So on a sleepless Sunday morning, I did it.

I decided to run my windows updates, which I have not done in some time.

This certainly seemed like a fairly standard and normal thing to do, something I’ve done countless times before. But Sunday, it was different.

Everything ran through fine, downloading, installing, and then….the reboot…Oh you bastard of a reboot.

NTLDR is missing

Hmm…I can fix that….Windows CD, recovery console…bippitybam…No go….

Flash forward to 4 hours of troubleshooting later….

The following has happened:

• An entire 200g Drive has been corrupted. Partition table unrepairable, master boot record smashed.
• My boot drive: Partition table is there, and I can see the data…whew…Pictures are still intact. But bootable…not a chance. No known fix to the NTLDR issue is working.

So…Needless to say, I have cursed Microsoft, Bill, Windows to the ends of the earth and back…wishing ill will upon them all until blue in the face.

Solution:

My desktop is now 100% Ubuntu Linux. I’m sick of all the crap I have to deal with on Windows. I’m sick of the fact that despite the fact that I have a legitimate license for widows, it would be hell to try to reinstall windows because since the move I haven’t been able to locate my license number, so would have to probably purchase another copy of windows, or pirate it.

I have used ubuntu a lot over the past year, but find myself from time to time lured back to windows when in need of an application. But this time…no dual boot. If I need something, I’m going to find an open source way of doing it.

Summary:

Screw you windows…I know Linux isn’t perfect by any stretch, but given the choice of paying for imperfection, or getting it for free…I’m going to go the free route.