I'm doing it!

pc_builder

New Member
The IBM hdd utility I downloaded is erasing my laptop harddrive as I type this. Good thing it's only 10GB! It's already taken 20 minutes just to get half way done.

It is writing zeros to the drive. I only did this to try to make sure there aren't any viruses that went undetected by my antivirus software.

When it's done, I am installing Win2000Pro on a 5GB partition, and Red Hat Linux 9 on the other 5GB. This should be fun.

It was a big step to finally commit to nuking the drive and starting fresh.
 
yep I can symathise with you! Had to have that done with this one and it took a long time! but I have an ultra fast machine now, thanks to all the stuff I have not bothered to put back on! so it pays at times but it's a bind when the main machine goes belly up! You don't realise just how much you do on it! :lol2:
 
ooo, a magnet... hey, why is it sticking to my forehead?

Anyways. it's all done now, and I have half the harddrive space I used to to. But that's ok, the rest is going to Linux!

I'm running win2000pro and I couldn't be happier. I just finished with some tweaking websites to get the machine to boot up faster. Funny thing is, even before I started tweaking, it booted up faster than my old win98 setup. :shrug:

Startup is blazingly fast now compared to the days of old.

BTW, how long a process is installing Red Hat Linux 9? Just curious before I jumped in feet first.
 
pc_builder said:
BTW, how long a process is installing Red Hat Linux 9? Just curious before I jumped in feet first.
For me, it took about... say, 2-3 hours to get it up and running... and that install also included Mandrake.
 
Ok. I have RHL 9 installed. In fact, I am typing this from Mozilla in RHL. :D

The weird thing is, I have a D-Link DFE 690TXD cardbus network card. To put a long story short, in searching for the driver for linux, I found on their website that I had to compile it from source code. "Screw that" I thought, only if I was desparate.

Anyway, I just ran the Hardware Browser and it found the card as a Realtek card. Yay!
But, in enabling the Realtek driver and inputting my ip settings, when linux loads it says the card doesn't seem to be present. And yet, here I am, typing because it seems to work anyway.

Also, I noticed RHL 9 has a built-in firewall. I set it to high security. Is that enough to not have to worry about needing a third party firewall or anything?

Thanks
 
pc_builder said:
Ok. I have RHL 9 installed. In fact, I am typing this from Mozilla in RHL. :D

The weird thing is, I have a D-Link DFE 690TXD cardbus network card. To put a long story short, in searching for the driver for linux, I found on their website that I had to compile it from source code. "Screw that" I thought, only if I was desparate.

Anyway, I just ran the Hardware Browser and it found the card as a Realtek card. Yay!
But, in enabling the Realtek driver and inputting my ip settings, when linux loads it says the card doesn't seem to be present. And yet, here I am, typing because it seems to work anyway.

Also, I noticed RHL 9 has a built-in firewall. I set it to high security. Is that enough to not have to worry about needing a third party firewall or anything?

Thanks
I have no firewall except Mozilla's own built-in firewall... works fine.:shrug:
But if you really want maximum security, nothing beats common sense. Second best is a hardware firewall.

Edit: I found a nice poem that describes everyday life with Microsucks pretty well. Apologies to Edgar Allan Poe.

Abort, Retry, Ignore?

Once upon a midnight dreary, fingers cramped and vision bleary,
System manuals piled high and wasted paper on the floor,
Longing for the warmth of bed sheets, still I sat there doing spreadsheets.
Having reached the bottom line I took a floppy from the drawer,
I then invoked the SAVE command and waited for the disk to store,
Only this and nothing more.

Deep into the monitor peering, long I sat there wond'ring, fearing,
Doubting, while the disk kept churning, turning yet to churn some more.
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token.
"Save!" I said, "You cursed mother! Save my data from before!"
One thing did the phosphors answer, only this and nothing more,
Just, "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"

Was this some occult illusion, some maniacal intrusion?
These were choices undesired, ones I'd never faced before.
Carefully I weighed the choices as the disk made impish noises.
The cursor flashed, insistent, waiting, baiting me to type some more.
Clearly I must press a key, choosing one and nothing more,
From "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"

With fingers pale and trembling, slowly toward the keyboard bending,
Longing for a happy ending, hoping all would be restored,
Praying for some guarantee, timidly, I pressed a key.
But on the screen there still persisted words appearing as before.
Ghastly grim they blinked and taunted, haunted, as my patience wore,
Saying "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"

I tried to catch the chips off guard, and pressed again, but twice as hard.
I pleaded with the cursed machine: I begged and cried and then I swore.
Now in mighty desperation, trying random combinations,
Still there came the incantation, just as senseless as before.
Cursor blinking, angrily winking, blinking nonsense as before.
Reading, "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"

There I sat, distraught, exhausted, by my own machine accosted.
Getting up I turned away and paced across the office floor.
And then I saw a dreadful sight: a lightning bolt cut through the night.
A gasp of horror overtook me, shook me to my very core.
The lightning zapped my previous data, lost and gone forevermore.
Not even, "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"

To this day I do not know the place to which lost data go.
What demonic nether world us wrought where lost data will be stored,
Beyond the reach of mortal souls, beyond the ether, into black holes?
But sure as there's C, Pascal, Lotus, Ashton-Tate and more,
You will one day be left to wander, lost on some Plutonian shore,
Pleading, "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"
 
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