I am just coming off about 21 hours of dealing with my computer today. It started with a Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) this morning at 5:30 a.m. I couldn't even get to the account screen nor last good configuration nor any of the available safe modes. I found a diagnostic utility in one of the boot-up options and after six hours or so of testing, my computer concluded that nothing was wrong with the physical components of my system... hooray...
I got out the Installation Discs that came with my computer and reinstalled the O/S after I was told it would not affect my data files. That worked, but then began the frantic saving of critical files and triaging of the rest on my ever decreasing stack of DVDs and CDs, several of which were wasted because my CD/DVD burner has decided to become unreliable as well. My system crashed and I had to reboot. This time, it worked; but now began the endless update cycles. After five hours of this, I finally reached a point where I could go out and buy a flash drive for critical stuff and a back-up hard drive for the large data files unsuitable for DVDs and CDs (aka video files). I got home happy that I would be able to get this done only to have, as soon as the back-up hard drive made contact with the USB cable, the BSoD appear...again...
Very annoyed, I went to Microsoft Update and made sure everything on my computer was up to date. After another four hours of updates and restarts, I reattempted the Back-up hard drive install...and got the BSoD again immediately. No help could be found online but I took some comfort in the fact that others have had the same one. The supporting website for my product offered a solution, but it didn't work for me. So, I'm stuck...at 3 a.m. with only half the progress made. Critical files are backed up, yes; but the sorely needed backup drive is an utter failure meaning I'll have to walk again to the mall to replace it with another and still have to walk to work again later that night.
I'm so annoyed...and tired...and hungry...
ADDENDUM: My computer was finally up and running acceptably at about 7 a.m. Therefore, 24 hours spent on this thing. Score another one for tenacity [stubbornness]! The next day, I walked to Best Buy to return the hard drive. I settled on getting four 16 GB flash drives that were 50% off on sale. Cool. I'm figuring that if I can't get everything of importance to me on 80 GB, I have too much. My critical files (scans, photos, writings, programs I created, etc.) all fit on one of those flash drives with plenty of room to spare. I didn't even need five, but I'll rotate two for the critical stuff monthly. :-)
(originally posted to That Other Journal on December 16, 2009)
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