As a last ditch effort, I just tried to swap the hard drives from my Dell Mini10 into my craptop case. The screen on the Dell Mini10 is really that bad.
In doing so Windows said I needed to re-activate it. Why? Just because I swapped hard drives? Are you kidding me? I tried to reactivate via automated phone, system no go – it claimed my 36 digit code was invalid. Then I tried via live MicroSoft Indian support. Here’s the thing. I’m Indian and I can’t stand Indian support. It’s not the accent, it’s the constant confirmation and affirmation and interruption. They’re always too busy saying, “Yes sir, thank you sir, I understand. Your problem is X. Please <insert instruction here>” The problem is that if you have any question that deviates from their script things quickly spiral out of control. The thing that’s almost amusing is that the base operator’s method of dealing with things is to simply repeat their script. *sigh*
Eventually they confirmed that the code on this perfectly legitimate copy of Windows from a factory-direct Dell computer was not recognized by their system. So, I just swapped the hard drive back into the Dell and put the craptop’s hard drive into the enclosure. If I can’t boot from it, I’ll just treat it as a big external drive. Thankfully, I’m running a portable copy of Thunderbird which means I could run it off that drive without a problem.
Almost 4am. Ugh.
Dude… as one who’s been through what you are describing now you can believe me when I say: LINUX
@Xaq: A point well taken. I have so much work to do this weekend that I just needed a computer without any need for hassle. I picked up a new computer (it was well about time anyhow), but I have a plan for my old computer. As it stands, that laptop’s harddrive is basically toast. I’m going to try (a) nuking the drive and installing Ubunto over it and, if that doesn’t work, (b) taking the HD out entirely, running a set of wires from one of the USB ports to the cavity for the HD and soldering in a USB drive to act as the SSD with Ubunto on it.