I sat here last night. Pondering the differences between this computer which runs Windows 7 Professional and all my other computers which run Windows 7 Home Premium. That was the precise moment I realized I had not the slightest idea where I’d put the system disks for this computer.
It was alarming. I next realized I’d no idea where I put the system disk for the version of Windows 7 installed the other laptop and was a bit hazy on where to locate disks for any of computer.
I have every version of Quicken I ever bought — a lot of Quickens — but I no longer use Quicken. I do know where I keep my DVDs for Photoshop which is good because Adobe only sells their products online these days. I found more than half a dozen versions of Scrabble, but none will run on this system.
Sometime around midnight, I went into a frenzy of searching for the system disks for this computer because I doubt they are replaceable. Garry found them. Sitting, half-buried, on the keyboard of the electric organ. Which no one plays because it doesn’t work.
So many computers have come and gone, I have system software for computers that left my possession years ago. I’m not sure what “Garry’s 14Z” means, because at some point, his 14Z was reloaded and I gave him my 14z. After repair, what had been his 14Z became my “spare laptop,” the one I use to listen to audiobooks as I fall asleep and that was replaced by a big Kindle. So what, exactly, does “Garry’s 14Z” mean? Anything?
I have every version of old software I ever used. Manuals too. Empty boxes for each camera I bought. A lot of cameras. A lot of boxes. Empty Kindle boxes back to the first keyboard Kindle I owned.
I finally dumped the boxes of floppy disks which I have no way to read. I’ve kept CDs of documents and photos going back more than a decade, even though I have the same stuff on external hard drives. Who knows how long before CDs can’t be read anymore? I haven’t tried to read them in a long time, so I don’t know if even now the data is usable. Much of technology is faith-based.
Everything is “somewhere.” Nothing is lost. It’s just … misplaced. Sometimes permanently.
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Categories: Cameras, Computers, Humor, Software, Technology
SERENDIPITY: SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
I’m not a big fan of the on-line software delivery system. I like to have the discs. It also seems that Adobe, Microsoft etc make changes at will to these cloud hosted apps.
Having a full, live copy of WIN 7 is great. Using the re-store disk will erase your drive, so it’s not quite as useful as a full copy of your OS.
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I have no doubt you had a method. The discs were on the keyboard of the electric organ. The late great Billy Preston played the organ and made discs. It was the perfect place to keep them. Well done!
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Right!! Best explanation yet 😀
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Don’t even get me started on cords and chargers: Mac, Acer, Kindle, phone, printer, scanner, other printer, ear contraptions, camera, Iris, backup drives, more backup drives, more backup drives, iPod–ad infinitum!!! Drives me crazzzzy .
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I have had to buy half a dozen expensive power strips just for all my camera battery chargers. Then I have to remember which battery and charger goes with which camera. Talk about CRAZY!!
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I’m surprised searching for lost things in people’s homes hasn’t been turned into a cable reality show yet. It would probably be more fun than digging through abandoned storage sheds and shady pawn shops…
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We can try to sell it to a network. They might buy it!
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Last summer I finally threw out all those old boxes and manuals from computers long gone, removed the hard disks from the computers and went to the recycling center- felt good to purge- and no looking back 🙂
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I threw away the floppy disks and all the boxes from computers I no longer own. It hardly made a dent, but my son is renting a dumpster. I’m going to binge on throwing things away. THAT will help!
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The story of my life – trying to search for errant stuff – and find more random errant stuff that I was searching for last week when I needed them, but don’t need them now. Sigh
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I think there’s some kind of law. You never find what you are looking for, but you find what you WERE looking for and already replaced!
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Very true
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Do I hear the call to “spring clean”? (or at least rearrange) It’s weighing on me too.
Leslie
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I am trying to tackle this bit by bit. I don’t have the stamina to do a massive onslaught, but every day, I take on a closet or a shelf, or that icky corner of the bathroom. I may never get it done, but I’m trying.
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That’s a great way to do it. No point in doing yourself an injury over it. My argument is that I don’t have any little kids who would be eating off the floor anymore. So my advice to everyone is don’t eat off my floor.
Leslie
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BestBuy will take old electronics, from microwave ovens to computer monitors, floppies, and software. We unloaded, one painful bit at a time, 5 monitors and a zillion keyboards, computer towers, ink cartridges.
But I hear that familiar note of panic, since I too have certain irreplaceable (irreplacable) discs, too. The biggest one is my photodraw program, which goes back 16 years. Microsoft grudgingly acknowledges it, but with each upgrade of the computer they shave a bit off of this side and a bit off of that, as to function usability.
The programs I would like to keep are no longer of any value at all, since even the disc slots are obsolete…sigh
My husband has all the documentation for everything including our first 3.1 in 1995…all of it. every book, every disc, every shred of paper. It fills shelves. We really don’t need the owner’s manual for Win 95 (plus discs), but we keep it. Then again he still has his grade school math papers and his college books, so….
I do however, cling to my old Royal typewriters.
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Garry would approve. I think his heart is still with his old Royal. I love technology … but I hate that so much is obsolete before you finish paying for it.
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I was tidying up and found so many Apple boxes (Mac apple), I had to ask mr. Swiss if I really still needed them. He was not sure, so I have them all in the hobby room together. I found Adobe photoshop disk when I was looking, but realised it would probably no longer work on my windows 10 and I don’t need it. Ribbit does it just a well. Yes, we collect so much cyber garbage on the way and it all really has a short life until the next new thing arrives. I don’t even have disks now, it is all uploaded online. I had so many floppies and hard disks, but they are somewhere in the cyber happy hunting grounds. It is a shame really, I should have kept them.
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I have literally pounds and pounds of documentation for applications I no longer use (or even have). I did get rid of some of the boxes, at least for those cameras and computers that are clearly never going to be sold. Otherwise, my “office” is like a museum for techno-junk!
Photoshop works fine on Win 10. Anything from version 4 upward will run fine. But if you have something you just as well, why not? Is Ribbit only for Mac?
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Ribbet is free and you can get it for Mac or windows. I only have Photoshop 3, which will no longer work on my computers. Ribbet works on everything. I have it on Mac and on my windows. Ribbet
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I hate those sudden-panic moments when you realize you have no idea where an important *something* is at that moment in time. Yuck. Especially hate it when it happens when I’m trying to fall asleep. Usually, things do get found around here, but LarBear has the habit of throwing things away without asking, too, which has caused issues a few times. Ahhh well, I really don’t think I should be critical about his cleaning, even if he did throw away (inadvertently) some DVD’s we had rented and we had to pay $30 to replace them. Let’s just say we don’t rent DVD’s anymore. 🙂
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It ALWAYS happens when I’m trying to fall asleep. So I get up, and I root around. If I’m lucky, I find it and I can rest. Otherwise, it will keep gnawing at me. I think this isn’t just you and me. I think a lot of us can’t find our papers, our software, our jewelry … Unless we are looking for something else entirely and THEN it turns up.
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That’s weird that you should post this very subject because, at the moment, I’m taking a break from searching for a packet of SD cards that I’ve managed to lose/misplace for the second time. Replying to your post is my way of thinking it through in hopes of jogging my brain into remembering where exactly I’ve put them.
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Sometimes I lose things without ever leaving the place I’m sitting. I put it down and it vanishes. SD cards are particularly good at disappearing. But scissors, tape (oh, especially tape) and that important piece of paper are all tied for second place.
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Where have all the remingtons gone? Long time passin’…..
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