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[ria_oaks]

Huh. So, good news is my computer is back up and running. I called the tech shop today and he said it wouldn't be til Monday, but around 4 he called me at work and said it was done. Woo hoo! The bad news, however? My wireless card seems to have... disappeared. Which... doesn't make any sense. o.o But I can't find any wireless settings on my computer, and can't connect to the wireless (can connect fine on my iPod, so the network's working fine). I've got my computer plugged in directly to the modem so I have Internet, but... yeah. annoying. *sigh* Any ideas? I think I'm gonna call or MSN Ryan and ask him if he can come over and poke at it. ^^;

Comments

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Aaand, there we go. I've got wireless and a password. Chose WPA2 security or whatever, cuz I read it's the strongest? Or at least stronger than WEP or whatever the other one is. So yay. I'm at least kinda protected now. :) Wish I could choose my own password, though - when I set the router up (last night, before I realized that it was the lack of a driver that was giving me trouble) it just let me generate a password automatically, not choose one. Oh well, I've written it down and I have it in a txt file... will have to memorize it.

[bk635.livejournal.com]

Now do the video controller. ;p

If I were you, I'd download all the drivers you need for your computer and burn them to a CD, along with a bunch of programs you use, CD keys, and so forth. Just handy to have around for future formats.

You should also make a live CD just so you have a chance at recovering stuff that you haven't had a chance to back up: http://ftp.rz.tu-bs.de/pub/mirror/knoppix/knoppix-cd/KNOPPIX_V5.1.0CD-2006-12-30-DE.iso

Burn it with Alcohol or Nero. Here's a guide for Alcohol: http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/G/Burning+ISO+Images+with+Alcohol+120
Nero is also easy (File > Open > Select "Image Files" from the Type of File drop-down > proceed to burn normally.)

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Heh, well, I downloaded all the video drivers... but 'video controller' still has an exclamation point. I'll wait and see; if I can't play videos I'll go try again.

Yeah, good idea... cept I just went and deleted all the driver .exes I downloaded since I didn't think I'd need them anymore. -__- Oh well, I know where to go to get them now, anyway.

Okay... so I just right-click 'save link as', then burn it to a CD? I'll try that, sure. I'm skimming the link on Wikipedia you sent me earlier; it's all kinda flying over my head, but I get the gist. Dunno if I'll ever resort to using it, namely out of paranoia that I'll fuck something up, but good to have. ^^ Thanks for the tip.

[bk635.livejournal.com]

Yeah, just download it to your desktop, and then burn it to a CD. Nothing fancy, just be sure to select "Image File" when in Nero from the "Type of File Drop-Down Menu" in the "File > Open" window.

The Live CD doesn't install anything or modify your hard drive in any way, and honestly, once you're at the point where you decide to use it (e.g., Windows doesn't boot anymore), then fucking something up doesn't matter. ;p But it's just nice to have the option to recover something by emailing it to yourself or uploading it somewhere, before having to format. If you had a Live CD, you could've gotten that picture off your hard drive before sending it off to have it formatted, for example.

Using a Live CD is simple. All you have to do is reboot the computer with the disc in the drive, and it's automatic from there. The Linux OS (in this case, Knoppix) will boot instead of Windows, and you'll be able to access your stuff.