Considering your desire to preserve the current HD formatting and software I
recommend installing Linux in a virtual machine hosted by the original OS.
VMware Server should do nicely and can be used at no cost.
On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 3:34 PM, Prof. John C Nash <nashjc [ at ] uottawa [ dot ] ca> wrote:
> I generally agree. My own approach would be to use a liveCD and and
> external drive (which
> she doesn't yet have) and partimage the existing partitions, dd the boot
> sector, then blow
> them all away. Or just blow them away anyway! And I'd use Win under a VM
> (though that does
> mean acquiring a real Win disk image). However, that isn't really the way
> non-geeks think.
> They are risk averse and we need to help them to feel comfortable. The
> thumb drive
> solution is a workable compromise.
>
> Restore CDs haven't been provided by most vendors for a while (but I'll be
> glad to know of
> any that do, or better those that provide a real OS disk). Lenovo manual
> doesn't even seem
> to suggest that you can burn the recovery partition to CD/DVD (that was
> Acer's way a
> couple of years ago).
>
> >From 10 years ago, I have a wonderful "Why you should not use Windoze
> recovery disks"
> example. My wife acquired a Sony VAIO (4GB drive, 64MB RAM. Wow!) It turned
> out to be
> buggy and crashed after we installed Corel and stuff (she was still in her
> "Blue Screen of
> Death" stage). I used the recovery disk. Crash. Again. Crash. 90 mins of
> phone hell and I
> kept getting escalated to more senior troubleshooters till I got a fellow
> named Messier
> (cousin to hockey player) and I told him what I thought was wrong:
>
> - disk has some bad sectors; automatic fixup tries to swap them out. They
> have, however,
> some critical code bytes.
> - Crash occurs. Have to use recovery disk.
> - Recovery disk is like 'dd' and tries to vomit the image back ON TOP OF
> BAD SECTOR. Maybe
> there are now clever restores, but I suspect not.
>
> Messier agreed. Solution, which I already had guessed ("Don't say I said to
> do this"): Get
> a real Win disk, run surface check before install. Machine went on to serve
> us for several
> years, then a student friend for a couple more until it was stolen in a
> break-in about a
> year ago. (A very ignorant thief -- cannot have been worth more than $50).
>
> JN
>
>
> Spencer Cheng wrote:
>
> >
> > Sorry if I sounds ignorant since I haven't bought a Windows machine for a
> few years. If her laptop come with restore CDs, just use it to reformat the
> disk if the laptop has to be returned for service. The last eeeBox I bought
> came with restore CD wiped everything and repartitioned the disk to factory
> standard w/o asking for permission. **grrr**
> >
> > She should just do whatever she wants with the laptop disk now. If it
> becomes defective, copy all her data off (using clonezilla?) and restore the
> HD back to factory default and send it back. There is no guarantee that the
> manufacturer will send back the same laptop anyway.
> >
> > Isn't that simpler than all this complexity of juggling partitions?
> >
> > Regards,
> > Spencer
> >
> _______________________________________________
> Linux mailing list
> Linux [ at ] lists [ dot ] oclug [ dot ] on [ dot ] ca
> http://oclug.on.ca/mailman/listinfo/linux
>