My desktp computer (Win XP) is all but useless!

[pnorman]

The OS is corrupted almost beyond belief, and I'm unable to do a`System Recovery or a System Restore! The CD & DVD doors won't open, so I'm using a USB CD/DVD drive instead.

In Setup, I notice that I can set it to boot from a "Generic USB CF Reader". Hopefully, that would mean that I could load a Linux OS (Ubuntu?) onto a CF card from another computer, and install Linux onto that otherwise useless computer.

Anyone here have any suggestions or comments

[canetoad]

1. Try Mint Linux

I have a bootable USB with Mint and it works well. Here are a couple of links explaining how to prepare your USB drive.
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/usb-linux-mint-install-from-windows/
http://forum.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=37777&start=0

Regarding your CD/DVD drives, have you looked closely for a tiny hole somewhere on the front cover? Most drives have it. Straighten out a paper clip and poke it into that hole and it should open your drive. Of course, if the drives are dead there may not be any point to doing this.

[pnorman]

2. Thanks for those links, particulrly the second one. If nothing else, I know where to start Googling.

Perhaps a similar method could be used to put the necessary stuff on a CF card (which "should" be bootable).

I had looked for those "tray release" holes, but saw none. I'll look again. If I could get the CD drive to work properly, a new Win XP on a CD ROM disk would set me back around $80 or so. All in all, I'd like that route.

Any other suggestions or comments from my beloved DU community?

[struggle4progress]

3. I once (temporarily) borked my CD/DVD drive by some extra-clever muck-about

with additional operating system installs on my Mac, which gefocculated some boot thingy

If you have no other idea how to proceed, see if unetbootin will let you burn Mint to your CF card: unetbootin.sourceforge.net

[pnorman]

4. Thanks! I can only barely grasp the method, but Google should get me through!

My laptop & netbook are now handling all my computer/internet needs, but I'd like to put that old HP tower to some good use.

[hobbit709]

5. Replace DVD drive-they're cheap, newegg has them for about $20

with free shipping.

[blogslut]

6. Look at the faceplate of your CD/DVD drive(s)

There's a tiny hole. While the computer is powered off, insert a strong, thin piece of metal (like a paper clip) into the hole until you feel it give way. Keep retracting/re-inserting until the drive door opens enough that you can GENTLY pull it to the point where you can insert a disk. Then GENTLY push the drive bay thingy back in place and power on your PC.

[ConsAreLiars]

7. In addiion to the hardware advice in #6,

DL the DVD version of the iso. Not much larger, but more complete. I went to Linux Mint several months ago and happily dumped XP ever since. Different, of course, and better because it is.

[pnorman]

8. Thanks, I'll orde a suitably sized CF card, and give it a try!

They're cheap enough nowadays!

[Occulus]

9. Ubuntu is a good choice, but there are things you should be aware of

I have always kept a linux partition running alongside windows (starting with RedHat 3!), so I kind of know what I'm doing at this point. The most obvious issue is that you "won't" be able to run many top-shelf Windows apps. I put that in quotes because WINE is getting better and better, and in fact can run some of those. However, I wouldn't depend on a mission-critical solution involving WINE. It's still just too unstable.

That said, for most users, Ubuntu is a perfectly acceptable linux distribution, if you're not a gamer (and even that is slowly changing); even then, many non-3D games run under WINE, despite my earlier assertion. Many popular Windows apps, like Firefox and Google Earth, do in fact have linux binaries. Ubuntu also has a built-in "app store" of sorts, and being that this is all open source, there are many opportunities for you to replace your Windows apps that don't run well under WINE with open-source apps.

You can install Ubuntu 10.04.1 from a pen drive from Windows by following these instructions. They want you to use Bittorrent to get the Ubuntu disc image, but you can also get it from the official Ubuntu servers.

Have fun, and let us know if you have problems- or how well the machine runs once you're finished installing it to your hard drive.

[pnorman]

10. Thanks to all for all the suggesstions & advice!

My laptop & netbook allow me to do whatever I need to do satisfactorily. But I'd like to get that HP Pavilion tower to do something besides taking up valuable desk space. Right now, it takes close to a half hour to "settle down". it's like wading hip-deep through peanut butter!

I believe that under SET UP, I can get it to boot up from a CF card. If so, all the advice about booting from a pendrive should also apply to a CF card of suitable capacity. Then (from another computer) I can copy the needed ISO files. Is that all?

[pnorman]

12. I'm an utter "newbie" on some aspects of computers.

What might be blindingly clear to most in this group, sometimes totally baffles me. So assuming that it's really a "simple matter", can someone direct me to the necessary "ISO files" for Ubuntu for example? I assume that it would then be a simple matter to copy them onto a CF card.

