A Small Warning

Just so that you know, I might not get anything posted this weekend. I do want to write about the new CBS series Miami Medical and of course there's my "Weekend Videos" - though I haven't got anything in mind for this weekend - that should be done, but there are a couple of problems.

First up, I seem to have come down with a spring cold. It's not too bad, but it is slowing me down a bit.

Next - and I promise you this is bigger - I pretty much have to back up everything and reinstall Windows Vista. About ten days to two weeks ago when I was trying to downlod some Windows Updates something went wrong. It said that the download had been successful but when it restarted afterwards the computer wouldn't start. System Startup Repair "fixed" the supposed error - a corrupted file called ntoskrnl.exe. Except that the "fix" only lasted until the next time that the Update - which failed to be properly installed - tried to download... the next day! When I contemplated simply ignoring the problem by upgrading to Windows 7 I was informed that the computer hadn't downloaded SP1, and oh by the way, Microsoft will no longer support copies of Windows Vista that had not had SP1 or SP2 installed. Insert heartily frustrated sigh here!

Anyway this weekend is going to be given over to backing up my data - which I should have been doing more frequently anyway - to my new 1 Terabyte Drive, and then reinstalling Windows. I do not anticipate this being a happy experience.

Oh, and by the way, my brother Greg is getting married this weekend in Wetaskiwin Alberta. I won't be attending - someone has to look after the dog - but our mother is.

Suffice it to say that I probably won't be doing much writing this weekend. I will probably be reserving much of my vocabulary for my other activities this weekend.

Update #1: (12:18 CST/MDT) Backup finished at Midnight local time. It took about eight hours to complete! Not going to do the Windows reinstall until the morning. Fortunately Dell includes an image file of the system as it left the factory so that might make it easier than going completely from scratch. I hope I hope I hope.

For Linda: Truth Is I've never really had problems with Vista except for a few teathing pains, like programs that didn't work with it and for which the manufacturers steadfastly refuse to provide patches. A full Windows 7 Home Premium disk would set me back about $225 Canadian here, and I would still have had to buy the backup drive so reinstalling Vista is the better decision financially (particularly when you check the relative values of our two currencies; why such a huge difference?!).

Update #2: Well, I'm back - still not up to 100%; more like 60% - and there were a few things that went wrong. I had to reinstall a second time on Monday but that was because I screwed up when I set things up the first time. Still need to get the drivers for my monitor, printer, wireless mouse, and a couple of other peripherals installed, and then various programs installed - mostly games on disks, and applications to be downloaded, but it's better than it was before the reinstall.