barleyguy wrote on 2020-02-26, 03:07:I must be just unlucky, because I actually lost a 200 Gig hard drive with important data on it. Hence my advice to others to be cautious. But maybe I'm the rare exception. When I lost the data, I was loading the CD (DVD?) version of Knights of the Old Republic, and it passed the 128 Gig and also loaded libraries, and next thing I know "poof!". Ever since that happened to me I've been cautious.
This is one of those things that works just fine right until it doesn't. If there's a known workaround without the risks, it's just silly to push your luck, IMO.
barleyguy wrote on 2020-02-26, 03:07:Also, I'm kinda curious why anyone would choose Windows 2000 over Windows XP to start with. [..] Though this is a retro forum, so there are of course people wanting to try things of all eras. But personally I stick to 98SE, XP, 7 and 10. And stay away from ME, 2000, Vista, 8 etc. And DOS 4 of course. So I realize that's a huge ball of wax, but genuinely curious why people run those OSs.
For one, don't assume that someone is running 2000 "over XP". 😀 I run DOS 3.3, 5.0, 6.22, Win 3.0, Win 3.1, WFW 3.11, 95A, 95C, 98FE, ME, 2K, XP, Vista, and 7. Partly just to re-experience platforms come and gone, partly to appreciate the progression of technology over that time, and partly because I have aspirations of writing DOS and Windows code and like to have a big sandbox to test in. But mostly because I feel the collection isn't complete if I leave out OSes.
I'm leaving out 98SE at the moment, though I seem to have acquired yet another Pentium and don't need a third 95 box. If you're wondering "why would anyone pick FE over SE?" -- it was solely because I'm the kind of person that pours Pepsi into a Coke glass just to see what will happen. 😎
barleyguy wrote on 2020-02-26, 03:07:With the exception of DRM that's been totally cracked by now, XP seems like a better OS.
Sadly this isn't a place where we can discuss solutions like this, because my retail copy of XP I bought circa 2003 with cash money hard-come-by has been giving me absolute FITS, periodically deciding it wants to come UN-activated, seemingly at random, after powering up my P4 with no changes to the hardware since the last time I used it. When I log in and accept the mandatory "you will activate this right now, capisce?" dialog, the activation wizard starts up and says "uh, bro, you're already activated". So I click OK, it logs out, and the cycle continues. I found a piece of advice to boot into safe mode and delete certain files and it "lets me" activate again (gee thanks), but forever? Or will I get to do this again in a month? Ugh. That's what I get for trying to be legit and paying for all my software I guess....
I'm really looking forward to this with my Vista and 7 builds *deadpan* *points to boxed software collection of all the above Windows versions*