Dalif plus new disk equals mayhem

I bought a new sata drive three days ago. I've been running low on
disk space for some time, and had been wanting a new drive for about as
long. Finally went ahead, after learning that the hdd prices were low.
500gb of Wester Digital goodness. Indeed. So, Ranc, my trusty hardware
pusher, brings it home with him, and it sits on the kitchen counter for
a day. Funny thing is, I hate shutting down my comp, and I hate opening
it up to mess with hardware. I mean, I enjoy it usually, but I just
always have this weird paranoid feeling that something will go wrong.
Also, I realize I don't have any SATA harddisk cables. Those don't come
along with the disks anymore. 

Day two: Ranc saves the day once
again, by bringing home a SATA disk cable. Splendid. Another few hour
pass by, and I finally get around to powering everything down, and
opening it up. I yank harddisk trays out, and contemplate where to put
the disk. I select a suitable tray, and fiddle around with cables.
Cables in a comp and how to run them are more and more of a logistic
conundrum these days. So many wires of power and data. I open both
sides of the case up, and yoink cables. I soon realize, that I lack a
power cable for the disk as well. Oh damn... and it's Saturday, isn't
it? Why can't stuff just work.

I get up.. it's 2pm. Shops could
possibly close at 3, 4 and 5pm. I grab my coat and shoes and head on
out. Where to go. This area I'm in is known for a huge amount of
greengrocers and fast food places... not for it's share of hardware
stores. There are two stores, both dealing mostly in appliances and
phones and TVs and such. They do both have computer hardware, but
mostly pre-installed comps and laptops. I enter the first one, and have
a gander at their shelves. Nothing of value. I happen to stroll by
their laptop section, and of course, can't help but check out the
specs. Some old dude who works there, strolls over with the mandatory
"Anything I can do you for, sir?". Oh boy. I decide on the spot, that
I'll lay my predicament on him like peanutbutter on toast. So I explain
to him, I'll admit rather speedily, that I need a power converter from
regular molex connectors to sata hdd connectors. I finish, and there's
a moment of utter silence. Then he goes: "I didn't understand a word of
that". Right, we're obviously dealing with a Nobel candidate here. I
repeat it, emphasizing words he'll understand.. Harddisk... cable...
sata... After I'm done the second time around, he scratches his head
and goes "No.. no I don't think we can help you". Are you joking me? Of
course you can't. Hadn't expected you to, pops. I've got eyes myself,
don't you know. But I just told him I figured as much, and I left in a
blaze of cotton.

Back on the street, I hit the other store I
had in mind, with similar results. No old dude, but I did encounter a
lady with one of the funniest voices I've heard in a long while. The
kind you could hear as soon as you entered the rather sizable store,
but couldn't quite figure out where in the hell came from. Turns out it
was this small woman talking to an employee about a fridge. I surveyed
the store for a few min, quickly, as I had anticipated, determining
their lack of helpful cables and/or converters. What would Jesus do
now, I can't help but ask myself. And of course, it becomes blatantly
obvious. In true Millionaire style, Jesus would call a friend. It's the
old asking for help deal, isn't it? Well when it comes to important
computer issues (I really needed that disk to work), I wasn't too good
to call in the cavalery. Enter Bense. I dial his number while exiting
the store, once again in a blaze of black cotton.

Bense
searches through the old brain register, and comes up with a possible
solution. Since he's in the neighborhood, and we HAD sort of planned to
hang out that day anyway, he swung by quickly, and accompanied me to
this little off the main street store. The kind of store, and I'm sure
you all know the type, where there's never more than one of each item,
and nothing is sorted. It's just all located on shelves and on the
floor along the wall. Whether this was deliberate or if it was just
because the bastid was too damned lazy to straighten things out, I
don't know. The shopkeep was on the phone when we entered, so
thankfully I didn't have to explain what I needed just yet. After a bit
of puzzled looking aimlessly around, I happened upon it. The very cable
I was looking for.. in the most unlikely of places. And what's more, it
was attached to a SATA hdd cable... in case Ranc hadn't brought me one.
Well, I grab it off the shelf, positively beaming with delight. Having
to endure 5 minutes of loitering in front of the counter before the guy
gets off the phone and serves me, couldn't bring my spirits down. I ask
how much it is. He mumbles something, that sounds like eleven. I ask...
"Eleven?". He looks horrorstruck.. like I had just suggested he could
have a kick in the face for it. "No no no not eleven.... that's not
eleven. That is twenty". I'm briefly puzzled. But I care not. All I
need is for the transaction to be complete before the bogeyman comes
and jinxes my luck. I pay the man twenty, and he hands over the item.
Great stuff. In a weird off the cuff moment, the man then starts to
explain what it is, I have just purchased from him. I'm puzzled at this
point. I've just bought this from him. Why on earth would I buy
something, and then not have any idea what it was I just bought? I
mean, I just bought it ferchrissakes. What the hell is going on. I exit
the shop, mildly annoyed. Does he think I'm an idiot?

Bense and
I do a bit of shopping before going to my apartment. It's harddisk
time. I do more shifting of cables. I'm sweating like a farm animal
now. I hate being on my knees under a table with hardly any light. Oh
well.. 500gb are waiting. I hook everything up, and while I'd usually
be optimistic and put the sides back on the case before turning things
on, I wisely decide NOT to do that today. And it turned out, that was
indeed the best decision I had made in that particular hour of the day.
Because only the DVD drive and the new disk was detected when I booted.
And since I do in fact have two other disks in the box, I didn't find
that particularly settling. Another puzzled look (Should watch out it
doesn't get stuck on my face), and some backtracking... what had I done
that could force this sort of behavior. I check cables for the new
disk, for the dvd drive.. I check and check and yank out, and try and
what have we. Nothing. Mild panic spreads. What if the two old drives
are broken. I might have to kill myself if they were, and I'd really
hate to have to do that, seing as I rather like myself and don't want
anything bad to happen to me. In the end, it turns out that yanking out
the bottom hdd tray meant also yanking the power to those two disks.
The cable was sort of behind a seperator in the case, so I didn't
immediately see it. So, I boot up, and everything is juuuuuuust peachy.
I partition and format the disk (formatting took like 2 hours), and
it's spinning like a kitten as we type. And already halfway filled up
:) I love having enough space.