Well – 2 scavenger programs later and it looks like there’s nothing left on the hard drive to save. So I’m continuing with the reformat. Well, in theory…
Of course life isn’t that simple. The computer is still spontaneously restarting. Mid-windows install no less. Batteries full, power supply plugged in. Since my power supply adapter has been achieving incredible temperatures the last week or so I’ve scavenged the power supply off Neville (my sister’s dying laptop – poor little Nev was never built to withstand being upgraded to 20gigs…). I’m playing with the idea that the overheating adapter caused the spontaneous restarts and the spontaneous restarts caused boot system damage and the eventual reformat. Nev’s power supply is as old as Nev and so is about 5 years old and doesn’t kick out the same ampage as my lappy’s one, but I’m praying it works without imploding or melting. Be nice if it does. I really don’t want to have to post my lappy back to the company that sold it to me – They took a whole week to deliver it last time (i.e. said it’d be there on Monday, then Tuesday and so on) and I NEEEEEEEED my lappy for life.
Ok we’re 24 mins to go going by the little counter in the installation. Last time it restarted at 22 mins….
"Ampage" *huffs at self* Current. Bloody hell – 3 years out of school and all my physics knowledge deserts me.
Bloody stupid computer restarted at 23 minutes CURSE YOU AND ALL YOUR BRETHREN YOU USELESS HUNK OF PLASTIC AND SPARE PARTS.
/me recommends debian or (whispers) Suse. I like suse these days. easy install, even a windoze person could do it.
Can it run windows games? My life exists for the games… and Mozilla… and Trillian… sad but true.
The problem seems to be the battery – I told it not to do anything when the battery was low and it’s been running ok for about 50 minutes now. I ended up reformating C the hard way through msdos doing scary things like demounting the drive, then reinstalling windows again and all looked good until I unplugged the power supply – boom, restart.
However I think I desperately need to partition the drive so I have somewhere to sit and watch the madness when it happens again. I shall look into the ones you mentioned to perhaps use on the partition – educate my self in the "real" way of doing things.
I looked up "suze" by mistake and found lots of prawn! Fabulous…