One of my clients emailed me two products to update. I have to run their software on either the portable (ha! not without some MAJOR upgrades) or on the Mac Mini. The Mini is almost out of hard drive space and would definitely need more RAM to run Parallels (virtual machine for Windows) and the software I would be testing. I can either upgrade the portable’s OS (needs XP Pro instead of XP Home) and hardware (whose hard drive is dying and has a serious lack of RAM) or I can upgarde the mini. I’m leaning towards the Mini because the portable will be replaced (eventually).
The portable has been booting consistently now, which makes me think the problem with it is the hard drive and not the motherboard controller. This idea is bolstered by the fact that the hard drive is making noises too whenever it writes to the disk. So… I might be able to get another few months out of the portable if I upgrade it. I might take both machines in to CompUSA tomorrow for brain surgery (after removing and backuping everything tonight). While not a cheap solution, it would at least make the machine usable until I can afford the new portable.