This guy called.
He said that the motherboard had a bad IDE controller because Maxblast said so.
I told him that that what Maxblast say didn't mean anything to me and asked if he was actually experiencing and real problems.
He told me that Norton's Utilities reported that one drive had bad clusters and the other drive had a bad FAT.
Well, the bad clusters may actually bad clusters, but bad FAT? I asked him how it could even boot at all. He said it didn't boot because it was a brand new drive, so I asked him if he had at least FDISKed the drive.
He had not.
I asked him how he was running the Norton's Utilities if it was a new drive, expecting him to say that he was actually running the Disk Doctor off the Norton's Utilities Rescue Floppy.
He said that he was running the Windows setup and that's when Norton's Utilities reported that the new drive had a bad FAT. On the other drive, Norton's Utilities ran during the boot up of Windows and said that he had bad sectors.
I, for one, have never seen Windows come with Norton's Utilities. I asked him where he got a copy of Windows that was bundled with Norton's Utilities. He said that Windows ALWAYS came bundled with Norton's Utilities.
I told him that he was mistaken, and if it was true, it wouldn't make sense for customers to run out and buy Norton's Utilities for $50 every day.
So he asks me, "What do you call Scandisk?"
I told him that I call Scandisk "Scandisk" and it has nothing to do with Norton's Utilities.
He reminds me that Scandisk was programmed by Symantec (Mr. Norton's company) and that he too is a programmer and that as a "hardware jockey" I obviously know little about Windows (dead serious. He said that).
I remind him that Disk Doctor is what is actually bundled with Norton's Utilities, and not Scandisk, and that despite Scandisk being a stripped down Disk Doctor, Disk Doctor is not and never will be bundled with Windows and that he knows little about Norton's Utilities to even use the words "Norton's Utilities" to describe mere "Scandisk" and that HE actually called ME so he needs to refrain from questioning my knowledge if he expects to get anywhere.
Of course now he's a tad frustrated with me and asks me, "So what is it that you expect me to do now?!"
I tell him to FDISK the hard drive first, then format it and THEN run Scandisk OR Norton's Utilities (his choice) and THEN call me and tell me if that drive reports a bad FAT.
Of course, this whole time I never told him that before I shipped him the motherboard that I had it actually running in Windows with no problem, so I actually didn't expect him to call back at all.
One hour later he called back: "I FDISKed and formatted the drive. Scandisk blazes right through it and I got Windows installed in a matter of 30 minutes. I hooked the second drive up and it reports bad sectors. Apparently I just have one bad drive and Scandisk doesn't work right when a drive isn't partitioned."
"Yep." I said, "That sounds about right."
"By the way," he added, "I want to apologize for being such a butt hole earlier."
"That's OK", I replied, "I'll just rant about you on my favorite message board tonight."
He said that the motherboard had a bad IDE controller because Maxblast said so.
I told him that that what Maxblast say didn't mean anything to me and asked if he was actually experiencing and real problems.
He told me that Norton's Utilities reported that one drive had bad clusters and the other drive had a bad FAT.
Well, the bad clusters may actually bad clusters, but bad FAT? I asked him how it could even boot at all. He said it didn't boot because it was a brand new drive, so I asked him if he had at least FDISKed the drive.
He had not.
I asked him how he was running the Norton's Utilities if it was a new drive, expecting him to say that he was actually running the Disk Doctor off the Norton's Utilities Rescue Floppy.
He said that he was running the Windows setup and that's when Norton's Utilities reported that the new drive had a bad FAT. On the other drive, Norton's Utilities ran during the boot up of Windows and said that he had bad sectors.
I, for one, have never seen Windows come with Norton's Utilities. I asked him where he got a copy of Windows that was bundled with Norton's Utilities. He said that Windows ALWAYS came bundled with Norton's Utilities.
I told him that he was mistaken, and if it was true, it wouldn't make sense for customers to run out and buy Norton's Utilities for $50 every day.
So he asks me, "What do you call Scandisk?"
I told him that I call Scandisk "Scandisk" and it has nothing to do with Norton's Utilities.
He reminds me that Scandisk was programmed by Symantec (Mr. Norton's company) and that he too is a programmer and that as a "hardware jockey" I obviously know little about Windows (dead serious. He said that).
I remind him that Disk Doctor is what is actually bundled with Norton's Utilities, and not Scandisk, and that despite Scandisk being a stripped down Disk Doctor, Disk Doctor is not and never will be bundled with Windows and that he knows little about Norton's Utilities to even use the words "Norton's Utilities" to describe mere "Scandisk" and that HE actually called ME so he needs to refrain from questioning my knowledge if he expects to get anywhere.
Of course now he's a tad frustrated with me and asks me, "So what is it that you expect me to do now?!"
I tell him to FDISK the hard drive first, then format it and THEN run Scandisk OR Norton's Utilities (his choice) and THEN call me and tell me if that drive reports a bad FAT.
Of course, this whole time I never told him that before I shipped him the motherboard that I had it actually running in Windows with no problem, so I actually didn't expect him to call back at all.
One hour later he called back: "I FDISKed and formatted the drive. Scandisk blazes right through it and I got Windows installed in a matter of 30 minutes. I hooked the second drive up and it reports bad sectors. Apparently I just have one bad drive and Scandisk doesn't work right when a drive isn't partitioned."
"Yep." I said, "That sounds about right."
"By the way," he added, "I want to apologize for being such a butt hole earlier."
"That's OK", I replied, "I'll just rant about you on my favorite message board tonight."
