The Bits and Bytes of Two Reformats in a Day

After Izzy's really entertaining take on computer problems, I have decided to give my own computer woes. I had intended to switch my hard drives ever since I got the bigger one some time last year. Back then, I simply placed the bigger drive as slave and formatted it, increasing my total hard disk space by 3 times. It worked then, but computer games just seem to be on some very effective growth formula. I realised that just having 40 gigs for my system drive just didn't work anymore.

Having survived a term in university, I plucked the courage to reformat the hard drives and set the bigger one as the system drive. Things went really smoothly at first. Windows was successfully installed, I had all the drivers in and I even could install some of my favoured games. Satisfied with my performance so far, I then turned to the smaller drive and formatted it. Then the problems cropped up. I couldn't just format it: I had to install Windows too. (I forgot how I formatted the big drive the last time.) Then the Windows installation overwrote the one I had in my bigger drive. All my effort gone to waste. However, things did turn out alright in the end, with the bigger drive as the system drive and the smaller one just acting as the slave drive for extra space.

Then came the painstaking process of restoring the computer to its pre-reformat state. All my files went back to where they were, all my frequently used programs reinstalled, setting the desktop wallpaper to the one I had before the ordeal and all that jazz. But somehow, the computer feels different. It wasn't the same old one which endeared itself to me. Gone were the games that took up disk space but added character to the machine. Gone were the old emoticons in MSN messenger. (Thankfully contacts are saved with the account information. I'd hate to key in all the contacts again.) Gone are the nifty things I downloaded from the Net, useless stuff that made the desktop more "homely".

It's like my computer had been cloned. All the important stuff the old one had has been transplanted into the new one, but it's no longer the same machine. All the little quirks that made the pre-reformat machine, gave it its colour, were wiped clean. I now had a clean slate to work with. But there are times when a clean slate is not what you want. You want familiarity.

I wonder if I romanticise this whole reformat episode too much. But think about it: have you gone through a huge incident in your life and feel that you've changed? You can't put your finger to it, but it seems like you'll never be the same again. You feel somewhat lost, changed, desperately trying to seek the way forward.

Still, doesn't it make you wonder? If I treat my computer this way, how do I treat my human relationships? -Jimmy