Message from Colin

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Cindy
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Message from Colin

Post by Cindy » Wed Sep 12, 2012 12:09 pm

He asked me to let you all know that he's unable to be online at the moment because of a computer issue. He will be back soon, probably within a day or so. If you need to get in touch with him, you can PM me and I'll pass the info along.

Cindy
“No one can tell what goes on in between the person you were and the person you become. No one can chart that blue and lonely section of hell. There are no maps of the change. You just come out the other side.
Or you don't.” ― Stephen King, The Stand

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Sylvester
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Re: Message from Colin

Post by Sylvester » Wed Sep 12, 2012 12:19 pm

Tell him I have his new laptop and where to ship it. Heh, just kidding.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue, I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace. Where never lark, or even eagle flew. And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod, The high untrespassed sanctity of space, Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

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Elwood
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Re: Message from Colin

Post by Elwood » Wed Sep 12, 2012 12:54 pm

:salute:

Hi Cindy, got nothin' for Colin but just wanted to say a hello to you and kids.

Are you teaching now or on strike---just kidding :pirate:

Best,

Barb
'69 weekender ~ Elwood

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Amskeptic
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Re: Message from Colin

Post by Amskeptic » Wed Sep 12, 2012 5:05 pm

Me and my life . . .

Right rear bearing and axle nut, loosened up and grinding. Had to make a rear axle spacer out of a fan hub shim. Dremel hates me anew.

Computer went vdoof! no more charge light, soldered motherboard again . . . and again, until 4:30AM this morning, no. It is done. It is done.

Am waiting for Best Buy here in Waterford CT to finish up installing Windows 7 etc on a brand new HP Pavilion M SomethingOrOther with a 17" display and backlit keyboard, roaming wifi thingmajiggy and billions of bytes of storage and a new rugged case to store the thing and it is costing me two and a half jobs, but! no more laggard and sporatic updates with a balky old computer that has more than given me excellent and loyal service.

While waiting for Best Buy, I just discovered that I can run this old battle axe slowly through the USB port by means of an external hard drive hotwire. Hot damn!

Thank you all for your patience! I was so damn down yesterday, behind a Big Y supermarket with the bus apart again (second operation on the rear wheel bearing after a horrible grinding back there from Maine to Connecticut, fan hub shim was a lucky workaround) and the computer failure suddenly isolating me from my livelihood, and my painful shoulders and hips from a poor night's sleep, it was like I was staring at my old age. Boy, these computers *are* a critical new component of our modern lives. This USB power supply is so trickly slow (not designed to work this way) that if I ask the computer to do too much, like compose letters too quickly, it threatens me with a hibernation warning, the battery alarm has gone from 5 minutes to 1 minute in the last 27 minutes, so the USB idea is only slowing the inevitable. When it dies, so goes this loyal HP Presario.

Best Buy said the new computer would be ready by 8:00PM which is 33 minutes away. Feels a bit like getting a new puppy on the way home from putting down your old companion (it's just an appliance - ed)
Will try to answer PMs in the remaining time!
Colin!
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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hambone
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Re: Message from Colin

Post by hambone » Wed Sep 12, 2012 6:27 pm

Out with the old, just how it goes. Godspeed.
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ruckman101
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Re: Message from Colin

Post by ruckman101 » Wed Sep 12, 2012 8:05 pm

Glad to hear you have gotten your ones and zeros back under control.


neal
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vdubluvah
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Re: Message from Colin

Post by vdubluvah » Wed Sep 12, 2012 11:40 pm

What? No I-Pad... after all the success we had from mine, I thought for sure you would go for it. Congrats on the new computer, R.I.P. Presario. Funny how we become attached to these things. Not funny how they cost 2.5 jobs!

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Amskeptic
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Re: Message from Colin

Post by Amskeptic » Thu Sep 13, 2012 6:07 pm

vdubluvah wrote:What? No I-Pad... after all the success we had from mine, I thought for sure you would go for it. Congrats on the new computer, R.I.P. Presario. Funny how we become attached to these things. Not funny how they cost 2.5 jobs!
Oh, I am so not amused . . . but the backlit keyboard sure is handy, so is the new I Am A Hotspot Wherever I Go.
The Presario indeed died as I checked my first of 13 messages yesterday.
This new computer knows nothing of my old life, and the Presario has locked away all of my customer contact info behind its dead battery. I have no way to transfer data yet.
Colin
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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drober23
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Re: Message from Colin

Post by drober23 » Thu Sep 13, 2012 6:38 pm

Colin,

A product like the one linked below should allow you to hook up the hard drive from your dead computer as an extra drive on the new one. A lot like a external hard drive. Then you can pull your files off and save them on the new computer.

