My trusty old friend

I knew something would eventually happen to my computer's hard drive. After all, it is older than my princess by a few months. That would make it 6+ years. The computer has seen me have another child since then. It has seen us buy a new larger flat screen monitor for it. It has seen us evolve with newer programs for preschool children that will only tax it's memory and processor speed. Two older boys would now do their homework on this computer that used to be just mine. It's been through thousands of downloaded photos. It never failed me, ever. Sure it's slowed down over the years and has caused me to reboot many many times but I felt loyal to it. I never looked to replace it. Yes I knew one day it would die. I knew I would have to back up my files. I kept postponing that process hoping that it would come more later than sooner.

But just last week I opened up my own account on igoogle and google docs. I got out of my denial and purchased a few jump drives and emptied all of my photos onto a jump drive, just in case. I started uploading my important files to google docs and also downloaded my outlook calendar to google, just in case. I was going to work on email and contacts this weekend. I was going to do the rest of the files today, just in case. But last night while working on my trusty Dell in the midnight hours while everyone else had gone to sleep, something went terribly wrong. The screen froze. But that had happened before and maybe I had too many windows open. I rebooted and then got the message that this might be the end. It was the blue screen of death. The one where it gives you the message that some important looking and too long sounding file is corrupt. What was I going to do. I had not yet completed my documents backup. I rebooted. It didn't help. I rebooted again. Nothing. The tower started making funny noises. This wasn't good. I knew it. My just in case moment came and I felt panicky. I lost my internet access. I lost my email. All of them. I could not get to my blogs or my reader. Nothing.

I went to my closet where I have carefully stored all of my computers disks and backups. The only thing I knew was to reinstall Windows and pray. I found the disk, put it in, and hope that something can be saved. It rebooted, reinstalled, but everything was lost. My internet access, drivers, files, email, applications, programs, and my bookmarks. I turned it off and went to bed. I couldn't sleep. I felt like I lost a special friend.

When I awoke this morning, it felt like a sad day. No computer. I was going to have to start shopping around for a new one. Initially I thought of just starting from scratch on the trusty old Dell but I have come to the realization that 6 years to a computer is like 90 years to a human. I am going to retire and bury my trusty Dell and replace it with another Dell, a newer and improved model. I am sure I will get to love my new Dell, once I buy it and set it up. But I know that it will never be the same as my old best friend. RIP my old Dell and I hope that the new Dell is as good to me as you were.