A mess

So I’m trying to fix Mum’s computer, which I thought would be a half hour job – replace the power unit with one from my old knackered computer, back-up the files on mum’s hard drive, put it all together and reinstall windows to resolve the startup issue. Only it didn’t quite go like that. Firstly I took the hard drive out of my external hard drive enclosure so I can copy Mum’s stuff across, then I though, while I’ve got a spare hard drive enclosure, might as well format the drive from my really old knackered computer and get an extra 80 GB storage. I really need more than that at the moment and am holding out for a terabyte drive in the near future, but 80 GB is still useful. So I started formatting the drive.

While that was running I got the power unit out of Mum’s computer and also got the power unit out of the old computer, only to find that the leads on it aren’t long enough to reach all the drives in Mum’s computer. Bugger. So I either need to get a bus into town to get a new power unit (which I was really hoping to avoid), or I get the power unit from one of the other computers upstairs (I’m amassing quite a collection, for playing about with Linux, and taking them to bits to see what goes where, but surprisingly the only computers you seem to be able to get cheap or for free are old ones, so I’m never sure that part-pinching is going to server any purpose).

I opt for the option which doesn’t require me leaving the house, but which does mean making more of a mess in the lounge. Some 20 minutes later and the old  computer has the power unit from the old old computer, Mum’s computer has the one from the old computer and the old old computer is consigned to the scrap heap (pretty much all useful parts have already been stripped). Meanwhile back over at the warp core the hard drive has failed to format. A few clicks and tweaks and a sound thrashing and it reconsiders its position and agrees to be formatted. I am dismayed to find that it’s only 40 GB though, not 80, so decide to just put it in one of the other computers as extra storage.

Now onto copying Mum’s files over as a backup (I’m planning to re-install windows shortly so it could go awry as I’ve never done it before. Dean tells me it’s relatively straightforward so I’m hoping not to fuck it up, but no harm in have a backup anyway. First attempt at copying the files across fails, cause I foolishly try copying everything. The computer gets confused, copies 2 GB then gets stuck in a loop. Cancel, delete, retry – this time just copying the My Documents Folder (i.e. just the stuff Mum would actually need to have backed up) and it seems to be working.

Next step is to get the hard drive back in Mum’s computer and first see if it will power on, then if it will, whether it will start up, and if it doesn’t, whether reinstalling windows will do it. fingers crossed.