Wow, wonderful. My less than one year old HD is dying.
Try booting an Ubuntu 9.10 Live CD. It has new stuff that will automatically tell you if the drive is having a bad time. You don't even have to do anything, it should just pop up some messages when you boot.
I learned this because I just updated my parent's laptop to Ubuntu 9.10, and I got an error saying the drive was unhappy. It works perfectly, but Ubuntu detected many bad sectors. It doesn't have long left to live. I had them just order a new one on Newegg and not do anything with it until they have to.
I'll do that, thanks for the tip. I'm just hoping that my CS friend can snag me a free copy of Windows 7 so I don't have to pay like $400 on a new HD + OS.
Alright, I got a new power supply, a new HDD, a copy of Windows Vista Home Premium, and I finally found a DVI adapter. I put all of these things together, thinking that they would simply work, but I was wrong. When I try to install Windows it does not recognise the hard drive and, upon further investigation, neither does Ubuntu or BIOS. Using Google I found mutterings of mass storage drivers (controllers?), and esoteric phrases that involve screwing about with the BIOS, but none of the information was very helpful. Can anyone tell me what might be going on, and how I can fix it?
Well, either you connected something wrong, set something up wrong in the BIOS, or something is broken.
Yeah, I guessed at all of those. I've double checked the connections, reset BIOS, and prayed to the Flying Spaghetti Monster that none of my brand-new equipment is broken. It's probably that cheap-ass power supply...
Ok, so I have the Dell mini 10 netbook. It originally came with Windows xp installed. A few months back I replaced it with the windows 7 rc, but forgot to format the hard drive first, so it left most of the files behind and for some reason it wouldn't let me partition it. A week or so ago I decided to reinstall windows 7 clean and partition the drive and all that good stuff. I created 2 20 gig partitions and 1 110 gig partition. I installed windows 7 on the C: partition and everything went fine. Then I decided to put XP on the other partition. I installed it and everything seemed to work, except then I couldn't boot into Windows 7. I tried to do a system repair from the windows 7 install, and it worked but now I can't boot into XP. Any thoughts? I know it probably has something to do with my boot record or whatever but I don't really know what to do about it.
I know it probably has something to do with my boot record or whatever but I don't really know what to do about it.
You are correct. Here is how it works.
In your BIOS you have a boot priority setting. That is something like Floppy, CD-ROM, USB, HardDrive 0. Your BIOS looks at each drive in order. When it looks at each drive, it looks at the very beginning for a master boot record. The master boot record should contain a program called a boot loader that is copied into memory and executed. When you have no MBRs, you get the "No System Disk or Disk Error" message that is semi-famous.
When you install Windows, any Windows, it overwrites the MBR with a boot loader that loads only the Windows you just installed. So whichever Windows you install last will be the only one you can boot. This is why when you want to dual boot Linux and Windows you install Windows first, then Linux. The Linux distro will overwrite the crappy windows bootloader with the quality Linux one, likely Grub. Grub is not a piece of shit, and it will give you a menu to choose what to boot.
You have two options. One is that you can configure the Windows bootloader to allow you to choose between XP and 7. here is the howto for that.
Another option is to just install Grub. This will be more difficult, but the end result will be much better. Basically you would put grub into the MBR without having any Linux installed. Then you would just have two grub boot configurations, one for XP and one for 7.
You have two options. One is that you can configure the Windows bootloader to allow you to choose between XP and 7.here is the howto for that.
Another option is to just install Grub. This will be more difficult, but the end result will be much better. Basically you would put grub into the MBR without having any Linux installed. Then you would just have two grub boot configurations, one for XP and one for 7.
Thanks, I'll definitely have to try it. About grub: I do have ubuntu 9.10 installed within windows 7 so I have grub installed on that partition, I think. Is there any way just to get that version to see windows xp? Or will it only see that partition?
Thanks, I'll definitely have to try it. About grub: I do have ubuntu 9.10 installed within windows 7 so I have grub installed on that partition, I think. Is there any way just to get that version to see windows xp? Or will it only see that partition?
It's possible to install grub to the MBR, but also possible to install GRUB to another partition. If you install Grub to the MBR, it will show up first. If you install Grub to another partition, then the bootloader in the MBR will pass off to grub, if you select that OS in the first bootloader.
In other words you can chain bootloaders. So you can have grub in the MBR, grub in partition 1, grub in partition 2. The MBR grub will let you choose between 1 and 2, and then those will let you choose from whatever is below, and so forth.
The Ubuntu installer should automatically configure Grub with entries for whatever Windowses you have installed. Just use an Ubuntu disk to reinstall grub into the MBR, and you should be set.
