Well, My six-year old Dell was showing signs of senility, so I carefully transfered my files to a Simple Drive and verified they were indeed there. Actually, I had been periodically backing things up by copying files to the drive. I thought every thing was going just right.

Last week, I purchased a nice HP, don't be too hard on me, and I took my time setting things up. It's a bitch making sure all the cables, etc. are going to the right place. Today, I started the process of transferring my point of operation to the new computer (XP to Windows 7). I struggled and sweated, dusted up four or five years worth of dust, and carefully made sure everything was hooked up properly. My printer was detected (good news), I ran the installation CD, and much to my horror, the install failed. I did the same thing with my scanner: same results. Although they are both HP, they are obsolete. They won't work with Windows 7. Okay, I can deal with planned obsolescence. I'll hook in my Simple Drive, and click and drag the files to the new computer - neat!

Unfortunately, even though the computer knows there are files there, it can't read them. I think I am reduced to making CD copies of my files, and very slowly copying them to the new computer, but at this point, I'm not even sure that will work. I have an old file transferring program, but I am not sure it will work with Windows 7. Tomorrow, I hook up the old computer. All my stories are there, and they are in several other locations as well, including BCTS; however, my newest novel, currently at 30,000 words is only on the old computer. I could also email essential stuff, but that will take a while. I think I may see about a new file transferring program. I'll try to find out why the computer can't read the Simple Drive. Then I have to get a new printer and scanner, which are essential for my real job; even though I am three times retired.

Also, I was moving some files on the Simple Drive, and they suddenly decided to disappear. There used to be a way to find deleted files, but I haven't figured out how to do it, if it is even possible. They were only about 3,000 photographs. It could be worse, I suppose.

The good news is that I went to my doctor for a follow-up. My blood pressure has been a bit chaotic and at the upper limit of acceptability. Today it was at 114/70, the best it has been in quite a while. Of course, that was before the current computer problems became apparent.

I'll think about it tomorrow.

Portia