It started around 3AM, when I got up and found that the file transfer which I'd initiated four hours before, at which time it said that the estimated time was three hours, was still running...and estimating about four and a half hours more. I messed with it for a while, but after about half an hour I gave up and went back to the 'System Migration Aid' that my company provides. I won't say that this is a lousy tool -- it frequently works -- but my track record with it is pretty poor. What fascinates me, in a dark and evil way, is that it could not communicate between my old and new PCs, but an older package that I had, which performs the same function, could do it just fine -- but took hours to run. I opened a problem record, giving them my home number, and damned if they did not call at 8AM, saying that they were ready to look into this for me... and eventually they did figure out why the two sides of the product weren't talking to each other. But the bottom line was, they said, it would be easier just to make the two PCs share files and move the stuff manually. I think that the underlying problem is twofold: first, the product is written by people who have current software on their PCs, and when there is something radically different in an older release, the software doesn't handle it. And second, they assume that everyone's PC is clean and neat, and of course they aren't.
So now, after about four hours of dorking around, the new PC is about 60% usable, and I think I know how to make the rest usable, too. All of this because my company doesn't believe in having people around who specialize in this stuff. Well, in a way they do -- the guy I spoke to this morning was in India.
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