Death Watch
Last night I bought an album from iTunes and was transferring it to my Archos Recorder 20 mp3 player when it made a couple of whimpering noises, stopped recording and displayed “HD Register Error”. After repeated, unsuccessful attempts to revive it by cycling it on and off, I gave up in despair and decided to try it again in the morning after giving it a full charge.
This morning, after readjusting battery contacts and muttering imprecations I’ve found to be effective on electronic devices, I was able to coax it to register as a drive on my PC. I’ve been tiptoeing around since then as I copy its contents to a spare hard drive on the PC. I’d hate like the dickens to have to re-rip all those CDs. I feel like I’m holding an injured bird in my hand, stroking its faltering heart while it whispers its final songs in my ear.
We’re leaving for a week-long trip tomorrow, and I’m not sure I can face travel of any kind without my cache of tunes. I usually shop pretty carefully for things, but I can visualize myself walking into Best Buy and making a panic purchase of whatever mp3 player they have on their shelves (probably a Creative Nomad or an iPod, paying a lot more than what I’d pay online, plus sales tax. Maybe I’ll just try to string the Archos out for one more trip. Any suggestions?
