My bizarre system problems

[lazygamer]

Ok so couple of days agot I was gonna play some comp. Powered er up when suddenly I get a message "missing OS". Huh? Oh I'll just reboot. "missing OS". Uh oh, im getting really scared now. Ok let's just shut it off for awhile. Turn it on "missing OS", ARGH OH NO!  

Linux bootloader and OS is still intact. Strangely, a few days ago, before this wierd occurence, I was dual booting properly between Linux and XP. It's like at one magic moment Windows decides to die on me. Although I noticed my harddrive is still properly being detected.

So my brother comes over and takes a look. He boots off the XP cd and re-installs. He notices that the previous XP drive(which still has all it's data intact) is not being detected as an installable drive. He's still skeptical, thinks that I must of did something with some Windows program, even if it's not Linux's fault. Of course, I try to tell him that it's just a roadbump in the life of a computer, and it's Windows's fault. He seems to think that many things have a reason(in other words, I fucked up and he had to fix it). No, he's not a windoid bound by wind0ze propaganda. He's probably a little skeptical of being fanatically anti-Microsoft, but is curious about Linux(im the Linux ambasador so far).

Sadly, to be able to continue in my day to day endevors(and not lose the precious data on my 40gig), THE LINUX PARTITIONS HAVE TO BE DELETED! WAAAAH HOW DISHONORABLE.

So now I have an 8 gig solely devoted to XP, and a 40 gig with XP on it, but it can't seem to remember it has XP.

So what to do? Just leave XPee it's own 8 gigs of uninterupted space? Or would XPee run faster by being on the 40 gig and having maybe 12-20 gigs of uninterupted space? Does the raw GB of space matter, or is it that % of space free on the drive that determines disk performance?(you know how when you fill up a disk and it loads shit really slow? That's what im talking about)

Guess I'll have to get Redhat to steal some partition space from the 40gig. Actually, I guess I'll have to back everything up(so defintly install my new CD burner which is twice as fast as my old one!), the 40gig needs a format to get rid of the space wasted by the Windows XP which is "not there".

So any guesses as to what the fuck happened?

BTW, we noticed that the chip fan was missing a screw, so that may of caused extra vibration. It was also barely moving, due to being clogged with dust and stuff. We fixed it up, and now it works fine. However, I think the chip fan status was coincidental and had nothing to do with this.

PS:Yay! I got to be a l33t tech dude and... REMOVE THE CLIPS HOLDING THE FAN IN PLACE AND INSTALL THE REPAIRED FAN, ALL WITH MY MOTHER'S SUPERVISION! YAY IM SO l33t!  

[rtgwbmsr]

Neither space nor % matter in drive performace. As long as it isn't filled to the brim, performance isn't dependent on drive space.

As for the whole "Missing OS thing"...it sounds viral...I don't think M$ would just put missing OS. I've seen some phunky errors, but that tops the list.

As for the fan, OMFG!!! Your mom had to watch you change the fan?! How old are you?! Jeez I built my first computer when I was 13...every computer I built lasted longer than any other computer from any manufacturers.

[Zombie9920]

quote:Originally posted by lazygamer:
Ok so couple of days agot I was gonna play some comp. Powered er up when suddenly I get a message "missing OS". Huh? Oh I'll just reboot. "missing OS". Uh oh, im getting really scared now. Ok let's just shut it off for awhile. Turn it on "missing OS", ARGH OH NO!    

Linux bootloader and OS is still intact. Strangely, a few days ago, before this wierd occurence, I was dual booting properly between Linux and XP. It's like at one magic moment Windows decides to die on me. Although I noticed my harddrive is still properly being detected.

So my brother comes over and takes a look. He boots off the XP cd and re-installs. He notices that the previous XP drive(which still has all it's data intact) is not being detected as an installable drive. He's still skeptical, thinks that I must of did something with some Windows program, even if it's not Linux's fault. Of course, I try to tell him that it's just a roadbump in the life of a computer, and it's Windows's fault. He seems to think that many things have a reason(in other words, I fucked up and he had to fix it). No, he's not a windoid bound by wind0ze propaganda. He's probably a little skeptical of being fanatically anti-Microsoft, but is curious about Linux(im the Linux ambasador so far).

