Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 10:51:06 -0800
Reply-To: Pensioner <al_knoll@PACBELL.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Pensioner <al_knoll@PACBELL.NET>
Subject: Custom XP Listreader
In-Reply-To: <200803071654.m27GsWUK023344@nlpi036.prodigy.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
From a personal preference standpoint I keep a spare harddrive with a basic
XP OS with Office and a few other applications installed and I keep a disk
image of that drive that can be painted onto a new drive. I also keep a
bootable "Ghost" DVD with a similar image. Ghost is a dos level application
that copies disk information at the sector level. It paints an 'image' over
the old data on the target drive.
When you get that 'factory installed' OS you also get lots of things that
you neither need nor want.
If your old PC was an x86 based (windows) one, just move the harddrive to
the new machine by mechanically swapping them. The new machine will then
have the personality of the old machine. If it was some fruitflavored
computer even x86 based (OSX) then you will need an application designed to
move your applications to the new fat-32 formatted disk. NTFS and other
journalled LUN based systems as touted by MS as 'better' may not be as
'better' as you think. Remember you maintain and drive a 20 year old
rolling anachronism with all it's demands and quirky behaviour (Br.)
Purchase a multigigabyte stand-alone harddrive. Use this to transfer what
you do need and do want over to the new machine.
Avoid Vista. XP SP2 is good enough for what we do. W2KPro SP4? is actually
better for what we do as it has lots of legacy compatibility that even XP
lacks. Yes it has a manual transmission, a clutch and is not as 'easy to
drive' as XP and yes you occasionally have to change your own oil and find
parts off the local scrapyard.
If none of this makes any sense and 'fdisk' is not in your vocabulary then
doing all this may be above your current capabilities (not a ding, just a
fact). Have someone else do the work for you.
IIRC you need outlook 2003 AND you have the source disks for it. The
mapixx.dll can be rescued from other sources and installed in it's proper
place then the MSOffice app will work fine.
I would stay with FAT32 partitioning until you actually demonstrate a need
for a NTFS. Sooner or later, like our increasingly demanding road divas,
changing the oil and wrenching about will tire you and you'll want a better
box with a more efficient engine and modern plastic geegaws.
Microsoft is not in the business of satisfying the lower level user (that's
us) they're in the business of selling software and hardware. Don't expect
the local computerbigbox store to stock parts for W2K or Vanagons. You'll
have to find a silicon craftsman to do what you want.
Do you really need a 2.3GHz processor and 4GB of memory? How fast can you
type? My typo-ing works fine with a 400MHz pentium and 256KB of memory.
Will PS 6 do what you need. Do you use 'raw' images?
The apps you can buy, the data is unique, guard it well.
Pensioner (certifiable retrogrouch and proud)