Is this a pc I see before me ....

[Sixsquid]

.... or a mish-mashed pile of conflicting technology ?!

All I can say is OMG ! and ................... muchos biggus hugs and thanks to Scuttler

Also many thanks to Copperband and other YD friends who have called and text ( and emailed DOH !!) Yesterday was manic but also very heart warming as I received so many messages and felt very missed

Some have heard the long, long frustrating tale of checking and buying kit from Novatech, confirming compatablilty and so on just to find I now need one of these, or this won't work because it now needs this ..............

This is how it worked :-

Tuesday, with old power supply in hand go to local shop to be assured this new one will fit - not without fecking levitation and a gaping hole in the back of the case it won't
Dart down to Novatech to be advised even their most expensive one won't fit. Buy new case, which is the same price as the non fitting power supply from the local store anyway
Note, power supply in new case only supports 3 devices on old connectors and has two SATA connectors

Had rather a fun time transferring the motherboard, learning lots, finding the floppy won't fit but when did I last use that anyway ....
But, as per Scuttler's thread, it didn't work and after much diagnostics would fire up on the old power supply. However, when I did that thinking I could at least check emails before hitting that sack, now 01:00, there was a rather unpleassant smell. I thought it would be the old power supply but my nose took me to the motherboard and under some smoke there was a distinctive red glow

Wednesday - after many conversations with Scuttler and him contacting Novatech we were assured the m/b bundle would do just fine, work in the case just bought etc. etc.
Given it would cost approx £30 for another ancient m/b and processer and I was fast learning that this 're-conditioned' Compaq was a potential PITA anyway I figured I had better catch up a bit and might as well get a new, faster processor et al
This is now being funded from my squirreled away diving funds

Thursday - Good ol' Scuttler came well early and we spent all morning finding it still wouldn't f-ing work Back to Novatech .............. "well this motherboard needs a 550w power supply, there was an email"
WTF ! We checked and quadruple checked !!
So, they change the power supply. It still doesn't work do they send us away

Just got some food to whack on a bbq and they call us back.
Motherboard was dead and they have installed a new one. It's blue which looks much nicer
Off we go again ............................. oh dear. Only 1 IDE port, No probs, I say pointing out my multi port extension ribbon but it's not gonna support more than 2 devices and now we need to completely re-install Windows so I'm gonna lose and data on the c drive

We consider and work a few possiblities including an old, old pc with a resident drive .................. my head hurts.
Solution to these 2 main problems (there are more but should be workable going forward) is to swap the newly bought DVD for a SATA DVD and get a new SATA drive as they are, relatively, not too expensive.
Back to Novatech who happily sell me both items, plus a SATA cable 'cos the dirve doesn't come with one, but cannot accept the other DVD as we forgot to put the manual back in the box. As it turns out this is just as well ....

.... back to the grind, SATA drive installed and guess what ? Remember they changed the power supply ? Well, they failed to mention that power supply had only one SATA power connector AND they literally just sold me 2 SATA devices ! FFS
An ongoing "yes, that is compatible" followed by change, after change, after change

Scuttler did a fantastic job, against heavy odds, and managed to get me up and running and online before 2am this morning !

Friday - I returned the DVD and pointed out the situation re the SATA power and had to pay abother £3 to resolve the situation {sigh}
I'd say double check everything is compatible but we did, more than double checked and I ended up going there 6 times in 3 days 3 of those being in one day!

I still have a long list of problems, some which will be resolved when I work out the windows problem. They include

Cannot find old emails anywhere. We backed up the old C drive but they are not there as .csv .ifa .dbx ....
No saved firefox bookmarks should have been on old c drive as above

I need to re-install loads of programs ....

V planner (need to find code ..... )
Suunto DM - Where are my dive logs ??????? !!!!!!!!
other supporting stuff like iRiver & Nokia

But having problems with MSN/Windows Messenger and others due to windows probs

I have yet to properly get stuck in as I'm catching up on here :-) but my weekend will be spent trying to load programs and find data and banging my head forgetting I no longer have certain things available and have lost ALL my bookmarks

I'd also like to get some diving in and may be looking for a Wraysbury buddy on Sunday

Thank you again to everyone for assistance given to Scuttler, maintaining the WedsEveAtWrays thread and for missing me

It's good to be back ............... I think Just let me find this thread about 'old' divers .................

[big_si]

Oooo, welcome home!

[weazelz]

welcome back you luddite

[Jay_Benson]

Sixie - you have my sympathy. Best of luck geting all the codes / licence numbers / software sorted out and don't forget to get the anti-virus / firewall sorted asap.

Welcome home.

[triplefin]

welcome back sixie

[Buoyant Babe]

Three weeks tomorrow

[Scuttler]

Glad to see it's all still working......just

will do some more digging vis-a-vis the windows problem I'm sure we can get round it.

regarding the bookmarks, emails and that sort of stuff.....I've been looking around my own hard drive but unfortunately I'm running XP and IE whereas you WERE running 2000 and Firefox.

If anyone has those running combinations then they might be able to point you to the path.....or even the file extension so you can search and import.


PS.....Muscat is currently 30 deg C (it's 0130)! and due to rise to 38 deg C tomorrow......it aint arf 'ot mum. Anyone for a Pina Colada?

[big_si]

Where are firefox bookmarks stored? - Google Search

how to recover Firefox bookmarks

[Sixsquid]

Thank you all

"luddite" ! I suppose I must concede but thank goodness for fabulous friends Worth their weight in gold

downloading AV s/w is one of my probs but I have a firewall. I am avoiding going into online banking or anything like that at the moment

Thanks for the link Si. I did manage to retrieve my bookmarks before and had kept the thread so I went back in search of them but they are just not there
There are bigger problems but that is just annoying but I'll get there in time.
I can't find my emails though and that is a problem

Also, does anyone know where my dive logs are ? I don't want to have to re-write 200 dive logs

Yay 3 weeks but after all the money I've spent the past 3 days I'll be living on bowls of cornflakes and diving on air with 6 months of deco

[copperband]

Oh gawd, is she back?

Firefox bookmarks are in documents and settings (You will have to show hidden folders.

Example: C:\Documents and Settings\yourlogin\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\

Emails, depending on client should be in the same area

C:\Documents and Settings\youlogin\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook outlook.pst are emails if you use MSOutlook. Bet you don't of course