Science, Art, or Witchcraft?
Like science, love art, and am a complete skeptic when it comes to witchcraft. Make that was a skeptic. I spend ridiculous amounts of time with a personal computer.
Case in point. Yesterday I tell the laptop to shut down (I now know I should have asked politely). It refuses. I wait. Get tired of waiting and pull the plug. User has the last word.
Wrong.
Today I tell the computer to start. It complies. With a twist. It now asks, no, make that demands that I supply a password in order to get past the start-up screen.
Password?
Never set up any password for this. No clue what the password could be.
That's alright. I have creative moments. Start entering possible passwords. Few minutes later creativity is gone and I'm shooting for luck. I'm a lucky dog, remember?
Every dog has its day. Unfortunately, not every day is its day.
I like to believe I'm on the rational side. This password situation has to be witchcraft. How else can you explain the sudden password requirement from having done nothing more than unplug this plastic child of Satan? Where's the science in that?
Proverb's at work. Too bad. Sometimes the machine innocent perform miracles by simply rebooting. I reboot. And reboot. But I am the Unplugger and lack innocence. Contemplate a final boot out the window. Refrain. Make coffee and regroup. Relax. Fight the early stages of email withdrawl.
Have to get online to solve this problem. Dig out the old COMPUTER. Dust it off. Caffeine taking effect. Move the beast and its old monitor into the study. Unravel cords and cords and cords. Plug this into that and that into this. Flip the switch.
The old beast works. I'm online in a few minutes. Search. XP. Reinstall. Clean install. Over install. Under install. Everything's possible.
Make that, everything's possible if I'm willing to run the risk of losing all "data". Ouch. Data loss. Can live with "data" loss. Can't live with losing all the photos Proverb and I took during our travels and wedding. Lose those, tell Proverb, and living will not be a clickable option. She'd ask if I told her I lost data. Define data.
More searching. Must be another answer. Something I can live with. Literally.
Charlie White.
He is my savior. Find an article he wrote last year about my situation (not the password demon, but recovering...excuse me, restoring Windows XP). That's exactly what I need. Restoration.
Article is written for non-geeks. Sounds good. Four pages of instructions. Sounds bad.
A handicap. Have the Portuguese version of Windows XP. Charlie White and I do English. Click here, click there. Great. Back to luck.
Four hours later. Success. Would give details, but don't want to relive it. Laptop smiles. I am back in the fold.
Dear Mr. Charlie White: thank you.
Here's a link to his magic document: XP Witchcraft for the Uninitiated. My title, not his. If you run XP, save this link. Better yet, print out the four pages of instructions in case you don't have a backup computer.
I now have the talisman. Can't wait to finish this article and unplug the little sucker. Last word...last word...last word...