Old Hardware
It’s not unusual to have a washing machine for 15 years or a car for 10. However, the same cannot be said for technology, or any piece of electronics, and computers are no different.
A company in Manchester contacted me recently to help them with their main computer in the office – this computer was used to create medical animations for various companies, doctors and some patients. This computer was their powerhouse – a Windows NT 4.0 computer running a 386 processor, 1GB of memory and a 40GB hard drive. The computer was 10 years old.
Here we are in 2008 and none of the hardware or software is under warranty – or even supported by any vendors. 10 years is a long time to wait to upgrade your computer.
In this customer’s situation, we were able to retrieve the data, but they were stuck without a money-making computer and looking at spending $5,000 to reinvest in a PC and software licensing.
You do not have to replace your computer every year, or even every 18 months, which is common for the ‘folks living on the edge’…
Follow this schedule to replace your computers and you should be in the clear.
- Desktop computer – replace every 3 years
- Notebook computer – replace every 2-3 years, depending on how much abuse it’s taken
- Server – replace every 5 years
