Windows XP re-install on Margaret's computer

Margaret is an extremely undisciplined computer user (well, she is only 9). Today, her WinXP started blue-screening.
I tried a lot of things including restoring to a point about 10 days ago, when we didn't have this problem, but all to no avail.
So, nothing for it but to re-install Windows (she dual boots with Ubuntu but has not warmed at all to Linux).
Actually, this is probably no harm as Margaret has downloaded an unbelievable number of free games, at least some from dubious sources, so a little housekeeping is very much in order.
Although my knowledge of Windows systems is not high, re-installing I though should be straightforward.
However, during the install, I had wanted to re-format the partition where Windows was, and was to be re-installed. But, the installer claimed this wasn't possible as the partition was in use. (Didn't understand this but I went ahead anyway thinking that all the old stuff would be overwritten).
However, when the install was complete, no network connections were available in Windows, although they were just as normal in Ubuntu.
During the install, this error had cropped up a total of 17 times (although it never halted the install):

The procedure entry point GetRequestedRuntimeVersion could not be located in the dynamic link library mscoree.dll

So, I googled around and found this which is almost exactly the same as the error I got.
So, as seemed to be recommended, I tried a true "clean install" and first I reformatted the Windows partition as ntfs using Parted Magic.
Then I re-installed XP. This time, all went without any errors.
Nevertheless, when I eventually got Windows up and running there was still no network connection.
I'm stumped and tomorrow is my last day before a six week sojourn in South America.
Maybe, Margaret will just have to get to like Ubuntu.

More ssh progress (including ssh'ing to WinXP)

I had been trying to ssh into Margaret's computer (running Ubuntu) but no matter what I did always got a permission denied error.
So, it appears you can ONLY ssh into another computer(server) if you have an account with the same name as you have on the client.
So, I created my own user account in Margaret's Ubuntu with the same username and then, no problem. Connection made.
So, I rebooted to Windows XP on Margaret's computer and used this guide to install Cygwin which allowed me to ssh from the client (Ubuntu-dell) to Windows XP.
However, couldn't think what to do once I got there as it's quite some time since I seriously used Windows.
Here's a link I'll probably use tomorow to ssh into Mac OSX.

Tried out UltimateDefrag in WinXP

One of the reasons I'm so glad to not use Windows anymore is that I don't have to be worried about defragging, virus scanning and looking out for spyware.
Nevertheless, I still have WinXP on my desktop and I have a WinXP VM in VMware Server under Ubuntu on the desktop as well.
I'd like to just keep my hand in with Windows principally because as I never know where I'm going to be and maybe the only computer available only has Windows on it.
So, I tried out this new defragger which I've already mentioned on my other blog.
well, it's fast and gives a lot more detailed fragmentation information that the Windows defragger.
It reduced from over 1000 fragmented files to just 6 in about 10 minutes which seems a lot faster than Windows would do it.
Plus it shows the files in their various states (fragmented, contiguous, compressed moving etc) and just where they are on the HD.
A problem here, however, is that my HD is heavily partitioned and it represents the C: drive (where Windows XOP is) as being the one and only partition present. Therefore, moving the most frequently sued data files to the faster outside tracks probably isn't going to make a huge difference (if anybody thinks this is wrong, please post).
Nevertheless, I used the Auto defrag option where I chose to have the 16% most heavily used data files placed on the outer tracks and the rest placed on the inner tracks. This took about 40 minutes and it was at least interesting to see the files being moved around on the drive.
Can't say that I've checked to see if Windows is any faster after this and not sure if I really care as I simply never use Windows these days.

Scanner use on the desktop

I haven't used my Epson Perfection 1260 scanner for some time but resurected it today and got it to work in Windows XP (where it had worked before). However, after re-installing the drivers off the Epson CD that came with the machine, when I tried to run the scanner, it kept saying that it couldn't find the scanner software.
So, I checked on Google and downloaded the online driver for my scanner and thereafter it seemed to work fine via the Epson Smart Panel.
Then I tried to get it working on Ubuntu.
So, I went to Applications>Graphics>Xsane and this had two "scanners" detected one of which was my Logitech webcam, but the other was the Epson 1260. So this was perfect.
Next, I tried to do the same thing on Foresight 2.0.1 on the desktop. Here no Xsane was installed although it was available in the repos. So I installed it but it didn't show up under Applications.
Instead, I opened it from a terminal. But xsane couldn't detect any scanning devices until I opened it from a terminal as root.
On googling this problem, it seems that it is not uncommon as detailed here.
These commands are useful in diagnosing problems here:

sane-find-scanner
scanimage -L

and it might be worthwhile running both as root if running as user yields a blank.
However, while the link I gave seems to give an easy solution for this problem, unfortunately, there is no /etc/udev/rules.d/*-libsane-rules in Foresight 2.0.1 on my computer so that rules that fix out.
I posted to the Foresight on this here but got no replies up to now.

More attempts to install WinXP on an external HDD

From what I had seen, the ngine guide ONLY works if your computer supports booting to an external HDD. Now for years I thought that Dell computers did not!
So, I posted to Dells forums and was surp[rised to find that in fact they do, or at least, nearly all of the Dell desktops we have here do, or at least should. Very interesting thread.
However, my 4550 Dell did not behave as expected when I pushed the F12 key during initial boot in that no usb devices showed up in the alternative menu which showed up.
But, on the E520, both the external HDD and a usb key I plugged did (or at least seemed to).
Then today, I tried to see if the hacked WinXPPro.ISO could be installed to my Seagate usb drive using Margaret's computer (E520).
However, no luck here.
First time, got BSoD when all of the initial files were installed and screen said (on bottom) Setting up Windows.
Tried also with Margaret's 500 GB ext HDD in place of my Seagate but very same result.
Ran a CHKDSK /F as recommended in BSoD, but no change after this.
Tried also with my original WinXP install CD but, once again, got exactly the same result.
Maybe I'll try it on Cormac's machine (9200) as a last resort.

Install WinXP to an external usb HDD

I had wanted to do this so that i could see if I could boot to WinXP on the Ext HDD from my MacBook using Grub.
However, I hadn't realized that MS has done its utmost to make this almost impossible. Note that I don't want to boot in the normal way to WinXP on the external drive so I'm not counting on the BIOS recognizing the usb drive as bootable.
In the same way, I can easily boot to whatever Linux OS on an external drive from either the Mac or Dell, neither of which support usb booting.
I found this article which describes in detail how to go about this (or so I thought).
There's another guide as well which describes in detail how to use cabarc x which is by no means obvious from the first article. I'll link to this when I find it.
In any event, I went through an awful lot of work including modifying a version of WinXP_Pro.iso to allow usb-booting and disconnecting the internal HDD in the Dell dim4550 (so that it would see the ext HDD as the only drive. However all to no avail. It seems this just isn't going to work if the computer BIOS does not support usb booting. Amazingly, of 5 computers in this house, not ONE allows usb booting. If there were just one, I could install WinXP on the external drive and do what I want.
So looks like this is a dead end.
Too bad but you can't win them all.