It appears that when my computer died, it did not save all of my posts properly to the blog site, but only locally, set to upload at the time specified. I have a lot of work to do.
It has been a very long time since I have built a computer, and longer still since I’ve had to worry about going from one transfer format to another. If I were intelligent, I would have kept a backup of all of my stuff on my external hard drive, like I usually do. This time, I was not so intelligent, and my old hard drive where I kept my blog was IDE, not SATA. The new computer built is entirely SATA, so I can’t even have a floppy disk drive, or my old DVDROM or my old CDRW, as they were all IDE. Good thing that when I got the kit I got, it came with the bonus of a DVDRW, so I could at least have the drive to install my operating system!
I have to re-do, from scratch, all of the minnerviews I’d had done (and thought were ready to go). Alas, it is Monday, the day I double check these things, and I have found otherwise. So you will have this post about my lapse of proper intelligence (I think the term usually used is “Getting Old and Senile”, or having a Senior Moment), and listen to me rant a little about my older computer’s sudden decision to depart this world entirely.
I must sound very scatterbrained. Well, for good reason.
In my last post, you read about how my computer made scary noises and quit, but I’d rigged up something passable with new parts on the way.
Just two days after that post, the new computer parts arrived, but the new power supply did not have the cable necessary for my video card. As you all know, I’m an avid gamer, and my video card is part of my lifeblood for gaming. I also did not yet have my operating system, which was delayed a day for processing. I assembled the new computer, rubbing my hands together in glee, and for the time being, transferring my old power supply (with more than sufficient power for the new system to at least get it checked out) from the rigged computer to the new one. I checked my BIOS settings, made sure there were no IRQ conflicts, made sure the BIOS recognized the hard drive and the DVDRW, the USB hubs, both fans, all four cores of the processor, set the fan speeds and core temperature thresholds, and called it “Good”. Operating system would go in when the new power supply and OS arrived. Transferred the power supply back in, reconnected everything to the old computer, and set new computer aside in waiting.
Turned on the old computer to continue where I left off.
*click*
…. Excuse me? *pushes power button*
*click*
… Click? WHAT DO YOU MEAN CLICK? YOU WERE JUST WORKING!!!!
Cue me pulling the old computer (which will from here on in be called by the name it was given when it was gifted to me in 2008), Geri Rig, apart to make sure I didn’t miss a cable or something stupid. Put it all back together, pushed the power button and I get ….
*click*
<Insert LOOOONG string of curses never heard by the ears of man, in at least six languages (yes, I can curse in German, French, Shin’a’in (Mercedes Lackey), Tayledras (Mercedes Lackey), and Japanese apart from just English, and I am learning to curse in Darnassian, Thalassian, Orcish (all from World of Warcraft), and Old Elven (Tolkein), which the computer ignored, taunting me>
I threw my hands up in the air, removed the one SATA hard drive from Rig and put it into the new computer.
When the OS and new PSU (which I was QUITE glad of having ordered now) arrived, I finished the build, booted it up, installed Windows 7, and began the looooong process of installing all of the programs I used every day, like Firefox and iTunes, making sure I had all of my shortcuts in line for programs installed to the USB external, and some from the old SATA hard drive that could be used without full reinstallation.
That mess took me from Wednesday (when Windows 7 and the new Power Supply Unit arrived) until today (which is Monday, remember), when I reinstalled my offline client for my blog. I went to transfer my drafts and recently posted folders…. to remember that they were not on the SATA drive, or the USB drive. They were on the only drive not usable with this new computer. Instead of cursing in six languages this time, I just sighed, since this isn’t the first time this has happened, and I am finding that sometimes new technology, when not able to to be used and fused with the old, is a royal pain in the rear-end.
So, in conclusion – if your computer is capable of dying, USB external hard drives are your BEST EFFING FRIEND. Leave nothing on your main drive that will cripple you, even slightly, without backing it up to that USB hard drive.
I leave you this week with the promise of a Minnerview next week, and two weeks after that, as per usual, as I go to make sure this time, they are uploaded and not saved on a drive that I cannot access.
Until next week, thank you, as always, for reading!
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