Confirmed iMac Hard Drive Is "Failing"

Starting around lunch on Monday, it became a very long but productive day into the night until 4am. We were still able to fit in an afternoon hound walk, some breaks outside for them and me and calmness remained as I looked at my options. It was confirmed late Monday night that my iMac hard drive was "Failing" due to pending bad sectors with a reason of "old age" ... I'm serious, that's the reason they gave me.

{Warning} This post is going to be all computer talk about what happened yesterday, my options, what I did and my future computer plans. All of it is fit in-between some yesterday afternoon pictures and pictures from this morning's walk.

I sit here this morning with a better system and much much faster system than I had even before the computer crash on Thursday. Sometime around 10:30am Monday (yesterday), my repair job or a clean reformat on Sunday, started acting like it did before I erased my hard drive to start over. The computer would freeze over the simplest tasks. Open a program, hang up .. type a word, spinning beach ball .. open an Excel spreadsheet, wait forever, still might not open. All signs of a bad hard drive.

By mid-afternoon Monday my screen on the iMac and large monitor went black and froze. After shutting it down by holding the power button down, the reboot froze halfway across the progress bar just like it did when it crashed. I got into the computer the backdoor way and ran Disk Utility Repair and once again it found missing start up files and bad sectors to repair. That fixed it to where it would run.

It was during this time early Monday afternoon I started going through my options. My intuition told me last week that my 'almost' 7 year old hard drive was dying a slow death. An app sent to me called 'Smart Drive' confirmed it late last night in about a second, literally. My hard drive was failing due to pending bad sectors. I'll explain later how I got that app. I would link it but it is designed to start downloading immediately once you click on the link, so I'll not do that here.

Again on Monday I looked at computer replacements at Best Buy online, with plans of driving over and buying a new iMac that was on sale. I would have a larger hard drive more RAM and a faster processor. Once again I was steps away from leaving when I stopped to look at something else. The Mac Mini !!!

They had improved so much over the years that CNET was giving it raving reviews. It too had more RAM, a bigger hard drive and a much faster processor than my current old iMac. So I had two options I was looking at and really couldn't decide. I wanted to make sure that either one was in stock before making the 45 minute drive one-way. Still ... I had something else in mind.

I was sitting here with a MacBook Air that had a new solid state hard drive, less than two years old and had the ability to connect to my large monitor, use my wireless keyboard and trackpad. Since I had moved 262Gb of pictures to an external drive on Sunday, I knew my 62Gb of files left would fit on the laptop's 128Gb Flash Drive (solid state).

All the geeks use their laptops like that. So why not use that as an option? It was already paid for and a better faster system than the two computers I was looking at. I had bought this laptop to be my main computer when I had plans to travel full time or 6 months at a time. Since those plans were put on hold, this laptop had been nothing more than a place to play Mahjong (addicted) and look out my nice view from the kitchen table when I still was on the computer.

Now remember, I am not an official computer geek or IT specialist, but I know enough to be dangerous as they say. Everything I have learned over my 24 years of using computers is from OJT, google searches, computer forums, Apple and Microsoft support and more recently YouTube (rare). Also add in the fact that at times my memory is not as good as it use to be, unless it is sports trivia or past ballgames, so I forget at times how to do simple things on the computer ... such as:

How do I get the wireless keyboard and wireless trackpad or mouse to connect and work on this laptop instead of my iMac. I found my answer from a google search that led me to that same question being asked by someone else in Apple Support. I had to manually go into preferences and disconnect them from the iMac first before the bluetooth on the laptop would find them so I could click and add them.

Once I figured that out and had a 'new' fast system again, I was golden. I forgot about buying a new replacement computer or even the Mac Mini. PLUS ... the old iMac was still a great, new condition, computer ... all it needed was a new hard drive and some additions RAM memory sticks to be installed. I can do that and did a few times when I had PCs years ago.

But before I made the jump I wanted to make sure my intuition was right. I had time consuming work ahead of me if I decided to make the laptop my new desktop replacement computer. So another place I go to when I have any computer questions is a place for Mac owners called MacRumors Forum

When I could not find my answer by looking through other posts, I decided to write a new post telling people what had happened in detail (bullet format) and what I had done (bullet format) and what the computer was currently doing. Then I asked for opinions or answers to "Is my hard drive slowly dying"?

