I am happy and proud to report that the reformatting was a smashing success. I've still got a lot of stuff to move back to the hard drive from CD, and a lot of software to reinstall, but I'm up and running and running smoothly. Got my antivirus to install correctly (that was one of the big problems I was having, it wouldn't update itself and it wouldn't let me either uninstall it or reinstall it because it kept saying a previous installation was not completed). I also did add a second hard drive to my computer, an old 40 gig I had laying around, that I can use for data storage so if I run into this again it will be easier. So all in all, it wasn't nearly as frustrating a day as I figured it would be. Huzzah!
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Most excellent. Thought of you this morning reading Alex Cockburn's Sunday column. Here is the bit that brought out the Ed Brayton connection:
"The subject soon grew wearisome and I went back to important matters such as how to keep the temperature in my pit under 80 degrees F, vital in the correct preparation of cold-smoked Coho salmon caught in Gray's Harbor, WA."
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn11052005.html
Congratulations! I know when I've had to do such a project, it always leaves a worried feeling in my stomach: Will I get it right? That moment of truth--turning on the switch and finding that, in fact, it all did go just right--is quite a relief, indeed.
Wonderful! (But be careful. Now your friends will be asking you for computer advice ;-)
I guess you are a techno-stud. Way to go! Seriously, if a non-computer-geek can pull this off, it's either a big statement of the usability of modern computing or a very pointed statement of a particular persons skillfulness, or just plain good luck. In any case, you did it or were part of it!
I don't know what brand of computer you're using, but if it's an old one like mine that died recently you might want to get a new one. They aren't that expensive any more I've had 3 of them in the last 10 years, and each of them has been cheaper than the previous, with better technology. Basically everything is connected to the computer via USB2.
AndyS wrote:
To the average person, I am probably a computer geek. I build my own computers rather than buy them from Dell or Gateway or what have you, for instance. But when dealing with software and operating system issues, it just seems like something always goes wrong in doing this sort of thing. I think I got lucky in that regard. And while the average person may think of me as a computer guru and my friends do call me for help, I know damn well who the real computer gurus are. I know how many times I've gotten in over my head and had to call Wes Elsberry and Skip Evans for help, so I know that they're the real deal. They work on a level I can't even begin to understand. A few weeks ago I said something to Wes about how I'd like to have an RSS module for the MCFS postnuke webpage. He says, "Oh yeah, I've thought about doing one of those, but it's on the back burner because I have so much else going right now." Two or three days later, he emails me and gives me a link to it, all installed on his postnuke page. He's a guy who will have some problem to solve and in a half hour, write some script that automates the whole process he's working on. It's absurd. So while my dad, who thinks computers are just big solitaire machines, thinks I'm a computer god, I know who the real gods are.
raj wrote:
It's no brand, I built it myself. I build myself a new computer about every 2-3 years. This one was built a little over a year ago. It's one generation behind now (AthlonXP 1900), but that's plenty of speed for what I do. I'm not a game player, so I don't need the latest and greatest all the time. Heck, I still run Windows 98.
Ed, I have two computers, a new Dell running Windows XP (my old desktop died a few months ago), and a Thinkpad laptop running Win98. I find WinXP frustrating because I can't find anything on the hard disk, like I used to be able to do with Win98. I understand what MS is trying to do with WinXP--make a multi-user OS--but I don't like the fact that I can't control my own computer like I could with Win98. With Win98, I could figure out where everything was on the hard disk--I haven't been able to with WinXP
I don't construct the things myself, in large part because it would take too long.