Last night, I came downstairs after tucking my girls in, determined to work on some things for a while (important things like shopping for curtains and bath fixtures). My computer appeared to be in sleep mode, so I carried it in to the family room to watch Dexter with Greg while I (ahem) worked. But the computer wouldn't boot. I kept getting error messages, and it got stuck in a cycle of shutting down and failed booting up... over and over. Greg tried to remove the hard drive and battery, then reinsert them- apparently, the hard core equivalent of "unplugging it"- but no dice. I somehow managed to get into BIOS, but since I have no idea what that is, I decided not to fool around there.

So I gave up, and first thing this morning I marched over to the IT department at PUI.

The computer booted up with no problem.

So there I was with two hours to kill before class. I decided to walk over to the library and grade my papers. As I'm walking- in my very attractive high-heeled black boots- I think to myself "Hmm, maybe I should back up my files... just in case." Once I get to the library, I find a table, dump my large book bag, large handbag, jacket, and coffee (the most important thing) at a large table, and get settled for two hours of uninterrupted productivity. I search for and find my USB drive, resolving to back up those files first... right after I check my email, because I'm waiting for some important files.

Only, I can't connect to the network. I can detect it, but I can't connect. So I fiddle around for a few minutes, trying to figure out what the problem is. And then, the computer shuts down.

Once again, I get "HDD boot failure."

So I gather up all my crap and stomp over to IT again. I show the (actually rather cute- Adrian Grenier lookalike) work-study student the error message; and he just make a little "O" with his mouth. A "this is not a good thing, I think you are F U C-screwed" "O".

My hard drive bit the dust. It wasn't spinning at all, and they couldn't recover a single file.

However, they gave me a New and Bigger one, loaded with Windows Vista!

At that point, I needed to run to class, so I asked if I could configure it myself, and they said "Sure, no problem, just let it do its thing."

So I walk back to the lab. I try to start up the computer, but I haven't been registered as a user, I don't know the admin. password, and I don't see a "Switch User" option anywhere.

It figures. I really needed my computer for this lab. So I gave the pre lab lecture completely as a chalk talk- using the hard copy I had printed of my powerpoint slides as reference, and then I hooked one of the student laptops to the projector when necessary during the lab.

It was a long lab, a full three hours, with me on my feet walking around the whole time. After it was done, I wobbled back over to IT to get them to configure the computer so that I could log on. Thirty minutes later, I limped back to my car and came home.

I've had my feet up ever since. Damn boots. What was I thinking?

And now I am setting up my new computer. Damn computers. This is the second unrecoverable crash I've had in almost as many months. After the last one I resolved to buy a portable hard drive to back up all my data. I haven't yet. Now I am determined to go buy one... first chance I get. I guess the silver lining is that... in two months, I haven't accumulated many files to lose. On the other hand, I had a second chance, and when I was in the library I should have backed up all my files first.

Argh. Computers.