Computer help needed

[jaymar]

I installed the evaluation copy of windows 8 and it has made a mess of my computer. I have tried to remove it but without success. I have tried to format the drive with my disc of windows 7 but my computer doesn't recognise my dvd drive, only a floppy drive which I don't have. How can I format the drive without the disc?. Any help will be gratefully accepted.
Alan

 

[Blister]

No help on your problem

Been there

Done that

I now own a Mac

Problems sorted. :mrgreen:

 

[jaymar]

I was hoping for help not the usual Mac gloating

 

[Lons]

I installed the evaluation copy of windows 8 and it has made a mess of my computer.Alan

SILLY boy :roll:

Go into the bios Alan to ensure that your dvd drive is set as first boot option. On occasions I've had to set all the options to that to stop the machine accessing the HDD.

Failing that. Is there another machine you could plug your HDD into as an additional device, direct or via a usb or sata caddy? that way you could do a simple format, put it back into you machine and start from there.

Bob

 

[gus3049]

Tut tut Allen, naughty.

You will give us Mac owners a bad name :roll:

I'm sure there a few PC experts who can offer help but I too have nothing to offer except good luck 8)

 

[xy mosian]

If that is your only computer, then you'll need the help of someone with a disc containing formatting software. I'm not sure why your computer does not recognise your dvd reader. This cannot be a new problem or you would not have been able to try out Windows 8, it sounds like a BIOS problem to me, That is of course if all cables are connected.

If you have another machine then perhaps the easiest way is to download a Linux 'Live' cd/dvd and use the formatting software on that. Of course if your 'duff' machine still does not recognise the DVD reader then you are up the creek I'm afraid. There are ways of resetting the BIOS to factory state, but they tend to be motherboard specific, again looking around the web with details of your motherboard should find the answer to that one.

Best of luck,

xy

Lons gives another answer which should help.

 

[jaymar]

Thanks for the tips Lons. I have managed to re-install windows 7, all I have to do now is load everything back on. I can't reccomend windows 8 from my first view of it.

 

[Lons]

Thanks for the tips Lons. I have managed to re-install windows 7, all I have to do now is load everything back on. I can't reccomend windows 8 from my first view of it.

For the information of any interested parties, me included, how did you manage it in the end?

As far as Windows is concerned, I learned many years ago never to install a new version until at least the 1st fix (service pack in marketing terms) to their always faulty, bug filled product has been released

Bob

 

[doorframe]

I know this is the 'horse bolted-stable door' thing, but it's always worth swapping in a replacement hard drive and installing a new OS on that, rather than over an existing working OS. I've scrapped a fair few machines over the years so have a few PATA IDE hard drives laying about. If you want one for trying windows 8 again, just let me know and I'll pop one in the post.

BTW... I didn't even know 8 had happened #-o .

Please can you tell me where to go to download the evaluation?

Cheers,

Roy

 

[Lons]

Please can you tell me where to go to download the evaluation? Cheers, Roy

That'll make you an unpaid Microsoft guineapig Roy :roll: :lol:

Bob

 

[devonwoody]

Thanks for the tips Lons. I have managed to re-install windows 7, all I have to do now is load everything back on. I can't reccomend windows 8 from my first view of it.

I cannot recommend W7 either, one of the mistakes of my life.
I gained nothing as far as computing and lost some of my previous enjoyable PC experiences.

Dont go there if you can help it.

 

[misterfish]

Installing W8 is not something to do on a whim and you may well need to prepare your PC to do so. You need to install it on its disk or disk space and make sure you choose a custom install otherwise it will overwrite your existing copy of Windows. I used disk manager to free up disk space and installed it so I now have a menu on startup that alllows me to select W7 or W8.

So far the main improvement with W8 is that it loads much quicker, but apart from that i have found little to recommend it. On a touch screen there may be advantages, but using a mouse involves new routines which no doubt would rapidly become second nature. So far I am underwhelmed and can see no reason to upgrade.

Misterfish

 

[gus3049]

Installing W8 is not something to do on a whim and you may well need to prepare your PC to do so. You need to install it on its disk or disk space and make sure you choose a custom install otherwise it will overwrite your existing copy of Windows. I used disk manager to free up disk space and installed it so I now have a menu on startup that alllows me to select W7 or W8.

So far the main improvement with W8 is that it loads much quicker, but apart from that i have found little to recommend it. On a touch screen there may be advantages, but using a mouse involves new routines which no doubt would rapidly become second nature. So far I am underwhelmed and can see no reason to upgrade.

