Help!! Kids Making Life Miserable.

  • Thread starter Thread starter jcheff
  • Start date Start date
J

jcheff

I'm planning to buy a new computer, but I am afraid the kids will
screw it up (like the current one I have) with Sponge Bob and Nick.com
crap.

What I would like to do is put two hard drives in the computer, each
with it's own O/S. One for use by the kids and the other for my use.
What are some good ideas to accomplish this?

I was thinking I could go into the BIOS and switch one drive on and
the other off. The BIOS would have to have password protection on.
This seems like alot of work to go back and forth.

I was also thinking of getting an external hard drive for myself and
booting from that. Is a USB 2 external drive fast enough to play high-
end games from?

Any other ideas?
 
Why not let them keep the current one and you and only you use the new one.
Transfer your stuff off the old system.........copy to a CD/DVD and then
into new system
Put a strong Password on the new system .........si they can not use.
???????????????????????????
peter
 
I'm planning to buy a new computer, but I am afraid the kids will
screw it up (like the current one I have) with Sponge Bob and Nick.com
crap.

What I would like to do is put two hard drives in the computer, each
with it's own O/S. One for use by the kids and the other for my use.
What are some good ideas to accomplish this?

I was thinking I could go into the BIOS and switch one drive on and
the other off. The BIOS would have to have password protection on.
This seems like alot of work to go back and forth.

I was also thinking of getting an external hard drive for myself and
booting from that. Is a USB 2 external drive fast enough to play high-
end games from?

Any other ideas?
Click to expand...

You're not going to be able to boot from a USB HD, period.

My inclination would be two internal hard drives. Install XP on both
of them, put a password on your login.

This won't protect them from accessing your drive per se, but it will
make it pretty hard for them to put crap on your drive.
 
Here is a trick that one of my friends did with two drives.
But it involves some hardware work.
Find on the flat IDE cable the wires that select master/slave, or
connect to te M/S jumpers on the drives.
Route these wires to a switch. Then you can easily swap master and slave.
Of course, do this only when the computer is shut down.

There are pure software solutions that avoid needing two Windows copies
like mojopac.com

--PA
 
I have seen a key lock switch that changes the jumper
settings on the hard drives, lets you turn the drive on/off.

Or, buy your new computer, let the kids keep the old one and
you use the new one. You could even network them.

Setup user accounts for the kids as limited, so they can't
install software.


How old are your kids, have you considered discipline?



| I'm planning to buy a new computer, but I am afraid the
kids will
| screw it up (like the current one I have) with Sponge Bob
and Nick.com
| crap.
|
| What I would like to do is put two hard drives in the
computer, each
| with it's own O/S. One for use by the kids and the other
for my use.
| What are some good ideas to accomplish this?
|
| I was thinking I could go into the BIOS and switch one
drive on and
| the other off. The BIOS would have to have password
protection on.
| This seems like alot of work to go back and forth.
|
| I was also thinking of getting an external hard drive for
myself and
| booting from that. Is a USB 2 external drive fast enough
to play high-
| end games from?
|
| Any other ideas?
|
 
might check around for PARENTING CLASSES.
that's what seems to be your problem.



(e-mail address removed)



I'm planning to buy a new computer, but I am afraid the kids will
screw it up (like the current one I have) with Sponge Bob and Nick.com
crap.

What I would like to do is put two hard drives in the computer, each
with it's own O/S. One for use by the kids and the other for my use.
What are some good ideas to accomplish this?

I was thinking I could go into the BIOS and switch one drive on and
the other off. The BIOS would have to have password protection on.
This seems like alot of work to go back and forth.

I was also thinking of getting an external hard drive for myself and
booting from that. Is a USB 2 external drive fast enough to play high-
end games from?

Any other ideas?
 
I'm planning to buy a new computer, but I am afraid the kids will
screw it up (like the current one I have) with Sponge Bob and Nick.com
crap.

What I would like to do is put two hard drives in the computer, each
with it's own O/S. One for use by the kids and the other for my use.
What are some good ideas to accomplish this?
Click to expand...

That sounds like awfully hard work, especially when you could take advantage
of the abilities of Windows XP or Vista to allow you to create an account
for the children to use which doesn't have admin rights to change the whole
computer settings and which is seperate from your account, which you put a
password on and do not share the password with them.
 
Robert Moir said:
.....especially when you could take advantage of the abilities of Windows XP or Vista to allow you to create an account for the
children to use which doesn't have admin rights to change the whole computer settings .....
Click to expand...

Unfortunately this is how it should be in theory. In reality, a virus
or malware can subvert the whole machine with all it's accounts.
You can catch these viruses even when not having admin rigths.

More over, a non-admin user can change screen resolution
and this will affect all accounts. Very annoying. Microsoft could not
fix this even in Vista.

Regards,
--PA
 
Here is a trick that one of my friends did with two drives.
But it involves some hardware work.
Find on the flat IDE cable the wires that select master/slave, or
connect to te M/S jumpers on the drives.
Route these wires to a switch. Then you can easily swap master and slave.
Of course, do this only when the computer is shut down.

There are pure software solutions that avoid needing two Windows copies
like mojopac.com
Click to expand...

Two windows installations. You do *NOT* need two licenses to do this,
however. One box, one license.
 
I'm planning to buy a new computer, but I am afraid the kids will
screw it up (like the current one I have) with Sponge Bob and Nick.com
crap.

What I would like to do is put two hard drives in the computer, each
with it's own O/S. One for use by the kids and the other for my use.
What are some good ideas to accomplish this?

I was thinking I could go into the BIOS and switch one drive on and
the other off. The BIOS would have to have password protection on.
This seems like alot of work to go back and forth.

I was also thinking of getting an external hard drive for myself and
booting from that. Is a USB 2 external drive fast enough to play high-
end games from?

Any other ideas?
Click to expand...

Sandbox them. Let your kids do whatever they want. Show them how to
use it.

http://www.sandboxie.com/
 
I'm planning to buy a new computer, but I am afraid the kids will
screw it up (like the current one I have) with Sponge Bob and Nick.com
crap.

What I would like to do is put two hard drives in the computer, each
with it's own O/S. One for use by the kids and the other for my use.
What are some good ideas to accomplish this?

I was thinking I could go into the BIOS and switch one drive on and
the other off. The BIOS would have to have password protection on.
This seems like alot of work to go back and forth.

I was also thinking of getting an external hard drive for myself and
booting from that. Is a USB 2 external drive fast enough to play high-
end games from?

Any other ideas?
Click to expand...

a) Assign the new PC to yourself, the old to children.
b) Use mobile racks for example:
http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/SubCategory.asp?SubCategory=43&name=Hard-Drive-Accessories>>
 
Adoption is always a possibility or at least a threat.



|
|
| > I'm planning to buy a new computer, but I am afraid the
kids will
| > screw it up (like the current one I have) with Sponge
Bob and Nick.com
| > crap.
| >
| > What I would like to do is put two hard drives in the
computer, each
| > with it's own O/S. One for use by the kids and the other
for my use.
| > What are some good ideas to accomplish this?
| >
| > I was thinking I could go into the BIOS and switch one
drive on and
| > the other off. The BIOS would have to have password
protection on.
| > This seems like alot of work to go back and forth.
| >
| > I was also thinking of getting an external hard drive
for myself and
| > booting from that. Is a USB 2 external drive fast enough
to play high-
| > end games from?
| >
| > Any other ideas?
|
| a) Assign the new PC to yourself, the old to children.
| b) Use mobile racks for example:
|
http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/SubCategory.asp?SubCategory=43&name=Hard-Drive-Accessories>>
|
|
 
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