Oooooops!!

So, here we are residing in the realm of best intentions – or other options as so dictated.

It has been brought to our attention that in our ever-increasing cyber world, a heightened sense of awareness needs to be lent to our custodial exercises with regard to our data.

Ever trying to be the vigilant-yet-thrifty one, I knee-jerked a download of “Simple File Shredder.”

Not entirely absent of prudence, I had tested it on my desktop unit. In fact, I had tested it a number of times, and on various user accounts.

Having the relative confidence of its performance, I launched it on my notebook PC (And, yes, I use the term ‘notebook.’  After all, since when, even when the phrase was coined, have we been able to enjoy these things on our lap without arranging a separate cocktail cart to prop our mouse pads on?). I then turned away to tend to other meaningless – uh, I mean pressing issues. Some time later, as superstition would instinctively dictate, I felt a lapse in time that seemed uncomfortable, even to a layman. I slowly (for dramatic effect) looked over my shoulder, and there staring me in the face from those haunting liquid crystals was that ever-terrifying hue-of-blue accompanied by those fervent white characters of text that lay splayed just off-center to the point where you could tell that screen-alignment was not of a high priority. Had I been the least bit cognizant of the urgency of its message, I would have grabbed scribe-and-paper to so document. Alas, a lesson for another day.

Upon restart, at first, I was receiving a note stating something to the effect of “loading PBR 2…      …done.”  Having repeated that step a number of times until I got it through my thick skull that nothing else was expected to happen, I sought the millennia of online resources for help. The consensus, among the vast majority of sources polled (because that is what one does: exhaust limitless amounts of energy in the pursuit of attempting the most-likely effortless measure to resolve an otherwise benign ailment.), was to run ‘chkdsk’, along with its assortment of switches, after booting from a Windows install CD.

Result!  No longer did the message display “loading PBR 2…      …done.”  Hoorah!!  No longer was I met with what amount to be a blank stare. Instead, my beloved notebook decided to take a more actionable approach by displaying:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\system32\hal.dll.
Please re-install a copy of the above file.

I tilted my head to one side – you know, like you would expect to see from the family dog when it was first exposed to Dad with no underwear. And, just like the family dog after being disciplined for his ill behavior, I dismissed the seriousness of the error message as just another step in the process – like knowing that I shouldn’t sprawl out on the couch that Aunt Marian uses to watch TV on, especially since she’s allergic to dogs.

Nonetheless, this still left me with questions (a family dog’s daily existence). Not to lie down passively (unlike said family companion), I pursued the meaning of “hal.dll.”

This is the point in which education leads to a fork in the road:  If I go this direction, I can reasonably feel comfortable with the notion that all will be well; however, if I go in that direction, it can only lead to uncertain doom!

Blasted forks!  They’re all the same. They feed us, but they remain oblivious at the fray of whether we choose to accept the contents, or go hungry. Oh, to be a fork!

There have been innumerable examples of why I should have heeded, nay adhered to said samples of the past. And yet, there always rears its ugly head that Methuselaic representation of futility:  If not this, then that (the mere essence of fork, is it not, unless ad nauseam is your game of choice?).

All the drama entailed, I still sought the traditional measures that have long since served me well in my many past transgressions. Unfortunately, as it always is that wretched beast of burden, be his name Time or otherwise in Shakespearian prose, that had me weighing the consequences of lost data versus an operable unit.

So, as I originally began this diatribe, but on a lighter, more exploratory intention, whatcha got for me, homies?

My hat’s off to you!  You have a nature that handles the relative with the relational – a talent not immediately appreciated, but eventually redeemed for its service to everyone wallowing in inadequacy.

-MVD