6 hours later.
Apr. 1st, 2007 11:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
resonance42You know how my Windows PC kept crashing and had become slow as molasses? Well, it finally refused to boot, so I had a aluminum doorstop on my hands.
I had a weekend free (finally), I decided to bite the bullet and finally try to fix the damn thing so that I had a somewhat useful computer (instead of an expensive doorstop).
The Many Steps Towards Trying To Fix A Damn Windows Box:
1: Dig through all my boxes to find my original Windows XP CD (SP1 mind you).
2: Attempt to get the bloody thing to boot off the CD
3: Attempt repair using the recovery console. Aha! Corrupted directory and boot blocks. Attempt to repair. Watch as voodoo Little Bunny CHKDSK goes through my directory doing Lord-knows-what.
4: Attempt to boot. No dice.
5: Boot off of Windows CD (again)
6: Attempt to re-install Windows using recovery option.
7: It does a lot of file deleting and copying, then reboots.
8: Boots off my HD, but it looks like a blast from 1995.
9: Goes through second-stage installation, attempting to re-install drivers and other files, prompting me occasionally for discs with drivers (which I have), and files that I don't have (which seems to include most of the Internet Explorer installation).
10: Come to a screeching halt as it asks me for my Windows Product ID. How many of you know your Windows Product ID?
11: Luckily, I have a database of software serial numbers (on my Mac, of course), so a frantic search later (after considering calling Microsoft Customer 'service') yields something that satisfies the anti-copying Stormtroopers.
12: Reboots again. Attempt to install XP Service Pack 2. IE freezes when it gets to the Windows Update page. Not terribly helpful.
13: Opera comes to the rescue; download and install SP2.
14: IE still freezes. Download and install several other updates manually from the Microsoft website. Online documentation is (as expected) completely useless.
15: Nuke IE's settings. No dice.
16: Track down Windows Installer 3.1 (which no one talks about). Install.
17: Now IE loads up the Windows Update page. 73 updates. Yummy.
18: Reboot successfully. 4 more updates. Reboot. 2 more updates. Reboot. You get the gist of things.
19: Now mostly-working machine that hasn't crashed in 18 hours. Yippee. Seems a bit faster, too.
20: Now if I could only get the bloody Palm drivers to work.
Ah, life in Windows-land. I'm so happy I do most of my work on a Mac!
Off to the museum, then LazerTag!
I had a weekend free (finally), I decided to bite the bullet and finally try to fix the damn thing so that I had a somewhat useful computer (instead of an expensive doorstop).
The Many Steps Towards Trying To Fix A Damn Windows Box:
1: Dig through all my boxes to find my original Windows XP CD (SP1 mind you).
2: Attempt to get the bloody thing to boot off the CD
3: Attempt repair using the recovery console. Aha! Corrupted directory and boot blocks. Attempt to repair. Watch as voodoo Little Bunny CHKDSK goes through my directory doing Lord-knows-what.
4: Attempt to boot. No dice.
5: Boot off of Windows CD (again)
6: Attempt to re-install Windows using recovery option.
7: It does a lot of file deleting and copying, then reboots.
8: Boots off my HD, but it looks like a blast from 1995.
9: Goes through second-stage installation, attempting to re-install drivers and other files, prompting me occasionally for discs with drivers (which I have), and files that I don't have (which seems to include most of the Internet Explorer installation).
10: Come to a screeching halt as it asks me for my Windows Product ID. How many of you know your Windows Product ID?
11: Luckily, I have a database of software serial numbers (on my Mac, of course), so a frantic search later (after considering calling Microsoft Customer 'service') yields something that satisfies the anti-copying Stormtroopers.
12: Reboots again. Attempt to install XP Service Pack 2. IE freezes when it gets to the Windows Update page. Not terribly helpful.
13: Opera comes to the rescue; download and install SP2.
14: IE still freezes. Download and install several other updates manually from the Microsoft website. Online documentation is (as expected) completely useless.
15: Nuke IE's settings. No dice.
16: Track down Windows Installer 3.1 (which no one talks about). Install.
17: Now IE loads up the Windows Update page. 73 updates. Yummy.
18: Reboot successfully. 4 more updates. Reboot. 2 more updates. Reboot. You get the gist of things.
19: Now mostly-working machine that hasn't crashed in 18 hours. Yippee. Seems a bit faster, too.
20: Now if I could only get the bloody Palm drivers to work.
Ah, life in Windows-land. I'm so happy I do most of my work on a Mac!
Off to the museum, then LazerTag!
