[long + 1337] for those who missed my Computer Woes story elsewhere

For several months, my four-year-old hard drive had sounded like a
coffee grinder. One night it crashed, and when I tried to restart it I got
nothing. After I played around with the Boot Sequence it would start with
the XP CD's help, but the Desktop was blank and Windows Explorer wouldn't
open because of a "cyclic redundancy check". I tried multiple software- and
hardware-repair programs, none of which would work "because of restrictions
in effect on this computer". <i>*rolls eyes*</i> I had to CTRL-ALT-DEL to do
anything, and even then many programs and functions wouldn't work.
Being unable to fix WindowsXP, I bought an external hard drive from
Seagate and copied all the files I could get to. I had to use the Recent
folder in the Finder to get to documents; once I was inside a Folder,
sometimes I could drill up or down from there and sometimes not. So I spent
several days copying and pasting, Folder by Folder and often File by File.
The final damage was approximately 500 mp3s (next week, back to the LimeWire
salt mines!), 100 videos, and a few other things. Insert SAD FACE here.
Then I wiped and reformated the old hard disk.
But!!!!! it was too damaged to reformat. So I dug out my even-older
hard disk, which was only 4K but should have still worked. Except that it
didn't, even after another attempted reformatting. I couldn't install XP
because I no longer have the Activation Code (thanx, Katrina!) and couldn't
even install Windows98 for the same reason. Recovery disks and diskettes
didn't help. After some digging around on the web, I discovered that
VP9VV-VJW7Q-MHY6W-JK47R-M2KGJ will work for any W98 disk, so all you CSR Tex
should write that down.
However, 98 would only boot into Safe Mode, so I couldn't use the CD
drive or add the new External. The problem was a hardware/software conflict
that required a program called "ndis_fix.exe", so I downloaded that onto an
old floppy diskette. All this W98 education came from Kinko's, where I paid
20 cents per minute to get online. Oh, and I live right between two
Kinko'ses--one is 25 minutes by car in one direction, the other is 25
minutes the other. But now I had the fix, right???
Wrong. The first diskette I tried worked at Kinko's but
self-destructed in my dusty old A-drive. The next day I went back with
another and downloaded two different copies of ndis_fix, one of which didn't
work because it turned out to be for WindowsNT and the other didn't work for
reasons it wouldn't tell me.
Having given up on rescuing either Internal drive, I shopped around and
bought a new one. It installed just fine, but I still couldn't get 98 to
fully install on it, even after playing with the Memory cards and Registry.
XP would install (technically an Upgrade Disk from 98, so I had to bounce
the CD's back and forth a few times) up until the point where the Activation
Code was needed. In despair, I called the Microsoft Help Line.
After 90 minutes on the phone with five different people (only two in
India!), I finally proved I wasn't a Pirate and got the right replacement
Code to get XP working. Yay. Then it took several days to reinstall all
the programs I had disks for, get back on the Information Superhighway and
download the rest, and set up the Explorer like I like it. At least I still
had my lists. The final damage was c.200 dollars, 500 songs, all my
Bookmarks, and 2 weeks of getting older.
In conclusion, screw Flanders.

the Bede on Exile Island
/:-)>
now playing: "Dust in the Wind" (Kansas)


.

Relevant Pages

  • XP Media Center, runs slow, has glitches
    ... Windows Explorer) to be opened. ... select a folder to choose files from, ... The latest chkdsk results ... 75967340kb available on the disk ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: How reduce number items listed start menu
    ... is Explorer the only way, ... If you create a folder in the All Users\Start Menu with the same name as one ... Create and Configure User Accounts in Windows XP ... application, Disk copier, etc.) You'll be glad to know that if you have ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics)
  • Re: Computer Infected:
    ... Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition ... Dell Application – Backup Dell installed programs, ... SeagateDisk Utility ... You do NOT want to do a Repair or Recovery install. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: msoe.dll
    ... I don't think he wants to install IE5, and that wouldn't fix his OE message store in WinXP SP1. ... Double-click to expand the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE folder, ... On the Windows Setup tab, click to select the Microsoft Outlook Express ... Antivirus software invades the Outlook Express program to try and intercept ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie6_outlookexpress)
  • Re: Mysterious file crowding my laptops hard drive - HELP!!!
    ... sub-directory in the Windows Explorer, ... Did you literally mean "Install" or did you maybe leave off ... humongous size for a file, and even for a folder, for that matter. ... display hidden files, all known file extensions and all hidden system ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics)