COMPUTER CRASH!!!!! —
My Windows 7 computer, the one I use for art, has been acting wonky for weeks. I've been planning for some time to do a restore or even a re-install. Windows users are used to that, and I'm always prepared for it. I always keep backups of everything, and I even keep extra hardware. And I never, ever use my internal hard drive for storage.

So... I was actually in the process this afternoon of starting a full restore when everything just froze and quit. Normally, with all my preparation, this just means a re-install and maybe plug in a back up hard drive (which I have handy). Well, it ain't that easy...

The problem is, I can't just run a repair or restore from the various disks I've made because the hard drive that failed won't boot at all. Furthermore, my copy of Windows 7 is an UPGRADE version, which means it WILL NOT install unless the original Vista OS is present... which it ain't.

Now, I never throw anything away. The original Vista hard drive that came with this machine is in storage IN TAMPA. In other words, NOT NEAR ME. Ironically, I'll be in Tampa in 10 days or so, but that doesn't help me RIGHT NOW.

The only immediate solution I can think of is to buy and download a NEW copy of Windows 7, which will avoid similar problems in the future... but it'll cost like $200. That's what I'm gonna do, though. Getting started right now... (Just hoping this old Windows 2000 machine I pulled out of the closet will be able to burn an install disk...)

UPDATE: Yes, of course I made restore disks, and yes, I did make full system backups. They will not install onto the new hard drive and the old hard drive is fried.

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