Aaflac

Thanks, Jacee! What is installed is an XP picked up from the street (so to speak). There is nothing "Lenovo" in the machine... She also has no Product Key, and the COA was ripped off the back. There is no sticker there. Great machine, uh??

Thanks for the info, KurtBleach. The person who owns this laptop is a senior citizen that cannot afford to buy a Windows XP CD, much less an HP computer. @Jacee, Great link!! Thanks!! Was looking for something like that last night, but I wasn't with it, and gave up. Have had one heck of a cold for at least a week, and the frigid temperatures here are not helping. Keep getting it back instead of getting rid of it. Downloading the CD for XP might do the trick, I hope!!

Yep, this one is so much fun!!! Thanks for the suggestions. There has to be a way, and I am stubborn enough to stay at it!

Thanks for all the options! There is also no recovery partition. They guy that sold the T42 to her bought it without an OS, and then installed one on it. The first thing I looked for was the recovery partition, however, it was nowhere to be seen in GParted, other than the one and only partition with the OS. If I can't get this thing up and running, and she does not want Mint, will probably help her get a laptop. However, it must be a new one. Not throwing my money at some hacked product.

Well....no Product Key is available, and, no CD is available. This person bought some kind of a great deal (she thought) that turned out to be a loser. The owner had no idea what she was getting. Bought the laptop from a friend of a friend... She could not afford anything else, When she got the PC, about 2 years ago, Windows was not validated. She went back to the seller, and got the OS validated, but, have no clue as to how. The seller left the area. I'm trying to help her, but this machine is the heck of a challenge.

Is that loaner alive? Have a friend with a ThinkPad T42. The thing will not boot: ntldr is missing Can't get out of that screen. Tried booting from a cd with the Recovery Console, booting from a USB drive,..nothing. Took out the 40GB laptop's HDD, and connected it to another XP machine (using a USB adapter). Copied the ntldr and the ntdetect.com files to the T42. Tried to boot...no-go! Running out of ideas, and thought about your post mentioning Mint. Would rather get the darn T42 to boot, though...the owner is a senior citizen, very set on XP.

@Y kawika, On Post #8, where you mention Linux Mint, could you specify what version of Mint you are using, Cinnamon, Perta, etc.?

Christmas to you also, Y !!! That loaner idea is great. If Mint has a lot of similarities to Windows, might have to try Linux Mint on my old laptop with XP. Used to have a PC with it on, but that was quite a while back. Merry Christmas to ya'll, Juliet, Kurt, and Hawk!!

Linux is fine. I have a netbook with it. However, IMO, it is for those who think 'out of the box', so to speak. There are so many people with XP!! Just about every senior citizen that I hang around with has XP. They all call me whenever there is a problem, so, this topic is a heads up to get ready for what is ahead. Got to give this some thought, because some of these folk are not going to give up XP without resistance. .

Hi folks!!! Good info, Juliet. Is suDown a good option for XP, starting on 8 April 14? It sounds like a Linux guard for XP...

My pleasure.

It appears that the malware issue presented is resolved, therefore the topic is closed. Please send me or any Moderator a Personal Message (PM) with this topic's link if there is a reason to re-open it. Thanks.

It appears that the malware issue presented is resolved, therefore the topic is closed. Please send me or any Moderator a Personal Message (PM) with this topic's link if there is a reason to re-open it. Thanks.

It appears that the malware issue presented is resolved, therefore the topic is closed. Please send me or any Moderator a Personal Message (PM) with this topic's link if there is a reason to re-open it. Thanks.

It appears that the malware issue presented is resolved, therefore the topic is closed. Please send me or any Moderator a Personal Message (PM) with this topic's link if there is a reason to re-open it. Thanks.