I know, this is easier said than done for someone unfamiliar with this stuff, but maybe still good to know that this is an option in future:
You can prepare a “Linux Live USB” and select in the BIOS that it should boot off of that.
It’ll start a complete OS off of that USB, so you can access the hard drive (assuming you didn’t enable disk encryption) and at the very least backup your files, or sometimes even resolve whatever keeps you from accessing Windows.
I did actually remember that, but figured, they must have had some way of reinstalling Windows, too.
I guess, though, they might have had a physical Windows install disk at home. So, yeah, would have had to prepare a Linux Live CD before disaster struck…
CD? Windows 98 first edition was released on floppies. And Linux was not some simple thing. Red hat hadn’t even created yum and Debian hadn’t even created apt.
The late 90’s was a chore of library visits and 14.4k baud XModem transfer interruptions.
I know, this is easier said than done for someone unfamiliar with this stuff, but maybe still good to know that this is an option in future:
You can prepare a “Linux Live USB” and select in the BIOS that it should boot off of that.
It’ll start a complete OS off of that USB, so you can access the hard drive (assuming you didn’t enable disk encryption) and at the very least backup your files, or sometimes even resolve whatever keeps you from accessing Windows.
Remember: Those were probably the times of a single computer at home and having a spare laptop somewhere ready for that is not the default.
I did actually remember that, but figured, they must have had some way of reinstalling Windows, too.
I guess, though, they might have had a physical Windows install disk at home. So, yeah, would have had to prepare a Linux Live CD before disaster struck…
CD? Windows 98 first edition was released on floppies. And Linux was not some simple thing. Red hat hadn’t even created yum and Debian hadn’t even created apt.
The late 90’s was a chore of library visits and 14.4k baud XModem transfer interruptions.
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This sort of nonsense right here is why infosec people warn about having physical access to machines