Aaagghh!! Some days I HATE technology

[Bytemrk]

My Laptop...

Triple booting Windows XP, Fedora 5 and Vista Beta 2 ( yes it is a legal copy)...

MBR has died... can't boot any OS...from harddrive.

Can't boot to any Windows based CD.. except the Vista install disk... can't even get a Koppix live disk to boot...:mad::mad:

50+ gig of stuff I don't want to trash... and a machine I can't use!

Thought I'd rip the harddrive out and put in an external caddy.... use USB to back it all up;)

Drive is Sata.. my carriage is Ide... oohh F.

Call around.. no one seems to have the for Sata laptop drives.. F F F F..

see you guys some time late tonight... I think my miserable day is going to be longer than I planned..:censored:

[Omaroo]

Have you tried booting from a Fedora Core disk? I've managed to restore my MBR using mine once. What boot manager are you using... LILO...Grub...another????

[Ruslan]

Did you try fdisk /mbr ?

Ruslan

[Bytemrk]

You can all relax.....:p


All fixed..... just most of an afternoon screwing around.....:mad:


Thanks for the suggestions guys..


RS652... new laptop.. no floppy drive...won't boot to a windows based CD.... made that option too hard..;-(

Omaroo, through Fedora I could get Linux going again... but the Windows part of the MBR was totally foobared :(

I managed to get it to boot to the Vista Beta cd.. repaired the windows boot from there and then used Fedora to fix the Grub boot loader.. nothing lost but an afternoons work....


Think maybe to morrow morning a quick backup onto the network drives might help the blood pressure next time I screw up..:blush:


Very glad not to be spending the night reinstalling and configuring dozens of programs....

Mark

[muddymech]

what language you guys speaking???????????????

[stevo68]

what language you guys speaking??????????????? My sentiments exactly, its giving me a head ache. Bit like the server I have sitting here and dont have a clue how to set it up with my current system, and Im not game enough to try. Maybe my 3rd attempt at my computer guy will make him come and get it going as F*&^%d if I know. If I have to copy one more disk from server to my standalone, well a grown man just might cry :eek:

Regards

Stevo

[Captain_Rightfoot]

My sentiments exactly, its giving me a head ache. Bit like the server I have sitting here and dont have a clue how to set it up with my current system, and Im not game enough to try. Maybe my 3rd attempt at my computer guy will make him come and get it going as F*&^%d if I know. If I have to copy one more disk from server to my standalone, well a grown man just might cry :eek:

Regards

Stevo

I work in IT (although not pc support) and this all amuses me. As you all know I'm a total mac convert.

Since we bought ours nearly a year ago we haven't had to trash and re-install the operating system. I haven't had to track down a single driver. We haven't installed any anti virus or anti spyware solutions. The computer sits on cable 24/7 (although behind a router) and it hasn't been hacked or interfered with in anyway. :) The supplied software pretty much does everthing. :)

I work with IT for a living and I was fed up coming home and have to "work" so I could enjoy a little bit of internet time. Now I just come home and do what I want to do. It's the way it should be.

My sister inlaw showed me her new acer laptop this morning. They split the HD into two, with the second volume being labelled data. This made me think... and then I realised it's so that you can trash your operating system without loosing your data. Hows that for faith in a product... LOL.

The apple hardware is certainly better (at least in design terms), but the thing that makes them is their operating system. It's like falcon taxi compared to brand new BMW/Merc/whatever car ticles your fancy. :)

[Bytemrk]

I work in IT (although not pc support) and this all amuses me. As you all know I'm a total mac convert.

Since we bought ours nearly a year ago we haven't had to trash and re-install the operating system. I haven't had to track down a single driver. We haven't installed any anti virus or anti spyware solutions. The computer sits on cable 24/7 (although behind a router) and it hasn't been hacked or interfered with in anyway. :) The supplied software pretty much does everthing. :)

I work with IT for a living and I was fed up coming home and have to "work" so I could enjoy a little bit of internet time. Now I just come home and do what I want to do. It's the way it should be.

My sister inlaw showed me her new acer laptop this morning. They split the HD into two, with the second volume being labelled data. This made me think... and then I realised it's so that you can trash your operating system without loosing your data. Hows that for faith in a product... LOL.

The apple hardware is certainly better (at least in design terms), but the thing that makes them is their operating system. It's like falcon taxi compared to brand new BMW/Merc/whatever car ticles your fancy. :)
I'm with you to a point.... I do Like MACs.. but the reason they are almost immune to viruses etc.. is that no one bothers writing MAC viruses as up until recently they were such a small portion of computers out there...

