Odd. I just posted a reply, and it says I'm the last person to reply on the board homepage, but there is no sign of my words. Perhaps it was too long? I shall try reposting it in chunks. Should the original also reappear, apologies for clogging the thread.

Another thing to consider if you urgently feel the need to back up (e.g. you're getting 'impending doom' vibes from your computer) and don't have a USB/external hard drive to hand, something web-based might be your answer. For example, Windows Sky Drive (http://skydrive.live.com/) gives you 5GB of secure online storage. It's a little clunky to use (as far as I can tell, you can only upload files, not whole folders, although you can create folders within the storage) but it's better than nothing!

If your department offers storage on a server, do make use of it. I used to save work on my laptop, and then back up on the network server, which itself was backed up periodically. I also used the latter for saving .pdfs of papers - saved me having to locate them online again later*, without clogging up loads of memory on my laptop.

(*Be aware that just because you found a paper online once upon a time, doesn't mean it will always be there/you will always have the right license to access it etc).

Check your recycle bin is actually empty, or else any docs you've deleted will still be taking up space.

Defragmenting is a good idea.

You could try adjusting what programmes automatically run on start up - probably some you don't want/need.

How much RAM do you have?

No, you don't really get PhD bank accounts. For ethical banking I'd recommend the Co-operative Bank, or Smile, which they also own, and is exclusively online.

Since I quit my PhD I've lost some weight, have started taking more care of myself, and generally don't look like *quite* such a scruffbag, so there is hope of redemption. I think it's really hard to find the time/energy to make the right decisions about food/exercise etc when you're doing a PhD, let alone actually put them into practice!

Any chance you could get your department to buy you one? It's an essential piece of kit for a PhD like yours. Our department bought our laptops out of the 'consumables' bit of our grants, as the sum the research councils give is so laughably small it'll only pay for a month's lab consumables anyway! Ok, so that means that the laptop won't be yours to take away at the end of it, but by that point it'll be pretty knackered anyway, so you'd probably be thinking about getting a new one.

Weight is important if you want to carry it around much. You can always buy separate screens/keyboards to plug into the laptop if you have a regular desk somewhere.

In terms of brands, most people I know who aren't Mac enthusiasts use Dells. If you want to save some money on one, check out the Dell Outlet store (it sells perfectly good computers that have been built to particular specs but been returned e.g. cos a company bought 50 but then decided it only needed 48). Also, see if your uni has any contracts with various companies that give a discount - buying our Dell laptops via the uni's higher education contract with them meant that we got a lot better value for money than if you buy as a private individual.

I was under the impression that an MD was like a 'PhD lite' that enabled clinicans to gain a decent amount of research experience without taking so long out of their clinical work. Thus, it ticks a similar box, career wise, to a PhD, but won't contain quite as much research, as it's only two years not three. So it's not really equivalent, but it is 'enough'. I do know some clinicians who've done conventional PhDs rather than MDs, and it takes them the same 3-4 years as it would anyone else.

I definitely would. Just because you didn't get a PhD out of your time there, doesn't mean that you didn't learn anything, and any employer will be keen to hear about transferable skills. Plus I'm sure it looks better than having nothing there at all.

Good luck with your applications.

I'm sorry if I've offended you. I guess I was being a bit narky - I was just disappointed cos some of the thread titles sounded like they might be interesting discussions rather than cut+paste jobs.

Are blogthings sponsoring your PhD or something?

Any thoughts?