Posted on 08/05/2016 5:09:32 PM PDT by djf
Hi all.
My neighbor had a computer sitting outside so I asked her about it and she said "Sure - take it"
So I did. Plugged it in and it wouldn't start, no lights, no fans, no nuthin.
It was filled to the gills with dust and I correctly suspected a blown out power supply, which for less than 6 bucks and a trip to REPC, I got fixed.
So now I have ANOTHER!!! working desktop and am wondering something about it.
It has a SATA HD, total about 113 gig, but it's split into two drives. One is drive C with all the normal Windows XP stuff on it. The other is drive D which is a pre-formatted recovery partition by Compaq.
Now my question is can I just delete everything on drive C and then use the recovery partition to build a new OS?
Has anyone out there ever used a Compaq recovery partition?
You could “recover” from the D Partition (Windows XP is pretty old)
You might consider reformatting, and installing Linux
UBCD and wipe the entire drive. Install Linux. Done.
Yep, boot into the BIOS by holding down one of the “F” keys on startup. You should have an option to restore the OS.
Remember XP is no longer supported unles you get the registry hack to make it think it is a Point Of Sale computer. Then you can get security updates for until 2019.
Personally, I’d load Linux Mint 18 onto it.
That computer’s basically from the stone age. Good luck.
I’d make it a Linux box too.
The neighbor probably though all the data was lost, and might appreciate a chance to get a copy of it before you wipe the drive (or just give them back the drive and buy a new one).
These computers are old, and even the recovery partition can involve the need for the original restore DVDs.
But what I would do is backup the C drive and then boot to the diagnostic partition in BIOS.
See what your options are there. But keep a USB thumb drive around and a computer capable of getting online. You may need to seek out some drivers and load them up via thumbdrive.
The NICs in compaqs are reknowned for not coming back from a recovery operation.
But I don’t understand why you’re going so far here. What’s wrong with the system ?
Sounds like you can go back to a clean Windows XP but it won’t be up to date. If you are concerned about Internet security you might want to take others advice and install Linux MATE.
I know how to solve the Compaq problem. Throw it away.
Hey that’s a nice idea!
That’s what I was thinking.
It appears the machine was used mostly for games. There are about 50 loaded on it.
Plus about 250 pics.
Not much else in documents,etc.
Seems kinda slow for a 3.1 gigahertz Celeron...
I would leave the recovery. It cant take more than tens of gigs. If you need soace throw in anothe sata.
I know how to solve the Compaq problem. Throw it away.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
About 20 years ago, a co worker asked one of our software guys: “What should I do with this Windows install disk?”
The software guy said (in heavy German accent) “Throw it away.”
Good suggestion. Everyone is abandoning support for XP. Just got an email about it from dropbox.
SATA drive stone age? Does not compute!
Maybe the game software is bogging it down.
3.1 GHZ Celeron ought to kick rear with Linux, like Ubuntu.
Well I knew it wasn’t totally stone age because it has on the front 2 USB 2.0 slots.
The board has 4 SATA plug in ports, with only one in use. And the Power supply I bought has a couple more sata power plugs on it, so I can easily add more disk to it.
I mean it only had 512Meg of memory, but the two slots can probably be beefed up with 2 gig, so thats not bad.
I have done this many times.
Its the internet that caused that.
Java is a hackers dream!
Security in Windows 7 went from SSL to TTL.
In my mind, with multiple computers that have Windows 7 on it, they shoulda just wrote a TTL component to XP.
In fact the machine I’m writing this on right now is XP.
I seriously thought XP would be the last system I had to use...
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