Tuesday, October 21, 2008

By Lucifer's beard!!

My main computer went and died on me yesterday. What at first appeared to be something the bi-mon sci-fi con crew at the IT department could fix by reinstalling the computer turned out to be more serious, and it's a chance that the hard drive's gone bye-bye. Which means I'm relegated to using my "lecturing laptop", and hope to Beelzebub that I can access the server where I cleverly remembered to back up most of my files. At least all the really essential files, except the updated lectures in two separate courses and new problem sets I was working on yesterday. And that totally sucks, as it probably means that I'll have to cancel the classes this week, unless the dateless wonders at the IT department can stay away from arguing over which Star Wars prequel sucks more for long enough to f*ckin' fix my PC.

Incidentally, this ain't the first time my computer has crashed. This institution has an exclusive deal with DELL, and I'm getting a sneaking suspicion that the reason DELL is cheaper has a lot to do with them bastards skipping any form of quality control. The first computer I got here at this institution crashed seriously once, because of an error with that particular batch of hard drives. The laptop I'm currently using had a battery which was recalled because it basically melted down, inducing all kinds of problems. The desktop currently in the ER wing of Nerd Hope has suffered from a number of meltdowns, including but not limited to yet another DELL batch problem - this time with the power supply.

Simply put, DELL sucks.

The dude working on my computer assured me that there really was no problem even if the hard drive was shot to hell - I had backup, right? And besides, this would be a warranty dealie, and all they had to do was order a new hard drive. Shouldn't take more than a week, tops......

Yeah; that's f*ckin' phenomenal.

12 comments:

Anders said...

I had good experiences with my Dell home computer. My IT department f*** things up as well, regardless of which computer supplier they use. I know from bitter experience...

That said, it's possible to get data out of a failed harddrive. It's just a question of time and cost. Don't know how big the lecture notes are or when you need them, but I would guess that it's easier for you to rewrite them then to go through the recovery process. Said but true.

That said, I'm in the marked for a laptop, and I'm thinking of HP rather then Dell. Have had good experiences with their laptops before.

Wilhelm said...

Fujitsu Siemens make kick-ass computers

I need the lecture notes starting tomorrow, so......

Anders said...

...you're up shit creek.

Thought so. Unless the IT nerds put in an extra effort, I seriously doubt you'll get the content of the harddrive back in time for your first lecture.

Wilhelm said...

...you're up shit creek.

Why Mr. Hawking - whatever lead you to that conclusion?

Anders said...

Why Mr. Hawking - whatever lead you to that conclusion?

LOL

Just wanted to use the phrase "up shit creek". Really.

Wilhelm said...

Nifty phrase, eh?

Torbjørn said...

I guess this is why I'm considering a Mac as my next home computer.

Wilhelm said...

Noooooo.....step AWAY from the white light, Torbjørn.....

Anders said...

Love your new subject for the blog, Willster!

And T-bear: If you want experience from a hardcore Apple-fan, Wilhelm is the go-see-guy. He's been known to publicly flash his state-of-the-art iPod.
:-D

Wilhelm said...

And T-bear: If you want experience from a hardcore Apple-fan, Wilhelm is the go-see-guy. He's been known to publicly flash his state-of-the-art iPod.

I'm never gonna live that down, am I?

Anonymous said...

And then I realized that my daily crashing work computer is a Dell as well.

Well, what can you expect when they didn't even manage to put all the letters of their logo in the same direction.

Wilhelm said...

LOL...that should be a big hint right there