I found Computer Hell and it is lonely

Well, I made it back to square one here. I know it has been a while since I posted. I've been having computer issues. Anyone who knows me knows I know very little about computers. Lori who has her A+ certification, Net plus certification and Microsoft certified professional, etc.,and knows even less. My son on the other hand seems to know everything about everything and I always turn to him when the going gets out of control.

In a nut shell, my Antivirus program needed to be updated. To do that I needed to install service packs that I couldn't because I had a bootleg copy of Windows XP so, I had a new XP but never had put it on. Well, after much screaming and crying....by Lori....because I don't want her near my computer, I mentioned it to Daniel and he came over to do it. The reason being, Lori has a way of doing things at times that makes me want to cut my wrists and bleed all over the carpet. I don't know of any nice way of putting it. I love her dearly but, when it comes to my computer our relationship takes a dive straight to hell with lots of cursing and crying and gnaching of teeth. Let me give you give you a pretend scenario of a burned out light to illustrate what I go through with this Mensa member.

I ask: How do you change the bulb on this new kitchen fixture?
Lori: Well it is has a red and black wire running from the electrical box which allows it to utilize 110 watts of power. It comes in on x wire and retuns on y and is hooked here to this circuit breaker. When the switch is on, the power travels through the cord behind this block and past the phone line ......

Okay, at that point, I've moved on. I don't care if the light ever comes on because I've adapted to the dark.

Now there is Daniel....
I ask: How do you change the bulb on this new kitchen fixture?
Daniel: You unscrew it in the back, take off the lid and then screw in a bulb.

SWEET! You see the difference? So when I tell you we can't talk about computers you can kind of see why. Something simple......takes hours! Something a little more serious can take days and if it is really a mess, it could be WEEKS! Or in poor Dane's case with his laptop, she took two months and he wound up getting it back and heading to the GEEK squad at Best Buy. Nuff said.

So today, my son Daniel came and wiped out one of my harddrives. I had two; C and D. Loriinstalled a 2nd one and told me to use it for backup. Oh how these words haunt me. To make sure I didn't get confused as I have a tendency to do, it was even labeled D Drive [Backup]

He wiped out the one hard drive and put the disc in for the new XP. To shorten this nightmare, I will tell you that Lori got this disc from Dell for Dane's laptop. He had a virus and she called them and they sent him the disc so that he could reinstall the program once he got it back from the GEEK squad. Turns out,contrary to what she said they told her, you can't put an XP disc on more than one computer. You need the key and it is only good for ONE (say it with me) ONE computer. SOOOO, we had this worthless disc and had to spend $150. for another key so Daniel could continue this whole update situation. But before I go to far, let me start with a few weeks ago when I made the decision to do this. I started copying things I wanted to keep. I did everything but the photos and music...

All was well until I looked in my backup drive which is.............PHUCKING EMPTY!!!! He thinks it is because it contained shortcuts and when the original files were deleted, the shortcuts went bye bye. Now what is the point of a backup?? I thought to copy files you wanted to save...but, I'm an idiot.

Bottom line is I have lost so many pictures I could cry. Most I can never ever get back. No copies no nothing. My music files??? Gone. Can't find them. I finally found a program disc I use to have and installed that. It asked if I wanted it to search for my music and I said yes. A miracle happened in that it pulled up a huge library. However, none of th great CD's of Dane's that he copied for me are on there. None of his music or videos are on there. I am just heartsick. I don't dare mention this to Lori. Not that she would have been able to save anything but, she will blame Dan and it isn't his fault. I asked her how to copy my pictures onto a disc before Christmas. Finally today, she spent over 45 mins trying to show me. Not that I'm stupid but, she wasn't doing it right and kept stopping. Finally I said nevermind. I called Daniel. He told me what to do and I did maybe two discs and that is all I had time to do before he arrived. He said not to worry if it was on my backup. Famous last words.

Jump ahead. All my addresses are gone too but, I had printed out a copy so, I'm hoping everyone is on there. If not, I will have to wait till you email me to have it again. ::Sheesh:::

I am so upset about my photos. I feel like I've had a fire all over again. I mean, I had baby photos of Jullian that I downloaded from my digital camera before I wiped the memory card clean. Gone. Just plain gone. I will never store photos on here again. NEVER. I will never save anything to this computer that can't be put on a disc or a floppy at the time I do it. I'm so done.

Anyway, now I get to install a bucket load of drivers and pray everything works. SO far at least all my favorites and my blogs are all up. Of course I saved them on other servers. But then, I'm an idiot for not asking sooner how to use this program I have for writing CD's and getting it done. Still it makes me physically ill.

I hope to never have to do this again. Sheesh! Like I have any say so in it.