It’s a matter of Principle for me, and maybe some stubbornness.
I have a machine that functioned very well when it was built and “IT Didn’t Know what would come after IT”
It should run as a stand alone machine.
That’s the first challenge I face.
I’m now 2 hours into my second attempt to get an OS, Vista, installed and working.
Makes no sense.
It would be really cool if I had even a basic DOS prompt and could wipe the drive clean. But I digress.
If you can’t access the vista recovery setup on the cd (maybe it is an upgrade cd only???), but you have another windows system that works, make a recovery cd off of that working system. It doesn’t matter if it is not vista because you just want the recovery tools to let you repartition and reformt the HDD on the laptop. Once you do that, you can then boot off the vista installation cd and install to the clean HDD.
The Disk drives have terrific magnets in them. Wrap them in black tape, or dip them in the liquid rubber stuff, and a hurricane won’t blow your notes off the refrigerators. Amaze your friends with moving them around on the kitchen counter with another magnet underneath.
Disk platters make very nice coasters also. Put felt on one side if you like.
The little CPU boards make great office wall ornaments.
As a reward for being green, it’s time for Target Practice with what’s left.
Does the laptop still have the Windows 7 product key sticker on it anywhere?
CGato