Hi all -

Hope this is the right forum for this.

I work at a small museum in a small town during the summer months.

We are currently using a windows 98 os. The computer itself is like 20 years old. It has a floppy disk drive, no usb port. The curator currently logs the artifacts into the database, then downloads it onto floppy's for safekeeping. Oh yeah, maxed on the memory.

We currently have over 27,000 artifacts that we have input into the computer. We would like to revamp this whole operation to accomplish the following:

1. Re-input the artifact data into a reasonable order.
2. Develop a visual database for our art.
3. Allow room to "grow" - we get new artifacts in constantly that need to be entered into the computer.
4. Develop a visual database for our photo artifacts.
5. Ease of backups.

Basically, we need to inventory what we have and allow room to grow.

Any suggestions, advice on what to get for a computer system? How much RAM? How many gigabytes? What OS?

Just the quick and dirty. Our board of directors seems to think that the current system we have is enough to perform what we need. This is the same board that doesn't believe in backups. Go figure.

Thanks in advance to any help.

There are so many options here...

you could get a more modern PC-- and configure it for Raid 1 so it would automatically mirror all your data-- dual drives required

you could use an online back-up service --storage on the web

a second harddrive with auto backup software

DVD writer would store tons of data

there are external "one touch backup systems"

As far as OS-- I suggest XP Pro... stable,tested, rock-solid.
Cheaper than Vista ( and no driver troubles )

There are 750 GIGABYTE harddrives nowadays... less than $200.00 each
Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!

If you wanted to build it yourself-- you could get a server-type case-- with space for approx eight harddrives plus extra space for cooling-- heavyduty construction.
Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!


Database software is everywhere...

this do for starters?

ih8bills -

Fantastic!!!!! Just what I was looking for. I pretty much figured on XP Pro and DVD the rest was a shot in the dark.

If it's alright with you, I'm gonna print this out and show my supervisor. Apparently, one of our board members thinks she can take the old pc and revamp it. It's like putting chrome wheels on a rusty 68 chevy and expecting it to tow a 2 ton boat up Mt. Shasta.

I'm not that smart with computers, but know enough not to duct tape the hard drive to make it work.

Thank U x a million!!!!

What they want to do is equal to trying to win the Daytona 500-- with a Model "T" Ford pickup truck.

Just won't happen.

Storage is cheaper and faster than it has ever been
RAM is the same
PCI express video cards and screaming dual-core processors make systems so fast that it is ridiculous...

To try to outdo that with a creaky old Windows '98 machine -- is ludicrous...Plus software has gotten SO much better now... video and photo-editors are a dime a dozen.
Windows '98 is an UNSUPPORTED version of Windows-- it's time to turn that thing into a firewall-- and get a real PC

And yes you can print my comments if you wish

Hey ih8bills -

LOL! Know what you mean. I sat down with my supervisor and explained the whole thing - which she is fine with.

But check this out. The board member took the computer to a computer repair shop. This is what they told her and this is what she told us, "We can put more stuff into the computer to get it up and running. We can trade in the printer for another that will work with the computer. The tech said that the monitor we have is still good and will out last any LCD monitor. So we won't be replacing that. So/So has a program called "Past...." and they are running that on their computer server. We can use that program for our needs."

ACCCKKKKKK!!!!I did a major flip. This is the same woman who put in 4 feet of blown insulation into our museum attic to reduce fuel costs. BUT - she doesn't feel it's necessary to replace the broken windows in the attic.

We have a feeling that she has already authorized the "re-vamp" of the old dinosaur. When we get it back, I think I'll do a major file dump -

Anyway, thank you for your help. We have emailed the other members with the recommendations and attached your advice and stressed it was from a computer professional.

I'm enterng my model T into the Indy 500 -

Hey... if all else fails-- there's always sabotage.
Short out a couple of the motherboard power leads
Disconnect the CPU cooler while running a CPU-intensive app-- maybe with a hair dyer blowing into the case on High
"spill" your coffee into the case while powered up

Back up all the data --and go looking for a major Virus-- they have them that will actually completely wipe and scramble the whole harddrive