This is How Money is Made
Me: It seems that either your installation of Windows is corrupt or your hard drive is corrupt.
In the first case I can simply back up whatever you need backed up off of it and reinstall windows (because I've never "repaired" a Windows 2000 installation--I don't even think one can).
In the second case I can simply get a new hard drive for you and then reinstall an operating system (your choice, Windows 2k, Windows XP, XP Pro, Ubuntu...).
First Thing I need to know before proceeding is if there is anything I should back up off of this drive.
Second I need to know is if you (or whoever owns this computer) still has the disk that came with it--the Windows 2000 disk and the drivers and software disk for the particular model (TE2000). I can probably find these but it would be best to ask first.
Her: Hey John, Nothing needs to be backed up on it, it is just a secondary computer for me, so it doesn’t matter if you lose anything. And, I don’t think I got a disk with it, I bought it as a refurbished laptop and it came with Windows on it already. My brother had mentioned looking for the disk, I looked through everything this weekend and could not find one for Windows 2000, I did find the one for my old computer but that is Windows 98………so I say do whatever you think you should to correct it. Let me know if you have anymore questions. Thanks. Jen.
Me:I'm going to install a different OS and then restart it. If it goes through the loop again we'll get you a new hard drive. If not we'll be golden.
Her: Sweet, sounds good to me! Oh yeah if it does work can you also install Microsoft office suite on it?
Me: I can. But if you want to go with Ubuntu (which I recommend even though it means more work for me)--you can't, but it already has OpenOffice.org 2.2 (which JoAnn can tell you about)--it's the same thing. You should ask JoAnn what she thinks of Ubuntu, it's on her laptop and on her desktop now. The nicest thing about it is is I guess it can never get a virus (there are no viruses for it) and it's a bit faster than Windows, also it's opensource (which means it's free--no guilt about running and owning it without paying). I'm downloading a copy of Windows XP Pro right now as we speak just in case you still want that so no pressure.
Her: Sure, whatever you think is better….the only thing is that I am taking online courses for school, so all my stuff usually has to be a word doc or on powerpoint, so if that part of it is still the same I’m cool with it……….
Me: Putting all that aside for now, it seems you need a new hard drive for your notebook. I'm going to give you a list of recommendations and their prices, and then show you the website where they are.
Your last hard drive was 20gbs. The smallest I can find nowadays is twice that size, or 40gbs. Your last harddrive rotated at 4200rpm, I'm recommending you go with something at least 5200rpm, or even 7200rpm. The first two recommendations down there are 5200, and the last two are 7200. --The bigger the number, the faster the drive. This may or may not matter to you. If it doesn't let me know. Any of these drives will be just fine for you. If you don't know what you want, I'd suggest just going with the first one, as it's cheap ($55), twice as large as your last hard drive and faster. It's also Toshiba brand, which really doesn't matter, but heck it would match the rest of your hardware.
Just click on the links.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1697316&CatId=1277 http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1127478&CatId=1277 http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1597370&CatId=1277 http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1638049&CatId=1277
I normally buy from newegg.com but their servers are down right now so tigerdirect is a close second for me. If you want me to do this you'd want to sign up for an account with them, purchase the drive you want, and simply have it shipped to my address. Then when I'm all done I can I'll simply have JoAnn give it back to you.
Let me know if you have any questions!!!
Oh and for possible future reference our address is: xxxxxxxxxxx
Her: OK so I just ordered that first one you had listed and am having it sent to you…….so do you know what could have happened to cause this? Here’s a print of the order, just in case you need any info from it.
Me: Hard drives simply die. They have a lifespan. I've never had one die on me, but the fact that they have moving parts is what usually kills them. Because capacities are always going up, the density of the platters and the speed of the needle is always going up to, and we all know that first generation technology is always the flakiest. This is the second laptop hard drive I've replaced. It could have just been old age, or you could have bumped it one too many times when it was writing or reading. I don't know, but this is the #1 replaced part in laptops. Luckily for us that should change in a few years when NAND flash memory becomes more price-point competitive with hard drives and we start seeing more affordable solid state drives on the market (cheapest one right now is like $500 for 32gb)<< they consume less energy, are much quicker and have no moving parts. Someday...someday.
But no I don't believe it had anything to do with a DVD application being opened twice. Seems to me like that was probably just coincidence.
Her: Cool, so the part should hopefully be there in a couple of days then…………..
Me: Yup. And then I'll do my thing and send it on it's way. I'll let you know when I receive it. Keep you up to date and whatnot. If all goes well you should have your laptop back in working order tomorrow. I might take me a while to get the wireless working and everything installed--so we'll see. I may need another day, but if I do I'll let you know.
