free OS instead of windows?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Marcy
  • Start date Start date
M

Marcy

Hi, I have an older ME machine that was using just as a spare. All of a
sudden, I turned it on and the mouse when moved, will not do anything, there
is NO arrow either. Strangly too, the Icons on desktop look bigger and
different as they do when in safe mode.
I have used this windows ME for about a year now; but seldomly. just when
other one is tied up to surf. I got it at a yard sale no disks included. SO
my question is this. Can I uninstall the windows ME OS and reinstall a free
OS (if there is such a thing)-I am gonna try to salvage this pc if possible.
If not possible, I would like to give to someone but want to wipe out any
information and files I might have put on there while in use.
ANy ideas?
PS I posted to ME newgroups but this question is more on OS....WIndows vs
other (free)

Thanks so very much for your help-! ! ! !
 
Marcy

Simpler to resurrect the mouse. Is the computer a desktop or laptop?

Is the mouse wired or wireless?

Does the keyboard work OK?


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Not if he has no media with windows on it.


Marcy

Simpler to resurrect the mouse. Is the computer a desktop or laptop?

Is the mouse wired or wireless?

Does the keyboard work OK?
 
Marcy said:
Hi, I have an older ME machine that was using just as a spare. All of
a sudden, I turned it on and the mouse when moved, will not do
anything, there is NO arrow either. Strangly too, the Icons on
desktop look bigger and different as they do when in safe mode.
I have used this windows ME for about a year now; but seldomly. just
when other one is tied up to surf. I got it at a yard sale no disks
included. SO my question is this. Can I uninstall the windows ME OS
and reinstall a free OS (if there is such a thing)-I am gonna try to
salvage this pc if possible. If not possible, I would like to give to
someone but want to wipe out any information and files I might have
put on there while in use. ANy ideas?
PS I posted to ME newgroups but this question is more on
OS....WIndows vs other (free)

Thanks so very much for your help-! ! ! !

Lindows, Knoppix, Linux, etc..
 
Gerry said:
Marcy

Simpler to resurrect the mouse. Is the computer a desktop or laptop?

Is the mouse wired or wireless?

Does the keyboard work OK?


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Darn....I new that I should have included this very important info. The
mouse works fine. I tried another wired mouse from my other pc which was
being used at the same time and the mouse did NOT work. I even tried putting
in a working new microsoft wireless mouse with new batteries. and it did NOT
work either. SO trying 3 different mice did not find the problem. I wish it
were that easy.
This desktop pc is an Emachine ME with only 126 ram /and 20 gig. Nothing to
brag about. It freezes many times so I constantly need to restart it. Yes I
could just save myself the agravation and give/throw this thing away. But, I
want the little info I have on there wiped out and deleted. BUT how am I
gonna be able to do that if I can even get the mouse to click away. the
keyboard is the only way that I have been able to do some things on it. So
keyboard is fine.
How much did I pay for this last year??? $10. And as stated, is used maybe
once a week for a few hours if that.
So, whats your thoughts? thank you for your help
 
Sounds like a boat anchor.

A 20 GB hard drive has no real value, use a 16# hammer and
erase it. Sell the rest at a flea market or give it to a
kid.

If the floppy drive works, you can get a program called
ERASER, which runs from a floppy and wipes everything on the
drive and over-writes it beyond recovery [except for the CIA
and FBI, if they try real hard}.

Eraser - Free secure data erase tool to wipe files on your
hard drive
Secure Data Removal Tool to wipe, erase and clean
files and history including index.dat.
www.heidi.ie/eraser/ - 16k - Cached - Similar pages

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Eraser
Eraser is a secure data removal tool, which allows you
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Eraser is a secure data removal tool for Windows. It
completely removes sensitive data from your hard drive by
overwriting it several times with carefully ...

| Darn....I new that I should have included this very
important info. The
| mouse works fine. I tried another wired mouse from my
other pc which was
| being used at the same time and the mouse did NOT work. I
even tried putting
| in a working new microsoft wireless mouse with new
batteries. and it did NOT
| work either. SO trying 3 different mice did not find the
problem. I wish it
| were that easy.
| This desktop pc is an Emachine ME with only 126 ram /and
20 gig. Nothing to
| brag about. It freezes many times so I constantly need to
restart it. Yes I
| could just save myself the agravation and give/throw this
thing away. But, I
| want the little info I have on there wiped out and
deleted. BUT how am I
| gonna be able to do that if I can even get the mouse to
click away. the
| keyboard is the only way that I have been able to do some
things on it. So
| keyboard is fine.
| How much did I pay for this last year??? $10. And as
stated, is used maybe
| once a week for a few hours if that.
| So, whats your thoughts? thank you for your help
|
|
|
| | > Not if he has no media with windows on it.
| >
| >
| >
| > Gerry wrote:
| >> Marcy
| >>
| >> Simpler to resurrect the mouse. Is the computer a
desktop or laptop?
| >>
| >> Is the mouse wired or wireless?
| >>
| >> Does the keyboard work OK?
| >>
| >>
| >>
| >> Marcy wrote:
| >>> Hi, I have an older ME machine that was using just as
a spare. All of
| >>> a sudden, I turned it on and the mouse when moved,
will not do
| >>> anything, there is NO arrow either. Strangly too, the
Icons on
| >>> desktop look bigger and different as they do when in
safe mode.
| >>> I have used this windows ME for about a year now; but
seldomly. just
| >>> when other one is tied up to surf. I got it at a yard
sale no disks
| >>> included. SO my question is this. Can I uninstall the
windows ME OS
| >>> and reinstall a free OS (if there is such a thing)-I
am gonna try to
| >>> salvage this pc if possible. If not possible, I would
like to give to
| >>> someone but want to wipe out any information and files
I might have
| >>> put on there while in use. ANy ideas?
| >>> PS I posted to ME newgroups but this question is more
on
| >>> OS....WIndows vs other (free)
| >>>
| >>> Thanks so very much for your help-! ! ! !
| >
| >
| >
|
|
 
