Jan 25
Three Windows
Last year I planned to get a MacBook Pro this year to replace my desktop machine. However, the old desktop is still working fine and there’s sufficient hardware to cater to my current computing needs, so I couldn’t really justify the MacBook Pro yet. The only problem I had was the harddisk, it was slow and noisy and starting to get a bit full as well. So instead of a 23K Mac I got a sub-1K HD and after carefully backing up all my files, replaced the disk.
The new disk was recognised instantly so off I went installing Windows, no problems whatsoever, in with the drivers and now I hit a snag. It started complaining about some missing files… insert disc? No idea what it meant, so in with SP3, reboot and try again. Same error. Hmm. Check disk manager – WTF?! Windows was set up on … partition J? I mean, what happened with C?! Reboot and check again… sure enough, J. Hmm.
Then I had a great idea, create another partition and install Windows on that one. Said and done. Now I had Windows on partition I. Except the really funny thing was while I was logged in Windows #2, I could see my original Windows installation on C! What is going on?? Ok check Google, there must be a way to swap the letters for the system drive. Indeed there is, so I did as instructed and… Windows #1 won’t start. Hmm. Maybe I did it wrong, so I tried it on the second Windows and… Windows #2 won’t start. Hmm.
But now I realised that my internal multi-card reader was probably messing up with the drive letters, so I disconnected everything and launched Windows setup again. Deleted the existing partitions, did a rain dance and crossed my fingers and… voilá, I had Windows on drive C. Perfect. The drivers all installed without errors as well, although I did check the drive letters rather nervously after every reboot!
The new disk is superfast and superquiet with a 750 GB capacity, so disk space will certainly not be an issue for the next 5 years or so (it will outlive the rest of the computer by far). I still have one of the old 120 GB drives as a backup and it’s interesting to compare these two disks, they are like night and day. When I copied my files from the backup to the new disk, I could hear the old disk crunching away while the new one was barely audible at all. Lovely!
Now that my desktop computer has a new lease of life, I can save up for a MacBook Pro 17″ with extra RAM, maybe next year then…
2 comments
It is always a good idea to repair and maintain old instead buying latest and greatest, so my respects to you
Perhaps this experience will make you consider going for that other system faster?
I still can remember the pain of installing new drive into some windoze 2000 PC. Quite a bit easier process in *nix systems, I did not need to look back.