I just know that if Bill Gates stole some better technology, or if any one of the other better technologies prevailed in the beginning, life on the computer would be SO MUCH BETTER than it is today! There is no end to which this incredibly convoluted Microsoft operating system astounds me.

Last week, I had a near-death experience, whereby over 120 GB of data disappeared from my system, because the "dynamic" disk it was stored on suddenly became unreadable by Windows XP Pro. According to the literature I have read, dynamic disks are supposed to be more fault-tolerant and more easily recovered. I would much rather settle for a disk that is simple and readable.

I got a REALLY BAD FEELING in my gut when I converted the basic disk to a dynamic disk (before I knew anything about dynamic disks), and felt nervous about it since I also discovered the conversion was a one-way trip.

But I have found even more to hate about the operating system. Things are getting so complicated under the hood that it is amazing - ABSOLUTELY AMAZING - that anything works at all! I was having difficulty with the buggy data recovery software I was using to recover my files (that I was unable to access only because Microsoft's own operating system forgot how to read its own disk that it created). In the process of recovering files, I did a test. There was this " Metafiles" folder showing up (note the leading space in the name) that I have never seen before (it's one of those hidden file system things), and I did a partial recovery on it (only because I stopped the recovery process after I noticed the files being recovered even though I told the data recovery software not to recover them).

I made the mistake of attempting to take a peek at the recovered files, since they were showing up as visible files now on the drive. I launched Explorer and double-clicked on the drive, then on the directory, then...CLICK! Something clicked - I'm not sure what. The screen went blank. No blue screen or anything. Then the BIOS kicked in and the computer rebooted. It got all the way to the desktop, but then I couldn't do anything. Nothing worked. The Start menu wouldn't come up, I couldn't open Explorer...NOTHING!

WOW! I'd like to know what I did! Who need a virus when you have a Windows operating system? And Windows XP Pro nonetheless!

I had to boot into safe mode to a command prompt so I could go delete the " Metafiles" directory. That's when I discovered there was a leading space in the file name, because I was having a hell of a time trying to delete the directory, as the operating system kept telling me the stupid thing didn't exist.

I finally managed to delete the directory and all the meta files and was able to reboot and use the computer again. I won't go into the painful details of what I am encountering now with the data recovery software (their developers are looking at the problem, now), so I'll just leave it at.... <<<<< S I G H ! ! ! >>>>>

I came to the conclusion yesterday that I must never meet Bill Gates in person. If I do, I know I will lose all sense of self-control and will wind up in prison for the rest of my life. Then again, it might not be such a bad thing - I'd be a hero!

---