Her: SWEET!!! No rush, I have my desktop to use this weekend if you can’t get it up and going. The part came pretty quick!
Me: JoAnn will have your computer tomorrow.
Her: SWEET! Thanks so much, Joann gave it back to me this morning…….. I gave her some $ for you…
.thanks again and I will make sure to recommend you in the future
Her: Hey John, Nothing needs to be backed up on it, it is just a secondary computer for me, so it doesn’t matter if you lose anything. And, I don’t think I got a disk with it, I bought it as a refurbished laptop and it came with Windows on it already. My brother had mentioned looking for the disk, I looked through everything this weekend and could not find one for Windows 2000, I did find the one for my old computer but that is Windows 98………so I say do whatever you think you should to correct it. Let me know if you have anymore questions. Thanks. Jen.
Me:I'm going to install a different OS and then restart it. If it goes through the loop again we'll get you a new hard drive. If not we'll be golden.
Her: Sweet, sounds good to me! Oh yeah if it does work can you also install Microsoft office suite on it?
Me: I can. But if you want to go with Ubuntu (which I recommend even though it means more work for me)--you can't, but it already has OpenOffice.org 2.2 (which JoAnn can tell you about)--it's the same thing. You should ask JoAnn what she thinks of Ubuntu, it's on her laptop and on her desktop now. The nicest thing about it is is I guess it can never get a virus (there are no viruses for it) and it's a bit faster than Windows, also it's opensource (which means it's free--no guilt about running and owning it without paying). I'm downloading a copy of Windows XP Pro right now as we speak just in case you still want that so no pressure.
Her: Sure, whatever you think is better….the only thing is that I am taking online courses for school, so all my stuff usually has to be a word doc or on powerpoint, so if that part of it is still the same I’m cool with it……….
Me: Putting all that aside for now, it seems you need a new hard drive for your notebook. I'm going to give you a list of recommendations and their prices, and then show you the website where they are.
Your last hard drive was 20gbs. The smallest I can find nowadays is twice that size, or 40gbs. Your last harddrive rotated at 4200rpm, I'm recommending you go with something at least 5200rpm, or even 7200rpm. The first two recommendations down there are 5200, and the last two are 7200. --The bigger the number, the faster the drive. This may or may not matter to you. If it doesn't let me know. Any of these drives will be just fine for you. If you don't know what you want, I'd suggest just going with the first one, as it's cheap ($55), twice as large as your last hard drive and faster. It's also Toshiba brand, which really doesn't matter, but heck it would match the rest of your hardware.
Just click on the links.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1697316&CatId=1277 http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1127478&CatId=1277 http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1597370&CatId=1277 http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1638049&CatId=1277
I normally buy from newegg.com but their servers are down right now so tigerdirect is a close second for me. If you want me to do this you'd want to sign up for an account with them, purchase the drive you want, and simply have it shipped to my address. Then when I'm all done I can I'll simply have JoAnn give it back to you.
Let me know if you have any questions!!!
Oh and for possible future reference our address is: xxxxxxxxxxx
Her: OK so I just ordered that first one you had listed and am having it sent to you…….so do you know what could have happened to cause this? Here’s a print of the order, just in case you need any info from it.
Me: Hard drives simply die. They have a lifespan. I've never had one die on me, but the fact that they have moving parts is what usually kills them. Because capacities are always going up, the density of the platters and the speed of the needle is always going up to, and we all know that first generation technology is always the flakiest. This is the second laptop hard drive I've replaced. It could have just been old age, or you could have bumped it one too many times when it was writing or reading. I don't know, but this is the #1 replaced part in laptops. Luckily for us that should change in a few years when NAND flash memory becomes more price-point competitive with hard drives and we start seeing more affordable solid state drives on the market (cheapest one right now is like $500 for 32gb)<< they consume less energy, are much quicker and have no moving parts. Someday...someday.
But no I don't believe it had anything to do with a DVD application being opened twice. Seems to me like that was probably just coincidence.
Her: Cool, so the part should hopefully be there in a couple of days then…………..
Me: Yup. And then I'll do my thing and send it on it's way. I'll let you know when I receive it. Keep you up to date and whatnot. If all goes well you should have your laptop back in working order tomorrow. I might take me a while to get the wireless working and everything installed--so we'll see. I may need another day, but if I do I'll let you know.
Her: SWEET!!! No rush, I have my desktop to use this weekend if you can’t get it up and going. The part came pretty quick!
Me: JoAnn will have your computer tomorrow.
Her: SWEET! Thanks so much, Joann gave it back to me this morning…….. I gave her some $ for you…
.thanks again and I will make sure to recommend you in the future