Woe is me and the death of data...
3 months ago
From the Desk of Jack the Gorilla....
I'm very bothered by something that has frustrated me all week. So let me let you in on the ordeal of upgrading my computer.
Until this week I've been running Windows 7, with a massive harddrive an Asus motherboard and 16gb ram. It has served me well for years, with tiny tweaks along the way.
In the last year I've finally been running into modern software I couldn't quite handle. So after these programs finally piled up, I decided to update my OS to Windows 11.
So as I go to install I'm informed that my mother board lacks some stupid modern features, and I decide to hold off til after Anthrocon to upgrade.
So this weekend I purchase a new motherboard, an i7 processor, 32GB ram and a new cooling fan just in case. Then, I realize this motherboard doesn't have a port for the old proprietary purple keyboard input. Microcenter no long carries the adaptors and believes they are no longer in production, so I grab a $12 usb keyboard. I'll find a way to get my old 1989 mechanical back in order later.
After a nap bacck home I do one final back up of my computer and take her down. I diligently disconnect everything, and empty my chassis, and start assembling the new board and components. I decide to use the new fan because I don't have any thermal paste for to reuse the old one. Okay, but the little fan clips to clip the fan to the heat sink are flimsy garbage, similar to bent out of shape paper clips. Urg. And I cut my knuckles up pretty good banging around that case.
Okay I get everything set up and ready to go..... Damn, no VGA serial port for my monitor, okay, I have a spare HDMI cord. Wait a sec..... until yesterday I had never heard of DP display port...... Not happy. I pester my room mate to pick one up for me on his way home.
Okay finally ready to go. Power on. I said, power on. Why aren't you powering on? Ohhhh, I inverted my little jumpers, no problem.
Ahhhh it booted up to a beautiful and overly detailed bios display. Now to install windows. Ok, delete partitions and fresh install on my SSD.
One eternity later....It is done. And as I'm setting up....gee this thing is sluggish.... why. And where is my secondary/slave drive? Ummmm..... why did it's partition get deleted too? WHY?
So I'm running software to rediscover the previous existing partition in hopes of saving that data. I backed up and saved a number of the things there, but that drive was mainly the giant dumping ground of all my photoshop software and pieces as well as a folder of all the randomly dumped photo off various cameras since 2009. I'm a bit distraught that it could be lost.
I used to be good at building these damn machines, but that was long ago....So is frustrated ape,
Thanks for listening, any advice or I told you so's would be appreciated in the comments.
Until this week I've been running Windows 7, with a massive harddrive an Asus motherboard and 16gb ram. It has served me well for years, with tiny tweaks along the way.
In the last year I've finally been running into modern software I couldn't quite handle. So after these programs finally piled up, I decided to update my OS to Windows 11.
So as I go to install I'm informed that my mother board lacks some stupid modern features, and I decide to hold off til after Anthrocon to upgrade.
So this weekend I purchase a new motherboard, an i7 processor, 32GB ram and a new cooling fan just in case. Then, I realize this motherboard doesn't have a port for the old proprietary purple keyboard input. Microcenter no long carries the adaptors and believes they are no longer in production, so I grab a $12 usb keyboard. I'll find a way to get my old 1989 mechanical back in order later.
After a nap bacck home I do one final back up of my computer and take her down. I diligently disconnect everything, and empty my chassis, and start assembling the new board and components. I decide to use the new fan because I don't have any thermal paste for to reuse the old one. Okay, but the little fan clips to clip the fan to the heat sink are flimsy garbage, similar to bent out of shape paper clips. Urg. And I cut my knuckles up pretty good banging around that case.
Okay I get everything set up and ready to go..... Damn, no VGA serial port for my monitor, okay, I have a spare HDMI cord. Wait a sec..... until yesterday I had never heard of DP display port...... Not happy. I pester my room mate to pick one up for me on his way home.
Okay finally ready to go. Power on. I said, power on. Why aren't you powering on? Ohhhh, I inverted my little jumpers, no problem.
Ahhhh it booted up to a beautiful and overly detailed bios display. Now to install windows. Ok, delete partitions and fresh install on my SSD.
One eternity later....It is done. And as I'm setting up....gee this thing is sluggish.... why. And where is my secondary/slave drive? Ummmm..... why did it's partition get deleted too? WHY?
So I'm running software to rediscover the previous existing partition in hopes of saving that data. I backed up and saved a number of the things there, but that drive was mainly the giant dumping ground of all my photoshop software and pieces as well as a folder of all the randomly dumped photo off various cameras since 2009. I'm a bit distraught that it could be lost.
I used to be good at building these damn machines, but that was long ago....So is frustrated ape,
Thanks for listening, any advice or I told you so's would be appreciated in the comments.
FA+

For your keyboard, I can see some Monoprice USB adapters on Amazon. A "PCIE PS2 Expansion Card" might be better/easier-to-find, but might need a power connection (molex or SATA).