For someone who is used to being able to check email, surf the web, check the status of your business, and more online, not having a computer is a big pain. When Ivan rumbled through Atlanta, we started getting a lot of power blinks. I decided I should be careful and go ahead and shut down my computer. It's on a UPS, so a surge should hit that before my computer, but still, I'd rather be safe than sorry. Apparently, my computer disagreed. Once we were sure Ivan had done what he was going to do, I tried to bring my computer back up. It would not recognize the hard drive. After some tinkering, it would recognize the hard drive, but refused to get further than recognizing the hardware. Hubby being who he is did a little trouble shooting but was distracted more often than not and didn't too much. I took it upon myself to try to resolve the issue by calling tech support. They didn't try too much either and told me I needed a new hard drive. First, though, I needed to either find my system recovery CD (which I don't have) or get one from the manufacturer (who wanted to charge me). Then they'd come out and replace my now bad hard drive.
Well, nothing much is going to happen over the weekend so I left it all alone. Hubby came home today to see that I'd taken apart part of the office trying to locate the required CD. He took it upon himself at that point to go ahead and fix my computer. So, now I'm back up WITHOUT having to find my recovery CD and WITHOUT having to replace my hard drive. Things would have been so much simpler if distractions didn't exist.
Admittedly, my computer wasn't down an extended period of time. I did, though, have to treat it as though it would be. That meant getting access to a computer long enough to turn off all email lists, notifications, services, etc. I also had to let anyone that would be talking to me by email know that I wouldn't be talking much by email until my computer was back. So, now I'm back. I get to go back and turn back ON all the things I'd turned off, notify everyone who would send me email that they can again send me email, etc.
Things were so much easier before computers. Well... maybe. I need to go read my newsgroups and catch up on all the latest gossip.
