My hard disk crashed!

Happy New Year, everyone!

It has been a long time!

Sad news, my hard disk crashed - still readable but the Dell people(online) advised me to replace my ailing disk. Finding a new replacement for my dell latitude d400, was an adventure. I bought my Dell used from a trusted friend of my daughter, two years ago. I bought an old Dell, specifically because of the serial port - which is now missing in new computers, so I can connect it to my old ssb ham radios. Since last year, I have to reboot via "ctrl+alt+del" several times before it successfully logs on. It was ok, cause I only have to do it once or twice, but very recently I have experienced doing it more than twice - a signal that my disk is dying from old age. Finding a replacement disk was a long walk. Computer shops at Megamall kept on telling me that they do not carry anymore "old technology" hard disk - an IDE, so they say. The last guy I asked pointed me to a corner shop - a less appointed one. I would say, no frills, no display only working tables, and no ceiling!. The lady attendant was still buzy with a young person, who also brought his also broken laptop for a checkup, and finally she asked me how can she help. I courteously asked her if they have an IDE hardisk. Luck of all luck they have one an 80gb ide harddisk. But that is only half the story.

I went home to Laguna and had a local computer shop copy my old files from the sick to the new disk. It took them two working-days to copy my files because they said it the copying would sometimes stop because of the bad sectors in my old disk.

I took home my laptop and told them that I would just do the copying on my own. But again, I have to have a harness to connect my sick disk to my laptop. I have ordered one, so the copying probably would commence next week, I hope.

The next step was to update my Windows XP. When I was installing MS Office 2007, the system would display "old software detected", and won't install. I have to call a friend-a licensed Microsoft Systems Engineer - he does not work for Microsoft though, and he enumerated the steps that I have to do before I can install MS Office 2007. He warned me that it would take a very long time to update. This process took the rest of the afternoon and early evening. Finally, I was able to put in MS Office 2007, after the long update of Windows XP -service pack 2). Now I am using my laptop but still without my 2gb of Photos!

I am not afraid of loosing those photos, I always keep a backup on other computers. Lesson, do not wait until your disk, literally dies.

That's all for now guys!