----- Original Message ----- From: "j maccraw" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "The Hardware List" <hardware@hardwaregroup.com>
Sent: Saturday, June 02, 2007 8:09 AM Subject: Re: [H] Compaq hidden partition
partition on some models (maybe only circa < 2000, haven't worked on a new one) and loose access to the BIOS setup. May not keep you from
I did run across some computers in that year range that refused to boot to the hard drive at the first boot point during the installation of Windows XP. Those had to be the ones built late in 2001 as Windows XP was released to us in manufacturing early in October and to the public (Full and Upgrade versions) later in October, 2001. When I say, "First boot point" I am referring to the point where the files have been copied and the computer is automatically rebooted to that first GUI which proceeds with approximately 39 minutes remaining to the completion of the installation. Knowing that the manufacturer's small partition was a FAT 32 partition, my guess was the comptuer was set to boot only to a FAT 32 partition and then follow a script to proceed to load Windows on its NTFS partition. My work around was I partitioned my C Drive as FAT 32. Right or wrong, it worked. This applied to only a few models. I was glad to see that short lived.
What you said means that those models were so proprietary that independent technicians like me had a very hard time trying to do clean installs on them. The point that the general public just does not comprehend is that the name brand computer manufacturers do not want their computers repaired. They have authorized service centers mainly to cover their warranty obligations. They prefer every computer be replaced every 2 years. They do not care if their customers get mad at them. For every million customers they lose each year, they gain another million customers who are mad at other computer manufacturers. With this rotation, it takes 10 years for the typical customer to go through a Dell, a Gateway, a HP, a eMachine and a Compaq. It takes even longer if a customer buys the same brand a 2nd or 3rd time before they get mad and move on. An independent computer technician wants to simply buy and install a Seagate or WD generic hard drive, designed to work in most any computer. According to what you just said, an independent computer technician is going to have a hard time changing out a hard drive, unless they order one pre loaded from the computer manufacturer.
"This is a CD, CD's contain DATA. DATA is...." You do realize Chuck that most of us here have been doing this as long or longer than you, right?
I tried to explain the basics for those who are less experienced. I realize it is boring for the rest of you. Perhaps very few who have little experience are on this list. I read many posts on this thread and it seemed that nobody was explaining the basics that I covered. I tried then and in this post to explain why the whole process of proprietary built computers should be unacceptable to the general public. Actually those of you who have more experience than me know it is far easier to build clones or generic computers than to build in proprietary crap. It is selfish commercial greed to build those things that only a few technicians can easily repair. Yet many feel a computer should not last from 5 to 10 years. Before you tell me that many do, can you truthfully say that their performance is good, right from the beginning up until around 5 years when more resource intensive software etc. makes them obsolete? Example: USB 1.1 moving up to USB 2.0.
You are not lost of the CD does not boot. There are other ways of getting initial XP install on a HDD w/o being able to boot a CD in the target system.
Thank you! I will remember this if I need assistance in doing so. I guess there could be valid reasons to install Windows on a computer that is not capable of booting to a CD, but right now I can not think of any. What you just said is the whole idea here, sharing our varied experience. You just assurred me to not worry if I really want to install Windows onto a computer that refused to boot to the Windows CD. All of my installs of Windows 9x were from the cabinet files on a separate partiton of the hard drive. I ran into problems when I tried this with Windows XP and gave up too soon by going to CD installs. In fact I would prefer to free the computer from being dependent on having a Windows media CD to install Windows XP.
As for the Dell guy, all they would do is use the Dell restore CD to revert it back to shipping state or they would ship
Absolutely! They must fulfill their obligations to AOL and the other software they agree to keep in the customer's face.
Chuck
