I have never been a windows user. On the PC side I used msdos until I tried OS/2, and OS/2 until I found FreeBSD. Then Linux when I couldn't run software I needed, and now OS X since I want to run Photoshop. I run linux and os x at home. But I need windows for misc hardware I got lying around. used before a thinkpad, but it wasn't a good fit for my needs so when I bought a new windows only device I bought a new cheap silent, low power i5/8gb/500gb sshd desktop.
To the story;
It came with windows 7, but the first thing I did was to upgrade it to 10. Was curious to see the new OS. then I tried to install my new device, and well. it didn't find it - no matter what I tried. I parted the drive into three.
Then my next attempt was to install xp. I tried to install it to the new partition, but xp didn't want to install to that partition. deleted the last partition and tried that. no luck. got a bit angry and deleted the main partition - still no luck. Read up on the net, found out I needed to use IDE mode, not AHCI.. sigh..
Found a spare drive, and managed to install it there. I spent hours trying to find a way for it to boot using AHCI. apparently the chipset doesn't have a text mode driver or i just didn't find it so every time I wanted to use it, i had to change mode and boot order. a pain.
I had reinstall windows, so i thought using 8.1 to 10 would be the fastest way. boy was I wrong, while it didn't take long to upgrade 7 to 10, 8.1 to 10 was a long winding affair. I tried the device on 8.1, but it didn't work either.
I installed vmware workstation and installed windows xp there. but for some reason it was so slow it put me off using it. not sure if it was my configuration or what it was, but it made me wonder if it really was an i5 and not a pentium of some kind.
I also installed linux (ubuntu) on a second part of the drive. Not sure why though since it will be in windows most of the time. Just had to i guess. apparently chose wrong download, so I installed the LTS first, then upgraded to 15.04 and of course did that upgrade break so I had to mess around with it in recovery. oh well, after 15.04 is in I got 15.10. works really well.
Next trial was to install windows xp yet again under virtualbox this time. however, virtualbox had a problem with giving the usb device to the virtual xp. in windows 10 it said the device was in use and in linux it just plain wouldn't. didn't try that much to find the fault there because I was pretty annoyed by that time.
Today I decided to give windows 7 a chance, so on yet another (storage drive, so slooow) spare drive I installed it. Worked well once I got it installed. But when I attached the device after i had installed the software it looked after a driver on windows update and I started to wonder.. I had installed it, but had it actually assigned it to the device? So i went into device manager and well, there it was with a question mark. I updated and added the right driver and.. it worked.. my head fell onto the table.. I shut down, took a deep breath and booted into windows 10.. Went into device manager, added the same driver there and.. tested it.. there it was.. working..
Why I didn't check that the first time around I got no idea, I had just got the suggestion of using windows xp when I got the device and of course I'm not used to using windows. I didn't connect that I might need to manually assign the driver to the device after installing it. thought it did it automatically. and didn't think of checking.
I'm glad I didn't have a vista iso, I'm sure I've tried that too..
So now I'm probably going to install linux on the old thinkpad that I used for windows before and replace the disk with a SSD since well. I like SSDs but this time I'll not do an install, just a clone.
To the story;
It came with windows 7, but the first thing I did was to upgrade it to 10. Was curious to see the new OS. then I tried to install my new device, and well. it didn't find it - no matter what I tried. I parted the drive into three.
Then my next attempt was to install xp. I tried to install it to the new partition, but xp didn't want to install to that partition. deleted the last partition and tried that. no luck. got a bit angry and deleted the main partition - still no luck. Read up on the net, found out I needed to use IDE mode, not AHCI.. sigh..
Found a spare drive, and managed to install it there. I spent hours trying to find a way for it to boot using AHCI. apparently the chipset doesn't have a text mode driver or i just didn't find it so every time I wanted to use it, i had to change mode and boot order. a pain.
I had reinstall windows, so i thought using 8.1 to 10 would be the fastest way. boy was I wrong, while it didn't take long to upgrade 7 to 10, 8.1 to 10 was a long winding affair. I tried the device on 8.1, but it didn't work either.
I installed vmware workstation and installed windows xp there. but for some reason it was so slow it put me off using it. not sure if it was my configuration or what it was, but it made me wonder if it really was an i5 and not a pentium of some kind.
I also installed linux (ubuntu) on a second part of the drive. Not sure why though since it will be in windows most of the time. Just had to i guess. apparently chose wrong download, so I installed the LTS first, then upgraded to 15.04 and of course did that upgrade break so I had to mess around with it in recovery. oh well, after 15.04 is in I got 15.10. works really well.
Next trial was to install windows xp yet again under virtualbox this time. however, virtualbox had a problem with giving the usb device to the virtual xp. in windows 10 it said the device was in use and in linux it just plain wouldn't. didn't try that much to find the fault there because I was pretty annoyed by that time.
Today I decided to give windows 7 a chance, so on yet another (storage drive, so slooow) spare drive I installed it. Worked well once I got it installed. But when I attached the device after i had installed the software it looked after a driver on windows update and I started to wonder.. I had installed it, but had it actually assigned it to the device? So i went into device manager and well, there it was with a question mark. I updated and added the right driver and.. it worked.. my head fell onto the table.. I shut down, took a deep breath and booted into windows 10.. Went into device manager, added the same driver there and.. tested it.. there it was.. working..
Why I didn't check that the first time around I got no idea, I had just got the suggestion of using windows xp when I got the device and of course I'm not used to using windows. I didn't connect that I might need to manually assign the driver to the device after installing it. thought it did it automatically. and didn't think of checking.
I'm glad I didn't have a vista iso, I'm sure I've tried that too..
So now I'm probably going to install linux on the old thinkpad that I used for windows before and replace the disk with a SSD since well. I like SSDs but this time I'll not do an install, just a clone.
