More computer trouble

It seems that I'm forever struggling with technology. I'm actually quite good with it but I can have awful luck. I use two computers at present; the primary is my second computer – and it has never functioned as it should. For the most part though, it functions. My secondary computer is a bare bones word processing machine. I bought it on impulse because a monitor came free with it… and I wanted a second monitor.

When I moved house my primary machine was one of the first things I set up and checked. Without it, and without an internet connection I'm cut off from the world. I rely on it for finding work, communicating on friends, watching DVDs. You name it and my computer does it. The secondary machine is of much less importance so although I moved into my flat nearly a month ago last night was the first time I switched it on… and it didn't work.

Now, as I previously said, I'm pretty good with technology. I have a fair grasp of what does what, and why. It's useful for my to know these things as they help colour my ability to understand written science-fiction and science-fact pieces – plus I enjoy learning. So, broken computer. I opened up the case, started prodding around and came to the conclusion that the hard drive had failed. Not a problem, I have an old spare strapped inside the case of my primary machine. It's not connected to anything so it wouldn't matter if I took it out.

Or so I thought.

Connecting this hard drive to the secondary machine (I'll call the drive XP from now on) I booted it up… and the computer reset to 'protect itself'. Repeatedly. So that disc is no good. Going back to the drive that was in the secondary computer (from now on, Vista), I connected that back up and this time it booted. Odd, but I'll let it go. So I ran it through a few checks and it all seems to work, great. Time to switch on the primary machine again (which I'd powered down to remove XP). Nothing. It don't work. Broke, caput, dead.

So, I have one fixed computer that was broken… and one broken computer that did work. What next? Going through the BIOS it appeared that the windows drive on the primary computer (henceforth Win7) wasn't recognised as connected any more. I double-checked all the cables, ensured I hadn't loosened anything when I removed XP and tried again. Nothing. It recognised the other hard drive – my terrabyte storage drive (yes, I need more storage, I'm waiting for prices to drop first) but not Win7. Now, I've been crafty. When I first put this machine together I installed windows on the terrabyte drive in case anything like this ever happened. As long as that drive worked all I needed to do was connect it up as the main drive and run windows from there. All sorted. Except when I did that, I got the message 'NTLDR is missing'. This isn't an error I've seen before, so I thought I'd check online to see what it was. Back to the secondary machine, boot it up, plug the network cable into the back… and the machine can't find the internet. It has a network connection, it recognises the existence of the cable… it even has TCP/IP settings that look correct. But no internet connection.

Leaving that to one side for a moment, back to the primary machine. Swapping connections round so that Win7 is the only drive connected, I tried booting again. No luck. This time I get the message 'Boot disc not found'… checking the BIOS it appears that the drive isn't connected at all. So, onto more basic tests. Does the drive power up? I removed the SATA cable, switched the machine off and on again and listened. Yes, it powers up and starts spinning… so it's not a dead drive – or if it is, it's not a completely dead drive. Next step… try a different SATA cable. Hurrah, this time I have some success. It recognised the drive, started booting, blue-screened then loaded correctly.

That brings me to now. I have one hard drive (Win7) connected, and the machine turns on. I have one drive (terrabyte) that is in the case but disconnected that should work when I can connect it again. I have one drive (XP) out of a case that doesn't seem to work and I'm not inclined to disconnect anything right now to test it further and finally I have one drive (Vista) which is in a case, working but won't connect to the internet.

I'm going to continue testing and tinkering for a bit so if I disappear offline again… I've broken something. I'll try very hard to keep posting my daily twictions – today is number 256 and I had planned to post one called '8 Bit' to honour it. Given the computer troubles I've had today though…