Cargo Cult sysadmining

[jdow]

On 2012/08/07 05:22, Dave Ihnat wrote:
> Once, long ago--actually, on Mon, Aug 06, 2012 at 09:29:49PM -0700--jdow (jdow at earthlink.net) said:
>> Then I discovered a property of Windows. If your motherboard goes
>> bad and you can't replace it with an exact replacement the system and
>> all other software installed on that disk are suddenly useless. (Yes,
>> you can at least recover the files. But you cannot recover the installs.)
>
> Ah...just a parenthetical aside.  This is quite untrue.  I've replaced
> failed motherboards on numerous Windows installations of various versions.
> You usually have to do a recovery reinstallation, but it does work, and
> your installed programs, data, etc. are all preserved.
>
> I'm not defending Windows--this is more along the lines of "Know thine
> enemy".  If you're trying to promote Linux, but express actual falsehoods
> about Windows, people will discount all your views.
>
> Cheers,
> --
> 	Dave Ihnat
> 	dihnat at dminet.com

We've had different experiences. (And I am experienced enough that I have
recovered a Windows 2000 install that had block zero on the disk messed
up. THAT requires patience, some knowledge of NTFS, and lots of googling.)

My bad new motherboard experience was with XP. And the new motherboard
would not get past booting because it needed new drivers. Recovery
install techniques plunged it back to XP with no service packs. That
blew up a driver that was installed. And at that point I figured I had
wasted enough time, stuck the disk on a Linux system, sucked off all the
good data, and rebuilt the system with an XP SP3 image.

I like the forgiving nature of Linux. I make money on Windows and
generally find it more useful for my desires and needs. <shrug> That's
my crazed mileage. Yours may vary a whole lot. (Joanne's law is "pick
the application you simply must have. Then pick the OS that will run
that application. Then pick the hardware that will run the combination."
That avoids the "Procrustean computer" situation.)

{^_-}