It made me a little sick to my stomach.

A few friends have recently had computer problem that necessitated new computers. One that particularly concerned me was Darlene, who got her computer at about the same time and from the very same place as us. Ever since hers bit the dust it's been in the back of my mind that it could just as easily happen to me. Then what? I really don't have the money to be buying a new computer right now, but with all the blogging and facebooking that must be done I really must have one. So you can imagine my reaction when I arrived home from work to find a black screen and the words, Boot Failure: System Stopped. I think my heart may have stopped beating for a moment. I mean I definitely blacked out. I'm not sure exactly how I did it, but I did manage to get it to boot up. Phew.

Now my computer has been acting a bit odd for the past few days. Freezing up and shutting itself down. Now my first thought was a virus and so I downloaded a highly recommend free virus program and installed it. Then, of course, I needed to restart my computer to render the software fully functional. I crossed my fingers, but to no avail . The computer would not boot up. I tried all the tricks I had, which, to be honest, aren't many and nothing was working this time. After messing around with it for a little longer I gave up and called my much more tech savvy brother (in law, just to avoid confusion) to ask how to restart in safe mode. (Press F8, by the way) Again, nothing doing. On his suggestion I gave my windows disc a try. Low and behold it couldn't find my hard drive. My heart actually came up my throat, seriously, because my thought was it can't be found because it's dead. Good thing Jeff was there to be a little bit more level headed then I. He suggested I make sure my hard drive was plugged into the motherboard. It all seemed to be okay, but I gave them all a good push anyway. And what do you know it started up right away, no problems.

I cannot tell you the relief I felt at that moment. A million thank you's to Jeff for helping me out with yet another computer problem. I totally owe you a dinner (when things are less busy for you).