Install XP after Vista - more than you bargan for

In my desire to go back to XP I thought I'd simply dual boot them (well triple boot counting Ubuntu). After all, drive space is plentiful and then I can migrate my data back slowly and still boot into Vista occasionally for nostalgia.

Well, had I done the research I'm sure I'd have found that it's not as easy as multi booting other OSs. Seems Vista isn't compatible with XPs boot loader that gets written to the MBR during setup. So when it comes time to reboot after the inital portion of the install I get a black screen with some lovely hieroglyphs. Oh oh. Booting from the XP install CD gives me the same. I quickly throw in my Vasta DVD thinking I'll repair the boot loader, and instead of it booting from the DVD, it seems to try and boot from a combo of the DVD and hard drive - not too sure what is happening here. The DVD goes for a bit, then the drive, then the DVD and so on until I get a bluescreen IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL.

So now I see no way to boot my system at all. (sweating a little). In the end I try booting Vista from DVD into safe mode and finally get to the repair screen and I'm back in business. I should also add that it too 4 boots into safe mode before I got the repair options. Each boot would have various levels of 'success'.

What started out as a routine procedure end in adventure. I guess that's the nature of adventures though.

I found this site to be a good resource during the problem:
http://apcmag.com/5485/dualbooting_vista_and_xp

Upgrading from Vista to XP

I've had enough. I like the pretty and the candy as much as the next guy, but Vista has run its course for me. Since I assembled my new PC in the summer I've been limping along with Vista Ultimate waiting (and hoping) that SP1 would help improve the situation. I'm running an AMD64 X2 4000+ dual core with 4GB of RAM, and the machine seems slower than before I upgraded the hardware when I was running XP.

My wife's machine (3600+ 2GB) running Vista would crash frequently without cause or being able to find a solution. She begged me to put XP back on which I did and she's as happy as can be. I thought I'd wait it out just a little longer, so I was very happy to see the SP RC show up in my Windows Update. I grabbed it right away and waited for it to install.

I was rewarded with 4 system crashes the first night I put it on. I might add that system stability was not an issue prior to this. So I uninstalled the SP RC and am left now with the task of upgrading to XP - or spending more time in my other installed OS (Ubuntu 7.10) which is becoming more and more attractive all the time.

Maybe XP SP3 will finally give me the performance I was hoping for from Vista - http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20071126/tc_nf/56872

What happened to the great innovative company that changed the face of computing? I guess no one stays on top forever. R.I.P. Microsoft.

Stumblin around on the net

Sometimes I find myself sitting on the at the computer not really having anything to do or with a particular destination in mind. What's one to do? Stumble of course!

Stumble is a really cool extension for Firefox (and if you aren't using Firefox that's another story!) that allows you to participate in a community of user recommended sites based upon interests.

I like to equate it to channel surfing for the internet. You can be directed to sites of any category that users recommend or restrict your Stumbling to specific categories of interest to you. More than once I've forwarded links to friends and family and been asked where I find the stuff I do. Usually I respond 'in my stumbles around the net'.

If you are looking for a fun way to break up some, why not give Stumble a shot.

Trevor Matthews
http://www.tdmatthews.com/
http://www.tdmhost.com/

Cool Features Coming Soon

After another long hiatus I'm back to write some more. I find its hard to find the time to blog, but its not so much time that stops me from writing more, but topics. So my approach for my next few posts will be just to have short but frequent posts featuring cool sites, apps, and gadgets around the web.

I spend most of my day immersed in the web and its related technologies and take for granted that most people in my circles get that same exposure. The more I think about the questions I get daily from family, friends and clients the more I realize this isn't the case.

So forward and onward on my new journey of discovering more of the nets cool features and what will make life online more interesting and hopefully more fun. Look for my first update along these lines in the next couple days.

Trevor Matthews
http://www.tdmatthews.com/
http://www.tdmhost.com/