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Always one to throw good money after bad, I decided to have it fixed instead of replacing it. That is not a very sound strategy. New machines with significant improvements are becoming more affordable almost daily.
One option I seriously considered was to get a Shuttle box that I could use as the basis of a new system. I mostly work with words, not media, so my demands weren't great. I would like a new Shuttle with a bunch of memory and a DVD writer. I could even use the DVD drive from the old Compaq. I could get by with the on-board display on most basic Shuttles.
I would probably install Windows XP Pro on such a system, then load WUBI and use Ubuntu. The Compaq has been fussy about running WUBI/Ubuntu but I thought I wouldn't have any problems on a new machine.
Shuttles are small, low-power devices. A low power processor, like those found on netbooks and cellular phones, wouldn't be out of place.
I may eventually get another Shuttle, but this time I decided to have somebody remove the viruses I thought infected the machine.
The day after dropping the computer off for cleaning I received a phone call: I had a bad hard drive, not viruses. I asked them to replace the old 120 gigabyte drive with a new 320 gigabyte drive and to copy over as much of my data as they could. I didn't really need 320 gigabytes but it only cost $10 more than 160 gigabytes, which I also didn't need. I only had about 70 gigabytes of programs and data to begin with.
They said I could pick up the computer today, Saturday. I skipped breakfast and rushed over.
When I got there, the computer wasn't ready. The Compaq wouldn't allow any drivers for a drive as big as 320 gigabytes. They had tried three 160 gigabyte drives. Each seemed to install well but wouldn't boot. They finally found a 160 gigabyte hard drive that would boot after Windows XP was installed and tried to copy over my data.
It was going to take a while. There were several restaurants within a stone's throw: a Carl's Jr., a Rubio's taco place, a Chinese barbeque place and a natural foods place. The technician recommended the natural food place, Picasso Naturals, so I went off to break my fast with a very good chipotle chicken sandwich on a rye bun.
Now the old hard drive became fussy. Every time it warmed up, it stopped running. They could copy about ten minutes worth of data, then had to wait half an hour for the drive to cool off. They estimated that recovering my data would cause me labor charges between $300 and $500. It wasn't worth that much to me. I paid for the new hard drive and for the labor they had wasted, then left.
As before, I can use the repaired computer to do the few things that still require Windows drivers. I can use my chameleon system to copy, little by little, from the defective drive to a new drive, then copy that to the repaired system. With my entire network protected by my Yoggie Gatekeeper SOHO, I can remove all anti-virus software and all anti-spyware software from the repaired system, freeing up loads of space.
Tomorrow. If you're tired, put it off until tomorrow. I'm tired and in pain.
It will be a project. I'll pull the two machine KVM and install a four machine KVM I bought last year, then hook up all three machines (the Mac Mini, the Compaq and my chameleon). The space the Compaq occupied for so long has been occupied by a fan and a bunch of other stuff; it will have to be cleaned up. I have about three months of accumulated email to download. And Delia will be here with interruptions galore.
Eventually I'll get it all to work. But repairing old computers isn't worth it. It's better to just replace it all and forget about any data you haven't backed up.
- Mood:
disappointed
