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Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Computer Down — Again!

Okay, my desktop machine is old — a 2004 Dell. I can expect glitches.

The timing of the breakdown could hardly have been worse, however. Last Sunday, I was about to update all the necessary medical expenses for the 2010 tax return when the machine began playing the fool and eventually (1) took forever to boot up, (2) would no longer let me back up data, and (3) refused to shut off properly or manually, thus requiring me to shut off the power source.

Of course, I made multiple calls to Warren, my primary guru. Nothing we tried did a bit of good.

I spent most of that Sunday afternoon printing out hard copies of all essential data: tax information (medical deductions and self-employment expenses already logged), students' grades, and various grading rubrics, even though I was sure that most of the data was backed up fairly. Better safe than sorry, especially when it comes to data for the tax man.

No lunch and no dinner for me last Sunday! Because of the stress, I didn't have any appetite, anyway.

The following day, Monday, I packed up the tower and all program and operating-system disks and sent them over to my local guru, the homeschool dad who revived my 2005 laptop by installing Ubuntu some months ago. As long as he can save the data — the saving thereof a precarious situation as the blue screen of death appeared shortly after successfully booting and then attempting to back up my files and folders — I won't whine much if I have to replace that old desktop in the near future. Of course, getting a new machine up and running with all the necessary archived files and folders is a time-consuming tedium. **sigh**

My desktop has been on borrowed time for quite a while now. Furthermore, I do have my laptop for blogging and checking email. The one glitch with my laptop: I can't use it to participate fully in the radio show.

8 comments:

  1. LOL been there done that. :p

    Love the picture and yeah that is how I felt too!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Time to upgrade to a MAC. Never thought I'd see the day that I would say that but after my old Dell(1995 model I think) died it's 9th death I went away from the PC to the MAC. Now that I am use to it. I love it.

    Give it a decent burial and get a MAC.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You need to spend a few dollars (and I do mean a FEW) and sign up for Carbonite. Go to Rush Limbaugh's website and you can get a link and information to get it at a discount price. I've had TWO harddrives and one motherboard DIE completely. Everything I have would have been lost except that I had Carbonite.

    It is offsite, online, backup. You simply sign up, download it, and it will automatically back up EVERYthing. When your computer acts up, you just go to the Carbonite website, log in, and tell it to retrieve all of your documents etc. and it will. Worth every penny and will save you money in the longrun.

    Also Ticker is right about the MAC. I've had Dell, IBM, and some other brands, so has hubby. The last time he got a MAC and said he would never go back. He also said that when my laptop finally dies it's last death, I'm getting a MAC too.

    Debbie
    Right Truth
    http://www.righttruth.typepad.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. My local guru, the homeschool dad, returned my computer to me the next day. But I haven't even reconnected it yet. The middle of the week is my workweek, and I don't need any additional stress, especially during the third quarter of the school term. Both my students and I have "the third-quarter crazies."

    Tomorrow and over the weekend, I'll have to work on getting a new machine. Once all that is set up, I'll look into Carbonite.

    ReplyDelete
  5. About a Mac....

    Will my PC files and programs work on a Mac? I have files and programs dating back to 1993!

    ReplyDelete
  6. ¿Qué pasa ahora con La Computadora ? huh?!...

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have no idea about anything involving a Mac, but I do echo Debbie's advice about Carbonite.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Get a mac, there awesome and just plain don't (badly) crash often.
    though my mac laptop hates me, I've been getting mac's version of blue screen of death alot lately. argh.

    ReplyDelete

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