So I am still fighting with the server (yes, still). It works, but it does not. I know how cryptic right?

What I mean is that when I have the old hard drive in the RAID (4 hard disks that look like two disks. One the 2 "disks" is a mirror of the data for redundancy) I can get it into Windows and it works just fine. But, if I install the new hard drive and try to get it to rebuild the RAID like it should, it just fails and will not even touch Windows.

So right now, I am running the Windows setup again to repair the install which is something that I just have to do when going from the new disk back to the old one to make it all work right. Then it will "rebuild" it's self for about 10 hours (I know, screams of fun right?).

( Read the long version of how I got to where I am now... )

So ya, that is what’s going on with that. The other fun thing is my hours. As of my writing this, I have 37 hours for the week in 3 days. Monday I worked 16 hours. Tuesday I worked 10 hours and Wednesday I worked 11 hours. Now normally 37 hours is about where I am on a Friday at the end of the day, which means in theory I could take the next two days off, but I've got a server to fix, so I doubt that will happen.

Well that is all for now. You are now updated on the crap in my life. Somehow this is not how I thought I would spend my spring break. I really think I will take a day or two off (from work, not school) next week if I can get this dumb thing working. Also sorry if this entry seems a little random, but I did freaking write this at 2am after working 11 hours, so ya.

So getting ready to leave the office tonight at 7pm and head home, I log onto our big main SQL Server that runs our Dynamics GP Server Sofware to change the backup tape when what do I find, another fucking RAID event. Yes, another one. Now granted, it has been a while, but still, I thought I had this problem fixed.

So I make lots of backups of shit, cus I've been down this road before, and I was sure as hell not about to loose data like the last time. So I did my many different backups to many different places (Tape, Disk, Other Server) and take the server down for a reboot (the only way to get the drive to rebuild).

But I reliase my worst fear (ok, second worst) and the damn server will not come back up. I've tried it all. Replaced the RAID card, moved RAID to another computer, and nothing. What puzzles me is we only lost one freaking drive. We are suppose to be able to loose 2 fucking drives before we even have issues. So right now I have no fucking clue what is going on with it.

But what I am in the middle of doing is an emergency upgrade to Dynamics 9.0 on our old 7.5 backup server that I had never had the time to get to 9.0 and was one of my goals for this week. So I am trying that, which is going to be fun. Bascily I am trying to fit what took me mostly 2 mostly full days of work, and trying to get it done by 8am Tuesday morning.

Right now I am trying ever short cut that I know before I have to suck it up and do it the long way. My goal is that worse case I will have this place back up and running on something by Noon on Tuesday at the latest.

Now since I am going to try and have everything up in 8 hours, or 12 hours worse case, you can all guess what that means, no sleep for Kevin. So here in a bit, when the server gets to a point that I can let it go do its thing, I will escape out of here, run to wal-mart, and pick up a case of Mt. Dew and then run to my apartment for cot and sleeping bag.

So here is to another night in the office, and a long ass week when I was going to try and take it easy. O well, such is life right?

Not making this up, this is a real error message from my anti-virus program. LOL. I walked into my office this afternoon to find this message sitting on my screen. It cracks me up. Now what I want to know is this the error message that the programers wanted everyone to see, or did someone forget to replace there "fun" error with a real one?

So I was able to get in on the beta testing of Microsoft's new flag-ship Windows OS, Vista. My problem is that I can not get it to install. All I keep getting is errors, which I know I should expect, but at the same time, I would expect it to at least install.

So I think its a good thing that Microsoft is delaying the ship of Vista. As far as I can tell, its not ready for the primetime just yet. I hope to get a working copy of vista up soon, as I really want to play around and see it work. So I have another computer I can test it on, and I hope to get it to work.

Also I must say that there is a lot of bloat in the new OS. I mean, every comptuer that is going to have Vista, must have a DVD drive, as the install package is about 3.5gb. Thats freaking huge. Also the minimum requirement for Vista is a 40gb drive, with 15gb free. again huge. Windows XP with service pack 2, only takes up around a 1.5 to 2 gb of hard drive space. So I think this is going to be a departure for what we are used to.

I mean right now, a bare-bones system at Dell is probley not going to be able to handel Vista, which makes me wonder what will happen to the low-cost PC. Also, I can't wait to see how much Microsoft is going to try and charge us for Vista. If I remember right, its going to come in 6 or more flavors, where as XP only has 2 (Home and Pro).

Also from what I can tell from reading stuff about Vista, there is going to be a massive learning curve, which I think is good. I call that job security. LOL. I said this back when Windows 95 came out, and I will say it again, Mac's are becoming more and more like PC's and PC's are becoming more and more like Mac's. Its rather funny if you ask me. But only time will tell, and we shall see when Vista does come out.

