Computer woes

[jedi_of_urth]

Okay, so yesterday it seems I clicked on something I shouldn't have, I'm still not sure how, but it happened. So after fighting with trying to get rid of it for the rest of the afternoon I said "screw it, in seven years I've never reinstalled the OS on this thing, maybe it's time."

So, I stuck in the XP disk and several times told it to boot of of it but it never did. I then finally checked to see why. Well I have two disk drives (DVD and CD) and it wanted to boot off the D drive (also DVD), which as it turned out didn't work. It would not hear of booting off the E drive.

So the next step, taking apart my computer so I could flip the drives. I don't think that sounds easy, even to say, and it certainly isn't to do. Having decided to do this reinstallation around 7:30 I finally got to start reinstalling around 10:30.

And then there were some things that were poorly worded, and unclear about what I was supposed to do. Cue another half hour to hour of searching for an explanation of how to overwrite the old version of the OS.

So basically all I ended up getting done last night was the OS install. Very little works, I can't connect to the internet, don't have Office installed. And because I can't figure out how to get it to talk to the internet I really have no clue what to do now. I'm not even sure it recognizes my wireless card and I'm pretty sure if it doesn't I don't have the product info on it.

So it's not like this afternoon has been very productive. Everything I need to do next pretty much requires internet access which I'm not sure how to gte back. And nobody online seems to talk about that one. I'm basically waiting for my dad to get home so I can talk it through with someone and hopefully he knows where some of the needed info is (also he reinstalled all his stuff within the last few months, so he might remember a thing or two about how to go about this part).

I may have a degree in Computer Science, but I really don't get computers. And people wonder why I have no idea what to do with my degree.

Comments

[mattyroh07.livejournal.com]

I currently trying to restore a Mac iBook right now, so I feel your pain. I've been trying to install Linux on it, and I've finally gotten to the point where it recognizes there is a CD in the drive, but it keeps saying the install file is corrupt. I've kinda given up on it for the time being.
At least you have a PC, so it should be a little easier to figure out, imo. Best of luck!

[jedi_of_urth]

It's more or less up again (still have a few things to get running and a couple mysterious problems I haven't investigated yet). But compared to you my CD drive problems may be even less major. I have *one* working drive out of two, it just wasn't the right one so while annoying it was doable. I don't know what I would have done if it had only been one drive and not working. Plus the disk worked fine one it was able to be read.

Aren't macs supposed to be less prone to this kind of thing to make up for being harder to manage when they are a problem...or something like that?

[mattyroh07.livejournal.com]

Aren't macs supposed to be less prone to this kind of thing to make up for being harder to manage when they are a problem...or something like that?
Yeah, that would make sense. I'm pretty sure it would work fine if I actually had a Mac install disc...

Glad to hear your comp is back up! :D