That was the week that was!

Hi Folks!

What a week!
It started off innocently enough - the Sunday before last I decided to reinstall my computer - i.e. reformat my hard drive and start afresh - as it had been getting more and more sluggish and too many blue screens of death for my comfort.

Easy enough I thought. All my data backed up to my husbands machine (thank goodness for networking!), and all set to go.

I thought I had a boot disk - but that didn't work!
Thank heavens for my Laptop and even more thank you to http://www.bios.com/!!!
So, boot disk made.

Hard disk wiped, fdisked & partitioned - all ready for re-installation!
Or so I thought!

My install of XP went through so far and then the machine hung at 99%

I tried again, doing a repair installation. It hung again, only sooner!

I re-formatted my had disk again and zeroed it to ensure a totally clean hard disk, and attempted another install. This one got further, but it couldn't load a certain file. (Not sure if CD drive was playing up at this point)
I continued this process several more times, in varying concoctions, with or without re-formating, installing etc. In the end, after a desperate phonecall to one of my most knowledgeable friends, we decided perhaps a new hard disk was in order.

So, off I went, purchased a lovely 40gig hard drive, and installed that - retaining my other hard drive so I could contain my data on it.

Drive installed, fdisked, partitioned and formatted.
Still, Windows XP not playing. After another series of more futile attempts, and blue screens of death appearing more and more frequently - another desperate telephone call was made.

Perhaps memory might fix this one.

This was now Friday, I'd been working on attempting this simple install all week! My husband was going insane and couldn't understand why I was continuing with it. In my opinion, something so straightforward shouldn't take this long and I was sure the next attempt would work!

So, a lovely piece of memory was bought - twice the amount as I had - so, in theory, it should now glide through a new install. New hard drive, new memory!

Still no joy! I couldn't believe it. I must have tried installing another 10 times in varying degrees, getting so far - almost there, but not!

By Sunday night I had to admit defeat - not something I do lightly - but after a week of trying to get machine to play ball and it still not happening - I decided to call the professionals!

A faulty chip was probably the reason behind my inability to install Windows XP. I suggested perhaps an upgrade of my entire system may be the order of the day at this point - it was duly agreed that this may very well have to be the case.

So early next morning, computer delivered. By the evening - all fixed! new motherboard, processor, new hard drive all connected & working, second hard drive connected & working. Windows XP installed. Wonderful!!!!!

I wasn't allowed to pick up my machine that evening - but made an appointment early following morning to pick up my lovely computer.

It was lovely to get it back home and start re-instating all my software - of which there is quite an amount - but I am trying hard only to install the absolute essentials that I require.
I don't like being without my computer - but I will certainly put into practice a good backup procedure - just in case my machine should die on me again in the future!

So, if anyone else doesn't want to find themselves in a desperate situation - ALWAYS back up your work to somewhere safe - a CD, Zip disk, another hard drive or another computer if you are lucky enough to have your own network set up.
Do create yourself a windows boot up disk - this is ESSENTIAL! As it loads up the drivers for your CD rom, and floppy drive etc., so that you can install from CD's.

That's it for now folks!

Pauline.