That box I’d rather not open

After moving to Copenhagen and setting up my computer, I installed a new hard drive. Not only had I run out of space on the 18 GB SCSI disk (there’s no reason why I had a SCSI, the guy who sold me the computer just happened to have one lying around), I was also looking forward to installing a frsh version of Windows. My computer had become really slow after I installed Service Pack 4, and I assumed that it was to blame. Not so, as I was to later realise.

When I installed the new hard drive in my computer I assumed I wouldn’t have to reinstall all my old programs. Wrong! Most programs won’t work off a secondary drive, they look for data on the primary drive.

This was a bummer, but no big problem, I had most of the software I needed with me. Now, Adobe Reader happens to work when run off the secondary drive, though PDF files aren’t associated with the program (which Windows doesn’t see). I could manually connect the PDF files to the old version of Reader, but I figured, what the hell, I’ll grab a newer version of Reader from Adobe‘s site and install that. I downloaded the installer and ran the setup only to be notified that Reader can’t be installed on this version of Windows, and that I need to install Service Pack 2.

Screw that. The last time I applied a Service Pack—on a new, fresh version of Windows, on my new hard drive—Windows failed to boot, complaining about a disk read error on the boot disk. I had a lot of trouble getting the new hard disk installed. And I mean a lot. I must have installed Windows six times.

I hope every day that the hard disk is properly configured and will keep chugging along, and that it is safe to install a Service Pack and other software. But I never did pinpoint what was causing the boot disk read errors. So I’m not too keen on upgrading Windows or installing other system-affecting software.

I finally did discover the reason why my computer had become so slow: it wasn’t Service Pack 4, it was that I’d lost my second RAM chip. The memory chip is still in the computer, it’s just not recognized. Now, if I only knew what kind of RAM I have (and if it’s really broken, I have yet to try jiggling it around), I could buy some more RAM.

Writing about all these little problems puts them into perspective. Trying to fix the RAM, figuring out what kind it is, installing a Windows Service Pack, these are all things that would make my day to day “computing” smoother. But when they’re all together, they add to up a bad case of FUD on my part.

FUD, which is an acronym for fear, uncertainty, and despair, is used in the computer industry to describe Microsoft’s competitive tactics. Microsoft is so big, it is able to control the industry by inspiring FUD in competitors and customers alike.

My FUD is that of a computer novice who is afraid of “pressing any key,” lest they break something. I am not a novice, yet I religiously trust in leaving things as they are.

Is this kind of attitude any wonder when the number one solution to a computer problem is “restart the computer,” and if that fails, just let it be, because maybe it’ll go away by itself.

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