Everybody tries to help. Ever upgrade your own computer? This one needed a new hard drive. Over the years the whole computer has been upgraded in bits and pieces and, I thought, in pretty good shape for what I was planning to do with it.
This is about the exploits of trying to build a system to use FAT32 and what to do in case you do. Already I have run into a computer builder who encountered the same hair raising adventure. Hopefully it will not only be funny, it will provide a few tips on computer use. After these last few weeks it seems like this computer and I have seriously abused each other. Not only that, it dragged a few people in along the way.
The drive had remnants of years of installations, deletions, and operating systems from DOS, Windows 3.1 and Win95 now also includes Win98). More and more essential programs were corrupting lately and there was a 16-bit overlay on the hard drive that I couldn't get rid of when I went to 32-bit. It really needed to be done but was put off due to a slight case of tedium-phobia and performance anxiety.
Then my computer guru and fabulous husband, Jon Rolfe got Windows 95 OSR and that was all the inspiration I needed to decide to get the job over with and experience what the new FAT 32-supporting Windows operating system was all about. I'd read that it saved up to 40% of drive space (supports smaller cluster sizes).
And all hell broke loose, sending us on a two week ride into the Abyss. This is the story of The Computer Conundrum.
No need to abandon hope if you choose to enter. At the end, there's a wizard.
PART II. The Computer conundrum
PART III. Crash Conundrum Cured
