Tom's new computer arrived today from a shop in Brisbane. His old laptop gave up the ghost two weeks ago after working like a dog for four years. The new unit is a CPU with some new-fangled video card and a whopping hard-drive. Straight out of the box I had problems, for the new "gaming monitor" used an old tech VGA cable, so off to the shops I went for an HDMI upgrade.

Then after booting up I was confronted with the BIOS screen rather than Windows. Hmm, where is the hard-drive, I wondered? On the phone, a kind technician talked me through opening the case and reconnecting the wires to the hard-drive. Alas, every time I put the unit back together, the pressure of the case dislodged the wires. Bios screen again! And again!

"I'd like you to re-site the hard-drive," my optimistic tech-fellow said.

"I beg your pardon?" was my astonished reply.


It turned out to be far less daunting than it sounded and 30 minutes later, the machine was humming along with a Windows screen. And while it is very small potatoes, I am feeling a little proud of myself.

Have a go, is the lesson I learnt from this episode. But only if the power is off!

One hard drive in a new home.