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Reinstalling my laptop for the 7th time...

Candlelight

Candlelight

Admiral
Admiral
I must have one of the unluckiest machines on Earth. It's usually been a mixture of software gremlins with both my mac and windows partitions. Today my HDD decided to pack a sad and die.

Didn't lose anything (the corruption was on the Mac partition so I was able to access everything through Windows, including the vm image of Windows itself) but I did lose most of today pulling the Macbook Pro apart (2007/2008 model, so the HDD is the last thing you get to once it's in pieces) and reinstalling. By the end of today I managed to get Mac back to nearly full strength, VMware installed with my salvaged Windows 7 image and most of Final Cut Studio.

Am due to get a new machine in Q3 (quad core i7) so you could say she was three months from retirement...
 
Having done this many times myself, I understand what a fuss it all is. I am glad you saved everything though!
 
I had one 500gb hard drive flat out die last year (nothing wrong with the drive surface itself, just a mechanical fault that stopped it from powering up at all), and I replaced another drive that I suspected was starting to go (although it had no read/write problems, but I don't take any chances with drives).

Never fun to replace drives, and especially not fun to reinstall an OS, but would have been much worse if I didn't back up my entire computer weekly.
And I haven't reinstalled Windows in 4 years despite going through 3 separate drives :lol
I've been lucky enough to be able to copy the old drive over to the new one before having any serious problems.

The moral of the story is that external drives are cheap and plentiful. Back up regularly.
 
i seem to remember reformatting and reinstalling windows on over 800 different computers on one occasion. didn't do it all at once though. worked for several days.

on my personal machine (laptop), i really cant recall how many times its been reinstalled. in the three years i've had it, i've replaced parts for more than the damn thing is worth. with a reinstall at every occasion.

Zepto Znote 3215w / Compal FL 71
Celeron M540 -> T5250 -> T7250 -> X9000
1GB -> 2gb -> 4gb
80GB 5400rpm -> 250gb 5400rpm -> 500gb 7200rpm -> 120gb SSD + 500gb 7200 rpm
X3100 / 1280x800 -> X3100 / 1680x1050
Ralink ABG Wifi -> Intel ABG -Wifi -> Intel BGN Wifi
 
ares93 said:
i seem to remember reformatting and reinstalling windows on over 800 different computers on one occasion. didn't do it all at once though. worked for several days.

on my personal machine (laptop), i really cant recall how many times its been reinstalled. in the three years i've had it, i've replaced parts for more than the damn thing is worth. with a reinstall at every occasion.

Zepto Znote 3215w / Compal FL 71
Celeron M540 -> T5250 -> T7250 -> X9000
1GB -> 2gb -> 4gb
80GB 5400rpm -> 250gb 5400rpm -> 500gb 7200rpm -> 120gb SSD + 500gb 7200 rpm
X3100 / 1280x800 -> X3100 / 1680x1050
Ralink ABG Wifi -> Intel ABG -Wifi -> Intel BGN Wifi
Click to expand...

You reinstalled your OS when you upgraded the RAM?
 
I have a question for you computer geeks... er, gurus:

What is the difference between 32 bit and 64 bit OS? I have an older Dell tower [2001] with Windows XP 32 bit. Specs are 1.8GHz processor, 2GB Ram, original 30+GB HDD, added 320GB HDD. My next upgrade is the video card/graphics card... the one I have now is like not having one at all.

After I upgrade the video card, I want to upgrade to Windows 7 64 bit. I was told this is possible since 32- and 64-bit refers to the OS. Is this correct?
 
Not a ton of difference.

The 64 bit OS can recognize and utilize beyond the 3.5GB of RAM that a 32 bit OS is limited to.

A couple years ago I had problems getting software that worked under the x64 when I changed over, I had to abandon Norton, but found other alternatives for utilities & anti-virus.

I think most software has caught up now though.

I think if you are as far back as Pentium4 you can't go 64 bit.
 
^I do have a Pentium 4 processor. I downloaded and ran the Windows 7 upgrade advisory software. The only thing it told me was to upgrade my graphics card. Hope that helps. I did not know about the processor being a problem.
 
I can't find a good listing of requirements right now, to find if there is any cut-off point for P4 processors.

I do remember trying to put XPx64 on an older laptop with a P4, and it wouldn't install.
 
My old Gateway plain old up and died after 6 years of faithfully chugging along through every task I've assigned it. RIP, soldier. :(

Also, my damn MP3 player is unusable because of a problem with a button that makes it turn the volume all the way down at the slightest provocation. Another had some problem while charging, trapping all my music, forever lost. :(
 
Sector 7 said:
I have a question for you computer geeks... er, gurus:

What is the difference between 32 bit and 64 bit OS? I have an older Dell tower [2001] with Windows XP 32 bit. Specs are 1.8GHz processor, 2GB Ram, original 30+GB HDD, added 320GB HDD. My next upgrade is the video card/graphics card... the one I have now is like not having one at all.

After I upgrade the video card, I want to upgrade to Windows 7 64 bit. I was told this is possible since 32- and 64-bit refers to the OS. Is this correct?
Click to expand...

