vanderwal.net

So far so good. No major expletive-laden blurts have been uttered. In 24 hours I have upgraded my CD-R/W to a TDK Velocd (which is a fast mother), added a new 40GB hard drive (for a clean start), and Windows XP Home.

I added the new CD-RW to backup files more quickly than the cheap slow writer I had been using and pulled my essential files (e-mail, finance, Lotus Organizer, and site files). Then I added the hard drive so to start from fresh for adding a new full version of the OS, so as not to pull any of the unbelievably crappy Win ME OS. Then I tried adding the XP OS (full version) from scratch. The building the OS on a fresh hard drive was a little bit of a hand-holder (meaning it was a good thing Joy was out shopping or doing what ever she was doing while I was going through the logic puzzle of having XP partition my drive, then have XP not recognize the partition and other wonderful tricks). I now have most of my main software reinstalled and seemingly running properly. I have a hand full of software that I am having problems locating in my stacks of CD-ROMs, which are now slightly better organized.

I am really enjoying having a more stable operating system. The real test will come when I start doing working from this machine again. Running Dreamweaver, Word, fax software, e-mail, and a couple browsers will be a decent test. I am really hoping it will take that pressure. If it can handle that maybe I will be able to compile Java applets/servelets or compiling C/C++ applications while running a cygwin instance to upload and tweak the output of the compiling. Oh, to live a life where the computer is a tool for me to use and not chunk of plastic with electronic bits that induces cursing.