The Loss of Wonderland

Sometime in October, wonderland (my laptop) suffered a serious software issue. Something went wrong, and the Red Queen decided it was 'off with their heads' - they being the applications and associated system files installed under the Windows 7 OS.

At the outset, this was an insidious issue. Only a few files were affected. But momentum picked up in the latter half of October, until one Friday only the core OS was left. That, and solitaire. That thing is unkillable FFS.

I have spent days, nay, weeks diagnosing, repairing ... and in despair rebuilding ... the system. Suspecting malware, I scanned and rescanned what was left, and every peripheral and device with non-volatile memory (the rest I unplugged for a good couple of days - just to be sure, I also reset them as well).

I have completed a clean reinstall. Gone are the small settings and adjustments that personalise. Gone too are any emails, photos, documents, and contacts I hadn't successfully backed-up.

It turns out that my otherwise meticulous archive system was one of the first to be affected. The encryption that was supposed to protect became distorted and gigabytes of gibberish remain. (yes, I have tried *everything* ... Two weeks is a long time ...)

I now have bandersnatch (an early Xmas present from Monique) upon which to pummel my drafts and edits. And wonderland is back, though still suffering some after effects (there is just no way to get the Bluetooth back on properly, so I've given up - the network controller driver refuses to install - so dormouse is just another object on the desktop for now.)

I am thinking of renaming wonderland to redqueen. And having rescued as much of my thesis as I can, I am getting back to writing. from Steven
via Bandersnatch, a frumious iPad

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