Computing articles and other putrefaction.

I recently purchased the asus eee 900a netbook, but as the pre installed linux disto is terrible, so I tried a few proper distros; ubuntu netbook remix, eeebuntu, easy peasy, even mandriva. Unfortunately the speed while using linux is terrible – the low end ssd slows them right down. I tried windows vista and even 7, and while using flashfire (SSD accelerator) the speed was very good. the 8gb ssd isnt really enough to use them on for work though, so I decided to go back to XP. That’s when the trouble began:

• To begin with, the net book has no optical drive, and as I have no external disc drive, the only way to install xp was to use a USB stick. I had done the same for vista and 7, all you have to do is make the Usb stick bootable, and copy the DVD across. Windows xp is very different however, and has a completely different setup program.
• Look across forums to try and find a tutorial to explain how you install XP from usb. I was in luck. I brilliant forum exclusively for eee users had a great tutorial for it.
• First off, makeusb stickbootable. After that begin copying the installation disk across. The disk was only a cd,700mb, so I didnt expect it to take long. Went off to get a drink, came back, looked at progress, and saw a daunting 1%. “maybe a slow start?” I hopefully thought, so went away, and came back an hour later: 40%. Look at time – 8:30.
• Damn! Got an Exam tommorow. Need to get to sleep before 11pm. Hurry up!
• 9pm, and it has finished! or not… no, it’s only copyed files with capital letters. Now onto the lowercase. *groan*
• 9:20pm, finished! Check tutorial again to see if there’s anything I missed befire installing… What’s that? At the end of the page? “Usb stick will be very slow, sd card will be much faster” Cant be that slow? Can it?
• It can. it’s 9:40, and it’s only on 4% installing in text mode. Power down, go to main computer, and start making sd card install.
• Good, much faster at copying files, 9:50 and it has almost finished!
• Take sd card from main computer, insert into netbook, power on.
• Partition selector appears. My main drive was formated in a linux file system before, so windows has assigned it a lowly D: Strangly enough, the SD card I am installing from is drive C:
• Copying files is much faster. 10:10pm, and should be finished soon.
• Into graphical section, ll going smoothly…
• reboot, and are greeted with “Hall.dll is not found” Consult tutorial. I need to reboot from usb, and edit out the usb reference from boot.ini.
• There is no referance to any usb drive in boot.ini. I cant seem to boot without the usb drive, so Deleting he boot.ini will force windows to boot from the main drive. Shutdown. Remove SD card. Power up. Everything works perfectly! check boot.ini has been detected, and is in msconfig. It isnt. Sob…
• Looks like a reinstall is an order… Yawn. Im yawning at 10:40! Must be the mental exhastion.
• Before I try anything that drastic, ill try and change the drive letters. Yes I know- changing the drive letters is the Microsoft equivalent to summoning the devil, but lets give it a try anyway…
• Use  registry edit to do so, reboot, Nothing. Reboot again, Nothing.
• AAAGGHHHHHHH! Why must I be a perfectionist? Did the boot.ini file matter? Of course it did silly child, stop whinging and pull yourself together!
• Need to reinstall, but time is 10:50. Need to sleep.
• Go to sleep, dream of Mac osx on the netbook.
• Get up, start reinstallation, go to school.
• Enjoy Exam, cleanse mind of last night’s events.
• Get home to discover the hall.dll error again. Reboot from usb once more, and end up at a working windows desktop! Check boot.ini file, and it is fine! Rejoice, and make a mental note not to do this again!

Please share your late night-installation horrors with me, but dont even think about suggesting Norton Ghost. Someone probally will, which is why I must tell you: Everytime you mindlessly suggest ghost, on any blog or foum, without thinking about what the actual issue may be, a puppy is murdered…