sakura1
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hello, maybe this isn't the introduction topic, but well i'm Lavinia, and i'm new to this forum i "landed" here as i was looking for some answers/tips and tricks, hope i chose the right section for this topic.
well i have a really long and complicated story and a LOTS of questions. well my story begins like this, i got a lenovo 3000 n200 laptop, with windows vista basic installed, some weeks ago it crashed (most of you, and maybe all of you could have made acquaintance to the well popular blue screen), how did this happen? even i am not sure, vista worked pretty fine like flawless most of the times (except one time it took some updates and when it restarted it took me to the lenovo restore and recovery, but this got me out of the problem, so i was really happy), but some weeks ago i wanted to install visual studio 2005 (i know there already is the 2008, anyways) and in the service pack 1 there were updates for the visual c++, c#, java, web developer, and i installed every one of them, but when i installed the one for the web developer it asked for reboot, anyways i clicked yes then ... it said "step 2/3 ... " bla bla can't remember the entire line, then it rebooted, and it said "step 3/3 configuring the updates" to be honest i was kind of worried (you see there were lots of times when after that it wrote something like updates weren't configured corectly or something like this, and i was thinking "i hope i won't get that message again" ) anyways i didn't look at the screen the whole time, but suddenly i saw my computer restarted and then lenovo repair and recovery started i said "fine, looks like there was a problem, no worries this will get me off the hook like the first and last time" ... but then after choosing the language, it said to choose for a partition, but the list was empty, still i clicked yes even under those circumstances, it said that i need to log in as administrator :| , well i restarted then i saw "start windows normaly" and the other option lenovo restore and recovery (or something like), i chose start windows normaly (just to see what happens) and there was the blue screen, well i said i won't give up so easily, so i tried to get the start windows in safe mode, said and done, but when the safe mode was loading, guess what?, blue screen again, i tried even the debug mode and it still gave me the blue screen, then i went again for the restore and recovery, but stupid me i had NO back-up T_T (well guess i was too lazy to do backups, it wasn't about music or other files that i was worried but for my projects, work and important documents such as a contract file and so on), and only one partition which was C: obvious, i felt like i was going nuts, so i tried running a linux live cd, i could save some files that weren't in my documents (like those in the xampp folder, i'm supposed to be a web designer/programmer anyways) but i did not had any access to the "my documents" folder. i was thinking about repairing windows, since the installing cd has such an option, but dang i didn't had one, since my laptop didn't came with one, so i took a lots of phone calls, and this friend of mine offered to help, he said he has something that could help out without those, but well his norton recover and restore or something like that and other programs that boot from the cd didn't worked, nor the linux live cds, at some points it even refused to boot from cd/dvd :|, then he took out the vista cd and tried the repair option, but it didn't do nothing for like two hours it was saying the same thing over and over again like "wait" or something (it's been a while so i can't really remember), then he said "you know what, it is possible to recover files even after format" ... "yeah i know that, but ... " anyways he was preparing to install another OS ("but it won't be vista, i warned you all along it isn't a good OS" "you did, but i told you it came that way and i was pretty content with it" ), so he chose xp, and there in the installing options (as you all may already know), you can choose a partition, there was one of like 5 gb (i knew about that one, but i could never access it under windows, and more over it never showed up in explorer/my computer), but what i don't know about that one is, what was its purpose? so here comes the question: what was that partition? (since we installed windows on that one and then took all the files i needed and coppied them on a cd). i would really apreciate an answer. ok going further with the story, i repartitioned the hdd, but i wanted to have both linux, and windows running on my computer (so i partitioned the hdd - 150 gb like this: 2 gb for c: which i wanted to be the swap partition for linux, then d: like 20 gb, e: like 25 gb for windows, and the rest a free partition on which i would put documents, back-ups and the such), but i wasn't going to install linux first anyways, so as i was installing windows, it started to format the c: partition even if i chose to install it on e:, but surprise surprise for me (since it was the first time anything like this happened to me in like 5 years since i work on a computer and install different OSs even multiple OS on the same machine, same hdd) after the format of c: was done it started to format e: and installed xp on e: like i chose in the first place, but when i took a better look (went into the folder options, i chose show hidden files and unlocked hideprotected operating system files) i found on c: files that belonged to windows, so i knew i couldn't make that the swap partition anymore, still i tried, but it didn't worked anyways as expected, then i repartitioned everything from the start, and installed xp on c:, made a second partition, then since i thought it would be easier to make the partitions for linux from partition magic (since it has that option to install another OS) i used partition magic, pretty easy to use the wizard, well all went well and smoothly, i even got right after boot a "menu" from where i could choose between suse and windows, so i chose suse since i wanted to configure the internet and everything else, then i rebooted since i wanted to see how windows works, well it started to "load" ... then i got the chkdsk i said "fine, go and check it" i thought it was because of the modifications done to the partitions from partition magic, and as it was checking suddenly the computer restarted, i chose again windows, but this time it said it couldn't find some file, can't remember the name since it lasted only for a flash of a second so i dind't had the time to read it well, but it was something that started with a, and then it gave me the blue screen again, then i got under linux again i thought to myself "that's it i'm through with windows", but i couldn't open almost anything, it was fustrating, the only thing that did open up was mozilla, and i could browse the web. anyways i had to reinstall everything all over, right now i am having only one OS, but my question is, why can't i run two different OS? i found out that it has to do with dual boot, i read some articles but i couldn't find any clear answer to my situation, since i already did everything that was written in those articles when i installed both xp and linux (and more over i am really curious how come on regular desktops one can have multiple os without a problem, i installed xp and linux on my old pc and it worked just fine, everything went so nice but i have these problems on this laptop). was it bad that i deleted that partition of 5gb i mentioned earlier? what can i do in order to run two different os on this laptop? i look forward for an answer and i really apreciate if you can help, i'll be really grateful, thanks for your patience.
