Drama
I’m going to go contra-blog and keep a sequential record of what the hell is going on right now.
About 1:00 AM to 3:13 AM
After having identified that my MBR was corrupted randomly under Windows XP on my laptop (yeah, the one with all the files on it), I managed to boot into Knoppix. I used a wonderful ssh startup script in conjunction with a wonderful ethernet/DHCP script to get an IP on my router’s local network.
The wonderful ssh script set me up a temporary user (“knoppix”) with a password of my choice. I then got on my full-time Linux box and ran an scp (secure copy) from that machine to my NTFS partition that was mounted read only on the Knoppix side. I proceeded to copy my entire “C:Documents and Settings” folder to my big mother Linux hard drive.
3:18 AM
I am now ghosting my factory Toshiba install onto my laptop, then I’ll migrate files. I’m hoping to be done around 4:00 AM, since I need to “wake up” at around 7:30 AM for classes. Ghost progress is closing in on 50%.
3:20 AM
62% complete. CD 3 of 3. Starting to wonder why I even like computers in the first place. Taking some time to clean up the room.
3:34 AM
Hiding inactive icons, SP2 in the queue. 4:00 AM end time, here I come! Wait, how long does SP2 take to install?
Oh, monkey balls.
3:23 AM
Beginning to wonder if the MBR is permanently corrupted. That’s why I’m doing this tonight, anyway, so I guess I’ll find out when I reboot into the image. Remember, this is a pre-SP2 factory machine, so I’m going to have to pull the network cable and install SP2 from CD before going public. 92%. Eyes are a bit blurry, but a fresh OS will make them clear up.
3:25 AM
100% complete. MBR is not corrupted. Windows XP Professional “first boot” process commences. Would I like some help from a little bouncing question mark? No, I would not.
3:26 AM
How the poop could my MBR get corrupted by an Adobe Acrobat plugin? This sure fudged the poop out of my night. Gee whiz, it’s hard not to get profane here.
3:29 AM
Could I have fixed this without reinstalling? Probably so. But the ol’ trusty, undocumented “fdisk \mbr” didn’t work. What was I to do?
3:36 AM
SP2 is in the queue, we’re about 3 minutes in. Noticed that SP2 has a warning that you should back up your files before proceeding. They should have mentioned something like that when Acrobat 6 is starting up.
3:43 AM
Setting an alarm to wake up at 4:00 AM. Assuming SP2 will be approximately 70% done by then.
4:00 AM
Completely done with SP2. Rebooting. Windows Updates. Realizing I’d already be finishing up on a Kubuntu install by now. Not going to say anything about how far along I’d be on a Gentoo install.
4:24 AM
29 post-SP2 updates, 3 Norton Antivirus update cycles. Waiting and hoping. Probably will install Office, then migrate files, including a fresh install of Firefox and Thunderbird, and all of the appropriate profile migration there.
Thanks go out to Klaus Knopper, by the way, for putting together a system that can save butt like Knoppix truly can.
Also, thanks to Kristin for listening to the play-by-play during the lonely, nervous parts of the scp process.
4:36 AM
Office. ‘Nuff said.
4:39 AM
Office 2003 SP 1. Horse poop. MS should stop using progress bars. They obviously don’t know what they’re supposed to mean.
Actually, they should all run backwards from Windows 2000 on.
4:50 AM
Last Office updates, video drivers, and WMP 10. Almost to that file migration thing, which of course is all that really matters.
5:00 AM
Migration commences and looks good. I might get 2 hours of sleep! Once I move the Firefox and Thunderbird profiles I have a working computer…
5:16 AM
Firefox profile has been migrated. Thunderbird is in progress. It looks like open source saves the day, night, and early morning.
5:55 AM
All done. ‘Nite!