So, I'm working on a build right now. Just popped a 5770 into an Antec 902 case, and I can't fit the slot screws back in to hold the card steady. It's resting on screws beneath the card, and seems like it's in, but I am, for obvious reasons, concerned.
EDIT: Got it, but the screw went in at weird angles. Probably a case defect, or an issue with the shield on the card.
The build is just about finished, but I can't seem to get the RAM far enough into the slots to engage the retainer clip and for the motherboard to detect it and POST. Any thoughts?
Ok, double check the RAM is the right clock speed and then make sure it's lined up and slowly add more and more pressure, it does take quite a lot to get it in. Lining it up is very important, I've had RAM jam against the side before.
I got it to POST. It's all good, just needed a lot of force. The board started acting crazy too, apparently because the power connector wasn't fully in, and the CPU LED lit up. Apparently, instead of a Power Error LED, ASUS decided to kill two birds with one stone and just map motherboard errors to the CPU LED. So, naturally, I spent an hour fiddling with the CPU (I even reinstalled it, turned out that was a waste of time). It turns out that the board is quite good, it just acts like a laser light show of death when it starts up, because the POST LEDs are all red instead of green/red sets for indicating whether or not there's a problem.
I'm being told now by the BIOS that no HD is present. I'll tackle that problem tomorrow.
Is there any reliable way to add hotkeys to iTunes. Specifically, I'm talking about being able to hit e.g. Win+C in any program and have my music play/pause.
Is there any reliable way to add hotkeys to iTunes. Specifically, I'm talking about being able to hit e.g. Win+C in any program and have my music play/pause.
I use SizzlingKeys for Mac, but I doubt that will help ya.
Is there any reliable way to add hotkeys to iTunes. Specifically, I'm talking about being able to hit e.g. Win+C in any program and have my music play/pause.
Okay, so just tried to install new RAM, and my system won't POST. Worse yet, even when I switch back to the old RAM (which previously worked), the system still refuses to POST. I know it's an issue with the RAM (the DRAM-error LED on my mobo lights up), but my RAM has activity lights which also light up when it goes through the RAM test at POST, so it seems to not be a dud. However, no matter how many times I trip the CMOS jumper, this mofo will not POST.
Anyone have any advice? This is killing me. Makes absolutely no fucking sense, least of all why the old, formerly function RAM seems to not work anymore.
Comments
I learned this because I just updated my parent's laptop to Ubuntu 9.10, and I got an error saying the drive was unhappy. It works perfectly, but Ubuntu detected many bad sectors. It doesn't have long left to live. I had them just order a new one on Newegg and not do anything with it until they have to.
In your BIOS you have a boot priority setting. That is something like Floppy, CD-ROM, USB, HardDrive 0. Your BIOS looks at each drive in order. When it looks at each drive, it looks at the very beginning for a master boot record. The master boot record should contain a program called a boot loader that is copied into memory and executed. When you have no MBRs, you get the "No System Disk or Disk Error" message that is semi-famous.
When you install Windows, any Windows, it overwrites the MBR with a boot loader that loads only the Windows you just installed. So whichever Windows you install last will be the only one you can boot. This is why when you want to dual boot Linux and Windows you install Windows first, then Linux. The Linux distro will overwrite the crappy windows bootloader with the quality Linux one, likely Grub. Grub is not a piece of shit, and it will give you a menu to choose what to boot.
You have two options. One is that you can configure the Windows bootloader to allow you to choose between XP and 7. here is the howto for that.
Another option is to just install Grub. This will be more difficult, but the end result will be much better. Basically you would put grub into the MBR without having any Linux installed. Then you would just have two grub boot configurations, one for XP and one for 7.
In other words you can chain bootloaders. So you can have grub in the MBR, grub in partition 1, grub in partition 2. The MBR grub will let you choose between 1 and 2, and then those will let you choose from whatever is below, and so forth.
The Ubuntu installer should automatically configure Grub with entries for whatever Windowses you have installed. Just use an Ubuntu disk to reinstall grub into the MBR, and you should be set.
Also, ask Google and/or superuser.com.
EDIT: Got it, but the screw went in at weird angles. Probably a case defect, or an issue with the shield on the card.
The build is just about finished, but I can't seem to get the RAM far enough into the slots to engage the retainer clip and for the motherboard to detect it and POST. Any thoughts?
If I have to unmount everything and get an RMA on this board...
I'm being told now by the BIOS that no HD is present. I'll tackle that problem tomorrow.
Anyway, trying to install Windows 7 presently. It's being finicky because the DVD drive is USB; I'll need to grab a SATA one sometime this week.
Anyone have any advice? This is killing me. Makes absolutely no fucking sense, least of all why the old, formerly function RAM seems to not work anymore.