Harold, the desktop PC on which I churn out all the stuff you so eagerly tune in to read on 6000 miles… has been playing up of late. Waiting for him to perform simple tasks – such as opening an email – was like waiting for Mad Bob to release some election results: frustratingly slow, but for some reason seemingly acceptable to Thabo Mbeki*.
The usual poking about through the Windows XP System Tools, defragging and tidying up revealed a frightening fact. Harold is full. Brimming. Chock-a-block with data.
When I put Harold together, it was on a shoestring budget. The bare minimum of everything that I needed and the money saved put towards extra RAM. You can never have enough RAM, as every welshman I’ve ever known has been at pains to point out.
Since Norman (Harold’s predeccessor) was nearly 6 years old when his hard drive caught fire (yes – really), he was rather basic by today’s standards. And back then, 20GB of hard drive seemed (and was) plenty. So when I upgraded Norman to Harold, 80GB seemed like a figure I would never reach. Silly me.
But that’s where this sexy bit of kit comes in.
Iomega 500GB USB Hard Drive. See how she reflects.
I am going to call her Edith. The photo really doesn’t do her justice. Stats here.
And bought on offer in beautiful cheap, local South African Rands from Digital Planet.
I don’t think I’ve ever possessed hardware that looks this gorgeous. And although it seems almost sacrilegious to sully her with data, it didn’t take me long to realise that the quicker I fill her up, the quicker I can move onto playing with her big sister.
At this point, I think that it’s important to note that I never used this logic with my girlfriends.
Well, not often, anyway.
She’s shining her blue light at me. I think I have to go and stroke her a little now.
* at least, he never called me to protest anyway