply upload and download files. You can also access OneDrive by installing the OneDrive app on your mobile device(s).
On a Windows PC, you will usually find the OneDrive app is running in the background. It can sync the OneDrive cloud storage with the OneDrive folder on your PC.
For an alternative explanation with step-by-step guidance, have a look at this Windows Central article:-
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-get-started-onedrive-windows-10
Wed 9th October 2024 at 2pm via Zoom
