You guys! YOU GUYS! DID YOU MISS ME?
Jul. 12th, 2010 10:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gozerDid you ever sit a newbie down in front of a computer to try to teach them how to use it, and they got all big-eyed and their fingers curled away from the keyboard and they said, "I'm afraid I'm going to break it!" and you told them not to be afraid, they weren't going to break the computer just by using it -- all they had to do was avoid opening suspect emails or downloading viruses and they'd be fine!
Well, it turns out you CAN break a computer in a fairly spontaneous fashion all by your own bad self without any help from some scum-sucking virus-maker living in his mother's basement.
Here is my very good advice to you: NEVER EVER EVER interrupt a download of a Windows service pack or security update or patch. If you do, you will live to regret it. Your computer probably won't live to regret it, but you will. I won't go into why I stopped the download, but it was for an almost perfectly good reason, and I started it back up again when I was finished doing whatever the hell it was I needed to do just then.
When I turned on my computer the next day after stopping that freakin' Windows Update download, the computer would not load Windows. It went to a blue screen of death, then rebooted and blue-screened and rebooted over and over, Ourobouros. We took the patient to Staples, and they did a recovery that set my baby back to factory specs using the Recovery DVDs I made last year when something disturbingly similar happened (but that time I was able to hit F10 when it rebooted, so I managed the reset myself for free.) Staples charged us a total of $99 and it took a full week to do this quick and simple fix because half of their techs were on vacation.
Anyways, it's going to take me for-fucking-ever to get the 'puter back to the way I like it, if I can even remember how I set some of this stuff up. How do I make everything look bigger for my tired old eyes, for instance? I have forgotten how to change the look of my desktop and dictate file preferences; this make me feel so stupid! I lost my many (30 or 40, possibly more) Firefox tabs, I have no idea how to get my mail client, The Bat!, back, and I'm on the CNET Download website downloading all the software that wasn't loaded at the factory (like Word Web, VLC, ZoneAlarm Free, etc.) I also wish I'd done a more recent backup of my hard drive, but all bitching aside, I am happy I have the computer back. So insanely grateful to have it back! I was computerless for a full week and must now admit that I am something of a computerholic, because it was a terrible experience that I do not wish to duplicate.
Useful: I have a ten-page print out with my logins, usernames, and coded versions of my various passwords that is proving invaluable to the reconstruction. (Though I feel I must add, you should never have a hardcopy, document, or file with your full and uncoded passwords on it!)
I really missed reading my Reading List and Friends List and hope you are all well.
Well, it turns out you CAN break a computer in a fairly spontaneous fashion all by your own bad self without any help from some scum-sucking virus-maker living in his mother's basement.
Here is my very good advice to you: NEVER EVER EVER interrupt a download of a Windows service pack or security update or patch. If you do, you will live to regret it. Your computer probably won't live to regret it, but you will. I won't go into why I stopped the download, but it was for an almost perfectly good reason, and I started it back up again when I was finished doing whatever the hell it was I needed to do just then.
When I turned on my computer the next day after stopping that freakin' Windows Update download, the computer would not load Windows. It went to a blue screen of death, then rebooted and blue-screened and rebooted over and over, Ourobouros. We took the patient to Staples, and they did a recovery that set my baby back to factory specs using the Recovery DVDs I made last year when something disturbingly similar happened (but that time I was able to hit F10 when it rebooted, so I managed the reset myself for free.) Staples charged us a total of $99 and it took a full week to do this quick and simple fix because half of their techs were on vacation.
Anyways, it's going to take me for-fucking-ever to get the 'puter back to the way I like it, if I can even remember how I set some of this stuff up. How do I make everything look bigger for my tired old eyes, for instance? I have forgotten how to change the look of my desktop and dictate file preferences; this make me feel so stupid! I lost my many (30 or 40, possibly more) Firefox tabs, I have no idea how to get my mail client, The Bat!, back, and I'm on the CNET Download website downloading all the software that wasn't loaded at the factory (like Word Web, VLC, ZoneAlarm Free, etc.) I also wish I'd done a more recent backup of my hard drive, but all bitching aside, I am happy I have the computer back. So insanely grateful to have it back! I was computerless for a full week and must now admit that I am something of a computerholic, because it was a terrible experience that I do not wish to duplicate.
Useful: I have a ten-page print out with my logins, usernames, and coded versions of my various passwords that is proving invaluable to the reconstruction. (Though I feel I must add, you should never have a hardcopy, document, or file with your full and uncoded passwords on it!)
I really missed reading my Reading List and Friends List and hope you are all well.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-13 06:14 am (UTC)Well, no. What--or rather who--saved my files was Bruce, my computer guy. But he made no promises going in.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-16 07:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-13 02:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-16 07:31 pm (UTC)