So here I sit, working on a computer for the Central New Mexico Affiliate of The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, I remember how much I love to work with non-profit groups and how much joy it brings to be when I do stuff for them.

That is probley why I love helping out in the church. It gives me a sence that I am doing good things (and I would like to hope I am). I mean, I love my day job and everything and really get great fullfulment out of that, but when I am working with a non-profit who has a really good cause, much like the Susan G Komen Foundation, it gives me great joy.

So right now, I have just gotten done formating and reloading windows 98 (talk about old), on to a computer. I just reloaded the anti-virus software and did windows update. Now I am trying to install the printer again, and hoping it works. The printer is the reason why I decided to just wipe the computer clean and rebuild it.

For anyone who has not work inside a non-profit, most of the time you get what people are willing to give / donate to you. Well I must say the CNM Affilite of the Susan G. Komen foundation has been blesed in many ways. They just got office space donated to them (which is really cool), and a bunch of companys have helped out and donated funture and other stuff.

Well when we get to the subject of computers, even non-profits need them. So we got really lucky and got a few good computers (could be a bad name for a movie) donated. So, they went out and bought a good all-in-one printer/scanner/copier for the office. When Kathy the Administrative Assistant installed the printer on the laptop everything went fine. Then she tried hooking it up to the desktop computer and that is when all of the fun started.

Kathy is the type of person who I beleave is not afraid of computers and whatnot, so she gave it a go, and when it failed, she did not give up, she tired again. So, when that failed, she talked to HP (who made the printer), and tried everything they suggested. So, when that failed, she finaly broke down and called me.

So I figued that this would be a very easy project and that it would not take that long at all. Well, little did I know how long this was going to take, and really I am fine with how long it has taken to fix it. So Thursday since I had sometime built up I left the office around 3:30 and came over to there office and started to work on that and a few other things.

Like Kathy, I tried a few times to get it to install. When that failed, I tried a few other things and that too did not work. Well when did not work, I broke down and got out there laptop and hooked it up next to the computer I was working on and started a chat session with HP. I did not call them as a chat session works much better for me, and allows me to still use my ipod. LOL. Anyway, I worked for 4 hours or so with the guy from HP and still had not gotten it fixed. So finaly totaly fedup with the computer / printer and also it being close to 11pm and I had not had dinner yet, I gave up.

So I sent a email to Paula who is the Executive Director of the Central New Mexico Affiliate, and a really good and close friend (which is how I have gotten involoved with the Komen Foundation) and told her what I had gotten done so far on all the comptuers. I then asked if there was anything on the desktop comptuer that they really needed since I figured in the long run it would be better if I just formated and reloaded the computer. She told me that no, there was nothing on there yet, and that I could do what ever I needed to make it work.

So on Friday at my office I found the disks and drivers I would need for the computer and got everything that I needed ready to go. So Saturday after getting a bunch of other stuff done down at my old office (yes I still help them), I went back to my apartment got some stuff and went down to my office did what I needed to down there, and grabed what I needed to format and reload the comptuer.

Stopped at The Range on my way to the Komen office for dinner, and finaly got here around 8pm. Also when I got here, I was being a total stupid head, and ended up locking my keys in my car (fun fun, NOT!). So I called my dad, and asked him if he would mind comming up and unlocking my car for me. Lucky for me, I had grabed the keys to the building before I locked my keys in my car, so I was able to go in and get started as I waited for my dad to come and unlock my car.

So about 35 min later here or so, my mom and dad pull up out side the office and call me to let me they know they got here. So I went down and got my keys out of my car, and then since they came the whole way up, <>miles one way, I figured I would at least show them the office and stuff.

So gave them the tour and then they went on there way back to where they came from (Corrales). Then I got started working on the computer. I got the comptuer formated and got Windows 98 reinstalled really easy. I then got all the drivers loaded up and got the computer back to a normal working order. Got the anti-virus reinstalled and did Windows Update to get all the security patches and stuff the comptuer needs. So, finaly with the computer updated and patched and read to go, and I started to install the printer.

So, stuck the CD in the drive and the install software started right up and started going at it. So I must add that this software for the printer to install take 10 days and a year to install. I am not sure what all it installs, but I think it must be installing every little peice of software it could get its hands on. LOL. Anyway, so finaly I get to the point here I needed to connect the USB cable, and it found the printer (like it had done before), and everything was looking good.

So finaly it gets to the point where it says it has to reboot (which is normal in Windows 98). So I let it reboot and windows starts back up. Now normaly this is where the install would crap out and the printer would not work. So when the comptuer came backup I checked the printers folder and sure enough there was the printer. I think I screamed "Hell YES!" lol. So I let the install finish up what it needed and had the computer print a test page and it printed just fine!

So right now I am finishing up on a few last things. Then after that I am going to clean up and get ready to head out and go home.

Peace,
Kevin