The Year Ahead – November 17

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

November 17 – Check in on your hardware. Are you due for an upgrade to a laptop or external hard drive? If so, research some options and add them to your holiday wish list.

I got a new laptop this spring and a new desktop, two years ago. How did I know I was due for an upgrade? For the desktop, it was running slow, would lock up when browsing and everything was taking longer than it needed to.  For my laptop, basically the same thing, but my built-in Wi-Fi adapter stopped working and that was the most frustrating thing to deal with. I did get a Wi-Fi external adapter and that sort of worked. However, it took up one of my precious few USB ports.

So, if you are looking to upgrade, I always recommend setting a budget. What do you want to spend? Then decide what you want in your computer. Some of the things I needed was a large hard drive, lots of RAM, lots of ports and I wanted to hook up more than one monitor. I wanted to hook up three, but my desktop only does two (I compromised). I wanted a small CPUS and an internal CD drive, but those are hard to find. I ended up buying an external one, for the rare times that I need it. I also wanted the best processor that I could buy with my budget. What are you willing to compromise on? Hard Drive size, RAM, price?

I started looking six months in advanced and happened to find a desktop I like at a Black Friday sale. Sadly, I struggled with some computer issues for the next year, but I think all those problems have been fixed (under warranty). The laptop I got; I didn’t directly buy. A local business has what they call Amazon Mystery Boxes, these are boxes that Amazon creates when they are clearing out warehouses of certain inventory. I have never purchased one of the boxes before, which cost $40. But on a whim, I purchased one and it had a laptop in it. Talk about lucky, right?

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!