On the EXTREMELY RARE chance that someone has an *intact* (Media Direct + Factory Restore capable) Inspiron 6400, I'd love to get an image of the MBR to restore a machine, here.
If not, I'll just reverse engineer the MD MBR and compare with an FR MBR to create my own "hybrid" (unfortunate waste of time!)
Isn't this POS 11 yrs old?
So what ? This desktop comp I'm using was built in '02 or '03 , and it's working just swell . Some of us don't have to have the newest-latest-greatest of everything . I drive an old truck , and my Harley is old enough to get antique tags ... the truck already has 'em . My wife is pretty old too , but that's another matter entirely .
Our vehicles are '95 and '01 (and we don't buy or can aford snow tires like some here). With 4 laptops and 4 desktop mostly running W7...none of whith are more than 8 yrs old. Only 3 were bought new...I just sell or give away stuff and replace with Craig's list stuff. Last desktop was a 3 yr old i5 quad 3rd gen for $100 w/8Gb of RAM. No, you don't have to have the latest, but you don't need crap either! The wife is 17 yrs younger, so...I guess she stays!
Yes, amazing how judgemental some fools can be. The HOMELESS TEEN that the machine is destined for probably wouldn't care if it was
*20* years old!Perhaps the upthread *sshole would care to donate a BRAND SPANKING NEW MACHINE (with all the software LICENSED and PREINSTALLED)?
Right, it's easy for you to be a great person on the internet. I've donated stuff better...see, now I'm a wonderful person like you! ?? ???
I think the laptop dates from '06 , and it's the newest we have . I have a new (faster) processor (7 bucks on ebay) in the drawer that I'm goingto install probably tomorrow . The original is becoming unstable due to repeated overheats . I keep tellin' her she can't block the air intake on the bottom and she keeps ignoring me . The shop comp and my desktop are both on ASUS M2A-VM motherboards with AMD Athlon 64X2 processors and 2 Gb of DDR2 RAM . All my comps run XP Pro and an individualized suite of applications .
Oh, my! Athlon, C2D cpu.... Craig's list.... Here all can run W10 without issues at least.
You're free to run anything you want . I find XP does what I want and have no plans to change .
That would make her a classic like the late 50s Chevys or the late 60s Mopars.
XP is the most stable OS Microshaft has ever made
I *upgraded* to XP just as the end-of-life notice was taking effect. I pulled all the updates from their server and keep them on an external USB drive (so I can install them on any machine). Most of these are unimportant as our machines don't talk to the outside world (and most of the updates are "security updates").
My tablet PC's, multimedia, authoring and engineering PC's run XP along with this "email/WWW" PC, the HTPC (linux can't cut it) and two of the laptops. I keep a disposable (i.e., system that I am willing to reload on a moment's notice) "shoebox" PC running XP to evaluate new pieces of software.
I have Vista and 7even laptops (that don't seem to afford me any extra "functionality"!)
No one has ever "recommended" 8.x and I'm not eager to have yet another (bad) MS OS to support. And, 10 is inherently designed to sell the user to vendors so we'll NEVER see that.
I.e., XP is the workhorse here -- and I *design* electronic devices for a living, seeing nothing "necessary" (or even helpful!) in the more recent offerings!
I have heard that from a lot of people concerning XP, the major issue with sticking to it is there may be a *must* have piece of software that you will want and some point that will not support XP, or browser support for it will start to fail as internet standards change.
The reverse argument is stronger: that NEWER OS's will not support some legacy piece of software OR HARDWARE thereby necesitating a forced software (application) or hardware upgrade -- just to "stay put"! I have no desire to *hope* drivers for each of my printers, scanners, motion controllers, pointing devices, plotters, digitizers, etc. are supported on some newer OS. Nor do I want to have to exhaustively test every application under that new OS just to verify I can
*STILL* do what I have always BEEN doing with them!"Been there, done that, T-shirt, etc."
I keep a Compaq 386 Portable because I have some ($2K) hardware that requires an ISA bus. And, some ($10K) software that requires that hardware.
I have a ($25K) piece of equipment that requires a genuine printer port (not a USB printer interface) and others that require genuine serial ports. Another ($14K) that requires 3.5" floppies.
I can probably find newer versions of all of these devices -- possibly at much lower pricepoints. But, I'd still have to spend that money AND the time to find/acquire them -- AND learn how to use them, their quirks, etc.
Any "software improvements/upgrades" run the risk that work I've done with older/other versions might no longer be compatible with the
*new* (and improved?) versions. Or, worse, may require some massaging to *make* it compatible (more time on my part). [Remind me: why am I upgrading the OS? Where do the BENEFITS from that undetaking come into play??]Granted, there are some improvements in *some* of the (software) tools that I use. But, do they offset the cost of upgrading (time, money, uncertainty/risk)? And, won't I have to upgrade yet again, NEXT year?
