I hate computers

Post by **TheCatt** » Sat Jan 10, 2015 10:37 pm

My MIL brought over a new laptop that she bought to give to my wife's aunt. I said I would upgrade the HDD, install Windows 7 (instead of

, put on Office, and some backup software.

I started the installation process during the earlier playoff game. Then I realized the new laptop had no DVD bay. No problem, I have a spare USB one. So I burn a DVD image of Windows 7, plug in the USB DVD Drive... and the DVD is corrupted. So I burn another DVD. The Windows 7 install gets to 0%, freezes, horrible noises come out of the USB drive, and I get the disc out, and it's all scratched up. So I throw away the USB drive.

So then I pull out a backup laptop with a built-in drive. The DVD drive on that machine, of course, is broken.

So I pull out another backup laptop. Put in the new HDD, boot up, and it freezes at 0% install. So I burn another DVD, try it. Stops at 16%, and freezes.

So I take apart my personal laptop, put in the DVD, and the new HDD, and try. Freezes at 16%. Reboot, freezes at 16%. Burn a new disc. Freezes at 0%.

So now I conclude that my personal laptop's DVD drive is also gimped.

So I take my wife's machine, but she doesn't have ISOs to burn, and MSDN won't let me login from her machine (Error, error). So I try to copy them over the network. For some reason, her machine won't do above 200KBs, for a 3GB file.

So I scrounge around my office, and finally find a Windows 7 installation DVD, put that into my wife's laptop with the new DVD, and it finally works.

So my USB DVD drive was broken. My laptop's DVD drive is broken.

Fuck DVDs. Apparently I need to learn how to make bootable USB drives.

I left out some steps... but damned... 6 hours for this shit that should have taken no more than 2, and I still don't have the OS finished.

Post by **TheCatt** » Sat Jan 10, 2015 10:38 pm

Meanwhile, my kids learned some new vocabulary. My wife "Kids, don't ever say those words."

Malcolm · Post by **Malcolm** » Sat Jan 10, 2015 11:05 pm

Fuck DVDs. Apparently I need to learn how to make bootable USB drives.

Desktop is 100% USB. No discs, ev4r. The readers break too often and the media scratches too easily.

Post by **TPRJones** » Sat Jan 31, 2015 10:37 pm

Stick the Windows 7 installer on a USB flash drive. Much simpler.

Post by **TheCatt** » Sun Feb 01, 2015 8:44 am

TPRJones wrote:Stick the Windows 7 installer on a USB flash drive. Much simpler.

Is this a hard thing to do? I remember trying to do this like 10 years ago with XP and it was a pain. I guess I could google it.

Malcolm · Post by **Malcolm** » Sun Feb 01, 2015 1:02 pm

Not that bad last I remember.

Post by **TPRJones** » Sun Feb 01, 2015 3:03 pm

I vaguely remember making the DVD into an ISO and then using some free tool off the internet to use the ISO to make the flash drive into a bootable version of the install disk.

It's been awhile, but I don't recall it being difficult.

Malcolm · Post by **Malcolm** » Sun Feb 01, 2015 3:28 pm

Mircosoft's got a tool for it. Here.