Another new guy

[SuperChuck]

So Rubie, I have a Compaq computer that is about four to five years old with a 100GB hard drive. The hard drive is so infested with viruses and spyware that it gives me quite a few error messages when I boot it up and now it no longer connects to the internet or works with my network here at home. I figured I could wipe the hard drive and use the recovery discs and start fresh BUT I really didn't want to lose lots of files (mostly Word and Excel files) so I bought a new 250GB hard drive and figured I'd use the original as a slave or spare hard drive. Well, the goddam thing won't take, I've tried other hard drives and I absolutely cannot get Windows to boot up. We then did wipe the hard drive and tried to reinstall everything from the factory recovedry discs and it STILL won't fuggen work. The guy who was working on it for me thinks the mother board is bad. He swapped out all the cards, changed the hard drive cables, etc.

What do you think or what would you recommend?

With the price of hardware where it is, it could be worthwhile to replace some of your computer's guts. You can probably get a new motherboard/CPU/memory for WAY under $200. Just last month I built out a 64-bit machine for $163 shipped. And I imagine you don't need that much processing power.

[CoventryCat86]

With the price of hardware where it is, it could be worthwhile to replace some of your computer's guts. You can probably get a new motherboard/CPU/memory for WAY under $200. Just last month I built out a 64-bit machine for $163 shipped. And I imagine you don't need that much processing power.

I was hoping to do something like that but what pisses me off is that the only discs I have are the Compaq ones which means I doubt I could upgrade the mother board. They don't give you the Windows XP discs, etc, just their own garbage.

[SuperChuck]

I was hoping to do something like that but what pisses me off is that the only discs I have are the Compaq ones which means I doubt I could upgrade the mother board. They don't give you the Windows XP discs, etc, just their own garbage.

Well, I wouldn't know about that stuff...

Now if you go over to www.ubuntu.com, maybe I can help you out! ;)

[ukyfan]

Well, I wouldn't know about that stuff...

Now if you go over to www.ubuntu.com, maybe I can help you out! ;)

I tried to dual boot ubu, with my xp box the other day and it screwed up my MBR. Don't know what I did wrong but I am going to try a different flavor later. Maybe Fedora.

[SuperChuck]

I tried to dual boot ubu, with my xp box the other day and it screwed up my MBR. Don't know what I did wrong but I am going to try a different flavor later. Maybe Fedora.

Did you follow a HOWTO? That seems like that would be a pretty common thing to do.

I'm pretty impressed with Ubuntu. It's somewhere between "Linux for Dummies" and something more nitty-gritty like gentoo (my previous obsession)

[ukyfan]

Did you follow a HOWTO? That seems like that would be a pretty common thing to do.

I'm pretty impressed with Ubuntu. It's somewhere between "Linux for Dummies" and something more nitty-gritty like gentoo (my previous obsession)

I just followed the steps that were on the screen. I set up a dual boot with Caldera (a long time) ago and everything worked fine. Thought I would give Tux another go around and then this happened. It wasn't a hard fix from my Windows point of view but I haven't fixed the dual boot prob yet. going to work on it again this weekend.