Within minutes I had an answer that my intuition was exactly right and they suggested opening up that iMac and installing a new solid state hard drive. Within 30 minutes of that answer someone else sent me two links to do just that, where to buy what I needed to do the install and a video on how to do it. Within the hour after writing my post someone from Australia sent me the hard drive analysis app (SmartDrive) that confirmed it was failing.

By this time it's getting close to midnight. I was energized knowing I had a great replacement system sitting right here (on kitchen table) and within a few hours time I could migrate all the files from the iMac to the MacBook via the Time Machine backup from the iMac. But, it would take hours to complete that.

Since my computer desk is the size of a door, I have plenty of room for the laptop to be sitting there connected to power, to the monitor and then having two external hard drives plugged in. One is for the automatic backup every hour and the other is the picture library that Apple Photo runs off of. Then later I had a brain storm that I could set my iMac on my other desk (regular size) to get that out of the way, until I decide to install a new hard drive.

By 3am all the files on my iMac had been migrated to the MacBook Air and things were running smoothly and fast. I had my computer system back using the same monitor, keyboard and trackpad I had used since October 2010.

Just like when you buy a new computer, you have a chance to do some 'house cleaning' of files, apps, software programs thus freeing up hard drive space and getting rid of stuff you never look at or use anymore. I tore into that process even though it was after 3am. I was thrilled with the change of speed, no hanging up, and using a computer the way it was meant to be.

I did have a 'user error' at the very end where I had a real problem. Once again a search on google that led me to the same question from someone else six years ago in Apple Support forum ... I made the mistake of disconnecting the wireless mouse from my iMac. With my wireless keyboard already connected via bluetooth on my MacBook Air ... I had NO way to move around the iMac or even shut it off.

It gets better ... and funnier .... without a lot of thinking I decided I needed to electronically disconnect the trackpad from the laptop so I could connect via Bluetooth to the iMac ... but the iMac couldn't find the signal so I could add it to the iMac. So .... to dig my grave deeper ... I disconnect the wireless keyboard from the laptop to see if the iMac Bluetooth could find the keyboard so I could add it that way.

The iMac could not find the keyboard signal either !!!  So I had two different computers and no way of using them because I (ME) had disconnected ALL of my wireless mouse, keyboard and trackpad and the only way to move around a computer. Luckily my solution was hidden on google search, all I needed to do was ask the question. That led me AGAIN to the same question by someone else asked in the Apple Support Forum.

Needless to say, I got everything worked out in a pretty short time. During these 17 hours of computer work I did not lose my cool, didn't panic, and just kept looking for answers or recommendations to find the solution. Like I said on Sunday night, in a sick sort of way I love doing this type of work on a computer when nothing is working.

For a split second I thought about pulling an all-nighter ... college lingo ... I was getting a lot done and this system was so much faster than I had before. So I had to force myself to turn out the lights and head for bed at 4:18am. I knew the hounds would be waking me up soon for their breakfast kibble but in the meantime Sadie was snoring, Stella was running in her sleep and Heidi was buried under her Mexican blankets with the windows open.

I think I fell asleep about the time my body was in the horizontal position, I don't remember anything.

I had left the computer in sleep mode while I slept instead of turning it off because the Time Machine was copying 60Gb's of backup files to the different computer. There was an option I chose that keeps the old copy in case I send it back to the iMac later one but that will not be needed if I replace the hard drive.

I did think this morning that I had other options.

1.  I could keep this the same setup and with to repair the iMac with a new hard drive.

2.  I could buy the Mac Mini as a temporary desktop replacement but a future of working next to my tv, where I could store movies, tv shows, ballgames on that drive like my DVR, then connect that Mini to the tv vis HDMI cable and use that like a DVR .

3. No matter what, I will install a new solid state hard drive and more memory sticks in the iMac. Depending on the size of the hard drive, I could basically have enough memory and space for around $300-$350.

Before I make any purchase I am gong to live with the set up I have right now and see how I feel about it two or three weeks later. The Mac Mini is nearby if I decided I want to use that. I'll move my iMac to my other desk, plug it into that power strip and continue to look and make sure I am not missing anything as far as information, old files or data before I open the front of that machine to add new stuff to it. (I know all the files were migrated and nothing should be missing) That moving process will take place after the hounds have their late lunch ... they are all passed out right now and have missed the noon howling/barking feature.