well i have a really long and complicated story and a LOTS of questions. well my story begins like this, i got a lenovo 3000 n200 laptop, with windows vista basic installed, some weeks ago it crashed (most of you, and maybe all of you could have made acquaintance to the well popular blue screen), how did this happen? even i am not sure, vista worked pretty fine like flawless most of the times (except one time it took some updates and when it restarted it took me to the lenovo restore and recovery, but this got me out of the problem, so i was really happy), but some weeks ago i wanted to install visual studio 2005 (i know there already is the 2008, anyways) and in the service pack 1 there were updates for the visual c++, c#, java, web developer, and i installed every one of them, but when i installed the one for the web developer it asked for reboot, anyways i clicked yes then ... it said "step 2/3 ... " bla bla can't remember the entire line, then it rebooted, and it said "step 3/3 configuring the updates" to be honest i was kind of worried (you see there were lots of times when after that it wrote something like updates weren't configured corectly or something like this, and i was thinking "i hope i won't get that message again" ) anyways i didn't look at the screen the whole time, but suddenly i saw my computer restarted and then lenovo repair and recovery started i said "fine, looks like there was a problem, no worries this will get me off the hook like the first and last time" ... but then after choosing the language, it said to choose for a partition, but the list was empty, still i clicked yes even under those circumstances, it said that i need to log in as administrator :| , well i restarted then i saw "start windows normaly" and the other option lenovo restore and recovery (or something like), i chose start windows normaly (just to see what happens) and there was the blue screen, well i said i won't give up so easily, so i tried to get the start windows in safe mode, said and done, but when the safe mode was loading, guess what?, blue screen again, i tried even the debug mode and it still gave me the blue screen, then i went again for the restore and recovery, but stupid me i had NO back-up T_T (well guess i was too lazy to do backups, it wasn't about music or other files that i was worried but for my projects, work and important documents such as a contract file and so on), and only one partition which was C: obvious, i felt like i was going nuts, so i tried running a linux live cd, i could save some files that weren't in my documents (like those in the xampp folder, i'm supposed to be a web designer/programmer anyways) but i did not had any access to the "my documents" folder. i was thinking about repairing windows, since the installing cd has such an option, but dang i didn't had one, since my laptop didn't came with one, so i took a lots of phone calls, and this friend of mine offered to help, he said he has something that could help out without those, but well his norton recover and restore or something like that and other programs that boot from the cd didn't worked, nor the linux live cds, at some points it even refused to boot from cd/dvd :|, then he took out the vista cd and tried the repair option, but it didn't do nothing for like two hours it was saying the same thing over and over again like "wait" or something (it's been a while so i can't really remember), then he said "you know what, it is possible to recover files even after format" ... "yeah i know that, but ... " anyways he was preparing to install another OS ("but it won't be vista, i warned you all along it isn't a good OS" "you did, but i told you it came that way and i was pretty content with it" ), so he chose xp, and there in the installing options (as you all may already know), you can choose a partition, there was one of like 5 gb (i knew about that one, but i could never access it under windows, and more over it never showed up in explorer/my computer), but what i don't know about that one is, what was its purpose? so here comes the question: what was that partition? (since we installed windows on that one and then took all the files i needed and coppied them on a cd). i would really apreciate an answer. ok going further with the story, i repartitioned the hdd, but i wanted to have both linux, and windows running on my computer (so i partitioned the hdd - 150 gb like this: 2 gb for c: which i wanted to be the swap partition for linux, then d: like 20 gb, e: like 25 gb for windows, and the rest a free partition on which i would put documents, back-ups and the such), but i wasn't going to install linux first anyways, so as i was installing windows, it started to format the c: partition even if i chose to install it on e:, but surprise surprise for me (since it was the first time anything like this happened to me in like 5 years since i work on a computer and install different OSs even multiple OS on the same machine, same hdd) after the format of c: was done it started to format e: and installed xp on e: like i chose in the first place, but when i took a better look (went into the folder options, i chose show hidden files and unlocked hideprotected operating system files) i found on c: files that belonged to windows, so i knew i couldn't make that the swap partition anymore, still i tried, but it didn't worked anyways as expected, then i repartitioned everything from the start, and installed xp on c:, made a second partition, then since i thought it would be easier to make the partitions for linux from partition magic (since it has that option to install another OS) i used partition magic, pretty easy to use the wizard, well all went well and smoothly, i even got right after boot a "menu" from where i could choose between suse and windows, so i chose suse since i wanted to configure the internet and everything else, then i rebooted since i wanted to see how windows works, well it started to "load" ... then i got the chkdsk i said "fine, go and check it" i thought it was because of the modifications done to the partitions from partition magic, and as it was checking suddenly the computer restarted, i chose again windows, but this time it said it couldn't find some file, can't remember the name since it lasted only for a flash of a second so i dind't had the time to read it well, but it was something that started with a, and then it gave me the blue screen again, then i got under linux again i thought to myself "that's it i'm through with windows", but i couldn't open almost anything, it was fustrating, the only thing that did open up was mozilla, and i could browse the web. anyways i had to reinstall everything all over, right now i am having only one OS, but my question is, why can't i run two different OS? i found out that it has to do with dual boot, i read some articles but i couldn't find any clear answer to my situation, since i already did everything that was written in those articles when i installed both xp and linux (and more over i am really curious how come on regular desktops one can have multiple os without a problem, i installed xp and linux on my old pc and it worked just fine, everything went so nice but i have these problems on this laptop). was it bad that i deleted that partition of 5gb i mentioned earlier? what can i do in order to run two different os on this laptop? i look forward for an answer and i really apreciate if you can help, i'll be really grateful, thanks for your patience.
