Tech Support Hell
Beginning where I left off, my computer was constantly rebooting before getting into Windows. So I decided to call their tech support which was a big mistake. I don't even really want to relive the experience so I'll be brief. Basically I got their free support, who told me that because I had a RAID controller I needed to talk to their "Professional" support so I said ok. After transfers and holding, I got someone who informed me it was going to cost $245 dollars. So I bitched and complained that the manual says I get free support for installation while they tried to argue that this was too complicated for their free support. I made a good case, and got them to agree to handling it for free. So after more transfers and holding, i finally get to the support guy. I explain to him my problem which I've already explained to 3 other people by now, and while waiting on him to "look something up", I get disconnected. Since they asked me for my phone number 3 different times, I assume they will call me back, but that doesnt happen after waiting for 15 minutes.
In the meantime, I'm trying all sorts of things with my computer. I remove the secondary hard drive so it cant possibly cause any conflicts and reinstall, but it does the same thing. This time I decide to do a "repair" install where it tries to install on top of an existing windows installation. During the repair install I figured I'd give the manufacturer RAID driver a chance to redeem itself since the windows driver is just rebooting over and over. While I'm waiting for the install to go through, i get tech support back on the phone, talk to 2 more people, hold some more, and finally get the tech person on the line. She asks me to explain the problem since of course this is an entirely new person, so I explain it again for like the 5th time. During my monologue the installation procedure gets past the point where it was rebooting and finishes the install. It reboots for the last time and I get the glorious windows screen. I think angels even came down from heaven to watch me enter my password. So I explain to the tech support person that I think I fixed it on my own. She asks what I did, I explain it and hang up after thanking her for her time. So it appears at least for now that the windows installation issues are behind me.
Man, my first time installing Linux was much easier than this, and I've probably installed Windows 30 or more times. Now its back to downloading drivers and installing applications.
In the meantime, I'm trying all sorts of things with my computer. I remove the secondary hard drive so it cant possibly cause any conflicts and reinstall, but it does the same thing. This time I decide to do a "repair" install where it tries to install on top of an existing windows installation. During the repair install I figured I'd give the manufacturer RAID driver a chance to redeem itself since the windows driver is just rebooting over and over. While I'm waiting for the install to go through, i get tech support back on the phone, talk to 2 more people, hold some more, and finally get the tech person on the line. She asks me to explain the problem since of course this is an entirely new person, so I explain it again for like the 5th time. During my monologue the installation procedure gets past the point where it was rebooting and finishes the install. It reboots for the last time and I get the glorious windows screen. I think angels even came down from heaven to watch me enter my password. So I explain to the tech support person that I think I fixed it on my own. She asks what I did, I explain it and hang up after thanking her for her time. So it appears at least for now that the windows installation issues are behind me.
Man, my first time installing Linux was much easier than this, and I've probably installed Windows 30 or more times. Now its back to downloading drivers and installing applications.