Knoppix to the rescue

My work Optiplex GX260 finally got corrupted while I was in the process of removing old applications and crap from it; my XP upgrade is nigh and it was time to take account of all the useless stuff. While searching my email for something, the PC gave me a BSOD and this time, I was greeted with NTDETECT failed after the Dell splash screen.

Not good. The utility partition AFAIK exists for no reason except to give me serial numbers to read to someone in Bangalore; it doesn't restore NTDETECT and it doesn't restore an MBR. Way to go, Dell. Moreover, the IDE check utility option incorrectly fails to detect the HD.

Fortunately the BIOS allows me to boot CDs, and Knoppix 4.0.2 came to the rescue. It has no difficulty detecting the HD or its partitions. There's a test XP PC next to mine which was being used to evaluate our department's needs; I logged in, created a shared folder, and then...

Well, at home the networking seems more straightforward. Look for the nearest WORKGROUP or MSHOME and dive down. On campus it's a little more complex. KDE's stuff didn't seem to do a good enough job of detecting what I needed. LinNeighborhood OTOH, fed the PC's IP number, was amply capable of finding and mounting the shared folder for me.

Much as I love SLAX and other micro-distros, when you're packing Knoppix, you're pretty well covered on certain networking needs.