Destructive Chaos

As many of you may or may not know, I bought a new computer right after Navidad (Spanish for Christmas). My new computer came with a free upgrade to Windows Vista (wiki page on Vista) when it was to be released. I received  my upgrade in the mail on Wednesday and after days of thinking about the upgrade I have decided to take the plunge into the world of “WOW”. I know some of my software will not work with Vista.

Some of you may be asking “Why upgrade if some software doesn’t work?”. Simple answer to that, Vista is new! And I like the look of the new UI (User Interface). I just hope F.E.A.R works on Vista. I’m not worried about my hardware not being good enough for Vista. My hardware is good enough to run what ever I want - for the next 6 months at least. You know how it is with computers now a days. One major thing that I hope works with Vista is my network card. I don’t want to have to buy a new one (or do I ;)). Having Vista with no internet would suck.

So, I started creating a Recovery Disc about a half an hour ago. It takes forever. I don’t think I’ll be needing these discs but you never know - Vista might not work well for me. My first disc is complete (1 of 2)! One more to go! Verifying the disc is taking longer then I expected.

I’ll post some screen shots when my computer is running Vista.

As you can see, I’ve linked a lot to Wikipedia. I’ve done this to be the most informative to all of you. :). Join the Wikipedia movement. (It’s not really a movement. Just something I do. :P)

 UPDATE # 1!

I’ve run into a little (or a major problem I guess.) Basicly, HP requires that I get the BIOS update for my PC before I can continue with the upgrade to Windows Vista. So, I get the update off their site and install it. Of course I have to restart my computer after running this install - so that’s what I do. The only thing now is that my computer can not run the OS and I get a nice little black screen saying “Error loading OS_”. So basicly what this update does is turn your computer into a really big, fansy - paper weight.

Now I’m totally lost in what I could do to fix this. Should I cut my loses and throw my computer off my second story balcany, or call Hewlett-Packard (not like they’ll know what to do :P). I’ll just have to wait and see what I can come up with to fix this problem. What could have went wrong?

One things for sure, I’m not buying a full copy of Vista anytime soon.

I’ll keep ya updated on my predicament.

UPDATE # 2

Problem fixed! (I think). What I decided to do is simple - just stick in the upgrade disc and boot the computer from CD just to see if it would work. To my surprise, it did. Now my computer is being updated as I type (from a different computer of course). I really hope it goes on without another problem. I think I caused the problem myself anyway, I got the BIOS update a little late. I half started the preperation before getting the updated BIOS.

Oh well. No harm done (I put all my music on my new external hard drive before Vista even came (always thinking a head!). It will be interesting to see how long it takes to fully upgrade my computer to the new operating system and if the games I have will work on it. We’ll all have to wait and see. I also wonder how many system upgrades have become avalibe for Vista since it’s release? And for that matter - will McAfee work with it? Hmm. I’m running a little blind on this upgrade.

UPDATE # 3

I’m running Vista! My long day of upgrading to the newest Microsoft operating system (Codename: LongHorn) Windows Vista is now complete. The interfaces are fresh and stylish. I’m extremely happy to be on Vista now! There are a few problems like I mentioned above: Network Card doesn’t have Vista drivers; Sound Card isn’t Vista ready (there is a driver for that though - I hope.); Not sure if my Adobe software will work on Vista either.

 This has been an exciting experience for me today. I’m kinda glad to finally be done with it and able just to sit back and play with my new system. It’s been a pretty long day as you can tell. I recommend installing Vista - but you might want to wait before you go out and buy your upgrades. Make sure all your stuff works with Vista first.

As I said above: I’ll post some pictures as soon as I get my Internet working. So I don’t think I will be on WLM tonight.