G
Guest
Or another way to title this: "Supporting snowbirds with multiple homes"
I've got several customers that are older and what we nickname 'snowbirds'.
They travel and live in their home up north during the summer and return to
their other home in the south during the winter. They would like a solution
where by they effectively have only ONE pc so that their email, programs,
settings, layout, etc. are always with them but they also are getting to the
point where packing/unpacking/moving their PC and hooking it up is getting to
be a problem in many ways (ease and ability to move/pack/lift and redo that,
takes up valuable space they want for moving other items). They have tried a
notebook/laptop solution but prefer the look/feel and use of a full size
desktop PC and how they are set up over the laptops.
So I've wondered about the following (and some of my customers have
indicated they would purchase such a solution if it actually worked) ...
What if I create or purchase two identical systems - complete systems. Same
components all the way through the whole system.
Install hard drive drawers in both. Have only one hard drive which lives in
the drive caddy. Install XP.
Now put the two PC's in the two home/locations and the customer now travels
with only their hard drive via the caddy.
When they arrive up north they slide the caddy into their northern 'twin'
computer and run with it. When it's time to move back south they remove the
caddy (and hard drive with it), take it south, slide the caddy into their
southern 'twin' computer and keep running. All their software, shortcuts,
data is where they expect and remember it and the "move" wasn't physically
demanding or requiring a lot of space.
The customers I'm serving here are quite willing and able to purchase 2
systems and even two licenses for XP for what they think in their eyes would
be a wonderful solution.
The one customer that's itching to have some solution soon ... I've told
them that they are exposed to probably having to make like for like
replacements/fixes in both hardware configurations if one system has a
problem. They both need to stay 'twins'.
The other solution I've mentioned is a very capable notebook computer that
they move from place to place and each home they own has separate keyboard,
display, external speakers that they hook up to so they can try and approach
the desktop look/feel and useability. For this particular customer that's
interested in solving this soon ... they are very skeptical that a notebook
computer will meet their needs and I'm familiar enough with what they do with
their computers that it will also (they are professional photographers with
and interesting assortment of software, additional disk space needs,
perhiperals).
Will the twin PC's and traveling OS/hard drive likely work and what might be
the problems?
Other ideas or how you might solve this would certainly be welcomed!
Thanks,
- David I
(I apologize for those that see this as a double post on the system builders
group. It occurred to me after posting there that this might be a more active
community with some good/interesting insight into the problem and possible
solutions.)
I've got several customers that are older and what we nickname 'snowbirds'.
They travel and live in their home up north during the summer and return to
their other home in the south during the winter. They would like a solution
where by they effectively have only ONE pc so that their email, programs,
settings, layout, etc. are always with them but they also are getting to the
point where packing/unpacking/moving their PC and hooking it up is getting to
be a problem in many ways (ease and ability to move/pack/lift and redo that,
takes up valuable space they want for moving other items). They have tried a
notebook/laptop solution but prefer the look/feel and use of a full size
desktop PC and how they are set up over the laptops.
So I've wondered about the following (and some of my customers have
indicated they would purchase such a solution if it actually worked) ...
What if I create or purchase two identical systems - complete systems. Same
components all the way through the whole system.
Install hard drive drawers in both. Have only one hard drive which lives in
the drive caddy. Install XP.
Now put the two PC's in the two home/locations and the customer now travels
with only their hard drive via the caddy.
When they arrive up north they slide the caddy into their northern 'twin'
computer and run with it. When it's time to move back south they remove the
caddy (and hard drive with it), take it south, slide the caddy into their
southern 'twin' computer and keep running. All their software, shortcuts,
data is where they expect and remember it and the "move" wasn't physically
demanding or requiring a lot of space.
The customers I'm serving here are quite willing and able to purchase 2
systems and even two licenses for XP for what they think in their eyes would
be a wonderful solution.
The one customer that's itching to have some solution soon ... I've told
them that they are exposed to probably having to make like for like
replacements/fixes in both hardware configurations if one system has a
problem. They both need to stay 'twins'.
The other solution I've mentioned is a very capable notebook computer that
they move from place to place and each home they own has separate keyboard,
display, external speakers that they hook up to so they can try and approach
the desktop look/feel and useability. For this particular customer that's
interested in solving this soon ... they are very skeptical that a notebook
computer will meet their needs and I'm familiar enough with what they do with
their computers that it will also (they are professional photographers with
and interesting assortment of software, additional disk space needs,
perhiperals).
Will the twin PC's and traveling OS/hard drive likely work and what might be
the problems?
Other ideas or how you might solve this would certainly be welcomed!
Thanks,
- David I
(I apologize for those that see this as a double post on the system builders
group. It occurred to me after posting there that this might be a more active
community with some good/interesting insight into the problem and possible
solutions.)