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Ok, linux is cool and all but I need to be able to use my computer ASAP for school. So I need windows working. How would I reinstall Windows if SuSe is set to boot from floppy and when I put in the windows cd it says "Boot failed". I tried making a dos boot disk, then formatting mbr but it still says "Boot Failed". I just need to get windows reinstalled and get on my way. Then Ill try and get linux working again later on.
you need to tell it to boot from the CD in your BIOS - but if you dont have win98 or winXP you will need to delete the partitions another way - the best way i can tell you to do this (someone has a better idea tell him) is to reinstall linux but put it on a FAT partiton, then you can reinstall 98 to get rid of it.
Win98 is unable to read the partition table to delete the partitions, so you need XP/2k - and I'm guessing ME will too.
i f igured out how to do it. first i made a windows xp boot disk using the new computer i just got today. then i rebooted the computer, pressed f12, got the boot menu (normal, harddisk, floppy, cdrom) and selected floppy, then it said I was using Windows ME, then I rebooted, put the Windows XP installation cdrom in, and it started up. It then asked to do a new install or recover, so I selelcted new install and it then asked where to put it. So I delelted all the linux partitions and this added all that space to the main ntfs partition where windows was going to be. Then it installed it and everything this cool. I even got to do my english 2 paper for college and print it out. now im going to go to sleep. dont think i have totally given up on linux though, it is a great OS, but at the moment I cant afford to spend time trying to get it to work.
I have to say linux is really not for an average pc user. With this being said, here are somethings why people should choose linux:
1. Wanting to learn more about computers (experienced users)
2. For developing purposes
3. Detests Windows OS
Well, the last one is a joke but I guess some people actually might see that as a reason.
I primarily chose to use linux because I was a cs major. Most people at school didn't really care about it but I noticed that that this could be an advantage when I started working(well, I'm unemployeed so I guess that doesn't say much). But the real purpose of me getting linux was to learn Unix at home. Back then, cable modem was not an option so connecting to the school's Unix machine was rather uncomfortable.
If you do not need to program, I suggest that you stick to Windows. I dual boot with Windows2000 and honestly, I spend more time in Windows than linux when I need to use the pc for simple uses.
bp
LOL im a CS major too. I know a lot about computers, networking, programming, etc. and those were some of the reason why I wanted to try linux out. The main reason I guess was that I have been gettting into computer hacking, by all means Im not a uberhacker, but this was 50% of the reason I wanted to try it out. Linux is cool and all but at this point in time it doesnt suit my needs (i.e. school). I just don't have that much time to work with it and learn more about it. But from the 5 days I had it on my computer I learned a lot more about linux which might come in handy if I ever want to try a wargame :lol:
Well,
I thought that linux would be every cs major's OS but as I stated earlier, many people at my school didn't use it so... then again, they didn't know the difference between telnet and ssh. Anyhow, as a cs major, I loved linux because it allowed me to connect to the school Unix machine with X. Now you can easily download an X manager for windows but little things like that made my life easier in linux. Also, making the transition from redhat to debian taught me a lot more about computers than I could ever have imagined learning. Whenever you are dissatisfied with WIndows, you can always come back to linux although XP was a pretty decent OS when I used it. I still think Windows 2000 is a better OS though.
bp
XP and 2000 still crash at least once a day for me whenever I use them (not of any of my computers, please note... I keep my boxes free of that kind of junk), and they are just so much less functional than unix. I go crazy whenever I use windows because there's nothing that you can do with it. No command line utils, no shipped compilers or lanuages of any sort.
Linux, on the other hand, has been running 17 days straight now, on my workstation! I would have restarted windows at least five times by now. On my servers, linux is running indefinitely. I only restart them to make hardware changes. My longest uptime right now is 38 days on my HTTP server.
38 days is your max? I had servers at work running from 10 days after I got there, till my eventual termination 2 years later. My friend just moved his server from the same rack (relocating), and his was up 240 days when it was taken down. Though, I haven't had such luck on my workstation. Mine usually doesn't last over a week and a half, that will teach me to run unstable everything.
No, what I meant is that of all my computers up and running right now (there are 4), the one that has been up the longest has been up 38 days. I haven't had any extremely long uptimes though, partly because of hardware work on the computers and because I have done some electrical installations, too, which have required me to turn them off. These are just my home servers, so they have to adapt to other home activities, unfortunately. I hope I don't have to turn them off again sometime soon, though. I expect to build a computer controlled light dimmer for my room, though (controlled via LIRC), and because of a stupid electrical installation I might have to turn them off again by then.
Dolda,
Well, I very much understand that XP and 2000 still need rebooting. I've actually had this machine freeze on me a couple of days ago however, when I ran redhat(here I go again), it froze on me MORE than Windows 2000 ever did. The funny thing about that experience is, when I ran redhat, I had absolutely NO knowledge about computers. I could blame myself but I never tweaked anything in redhat. The moral of the story, I guess it was problem within that distro or that version(although I think it's more of a distro problem).
On the other hand, debian has NEVER frozen on me yet. I've been using it for about two months now and I can't recall a time where I had to manually reboot due to freezing. The only problem I've had is with X and emacs and I've already posted that problem in this forum.
I totally agree that linux is the better OS. However, I still feel that Windows will always be the better OS for an average joe. I can't picture the idiots that I dormed with at school ever even knowing what a command prompt is.
Although linux is the better OS, I can give you a personal example of why I prefer Windows 2000 for just simple uses. Take IE for example. Now I think that Mozilla is a better web browser but the time it takes to load a web page is different in both browsers. Is this because IE is pre-loaded into the memory at start up or is it that Mozilla is just the slower browser? I don't think I know enough about the two of these browsers but that's one thing that I can point out why I might spend more leisure time in Windows. Another is sound software. I still can't find anything that matches creative's audio hq.
Those are just very stupid reasons why I still keep Windows2000. Actually, thinking about those two problems, if I could find a way to implement faster web page loading and a sound software, I don't think I'll ever need Windows2000 other than to play games. Then again, I don't have any games installed on Windows2000 so ...
bp