Sadly, to be able to continue in my day to day endevors(and not lose the precious data on my 40gig), THE LINUX PARTITIONS HAVE TO BE DELETED! WAAAAH HOW DISHONORABLE.

So now I have an 8 gig solely devoted to XP, and a 40 gig with XP on it, but it can't seem to remember it has XP.

So what to do? Just leave XPee it's own 8 gigs of uninterupted space? Or would XPee run faster by being on the 40 gig and having maybe 12-20 gigs of uninterupted space? Does the raw GB of space matter, or is it that % of space free on the drive that determines disk performance?(you know how when you fill up a disk and it loads shit really slow? That's what im talking about)

Guess I'll have to get Redhat to steal some partition space from the 40gig. Actually, I guess I'll have to back everything up(so defintly install my new CD burner which is twice as fast as my old one!), the 40gig needs a format to get rid of the space wasted by the Windows XP which is "not there".

So any guesses as to what the fuck happened?

BTW, we noticed that the chip fan was missing a screw, so that may of caused extra vibration. It was also barely moving, due to being clogged with dust and stuff. We fixed it up, and now it works fine. However, I think the chip fan status was coincidental and had nothing to do with this.

PS:Yay! I got to be a l33t tech dude and... REMOVE THE CLIPS HOLDING THE FAN IN PLACE AND INSTALL THE REPAIRED FAN, ALL WITH MY MOTHER'S SUPERVISION! YAY IM SO l33t!    

This is what happens when you mess with 3rd party boot loaders(like Lilo). So technically your Windows boot record getting wiped out is the fault of Linux and its' bootloaders...it wasn't Windows fault. ;P Like I already posted in another one of your topics..you should install XP on your Primary Drive(or disconnect your Primary drive and install it on your secondary drive as if it were a primary drive) then when you are done doing that, dsiconnect the drive wit XP on it and install Linux on the other drive. After you finish installing Linux, reconnect your XP drive and use the BIOS boot sequence to determine which OS you are going to boot to(determine which drive to boot off of first). That is the best way of doing it because your boot records for Windows won't get fucked with by the 3rd party boot loaders and Windows won't ever fuck with your Linux boot loader on the other drive.

For HArd drive performance...the performance isn't really measured in hard drive or partation size, but it is based on hard drive transfer modes(ATA 33/66/100/133) and how many RPM's the drive runs at(a 7,200 RPM ATA-100 dirve is alot faster than a 5,400 RPM ATA-100 drive...a 7,200 RPM ATA-66 drive is about as fast as a 5,400 RPM ATA-100 drive).

[Zombie9920]

quote:Originally posted by The_Muffin_Man/B0b:
As for the fan, OMFG!!! Your mom had to watch you change the fan?! How old are you?! Jeez I built my first computer when I was 13...every computer I built lasted longer than any other computer from any manufacturers.

I've been self building systems since I was 12. I never had to have my mom supervise my activities...heck I built computers for her. ;P
That is very true..a self built system is better and will last longer than an OEM computer. self builts are alot easier to upgrade than OEM crap too(because self-builts aren't limited with propriarity cases, motherboards that take manufacter's RAM, etc.).

[Calum]

it's not lilo's fault. well it is less likely than it would be windows' fault. lilo is open source, so people have been bugfixing it for years, windows is closed source so... nobody (including probably microsoft) knows what the hell it's doing in amongst its megabytes of (probably redundant) code.

however at least zombie26783246 is trying to help, which is more than i'm doing!  

[Zombie9920]

quote:Originally posted by Calum:
it's not lilo's fault. well it is less likely than it would be windows' fault. lilo is open source, so people have been bugfixing it for years, windows is closed source so... nobody (including probably microsoft) knows what the hell it's doing in amongst its megabytes of (probably redundant) code.

however at least zombie26783246 is trying to help, which is more than i'm doing!    

Yes it is Lilo's fault. I bet if it wasn't for the 3rd party boot-loader messing with his XP boot record it would've never got deleted to make it say Missing OS. ;P

[Calum]

bullshit, listen to yourself. i say if it wasn't for XP fucking up his lilo boot record WITHOUT HIS PERMISSION (at least lilo allows you to decide what changes to make instead of assuming you are too stupid to know like windows does).

Anyway, i got the impression he was using his BIOS to dual boot, not a bootloader. isn't this the case?