When thinking of options, I really did think of the new Windows Surface with the combine laptop/tablet and great reviews. All for the same price of the iMac I thought of buying yesterday. I also thought of going to the ChromeBook route. I've looked at those in the past and from what I do know and plan to do in the future, I just needed more computer than the ChromeBook.

I remember how hard it was, even with computer experience, to go from a Microsoft background to Apple. There was a learning curve there for a few weeks. When I was working and had only a PC at work, then I was flipping back and forth between Windows and Apple every day so it wasn't as hard.

But the fact is ... I love Apple equipment. I had almost 7 years of no problems while spending more time on a computer than a lot of people. I wish it wasn't that way but it's life in the 21st century.

Until this morning, as I typed this and doing computer stuff before our morning walk, I did not really realize just how bad that iMac hard drive was. It really does feel like I have bought a new computer since hooking up the laptop to all the main stuff like large monitor, wireless keyboard and wireless trackpad.

Oh, I forgot to mention, I also get a lot of my information on how to do things, or what to buy by looking at Google "Images" in search. How else would I know without pictures, that a Mini Countryman could really go off-road and even tow a trailer??? Or just how would that MacBook Air look connected to a large 27" monitor ... where would all the cables go? Or ... Heidi's skin condition, has there ever been another basset hound with those type of allergies.

Searching on Google Images is a good tool for information and answers to questions.

So that about does it for the computer story. I am up and running, a clear plan on the old iMac, I have a faster system that makes things more enjoyable and all without spending a dime in today's money. Feel free to email me or make comments on any questions you may have about computers stuff. I know enough to 'be dangerous' and will lead you to someone that can if I can't answer your question(s).

There is nothing such as a straight walk between point A and point B with Stella. Even when you think the walk is almost over ... she finds just one more thing to check out before it's officially finished. Right after I snapped this picture above, she did an about face turn and headed back to the field .... a yell of 'no' ... "over here" got her back in the direction of the house.

Still just 12" into the yard ... there was just one more thing to check out.

You may have saw above that the water is receding in the field ... but thunderstorms are in the afternoon forecast. I hope to MOW the yard not BALE the yard on Friday after these next few days of rain.

After a frustrating Monday, today has been fantastic here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

It's Been One Of Those Monday's

After so many hours of good performance, my computer turned on it's 'buggy' button this morning around 10:30am. It's much like that water in the picture, where on Saturday it had receded enough to show some land out in the middle of it but those are gone this morning. About the time I am about to "yell uncle", I give up and head to the Best Buy store for a new computer .... this one starts working again flawlessly and fast.  LOL

I knew today might be interesting as early as last night when I noticed we were shutting down for the night just a few minutes past midnight. That's never a good thing because it means we will be getting up while it's dark a little after 6am. At least I can start my coffee consumption earlier than normal and take advantage of the 50Gb of data I have for the month between the hours of 2am - 8am.

All of this didn't matter to the bloodhounds, by 9am they were running up the path to start the walk and I just made my first error of the day ... not changing my shoes to prevent my feet from getting wet and today cold.

Stella was like she was shot from a cannon and was running all over the place. I was already complaining to whoever would listen, that my feet, shoes and socks were drenched with the early morning dew and by the end of the walk so were my jeans ... picture below.

By the way the hounds were acting this morning I shaded my eyes with my hand as we made the first corner turn into the bright sunshine. I was looking for deer, even though they weren't. No deer today but the hounds were highly energetic and headed to the far right corner.

By this time my mesh running shoes are wet, my socks were so wet I could hear the squishing sound inside my shoes with each step I took. Of course with the temps in the mid 40's at this time meant my wet feet were freezing!! I wasn't a happy walker.

Sadie and Stella did not care that their ears, face and stomach were wet also. They were strictly business this morning. I could follow them wet grass and all or stop complaining, my choice.

It was at this time I became much more wet because the hounds went straight into those woods just as I snapped the shutter. I took off running after them in the tall wet grass and I could feel my legs becoming soaked. That increased the water inside my shoes. I had a long way to go to be happy.

Luckily they had not gone too far into the woods and turned to run down the edge of the field toward our last turn. They were waiting for no one today. During this time I was wondering what the computer was doing. When I left I had just clicked on the red button to close Google Chrome when that spinning beach ball turned up again. I did not wait to see what the computer was going to do.

