Catching up
Aug. 13th, 2002 09:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cmdr_zoomIt's not that there hasn't been anything to write about since the first of the month; quite the opposite in fact. For those who don't want to read through the whole story, I'll try to summarize: new computer (AMD K6-2 500MHz > Athlon 1.7GHz), new OS (Win98 > WinXP), install issues, file transfer/recovery issues, dead old computer, and day trip down to my old home town for my father's birthday.
Shortly before the end of July, I placed an order for a new motherboard/CPU for my PC. Of course, the more powerful mobo needed a new power supply to drive it, and I've been thinking about a bigger HD for a while... and I decided to get a faster CD burner as well. End result, at least two-thirds of the contents of the tower case by my feet is new.
As part of the makeover, I backed up everything on my previous 8G boot drive and 20G data drive and prepared to do the hand-me-down shuffle. However, there were some Issues with my 98 re-install (y'think maybe I should have waited until after I put in the new mobo, rather than trying to install and then swap?), and so - since I now had a system well above specs for XP, and everything already backed up to CD (just in case I decided I'd rather have 98 back after all) - I decided there would never be a better time to try XP.
My brother Justin and I each did something stupid during the process -- I kicked over the box holding all the little screws and had to hunt for them in the carpet, he kept booting from the install CD after it had installed the startup files and was ready to continue from the HD -- but in the end we got it up and I set to the task of stripping out most of the "helpful" XP "features", reinstalling stuff, and getting things back the way I liked them. At one point I feared I'd lost my newsreader settings and some assorted text files I'd forgotten to back up, but I was able to recover those. This process took most of the past week (8/4 to 8/10).
The main downside to running XP for me is that certain old games (some Win95, and all DOS) that I still play now and then won't run on it. No problem; I have a Pentium 100MHz down in my bedroom that I've saved for just that purpose. (I've played Wing Commander Privateer and Star Control II on it now and then.) I even verified it was working, back around the start of the week, as part of my file-recovery attempt. So now I lugged it upstairs, started to set it up... and discovered that somewhere in the process I'd broken it. Beeps continously on bootup, doesn't recognize the keyboard. Bother. NOW what?
Well, the answer (after about an hour's worth of angsting about breaking it and not being able to play my old games after all) was to get another box of similar vintage off eBay for $30 + $30 shipping. Not too much to pay for peace of mind and continued gameage; probably more cost-effective than continuing to poke at the dead computer and try to get new part(s) for it.
More on my relationship with my computer(s) in another post.
Oh, and it's been dreadfully hot, and the county fair starts tomorrow (the fairgrounds are two blocks from my door).
Shortly before the end of July, I placed an order for a new motherboard/CPU for my PC. Of course, the more powerful mobo needed a new power supply to drive it, and I've been thinking about a bigger HD for a while... and I decided to get a faster CD burner as well. End result, at least two-thirds of the contents of the tower case by my feet is new.
As part of the makeover, I backed up everything on my previous 8G boot drive and 20G data drive and prepared to do the hand-me-down shuffle. However, there were some Issues with my 98 re-install (y'think maybe I should have waited until after I put in the new mobo, rather than trying to install and then swap?), and so - since I now had a system well above specs for XP, and everything already backed up to CD (just in case I decided I'd rather have 98 back after all) - I decided there would never be a better time to try XP.
My brother Justin and I each did something stupid during the process -- I kicked over the box holding all the little screws and had to hunt for them in the carpet, he kept booting from the install CD after it had installed the startup files and was ready to continue from the HD -- but in the end we got it up and I set to the task of stripping out most of the "helpful" XP "features", reinstalling stuff, and getting things back the way I liked them. At one point I feared I'd lost my newsreader settings and some assorted text files I'd forgotten to back up, but I was able to recover those. This process took most of the past week (8/4 to 8/10).
The main downside to running XP for me is that certain old games (some Win95, and all DOS) that I still play now and then won't run on it. No problem; I have a Pentium 100MHz down in my bedroom that I've saved for just that purpose. (I've played Wing Commander Privateer and Star Control II on it now and then.) I even verified it was working, back around the start of the week, as part of my file-recovery attempt. So now I lugged it upstairs, started to set it up... and discovered that somewhere in the process I'd broken it. Beeps continously on bootup, doesn't recognize the keyboard. Bother. NOW what?
Well, the answer (after about an hour's worth of angsting about breaking it and not being able to play my old games after all) was to get another box of similar vintage off eBay for $30 + $30 shipping. Not too much to pay for peace of mind and continued gameage; probably more cost-effective than continuing to poke at the dead computer and try to get new part(s) for it.
More on my relationship with my computer(s) in another post.
Oh, and it's been dreadfully hot, and the county fair starts tomorrow (the fairgrounds are two blocks from my door).
