Computers have personality too
Quite some time ago I attempted to dual boot into Ubuntu Breezy Badger (with a level of success that can only compared with Windows ME). It failed massively. I tried again with Dapper Drake and in an entirely different way, it refused to install (although I'm not done battling with it). I installed Vista on Thursday and while this has not tested my patience, it too has developed "unique" behaviour on my box.
With the Vista install DVD in the drive, I boot into Vista. Without it, I boot into XP. Slightly odd if not useful behaviour but I'm not entirely sure why my machine feels the need to re-assure itself that it's booting the right operating system. While those who know me will have known my last rig (an XP3200+ system) was more commonly known as "the tempramental beast" due to it's rather lacklustre build quality (albeit mine) which would refuse to boot if the moon was just right. The newer machine (this AMD64 3700+) is a much tamer creature, but has it's own charming character flaws in the shape of dual booting.
People say machines are simple, it's 1's and 0's, but it's more than that. Computers have a personality, they have character. Some, you show enough love that you treat them as your child, others are only seconds away from being ejected from the household for hanging the SECOND before you trounced that "AWP whore" who has been bugging you all evening on Counter Strike.
Just another one of life's little difficulties.
Enjoy this article? Why not subscribe to the full RSS feed?
Showing most recent 4 of 4 comments
Didn’t we all =)
Some background for your Dual-Windows booting issues:
Assuming that they’re on different drives: I suspect that vista is installed on HDD0 but XP is installed (with BIOS pointing to it) on another HD.
Windows Setup CDs boot directly to HDD0 when you do not press the key to enter setup.
This might also be the key behind your terible record on dualling linux and windows... If its going on a separate drive, remove all the others and stick that one in there on its own on Bus 0. Install it. Turn off, Plug everything back in how it was and set bios to boot to that drive. Then go into linux and setup a boot record in grub for windows.
I’ve had to do that a few times before when phantom drives seize boot order.
some time ago I had Mandrake Linux (kids, do NOT try this one at home!) on 2 machines running, tried to set it up on a third box. failed miserably several times. when it finally got through the install process, it usually run ok for about 2 - 3 days, and then - wham! something always got messed up.
after a few weeks I decided to spend the night memtesting it. guess what? yup, RAM was crippled.
the question is: have you tested your hardware? I have kubuntu running on 3 boxes right now, one of them has been installed as Hoary, two as Breezy, all three are now upgraded to Dapper. and run like a charm.
so if you haven’t done it already - test your RAM. just in case.