[lazygamer]

Yes, using bios to dual boot. Mandrake is the only Linux distro to ever get the whole bootmenu thing working right.

Ok I think it's IMPOSSIBLE that Linux did it. How could I have had Redhat 8 on and dual booted into XP(through the bios switch) several times? If Redhat overwrites the boot record, I would of had this error when I attempted to boot back into Windows.

As for MBR, isn't Redhat's boot stored in the MBR and Windows XP has it's own boot area stored somewhere else? Im certain that all those other distros I've tried had their bootloader in the MBR, XP never coughed then.

 

quote:As for the fan, OMFG!!! Your mom had to watch you change the fan?! How old are you?! Jeez I built my first computer when I was 13...every computer I built lasted longer than any other computer from any manufacturers.

Well actually it was both supervision and assistance. Besides im not exactly 100% competent, I've always been too Lazy to pursue that which should be easy(computer tweaking internal and external). I probably became petrified of computer tweaking after two serious fuckups. Both of them involved software stuff, not hardware. So you develop repressive computer phobia and just choose to play it safe in what you tweak. Im also Lazy.  

My system was custom built though, just by a guy with a homerun buisness, we are way too poor to afford a $3000 comp. We are too poor to afford frequent upgrades. Ok we're not all that poor, but paying $500 worth of upgrades every 2 years would be too much out of our price range(whether something is too expensive also has to do with philosphy, just so happens I have a cheapsake father). Fuck I wish I had more then 433mhz!  

When I was 12 I had a 486/50 I think, I never was around computers as a really little kid, I think we got our first one when I was in grade 6. That would make me.... 11! Hmmm, I've been a diaper kid(computer wise) for quite sometime. You think im bad? I've seen some pretty incompetent mofo's in my time(mass market windoids).  

[voidmain]

I got my first computer after already having served   3 years in the USAF. It was a brand spanking new, hot off the presses, Commodore 64. Floppy drives weren't out yet, but that's ok, I was all set with my 1530 datassette tape drive (used regular audio cassette tapes). Of course soon after I had to get the super fast 1541 floppy drive:

http://www.oldsoftware.com/history.html

[Calum]

my first computer experience was when my best mate lent me his BBC Electron computer!!! (we couldn't afford such a thing!) in fact, i liked it so much (i liked the games so much, it took 25 minutes to load my favourite one off a cassette tape though!) that i convinced my parents to spend

[lazygamer]

You mean space on "my old machine" or a very old machine? My system gets 48GB of space.

 

quote:
I got my first computer after already having served 3 years in the USAF. It was a brand spanking new, hot off the presses, Commodore 64. Floppy drives weren't out yet, but that's ok, I was all set with my 1530 datassette tape drive (used regular audio cassette tapes). Of course soon after I had to get the super fast 1541 floppy drive:

So you likely have respect for the C64 then? Go to Newcomer

The ONLY C64 game that I will emulate.  

I'd like to hear what people have to say about this game...

[voidmain]

C64 sucks compared to todays computers (hell it sucks compared to computers 10 years ago). I have no feelings of nostalgia for it. In fact I found two of them in my closet a couple of years ago and gave them away. I used it mainly to program on. But there were a couple of games that I liked (Zork and Infidel are the only two that come to mind). I never really was into games.

[Master of Reality]

I learned how to program a bit in Basic on a C64, i could make the screen blink and make it play sounds.

Didnt anyone else play oil wells on their C64??

[beltorak0]

no, but I played Zork as well.  I also remember mom and step-dad spending four hours on the thing reading MLX out loud and typing it in line for bloody line.  and after all that, the program didn't work.  must have been a typo, but we never had the patience to go thru and debug about 1200 lines of

Code: [Select]

.  MLX sucked ass.  anyone else program someting in MLX from those commodore mags?

-t.

[ October 24, 2002: Message edited by: beltorak0 ]

[lazygamer]

Newcomer surpasses many modern games in innovation.  

It took about 10 years to make(including the time for the Enhanced version, full name is Enhanced NewComer or ENC). I know a guy on ICQ who was the main plot guy on it, he told me that it only took so long because they had to shoehorn so much into the C64's limited tech capbilities. Part of the ideals was proving it COULD be done.