(no subject)

[ria_oaks]

I'm currently on Dell's website designing my ideal laptop... someone please stop me before I spend money. o.o

(incidentally, does anyone know if I can load my copy of Microsoft Office, which I bought years ago for this computer, onto a new one if I get it? Does the license prevent that? Cause I think it's absurd that I have to pay another $159 for Office just because I bought a new computer..)

(one thing holding me back from buying a new laptop, aside from money - Vista. Reeeally don't want it. But I suppose I won't be able to avoid it much longer.. *sigh*)

It comes to $788 with taxes; 120 gig harddrive, 2 gigs of ram (1 gig is $100 less, but I want the extra memory...) God help me. *resolutely closes browser and goes back to deleting files off current laptop to make it run better* Anyone have any more suggestions for making this poor old (which is absurd, it's only 2.5 years old) thing run faster? Maybe I should defrag again... I'm seriously considering just backing up my files and wiping the bloody thing. Wonder how much that would help. And I wonder how much it would cost to buy a new harddrive, say $120-160 gigs, and another gig of ram? (mine's only 500 megs). I suppose it wouldn't be worth the cost; should just buy a new one, but...

This on top of the TiVo I want to buy... yeah. -___- I promised myself that I wouldn't spend anymore money after Christmas. *le sigh*

And shit, I just remembered that the deadline for opting out of UBC's medical is I think Monday, and I don't have my proof of insurance from work yet... need either a copy of my employee benefits card (which I haven't received) or a letter from my employer (which I totally meant to write for my manager yesterday so she could sign it, then.. I forgot.) I suppose I can do it tomorrow then either mail it to UBC and hope they accept it if it arrives after Monday, or trek out there Monday to give it to them. It's $130, and I don't really need it because my health coverage at work is pretty decent.

Okay, I've gotta run now. Class in an hour and a half. Going to Futureshop on the way with Dad to look at TiVos. XD XD

Comments

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Hmm, okay, good to know it's so easy. Thanks for the advice. :)

40 gigs? o.o Holy crap...

Still think I'll just stick with upgrading for now. Might get a new computer eventually... so for now i'm researching RAM and harddrives.

[bk635.livejournal.com]

Sorry, 20. I was looking at the wrong column.

[20:30:02] > What choice does it offer?
[20:30:20] > Wait..
[20:30:37] me> No idea. My friend wants to do a full format and I'm just trying to get some more details
[20:30:39] > Switch it in the BIOS to boot from CD primary rather than Hard Disk
[20:31:00] > It shouldn't offer any choice.. it should just act like it wants to do the install
[20:31:07] me> Yeah
[20:31:27] me> and there you can select which partition you want to format and so on?
[20:31:27] > Then have it format for NTFS, full disk space no fucking with partitions
[20:31:38] > Aye
[20:31:48] me> Don't like partitions now? :p
[20:32:11] > I dont' have a problem with them, but explaining how to do it to someone else is bad lol
[20:32:17] me> Lol
[20:32:36] me> don't manufacturers set the cd to primary now?
[20:32:49] > Perhaps
[20:33:00] me> I remember when I couldn't load windows and had to fuck with boot disks I didn't have to change anything in the bios
[20:33:14] > Previous versions of Windows wouldn't allow CDs to be bootable
[20:33:43] > and some old bioses (is this even a word) may have issues with it
[20:33:57] me> That's a good question.. What is the plural of bios?
[20:34:07] > No clue lol
[20:34:48] > Things are easier when you can do the install directly from CD, because the XP CD is bootable
[20:35:12] > But if you're going from an old bios or something you need like 8 floppy disks to do ti
[20:35:36] me> Is it still possible to do it the cool way? format c:\?
[20:35:48] > fdisk worked in windows 98
[20:35:53] > I never bothered with xp
[20:37:03] me> After it finishes formatting does it automatically begin installing xp?
[20:37:12] > Yeah
[20:37:33] > I once had an issue because my keyboard was USB when reformatting lol
[20:37:35] me> Is that something you have to instruct it to do beforehand?
[20:37:38] me> lol yeah
[20:37:48] > That was a pain in the ass
[20:38:06] > No, it'll do it automatically
[20:38:33] > It'll ask to you reformat, it won't do it automatically.. it can install over the existing install
[20:38:51] > Or reformat and do it fresh which it says is recomended

Short form: Stick the CD in, reboot, follow the on-screen instructions for a NTSF full format. Deal with partitions if you like.

The next conversation is about how coated Advil tastes so good. That's irrelevant.

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Okie dokie. I also read somewhere that my computer should have come with a system restoration CD or something that just does it all for me, so I'll see if I can find that.. otherwise I'll go dig up my XP CD. it's all at the other house, anyway, so I can't do much now except prepare by backing stuff up and shit.

[bk635.livejournal.com]

Yeah, when it comes to Dell I think they're one and the same. Mine says "Windows XP Reinstallation Disc." It's plain, brown, and boring. Be sure to dig up the discs with all the drivers too.

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Ahh, okay.