Baslinux mailing list

[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

Turns out the computer has/had Win98SE and he thought he caused the 
problem because it stopped keeping the correct time when he turned it off, 
and he used a set of 7 rescue CDs which stopped installing, and then Best 
Buy thought they had it fixed a few times and finally told him the board 
has three blown capacitors (which he assumed meant they were giving him 
the brushoff - I assured him they were probably right).  I am guessing his 
computer is 1999, therefore about 500MHz.

So we are offering him a replacement board or computer, assuming he will 
be happy with 266-300MHz.  (He can buy a 500MHz cpu to upgrade the 300). 
We have a a 300MHz ATX board but not an ATX case, and can switch boards 
for him, if he does not need USB, or give him the 266MHz with USB that you 
can't upgrade much, in the case with the mismatched cover, or the 300MHz 
with the bad onboard controllers that we replaced with a card.

I might put BL3 on there for him to try out.
Thanks for all the ideas anyway.

On Thu, 3 Nov 2005, sindi keesan wrote:

> On Thu, 3 Nov 2005, James Miller wrote:
>
> > On Thu, 3 Nov 2005, sindi keesan wrote:
> >
> > > Will 2-FD BL3 access an XP hard drive?
> > > If not, is there a small kernel I can use that will fit into the 2-FD
> > > system (assuming I can figure out how to change it and there is space)?
> > > Or will DamnSmallLinux work?
> >
> > If the drive is formatted FAT 32, any of the BL's should be able to read
> > it. But most "factory" (or OEM) Win XP installs are NTFS. Linux has
> > developed ways of reading--and even writing--to NTFS partitions. On older
> > versions of the kernel such as will be found in BL, the least you'd need
> > to do is probably insert a module for NTFS support. I've never tried it
>
> The problem is to change kernels in the 2-FD linux.  It should be easier
> with BL2 than BL3 (where the first disk is an image, not a set of
> DOS-accessible files).  But I don't think the bare.i kernel will even fit
> on the floppy disk.  We might need to use the parport zip drive (which DOS
> supports)  to hold the bare.i kernel and required module.  This sounds
> like fun.
>
> > myself, but I would think you could get NTFS read ability that way. But
> > I'd say the ideal solution to this problem would be to use a newer
> > bootable Linux CD: DSL is an option, but Mepis and Knoppix would also be
>
> We have DSL and can find a machine with 128MB RAM.  We also have the 1-CD
> live Debian (Ubuntu) that needs 128MB.  And I am setting up BL on a 10GB
> drive with a 7GB partition that I can copy his files to and thence to his
> replacement hard drive (or put in his drive after installing Windows?).
> He already has backups on CD but would prefer not to have to reinstall
> from CD (don't know why).
>
> We might switch parts around (put his drive in our computer and look at it
> using bare.i kernel and NTFS module).
>
> > good choices if there is sufficient RAM (256MB or >). If you get newer
> > versions of any of these, they will have all the latest greatest NTFS
> We don't have or want these at the moment.
>
> > capabilities. They will also include CD burning programs to transfer files
> > to CD, if the machine has a separate burner. They will also have Parted or
> > QTParted, which might help straighten out, or at least identify, boot
> > sector problems. If the drive is simply unresponsive, you might try the
> > primitive-Pete approach--said to actually work--of sticking the drive in
> > the freezer for a few hours, then trying it out again after "thawing."
>
> Thanks, we will try these approaches if applicable once we see what his
> problem is.  It sounds rather nebulous via email.
> > > A friend is hoping to at least get the files off his hard drive in a
> > > computer which stopped booting and has Windows on it.  Best Buy repair
> > > people gave up on it.   We don't have an XP boot disk - should we try to
> > > get one from a friend or don't they use boot disks any more.
> >
> > You can download XP bootdisk images form the 'net (www.bootdisk.com). Then
> > there's BartPE, using which you create a CD that boots you into a Windows
> > environment for repair and so forth. It can be rather involved creating
> > that CD though, and requires using a newer Windows machine with, of
> > course, a CD burner.
>
> Thanks, I did not know this.  dd if=disk.img of=/dev/fd0 ?
>
> We don't have or want a newer Windows machine.  Or even an older one.
> And are not ready to learn to make bootable CD-ROMs.  I can't even get our
> two writers to work any more.  One might need cleaning again, the other
> only reads 80% of a disk, no matter how much is on there.  I got it to
> write all it read by going into BIOS and not having HD go off after 10
> minutes of 'no use'.
>
> But our neighbor with XP and linux might end up helping with this.
> The guy with the computer is currently unemployed and would really like to
> get his 'new' (6 year old?) computer to work again but we can always give
> him a slightly older replacement.  Maybe with linux on it too.
>
> I am hoping we can just get his files transferred to another hard disk,
> using BL2 on FD or in one of our computers.  Thanks for all the info.
>
> > James
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>
> keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org
> SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org
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keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org