The same is true of the hardware. You can quickly get into a mode where all you are doing is treading water.
The risk of some technology/capability that can't be "back-ported" to an older OS (etc) is relatively easy to address: buy a new laptop for THAT purpose when/if the need becomes acute. But, you don't have to move EVERYTHING to that platform! The appeal of a laptop is you can store it in your sock drawer when you don't need that "program"!
The risk of changes in network protocols is minimal. There are lots of open source solutions to those "products" and enough of an XP-base still out there that folks will continue to develop for those changes.
If those efforts ever prove inadequate, then you drag the laptop out of your sock drawer for those needs. Or, simply don't avail yourself of them! (e.g., we don't have Flash *installed* on any of the machines, here. Are we *truly* "missing" anything??)
I have several pieces of software that will not run under Win 10 that run fine under XP. Some don't run at all, and some that have sound such as some games and a TV dongle show the pix but no sound. I don't really want the OS to do anything but load and run the programs that I use. With almost 15 years one would think the bugs would be out of an OS, but not so and now a whole new one to start over with.
I also have to keep some older systems with true rs232 and parallel printer ports around to load and run some equipment at home. When I was working anything faster than a 386 would not connect to some of the equipment that costs many thousands of dollars. Had a hard time finding a 3 inch floppy drive of the PS2 type to go to a $ 20 K machine a while back. Industry seems to keep equipment many years. We had some that dated back to the 1920s that still worked fine if we could find spare parts or have them made.
Whats worse is when a program *appears* to work. You move on to "check" the next. Eventually, decide the new OS *appears* to support all your programs. So, you decommission (and DISCARD!) the old machine/OS (why upgrade if you're going to keep the old machine in a closet, anyway? why not just continue to use it?)
Then, sometime later, you discover that some aspect of one of the programs doesn't quite work properly. And, you've effectively burned your bridge to the old OS (can't even INSTALL it on the new computer in place of the new OS because certain drivers don't exist!).
I installed FrameMaker on one of the Vista/7even (can't recall which) laptops so I could work on a publication while the office was being rearranged. Heck, it's just a DTP program, what parts of the OS could break *that*?? Keyboard+display+mouse+disk!
Yet, the application hangs periodically. Why? And, as I have no recourse (other than to kill the process) when this happens, I have to remember to explictly "save" every few minutes! I'm LESS productive than I would have been on XP or 2KS!
I used to be a big fan of the AfterDark screensavers. Some were genuinely entertaining (e.g., the apartment house). But, all were handy because I could just move the mouse to a selected corner of the display and invoke the screen saver *instantly*.
The move to XP cost me those screen savers. So, any monies expended on them (and time to learn, install) is lost. I now have XP's *sad* screen savers with less functionality. is this offset by any potential increased reliability of XP over 2KS?
So, what is this "upgrade" GIVING ME that would make me want to risk these REAL LOSSES/costs?
Exactly. I can leave a NetBSD running for YEARS without having to reboot (I have one in my bedroom that runs 24/7/365 without a hiccup; uptime is probably a year or more -- would have been longer but I changed to some lower power hardware to eliminate the fan noise).
When it's *your* money and time, you tend to think a lot harder about the relative value of changes ("upgrades"). Now, when friends bemoan my old(er) hardware/software, I ask them to give me a detailed list of the things they think I might want from any proposed "upgrade", based on their FIRST HAND experiences with those upgrades.
It's amusing to see how much they CAN'T say advocating their proposals!!
"Oh, but the new machines are so much FASTER...!"
"Really? Pick a (nontrivial) task. We'll sit down, side-by-side and see how long it takes you to get it done with your hardware and software vs. the same task for me. *If* you finish before me (doubtful), we'll figure out what the RELATIVE performance increase has been. And, we'll assume that will apply to EVERY activity. Over the course of a year. We'll use some outrageous burdened labor rate to reflect an INFLATED cost (savings!) and see just what this effort will 'buy me'..."
If you're playing video games, you *might* benefit from a new machine -- but not a new OS! OTOH, if your BRAIN is involved in the activity, chances are, the machine will just spend more "effort" WAITING for you.
I either go to Linux or use this for updating XP supposed to be good till 2019... seems to work. How to Get Updates for Windows XP from Microsoft until 2019
Or possibly a LEMON like an old Edsel...ahahahahaha.
Hey , that's my wife you're talking about . And I'm not amused . I'm not saying she's the sweetest thing since honey , but it ain't your place to comment .
No offense intended...Edsels are CLASSICS as well...lets leave it at that. ====
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