Much swearing before bed.

A few hours ago, as I was measuring out oil to make kettle corn, Catherine came into the kitchen and asked "What does it mean when there's a blue screen that says it can't write to C:?" I'll tell you what it means. A whole hell of a lot of work for Susan, that's what it means. I'm not sure exactly what the story is, but when I finally got the machine to boot from a diagnostic CD, the c:\windows directory was missing.

So, many hours later, I've obviously got internet access (I had homework due today, so it was a necessity), but not too much else. The good news is even though I had to reinstall the OS, I didn't lose any of the drawing files I did this weekend. Everything else--data-wise--was backed up, so I wasn't too concerned, I just didn't want to have to draw all those stupid homework assignments over.

Okay, the modem is reinstalled, and I've reinstalled the drivers to the zip drive. My monitor driver is not making me happy, and I have no sound. The only working app is Mozilla. That's enough for tonight. What this means in the long run is that I lose one drafting application, but I guess it won't kill me. I liked it, but not enough to pay the $700 to replace it.

If I'd known when I started working on it this afternoon that I was going to have to reinstall the OS, I would have upgraded to XP instead of leaving it at 98. I'm not doing all this over again, though, so it's just going to have to remain a dinosaur until we can get a new system.