Every now and then, I am reminded why I am NOT so fond of Windows. My dad's laptop which runs on it has gone all wonky, so I decided to just reinstall the OS instead of trying to fix the numerous problems it had one by one. My intention was to erase everything and then reinstall XP. So I took out the installation discs
(two recovery CDs, one software drivers CD and another one for Norton AntiVirus), did some stretches & took a few deep breaths, and began the arduous task of restoring my Dad's laptop to a decent working state. Long story short, after 3+ hours (littered with numerous alert messages, changing from one CD to another and one too many restarts), XP was reinstalled. But this would apparently NOT mark the end of my troubles, because when I checked my program files, I was surprised to see that all of my other programs from the previous installation were still there. As it turns out, I simply reinstalled Windows but did not reformat my hard drive. I suppose I only have myself to blame for expecting the whole process to be simple
(or any process on a Windows system for that matter). On a Mac, if you wanted to reformat your hard drive and reinstall OS X, you run the installation disc and choose an option called
"Erase and Install". It's THAT straightforward. But NOT in XP. Apparently
(now that I know), you have to boot the recovery CD from the CD-ROM drive. To do this, you must power up the system, press F12 and select CD-ROM as boot device, insert recovery CD in CD-ROM drive, and press any key on the keyboard within 5 seconds once the "press any key to boot from CD" message appears. And then to format your hard drive, you'll have to press a few more keys, select partitions, remove partitions, create new partitions, etc... My point is, it's not that simple. And if you're the type of person who gets a heart attack with any alert message that pops up on your computer screen, you'll definitely have to find someone else to do this for you.
So here I am lamenting about the 3+ hours of my life wasted, all in vain because I have to do everything again hoping that things will go smoothly the second time around. But the next time my dad decides to get a new computer, I am telling him to get a Mac. He'll be much better off. And ultimately, so will I.