Sometimes, computers can be so uncooperative....
One of the side projects I've been doing this past week is to upgrade a colleague's PC.
Julie is the office manager where I do my volunteer work. She had an older system running Windows 98 SE, and another friend recently gave her a DVD burner, which she wanted to use in this system. The problem is, Windows 98 doesn't know about DVD burners. So this started a chain reaction of upgrades.
The first thing I did was to install the DVD burner. This wasn't a problem; I swapped out the existing CD-ROM drive with the DVD burner.
The next step was to backup the 18 Gb hard drive. Nothing I tried to plug into the USB port was recognized, not even flash drives (with downloaded drivers) or external hard drives (ditto). I couldn't even see the machine on the network. So on Tuesday, I took out the hard drive, dropped it into an external drive enclosure, and copied the data to our Linux workstation. After doing that, I reinstalled the hard drive and tried to run DBAN on it. But for some unknown reason, DBAN wouldn't wipe the drive.
The next step was installing an operating system. We were able to obtain copies of Windows XP Professional, Office 2003 Professional, and Norton Internet Security 2010. (This is what she wanted. I didn't even offer to install Ubuntu Linux.) Yesterday, I installed Windows XP Pro and Office 2003 Pro. This went smoothly.
Today, her system wouldn't boot or start up. We figuured it was the power supply. So we went to our local computer hardware store and bought a new power supply. I installed it and the system booted.
Then I tried to install Norton Internet Security 2010. After entering the license key, the system froze. I rebooted the system, got the prompt to start Windows in safe mode, and then the system rebooted again. And again. And again. At this point I was contemplating rebooting the system with a real boot, so I removed the hard drive and brought it home with me for further work this weekend. I plan to wipe the drive, reformat it, and check for bad sectors.
Hopefully we can get this resolved early next week, either Monday or Tuesday. Julie hasn't had her computer for over a week now.
Julie is the office manager where I do my volunteer work. She had an older system running Windows 98 SE, and another friend recently gave her a DVD burner, which she wanted to use in this system. The problem is, Windows 98 doesn't know about DVD burners. So this started a chain reaction of upgrades.
The first thing I did was to install the DVD burner. This wasn't a problem; I swapped out the existing CD-ROM drive with the DVD burner.
The next step was to backup the 18 Gb hard drive. Nothing I tried to plug into the USB port was recognized, not even flash drives (with downloaded drivers) or external hard drives (ditto). I couldn't even see the machine on the network. So on Tuesday, I took out the hard drive, dropped it into an external drive enclosure, and copied the data to our Linux workstation. After doing that, I reinstalled the hard drive and tried to run DBAN on it. But for some unknown reason, DBAN wouldn't wipe the drive.
The next step was installing an operating system. We were able to obtain copies of Windows XP Professional, Office 2003 Professional, and Norton Internet Security 2010. (This is what she wanted. I didn't even offer to install Ubuntu Linux.) Yesterday, I installed Windows XP Pro and Office 2003 Pro. This went smoothly.
Today, her system wouldn't boot or start up. We figuured it was the power supply. So we went to our local computer hardware store and bought a new power supply. I installed it and the system booted.
Then I tried to install Norton Internet Security 2010. After entering the license key, the system froze. I rebooted the system, got the prompt to start Windows in safe mode, and then the system rebooted again. And again. And again. At this point I was contemplating rebooting the system with a real boot, so I removed the hard drive and brought it home with me for further work this weekend. I plan to wipe the drive, reformat it, and check for bad sectors.
Hopefully we can get this resolved early next week, either Monday or Tuesday. Julie hasn't had her computer for over a week now.