Misterfish

Oh dear oh dear,

I must be turning into a PC person. I have seen absolutely no reason to want to upgrade the MacOs from 10.5.8. In the past it was automatic that it would be better. Now its just different and biased towards those who use mobiles and the cloud (the 'cloud' for wotsits sake).

That or I'm getting too old for change. :shock:

 

[studders]

That or I'm getting too old for change. :shock:

Must be me as well. I've recently ditched Ubuntu and gone back to a bog standard version of Debian where I choose what I want, and where I want it, rather than having some 'designers' choice that cannot easily be altered.

 

[gus3049]

That or I'm getting too old for change. :shock:

Must be me as well. I've recently ditched Ubuntu and gone back to a bog standard version of Debian where I choose what I want, and where I want it, rather than having some 'designers' choice that cannot easily be altered.

Different mindset though. The whole point about Mac for me is that I don't have to fiddle with it. I don't want to know what's going on under the hood, I just want to use it like any other white goods and have relied on the 'designers' doing it in a way I like. Up until now they have managed - mostly.

MacOs has always allowed you to call things what you want and put things where you want but apart from that its just another tool for me albeit one that has always stood out aesthetically (apart from the glory days of Sculley's beige boxes of course) and has been a joy to use.

I rate Macs up there with Quad HiFi, Alfa Romeos, good food and wine and my present wife amongst the things that have made my life more satisfying, entertaining and worth living :lol:

 

[woodbloke]

I rate Macs up there with Quad HiFi, Alfa Romeos, good food and wine and my present wife amongst the things that have made my life more satisfying, entertaining and worth living :lol:

+1...not sure about Alfa's though and SWIMBO's the only one I've had for the last 30 odd years. Also substitute Naim for Quad - Rob

 

[devonwoody]

My sister changed to Mac around five years ago and she has almost ditched her computer interests, the rest of the family are still windows and she cannot get back up or support from the rest of the family. Even posting music or other media to her is a pain, she cannot open this or that. Its like the tower of Babel! Apples should be mashed and turned to cider.

 

[gus3049]

My sister changed to Mac around five years ago and she has almost ditched her computer interests, the rest of the family are still windows and she cannot get back up or support from the rest of the family. Even posting music or other media to her is a pain, she cannot open this or that. Its like the tower of Babel! Apples should be mashed and turned to cider.

She is obviously a computer geek. Non computer people always find Macs a doddle

Its change thats the problem. All computers work well these days. I have always found the Mac system to be entirely self explanatory and it suits the way my mind works.

Didn't she try before buying???

Pretty faces are not always the best way to go and usually cost more than the homely sort. I know which I prefer though 8)

 

[misterfish]

I'm sure most people want a computer to do the things they want without having to continually tinker to get it performing as wanted. However,with the current complexity of operating Systems this seems to have become more difficult. Setting up our Mac Mini, Windows 7 and Windows Home Server machines all required some of this tinkering to get all the features and hardware fully functional. My previous dabblings with Linux (Ubuntu) have never been very successful, but a recent look at the latest long term support version looked hopeful.

As a retired IT professional that spent most of his working life programming and supporting desktop computing systems I have an interest in any new offerings, hence my installation of Windows 8. But unless I have a touch screen that responds to multiple touches I will not bother as it doesn't (yet) offer me any advantages. I'm also not enthusiastic about cloud computing - I prefer to keep all my data under my control not depending on a remote connection with the info controlled at the whim of others.

Rather than denigrate any particular system I look to see that the computer does what I want with as little hassle as possible - it is and should be seen as a tool rather than a style item.

Misterfish

 

[gus3049]

I rate Macs up there with Quad HiFi, Alfa Romeos, good food and wine and my present wife amongst the things that have made my life more satisfying, entertaining and worth living :lol:

+1...not sure about Alfa's though and SWIMBO's the only one I've had for the last 30 odd years. Also substitute Naim for Quad - Rob

Each to their own obviously. I've owned over 20 Alfas and loved every one. All of them, even the rust buckets, were more fun than those boring German things that people seem to like. The Quads start with the Electrostatics. I just love the design of the 33/303 series and still use the 50d's in the bedroom. Valves to drive the ELS's of course.

I've heard Naims but found them underwhelming and a bit bass heavy. Just shows that even our ears give us a different slant on the world.

Been married this time round for ten years. Just shows that its never too late to make a change for the better. (A message for PC users everywhere?? :lol: )