Upgrading my computer

Thanks to a holiday gift in the form of a gift card from my sister, I have upgraded my four-year-old Vaio computer.

I have several older peripherals that are connected using the older USB 1.1 technology. My sister gave me a Staples gift card and I purchased a USB 2.0 5-port PCI card and a 7-port USB 2.0 hub. I inserted the card rather painlessly and the computer recognized the new hardware without any problem. Same for the USB hub. I then reconnected all the peripherals (digital camera docking station, PDA holder, scanner and a printer) and everything worked fine.

After ensuring the connections were right, I ventured over to our local Best Buy and bought a Maxtor 100GB external hard drive that is currently on sale. I plugged it in and it was recognized by the PC. I then proceeded to back up my important files such as photos, music files, Word documents and the like. The increase in the transfer rate is very noticeable. Now I’m set if my hard drive crashes again like it did a couple of years ago. Plus if I ever buy myself a laptop, I’m set.

Thanks Sis!