Would like to get a 2nd hand pc for back up but how much should I pay and what to look out for. I know I need earthenet conn and preferrable win xp but how can I be sure its not virus laden? or on its last legs
I operate a home office.
I have a laptop - Win2K, gen reliable, but hard drive sat down in 2008 and it cost nearly a grand to retrieve information and get back up and running.
Luckily I had most of my files already backed up to an external hard drive and I also had use of a computer running WinXP, which effectively saved my practice.
The Laptop was state of the art when I got it and cost €4,200 or so an IBM Thinkpad with a wide angle, hi-res screen, 512Mb RAM, ATI graphics card, etc.
The PC OTOH cost €1350 in an end-of-model line sale and is an E-Machine - effectively a rebranded Gateway [remember them?]
Not a brand to write home about I used to think from reading the popular press, yet it was the laptop that sat down and the pC is still soldiering on.
[in fact both are now up and running well again touch wood...]
To answer your question, buy the newest cheapest you can afford. Although I haven't used one, the BIL has one IIRC and Acer seem ot be a good make.
If buying second hand you don't know what files or viruses is on the disk and you should carry out a low level for, at and reinstall. Some machines have a partition on the HD that will allow you to do this.
The most recent machines won't needles endless "upgrades" from Microsoft before you can up and running.
[I had 2 days of installing patches for my Win2K machine to bring it up to SP4 standard again...]
WinXP is still reliable and will do most things you ask of it. Buy Win7 if you can afford it for future-proofing.
And don't forget the external hard drive for backup and file transfer - its only €100-odd for a Terabyte now I think.
HTH
ONQ.