Error Message ... Error Message

My notebook computer started acting up a couple of days ago. It did not want to boot-up properly, and started giving me some nasty error messages which either meant that my keyboard had a loose wire or I needed to reload/repair some files in my Windows XP operating system. I did the Win XP repair cycle which only took a couple of hours (ugh). Now the computer is running smoother, but I can't get the wireless antenna to turn on. (do you think it could be my Firewall?) Tech Support says I now need to reinstall the operating system from scratch. And you know what that means. All the data goes bye-bye.

So I have spent the last few hours with an external hard drive plugged into one of the notebook's USB ports backing up my data files. Ever try to figure out where all your data is on a computer? It can be a challenge. I was doing OK with the back up using a click-and-drag technique, until I ran into my video files. Wow. Copying 27 Gigs of videos takes some time. My Adobe Premiere Elements had stuffed all the video files in a Digital Video directory. My back-up is still running with 12 minutes to go. It is late Friday night, so I will probably delay the XP installation until tomorrow. I need a clearer head and lots of patience when I start my reinstall.

The timing on this problem sucks, since I need the notebook to present a lesson next Wednesday at our Computer Club. So - here I am working on this nightmare when I should be preparing the lesson for next week. Plus, I am taking an online class which starts tomorrow. More about that in another blog posting.