More Windows Restoration Adventures
I bet you think this article is about how Linux helped to save another stranded Windows user. Well, you're wrong.
I got a call from another friend, saying that their computer was not working. They said that they had a CD Burner, so I brought over Kanotix and turned it on to see what the problem was.
When it tried to boot up, it came up with a screen saying it needed to boot up in Safe Mode. I tried it, and got the B.S.O.D.
After that, I popped in Kanotix and rebooted. It worked nicely, and recognized all their hardware. I was able to browse their hard drive and could have backed up their data onto a CD except for one problem - they don't have two drives, just one CD burner.
What I thought was an unfortunate situation, they informed me that they didn't have any important data that they needed to be backed up.
They have an HP computer, and being an HP computer user myself, I know a few tricks. The HP bootsplash on my computer informs you that you can press F1 (or is it F2? I don't know, I pressed both) to go into setup and F10 to use the system recovery partition to restore the computer.
We first tried the Non-destructive option (which just copies system files and application files back over). A half hour later it was finished, only to find out that Windows wouldn't boot anymore, period. It said something about a missing file...
Another reboot, pressing F10, and we were back into the system restore feature. This time we did the complete recovery. Surprisingly, this didn't take as long. It took about 20 minutes from the hard drive (but on my computer, 7 cds...)
OK, now Windows works, so now what? I installed Firefox and Thunderbird, so they would not be succeptable to security problems in IE.
Now to Windows Update... It installed one update and then had to reboot. OK. After the reboot, Automatic Updates informed me that it downloaded 18 updates and wants to install them.
OK. 20 minutes later it is done, and another reboot. Now it wants to install SP2. It downloaded the 80 MB file (thank god they have broadband) and installed it. About 45 minutes later, it was rebooted and finally ready to go. I put on OpenOffice.org (becuase WordPerfect and Office suck), MS Anti-Spyware, and AVG Anti-Virus (yes, the free version).
I NEVER had this many problems with Linux. If it ever broke, I can use a Live CD to save my data and then do another 10-15 minute install. Done.
I got a call from another friend, saying that their computer was not working. They said that they had a CD Burner, so I brought over Kanotix and turned it on to see what the problem was.
When it tried to boot up, it came up with a screen saying it needed to boot up in Safe Mode. I tried it, and got the B.S.O.D.
After that, I popped in Kanotix and rebooted. It worked nicely, and recognized all their hardware. I was able to browse their hard drive and could have backed up their data onto a CD except for one problem - they don't have two drives, just one CD burner.
What I thought was an unfortunate situation, they informed me that they didn't have any important data that they needed to be backed up.
They have an HP computer, and being an HP computer user myself, I know a few tricks. The HP bootsplash on my computer informs you that you can press F1 (or is it F2? I don't know, I pressed both) to go into setup and F10 to use the system recovery partition to restore the computer.
We first tried the Non-destructive option (which just copies system files and application files back over). A half hour later it was finished, only to find out that Windows wouldn't boot anymore, period. It said something about a missing file...
Another reboot, pressing F10, and we were back into the system restore feature. This time we did the complete recovery. Surprisingly, this didn't take as long. It took about 20 minutes from the hard drive (but on my computer, 7 cds...)
OK, now Windows works, so now what? I installed Firefox and Thunderbird, so they would not be succeptable to security problems in IE.
Now to Windows Update... It installed one update and then had to reboot. OK. After the reboot, Automatic Updates informed me that it downloaded 18 updates and wants to install them.
OK. 20 minutes later it is done, and another reboot. Now it wants to install SP2. It downloaded the 80 MB file (thank god they have broadband) and installed it. About 45 minutes later, it was rebooted and finally ready to go. I put on OpenOffice.org (becuase WordPerfect and Office suck), MS Anti-Spyware, and AVG Anti-Virus (yes, the free version).
I NEVER had this many problems with Linux. If it ever broke, I can use a Live CD to save my data and then do another 10-15 minute install. Done.
Written by Justin @ 8/01/2005 10:32:00 AM | Permalink
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