Tuesday, January 8, 2008

thanks for the computer troubleshooting sugesstions annie, joanne, rick (are you the rick who comments on the xword blogs?) and ld, but i'm afraid my computer is toast.

i still hope to someday be able to retrieve at least some of the over 6000 pictures and some of the several dozen word docs of stories and snippets of stories i've written.

probably a third of the photos are irreplacable, having been taken by myself, family or friends. a few dozen more were tediously removed from old (real old) family frames or culled from messy boxes full of old family photos and then scanned. the rest were all just pics i've collected off of the interwebs over the last few years. i'm kicking myself now for not at least using the picassa feature that allows you to post photos to a website. DOH!

the word docs were the few i felt were too good to trash the last time i purged my various attempts at writing fiction. no great loss, but it still hurts.

ah well...maybe the dreaded BSOD is tryin' to tell me to get out in the real world for a change. ya think?

(that image is one i got off the web. i have no idea what the specific whatevers were in the one i actually received.)

more rambles after the jump...

speaking of real people as opposed to cyberpeople, i might have to break down and call an old girlfriend. no, it's not what you're thinkin'. get your mind outta the gutter. she plays in the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and back when we were together i had free tickets to all of their concerts. i just read that tonight the DSO is adding a guitar and vocals to present "The Music of Led Zeppelin: A Rock Music Symphony."
having missed the historic one-night reunion last month (i betcha you did, too), i'm kinda tempted to make that phonecall.

check out this review to find out more:

"Unfortunately, this preview isn't about a last-minute booking of the mighty Led Zeppelin mere weeks after its triumphant reunion gig in London. Still, if that event had you licking your lips for more from one of history's most important rock bands, this gig is for you. "The Music of Led Zeppelin: A Rock Symphony" isn't strictly a rock show, though; it's 18 of Zep's classics performed Trans-Siberian Orchestra-style with a 50-piece ensemble ( drawn from our own Dallas Symphony); a sultry female lead violin player (Allegra, a Trans-Siberian Orchestra veteran); and pedigreed stand-ins on guitar and vocals (Randy Jackson of underrated 1980s rock trio Zebra, which got its start in New Orleans in the late 1970s playing Zep and Rush covers). Would Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones approve of arranger-conductor Brent Havens' treatment of, say, "Immigrant Song," during which the French horns mirror Mr. Jackson's alto wailing as the violins follow along in a higher octave? Perhaps. No, it won't be like the historic Dec. 10 performance at O2 Arena, much less one of Led Zeppelin's legendary 1970s concerts. But it'll still be powerful."


why not just go buy a ticket, you ask? hahahaha. same reason i'm not gonna *just go out and buy* a new computer, silly.
in the meantime i'll see how long and i can get away with using this public computer at mom's residence. i'll blog a mom post later, but right now i'm feeling a little paranoid about being on it for so long. i'd like to try to catch up on some of y'alls' blogs, too...ok, the security guy just came in as i was typing those words. he didn't say anything, but gave me a funny look. maybe it's ok. we'll see.

oh & one last comment:
WELCOME BACK jon stewart and stephen colbert! i thought they were both hilarious last night.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

If that BSOD is similar to the one you have, there is hope. That one indicates a corrupt driver in the boot process. If your BSOD has any reference to a ___.sys file, boot the computer up in Safe Mode.

Better yet, send me the exact wording.

As for all of your files - Your harddrive might work on a different PC... or, at least, you may be able to recover some files from it. I have a pretty good recovery program taht's worked for me several times

ld

Annie said...

Oh, that just sucks. The computer is one thing, but the loss of the photos and stories...ouch. That hurts.

Perhaps your local public library has public pc's available?

Anonymous said...

Oh dear, I can sympathize. When my pc took a sh**, I still had pics of the last few years of Christmas's, ect on it. This happened soon after my mom passed away so the loss was especially hard. I'm a big believer now of backing my stuff up and try to do it on a regular basis. It just sucks that those treasures may be lost but it sounds like yo have hope. I so hope you can retrieve them.

Anonymous said...

I dont know, but I have a hunch that if you get the right person to work on your computer you can at least save the files, but also that it can get up and running again..
My Mothers crashed simular to this, I took it down to the computer fix it guy, its now good!

~Betsy said...

Just checking in on you, Rick. I hope you get the comp problems solved soon. I'd be lost without mine and I can imagine you are, too.

I also hope you can save some of the photos and writings. Keeping my fingers crossed...

Joanne said...

That sucks, Rick! I hope you're able to save the files and photos. I'd be lost without my computer. I can only imagine how you must be feeling right now. great big ((HUGS)) I'm not sure, but the Staples and Office Depot around here work on computers and I heard they have some great techies who can save just about anything and get computers up and running again. If you have either of those stores around you, I'd call and ask them about it. Good luck, my friend.

josephine terese said...

dallas public library on abrams has computers you can use if the vt cops come down on you
maybe take yours to the geek squad at best buy. i bet if you unplug everything and just take in the computer itself (not the monitor or other attachments) they can look at it. sometimes i think they can take off the info (word docs and pics) even if they can't get the computer to be healthy again.
so sorry bout your computer

josephine terese said...

ps happy jacob's birthday!

Anonymous said...

josephine is correct -- I lost it all about four years ago (you don't want to know how -- o.k., you do, a cat urinated on it!) -- I disposed of cat and computer (cat to New Hampshire, computer to floor in corner), bought a new computer. Long story short -- one of my brothers is a computer whiz -- retrieved the dead computer's information and etc. He should have, it was his cat!

At the time, he told me that nothing is totally lost on the hard drive, it's just the inability to access the data.

My suggestion, get new computer, set old one aside, wait for a whiz to stop by (I mean, a good whiz, or take it to a whiz) and request that the material be retrieved -- they can do it! It's still there!

Anonymous said...

ughhhh, did you never back up unto a disk? sucks! sorry cornbread about the loss... picassa is awesome. i like it tons.

Joanne said...

Anything new on the system recovery, Rick?