From time to time, I have what I call fights with my PCs. Boy, did I have a brawl this time. It came about when I finally bit the bullet and decided to load Linux. WELL, first the version of Linux I wanted out and out refused to load. There was a BIOS bug that wouldn't let Linux to a timer with the APIC. So, I tried to get around that problem by loading a much older version of Ubuntu, the Breezy Badger, from there I had planned to update Ubuntu Linux to a newer version. That didn't work. What happened was that I found Breezy Badger was completely unsupported and there were no updates at all for that flavor of Ubuntu. I decided that I had enough and tried to rid myself of Linux by reformatting the hard drive. NEVER, EVER under any circumstances do this. What I found out was that Ubuntu had re-written the Master Boot Record. Linux was now the gatekeeper to my entire computer system and GRUB, the part of the MBR that installed with Linux wasn't going to work till it FOUND linux, which was no longer on my PC. SO, I had to reinstall the older version of LInux, Breezy Badger. At least my computer would work and I could access Windows, but now I was back at square one. I had a version of Ubuntu Linux that was no longer supported and vulnerable to hacking, the new version of Linux that just wasn't going to run and no way of ridding myself of Linux from the PC. I had to do two things. FIRST, I had to find a way of restoring the Master Boot Record, or I was going to be stuck with a version of Ubuntu that I didn't want anything to do with, THEN I had to find a way of getting the supported version of Ubuntu Linux to install. I accidently stumbled across a way of getting the newer Linux version to install by flashing my BIOS. If you don't know what the BIOS is and the consequences of a bad installation are, you have no idea how scary it was to do that. Had the BIOS not flashed successfully, I would've turned my computer into an expensive doorstop. The only way to fix a screwed up BIOS is to return the MOBO to the manufacterer. So, I was holding my breath while the BIOS updated. Thank God everything went well! The newer BIOS allowed for the Dapper Drake version of Linux to install. However, when it did install, I found that the older version of Linux was still thare and hogging 99% of the disk space. I couldn't do one damn thing with Dapper Drake. So, I had to go and find SOME way of restoring the Master Boot Record. Normally, you'd just use the recovery module located on one's Windows XP CD. This didn't work for me. The recovery module wanted an administrative password, and mine just wouldn't work. I searched the Windows Support Knowledge Base and found NOTHING that would help me and getting support from the pros at Windows would've costed me $250. Definately not a solution. I searched the Web and found a fix on a website called "The Elder Geek." It was a simple registry hack that allowed for the Recovery Console to be used without prompting for a password. I hacked the registry and got the recovery console to work. The actual repair took about 2 seconds to run. After that, it was like Linux had never touched my system. I reformatted the hard drive that I put Linux on, then I ran the version of LInux I wanted. Everything went well from there and it was an end to a few nights of absolute frustration. Ubuntu Linux got installed, I was able to do a few basic tweaks, though I'm miles away from getting the system that I want. I've got to learn to unpack tarballs, I've got to learn to the screen resolution to be what I want. I've got to place my pics, writings and files to Ubuntu. I've got to learn the command prompt. I've got to get the trash can to appear on the screen rather than the task bar.

In the end, with all I had to endure, I'm better off. I've learned more about computers and Windows and Linux. I've learned to flash the BIOS. I'm more confident that I can fix, by myself, any problems that come up on my computer. It always happens like this, but getting to here from where I was at was no fun and had someone mentioned that in the end going through all this bother would make me better at computers, I'd problably have hit them, dammit. But I did it, and I'm able to start learning Linux in earnest. I'm writing this from a Linux Operating system, dammit.

Oh, and Borg, I know I was a pain in the ass when I went to you crying for help, but I thank you for putting up with me, dammit.

Solved it..........
Good on ya, Darth.:thumbs:

Thank you Ferguson,

This was a major accomplishment on my part. Geez, I went through the ringer on this one, dammit.