And I thought yesterday was bad!

The day didn't start well.  The desktop system, which had been running relatively well for six months, started to throw up odd errors.  If I was any more suspicious than I am, I'd think there had been a recent update that was causing problems here and at work, but there's been nothing recently.

So I thought I'd rebuild.  Got all the data off on to a spare portable drive, got updated copies of all the software etc.  Initially, it looked good - I remembered the problems about multiple disks and RAM limitations, put the Intel RAID drivers on as part of the OS install, and got a quick Vista install up and running in no time.  Then I added the extra RAM - still OK - and the extra disk.  Ah, that was a mistake.  Vista couldn't see the disk at all.  The BIOS knew it was there, Intel's RAID tool knew it was there, Vista said "what disk?".

Unfortunately, the resolution to this seems to be to run the SATA disks in IDE mode, losing all that performance from AHCI.  I'm still unhappy about this, but having built the box with separate drives (not crossing the RAID systems as I did last time - RAID 0 and RAID 1 on the same disks.  Weird but it worked), I reckon I can rebuild it later if and when I find an answer.  Right now, I need an Internet fix.

Most of the software has gone back on OK, but I am having some problems with software configuration, in particular with Forte's Agent usenet reader software.  I have a legitimate licence, but I think it expired with version 2, and I cannot source a copy that old from anywhere.  I do remember declining to update (at extra cost) to the newer versions, because the increased emphasis on email and HTML wasn't what I wanted.  I enjoy the simple text presentation of the older product, and have alternative email programs.  Unfortunately, nothing else seems to come near to Agent's completely intuitive thread handling.   The upshot of all this is that my version 2 key won't do to activate the version 3 software which is all I have at present.  I could stick with the Free Agent version, but this lacks one or two extras that I've come to depend on.

I suspect this will be the pattern of the next few days.  I've already had a an argument with my Azureus install - it keeps on trying to run some sort of Web 2.0 interface, offering video downloads.  I want the old version back.  In fact, I want my old PC setup back - this has to be the biggest change in the computing environment (application-wise) that I've suffered for years.