http://www.amazon.com/SATA-Hard-Drive-C ... ve+adapter

Or do you suspect the hard drive is toast as well as its power supply?
DJ

'75 Westfalia, '79 Deluxe
(plus more busses than sense)

In a time of chimpanzees I was a monkey

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satchmo
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Re: Message from Colin

Post by satchmo » Thu Sep 13, 2012 6:51 pm

Amskeptic wrote:
vdubluvah wrote:What? No I-Pad... after all the success we had from mine, I thought for sure you would go for it. Congrats on the new computer, R.I.P. Presario. Funny how we become attached to these things. Not funny how they cost 2.5 jobs!
Oh, I am so not amused . . . but the backlit keyboard sure is handy, so is the new I Am A Hotspot Wherever I Go.
The Presario indeed died as I checked my first of 13 messages yesterday.
This new computer knows nothing of my old life, and the Presario has locked away all of my customer contact info behind its dead battery. I have no way to transfer data yet.
Colin
Gotta back up every thing. Regularly. Religiously. There. Now go and do as I say, not as I do (see my sig line).

Tim
By three methods we may learn wisdom:
First, by reflection, which is noblest;
second, by immitation, which is easiest;
and third, by experience, which is bitterest. -Confucius

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Amskeptic
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Re: Message from Colin

Post by Amskeptic » Thu Sep 13, 2012 7:36 pm

satchmo wrote:
Amskeptic wrote:
vdubluvah wrote:What? No I-Pad... after all the success we had from mine, I thought for sure you would go for it. Congrats on the new computer, R.I.P. Presario. Funny how we become attached to these things. Not funny how they cost 2.5 jobs!
Oh, I am so not amused . . . but the backlit keyboard sure is handy, so is the new I Am A Hotspot Wherever I Go.
The Presario indeed died as I checked my first of 13 messages yesterday.
This new computer knows nothing of my old life, and the Presario has locked away all of my customer contact info behind its dead battery. I have no way to transfer data yet.
Colin
Gotta back up every thing. Regularly. Religiously. There. Now go and do as I say, not as I do (see my sig line).

Tim
Hard drive and operating system are fine and backed up. But the battery is dead and the motherboard can't transmit charger juice to battery. Thus, I cannot turn it on.
External hard drive enclosure that I do have is of course some different architecture (lottalittlepins) than the current hard drive-that-must-be-read (a bunch of tines).
How can I get transfer process going?
Colin
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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glasseye
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Re: Message from Colin

Post by glasseye » Thu Sep 13, 2012 8:10 pm

I'm speaking 'way beyond my pay grade here, :study: but it seems to me that you should be able to pull the hard drive out of the old computer and connect it directly to the new computer. Perhaps by installing it in an external hard drive chassis. Them boys at Best Buy should be willing and able to help.

However, "should" is my favouite computer word. :geek:

Happy trails.
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bajaman72
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Re: Message from Colin

Post by bajaman72 » Thu Sep 13, 2012 9:35 pm

It's pretty common practice. I would get the suggested adapter from Amazon. It is for laptop hard drives.

I use Google to keep track of my contacts. It works on my computers as well as when I log in on my phone.
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drober23
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Re: Message from Colin

Post by drober23 » Fri Sep 14, 2012 7:15 am

Colin,

The hard drive on your Presario uses the SATA interface. The hard drive enclosure I linked connects directly to the hard drive, provides it power, and then allows for connection to another computer with a USB cable. Once connected, your new laptop will think it is a removable drive.

If the only problem with your laptop is that it can't get power to run, the hard drive should be just fine. Open the old laptop up (lottalittlescrews) and keep going until you can get the hard drive from it. If you are extra nervous, you can take it to a place like Best Buy and have the guys there confirm that is is indeed a SATA drive. They might even have something like what I linked for purchase in the store (but probably for more $$).

The cool part is that after you get your information out of it, you can keep it around as extra storage. It would be a good place to back up your important information from the new computer from time to time so that you always have a copy handy. If you feel ambitious, you could re-format it after you have all the info you want from it. This will get rid of Windows and all the other programs and junk left over from its days of running a laptop, and leave lots of storage space to hold the numerous revisions of the chapters of your book.
DJ

'75 Westfalia, '79 Deluxe
(plus more busses than sense)

In a time of chimpanzees I was a monkey

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airkooledchris
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Re: Message from Colin

Post by airkooledchris » Fri Sep 14, 2012 8:56 am

Amskeptic wrote: External hard drive enclosure that I do have is of course some different architecture (lottalittlepins) than the current hard drive-that-must-be-read (a bunch of tines).
How can I get transfer process going?
Colin
Take a pic of your hard drive now that it's out of the chassis and we'll get you pointed to the correct enclosure needed to use it as an external drive.
1979 California Transporter

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