My needs on that "Linuxed" desktop would be quite modest: Getting on the web with Firefox, and viewing DVDs with the external DVD R/W drive. "Playing around" with Linux would come next.

Optionally: I have the MS East Asian Language Pack installed in my other computers, and can thereby handle Japanese script with no great difficulty. I expect that Linux would be even more capable in handling foreign scripts. Anyone here with any experience in that?

[blogslut]

13. You would install the appropriate language pack after you get the OS up and running

But, before you buy a CF drive or try to get a version of Linux, I have to ask: Did you try the thing I told you about in #6?

Your disk drives can be opened while your computer is turned off. If you open one the way I instructed, you can use your Windows recovery/install disk.

[pnorman]

14. I finally FOUND that damn hole! (It was all "gunked up")

But it wouldn't respond to what tool I had on hand. I'll hold off before I do any damage, until I can get hold of a paperclip. In the the meantime, that 4GB CF card is on order, so I'd like to try booting a Linux off that card if it's doable.

There is no Recovery Disk per se. It's on the HD, and I foolishly failed to prepare a back up Recovery Disk when reminded to do so. "F10" won't work either

[blogslut]

15. Well, keep in mind

What you're doing when you're inserting the paper clip into the hole is rotating the tooth of a gear. That's why you have to poke it in, take it out, poke it in, take it out - you're moving the gear tooth by tooth. It's a slow process getting the door open enough so you can slip a disk in.

As for booting Linux off a CF card, I've never done it. I have, however, booted it from a USB Flash drive quite successfully and many times. :hi:

[pnorman]

16. "...rotating the tooth of a gear."

Thanks for that valuable info! Bearing that in mind, will help a lot. My implement was pointed and possibly capable of doing some damage, so I'll wait till I can get a paper-clip.

I'd still like a direct source for the necessary ISO files for a suitable Linux.

[blogslut]

17. Here you go

http://distrowatch.com/search.php

That's the search page for Distrowatch. You can use it to tailor your needs. Each distribution that comes up opens to a description page and a direct link to the site. Those sites will have a link to a download page and you just look for the file link that ends in .iso

[pnorman]

18. Thank you very much!

Tentatively, I've decided on the Mint one. Assuming that the CF card will work just like a pen-drive, can I also assume that after the ISO file(s) do their job , I'll have a screen ready to work with? If so, I should then be able to get by with intuition, Google, and an occasional cry for "HELP!" to this DU group.

[ConsAreLiars]

19. The .iso, when burned, creates a LiveCD, or DVD. or card based image.

This means that when you boot from that device you are presented with the OS as it existed when that image was created. You can run a browser and play music and stream Mike Malloy and generally give it a pretty good test run, all without changing anything on your existing drives. (You can also mess with them, if you wish, but browser history and OS updates and such are not saved). Loading programs from from the CD or other device is of course far slower than from HD, so the demo is not nearly as speedy as the installed version. Until it is installed completely with all the R/W storage space it and you and your apps need, you might hit a wall. That said, there are Gurus wandering around with LM on a thumbdrive doing fixes to Windoze systems and giving their clients a dual-booting options,

Given that LM9 works, you should return to windows and de-fragment the HD you intend to install it on. And take a read of the pinned topics at http://forums.linuxmint.com/ . It will run fine with any option you choose during the installation process, but knowing a bit more about the choices offered before choosing is always good.

[pnorman]

20. Thanks! I should be getting that CF card pretty soon.

Some months back, I had saved all my "important" (ie: "political") files from that desktop onto an external USB HD. My final goal would be to install the chosen Linux (Mint?) onto the HD, and then clear out all those unneeded files. I'd then end up with a very useful desktop computer, with a nice monitor and plenty of HD space. As it stands at present it's pretty well useless to me, besides taking up much needed desk space. And lugging it downstairs to the trash area, is beyond my ability.

The "best" solution would have been to change out one or both optical drives as had been suggested, and buy a new Win XP OS CD disk for $80 or so. But my present physical condition makes such relatively "effortless" operations almost impossible.

[ConsAreLiars]

24. Well, you may find Linux Mint to be better than that "best" option.

There are several variants -- you may want to check http://www.linuxmint.com/ to see which looks best for you, or pick a couple to try via the LiveCD/DVD route before choosing which to install.

I hear you about physical limitations. Working up a sweat simply assembling my current machine, and too many old printers and CRTs laying around because of the effort needed to haul them away. And a 1.5TB drive still outside that box because opening the case and plugging in a couple of cables now looks like hard work. ???

Anyway, after building this box I wavered about the hassle of re-installing XP from the OEM associated with the blown out box, all the upgrades and reboots and talking to that guy in India. (Using another older XP machine during this process). So I tried some LiveCDs and poked around and found myself actually having fun using an OS for the first time since the Amiga died.

