Love 'Em or Hate 'Em

I have a love-hate relationship with computers. I love 'em when they work and hate 'em when they don't.

I spent most of this afternoon putting my computer back to factory specs so that I can spend the next few days re-installing everything so that I can use the dang thing for a few weeks before I have to go through the whole thing all over again.

I'm told that it's the curse of Vista, a very unstable operating system. I don't know enough to know whether that's true or not, but I know I never had this trouble with any other operating system. I'm far from being a computer geek, but I learn a little more every time I have a problem.

I'm so glad I purchased and installed Carbonite. It has all my files (and most of my programs) backed up off my computer so that all I have to do is click a few links to reinstall everything. The first time I had to use it, I was amazed as I watched my folders reappear on my desktop as if by magic. For some reason, lately I've had some trouble getting it all downloaded in a reasonable time frame, but I finally figure out how to do it (I should be an expert by now, but sadly for some reason, I can't get it to work the first time). And until then, my files, photos, music, data, etc are all safe.

I purchased a 350gb portable external drive where I plan to store everything, but it hasn't come yet. The new drive has a USB connection so I won't have to keep it connected and maybe have it screwed up, or get a virus, or whatever else might hurt it.

I'll keep Carbonite as my main back-up for the time being. You know, a sort of belt and suspenders type thing until I figure out whether this is a good idea or not.