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bad news and good news on the computer front.

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bad news and good news on the computer front.

colubra
12/5/05 09:33 pm
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...EEW
Bad news: still can't get the desktop booted.
Good news: can't get it booted because the 80gb drive I had around the house has an old windows install on it and it's hanging. Either I'm a blind idiot or I can't remember how to get to DOS. formatting the drive is a perfectly reasonable option to me (though I'd prefer hanging onto the files and just stripping the windows directory then reinstalling it).

Thoughts, suggestions? Would be appreciated.
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  • digitalsidhe
    12/6/05 06:29 am (UTC)
    I just tried calling to see if you wanted me to run that over to you now, but got no answer on the house line. I then tried the last cell-phone number I had for you, and got someone who spoke Spanish. Ummm...

    Right. So, when and how would you like me to get that floppy to you?

    • colubra
      12/6/05 06:46 am (UTC)
      Having just come off call, I'm ignoring the phone because it brings me pleasure to not have to answer it. Sorry about that. Cel #'s changed since last you used it, too.

      When... lessee. Thu I've got dinner with the 'rents, Fri I've got Cirque du Soleil...

  • Hmm..

    youngwilliam
    12/6/05 06:59 am (UTC)
    Something that just came to mind:

    If you've set it up so it checks the floppy drive to look for a StartUp disk, I -think- you can put a blank disk in the drive, turn it on, and it'll check the floppy drive before anything else. Finding no StartUp program in there, it'll shrug its shoulders and turn to you, "What now, Boss?" with a DOS prompt.

    • Re: Hmm..

      colubra
      12/6/05 07:33 am (UTC)
      hrmn. if I could tell it that the boot disc was my CDR, that would work, too. But it didn't seem to want to do that.

    • Re: Hmm..

      digitalsidhe
      12/6/05 08:14 am (UTC)
      Not unless it has a version of DOS built into the BIOS. Granted, BIOSes used to come with a BASIC interpreter built in, but those went the way of the dinosaur sometime before 1990, and I never heard of one with DOS.

      I'm pretty sure a modern BIOS will, instead, say "Non-system disk or disk error. Please insert a system a disk and press any key", or words to that effect.

      Heck, a really modern BIOS might even say "Boot from floppy drive... failure" and then move on to the next boot device.

  • digitalsidhe
    12/6/05 08:14 am (UTC)
    I'm free tomorrow. If you want, you can just call or email when you get home from work.

    • colubra
      12/6/05 04:56 pm (UTC)
      it looks as though I've finally gotten into the Windows Setup stuff, by finally figuring out how the $*@& to get it to boot from my CDR. Yay!
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