| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| richfed |
Posted - February 21 2007 : 08:36:34 AM
Let me first say, this was my experience ... I'm sure not everyone & every system will undergo this degree of pain & difficulty. Hopefully, if you decide to upgrade, it will go a lot more smoothly!! Hey, I'm no expert, but not a novice, either. It ought to be easier than this!
OK ... I had a week off & my income tax return in hand and so, after paying bills & child support, I decided to treat myself to a computer software upgrade ... Windows Vista Home Premium & Microsoft Office 2007.
What an ordeal. Woke up Saturday morning all geared up to have an enjoyable new experience with my computer.  Popped in the upgrade disk and watched to see my computer magically transformed into a beautiful new machine.  NOT! It's been 5 long days, and I can't even remember the exact sequence, but, briefly ... [oh wait, I think updating my display driver did it ... I think ...  ]
After installation, my computer kept recycling through the boot process ... I could not get back into Windows ... no system restore disk I had would boot her up fully. After some hours - and many, many disk-read errors - and a sick feeling deep in my gut - I finally - and I don't even know how - got it to read a Symantec disk & ended up reformatting my entire hard drive. Yes, losing a lot of my stuff ... yet AGAIN!!!!! Did I say?
Because, I bought an upgrade edition [to avoid just such a process of reformatting] I then had to reinstall XP before attempting the upgrade again. So ... long process & I finally got it installed along with the new edition of Office.
Then ...
- no anti-virus
- no outgoing E-mail
- No printer/scanner
- no sound
- no THIS
- no THAT
So ... [remember, I'm on a dial-up connection] ... had to ...
- download Norton Vista version of their Internet Security 2007
- download all sorts of drivers & software for my sound card [beta, no less], printer/scanner - hundreds of MB's worth!!!!
- download various Windows updates [yes, even for a brand new operating system]
- download mucho other software programs & updates for Vista compatibility
- perform scores of other tweaks
- take a bottle of Tylenol
Mind you, this is all AFTER - as in while still on XP - I had downloaded and installed Microsoft's own Vista compatibility tool to be sure I was ready; to avoid a mess like this.
After all the years & hype, one would think Microsoft could do better than this. Vista is little more than XP Service Pack 3!!! [minus appropriate drivers ... I mean, Symantec, Sound Blaster, ATI, Canon ... these are not obscure names, yet no drivers without major downloads. PATHETIC!]
There ... got that out of my system!
All that behind me [well, a few more minor tweaks to go, but I have everything functioning now, at least], I can say that Vista is a beautiful looking operating system, with lots of cool enhancements & new features. It is seemingly more secure & relatively stable. Now that it is working, I rather like it a lot. It is very pretty to look at ... smooth to run.
Would I do it over again? NO WAY IN HELL! Save your money. If you are happy with XP, stay there! At least until Microsoft gets their act together ... if they ever do.
But, if this makes any sense, now that the torture is over, I'm glad I did it. [But, it ain't worth the money!] 
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| 8 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| richfed |
Posted - March 22 2007 : 09:15:16 AM
quote:
Originally posted by vincent
Rich,
We feel your pain. We have all experienced computer related angst - Everything seemed innocuous enough in the beginning but then again... My IT friends say buy the Vista pre-installed or wait for Service Pack 2 to come out before upgrading.
Might want to consider Norton Ghost. Allows you to roll back to a safe date but not too sure if applicable to this particular situation. External backup drives like Maxtor are now cheaper, very useful and extremely easy to use. My Maxtor also has the "rollback" function. At the very least you should be able to retrieve your data. Software (re)installation is a pain but at least you do not have to re-input all your data.
If you have any particular questions then shoot me an e-mail as I will at the very least point you in the right direction.
Regards,
Vincent
Hey Vince, I now have a FireLite Smartdisk for backup and that ought to do the trick for my needs.