It got to the point that anything I did with just a click of the mouse, or in my case the track pad, the program would either become "non-responsive", would hang and eventually start working, or one time locked up the computer to the point I had to hold the power button down to turn it off.

Heidi came outside for a short time after lunch but it wasn't warm enough for her and she headed right back inside after doing her part to fertilize the front yard. She is the smartest one of all of us. She is still doing well on the Wholesomes™ SportMix dog food.

When I checked on the computer again, it had processed all the mouse clicks I did before the walk. It decided to open an excel spreadsheet I had tried before the walk. Everything looked good, until I placed the cursor on the cell I wanted to type a number ... that stupid spinning beach ball was back. Each click equaled the spinning beach ball. (hourglass for windows)

So I jumped on my laptop and started looking at computers again. I could tell a huge difference in performance when I started using the laptop. I only have 60Gb of data on my iMac hard drive now since I transferred my Photo Library to an external drive. You would think that would make this computer faster than ever ... yet at times it crawls. Normal operations has about 55% of my RAM being used.

Typing an email before I did this post, things were so buggy and slow that while I was typing no words were showing up ... they started appearing slowly one letter at a time. I decided I'd get a blog post out before I head to Best Buy.

Of course since that time, this computer has been working perfect.

I am going to take the hounds out for their 2nd walk of the day and mumble to myself about what to do. When we get back I'll play around with the computer a little and see if it is going to act up again. If it doesn't I'll probably not buy a computer today.

The external drive for my pictures is working perfect. I see no reduction in speed of processing pictures.

From reading different blogs on the sidebar, it looks like this flooding is everywhere in the US and Canada. So really, my computer issues are nothing compared to what many people are going through right now.

It has been more frustrating than fun this morning here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana .... how soon does college football start?  LOL

Sadie Gets Her First Walk In 3 Days

Cabin fever for all of us had maxed out by this morning. Sadie slept, had some lunch, went out to check the water levels, slept some more and then stepped into my computer room to give me 'the stare' ... it was time for a walk.

The ground didn't really look much different than it did 4 hours ago but I had come up with an idea that could get me to walk them. I'd put on my North Face snow boots. They are not big nor bulky, lighter than the hiking books, with more rubber over the top of the foot. I'd stay dry no matter what.

Stella stopped for a quick pee break and the trotted toward our path. Sadie didn't wait for us and was way in front, nose to the ground and extremely happy.

It was her first walk since the morning of May 3rd, before the rains came. It seems longer than that since it was nice weather. Even the temps at 60° felt warm.

With the grass taller only means they needed to put their noses deeper inside it. There are a lot of new scents after a rain so they both were quite active.

This is just to the start of the far right corner. Neither one of them stayed too long before they came exploring along the edge of the field. After another day in front of the computer reading and looking for some answers, it was nice to be outside again.

Stella followed her own pace today. It didn't matter what Sadie was doing up ahead, nor what I was doing. She wasn't running today but glided across the field enjoying her walk.

As you can tell the hay is not nearly as tall here as it is near the house where the hounds spent the winter fertilizing it. It also looks like Stella has gain a little weight this week.

Sadie found something interesting enough to hang back as Stella and I kept walking. There is never a worry about her because she will always run to catch up on her own.

This running is good for her. That dark spot on her lower leg is a place she licks every night before she goes to sleep. She has done that for years for some reason. It's never bare skin, just wet hair.

While we waited for Sadie to catch up, Stella stopped abruptly, sat down and looked in the direction of the neighbor's wooded area. Did she smell that big blonde cat? Something had caught her attention enough to perk her ears up.

It looks like she is walking away from us as we get to the backyard but it's a new habit she has had the past week or so ... she will always use the path to return to the yard instead of walking straight from the field's tall grass, unless she is not on the 'official' daily walk.

As you can tell, she was in no hurry today ... she must be resting to watch the Kentucky Derby tonight.

The water is slowly moving out. That is only part of the field showing, not a sandbar. It looks like the row of crops out in the middle of the water is stable ... maybe they don't have to do anything to this field but let the sunshine do it's work.

I ran a free app called Dr. Cleaner by Trend Micro to clean up all my junk files and optimize my hard drive. It found and deleted over 2Gb's of junk files. It has more features but I would have had to buy the professional version. Instead the website I mentioned in my last post called Make Use Of, recommended a free maintenance app that would analyze, repair and do some general clean up of the hard drive.