Hi, I have an older ME machine that was using just as a spare. All
of a sudden, I turned it on and the mouse when moved, will not do
anything, there is NO arrow either. Strangly too, the Icons on
desktop look bigger and different as they do when in safe mode.
I have used this windows ME for about a year now; but seldomly. just
when other one is tied up to surf. I got it at a yard sale no disks
included. SO my question is this. Can I uninstall the windows ME OS
and reinstall a free OS (if there is such a thing)-I am gonna try to
salvage this pc if possible. If not possible, I would like to give
to someone but want to wipe out any information and files I might
have put on there while in use.
ANy ideas?
PS I posted to ME newgroups but this question is more on
OS....WIndows vs other (free)


Let the new owner choose their own OS, free or not. Just wipe the
hard drive.

www.killdisk.com
 
in message
Not if he has no media with windows on it.


Actually it sounds like the OP got an illegal copy of Windows. "I got
it at a yard sale no disks included." Sure looks like what the OP got
was hardware which included a polluted hard disk that she should've
wiped when it got home to then install a legitimate OS.
 
Can I uninstall the windows ME OS and reinstall a free
OS (if there is such a thing)

Yes, there is such a thing. It's called Linux.

There are several variations on Linux. You can find Fedora disks as
part of a thick book in your local bookstore, or you can go to
knoppix.com to download an install disk, or ubuntu.com to get a free
disk (yes, free, without even a shipping charge).

That said, even though there are graphical interfaces Linux will be
quite different from Windows, so prepare for a learning curve. If
you're using MS Office you'll have to replace it with Open Office
(openoffice.org), but your documents should be usable.
 
Marcy

Free operating systems like Ubuntu or PCLinuxOS require 256mb RAM to be of
any value. Memory for older machines is more expensive than for newer ones.
Some of the smaller computer stores may have second hand memory you could
purchase maybe. Other than that, the floppy and optical drives may well be
on the way west too, and the general spec, CPU, Video card may well be
below what is required for anything other than ME/Win 9x.

A local school may appreciate the donation, giving the kids something to
play with, fix or whatever.
 
Would like to suggest Puppy Linux :)

---Quoted: http://puppylinux.org/wikka/MinReq ---
Minimum Hardware Requirements

Puppy has been tested on a few very old machines but the best results for
the standard release of Puppy Linux to run at a reasonable pace have been
achieved with the following:

CPU : Pentium 166MMX
RAM : 128 MB physical RAM for releases since version 1.0.2 or failing
that a Linux swap file and/or swap partition is required for all included
applications to run; 64 MB for releases previous to 1.0.2
Hard Drive : None
CDROM : 20x and up
---

Links:

To download free of charge:
http://www.puppylinux.com/download/downpage.htm
Or purchase to receive by mail:
http://www.puppyos.com/download/downpage.htm#Purchase

As others have said, there will be a learning curve involved and perhaps
some light reading, usually good Wiki ('library' if you will) is
available on the respective Linux distribution website.
Stuff will just look and feel different :)

Ofcourse as Mike Hall pointed out, you may well be better off considering
getting yourself a newer machine for yourself to play with and donate
this one to a school, and save money on possible hardware upgrades.
 
Mon, 29 Oct 2007 07:22:04 -0600 from Xandros
www.google.com
search for free operating system

I'm sure you meant well, but it would have been better if you tried
it yourself first.

Your advice -- which returns 121 million hits -- is about as helpful
as "try a library". Sure, the information is there, but the OP
already knew that. The issue is finding the needle in that haystack,
not finding the haystack.
 
Stan Brown said:
Mon, 29 Oct 2007 07:22:04 -0600 from Xandros


I'm sure you meant well, but it would have been better if you tried
it yourself first.

Your advice -- which returns 121 million hits -- is about as helpful
as "try a library". Sure, the information is there, but the OP
already knew that. The issue is finding the needle in that haystack,
not finding the haystack.

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com/
"If there's one thing I know, it's men. I ought to: it's
been my life work." -- Marie Dressler, in /Dinner at Eight/

Get a grip. If he does a search for the words "free operating system" he
only needs to look at the first 4 - 6 links he doesn't need to search
through all 88,100,000 results. Perhaps you need to learn how to use google
yourself.
 
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