It's not that you can't do it, it's just that if these are your computer specs it doesn't sound like you're doing anything that you'd need a 64-bit operating system for. It's mostly beneficial to programs that need a lot of memory because they're playing with large files. Things like dozens of 30 GB video files.

Based on your hard drive size, I'm pretty sure you're not involved with stuff like that.

I seriously wouldn't worry about it if I were you. You'd be wasting time making it work and seeing little to no differences.
 
Thanks for the advice, everyone! Next step is the video card... it does lock up the computer sometimes with games. I really do not have a problem with XP, I just feel as though I am missing out on the better technology available.
 
If you have an Pentium 4 then only those with a so called EMT64 extension can use a 64 bit OS, older P4's are 32 bit chips which have a 32 bit adressing bus for the memory which means that no matter what, it can't address more then 4Gb RAM, same goes for older AMD chips, anything not being Athlon 64's will be limited to 4Gb RAM.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/32-bit
 
BlobVanDam said:
I had one 500gb hard drive flat out die last year (nothing wrong with the drive surface itself, just a mechanical fault that stopped it from powering up at all), and I replaced another drive that I suspected was starting to go (although it had no read/write problems, but I don't take any chances with drives).

Never fun to replace drives, and especially not fun to reinstall an OS, but would have been much worse if I didn't back up my entire computer weekly.
And I haven't reinstalled Windows in 4 years despite going through 3 separate drives :lol
I've been lucky enough to be able to copy the old drive over to the new one before having any serious problems.

The moral of the story is that external drives are cheap and plentiful. Back up regularly.
Click to expand...

A lot of people have found that out over the years with various drive models that have turned out to be utterly shite - such as as 20GB IBM Deskstars (nicknamed deathstars) and the infamous Seagate 7200.11 series (or might of been the .10s) that had bodgy firmware that could and often would catcus your drive.
 
Specs update, Dell Dimension 2350, according to CCleaner:
MS Windows XP Home SP3
Intel Pentium 4 CPU 1.80GHz processor, 2.0GB RAM [upgraded from 512 MB], Intel 82845G//GL/PE/GV Graphics Controller

The original HDD: WDC WD400BB-75DEA00
Added HDD: Maxtor 5A320J0

Processor driver:
Version: 5.1.2600.0
Date: 4/1/2004
Device Instance ID: ACPI/GENUINEINTEL_-_X86_FAMILY_15_MODEL_2\_0

I hope this information helps. I still don't know if it is 64-bit capable or not.
 
Marc said:
BlobVanDam said:
I had one 500gb hard drive flat out die last year (nothing wrong with the drive surface itself, just a mechanical fault that stopped it from powering up at all), and I replaced another drive that I suspected was starting to go (although it had no read/write problems, but I don't take any chances with drives).

Never fun to replace drives, and especially not fun to reinstall an OS, but would have been much worse if I didn't back up my entire computer weekly.
And I haven't reinstalled Windows in 4 years despite going through 3 separate drives :lol
I've been lucky enough to be able to copy the old drive over to the new one before having any serious problems.

The moral of the story is that external drives are cheap and plentiful. Back up regularly.
Click to expand...

A lot of people have found that out over the years with various drive models that have turned out to be utterly shite - such as as 20GB IBM Deskstars (nicknamed deathstars) and the infamous Seagate 7200.11 series (or might of been the .10s) that had bodgy firmware that could and often would catcus your drive.
Click to expand...

And guess what drive model the HDD that bricked was? Yep, you guessed it, the Seagate 7200.11 series! :lol: I didn't know about the problems with the drives until after it died unfortunately, but I never did like that drive. First and only Seagate I've ever had. Only had it just over a year when it died. Not sure if I could have RMA'd it, but I didn't want another Seagate.
 
Candlelight said:
ares93 said:
Candlelight said:
You reinstalled your OS when you upgraded the RAM?
Click to expand...

Uhm, yes? 32bit to 64 bit. (XP Home x86 -> Vista x86 -> Seven x64 )
Click to expand...

That's your OS. I'm talking about upgrading your RAM:
1GB -> 2gb -> 4gb

Or do you mean you went to 2GB with Vista and 4GB with 7?
Click to expand...

Exactly. Ran XP x86 with 1gb, Vista x86 with 2gb and Seven x64 with 4 gb

Sector 7 said:
Specs update, Dell Dimension 2350, according to CCleaner:
MS Windows XP Home SP3
Intel Pentium 4 CPU 1.80GHz processor, 2.0GB RAM [upgraded from 512 MB], Intel 82845G//GL/PE/GV Graphics Controller

The original HDD: WDC WD400BB-75DEA00
Added HDD: Maxtor 5A320J0

Processor driver:
Version: 5.1.2600.0
Date: 4/1/2004
Device Instance ID: ACPI/GENUINEINTEL_-_X86_FAMILY_15_MODEL_2\_0

I hope this information helps. I still don't know if it is 64-bit capable or not.
Click to expand...

It does not support 64 bit OS and applications.

http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=27428
 
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