[Cialug] Dying commputer question

[Todd Walton]

On Sun, Apr 6, 2008 at 3:36 PM,  <murraymckee at wellsfargo.com> wrote:
>  I'm assuming that it has a virus or other malware of some sort.  It
>  keeps randomly shutting down saying something about a software bug.

The "virus" is probably Windows.  Okay now, I'm a zealot and all, but
I actually mean it.  I run Windows systems at work.  We *don't* get
viruses.  And yet, somehow, out of a couple of thousand machines, once
a week or so Windows will just stop booting or will start randomly
rebooting itself or somesuch.  In other words, don't necessarily blame
it on a virus, it could just be Windows decaying over time.

>  Copy all the data from C: to D:.  I'm not sure if I should try and copy
>  the whole drive or only the 'useful data' parts.  I'm leaning toward the
>  whole thing to make sure I don't miss something.

If you're going to reinstall all your software anyway (a wise move),
then I'd just copy your data.  You could probably just lift the
Documents and Settings and trash the rest.  You'll still be bringing
over more than you need, but you'll be safe that way.

I can totally understand wanting to get Windows back and running.  But
you ought to consider giving Linux a try sooner rather than later.
Besides not having problems like this (Linux has problems,
spontaneously giving up the ghost is not usually one of them), Linux
is really easy to use and it's fun.

-todd