blog

17 November 2005

Dead Laptop

by Anton Piatek

Although I am writing this post from my laptop, and hence it is not completely ddead, I am writing from Linux as Windows will not boot.

How did I end up in this predicament?
I wanted to install service pack 2. The machine did not come with it, and as the company rolls out its own set up of windows I could not install Microsofts version. There is a trial program to install the company version of SP2, and I readall the warnings about installing it and did not see anything about it Blue Screening after installing – so I thought I would give it a go.

As you can tell, it did not end up happily.

The question is how long I wait to get it reinstalled. I cannot really do it myself. Apart from not having a Windows CD, I am supposed to run the companies version of Windows (I am not sure how they feel about running my own version of linux either).

I am hoping to get a reply from the group trialing SP2 as they might find some core dumps from my machine useful and even have a solution. At the same time, the new install the company uses for Windows has SP2 in it already, so I am tempted to just get it installed and re-partition the disk for linux after.
I have not really lost anything. I just need to remember to back up my email program, in case the automatic backup is not set up properly (this will be a good chance to test if I am missing anything from my regular backups). Apart from that I just need to grab my kernel config file from linux (yes, I build my own kernel – I have a few things I need to do it for, like making the laptop sleep, and it isn’t all that difficult. Speaking of which, if you run Debian I have a wonderful article that will have you building and running your own kernel in a few hours) Listening to: Goo Goo Dolls – Iris

tags: