Since I haven't posted anything of substance in months and nothing of real value in weeks, I think an explanation is in order. First off, I am running a dial up connection (AOL actually) that ties up the only phone line into my house. Thus it is important for me to get on and off of the Internet as fast as possible. For those who haven't had to deal with a dial up on a day to day basis, lets just say the internet becomes less than enjoyable.
I have also had computer problems. For those who have seen my ancient machine which until recently has run windows me understand what I am talking about. I recently had the brilliant idea to switch my computer over to Windows XP, an upgrade years in the making. I have developed an irrational attachment to ME operating system. I am seeing a doctor and am undergoing therapy for my condidtion.
Tangents aside I was trying to dual boot both XP and ME. I put XP on my old 4.3 Gb hard drive from my old Gateway 233 Mhz Pentium II (oh memories) and it worked for about a day. I had all my programs loaded, my background set up, my favorites transferred, everything. Then the next morning I turned my computer on. When it got to the part of the boot sequence where it usually asks which operating system would turn my fancy it instead said, “S.M.A.R.T. error on hard drive 0. Failure is imminent.” Well, so much for all the work i had just put into the computer the previous day. My consolation was that the failure of the hard disk wasn't my fault. The disk was nine years old and drives are supposed to last 3-5 years at the most.
After that particular snafu, I was still planning on putting Windows XP on my computer. So I passed the point of no return, transferred all my data onto CD's and formatted my 50 Gb hard drive that had Windows ME on it. I loaded Windows XP Professional on this hard drive and I once again had it set up just right (unfortunately all my Extensions, Themes, and Bookmarks on Firefox were gone. Guess what happened. I, in all of my wisdom, had taken my computer apart waiting for a new case from NewEgg.com (more on that fiasco later) and so my power supply, dvd-rom, and hard drives were sitting outside of my case. I jumped into my chair to use my running computer and .....blackout. The computer turned off and i had to wait a little while till the Power Supply would come back on. Then I found out that my hard drive was deader than the Via 133 chipset. The thing wouldn't even spin up. So that is how I killed two hard drives in four days.
I have ordered a brand new sata hard drive and a PCI add-on card so i can run it on my computer. This hard drive is 250 Gb and is the fastest 7,500 Rpm hard drive in this category. I wanted bigger, but this hard drive was $90 and anything larger would cost exponentially higher amounts of money. The new Seagate 750 Gb hard drive caught my eye, but the $400 price was a bit high. So there is a diamond in the rough in this little computer drama. The hard drive comes tomorrow.
I have another interesting computer story I wish to tell (if you are still reading Kurticus Maximus, I promise I am almost done). I bought a case from New Egg about a month ago. It was only $55 dollars and it was recommended by Maximum PC (excellent computer magazine...by the way) and it had comparable features of a case that was 2 or even 3x the price. Well i received it and, by the hand of Zeus, it was broken. The connectors of the front cover were cracked. So thinking that the price to ship the case back would be comparable to the $16 I originally payed to get it shipped, I went to UPS only slightly upset. The $16 dollars I payed originally was for three-day shipping. At UPS the cheapest and slowest option cost me $33. Well i bit my tongue and payed for the shipping that would allow my package to reach New Egg in a week and a half. When they finally got the package they told me that they were out of the cases so they would refund my money instead of sending a new one for free. Fine, I thought. But they only refunded the price of the case and not the price of shipping. So I lost on that little adventure a grand total of $49 dollars and I have nothing to show for it. Indirectly this also led to the death of my hard drive for if i would have received the case, the hard drive would have been safe and snug and in no danger of accidental destruction. And it seems that i am the only person who has had these problems with new egg, so i bought my hard drive from them to give them a second chance (and because they are the cheapest).
Fwoooooo......
It seems that i have written my longest post on the premise of why i haven't been writing on my blog. Isn't that funny.....
More on my life and where i was this fourth on my next post. I know everyone is dying to find out.....
And if you read please comment. I don't care if you tell me truthfully how much proof this post gives of my idiocy.....
And I am still planning on getting that case when New Egg gets a shipment. Yes....its that cool. External SATA anyone?
May the force be with you......
Oh...and by the way Intel's Conroe CPU's are going to be sick...that is all.
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