Who needs 80Gb Anyway?

So we recently changed out the Princesses' computer that was running Windows 98 to a new one running XP. This left me with a Windows 98SE computer and little to do with it. I had a few ideas here and there, and wasn't really settled on anything specific, so I started at the simplest and moved into the way too complex and irritating.

My first inclination was to network it with the others to share the files on the 80Gb hard drive that's on it. Well, I hadn't networked anything before, but I figured since I had the others going through a router to connect them (very successfully) to the internet, how hard can it be? Well, harder than I thought, that's for sure.

I started by (gasp!) following the instructions. I set up the main conputer for networking, copied the client file out and installed it on the 98 computer. I made sure everything was named correctly, shared the folder I wanted to share and tried it out. Nothing. Suspecting that maybe I just wasn't getting it because of the archaic operating system, I tried to network the Princesses' XP computer. No dice there either. So I asked the Engineer, since he'd dealt with networking before. He said my router needed to be a switch as well.

So, I looked online and found the specs for my router. Sure enough, it had switch capabilities, but how to activate said capabilities? No information. Not in the manual online. Not on any message boards. No where could I find anyone with this problem of wanting to enable the switching capability of my router. Without networking, I can't remote desktop into them, which means switching monitor cables with the 98SE computer and using a net program to login to the other one.

At some point, I got the bright idea that I could use the computer as a Media Center with the TV in the living room that does have a VGA input, so it can be used as a monitor. After finally finding a driver to run my USB drive, I found I couldn't run iTunes, and therefore, can't play the movies I have saved on my iPod. Tried an MP4 player, but iPod movies don't play through those. Apparently their container is just slightly different. So I decided that since I had a restore disc from the Princesses new computer containing XP home, and since my old computer does meet the system requirements to run it, I'll just install it on the old computer. They are manufactured by the same company, so I figured it was worht a shot. There was nothing on the smaller 6 Gb drive that I didn't have a backup of, so I went for it.

It wouldn't install. Well, more to the point, it wouldn't boot after it was finished. It had a specific error during the install that might have something to do with it, but I checked online and discovered someone else had done this exact same thing, and it turns out that the model of computer I have has a BIOS that may not work with XP, so that was out.

At this point, I have a machine with no workable OS, but an 80Gb storage drive full of stuff. Oh, and I can't just move the drive into my main computer. No extra bay. I can move it into the Princesses, though, which after you hear the rest of this, you'll find why I seriously considered.

I've always wanted to try Ubuntu as an OS, so I figured I'd give it a shot. After all, while it won't play Netflix movies online (must have Windows XP for that), it did have a program that would read the iPod, so maybe I could use that. After all, people have had good things to say about that free Linux based system. So I downloaded the install disc and tried it.

Didn't work. Didn't ever get to the point where it loaded the OS. After a full night of trying a few different things, I gave up and figured it was my memory restrictions. I only have 160Mb RAM and apparently an install uses 256Mb. Now, you can usually get away with this sort of thing because your average computer does something called disk swapping where it copies a piece of the program into memory, saves it to the hard drive, and copies a little more in. As it uses the program, it "swaps" the pieces it needs from the disk to the RAM and back again. It takes longer, but it works. This wouldn't do anything past a certain point.

So I decided to use the stripped down version call Xubuntu. I downloaded it, and started it going. Again, it froze. Wouldn't work at all. I was getting kind of frustrated. Not sure what to do here.

Told Optimus Prime about my ills, and he suggested DSL (Damn Small Linux). So I downloaded the dinky thing and found its intent was to have an operating system on a shoestring, using only 50Mb of space to run along with a myriad of programs. Cool, to be sure... but I couldn't install it as a permanent system despite the specifications saying it is possible. Could be because I don't enough Linux to use it, though. So that's out.

At present, I still have my OS-less computer with an 80Gb hard drive of stuff. I'm down to probably reinstalling Windows 98 then doing the SE upgrade unless I come up with an upgrade or fresh copy of XP. We'll see.