Close... Too Close

[filkertom]

I've been having more and more problems with my main external hard drive lately. Today, it took about ten minutes for my computer to recognize it. So I hied off to Best Buy, which has a Seagate 500 GB external drive on sale for $119.99, and I'm copying like crazy. There have been a few hosed and corrupted files, but nothing at all vital. I've got almost everything on DVD anyway, but I'll probably make extra copies just in case.

I also have to do a full hard drive wipe and reinstall on a Gateway laptop I got for a song (almost literally). It's all Vista 'n' stuff, and I'm going to make it an XP machine.

Any tech woes or triumphs on your end?

ETA: Oh crap. I think a lot of stuff might be hosed, on multiple machines. Not related, just all at the same time. It's gonna be a long night.

Comments

[markbernstein.livejournal.com]

I made the shift to a home office this week, which involved both a little new tech, and catching up on a couple of things that really needed doing, to wit:

- Finally worked my way behind the desk so I could unplug the old, shorted-out surge suppressor and throw it out. (damn thing was blowing the circuit breaker if I tried to turn it on)
- Unplugged everything from the new surge suppressor, moved said surge suppressor to a better location, and plugged everything back in in an organized fashion. ("Everything" being desktop, laptop, monitor, printer, speakers, external hard drive, powered USB hub, and phone.)
- bought a gadget at Radio Shack that allows two computers (in my case, the home tower and the office laptop) to share the same keyboard, mouse, and monitor. It didn't work with either computer. Bought a different brand of the same type gadget at Circuit City. It cost $70 instead of $30, but it worked the first time with both computers. Returned the first gadget to Radio Shack.
- Related to that, found that the neat ergonomic keyboard with the built in touchpad that I was using at home didn't work with the sharing gadget, but the separate ergonomic keyboard and touchpad that I brought home from the office do. (Yes, I prefer a touchpad. I'm weird that way.)
- Found that the wireless connection on my work laptop can't recognize my home wireless network. Luckily, my network hub is in my office, so I was able to connect with a cable. One of these days, I'll have to diagnose that.
- Treated myself to a bigger monitor, 21.6" widescreen instead of 17". The driver didn't auto-install from the CD, and everything appears to be stretched to accomodate the wider screen, but it's workable. Again, I'll get around to it later.

[mdlbear]

I find the idea that one needs drivers for a monitor... disturbing.

On Linux you just edit the size into /etc/xorg.conf if you're upgrading from an old monitor, and it's done. I understand newer distributions can auto-detect screen size on the fly, the way a Mac does.