My computer still appears to be buggered. After yesterday's UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME error, I managed (with your help) to type the correct sequence of obscure codes and instructions to reboot successfully and get back onto the internet. However, the partition (technical term, sorry) containing all my photos, music and documents doesn't appear to be in good shape. A few folders seem to have unexpectedly emptied, and the remaining folders aren't always openable. I don't think the problem's virus related, because I ran a full scan a few hours before everything went pear-shaped. But I've had real trouble trying to dig around through a barely comprehensible hierarchy of system tools and technical gobbledegook in an attempt to get at the root of the problem. As yet, still no luck.
any assistance gratefully received:
So I need to ask. Why are PCs so inherently rubbish?* I mean, underneath, in the operating system, the bit you have to dig around in when things go wrong. It's like the 1980s never ended. The system font is ancient and unfriendly. The interface is archaic and clunky. There are flashing prompts and unhelpful cryptic messages. Nothing is obvious, everything is hidden. If you started designing a new computer operating system today, you wouldn't design it like this. Hell, if you were designing a new computer operating system ten years ago you wouldn't have designed it like this. Surely it doesn't have to be this way, not now, in the 21st century.
But I suppose it's quite impressive that we can still access beneath the surface of our computers. Because when most of our gadgets go wrong, we have no choice but to return them for repair or simply buy ourselves a replacement. New cars, for example, are now governed by integrated electronic systems so complex that you can't just tinker under your bonnet any more - you have to pay a garage for permission to plug your engine into their diagnostic computer and then pay handsomely for the privilege. And you wouldn't dream of taking your television apart, or re-programming your iPod, or typing machine code instructions into your mobile phone. At least with computers you can still get underneath and try to put things right. Or at least some people can.
Microsoft's operating systems aren't for the majority. They're complex, ill-evolved coding labyrinths, and as meaningless to most of us as conversations in Swahili. When the blue screen of death appears, what hope does your average Briton have of putting things right? When a hard drive judders, or a database fails to load, how the hell should we ordinary folk know what to do? Thank goodness for the technically literate. All those good kind souls who devoted their teenage years to learning machine code and taking motherboards apart when they could have been out socialising, and who now keep the nation's IT departments in full working order. At least they understand the meaningless instructions and subroutines that Bill Gates imposes on the world. In fact, if PCs actually worked, logically, sensibly, comprehensively, then half of the world's millions of IT-based employees would be out of a job. And that would be a bad thing, wouldn't it? But at least my computer would work. Damn.
* Yes, I know, Macs are different. Hurrah if you've got one. But, deep down, the majority of the world's computers are inherently rubbish. Why?
