if it wasn't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all

[TDarcos trapped on mobile]

It never rains but it pours.

My primary computer, the silver 32 GB memory, 2 terabyte SSD computer, stopped working, in that Windows 10 stopped working and would not boot.

So, for about the last two weeks or so, I've been using a standby computer that I've had on hand for just such an emergency, my gold computer: 16 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD. The thing that (partially) saved me was that I had on an external hard drive, an old copy of the password file from Firefox, or I should say, the Firefox saved logins file. Not the most recent, but enough to get by. It's actually a copy of the entire Firefox directory in the Mozilla working directory, which means basically it has everything: passwords, bookmarks, cookies, everything. In other words Firefox can't tell the difference when you change computers if you take the old folder and drop it in replacing the one that was on there, it wipes whatever was there and replaces it with whatever you had in there so as far as Firefox is concerned it is exactly the same system as you had wherever it was.

I Needed to create a Windows recovery disk and put it on an SD card. Over the period of time I created a recovery disc and misplaced it, created the second recovery USB, just misplaced it, created a third recovery disc (you get the idea that you think by now I would have realized I need to be more careful) then finally created a fourth recovery disk and I remembered to keep that safe.

Okay, so then I decide I'll switch back to the old (silver) computer and it basically means unplugging my keyboard, my mouse, possibly my headphones, and moving the DisplayPort cable from the gold computer to back to the silver one - they're both Dell computers - but one has a gold color case, and the other is silver, you know, steel, aluminum, whatever you want to call it. Only now the old computer tried to do a hardware boot and then just quit. I see the Dell logo with a circle around it. The computer rebooted and then... nothing.

Before, the operating system wouldn't start up, it would tell me no no media or would say some message about Windows not starting properly, or whatever it was. The computer itself was fine but for some reason the operating system was not working. It suddenly failed, I hadn't done anything, it just happened. At one time I think I rebooted - or something - and at that moment it stopped working.

Well anyway, so what happened? I said, well okay, then what I have to do is, if nothing else I'll take the SSD, it's you know, an M2 card type that goes in the old computer, remove it, put it in an SSD reader, you know, in an M2 reader and get the information as well as my files. Okay, so I go to look, I thought I bought an M2 reader for just that reason. I can't find it, or I don't have it, anyway. So I said, okay we'll put everything back on the gold computer, I'll start it back up again and order an M2 reader.

It won't start. I have a suspicion, see, I can't reach the computer, my friend Leslie has to help me and I think he may be doing something wrong. Even he can see that's a possibility, but anyway, so I figured, the next step is is that if I can't get it back on then I do it manually. That means I have him bring the computer up here on my table in front of me, I'll plug the power cord in myself, plug the video cable in myself, plug the USB ports for the keyboard and mouse myself, and I make sure everything is connected I personally do it so that I don't have to depend on him doing it and I suspect if I do that it will work.

Because when I try to log into it I didn't get it to boot but what would happen is nothing would be recognized it wouldn't recognize any of the USB devices: the keyboard, the mouse, nothing. Even though the damn thing worked perfectly when I shut it down before I switch computers. This is makes no sense, because why would it stop working even though it was operating normally before I switched machines.

So, since I don't have access to the passwords from my old computer, I can't log in as TDarcos, so I may be incommunicado over the next few days - or at least, I would have to post under a guest account like I'm doing now - until I figure out what I can do to solve this problem.

I can't even go on Amazon to order something because guess what: how do I log into Amazon's website? My credentials are on my old (silver) computer or on my standby (gold) computer! I had it set up on both machines, so I mean it's inaccessible and I can't log on anywhere!
- - -
Sent from a mobile phone, using speech to text.

[Da King]

This is why I am a fan of cloud password managers. I get the inherent risks (see: LastPass). I think Apple has the best built-in security. KeePass is a valid alternative. But I'd be toast without a proper password manager.

Sorry about your computer(s). Oy.

[Casual Observer]

Curious, Paul, how do you misplace multiple things when you're confined to a bed? There must be a whole pile of flash drives under your bed.

[AArdvark]

In the nurse's pockets, you mean

[Tdarcos]

It never rains but it pours.

A trademark for Morton's Fork err I mean Morton Salt. It's also the premise of Albert Hammond's great song (#5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart) from 1972, It Never Rains In Southern California. In my case, I'm using it in the way Albert did.

So I said, okay we'll put everything back on the gold computer, I'll start it back up again and order an M2 reader.

It won't start. I have a suspicion, see, I can't reach the computer, my friend Leslie has to help me and I think he may be doing something wrong. Even he can see that's a possibility, but anyway, so I figured, the next step is is that if I can't get it back on then I do it manually. That means I have him bring the computer up here on my table in front of me, I'll plug the power cord in myself, plug the video cable in myself, plug the USB ports for the keyboard and mouse myself, and I make sure everything is connected I personally do it so that I don't have to depend on him doing it and I suspect if I do that it will work.

And that's exactly what I did, and that's exactly what happened, which is why I'm posting now. Oh, and my old computer simply won't boot to the operating system, as far as I can tell that's the only problem, the hardware seems to be working correctly, except I can't seem to get it to boot off an SD card plugged into a USB card reader stick.

I need to fix some setting(s) in the BIOS (or whatever the pre-boot setup is) to make it happen, but I can't quite seem to figure out how yet.

So, since I don't have access to the passwords from my old computer, I can't log in as TDarcos, so I may be incommunicado over the next few days - or at least, I would have to post under a guest account like I'm doing now - until I figure out what I can do to solve this problem.

Well, for the moment I have, except for the problem of USB SD card reader/writer devices keep going missing, despite no one else is around to take them.

I have a (humorous) explanation for that: a phenomenon I and Les use to refer to what is happening: The Vortex. It's a place where, whenever I have a serious need for something, that device disappeared into. In cartoons, it's called Hammerspace. When a 'Toon pulls out a hammer/mallet out of nowhere, and the only possible explanation is that it was stuck up their ass, is that the object was stored someplace outside reality, i.e. Hammerspace.

Now if I could figure out how the Vortex does this, i.e. make things of mine disappear to (and sometimes return from) who-knows-where, and find a way to do this on demand (especially if it could be told to bring stuff back on demand), it could be very useful...

I can't even go on Amazon to order something because guess what: how do I log into Amazon's website? My credentials are on my old (silver) computer or on my standby (gold) computer! I had it set up on both machines, so I mean it's inaccessible and I can't log on anywhere!

Actually, with my cell phone I can log on using 2-Factor-Identification, by receiving an e-mail message with a code to respond with, and a different response code by text message. A bit of a pain in the ass, but at least it means it is very difficult for someone to impersonate me.

So I do have a couple of SD card readers, I ordered some more and an M.2 reader if all else fails. And while I had two 512 MiB SD cards, I found something I did not know I had, a 1TB SD card.

Curious, Paul, how do you misplace multiple things when you're confined to a bed? There must be a whole pile of flash drives under your bed.

I suspect that's probably not far off...

I found one of the ziplock bags on the bed. Even Les admits his eyesight is very poor. So it looks like The Vortex has returned something after fucking with me for a while.