[pnorman]

25. Thanks once again!

Just knowing that those damn holes were actually there, gave me the "positive attitude" to find them! With your instructions (and patience), BOTH optical drives are now functioning! I hope this doesn't disappoint all you Linux guys, but I'll stick to XP for this desktop. I found on the web a`WIN XP (Home) for $50 with free shipping, so it's now on the way. But a "dual boot" computer is a distinct likelihood!

[blogslut]

26. Glad to help

It's always good to have a hard copy of your OS. Sometimes, when things get so messed up, it's just easier to wipe the whole thing and start over. It's an absolute shame that PC Manufacturers/Windows have gotten to the point where they don't even provide recovery disks anymore.

Just the same, there are numerous benefits to installing/mastering Linux. The main thing being that there are so many wonderful free Distributions/Distros. (Distribution/Distro is just the Linux name for a complete Operating System.) Other benefits include security, a huge catalog of Open Source programs, scores of developers who are constantly updating/improving their programs (packages) and the fact that, somewhere, there exists a Linux Distro that is perfect for your machine.

Granted, there is a definite learning curve when it comes to Linux plus a marked sense that you're solving needs in a piecemeal fashion. However, once you get the hang of it, you'll be thrilled with your ability to customize your system to your exclusive needs. When you boot up in Linux, you may catch yourself quietly snickering because you know you're defying the capitalist software overlords. Linux is liberating.

Now, I know you said you were leaning towards installing Mint on your machine. Mint is very nice. It's based on Ubuntu which is based on Debian. However, I would like to make one alternate suggestion:

http://wubi-installer.org/">Wubi

The reason I suggest Wubi is that it's not an .iso that you have to burn on removable media but rather an .exe that installs/uninstalls as simply as any other Windows-based program. It's got a friendly wizards that walks you through the install process and if you don't like it, you can get rid of it easily. It won't delete your already installed Windows but will, instead, reside on the same hard drive in the same fashion as any other dual/boot Linux/Windows environment. Wubi is Ubuntu Linux and Ubuntu Linux is the most complete, most popular Linux Distro there is.

[Warpy]

11. MS needs to come out with another XP

or re issue the one they had. I'm finding it impossible to do without and since my last XP box decided to hiccup its way into non functionality, I've just ordered a new old XP box. Eventually I'll have to cannibalize them both to keep an XP box running.

Win 7 lost a lot of the features I loved in XP while adding a lot of crap I find quite frankly annoying as hell. I really, really dislike it now that I've used it for nearly a year.

Discarding XP has got to be one of the most colossally stupid decisions Microshaft has ever made. It should have been kept as a system licensed to cheapo computers for the working class.

Like me.

[hobbit709]

21. You can still find legit copies of XP

Try here
http://www.9software.com/Microsoft_Windows_XP_Pro_Software_s/15.htm

They're legal copies, some are academic or "Not for resale" but legitimate for home use. They authenticate and will let you install other MS apps without giving you that "You may be a victim of counterfeiting" garbage.

If you happen to have a Dell they have one for $15 that will install XP Pro on ANY Dell-doesn't need registration, code or otherwise.

[Warpy]

22. The problem is now finding all the damn drivers

which is what has kept me from converting this laptop to XP.

[hobbit709]

23. drivers are easy to find

Most manufacturer support sites have drivers for each model.
Make a list of the hardware on your system and search for drivers n the internet. I do this all the time for computers I'm working on.

driversguide.com has a lot listed.

[pnorman]

27. Ubuntu Linux Bible: Featuring Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (w/disk)

It's a long story, but I now have Ubuntu 10.4 LTS as the sole OS in my HP desktop. It went in without a hitch, and then updated itself. It looks a bit "strange" and sparse so far, but I guess I'll get the hang of it soon enough.

Firefox got me to where I wanted to go, so I can now order groceries and other stuff, and check my bank balance. This is basic survival for me, and that's why I wanted at LEAST two functioning computers at hand. I also noted that Japanese script was rendered properly without adding any packages. Later, I'll search out what's needed to be able to input Japanese (for email).

The provided media player won't play my DVDs so far. Any suggestions?

[ConsAreLiars]

28. Ubuntu does not. by default, install non-open source codecs.

You can find some explanations of how to add them (not hard) by doing a search for "ubuntu codecs."

Another option is to install the vlc media player, which adds a great many codecs to allow handling a very wide variety of media.

To add it just open the package manager (Synaptic maybe) and type vlc into the search box and select 'mark for installation' and then hit the install 'buttton.' Each Linux distribution provides its own set of interfaces to handle common tasks that are done by the underlying core of the system, so the name and look may be different than the Mint variant I am using, but those are the basic steps.

I think you will grow to appreciate Ubuntu more every day.

(edit to define search terms)