Finally……..

I’ve got the HDD back for the laptop

It arrived yesterday, so last night after I got home from work, and sorted out dinner for Ellie and I, I set about installing software.

First off I completely formatted the HDD, and then opted to install Windows XP again. Would it install? Would it heck as like! So the next plan of action was to try Ubuntu.

This was a breeze to install. Very easy to understand the on screen instructions. The only real decision that I had to make was whether I let Ubuntu partition the HDD itself or I did it manually. I settled on the first option, having had a disaster the last time I messed around with the partitions!!!

Once everything was installed I rebooted and, hey presto, there was a fully working installation of Ubuntu!

I’ve even managed to get the NAS up and running. Now all that needs to be done is get all the old data from the DVD’s and put it on the newly installed system.

The only thing that I now need to do, is install the drivers etc, for the wireless network card. There also seems to be a small problem with my sound card too, as it is not making any sounds at all. I guess that it could be the driver’s need updating.

Anyway, apart form that everything seems to be going well.

As it is, it’s early days but everything looks good for the future

Computer Dilemma

What to do?

Last week I was resizing the main partition on my laptop, trying to create a little more space. Whilst in the middle of the operation, the laptop had a power failure, it may have been overheating. Upon restarting the laptop, and restarting the partioning software, it was found that there was no recovery setup. And the partition was now listed as an unknown format.

“Oh, f**k,” I thought!!! “There goes all my photos etc!!!”

Luckily it doesn’t seem to have destroyed much of the data, if any, as I can see the filenames etc when I boot up into DOS. I’ve taken the laptop to a local computer shop and I’m getting them to get the data off the hard drive for me, as I have no way of getting it off by myself or indeed a recent back-up.

This is an important lesson! Make sure you back up data regularly (and especially when you’re going to be messing around with the hard drive! )

Now the question is: Do I reinstall Windows or should I move to Linux?

I’ve been looking at Linux for a while now, and the Ubuntu distribution seems to be favourite at the minute. I’ve previewed it before the little mishap occurred and was toying with the idea of a dual-boot system.

The other problem may be that when I bought the laptop there was no Windows operating system disk supplied, so I may have to install Ubuntu anyway.

I’m due to get my laptop back on Wednesday, so I’ll see what the damage is and then make my decision. It may even be a dual boot, who knows.

But one thing is for sure, I’ll be backing up on a VERY regular basis!