Installing a new Windows Operating System (post 2001)

[latch]

Unless, you're the power that is latch. How does dban spec up?

Never forget the power of Pack3t either. DBootAndNuke is excellent. It has every well documented low level format/DoD wipe in the book. The only way this is countered(getting the data back) is if a)someone is able to alter the firmware on the hard drive to tell the wiping software it is doing something it is not. b)Or if you spend a lot of money doing magnetic resonance scans on the used hard drive to retrieve last known binary states through statistical analysis. The DoD wipe even makes even b difficult.

Sharn you spent a lot of time on this, but the quality is less than substantial. It is not thorough or technically sound. Your articles on your bisexual life are much more useful due to the fact that they provide something useful, a laugh. Please let Mark give general computer tutorials for the nub masses.

This is how your post went:
Shameless self promotion
Information
Smack Down
Nod of Respect

This is how my post will go:
Correction
Nod of Respect
Thanks
My Opinion

It is incorrect to boast of your mastery and it's a mark of insecurity. Young wolves bark loudly when working their way up the pecking order while the older wolves don't bark at all. We, the nubs, will take care of the boasting for you.

I think most everyone here knows your technical prowess according to their ability to comprehend the depths of it. I myself would need to learn a buttload to begin to realise what I don't know in your bag of tricks.

Thanks for aptly fielding that question while inadvertantly sheilding me from having to say I know nothing about that tool. Thank goodness no one knows what I don't know.

Although meathead is a goober and I have some issues with his tutorial also, I think it is ok for him to contribute in this way. In some cases the best way to learn is to teach. Preperation for something like this requires a person to look stuff up to be as precise as possible. The issues I have with this one, Mark and Pack3t, are as follows:

The title is too vague and encompasses too much- the subject is too large. Can this guide be used to install Solaris, Beos, OS2, or open BSD? It implies that this tutorial can be used for all operating systems when this is clearly not true. There are steps that must be added(such as the swap partition for linux distros that don't do everything for you like ubuntu) and steps deleted(if you are installing DOS or Windows 98 you can't use NTFS) and not every install will wipe the drive. Almost all of the XP installs I do for clients, I leave their data in the drive and install around it. And you don't need to go into the bios all the time- sometimes f12 or Esc with bring up a boot menu allowing to choose your cd drive. This is preferable because if you forget to change it back, then during the lifetime of that install, the precious seconds of your life you waste waiting for the computer to decide if your brittney spears cd is bootable will add up.

This tutorial should have been entitled "An abridged guide for installing Ubuntu, XP, Vista or 7"