February 03, 2004

Rest In Peace, my old PC

I was posting to the Blog on Sunday when my computer froze up. A slight grinding sound could be heard as everything came to a halt. The screen looked like a test pattern and then black. When I tried to boot up again, it would never go to a sign on screen, but would shut off and on boot and re-boot in a helpless frenzied despair.

I was in trouble before this. I couldn't get my CD writer to work, and we have had a lot of power surges. Even with the mondo surge protector that I have it likely wasn't enough.

I spent 10 (count em') 10 hours on the phone with Dell trying to fix the problem. It was agreed that XP had royally crashed taking with it two years of research for the business, 500 links, and perhaps 1000 photos ( was in the process of placing them on disc) my vid card is trash too. Not to mention the program's that I paid for that were only downloads... Not sure what to do about that. Just a lot of wasted time which really bugs me.

Here we go... Now to count your blessings time...

1. My inventory was backed up

2. My photo collection was half backed up. I lost most of the pics I shot in 2003, but I do have the early ones, especially the baby picks of Mak and Nani and early stuff from the early days on the island

3. I wasn't injured yesterday as I bent and twisted to get the hard drive in and out of the lovely but totally non functional computer desk that I have in the living room. Also that i wasn't electrocuted as I did all sorts of technical things with the system some of which had to be done while plugged in.

didn't know that PC's have back up program's. I manually, one file at a time backed up Azure Seas Inventory on to floppies a few days ago, thank God for that reconstructing that would have been a nightmare...

We are pretty sure that we couldn't have saved the system, If we could have don't tell me I will only cry harder.

Its going to be a few days before a tech can get the card then we bring the HD to their shop. buying a new hard drive will require a substantial investment as it is two years old and Dell pro-rates. I wonder if they will even cover it as its a "softwear" problem (that they installed)...Uggh..

Things are progressing with the move. I was posting on Sunday about my indecision regarding the flooring of the new store.(title was "Help Help, is there a Decorator in the house!!!") Currently, there is very worn, filthy, (scary since it was formerly a tattoo parlour) mossy green ceramic tile. I cannot rip this out. Cant afford to demo it and I may not be able to lay carpet over it, as there is no way to secure the carpet to the floor, other than drilling holes in the tile. Tile is not my choice as it is so unforgiving to dropped objects. We have gorgeous white ceramic tile in our house wall to wall and Woody has dropped and broken two pairs of glasses. Also he has had two slip and falls, and as he says at his age his slip and fall capacity is getting more and more limited. Hes being more careful and we do have slip proof rugs down for traffic areas...In a jewelry store, fragile things like, lets say, Opals are toast, when they come into sudden direct contact with a hard surface. Shatter into dust...

I think I can cover the floor with carpet and using quarter round molding, tack the carpet to the walls. We shall see.

I also want to incorporate some pieces of furniture from my home into the store. Both are black and Gold lacquer Chinese pieces a writing desk and a round table and chairs for a social area for selecting special order pieces and to work on custom designs. The current store motif is a bit tech, white Formica cases, mirrored glass. The lighting is hand made Italian glass trumpet shaped globes on chrome pendants. These were screamingly expensive and if I don't use them Woody will flip!!! I used a blue Aloha print fabric to soften this all up and give it a Hilo feel of laid back Hawaii... and I will change the fabric to try to tie the elements together. I also will be changing the carpet from blue to charcoal which will help too, ( not to mention that its cheap and there are the requisite 50 yards that I need already in Hilo and on hold...Sometimes we must sacrifice style for expedience)

Im still looking for that decorating help, so if any of you have ideas, I hope to take pics of the furniture and the shop and get them on the site.

Does anyone on know about back up programs for a PC? Do I need a second Hard drive? would like to know.

Thank you one and all for your support and your comments. I appreciate each and everyone.