Thanks Jim for the Feb. newsletter, and esp. the ditty on crashing. Picking up on an earlier thread: your remember the one: cultivation of zen mind through computer management? Late last year I began looking for backup storage options, and posted a note to this list. Well, breathe easily, no essential data was lost in the ensuing saga. Two points to remember: any backup is preferable to no backup or perfect backup; and, that old truism, it's not a matter of whether, but when, your system will crash. On the basis of my experience of using a Toshiba laptop for somewhere around 5 years as primary working machine, that about defines the outer limits of 1998 technology. Maybe my new / used machine, now two years old, will do better. In any case, performance was much more dependable than previous Canon, that went in for service 4 times in its first year and basically lasted 2 years. Back to backups. While I was waiting for the optimal next step from clunky 100 meg Zips (had reached 9-disk routine for essential data only) discovered that oblivious me had been running Win 98 not Win 98 SE, thus I could not upgrade to a USB 2 card, external hard drive etc. Continuing to observer erratic behavior from the machine (temporarily fixed with frequent application of Norton Tools to fix recurrent Windows problems) the machine finally quit - amazingly (or quite karmalogically, according to Bill at Cyber Data) completely, rollover and deadly on the very day I was going to migrate my old data to my new / used machine.
Ok. Between restoring files from my 9 zip backup disks (not compatible, I found, with my new operating system, XP Pro), combined with a very competent data recovery service from Cyber Data downtown Bangor, plus various other backup repositories wisely created by me, it seems that no essential data has been lost. With a little help from my friends, including tech assistance from Iomega, from Answr (the publicly available text analysis software I use), retrieval of registration codes for my most useful software Axon 2003 the idea processor, etc, there is a happy ending. And the bonus is that I've had a good opportunity to go through the 12,000 data files I've accumulated (yes) and figure out what really merits going forward relentlessly into the future. Take heart. Backup often. And go with the solutions available, in lieu of the idea. Best to all, Paul S. **Folkschool-list archives are at: <http://www.mint.net/folkschool/helpnet/archives.htm> Sponsored by Pine Tree Folk School ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84vzQ.bcFlty.YXJjaGl2 Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] TOPICA - Start your own email discussion group. FREE! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/create/index2.html ==^================================================================
