I got the replacement hard drive from Dell today- fast shipping, one business day. I feel like I’m playing Monopoly, because this is a total Dell Error in My Favor. I had a 100GB drive. They gave me a 120GB drive. Freakin’ sweet.
Unfortunately, they sent the thing pre-imaged, but only halfway, so when I booted the thing it locked up for an hour while it installed America Online, NetZero, “Adobe Elements”, and tons of other crap that I don’t need. So I took the opportunity to just wipe the whole darn thing and start from scratch with a good ol’ XP Pro disc.
Big mistake. I’ve spent the last 7 hours or so reinstalling drivers, files, and software. It’s not done yet- but it’s 1:30 AM and I’m really tired. I also need to work on an assignment for BG200 that is ominously close to a due date. Blar.
I am learning to hate the Housing department’s evil software. They use Cisco Clean Access, which scans your computer for up-to-date virus & anti-spyware definitions, as well as windows patches. Fair enough- I made sure to update all three with my new install.
Clean Access thinks I have an unpatched version of Windows. Microsoft Update can’t find anything that I need. So I can’t get access to the network until then. It’s especially annoying since this part is basically identical to my duties at work, and we have a much better solution to verify client security without making the client jump through five million hoops to authenticate themselves.
But, more importantly, Final Fantasy VII works again.
Zeke Weeks 
4 responses to “Laptop, resurrected. Productivity, still dead.”
Windows sucks, as does Dell preinstalls. I hate drivers, and installing them.
Cisco is a bitch. Somebody needs to go tourch it. I hates it, because it disabled my backup software and goes crazy when I dual boot. Oops.
Installing the Windows Service Pack 2 is a big big big mistake. Don’t do it for the love of God.
FF7 is the shit. Everyone should play it. It should be a requirement for any degree, it’s that awesome.
Hihihi… Cisco Clean Access for the win! There HAS to be a better way.
There IS a better way. It’s called Vernier. My department uses it instead- transparent to the client, you don’t have to install 4 programs to get access.
spank!