Salvage a Windoze system ?...

[aircarver]

I bought a computer off ebay, and promptly changed the hard drive & put it into service as a PVR box.

The original hard drive contains a Windoze system, but at startup it goes to a Novell manager splash screen with a name pre-entered and it wants a password. Is there a way to disable/remove the Novell manager so's to get access to the Windoze OS ?..

My daughter uses a Windoze computer & I'd like to have this system as a spare against the time her current system gets bug-bitten and needs replaced (again- I started over three times on that computer befoe Avast came along & seems to have it covered now..)

If not, there's always 'Plan A'.. which was to blow away the drive & put a Linux distro on it....

Thanks,

[IndyGunFreak]

Originally posted by aircarver
If not, there's always 'Plan A'.. which was to blow away the drive & put a Linux distro on it....

Thanks,

Now you're talkin.. :thumbsup:

IGF

[jeanjvr]

Depends on what version of the novell client the pc's got.

If it gives you a "Workstation only" option at login, choose that login to windows and try to uninstall it from Add/Remove.

If you manage that, the welcome screen should be back,

You could try safe mode, although im not sure if the novell client runs then as well.

If you cant remove it from Add\remove, just unistall the client from the network card's protocol\client\service list (also all the IPX stuff and print services).

If you do that, the welcome screen should still be gone, but the normal windows login box should appear.

Last thing to try, unplug network cable before it boot windows.

[aircarver]

Originally posted by IndyGunFreak
Now you're talkin.. :thumbsup:
IGF Y'know... I DO have a bunch more drives than boxes that ALREADY have various Linux distros on them.....:supergrin:

.... & the last box count was 14......

[grindchug]

Download Knoppix STD, boot from the CD

[mitchshrader]

partition on a separate drive and install it as a slave, ignore it unless needed. all my boxen have a spare copy of the OS installed on a 2nd drive. why not?