It reported there were no problems with my hard drive and did a little cleaning. I shut down the computer while we were on our walk and so far since we have restarted the computer I have not had those small frustrating issues I've been having the past couple of days since the restore of the hard drive.

So, I thought I'd wait to see how things workout before I do a clean install of my OS and start all over like it's a new computer. That option still is interesting to me.

The Kentucky derby tonight on a track rated 'sloppy' will open the large number of entrants up to where anyone can win. The days I use to go to the California race tracks every day, I never bet when the track was rated muddy or sloppy.

All the hounds are happy and sound asleep here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

Trojan Horse File Source Found -- A Shocker !!

I normally would have waited to post something like this instead of my 3rd post of the day but what I found out about 15 minutes ago was a shock and may help others that have had any crashing problems in the past with their computer. I didn't want to wait to post it and I didn't want to add it to a previous post as an editor note.

In the previous post today, I said I had found a possible source for the crash of my computer from a program that installed itself in my computer. I am not sure how long ago this happened. After Bitdefender ran it's deep system scan this morning, it found a file called IntallMiez.1 and quarantined it. Removed it from my system so it would not and could not execute.

Back in my PC days here at home, prior to October 2010, anytime I found a virus I would delete that file from my system manually.

So today the more I thought about it I decided I just didn't want it quarantined but I wanted to delete the file. This morning Bitdefender had given me the path of the file removed.

This afternoon when I went into the quarantined section inside Bitdefender, to remove the file this is what was listed:

S-DCDATA-00209MF-ALLIN-32BIT_.dmg

Before I ever delete a file like this, or any file in my registry I will google that file name to see if it is a required file that works making the system run. Not all files quarantined are bad files.

In this case I was shocked with what showed up on my Google search for that file name.

It is a Nikon installer file. Someway that trojan horse file IntallMiez.1 had attached itself to the Nikon installer file to make it's way into my hard drive. The major complaint on Google search along with those in a Mac Forum called Mac Rumors ... was the Nikon file would not finish installing.

The file was an update for the Lens Distortion Firmware. Many Nikon users were having problems getting the file to load. I then remembered downloading a firmware update for the Lens Distortion last fall.

How weird is all of this?

I hope this may help some people instead of confuse them. Let me know if you have any questions and I'll try to answer the best I can or point you in the right direction.

And yes, as of 6pm, it was still raining and had not stopped once all afternoon.

My computer mystery has been solved here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

My iMac Crashes For 1st Time

This story telling about my computer may help those that have Apple computers more than PC users. It would be the same process with different terminology for those that use Windows PC computers. Since I have been retired for 3 years and no longer use a Windows PC (at work), I have forgotten much of the Windows language and know nothing of their latest updates.

It finally happened ... after 6.5 years of heavy use, my almost 7 year old iMac crashed last night and crashed hard. I am saying it's the first time because when it crashed before it was my fault (user error) when I tried to activate Mac's File Vault program to encrypt my hard drive. I found out later the build date of my computer was just outside the date range for File Vault to work.

In that case I took it into the Geek Squad at Best Buy because I had that service at the time. I blogged about that terrible experience, so of you that are interested in that story, just do a search on "Geek Squad" on this blog and it will show up.

Last night my computer crashed just out of nowhere, like it happens to other people at the most unexpected time. So that is why I am calling this it's first time to crash because it was not user error. I surprised myself and remained calm throughout the many failures of trying to restart my computer.

It happened just before midnight as I was shutting it down. I was on Twitter and just clicked on the tab at the top to go to HughesNet to get my data usage for the day. It would not move from the Twitter website. It was locked up.

I got the spinning beach ball instead. (Same as Window's 'blue screen of death')

I shut it down by holding the power button in back of the iMac. Then the surprise came when I restarted it ... the start up process froze halfway across the Apple progress graph.

I shut it down again the same way so I could restart it in the "restore" mode by holding the 'command' and 'R' keys down at the same time until I heard the Apple chime and/or the Apple icon.

I was able to get into disk utilities and run the repair feature under the "First Aid" tab. It found I had a missing major file in the directory and then a few other missing files during it's search and repair process. It told me everything was corrected so I quit the Disk Utility program.

