My OperaOn the inconvenience of a new PC
Tuesday, June 22, 2010 2:39:11 AM
Had to buy a new PC; the old one just sorta got old. Parts wore out. A cooling fan (one of about twelve, I think) went; had a helluva time finding a replacement. Replaced the DVD drive. Then the hard drive started to go, so replaced that. Then, one day, it began to BSOD after a while; the only fix was to turn it off. Overheated, I guess -- some sort of imminent component failure.
After a while, the "after a while" got shorter. I do, of course, back up essential files (as do you, right? Right?), but I figured the time had come for a full mirror backup. And a wise decision that was.
So, I bit the proverbial bullet. The old homebuilt box is over there. Maybe I'll take another whack at getting it live. Over here is a spankin' new Gateway. Fistful of processors; gigs of RAM; more gigs of hard drive; super-fast; yadda yadda yadda. Fast enough to let me edit video if I wish. In fact, it does everything! Er, except configure itself.
What a pain in the ass! No, I couldn't restore the mirror -- the old box is XP Pro, and this one is Windows 7 Home Pro. (Thought seriously about another XP box, but hey, it's time to move on. Besides, the kids both have Vista, and I never could network them with XP to my satisfaction.) Yeah, could've used Windows' built-in transfer util, which would have done some of the work... but BSOD, remember? So: the hard way. It's coming along. Of Win7, I will say that I like it.
Anyway. PITA. Download, install, register. Times a zillion. How come Lileks never mentions this part when he brags about his new toys? At least I have all my serial numbers and reg codes handy.
But really -- if someone comes up with a better way, they'll get rich. I'll be first in line.
After a while, the "after a while" got shorter. I do, of course, back up essential files (as do you, right? Right?), but I figured the time had come for a full mirror backup. And a wise decision that was.
So, I bit the proverbial bullet. The old homebuilt box is over there. Maybe I'll take another whack at getting it live. Over here is a spankin' new Gateway. Fistful of processors; gigs of RAM; more gigs of hard drive; super-fast; yadda yadda yadda. Fast enough to let me edit video if I wish. In fact, it does everything! Er, except configure itself.
What a pain in the ass! No, I couldn't restore the mirror -- the old box is XP Pro, and this one is Windows 7 Home Pro. (Thought seriously about another XP box, but hey, it's time to move on. Besides, the kids both have Vista, and I never could network them with XP to my satisfaction.) Yeah, could've used Windows' built-in transfer util, which would have done some of the work... but BSOD, remember? So: the hard way. It's coming along. Of Win7, I will say that I like it.
Anyway. PITA. Download, install, register. Times a zillion. How come Lileks never mentions this part when he brags about his new toys? At least I have all my serial numbers and reg codes handy.
But really -- if someone comes up with a better way, they'll get rich. I'll be first in line.
