Progress through endeavor
Win 7 part 2
After a bit of thought I decided to try again with Windows 7. This time the 32 bit version.
Installed it on Friday – no problems. Installed drivers for net connection – no problems! Installed everything else – no problems. Will try some old games on it later. Really like the look of it. It is like having a nice shiny new computer. Gonna take a few days to get used to where everything is though.
A bit annoyed that it automatically ran the firewall and Defender. But eventually found them and turned them off. I downloaded my win 7 version of my net security software and this time (unlike before xmas when I last tried it) everything worked.
The last couple of days have spent tidying up files etc. Deleting bits and pieces and making backups of the whole system. My old xp system took a couple of days to reload everything from scratch. From an archive, it only took an hour to reinstall. Hopefully the same should be true of the win 7 backup I just made. I really need to get a bigger external drive. Who would have thought that 232 gig could be filled so quikly? Though to be fair, most of that is the backup file.
Fingers (et al) crossed that everything continues to work well.
ps I love the way I can update the various plugins on my blog by just pressing the auto update button. So much easier than manually updating everything.
Win 7
It has been a busy couple of days. I decided to install the 64 bit version of Win7 on my 3.5 year old pc. It has a 64 bit processor (albeit a little long in the tooth now) and I took the precaution of downloading 64 bit antivirus and wireless drivers for it. Sadly the driver for my wireless network would not function.
This was not a wholly unexpected event though. It was rather a long shot that the driver would work at all. Seaching around I found that a number of people had good, and bad, luck with it. Mostly bad.
It made me think though about getting a new pc. I would probably need to change my network access gear at home… More expense, on top of buying the computer.
On the other hand, at least I could play Empire Total War and AvP…
At least this time reinstalling everything was a breeze. I had archived the whole drive via the free version of Paragon Hard Disc Manager that came with a magazine a few months back. Time to reinstall – about 1.5 hours. Time for a normal reinstall (with lots of disc changing, update running etc) – about a day. Or more, if I get bored and go out 
Hour or two of snow
Just when you think the weather is getting back to normal (whatever local climate orthordoxy says that it is), it decided to snow this morning for a couple of hours. It looked really lovely outside.
As such I took my trusty 4 and bit year old camera out and got a few snaps. Upload to album to follow.
I was not alone in going out, as a few other people were out and about at 08.30 this morning with the same idea. Though they had slightly better equipment i.e. tripods, expensive cameras, lots of lenses etc. It got me thinking that I need a new camera. 4 megapixels ain’t cutting it anymore.
Need 12 megapixels
As I write this while watching the Big Bang Theory marathon on E4, most of the snow has melted and turned to slush…
New pc
Posted by admin in Technology on January 30, 2010
A bit of a bad week, computer wise.
To cut a very long story short, much swapping of components, reinstall of software etc took place, and finally after the best part of 4 days things seem to be working again. This is the second time in 2 months it has all gone a bit pear shaped. I finally traced the last problem to a faulty sata port on the motherboard. What a fun morning that was
This time even my modem decided to have its customary twice a year seizure so as not to feel left out of the technology going wrong week.
I am now in the quandry of having a computer that works (sort of) but will probably fall over again at any given random moment. A new one is in order. Maybe.
Foggy day
It has been a strange old day, today. There was a slight mist on the hills this morning, and it was bitterly cold, (not helped by a cold breeze) bringing the chill factor down a notch or two.
As the day has gone on, more mist has rolled in, so that the hills are now totally obscured by mist fog.
I know it is fog because I looked it up. Check it out here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/basics_fog.shtml
Spooky weather, dudes. I am expecting a lot of car accidents as people hurtle through the fog tonight on their way home. Especially if the temperature drops and what is left of the snow freezes.
Looking out the window, it is beginning to resemble Old London Town, and I expect to see someone in a deerstalker hat rush by…