Technology Woes, Yet Again

My weekend and last few days have been
consumed with getting my computer up and running again.  What
started as a simple replacement of a power supply morphed into much
bigger things.  I had the silly thought of replacing my 40 GB hard
drive with a new 250 GB hard drive while I was having the permanent
power supply replaced, and everything went kaput in short order because
my mutt computer (started as Gateway that’s been upgraded a few times)
wasn’t equipped to handle a hard drive of that size. So, when I
requested to return the computer to its original state with just the 40
GB drive and just the new power supply, that initially didn’t work
either.

And, to top it all off, the power supply to my
scanner died last week, as well.  Maybe hiring an electrician to rewire the
house is in order..:)

Now, after several nights of stress and worry,
my original computer is all back up and working, but I’ve learned a very
powerful lesson here.  The systems and laptop backup I set up for myself 4
years ago are no longer working. I initially thought that I could get by for now
with simply a new hard drive, as my small 40 GB hard drive was causing most of
my problems because I was constantly running out of space and having to offload
data onto a portable hard drive.  However, when it was pointed out to me
that I should probably do a clean install of all of my programs to prevent
copying corrupted settings onto the new drive, I realized that I should just do
that on a completely new computer.

So, I attempted to buy a new Dell yesterday,
but when I learned that the only way you can purchase a Dell desktop is with the
new Vista operating system, I ran screaming in the other direction. 
There’s NO way I’d try and use a new Microsoft operating system without waiting
AT LEAST 1 year for them to work the kinks out of it.

I finally heard back from a computer place in
Beaumont who quoted me $600 (including tax) to build a machine with a 250 GB
hard drive, DVD burner, 2 GB RAM, and a new Intel Dual Core Processor
motherboard.  Dell wanted about $900 for the same machine. So, as soon as I
have this one up and running, I’ll be buying another and networking the 2
together with my primary machine backing up to the secondary. 

And, unlike the Dell machine, I can return it
to my local computer store for repair.  Dell’s design is proprietary so
that only Dell components can be used for repair by a Dell technician. 
Dell is banking on the fact that instead of going to the trouble of repairing a
machine, you’ll just simply order another one from them.  I just don’t want
to play that game.

I never thought that my biz would have to
become this complicated, but I’m so dependent on technology to run that it just
simply can’t be helped.

Progress…ya gotta love it…;->