pensquare

Dad:"I was loading pictures onto the computer from my camera and it said the drive was full."
Me:"Mmm."
Dad:"Why?"
Me:"Whelp, the drive is probably full."
Dad:"Does that mean there is no room for more pictures?"
Me:"Precisely. Exactly how many pictures are you trying to put on the hard drive?"
Dad:"A little over 200."
Me:"...."
Dad:"....is that bad?"
Me:"Considering our computer is over five years old, yes. It's technocide, and you should be ashamed."
Dad:"What should I do?"
Me:"You could delete some things you don't need any more."
Dad:"And this will make more room on the hard drive?"
Me:"In theory, yes."

Two minutes later, after a brisk, worried jog back to the computer room:

Me:"I forgot to say, don't delete any system files."
Dad:"What's a system file?"
Me:"Anything that's not a picture."
Dad:"Oh, like these little white icons?"
Me:"Yes, exactly like those little white icons. You didn't delete any of those, did you?"
Dad:"Only the ones we don't need; I opened them up, and if they weren't english, I deleted them."
Me:"Yeah, that's computer language. And those are system files. I think you better let me take over for a moment."
Dad:"But I'm not done yet."

Four minutes later, after some help from the QuickRestore:

Me:"Now, delete only PICTURES you don't need any more."
Dad:"Oh, I already went through all of them. I deleted a few, but I want to keep most of them."
Me:"What about these? There must be twenty pictures here of just the sky."
Dad:"Oh yeah, those were the first pictures I ever took with my new camera. They have sentimental value. Plus, they're pretty. See, with the blue, and the clouds...."
Me:"...."
Dad:"...."
Me:"Alright, let me put it this way. Some of those pictures have to disappear before new ones can appear. You CAN keep the old ones, but it will mean you CAN'T load the new ones. See?"
Dad:"...."
Me:"...."
Dad:"That Bill Gates just keep getting richer from our misery-"
Me:"BILL GATES DOES NOT ENTER INTO THE EQUATION! Our drive is out of space because when our computer was made, digital cameras cost thousands of dollars, the only digital images in existance were made with MS Paint, and hard drives were designed to hold Word documents and tiny sound files. And the only people in this family who can afford a new computer are more interested in purchasing digital cameras and collectable Tinkerbell figurines, respectively."
Dad:"...."
Me:"...."
Dad:"But my friend has a computer that can-"
Me:"Yeah, that'll be a *new* computer."
Dad:"I guess I'll delete some of my old pictures, then."
Me:"Cheers. Go to it."

That was about three hours ago. I have been waiting until he was off the computer to get this all down while it is still fresh in my memory (with few exaggerations). At this moment, none of the icons are appearing correctly, and every thirty seconds or so, the hard drive makes an unhealthy grinding noise.

And in a new developement, I'm being actively talked at about a miscommunication on whether it's okay to only *move* system files, and not actually delete them. To whence were the files moved? Unknown. The QuickRestore beckons.

BTW, I've been thinking of adding a section entitled "Things I Find While Digging" to my web site. I do a lot of digging, so naturally, I find a lot of stuff. Silverware, for instance. Very common. There would be pictures. Mildly entertaining or complete waste of time and bandwidth?