In Control

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(Edited)

Me voluntarily participating in any sort of cleaning chores is like trying to mix water with oil. Mostly because I'm super sluggish, and even more so, I am severely allergic to dust. If there will be the first time in world history that a man died due to excessive sneezing, it might be me. And so, my best course of action to avoid cleaning in any way possible is to shove whatever I don't need into the attic and forget about it. Well, it isn't infinitely spacious. And so, unfortunately, I think a decade, or so later, I couldn't avoid cleaning it.

Doubled down on 3mm surgical masks, wore a set of old clothes, took a powerful flashlight with me, and jumped into the arena with cleaning supplies like a gladiator. Our attic isn't a traditional one like most houses have. Instead, it's a 6-700 sqft of empty space on the third floor right above our main staircase full of junk, most of which I forgot even existed. For example, I found a very old game boy there, which I think has turned into a collectible by this point. It's at least 25 years old and has been passed down among our siblings. Most kids nowadays, I don't think even know such a thing ever existed.

Up there in the attic, along with the GameBoy, I found another ancient digital device—a very old first generation intel Pentium 3 PC, my first computer ever. Well, like the GameBoy, this one too was a hand out from my older brother. Brought back a lot of memories. Back then, I was the only kid with a computer in my class. For years, before I went on to study in a sort of a military school, I was that kid everyone envied, that kid who played video games. But in my three years in that school, I had slowly forgotten all about that pc and became busy with my old Nintendo.

When I found the pc, I was stunned for a moment. Because I remembered that the puny 80 gb hard drive in it was full of photos which I thought were forever lost. As you see, there were no cloud servers back then. Either you had negative rolls or digital copies, and that was about it. In the 2000s, my late sister owned an Olympus camera with which she had gone through hundreds of negative reels. At one point, we took all of the images she took over the years to a studio and made digital copies of them. But now, the only copies of those are on that hard drive.

I spent a whole day trying to get it to function again. But when I tried to turn it on, the motherboard continuously beeped, indicating that the ram in it is not working. It houses three DDR1 supported slots. All of which are dead. The hard disk uses these old 24 PATA ribbon connectors, which none of the modern PCs supports. So, for the past few days, I've been running around Dhaka in hopes of finding a trustworthy place that could recover the images for me.

If somehow I can't manage to recover the images, in a way, a significant portion of the jolly good memories of the childhood my siblings and I had would be lost from this world. What good are memories when you are old and they start to fade? Well, I wouldn't have been bothered much if i hadn't found the computer in the first place. As if I hadn't unearthed the PC, I wouldn't have been phased much. and the photos would've remained non-existent. But to find hope only to lose it again would be a lot to cope with. In any case, we are never in control of our lives, never have been. As dada says,

We are nothing but a seaweed Zayed Sakib; sometimes we land on a beach... sometimes we land on some rich Japanese girl's plate.... either way, it's fun and beyond your control. If you think you are in control of your life, think again!



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Once 80 GB was unthinkable, I remember speculating storing the world in it!
There are some recovery softwares, although I'm not sure whether they work as advertised.
I have dust allergy too you know, although it might not be severe.

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(Edited)

There are some recovery softwares, although I'm not sure whether they work as advertised.

Some of them do! But the problem is, how the frick do i connect the harddrive in another machine!!

images (33).jpeg

These are 23 pin pata connectors bro! Went out of fashion when ddr1/ddr2 combo motherboards went out of fashion.. Ive looked for converters, even the ddr3 motherboard in which the DVD drive used the same connectors, so far found none:33

I have dust allergy too you know, although it might not be severe.

Stay far away from dhaka!:3 will ruin your lungs.

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That's a problem I see!
Well perhaps you can try to find a similar machine off ebay or something. Might cost you a bit but hey, what's money when its pitted against memories, eh?

I stay clear of Dhaka in general. That city is a living dustbin.

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Might cost you a bit but hey, what's money when its pitted against memories, eh?

I have found another way tho. I just need to find another motherboard. I wouldve sent it data recovery services but they want 1000 bdt per gb;( your ebay one is more cheap than that:vv

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Yes, thats what I said ebay. Not sure whether can you find such an old motherboard in bd. Perhaps that alley in elephant road? I forgot the name.

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I think i can. Thats katabon you mean.. I think id do better if i go to gulisthan or baitul mokarrom.. I know a few places that sell old things.. I once saw a very rare pentax camera being sold there.. Very veey rare. And pentium 3 suppported 815 motherboards were very popular back then.. So i have hope.. And in anycase, once i get my hands on the images, i might sell the full thing to them 😂 koier tele koi veje dibo:vv

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I am so happy you found the hard drive. I have lost so many photo albums from my childhood forever because we moved a lot. Do be careful if you tend to sneeze.

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I am so happy you found the hard drive. I have lost so many photo albums from my childhood forever because we moved a lot.

Im happy too.. My late sister rarely took any photos of herself. The harddrive has the few she ever took. So its now a must for me to recover those!

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i had a computer at home when it was still a novelty. Those were the important years that spurred my interest in computers. i wish I was more curious about how it worked then I probably would be a programmer now.

Hopefully, you get those images from the pc. cheers!

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wish I was more curious about how it worked then I probably would be a programmer now.

Dont dwell on the past mate.. If you really fell a strong drive to become a programmer, you can still be one if you try.. The probability of success might be thin, but youd still be able to happily say that you are doing what you wanted to do.. Staying true to yourself is madatory mate:)

Hopefully, you get those images from the pc. cheers!

Hopfully, fingers crossed. Cheers mate:))

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Sure there could be a way. You have a big brother who is a computer geek!

I enjoyed the quote at the very end ;) looks different written this way. I wonder who that is ....

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Sure there could be a way. You have a big brother who is a computer geek!

Except brother is wee bit weak on the hardware side😥 but i have a plan..

I enjoyed the quote at the very end ;) looks different written this way. I wonder who that is ....

Hmmmmmm!! I wonder too! Someone needs to read back only one post on my blog to know who dada is:)

a treat for you dada:)

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(Edited)

Yeah Reazul is a software geek; it’s funny how that goes. I have seen that way too many times with programmers :)

Mr X is Bombay is a film noir... amazing song. Kishore was so versatile hah :)

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(Edited)

I have seen that way too many times with programmers :)

Thats why he has me. To do the more hands on stuff:33

Kishore was so versatile hah :)

He was. He was among those who defined bollywood and set the bar for the next half century! Ahh. Golds!

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Whoa!
I remembered playing Gameboy..especially those block action game. I can't even remember there names, but it was fun back then.

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You could actually play quite a number of games on it! Thats Tetris you mean. I always wanted a gamboy advance, but i had a nintendo as a gift on one of my birthdays. So at that point my focus shufte towards platformers like contra, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs and street fighter. Yeah, those were fun times!!

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So, if you found the hard drive, @zayedsakib... Everything is fine.

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I hope so too mate, i hope so too:)) thank you for dropping by mate:))

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