A new desktop PC
A week ago, we (my wife and me) decided to buy a new desktop. What was to be just buying and re-installing turned out to be quite an adventure (… well not really, but it sounds good …)
First thing I noticed is that even the lowest priced computers are quite powerful! Maybe it looks to me like that because I am used to see server hardware and portables. It costs €233, has 2 GB of memory, dual core Intel 64bit (!) CPU (don’t remember the speed, but for performance this is generally not so imported). For the rest, it has a 160GB SATA drive and a SATA DVD. No floppy! An integrated ethernet card. I lost count of the USB-ports and various other ports on it. But no parallel port for the printer (I still use one that ONLY has a parallel port! Well, ok, I can accept that. After all, we decided to get rid of it anyway when the cartridge will be empty [a new cartridge probably costs more then the printer anyway]). An (Italian) Vista was pre-installed on the desktop.
What is there to blog about you could ask? Buying a new desktop is an (almost) everyday activity. Well, first I noticed that my desktop-hardware knowledge was a little outdated (last one I bought and installed was about 7 years ago!), but this is not the real problem. The problem wasn’t either that I didn’t want an Italian Vista but an English XP. I don’t know for others, but even a Windows my mothertongue (Dutch or better : NLB) seems Chinese (or double Dutch [!!!] for the British) for me!
So far so good: Kill Vista, take my MSDN-DVD (it is great to be an MVP!) with XP and create a bootable CD. Put it in the drive, boot. The DOS-prompt gets up (????). No problem, I still have DOS in my fingers (where are the times of a PC with a 30MB(!) hard disk and 1 MB(!!) of memory was considered a too powerful computer [1MB, but DOS only uses 640KB] ?). I have an A-drive (A-drive??? I don’t even have a floppy in it…). Whatever. I try other drive-letters (No, they DON’T show up somewhere! You have to search for them). I don’t find the DVD-drive.
Ok, good, I’ll download the image XP-version from MSDN. Downloaded. Burn on a CD. Put cd in drive. Boot. Looks good: the installation program starts up. BLUESCREEN! … And NOT the one of the install but the dreaded BLUESCREEN OF DEATH!
Lets do some research on internet: disable SATA and make the drivers use IDE-simulation. Good idea. Shame that the BIOS of my computer doesn’t have that option!
Other solution: you need a SATA-driver on a floppy to be used with the F6 when installing and then you have to insert the floppy in the drive. Which drive? The DVD-drive? I don’t have a floppy! Ok, I’ll take the one from my other computer. Connect it, but that floppy-drive seems to be dead: it destroys the data on it if I don’t write protect it! And even write protected, it doesn’t read it. Probably that floppy died some time ago and I never noticed.
Other solution : use nLite to make an customized install-CD: doesn’t work either, because it crashes each time while creating the image.
Despair, anger, hammer. Stop! It is to early for the hammer!
Let’s try Vista. I read it has drivers for SATA, so… At least I would get some experience with Vista (ahum….).
Vista doesn’t recognize the drive… Ok no problem, there are drivers to be found on the internet! Download them, put them on USB. Insert USB and the Vista install program recognizes the USB-drive. WOW!!!! No more floppy A: drive problem!
I select the drivers. Continue. No hard disk found in the computer! But there is, the BIOS sees it!
In short I tried all these (Great MSDN!) operating systems:
XPsp2. XPsp3, XPsp3 64bit. Vista, Vista 64bit, Vista SP1 32bit,Vista SP1 64bit , Win 2003 32 and 64 bit and also Win 2008 32bit! (Didn’t have the courage anymore to test Win 2008 64bit!) Nothing. It doesn’t work!
Last option (before the hammer): I remove the SATA harddisk and DVD-drive and put an IDE harddisk and DVD-drive in it. Boot from CD (XPsp3 32bit). Partition. Format. Install. Finished!!!! Lets see the device-drivers. I see some devices without a driver: like the RAID and also some unknown device. Well, at least it found the SATA-controller. Lets retry the SATA-for-XP-for-that-motherboard-driver. Installed!
Now: THE TEST: shutdown. Connect SATA hard disk and DVD. Reboot. All fine. I go to the disk management of XP and I SEE 2 HARD DISKS!!!!!!
I can’t leave it like that, because the harddisk with XP on it is one of 6GB with a little bit more then 1GB free (I just have XP on it, I copied the install-CD on it and some drivers install programs (for about 200MB). Never thought that XP used so much disk space!
Luckily I am an MVP. And we have a free offer for Acronis True Image! I wanted to make a backup of the drive with XP and then restore it on the SATA-drive. But I noticed even something better: Clone disk. This clones an entire drive onto another and you have the possibility to change the drive size! Lets go for it! Finished the cloning after a few minutes (that’s fast!). Shutdown. Remove IDE hard disk (I already removed the IDE DVD-drive because it was on the same cable as the harddisk and that slows down a lot [There is only 1 IDE connection!]). Reboot. And there is XP on the SATA-drive!!!!!!
Mission Impossible completed!!!!!
But it cost me tears, sweat and blood. I’ve done it (or maybe it was the nearby hammer that convinced the computer…)!
Afterthoughts:
-I consider myself not that bad with desktop hardware and how to connect and juggle with it (even if that knowledge had a 7-year gap and was a little rusty). How can computer-rookies ever (re-)install a computer like that with an older OS (like XP) on a new computer (with SATA-drives). Or even Vista that should have the SATA-drivers?
-Even if you are a desktop hardware veteran, how could you transfer the installed OS from one disk to another if you don’t have the software for it. You would need to buy it. And thus the computer would cost a lot more. I was lucky on that: I had the free offer for Acronis True Image!
-Or maybe the hardware vendors DON’T want you to re-install your computer. It is pre-installed and you don’t even have the DVD to re-install it if your Windows would die for some reason.
Filed under: Varia
I went through the same issue a short while ago.
best solution is :
- Keep the standard (in your case Italian) OS in place, and remove everything you don’t need. And run defrag on the drive.
- Get the program GPARTED. Shrink the size of the OS partition to leave only about 1 gig or so free.
- Craete a new partition in the free space.
- Copy the OS install CD onto this new partition.
- Boot the old OS, and then run the install program off the other drive.
- Use Dual boot to select the OS you need.
PS as to the reasons for this. There are two prime reasons that they don’t want you reinstalling a different OS.
1/ Support. They don’t want people calling up to ask support for a different OS to what they have tested. (this is the BS reason that they will tell you).
2/ Spy ware/Games/Viruses etc.
Call them what you will, but virtually all Personal Computers these days come pre-installed with suites of virus and spy ware software.
These provide additional revenue streams to the hardware Vendor. So you have a 30 days trial virus installed, and get a warning that your nice new pc will self destruct in 30 days if you don’t subscribe.
The vendors don’t want you having a clean install, since then there is a lower chance of a sale.
Nice one: “come pre-installed with suites of virus and spy ware software” => So no need to connect to the internet to get infected by viruses and spyware. They are pre-installed! :-))))