Computers, can't live without 'em.

There is something to be said for the age of no computers, as they are sure to give you a big headache at times! Don't get me wrong I love tech/computers/games as much as any other geek. They are incredibly powerful tools and can make lives better and even save them. Yet when they go wrong there is the hassle and possible expense that you have to go through to get them fixed again.

I am currently visiting my mum and my little brother, it is good to see them, and it's been nice to play some of the old Sonic games again with my little bro and I also offered to sort out Mum's computer. Her partner uses Linux as he believes Microsoft to be an immoral and evil cooperation. Which might well be the case, but they do still have a lot of clout in the OS business and a lot of software is still more compatible with Windows than other OS, notably Linux. (Which is also not exactly user friendly as I have discovered today!) Each to their own when it comes to computers it is what you use and what you are used to at the end of the day. I have mainly used Windows so have a preference for it, I know others that use MacOS so therefore have a preference for that, all is fair. However the evil that Vista is another matter entirely! :)

The computer my Mum has was given to her by my sister, and it came with barley any RAM a copy of Vista and data on it from the previous owner and no Administrator control. So as I am no longer using my copy of XP I bought for my machine ages ago I said that I would install it on the computer up here. (We couldn't downgrade the Vista as the key had been used on another computer without our knowledge and MS weren't willing to help with this.)

So today I formatted the machine and installed my copy of WinXP however I then had an issue of it always booting from the DVD Drive instead of the hard drive. So of course this required a boot into the BIOS to change the settings. I am not familiar with this as I have not done it much, however my fiancé is, so bless him, he helped me over the phone. (Not the easiest of things to do when you don't have the computer screen in front of you!) I now feel a little more confident in doing this in future though having gone through it several times! As not only did I have issues setting the boot order there was issues with the hard drive priority as well. My sister put the hard drive from the very old 1998 computer in there was there was still data on there that was wanted and the computer died a while ago. Yet while I was upgrading the RAM earlier today forgot to make note of which hard drive was which, so sorting out the boot priority was a little bit of trial an error. I now have it all working though! :D

However next week I shall be reformatting the PC back home and my laptop, as my PC is changing it's purpose and my laptop is getting slower with all the unwanted software still on it from Sussex. So starting from scratch on it before new Uni starts. :) It does mean there will be an awesome set up of computers in my house soon! Not sure on the exact details yet, but I do know that there are plans to have a media server PC that will have all our music on and be on the network for the laptops/PC's/PS3's to pick up. :)

Anyway for now I am downloading the GIMP and OpenOffice for Mum to use on her new(ish) computer as she is used to them and it is certainly cheaper than getting Adobe or MS alternatives! :) For now dinner and another coffee...