07 December 2004 Tuesday

The story, like this, goes

slated in moments, molehills at 8:03 pm

I go to fetch computer last night. Guy there informs me I’m going to law school. Computer comes home. Pop in the first of three Toshiba Original Installation disks, that will format the computer and restore the original, default settings of Windows XP and Toshiba software on the machine.
I wait for the prompt as to how I would like to partition my harddrive.

I wait.

The short answer (after also consulting with one of the best Toshiba-certified technical service offices around) is that normally (aka. with every other Windows installation disk) you are certainly given the option to partition your disks however you’d like. Toshiba disks (and probably HP/Compaq/Sony..who knows… I’ve been Toshiba for a signficant many years now) offer no such option. It’s complete erase contents, format drive, and install default settings. Or nothing at all. My only option, he nicely (as possible) informs me, is to go out and get a new/separate Windows installation CD.

…

Happy Alicson? not so much.

*shrug* fine. bloody FINE.

how much do i LOVE being told how my software will behave and what will install itself and run contrary to my preferences, on my own computer. acceptable, it is not.

obnoxiousness and misleadingness and unnecessary pigheadedness when we could simply have a very happy Alicson if i would be:

given the independent XP CD i paid for when i purchased the computer
allowed to uninstall Windows/MSN Messenger and Media Player when i say so
able to opt whether or not three separate processes of iTunes should be running in my computer’s background at all times

etc. etc. etc.

now, if you’ll excuse me, since this rant is temporarily complete i will return back to attending to the computer that is reformatting all over again, unnecessarily, because i have now realized i’m just going to be acquiring a new Windows CD (which i can’t get my hands on until late this evening) and doing through most of all of this all bloody over again.

p.s. happy day-after-Mommy’s-birthday, Mom

Comments on The story, like this, goes

ali

yeah. i hate it when some programs just refused to be uninstalled.

commented Tue 07 Dec 2004, 8:17:37 PM :: link
Mark

Well if it’s not too late, you MIGHT be able to save a few bucks and just buy Partition Magic. Read the back and make sure it will resize NTFS partitions, but after that, you could let Toshiba’s “Original Factory Settings” CD’s do their damage and then just smush the partition down to 30 G or so. I think it’ll be cheaper than buying WinXP which usually goes for about $90 for the home version or $199 for the pro version.

commented Tue 07 Dec 2004, 8:21:36 PM :: link
Mark

Oh, just a little more information on the “original factory settings” phenomenon. It used to be you DID get a bona fide licensed original copy of Windows when you got a computer. However, around ‘99 or ‘00 they changed their licensing deal such that OEM’s could not ship an honest to god copy of Windows, but just the IMAGE of Windows.

So, in complete fairness, it’s not completely Toshiba’s fault. I would chalk it up to Microsoft and Dell mostly as I think they were the first ones dealing with it, and I guess Dell didn’t fuss too much about it.

commented Tue 07 Dec 2004, 8:24:36 PM :: link
berto

It’s in Washington, Maryland!!! I’m seriously considering stealing a car and trying to track down the FedEx truck…It better get here today or tomorrow morning (should I take the day off tomorrow?) or I’ll go crazy. The fact that I haven’t broken anything yet is comendable on my part…unfortunately, it turns out that I’ve only been waiting for a day.

commented Tue 07 Dec 2004, 8:28:45 PM :: link
alicson

Oh-ho. if anyone thinks that this highly unfortunate circumstance will encourag eme to go and give Microsoft some extra multi-hundreds of dollars for making me unnecessarily unhappy and thoroughly inconveniencing me besides, .... you are as wrong as they are.

i do appreciate the Partition Magic advice… i had begun researching a few Partition-application options… but i’m just gonna do this all the way it should have been done and use a perfectly capable Windows CD to format and partition the way it was supposed to, and then install Linux a bit sooner than I might’ve before. It is good to know that this situation is mostly Microsoft’s fault and not as much Toshiba… I’d much rather keep liking Toshiba a little bit more… Boo to dell.

Alberto, i think you should leave work early and rush home to see if it’s arrived yet.

commented Tue 07 Dec 2004, 8:37:46 PM :: link
berto

You know, on any other day, I’d hesitate based on your transparent need to get my XP CD, but today…well, let’s just say I plan on trying to leave at 3:30.

commented Tue 07 Dec 2004, 8:39:29 PM :: link
alicson

Your XP CD??
Look, in any case, you’re going all Apple now, so that CDs not doing anyone any good where it is. and 3:30? it’s only 1pm now. how can you possibly wait that long?

commented Tue 07 Dec 2004, 8:52:30 PM :: link
berto

Well, I’ll still need it when I give my brothers my old computer.

commented Tue 07 Dec 2004, 10:33:11 PM :: link
alicson

Quit stalling.

commented Wed 08 Dec 2004, 12:06:18 AM :: link
berto

IT’S HERE!!!

running home

commented Wed 08 Dec 2004, 2:04:45 AM :: link