My computer is ill. Remarkably since arriving in Hong Kong it has been serviced by remote link by the same technical wizard who looked after it when we were but a dash up the A3 in SW15. I don't really understand how it works but this incredible technology means that my cursor can be operated by a man sitting 6,000 miles away who then makes my computer better. Only this time something has gone seriously wrong. He suspects a Trojan invasion and tells me I need to find out if my hard drive is IDE or SATA and then buy a USB drive enclosure and take out the hard drive and plug it into my laptop. He might as well be speaking to me in Chinese.
Just recently I asked for party bags in a big international department store. After much explaining and gesticulating and the intervention of several other shop assistants who supposedly did understand English I was directed to a stand and shown some post-it notes. On another occasion when trying to find duvet covers I was taken to the nail scissors. I find the prospect of having a similarly baffling encounter with a mystified shop assistant when I don't really understand what it is I am after more than terrifying. Meanwhile the Trojan is busy eating its way through my files and folders, my pictures and documents.
I am like the rabbit frozen in the glare of the headlights, petrified for the loss of hundreds of files and too scared to go in search of a USB drive enclosure for fear of returning with a carpet cleaner.
We bought our first computer in 2000. In just eight and a half years my life, my communication, my ability to read the news, research a project, look up a detail and contact a friend has become dependent on this hardware/software heap on my desk. And this is the second one that has died on me. In less than nine years. Clearly they are not built to last, but where do they all go? Is there a hole in the ground (next to the one full of disposable nappies) filling up with our old computers? Will anyone reclaim and recycle it while I look for a USB drive enclosure and a new model?
In the meantime, bear with me. I may be gone some time.
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3 comments:
I love my Mac! Never have any virus or Trojan problems with it!
Did the tech support person not tell you how to find out if the drive is IDE or SATA?
Oh dear, hope you sort it soon!
Tee hee. I lived in HK for a number of years and once tried to buy a hot water bottle in Watsons. They thought about it for a bit and then directed me to the thermos flasks.
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