So, I wouldn't normally be going back to Windows on this PC, but unfortunately I need Internet Explorer and some ActiveX control stuff for a class (beats me why the prof can't have one of his TAs hand-grade homework for his class of a whopping 30 students, but apparently he can't), and I figured a dual-boot setup would be easier than Wine. Plus, I wanted to switch from Xubuntu 6.10 to openSuSE 10.2 or Sabayon 3.26.
So, I back up all my necessary data (which admittedly isn't much), download the drivers I'll need for Windows, and pop in my Windows DVD.
After a long, boring install and careful partitioning, it boots into Windows and I begin to install the drivers. Only to find that half of them are, for whatever reason, corrupt. Not working. Uninstallable. And those happened to include the necessary ones, such as the ones for the modem, wireless, and ethernet. So I had no network connection to replace the corrupted ones.
So, I figured, no problem, and go in to install SuSE, paying careful attention to the partitions. The first install somehow got screwed up; the video driver for the Linux install was misconfigured or something. Anyway, so I go in to reinstall - and here's the part where I am fail - and forget to keep the partitions intact. Yes, I accidentally deleted my Windows installation.
As I'm loading my things onto the SuSE install, I try to import my Opera bookmarks. Which I've had for about two years. A nice, big collection of 200 comics, technical sites, news sites, blogs, and what have you. Only to find that opera6.adr, the bookmark file, which I made sure I exported that day, was a blank file. Nothing there.
About then I took my dead printer and threw it around until it smashed to bits. Yeah, I have some anger issues. After the calming effect of mindless violence, I dig deeper into the older files I have on the portable HDD and find I have an older bookmark file. So I managed to recover about 3/4s of them.
So now I've got openSuSE up and running (except for sound) and pull down the drivers. However, unfortunately, I can't find a way to modify the partitions without deleting the data on them. So, it's looking like I'll have to back up again, blank it, and reinstall everything, or just do what I probably should have done inthe first place and use Wine.
*sigh*
So, I back up all my necessary data (which admittedly isn't much), download the drivers I'll need for Windows, and pop in my Windows DVD.
After a long, boring install and careful partitioning, it boots into Windows and I begin to install the drivers. Only to find that half of them are, for whatever reason, corrupt. Not working. Uninstallable. And those happened to include the necessary ones, such as the ones for the modem, wireless, and ethernet. So I had no network connection to replace the corrupted ones.
So, I figured, no problem, and go in to install SuSE, paying careful attention to the partitions. The first install somehow got screwed up; the video driver for the Linux install was misconfigured or something. Anyway, so I go in to reinstall - and here's the part where I am fail - and forget to keep the partitions intact. Yes, I accidentally deleted my Windows installation.
As I'm loading my things onto the SuSE install, I try to import my Opera bookmarks. Which I've had for about two years. A nice, big collection of 200 comics, technical sites, news sites, blogs, and what have you. Only to find that opera6.adr, the bookmark file, which I made sure I exported that day, was a blank file. Nothing there.
About then I took my dead printer and threw it around until it smashed to bits. Yeah, I have some anger issues. After the calming effect of mindless violence, I dig deeper into the older files I have on the portable HDD and find I have an older bookmark file. So I managed to recover about 3/4s of them.
So now I've got openSuSE up and running (except for sound) and pull down the drivers. However, unfortunately, I can't find a way to modify the partitions without deleting the data on them. So, it's looking like I'll have to back up again, blank it, and reinstall everything, or just do what I probably should have done inthe first place and use Wine.
*sigh*
Now I always unplug the other hard drives while I install the OS. Then I just use the BIOS' Bootloader to select the drive/OS I want to use.
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