I tried starting the computer again ... same thing ... it froze at the halfway point. With my laptop I was able to get online search for possible solutions. Next was trying to start the computer in 'safe mode'. That was another restart and holding down the 'shift' key until you heard the Apple chime at startup.

It froze again almost at the end of the graph.

My computer had crashed !!!! For the first time !!!!

I had nothing to lose by restoring the hard drive from my Time Machine backup. But if I did that process, it would erase my hard drive before restoring any backed up files. Like reviews of different products you buy, there are all kinds of horror stories, negative comments and warnings of don't do it when it comes to restoring from the Time Machine backup.

There was nothing else to do though. I'm not an IT guy, I wasn't going to buy and install a new hard drive. I wasn't going to write commands on a screen that I could not get to.

So "Restoring HD from the Time Machine Backup" was my only option. If it did not work as it was designed to do then I'd go to Best Buy and purchase a new, faster, better screen iMac, a 2017 version. By clicking the 'continue' after highlighting the "Restore HD from Time Machine Backup" .... my damaged hard drive would be erased !!!!

I chose to do a restore from the 8:15pm May 3rd backup file. That was two backups before the most recent one because I was hoping to miss the problem that caused the crash and may have been caught by the latest backup ... if that was even possible.

By this time it was almost 2am. It took a lot of time to run Disk Utility twice. It took a long time trying to boot up the computer 4-5 different times. As the restore started the clock for completion kept adding hours up ... I was at 20 hours to complete when it had only done 2% of the restore.

I went to bed and let it run on it's own. I didn't know what to expect when I got up this morning. Would the program run while the computer put itself into the 'sleep mode'? Would it crash during the restore like I had read online happening to other people? At least in every instance it had booted up far enough to turn on the monitors, I had a screen to see.

One thing to remember in this process for those of us that use the touch pad as our mouse ... it won't work ... you have to use your wireless mouse that came with the computer, all the way up through the log in process in the end.

So going to bed expecting this hard drive restore to take all day today and most of the night tonight based on the time estimate ... it was good to have a backup as in my laptop and my iPad Mini to read emails, and normal internet surfing.

About 7:15 am, after 5 hours and 15 minutes of solid deep sleep, I get the bloodhound nose nudge on my hand from the side of the bed. Stella is standing next to the bed and is at eye level. She wants to not only go outside to pee but also eat breakfast.

I'm sure with her eating breakfast is her main purpose to wake me up to start 'her' day. With it still semi-dark and I could hear rain, I told her to go back to sleep ... Heidi and Sadie went back to their sleeping spots.

Then I remembered ... my computer has been restoring!!  At least I can get up and see if it crashed again or how many hours to go, if it processed at all. The hounds were happy I changed my mind within minutes, they were going to have breakfast.

It not only had finished the restore, it had restarted itself as designed, and was waiting for me to click on my user icon and enter my password to access the computer. Of course it would take a little time to go through the process because it was going to be like a new computer booting up ...

Yet, the photo file and mail file would have to be rebuilt. That is over 22,000 photos in my library and mail must have pulled even the emails I deleted years ago because it was importing over 11,000 emails back into my Apple mail system.

That gave me time to make coffee, feed the hounds, let them out in the rain to dump their tanks. Heidi was the only hound to come back inside dry because she stayed behind the Yews and under the roof overhang ... the bloodhounds are not that creative.

By the time the hounds were fed and back inside, and my first cup of coffee had been poured ... my monitor was showing me my regular bookmark icons on the dashboard and my taskbar at the bottom of the screen.

Everything looked normal.

The 'new' computer opened files faster than before since it had erased all the hidden junk from 6.5 years of use from the hard drive before restoring the files from my Time Machine backup. All of my photos and their individual folders were there. Apple mail worked.

Everything was good and working normal, just a bit faster.

My almost 7 year old iMac was back in action better than ever and good for another 7 years of use I suppose. I plan on using it until it drops. The build date for my iMac is 2010 mid-summer.

So for anyone that has read this far, whether you use a Windows PC or an Apple ... ALWAYS ... back up your files because all computers crash and you never know when it will happen !! I'd say 6.5 years of no problems is pretty good for a computer addict before it's first crash.

It started raining last night, it's still raining and I'll have some interesting photos in my next blog post around noon today ... it's good to have a working computer again ... at no cost to fix.

The morning has started off great, here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.