Category: My Computer

On the list of activities this weekend was finally replacing the keyboard on my ASUS G74SX laptop which, in the several years I’ve had it, had gotten worn to the point of making it difficult when I was doing anything but touch-typing )and with the left shift key finally cracking).

I’ve had the replacement keyboard for over a year, but this model literally requires disassembling almost the entire machine in order to replace the keyboard, including unscrewing dozens of screws, prying open, undoing various ribbon cables, etc., etc. The project as a whole took me a couple of hours (and a couple of disassembly videos on YouTube).

The result, though, is a distinct increase in productivity. And the new one should last me … well, beyond the expected lifespan of the laptop.

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I finally got notice that I could install it.

I installed it.

Um … the Earth continues to spin with nary a wobble.

The installation process was pretty painless, aside from annoying "So by default we're going to set these various built-in apps as your default for stuff unless you click on a little button and then uncheck them all" shenanigans and a screen full of "How much information do you want to send to the mother ship" switches. But after that, everything looked pretty much as-was.

At least until I opened the Start menu, which was also full of attempts to use Microsoft apps. As are occasional popups. And Microsoft really wants me to login to the Internet with an account to save my settings globally — including to my (snicker) Windows Phone.

But that kind of ratcheta-ratcheta aside, it was a pretty effortless transition. Kudos to the kids from Redmond.

[Note: I have no idea how long the actual upgrade took. I went upstairs and did some errands, and it was all done by the time I came down a few hours later.]

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Honestly, after this last round of hard drive failure, I'm seriously considering how much more cloud- / service-based I want my computing experience to become. The areas where I'm currently pulling out my hair (iTunes and Picasa, in pacticular) are local-based tools with extensive libraries, and there would be a lot of comfort in not having to go through trying to make them work, again, in the future.

Of course, there are costs to that — losing control of content, for one, and concerns about features, and concerns about changes in mega-corporate ownership, and hell, actually cost costs. That's a not-insignificant consideration. But I am so over workstation-centric applications that seem to have no good way to deal with moving to new machines, or dealing with machine crashes, as if the PC they are being installed onto will be the last machine the owner ever uses, world without end, amen, that I am willing to start entertaining some of these other alternatives.

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Well, the good news is that the replacement hard drive, the +Backblaze backup drive, and the ASUS recovery discs all finally arrived and I had time last evening to implement the three.

And, hey presto, I now have a functioning home machine again.

I had today off, so it was largely dedicated to rebuilding the content of the system — reloading the key applications, restoring the data from the Backblaze drive, and getting things back to "normal". Which, at this point, they largely are, with a few noteworthy exceptions:

1. I finally got my Calibre installation working again, so that I can manage my ebooks, but it took a bit of poking and prodding as to the appropriate data libraries. I still have to re-download some key plugins.

2. My iTunes is not behaving well. I installed the latest version (a version-and-change since where I was), and I can get it to fire up, but it immediately starts chiding me about having problems with the library file. It operates, but I have to poke around at things each time I exit to get it to work again.

3. It turns out the problem I'm having with my WordPress log was not focused on my office laptop, but is a general problem, so I need to do some work to fix that.

4. I haven't yet tried to tackle my photo management setup with Picasa (web-based). I have been a real slug about managing my photos for a while, and I'm concerned about how both software changes and loss of the previous library might be teed up to really mess with things.

But, by and large the combo of Backblaze and Google have gotten me to 90% of where I was. Which is a darned sight better than I have been for the past couple of weeks.

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So, yeah, as discussed, my hard drive is toast. Error determined, huzzah!

And, as earlier mentioned, I was a dolt and didn't burn a set of recovery disks, like Asus prompted me to do every time I rebooted the computer.

So I know I need to buy a new hard drive. I can do that.

And I know I need to order my +Backblaze restore drive. I've done that.

But I also know I need to do … something … with the OS … and the new drive … and the booting … and the Windows … and I have the OEM Windows code on the bottom of my computer, so if I had the Windows I could activate it (maybe) … but how do I get the Windows … on the new drive on the computer … with the stuff … and the things …

I am fairly certain there is a straightforward answer here, but my Google-fu just pulls up answers that don't seem to apply to my situation. Short of going out and buying a copy of Windows (which seems like a waste of a bunch of bucks), how do I get an Windows install for my machine without my machine actually being bootable?

(Alternately, since my key is for Win7 Pro, I could take the plunge and buy a Win 8.1 disc set and be all ready to enjoy the Win 10-ness for free(ish-SAAS), but aside from the shiny attracting my magpie nature, I'm not convinced there's much value added there. So let's not debate that one.)

Sigh. I remember when I would know all the answers to this sort of stuff. Of course, in those days it involved floppy discs, juggling extended vs expanded memory, and instructions in Cuneiform on clay tablets …

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Especially since it's my home machine. Aaaand I'm having a bit of a struggle working out what to do next. Not helped by it being a pretty busy morning besides.

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On the bottom is my old Dell Latitude E6400. Sitting on top of it is the HP Elitebook Folio 9480m — which is around the same size (discounting the battery "hump" of the Dell), and substantially thinner.

I'll be curious to see how it is when I don't have it docked.

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My new HP Elitebook Folio 9480m (oooh, elite!) is here at the office, so it's time to shutdown the old Dell Latitude E6400 and spend some time moving my life over. (With more to follow tonight, since I left my backup drive at home.)

The new unit is about the same footprint, excluding the battery sticking out of the back of the Dell, but between 1/2-1/3 the thickness.

Aside from the standard MS Office and various Cisco bits and bobs, software for me to install includes

LastPass – password manager
Dropbox – cloud storage
Filezilla – FTP client
MessageExport – Outlook message archiver
Snagit – screen caps and graphics editor
yWriter5 – writing software
BestSync – backup

Chrome should be pre-installed, though I'll need to do the 64-bit upgrade later.

One long-time item missing is Xmarks — since I really do use Chrome everywhere, interbrowser bookmark sharing is a lot less critical. And since Xmarks was causing me grief lately, I went ahead and just changed over to Chrome's bookmark syncing, which has been working fine.

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Well, approved to be on the way at my office. Replacing my faithful old Dell Latitude E6400 (which is 2008 tech, though I got mine in early 2010) with a new HP Elitebook Folio 9480m. Aside from the tech specs upgrade, it means dropping the weight from 5.7 to 3.2 lbs., which will be nice.

Alas, it probably won't arrive in time for my trip to Glasgow next weekend, but I'm willing to wait. Well, no, I'm not willing to wait, but I don't have a lot of choice in the matter.

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