Richard wrote:
Oh boy, I think I have done it now! Have been using suse for some time, since at least 6.x so far as I can remember. While I have sometimes had issues with install/upgrades I have usually been able to fix them with some book time. Now since Win 8.1 is involved, I am in more trouble.
New laptop with 8.1, installed 13.2, clean install from downloaded DVD. Ran checksum and option to check disk before installing. At the end of the install I had a very crippled 13.2, not usable really, and worse, a BSOD replacing the Win 8.1. Could not re-boot into either. Win note finally said call the manufacturer. I did. Rep said probably a bad hard drive, return to replace the laptop. I was not so sure, felt I had smotched something during install, but kept quiet anyway. Exchanged. Being stalwart or stupid, take your pick, (either a long-standing characteristic of those of us non-gurus who venture into linux-land anyway), after insuring a working 8.1, I made recovery disks (had not known about those the first time), and tried again. More unhappiness: got 13.2 installed and working, with some effort, and at the completion read the release notes which appeared. Uh-oh: one talked about issues with 8.1 and a lot of explanation I did not follow, especially what to do about it, which mostly included hope and prayer. Neither worked, and again I had a non-working windows. No matter, I said, I have recovery disks this time. Well, apparently I did not. I had a disk, but it did not recover. Same messages as before, recovery media invalid, missing files, whatever, and contact manufacturer.
I am loathe to do that since I am now pretty certain I have done something bad. Can anyone lead me by the nose thru this? My suse is working, including email. I copied files from the win partitions to make a disk with install files, I think. In any case an additional disk for recovery suggested by windows as probably not really necessary, but nice. Likely needed now.
I would really like to get my win back. After all, I paid for it. Also need for a couple of specific programs that must run on win. I am really nervous about playing too much, especially around the MBR or whatever is being used now, and disabling my linux usage. Back about suse 8.x and 9.x I was more active, followed changes and all. Since then I have become much more a "user" simply using the system effectively but needing little more working knowledge than my wife has (she still searches for some letters on the keyboard, can't understand why they are not laid out alphabetically to make them easier to find).
Thanks for any guidance. If some intrepid soul would be willing to hold my hand in this, I am willing to take it off list as this may be of little interest to most.
Richard
Microsoft goes out of their way to make sure that Windows does not play well with others. This has been a historical trend going back even before Linux was started. When I buy a laptop, I take the original hard disk with the Windows installation out, and put it in storage, and then put in a new hard drive. If I want to attempt to make a dual-boot system, I use the original hard disk in a USB adapter as an image and use "dd" to copy it onto the new disk. Then, if I want to sell the machine, I put in the original disk that came with the computer. That means the buyer gets a pristine disk, with NONE of my personal files or data on it. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org