Well, it's not all bad news. I got to return the keyboard/mouse combo since there was nothing wrong with my old mouse and a friend gave me a wireless keyboard that wasn't being used. That's $40 back in my pocket. I got my dvd burner and scanner in the mail today, and both are plugged in and running. I'm just about back up to speed. I even found a cd with three of the songs I recorded on it, including the one original. That's a relief.
I'm going to Houston tomorrow for Thanksgiving with Phil's family. We went last year, too, and it was good. I have to work Friday, though, so it'll be a lot of driving. I hope everyone stays safe on the roads.
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Back up your files
In a word, ugh.
So I just spent the last ten days dealing with the fact that my computer blew up on Thursay, the 10th. I should have seen it coming, since it had been making a weird noise for several weeks, but it still kind of knocked me sideways. First, the monitor went blank, then there was a loud pop. Suddenly, all you could hear was the case fans, then those died too. After that, I switched the power off in back of the PC. I figured the power supply had blown, and I was right, but that wasn't all.
Elements lost in the meltdown:
motherboard
2 internal hard drives
power supply
scanner (USB)
keyboard
video card
USB card
firewire card (not entirely fried, but spotty)
Elements that survived:
CPU
RAM
printer
mic (USB)
external hard drive (USB)
sound card
monitor
modem
speakers
floppy drive (I got a new one anyway)
mouse (ditto, since it came with the keyboard)
camera cradle (USB)
As you can see, it could have been worse. On the other hand, since I had to replace the motherboard I went ahead and got the latest model, meaning I also had to upgrade my CPU and RAM, which aren't cheap. So far it's cost me about $680 to get back up to speed.
The worst part is, if I can't recover one of the hard drives, I'll have lost all the digital photos I've taken since September 2004, including the murals I shot over the summer. And all the songs I'd recorded. Not to mention all my business records and a couple of things I've written that were saved on a floppy disk that won't read for some reason. Sigh.
So I just spent the last ten days dealing with the fact that my computer blew up on Thursay, the 10th. I should have seen it coming, since it had been making a weird noise for several weeks, but it still kind of knocked me sideways. First, the monitor went blank, then there was a loud pop. Suddenly, all you could hear was the case fans, then those died too. After that, I switched the power off in back of the PC. I figured the power supply had blown, and I was right, but that wasn't all.
Elements lost in the meltdown:
motherboard
2 internal hard drives
power supply
scanner (USB)
keyboard
video card
USB card
firewire card (not entirely fried, but spotty)
Elements that survived:
CPU
RAM
printer
mic (USB)
external hard drive (USB)
sound card
monitor
modem
speakers
floppy drive (I got a new one anyway)
mouse (ditto, since it came with the keyboard)
camera cradle (USB)
As you can see, it could have been worse. On the other hand, since I had to replace the motherboard I went ahead and got the latest model, meaning I also had to upgrade my CPU and RAM, which aren't cheap. So far it's cost me about $680 to get back up to speed.
The worst part is, if I can't recover one of the hard drives, I'll have lost all the digital photos I've taken since September 2004, including the murals I shot over the summer. And all the songs I'd recorded. Not to mention all my business records and a couple of things I've written that were saved on a floppy disk that won't read for some reason. Sigh.
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