[img]graemlins/rant.gif[/img]
In case some of you were wondering why I haven't been online lately, it's because of 2 reasons:
1. I've been sunning myself in Guam
2. I was getting a new hard drive put in for my PC and it looks like it's all bolloxed up. [img]graemlins/madhell.gif[/img]
Here's the sad story. This guy at work (senior guy who I work with) apparently can get cheap peripherals etc for PCs due to contacts that he made while travelling in Asia as our export division manager. I decided to buy a 80GB IBM hard drive since he could get one for A$140 (US$70) which is about 30% of the retail price here.
Anyway I brought my PC to work since he said he knew how to install it (and after my nightmarish experience with installing a CD-RW drive I wasn't too keen on all that Slave/Master IDE crap). Apparently the task of installing this drive became bigger than Ben-Hur - I thought all he was going to do was install the drive as the D: drive but he (being a nice guy and all) thought he'd do me a favour and make it the boot drive.
Now I don't quite understand what's happened (since I don't have my PC yet - after TWO weeks though I have been away) but apparently the C: drive got buggered up and he had to install Windows XP Professional on the E:drive (I don't quite what happened to the CD-ROM drive that was my E: drive - maybe it became the D: drive or something).
Anyway I now have the situation where I have TWO operating systems - a legit copy of Windows XP Home on my C: drive (which doesn't boot up) and a copied version of Windows XP Professional on my E: drive which boots up. I want to get rid of the Windows XP Professional that he put on (I don't want it there since I didn't pay for it and I don't think I can get SP Updates from Microsoft's site without a legit copy). BUT apparently if I get rid of it I won't even be able to boot up my computer.
I'm quite annoyed with it
but this guy is someone who I need to have a professional working relationship at work with so I can't hammer him too much (unfortunately). At this stage I just decided to get the bloody PC back so I can sort it all out myself - so I'm getting it back tomorrow.
So my question is: how do I fix my problem? How difficult is it REALLY to install a second harddrive and can I reinstall my Windows XP Home on either the first or the second harddrive (I have the upgrade disk) without losing any data, what do I need to do to get the second hard drive working and how much frigging around do I have to do with IDE cables etc.
I guess the moral of the story is: if you want something done right, you gotta @#$% do it yourself!!!! [img]graemlins/madhell.gif[/img]