VISTA UPDATE:
Now that the initial gauntlet is over ... nice, nice system. Clear, crisp, clean appearance. Very stable. Nice improvements. Having taken a bit of leave from the grind - 5 weeks worth - I've been doing a lot of tinkering. Upgraded to Ultimate for even more features; allowed me to download a free program called Virtual PC. That allows one to run multiple operating systems without rebooting ... it is an amazing & ingenious little bit of software. So, now I can run Windows 98 & play my Gettysburg game!! Happy as a pig in shit!!
At this point, I am very happy with my computer's performance ... all I need now is a DSL connection. Not available in these parts, yet. Vista is great!
BUT ... again ... not everyone is going to want to wrestle with it like I did ... it's the pit bull in me, I guess. Take Vincent's advice ... wait for a service pack to come out or at least give the software/hardware manufacturers time to catch up. |
| Light of the Moon |
Posted - February 21 2007 : 9:18:45 PM
You have my sympathy, Rich.
Not to long ago I got a Trojan that the protection service missed. When I got in contact with customer service I was told that they updated that particular program and it no longer detected trojans!!!
I never got anything from them forwarning these changes! Nice, huh?
I had to reformat the entire system twice!!!
The first time the installation was messed up by the remnants of the trojan and wouldn't recognize my driver and after 4 days and 3 different depts technical support just  and  ! (Thanks, man! )
So I unhooked everything and put it all back together as if I just got it from the manufacturer, reformatted it (AGAIN! ) and it worked! Thank GOD!
So I definately feel your pain, Buddy! So sorry you had to deal with such a headache and THANK YOU for the heads up as I was looking into that program but think I'll pass! You're an angel, Rich ! Thanks for watching out for us! |
| Bravo6 |
Posted - February 21 2007 : 6:04:01 PM
Rich
You are a braver man than most and certainly braver than me.
Even as a disaster recovery planner within IT for a central bank of some such country I HATE adding anything to my PC at home.
I use my home PC for gaming and minimal office stuff. I will wait until the bank goes to Vista and then wait some more. I will only get it pre-installed even then. |
| Monadnock Guide |
Posted - February 21 2007 : 12:43:29 PM
Thanks for the "heads up" Rich, - will definitely leave that one alone. |
| Fitzhugh Williams |
Posted - February 21 2007 : 10:40:29 AM
After some years of fooling with operating systems I have come to believe that you are better off sticking with the system you computer came with. Every new system requires more memory and more graphics, so you really need to upgrade the hardware as well. When you add the price of the software and hardware together, it makes a significant contribution to a new computer, which will already have the new operating system and additional hardware, plus better internals all around. I wandered into Best Buy the other day and asked one of the "Geeks" what the advantage of the new system was. He gave me all the canned answers, and I really didn't see any "advantages" I wanted. So I will wait until I buy my next computer. |
| vincent |
Posted - February 21 2007 : 10:36:43 AM
Rich,
We feel your pain. We have all experienced computer related angst - Everything seemed innocuous enough in the beginning but then again... My IT friends say buy the Vista pre-installed or wait for Service Pack 2 to come out before upgrading.
Might want to consider Norton Ghost. Allows you to roll back to a safe date but not too sure if applicable to this particular situation. External backup drives like Maxtor are now cheaper, very useful and extremely easy to use. My Maxtor also has the "rollback" function. At the very least you should be able to retrieve your data. Software (re)installation is a pain but at least you do not have to re-input all your data.
If you have any particular questions then shoot me an e-mail as I will at the very least point you in the right direction.
Regards,
Vincent |
| Wilderness Woman |
Posted - February 21 2007 : 10:30:01 AM
Oh wow. Unbelievable. I would have had a stroke. No... I would have hauled my computer to the closest computer shop. No way could I have dealt with that.
(I wondered where you were, Rich!  ) |
| Irishgirl |
Posted - February 21 2007 : 09:16:32 AM
Poor Rich Sounds like an absolute nightmare. Just happy you got through it all and got it working at long last  No doubt about it, computers can drive us crazy at times but where would we be without them
 |
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