Right, missed Liz, because I suck, but did manage to get Windows 98 and Debian GNU/Linux reinstalled and running. So, um, yay me?
And since Windows cheerfully overwrites the MBR every time I reinstall it -- maybe shouldn't use that tense, only did it twice and I swear this is the last time -- a Quick Guide to Getting Back Your Linux Install From the Clutches of Bill Gates' Bastard Offspring:
- Boot from the Debian install cd, using the boot command rescue root=/dev/hda2 (or whatever partition your root directory is in)
- Log in, then back up /etc/lilo.conf (shouldn't be necessary, but do it anyway)
- Uninstall lilo, using apt-get remove lilo
- Reinstall lilo, using apt-get install lilo
- Replace your original lilo.conf, if the one what gets generated ain't to your liking
Or, you know, you could just back up the MBR and restore it afterwards. Or install Windows first, Linux second, and not re-reinstall Windows. Or any one of a number of other things, but that'un's quick and dirty and gets the job done. Sorry, am in a "results count, fuck the method" sort of mindset.
On the plus side, Windows boots a hell of a lot faster, is more responsive once it does, and seems more stable. Plus, you know, the free space created by reformatting and not reinstalling everything yet.
That was the first time I'd actually ever run format c:, oddly enough.
This might fit in with the whole purging thing, but seeing as I'm gonna have to reinstall the stuff as I need it, maybe not so much. . .
Apropos of nothing, but good to know:
• Wednesday, March 17-Sunday, March 21
WOMEN IN THE DIRECTOR'S CHAIR
23rd ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL FILM & VIDEO FESTIVAL
This year we'll feature old-favorite programs, such as Homegirls and the ever-popular Dyke Nite, plus:… Many guest filmmakers present to discuss their work, including Trinh T. Minh-ha!
… Brand new work from Trinh T. Minh-ha, Diane Nerwen, Emily Vey Duke, Dee Mosbacher, Lisa Hayes and many more!
… Screenings/panels on issues dealing with ethnographic media making (Semishe Manwe by Maura Smith and Resort by Anna Abrahams) and with women as national commodities (Parai by Leena Manimekalhi and Something Between Her Hands by Sonia Shah)
… Compelling features includingPrison Lullabies by Linda Matta, Christine Cynn's gripping account of the Haitian Raboteau Trial, Poke Mat Sonje, and Beah: A Black Woman Speaks from Lisagay Hamilton
… New work by women from more than 15 countries!
And there's a benefit/screening with Catherine Hardwicke and her film THIRTEEN, um, last night at 5.
I mentioned the suckage, yes?
Off to do more of that reinstall stuff.
Heh. Get a Mac...
Heh. Get a life. . .
I have a Mac, actually. Old SE/30, which I was playing with a few weeks ago using the SCSI Zip Drive I picked up at Brown Elephant for five bucks. Turns out the drive works, and I managed to not kill it by idiotically inserting some of the Click of Death™ disks, so I could use the thing.
Or take the drive, hook it up to the old Amiga 2500 in the storage locker me mum still quaintly insists on calling her house, copy everything from the hard drive to Zip disk, then hook the drive up to the old 'puter that actually has ISA slots, and that can take the ancient Zip Zoom card I used to use, hook the laptop up to it via Ethernet, and get my old undergrad papers that way. Assuming they're in a format some Linux or Windows program can read; might have to open 'em up on the Amiga and save 'em as text or RTF first.
Not that I'm sure the papers are on the thing -- was using a Commodore 64 and GEOS for a while before upgrading. And, um, dialing into U of I's system, transfering the files with Kermit or zmodem, then printing 'em from a computer in one of the labs. Don't think I ever got a 3.5" drive for the 64, so this would involve futzing with 5 1/4" deals; no way to read those (formatted on a Commodore 1541) on an Intel box, is there? After playing with the Mac, I decided to reduce the number of old, almost-dead boxes at me mum's by pulling the 5 1/4" drive out of an old machine and sticking it in the aforementioned ISA slot-having one.
Guess I could connect it to the router (wireless, but also has four or so Ethernet jacks) I set up at the house and use it as a server; it's only a Pentium 166, but since it's the only one in the place that can read Zip disks and 5 1/4" floppies, and has a cd-rom drive or two (think the reason I didn't set it up was needing a larger power supply, or at least a splitter so it could power everything I'd stuck in it). . .
I can't even spell TMI before coffee.
You sound like my husband. I had to take an entire carload of old, not-being-used machines to be recycled a couple of months ago to avoid paying to have them hauled to New Jersey.
(And, yes, I have my undergrad papers on my hard drive, so I do get it.)
I'm not going to Macevangelize you, either; anyone who messes with Linux knows enough about computers to determine the OS that best suits their needs. Since I'm personally convinced that a lot of *nix users, including hardcore OS X nerds, really get a kick out of doing the kind of thing you've been talking about, telling you to get an OS that I personally use to avoid that might be counterproductive.