How long do you keep a computer?

[QuarterMillionMan]

Another thing and sorry not to burst your Mac's bubbles but let's say your RAM goes bad is it an easy fix? Is it expensive to pay your local authorized dealer to fix? With a Windows based laptop I can do it myself by replacing that Viper above with a Patriot, Crucial, Kingston, HyperX, etc. $53.99 for 32 GB. Or a 16 GB RAM is half that amount at $27 or an 8 GB about $13, cheap fix.

[disneysteve]

We’ve had numerous iMacs and MacBooks going back to 1994. We’ve never had to get any sort of service or repair so I have no idea what’s involved on the rare chance that you do need something done.

As for what to do when you get rid of one, I think we only have one MacBook that isn’t still in use. DD got one when she started college. When she replaced it, DW got it. When DD replaced it again, DW took that one and the oldest one went to my mom which she still uses daily. My very first Mac laptop is probably buried in a closet somewhere. I doubt it’s of any value at this point being 20 or so years old.

[ua_guy]

RAM goes bad?

That is actually something I have not encountered in my computing career. I'm sure it happens, but I have never had it happen to any of my machines. To answer the question, though, newer MacBooks would require the logic board to be replaced in order to replace RAM. It can be done, but it's going to be more expensive than buying a few cheap sticks of RAM for a PC and doing it yourself.

But back to RAM going bad...not a concern for me. And, Apples don't experience the kind of bog and bloat that the Windows OS experiences over time, so "adding RAM" as many people do to PC's to make them faster or solve sluggishness is not something I've ever done/ needed to do to a MacBook. The memory they use is typically high quality and very high speed/throughput versus simply being able to advertise a memory size on the side of a box. Not all RAM is equal as hardware is concerned, and then there's the optimization of the operating system and how it uses the memory to consider as well.

[kork13]

Also consider that Apple doesn't WANT people messing with their machines. It started back in the original Jobs/Wozniak days. Jobs was once quoted as saying something to the effect of "If you don't like how we built it, Apple isn't for you & you aren't for Apple." Very cult-following of him, but that was his way -- love it or leave it. To this day, it's the same. Build quality is high, but built to never be opened again, if possible.

[ua_guy]

The part that irks me is Apple OS simply doesn't support devices after a certain age (7-ish years). And a lot of apps designed for OS no longer support older OS as time goes on. While that's a good practice for makers of the software and the developers, it leaves the end user in a lurch. Security updates are no longer published for the OS which can obviously be a security risk. Old apps stop working, so, if you're using an ancient MacBook as a media server and streaming device, things like Netflix or Youtube apps no longer function. So you have to get a little more creative, wipe the machine and use Linux, and that's not within the skillset of the "just wants to surf and check email" user.

Phones and computers are disposable devices, ultimately. 5-10 years on the long timeline. Speaking of which, I bought my iPhone as the clock turned 2021. It's that time to start eyeing a new one in the next 1-2 years. Try to gauge when Apple is going to drop the latest and greatest so I can go buy one model regressed when the price drops

[QuarterMillionMan]

Any geeks/nerds here I need advice on when I receive my new SSD. If I clone the new SSD will it contain let's say my same information on my old SSD (ie, usernames and passwords, etc). If so I should leave the old SSD in the laptop and wipe the drive clean. Or when I receive the new SSD should I just reinstall Windows using the same product key, this is the method I'm thinking I should take. Then I'll be confident when I sell the laptop I can sleep better at night knowing the new owner of the laptop won't be able to get any of my information.

[myrdale]

I don't understand why you're discussing cloning hard drives.

From what I gather, you want to sell an old laptop and you're worried about the new owner recovering personal data about you? If that is the case, reformat the hard drive and reinstall windows and move on with life.

[ua_guy]

QMM isn't completely wrong here. Wiping the file allocation table does reformat the drive and make it "empty" again and appear that it has no data. But the reality is, all your data is still on the drive and could be read by someone who has a little technical skill and wants to be snoopy. If a drive ever stops working and my data is on it, I reformat those with a hammer. No joke. It's hard to read data off of a drive that's in 200 mangled pieces in the garbage. And there's nothing interesting on there, but there is enough data to effectively steal my identity, same as I wouldn't toss a completely filled out credit card application or tax return into a public recycle bin.

Now, if you've used drive encryption (such as Mac allows, natively), you have almost no worry that someone is going to read your data even after someone else gets hold of the drive. The key is held by you, the owner, and unless the next person is able to obtain that key, your data is protected. In this case, you can do a quick reformat and move on with life.

To be even safer, it's worth doing a full reformat whereby the drive write's 1's and 0's across the full disk or SSD, effectively erasing the previous data by truly overwriting it. This is the safer method of reformatting, and along with using disk encryption, is how I feel safe to sell or trade in a laptop with the original hard disk still inside of it.

[QuarterMillionMan]

I like ua_guy's recommendations especially the last one of writing 1's & 0's on to the SSD. I will have to do some research on it. My plan is to try and use my Window's product key and reinstall it on the new SSD. As a backup plan Saving Advice has an ad for Windows 11 Home for $12 from Groupon. Not sure if this is real because it seems too good to be true. Upon entering this site a pop up ad appears which when I click on it takes me to this Groupon deal. Regular price for Windows 11 Home is $130.

Windows 11 Pro, Home, or Enterprise - Lifetime Activation - Digital Download - From $12 - Dayton | Groupon

[ua_guy]

Yeah, 99% assuming that's a scam...

[QuarterMillionMan]

Another option which would be my 3rd option is to run Ubuntu (Linux). I've run Ubuntu before. The buyer would have to get his/her own Windows license. I often wonder who buys a used laptop anyway and I think bitcoin miners who don't care what operating system is installed and they are using it to mine bitcoin 24/7/365.

[QuarterMillionMan]

I'm preparing my old laptop getting it ready to sell on eBay. I completed a system restore to factory settings. I removed everything but it still didn't clean the drive. I tried to change the settings to either over-wright the drive or clean the drive but no options for that. My M.2 NVME 125 gb SSD is out for delivery today so tonight I will swap out the SSD and see if I can install Windows or Ubuntu and have a fresh SSD in that laptop to sell on eBay.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

we also keep our old harddrives and a hammer comes out.

[QuarterMillionMan]

For the past few days I've been stuck in the BIOS of the old laptop after replacing the SSD. I finally got the boot priority correct to boot up from the hard drive. Windows is now ready to install just need to Create Windows 11 Installation Media but I need a USB w/8 GB or higher. All of my USB flash memory was small w/2 GB or 4 GB and not enough memory. I might need to run over to Best Buy to get one but I know I'll probably have to pay 2x of that which I can get on eBay or Amazon but don't want to wait a few days.