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Well, I would like to start this off by saying this is my first blog post, and its something I have wanted to post about for about 3 days now as it has been eatting at me and I need to vent. I also freely admit that I was both an idiot for doing it in the first place, and possibly an idiot again for not finding a solution faster than I did.
As best I can remember, here is what unfolded that fateful Friday night.
9PM or so - I download and install some partitioning software so I can repartition my 8GB UBS flash drive. I had previously had it partitioned into two parts basically so I could use it in place of a live Knoppix cd. It worked well enough but I figured running off a CD was good enough and not worth wasting my drive, so I wanted to restore it to back to 1 full 8GB partition.
As I open the partitioning software it says there is an error in my OS boot sector (or something to that effect) and would I like to correct it? I say yes. Now in hindsight I think my problem was that the partitioning software was not Vista compatible, and apparently Vista partitions differently than windows XP and prior.. But I digress.
10PM or so I reboot my computer and *surprise* Vista doesnt load. I load up Knoppix off of one of those live CD dealies, and recover what data I need (not a lot because about 1.5TB of data is stored on two external drives I have) and then go hunting for my recovery cd's. Cant find them. Damnit.
Okay so I guess I can give this recovery partition a try. Bios loads.. press alt-F10 yay Vista recovery loads! Reinstall vista, I am a happy camper. But wait.. whats this?
12:30AM - okay WTF my hard drive says 14GB of 15GB is used.. that cant be right. I load a new partitioning software up and it tells me I have 60GB of unpartitioned space, and that my C: drive has 15GB of 58GB used.. Well, that makes more sense, but why does my computer tell me C drive is only 15GB? Sigh.. okay well I know the vista recovery works, so I am going to put in a copy of Windows XP I have, use THAT to partition (that at least I know will work) then assuming vista doesnt load (I expect it not to) I will rerun the vista recovery partition and install vista again.
1:30AM - Okay seriously WTF!! Alt-F10 no longer works.. well I am fully screwed now so I might as well just finish installing XP.
2:30AM - Okay XP is installed now lets connect to the internet.. hmm it doesnt seem to be showing me any wireless connections.. well no problem lets plug it in directly.. hmmm wtf still nothing? Something weird is going on here.. Opens device manager.. WTF XP doesnt recognize almost any of my hardware! Damnit! Okay now what.. google. Google. Google. Google.
4AM - Okay there is a link to a torrent download of a Vista recovery CD, lets try that. None of the repairs work.. I think Im going to give up. Well, lets see if I can access anything from the command prompt. Omg. OMG theres my recovery partition.. Can it be that easy? Are there any commands it will let me run? Yes???
5AM SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
6AM Reinstall some software, get rid off all the junk that comes preloaded.
7 AM Im going to bed
Hope you all enjoy the read of my misfortune. Thank you.
As best I can remember, here is what unfolded that fateful Friday night.
9PM or so - I download and install some partitioning software so I can repartition my 8GB UBS flash drive. I had previously had it partitioned into two parts basically so I could use it in place of a live Knoppix cd. It worked well enough but I figured running off a CD was good enough and not worth wasting my drive, so I wanted to restore it to back to 1 full 8GB partition.
As I open the partitioning software it says there is an error in my OS boot sector (or something to that effect) and would I like to correct it? I say yes. Now in hindsight I think my problem was that the partitioning software was not Vista compatible, and apparently Vista partitions differently than windows XP and prior.. But I digress.
10PM or so I reboot my computer and *surprise* Vista doesnt load. I load up Knoppix off of one of those live CD dealies, and recover what data I need (not a lot because about 1.5TB of data is stored on two external drives I have) and then go hunting for my recovery cd's. Cant find them. Damnit.
Okay so I guess I can give this recovery partition a try. Bios loads.. press alt-F10 yay Vista recovery loads! Reinstall vista, I am a happy camper. But wait.. whats this?
12:30AM - okay WTF my hard drive says 14GB of 15GB is used.. that cant be right. I load a new partitioning software up and it tells me I have 60GB of unpartitioned space, and that my C: drive has 15GB of 58GB used.. Well, that makes more sense, but why does my computer tell me C drive is only 15GB? Sigh.. okay well I know the vista recovery works, so I am going to put in a copy of Windows XP I have, use THAT to partition (that at least I know will work) then assuming vista doesnt load (I expect it not to) I will rerun the vista recovery partition and install vista again.
1:30AM - Okay seriously WTF!! Alt-F10 no longer works.. well I am fully screwed now so I might as well just finish installing XP.
2:30AM - Okay XP is installed now lets connect to the internet.. hmm it doesnt seem to be showing me any wireless connections.. well no problem lets plug it in directly.. hmmm wtf still nothing? Something weird is going on here.. Opens device manager.. WTF XP doesnt recognize almost any of my hardware! Damnit! Okay now what.. google. Google. Google. Google.
4AM - Okay there is a link to a torrent download of a Vista recovery CD, lets try that. None of the repairs work.. I think Im going to give up. Well, lets see if I can access anything from the command prompt. Omg. OMG theres my recovery partition.. Can it be that easy? Are there any commands it will let me run? Yes???
5AM SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
6AM Reinstall some software, get rid off all the junk that comes preloaded.
7 AM Im going to bed
Hope you all enjoy the read of my misfortune. Thank you.
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