[Coco] Re: [Long] [OT] That Big Shadow

[Dennis Bathory-Kitsz]

At 12:12 PM 2/29/04 -0500, Ward Griffiths wrote:
>I have yet to see a smooth transition from one release of Windows to 
>another via upgrade in-place (even something as theoretically trivial 
>as Windows 3.1 to Windows for Workgroups 3.11).  It's usually easier to 
>get a new machine and sneakernet the files to it.

I'm a lucky guy.

I've upgraded hardware and software on this same system since 1993 (if it
can even be called the same anymore). Win 3.1, 3.11, 95, 95a, 95b, 98SE all
went seamlessly; haven't yet caved to MS challenge/response, so staying at
98SE for another few months before the XP move. Processor upgrades no
problem, 486DX66 to 586/100 to Pentium 266 to Celeron 600 to Celeron 900 to
Athlon 1.2G overclocked to 1.4G. Packard-Bell mobo, then IBM, Chips'n'Tech,
Intel, Abit, and now Iwill -- 90MB hard drive up to 120GB, 5in to 3in and
zipdrive, outboard SCSI CD drive to internal CDR to DVDR, memory 8MB now
512MB. New power supply, two new cases, constant sequence of new
add-ons/ins for video, sound, interface, networking, etc. This is the
original system, but I think the only part that's definitely still original
is the AOL "you've got mail" wav file. :)

I only did one full and very-not-fun re-install after a serious hard drive
crash without a current enough backup. The system has always been very
stable, except for when the Iwill Via chipset needed a low-level driver
patch. I don't seem to have those BSODs and red X's (except for Eudora when
it gets a malformed header) that are supposedly legendary.

Old carcasses round-robin to my backup machine, wife's computer, and home
server.

Just my luck, so far... but hey, I'm the guy who pried apart my Model I the
day I got it!
Dennis