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Tue 26 Dec, 2006 02:08 pm
Hi!
I am writing this from my community computer cafe. We had a severe thunderstorm yesterday, and I turned the computer off while it was booting up. When I went to turn it on again, I got a message that there was something wrong, and Windows would not boot up, in order to prevent further damage to my computer.
Anyhow, I called Dell, and the tech put me through some diagnostics. Apparently what I had done had caused the hard drive to fail. I am on the warrantee, and a tech will be out with a new hard drive.Usually they do it in 2-3 business days, but since this is a holiday week, it may take longer.
So if you don't see me around for awhile, you will know why. 
Sometimes all occasions do conspire against us.
At least you aren't in hurricane season and Mr. P. is not crawling around on the roof checking for damage.
Hold your dominion.
Hope he's there ASAP & gets the job done very quickly, Phoenix!
Damn!
Gee, what should you have done instead?
Phoenix, When you fried your harddrive, did you use margerine or virgin olive oili?
cicerone, I think Windows uses that unhealthy vegetable shortening.
Phoenix, happened to me a couple of month ago - life without a computer
can be cruel, so cruel. Here is hoping to a fast computer tech which is
probably an oxymoron in Florida.
But it tastes soooo good!
I've had my share of computer fries, so I know it's no fun and frustrating.
I'd suggest that saying you've fried your hard drive was a little premature.
It's much more likely that there are just a couple of toasted files that are required for boot.
A bit of MBR reconstruction and a boot sector TLC would probably have had you back up and running.
If the Dell technician is going to replace your drive then make sure you get all your stuff off there first or you'll lose the lot to the reformatter.
Get the tech to plug it in as a second drive so you can get the stuff off there.
Don't worry, phoenix. Gus and a number of us have got your back while you are away.
Heliotrope, Your suggestion of connecting the old drive witt the new one makes a whole lot of sense, but won't the "problem" pursist with the new drive?
Good luck, Phoenix!
Something tells me it's gonna work!
Well, as you can see, the 'puter is up and running. I still have the system 32 error, but I don't care.
The funniest thing is putting my desktop icons in the same places as they were before. I realized how important it was, when I automatically clicked on what I thought was A2K, and got the weather site instead. I never realized how your body becomes accustomed to having things in one place, and it is very discombobbulating to have things moved around.
What I did was not look at the desktop, and just clicked where I thought that something should be. When it wasn't, I made a few adjustments, and now it seems to be all right.
Another thing. I could never stand the look of Windows XP. One of the first things that I did when I got the computer to work, was to reset it, so that it was in "Windows Classic" mode. (That's the Win 98 look)
Well at least you're back up and running.
I always keep my desktop in the Win'98 look too. Can't stand that "My First Computer" Fisher Price look to the XP desktop.
Heliotrope- I find all that color disturbing. It's plain vanilla for me. I even have a solid color on my desktop.
I started my next project, and that is removing all the unneeded startup items. It is a bit of a job, because I have to look everything up, and make a judgement as to whether an item is absolutely necessary at startup. So far, I took off a number of obvious things that did not have to be there, and the computer is a bit faster booting up.
It was amazing. When the computer was first working, and I did not have many programs on it yet, it booted up in a jiffy. Now it is somewhat slower, but better than what I had on the other hard drive.
If you do have a lot of things you don't really want to lose but don't use that often then sometimes it's worth creating a new profile with all that stuff on it.
You can have a fast load profile too that's stripped down to the minimum with stuff you use day-to-day.
To swap between them you just log off and log onto the other one.
Just a thought...
Hmmm........................Gotta think about that. Thanks for the suggestion!
The reason that I have not been around is that not long after my cumputer was up and running, when my broadband went kerflooey. It was not me, 'cause every one on the block who had Bright House had the same problem. In fact, my lower TV channels were snowy, and my hi-def non-existent. One guy on the block who had a digital phone, was without phone service.
We all screamed and yelled, and now it is finally back on.
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