Talkin' Windows Reinstallation Blues...

I've built/upgraded quite a few computers over the years. From my first P2 233mhz machine to my current Core 2 Duo. Never have I had such problems as with this piece of shit I'm typing on now. In fact, I've never had any problems with any builds before.

Plug this in here, plug that in there, put the cd in, press the button and compute to your heart's desire. Easy enough.

I first put this CrapMaster 3000 together over a year ago. In that time I have lost gigs and gigs of files. Thankfully most I could download again. Unfortunately, this box likes to instantly corrupt everything it touches. Usenet has become useless since it's all garbled by the time it finishes downloading. Even relatively small files can't be executed. Fuck, it can't even make sense of data off a CD half the time.

The countless time spent fighting corrupt files, CRC errors, and losing hair have made me pull extreme measures.... fight with that damn Windows install again. Bear in mind that the first install took 3 attempts over 4 days. Oh well, couldn't be any worse, right?

WRONG!

Another 3 attempts over 2 days and now it's worse than ever. Windows refuses to install on C:/ and puts itself on D:/ (a slower drive). It can't even find it's own files on it's own CD. It can't update itself without crashing. Forget about Service Pack 3, I've tried that more times than I can remember. Security updates install at about a 30% success rate. Random crashes. BSOD constantly.

I managed to get a few updates done and now the C:/ drive is gone. Disappeared . Music, movies, DVD images...gone. I'm hoping the data is still there and windows is just fucked. I'll stick it into another computer and I bet it'll be there... well, I hope it will.

The thought of tinkering any more makes me sick. I've lost the will to build another. I'll probably break down and do the usual consumer thing..... call Dell or HP.

Eeewww!!!

I'm sure someone will tell me to get a Mac ;)

Posted by lare at May 17, 2008 06:34 PM