SpaceInvader's Blog

Complete reinstall is not an option?

it's an option.. but i have no clue where to start... I tried to reinstall windows.. but the version i have is older then the version on the PC... it came loaded... so it wouldnt let me over ride it.. and i was afraid to delete windows completely and then not be able to load the other windows that i have..

 

i'm really frustrated and cant afford to pay someone to do this for me..

I just started a job and am trying to catch up on late bills and make current ends meet..

 

Uihjah... guess I have to bailout here then. Too far away for a proper diagnosis, someone should better sit in front of it.

I had a slightly similar situation with a laptop I bought from ebay. Finally I installed Debian on it instead and today there is no way I would switch back anymore.

 

But the Debian laptop is used more for serious things like writing documents, surfing, email, paying bills etc. Not much games I'm afraid. Well, I do code all my Atari Lynx games on it.

 

But there are some commands you need to learn to make it work. The most used commands for me are:

 

This command finds packages you can download for the system.

apt-cache search something (apt-cache search dvd player)

 

To keep the system secure and up-to-date. I usually run this once a month.

apt-get update

apt-get upgrade

 

To get new programs installed into the system.

apt-get install something

 

To remove packages I don't like anymore.

dpkg -r something

 

The nice thing is that you do not have to search the web to find the location of the packages. The apt-tool will do it for you and bring in everything and take care of dependencies. Every file in Debian belongs to some package and you can always ask the system to run a verify on al its packages. So far the verify has been able to spot rootkit attacks. Even Linux has its share of malware but problems are not frequent and easier to handle than in Windows in my opinion.

 

But if you want to stay with Windows then I would probably do things like this:

Run fdisk to see if the laptop has a small partition for hibernating, 300MB or so. Don't touch that partition. Remove all other partitions. Modern Windows does not allow you to do this so get a Knoppix CD, boot from it and get the job done. The command sequence is something like:

 

fdisk /dev/hda

 

d stands for delete

w stands for write partition table back to disk

q stands for quit

 

Then you insert your Windows CD which should not find anything on the hard disk and let you run your install.

 

And try out Knoppix while you play around with it. If you like it then there is a command that allows you to drop Knoppix from the CD on your hard disk and then your laptop becomes Debian. Or just boot from the Knoppix-CD when you want to work without "extra help from sidekicks" and leave Windows as it is now.

 

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I wish you luck with your OS installs whatever way you choose to take,

 

Karri