My machine that gave me so much grief yesterday is a Laptop that currently has multiple OSes loaded to it.. running Windows XP, the Beta 2 release of Windows Vista and well as Ferdora5 (I also have MAC OSX available to running in a virtual machine -for testing reasons)

I look after a reasonably large mainly Windows environment - 300+ Pc's, we also have a graphics studio so I also maintain about a dozen macs... along with multiple Windows and RedHat linux servers..

My main grief yesterday started after installing an Optus Wireless internet card - I have a lot of different network utilities on the PC... when I reconnected to our network.. pow.. blue screen!.... after multiple attempts to fix it.. and multiple blue screens - I ended up with a stuffed MBR..

As far as comparing the PC/MAC thing to a Falcon/BMW you are spot on... the MAC( BMW) will run like a dream... but when it does let go it is likely to be suddenly and in a big way...:p

At least with the PC( falcon) you are expecting it to happen..:D

I guess that will teach me not to use my Own laptop to mess around and try stuff...:angel:

I felt better after venting here though....:p

Mark

[matbor]

I just use VMWare on windows xp, can boot up any OS quickly and still do work in windows in the background...

[Captain_Rightfoot]

I'm with you to a point.... I do Like MACs.. but the reason they are almost immune to viruses etc.. is that no one bothers writing MAC viruses as up until recently they were such a small portion of computers out there...

My machine that gave me so much grief yesterday is a Laptop that currently has multiple OSes loaded to it.. running Windows XP, the Beta 2 release of Windows Vista and well as Ferdora5 (I also have MAC OSX available to running in a virtual machine -for testing reasons)

I look after a reasonably large mainly Windows environment - 300+ Pc's, we also have a graphics studio so I also maintain about a dozen macs... along with multiple Windows and RedHat linux servers..

My main grief yesterday started after installing an Optus Wireless internet card - I have a lot of different network utilities on the PC... when I reconnected to our network.. pow.. blue screen!.... after multiple attempts to fix it.. and multiple blue screens - I ended up with a stuffed MBR..

As far as comparing the PC/MAC thing to a Falcon/BMW you are spot on... the MAC( BMW) will run like a dream... but when it does let go it is likely to be suddenly and in a big way...:p

At least with the PC( falcon) you are expecting it to happen..:D

I guess that will teach me not to use my Own laptop to mess around and try stuff...:angel:

I felt better after venting here though....:p

Mark
Interesting post :) A couple of points though... you do say that they aren't plagued by viruses and spyware because they are such a small player. While I admit that they aren't nearly as populous as the PC, this year Apple surpassed Dell in market capitalisation. As to the numbers, Apple shipped 1.327 million macs last quarter alone. I'd suggest that even though we don't see a lot of them in Aus they are pretty big players and reasonable size targets.

My research before buying mine suggested that their security was due to their bsd/linux underpinnings, as well as good software design by Apple. This means people really have to be stupid to catch what few viruses there are.

As to how they go with blowing up... well I'm pretty much sure is the same as everyone else. :p My point was that their OS was what makes them great. :)

[JDNSW]

Interesting post :) A couple of points though... you do say that they aren't plagued by viruses and spyware because they are such a small player. While I admit that they aren't nearly as populous as the PC, this year Apple surpassed Dell in market capitalisation. As to the numbers, Apple shipped 1.327 million macs last quarter alone. I'd suggest that even though we don't see a lot of them in Aus they are pretty big players and reasonable size targets.

My research before buying mine suggested that their security was due to their bsd/linux underpinnings, as well as good software design by Apple. This means people really have to be stupid to catch what few viruses there are.

As to how they go with blowing up... well I'm pretty much sure is the same as everyone else. :p My point was that their OS was what makes them great. :)

The low market penetration helps reduce the vulnerability to viruses - for any infection to be sustained, the virus must be spread to an average of more than one other computer. But as you comment, it is partly the operating system - unix based systems are inherently more difficult to write effective viruses for, but probably the most important thing is the way that Apple has set them up - to get infected with a virus you have to really try, unlike Windows, where a lot of the default settings leave you wide open. Put all these together, and viruses for Macs are not that much of a threat.
John

[Bytemrk]

Hey Captain...

Maybe I phrased my comments badly..:angel: you are 100% right the way the MAC OS operates certainly makes it heaps more secure than a default Windows system.. naturally making it tougher for Virus writers and hackers.

And I do know that their sales currently are booming....

But the last stat I saw ( probably a year or 2 old now...) was that MAC still had less than 5% of the desktop computing market world wide...

That alone means there are infinitely more bad guys trying to screw with Windows Systems... as there are so many unsecure windows systems out there... as most users think"install norton and I'll be safe":eek:.

Any way, we seem to be filling a Land Rover forum with geek speak

Best we get back to the important stuff;)

Enjoy your MAC world....

Mark