Oct 22, 2010

Back in the Saddle, Again!


I'm back in my black leather saddle, again and I don't mean a Harley!

I can compute, and blog, and organize my files, folders, and photos and do all of the organizational tasks I love to do on a computer. And I could barely do anything for 11 solid days! My computer crashed a week and a half ago and when I crash a computer.....I do a really, really good job! Even I was completely impressed by my talents. I managed not only to create a totally black screen, but one that would not restore, would not even go to safe mode and would not reboot from a "drpc help me please" kind of program. Wow, I am good!

Luckily, Zack from Salem's Dial-a-Tech got it back for us, but he had to work pretty darn hard at it... as even his own software backing up of my files at first failed, just as mine had! I must also be contagious! And since I suspect that it was actually my exterior hard drive that I was using for backing up that might have made me crash in the first place.....I am also good at wiping out exterior backup drives as well as the real thing, and influencing his, long distance ;)

Luckily, hard working Zack had a really good hard drive recovery program and he got almost all of my 110, 010 files and 2, 677 folders recovered for me...and those are almost all mine. Dh has our older machine for his business accounting and all of our livelihood files. I mean, quilting and blogging are serious work and require the better of the two organizational facilitators as far as I am concerned. And I definitely am the hard core computer user in this family. When things go wrong and my muttering begins......he has learned to run for cover and only grab the tower and take it for a ride after I calm down ;)

I suspect that Zach the tech guy had to be pretty amazed that this little old 60 year old quilter had that many files and folders on her computer. And if you are wondering how I figured that out, highlight your 'My Documents' folder in your 'Desktop folders window view' and use the file command on the left of the windows screen to check 'Properties'. It scans and tells you how many you have saved.That way you can be amazed at me too...or just know that I truly am certifiable!

What can I say? I love to take and store photos, take and make file folders, and apparently, shake and bake hard drives, as well. And this time, I could not blame it on one of those sneaky Trojan horses coming in disguise in the middle of the night that have been my other excuses this year!

Now, Zack might have had my desktop files all back neat and perfect and all showing up where they all belonged on his computer, but by the time I got the computer back to my house, things do what they always do for me.......they all jumped ship and bailed into other locations. All I could see on my entire desktop was a recycle bin and all of my files and folders played hide and seek with me for four solid days. But I am one determined woman, and I think they are now all back where they belong, and all of my added in programs have been added back in.

And I learned a sad lesson about my super emergency back up plan...my set of USB memory sticks. My blog photos were suddenly all given the transfer date from pulling them into their new location, as their photo taken date and not their real ones....who knew that would happen? Good grief, gremlins! Could you have made my computing life any harder? That made my Picasa blog files all out of whack and stack and logical blogging order, as well.

So, in between, awaiting its computing recovery, and uploading, and downloading, and freeloading....I was a quilting maniac and loved every minute of it! Got my mojo back and worked on all kinds of fun, fun, fun projects!

I'm back in the saddle, again...and you didn't even know I'd fallen off ;)

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

So glad your back! =)

Clare said...

Michele - you crack me up!

Get rid of the USB sticks and back everything up on CD's. I'm assuming you've got a CD drive LOL.

Hugs

Anonymous said...

U r hilarious! Glad things are working for you!

Shelina (formerly known as Shasta) said...

I am glad you are back, and your computer is safe and sound. I use an external drive. You have a lot of files, but I think I have about that many as well - I'm too afraid to check. I think I am going to back up my files again, just in case. I agree with Clare, CDs are probably the way to go with people who are magnetically challenged.

quiltmom anna said...

Computer problems are indeed a nightmare that I am all too familar with- I don't know how many pictures have been lost over the last few years because I did not know how to back things up. :>( However this last time I did manage to keep them and my friend's husband got my machine back up and running- Long may it remain so- Since that time I managed to figure out how to transfer photos to CDs so that I won't lose anymore of them.
I will look forward to seeing your new projects.
Hope all is well with you and yours - Hugs to you and your beloved Mother..
Anna

Helen said...

Loved this post. This is hilarious. Glad you are back in the saddle! Keep them coming, although I don't want your PC to crash again.
By the way, I have my own Zack, and he lives with me. Hubby fixes all my computer problems. I don't have to wait too long for recovery. I just scream help, and lots of other words that I can't post about, and CPR will get started. An emergency procedure for recovery :)
Happy Quilting, Helen
PS - love your profile quote

Finn said...

Good to see you back again. Are you up for a NYE UFO Challenge??? Sending hugs, Finn

Karen said...

My gosh, Elaine, you and your computer have really been through it! So glad that you're back now!

Computer problems are horrid and I cringe at the thought of mine getting sick!

So far, so good!

Glad you got in some extra quilting time!

Hugs, Karen