I have been debating for some time now how best to install the new Windows XP Professional operating system on my computer. Reading various articles and technical newsletters can be a virtual adventure and impress upon you the four most-important facts before jumping into the arena:

• Read all instructions very carefully and follow them
• Back up your system because extensive changes will be made to your hard disk
• Make a bootable diskette for your current OS. To create a new bootable floppy disk, click on Start, Settings, Control Panel, and then the Add/Remove Program's icon. Now click on the "startup Disk" tab at the top, and select Create Disk. You may be asked to insert the Windows OS CD. When you have a startup disk, it allows you to start your computer, run diagnostic programs, and fix many problems.
• Clean up your machine's hard drive by deleting unnecessary memory hogs and run Scan Disk followed by defragmentation. Although the backup and boot diskette may never be necessary, they provide a safety net should you experience serious bugs or problems that overwrite critical areas on your hard disk.

I was not quite sure whether to add an additional hard drive on my machine and facilitating a clean install or simply to upgrade from my Windows 98 SE. One of our club members (Bill Wolf) suggested the use of a helpful automatic preparation software package for adding operating systems. It's called System Commander and widely recognized for quality and reliability. You can find more information and other related operating system management products on the company's Web site at http://www.v-com.com. The product can be directly purchased from VCOM for $69.95.

OK, I got their software and installed it on my computer. I should have said "I was trying to install it". Seconds into that process a window popped up and informed me: "System Commander has detected a disk manager program such as EZ-BIOS or Ontrack installed on your system. These programs will not operate properly if System Commander is installed. The installation will be cancelled". So I checked to see if I had any of them but did not.

Obviously, something else was holding me up. But what? The extensive (200+pages) user manual for version 7 might give me the answer. Right? Not exactly! In chapter 9 (Troubleshooting) or anywhere else nothing refers to my first problem.

Contacting Technical Support was my next step. On page 195 of the manual you are encouraged to check the index to see if you can save yourself a phone call. Also mentioned is a troubleshooting assistance program called "SCIN" which allows you to press F1 or Alt-H in most places to get context sensitive help. Unfortunately, the program had not been installed as I mentioned above, and I couldn't take advantage of that lifeline. OK, let's go to the Website and seek help.

I entered details about my problem, sent it as an E-mail and was informed that a support technician was going to respond within 3 days, and often much sooner. The answer came the following day!

It read:
"Dear Customer,
Downloading and installing v7.03 should solve that problem. This was an error that was corrected in v7.03."

Good. So I went back to the company Website and tried to locate version 7.03. Could not find it but instead discovered the System Commander 7 Maintenance Release page which indicates what you will need to update System Commander 7:

System Commander 7 in stalled on your computer
System Commander 7 Serial number
2 blank formatted 1.44MB diskettes
The Update file: sc703_us.exe
Download size: approximately 4.2 MB

"Holy Moses" I said, wouldn't it be much easier to just let you download an update file? In my case, this wouldn't have worked anyway because I was unable to install this software in the first place.

But wait, this is getting more complicated. Next you find instructions on how to obtain the System Commander 7 update:

Fill out and submit the online Download Request Form. You will need your serial number to complete the form. (For DOS users only, click on the DOS Version Download Request Form). After you have successfully completed the form, you will be able to download the update file sc703_us.exe.

Note: While not critical, for Windows 9x/Me users, please rename the file C:\SC\SC7.EXE to SC7OLD.EXE before running the sc703.us.exe update program. If you fail to do so, the older SC7.EXE utility program will not be updated.

This last bulleted item really raised my eyebrows. If it is not critical, why go through this whole process?

Well, since I am a fairly tolerant and understanding individual I filled out the online form to see where all this would lead me. My 56K modem had a good day and it took only 13 minutes for the download. And in order to follow all procedures, I sent another E-mail to the Support team to find out how to interpret the "Critical" designation referred to in the note.

The following answer arrived on the next day:
"Dear Customer,
The reason it is not "Critical" is that you will probably not have to start over with the oldest file. Even if you do have to, the latest update will update the original file utility program when it is applied."

The good person who wrote that message completely ignored my initial question of how to rename that important original file that still resided on the CD and not on my hard drive.

Obviously, another message had to be dispatched in which I stated that the techi person completely by-passed this problem and that I could not see how this response could help me. I then suggested that we cut this run-around game and they should send me a new CD that included the update and will allow me to install System Commander. This was Friday evening.

Here is the answer that came Monday morning:
"Dear Customer,
Here is the latest full copy. (See attached file: SystemCommander7.exe)". Hurrah, no more problem! Think again. Just as it happened originally with version 7.02, the installer quit a few seconds into the installation procedure and a similar message appeared on my monitor screen: "System Commander has detected the EZ-BIOS disk manager on your system. This program will not operate properly if System Commander is installed. The installation will be cancelled". Am I lucky or what?

So, again I went back to searching my computer by entering "EZ-BIOS disk manager" into the search box. 172 answers popped up but unfortunately none included EZ-BIOS. I had copied the installation message with Printkey 2000 and sent it together with the entire list of file names to the technical support team and repeated my request for help. Here is what I received the following day, which was Tuesday:

"Dear Customer,
You don't say what version of SC7 you have. This is a false error message It should have been corrected by the v7.03 update. If you do not have v7.03 installed, download it from our website. If you have installed it, let me know and we'll continue working on this issue".

I am beginning to feel as if I am writing the script for a cyber soap opera. BTW, what is a "false error message"? In my answer to the last customer support message I mentioned that I have been very patient for one week now, but would love to receive a solution to this software problem?

Let's see what tomorrow's mail might bring. Here comes the answer:
"Dear Customer,
It means that we are detecting something in the BIOS that appears to be a drive overlay (such as EZDrive or EZBios), but as we discuss this, we find that you have never had a drive overlay installed. Therefore we are displaying an error message that is "false." We are aware of this issue we don't know at this point what is triggering this error message, in some cases it seems to be related to Western Digital hard drives, but that is not true in your case. The issue is in Engineering and they will have a solution and a new update soon. I'm sorry it is turning into such an inconvenience for you. The only way I can narrow down the possibilities is to have you try the latest update, v7.03, and gather as much information as possible".

OK, now I know at least where the problem is located, namely in the engineering department for this software. But doesn't the last sentence sound a bit ridiculous? They sent me that update and it does NOT work. I dispatched another E-mail for an explanation on the last part and when this update will be available for customers like me. Here is the answer:

"Dear Customer,
I should have been more clear -QA is narrowing the cause(s) of this problem and Engineering is writing an update that will correct it/them. It was necessary to see if v7.03 will install or not. Several drive overlay issues were fixed in v7.03 and yours may have been one of them. We are being told about a month for the update".

Doesn't this sound as if I have been a guinea pig for this vendor? Well, I still want to finish this article and review the "working edition", and if everything goes well, the conclusion of this dramatic development will appear in next month' edition of our news magazine. Would have loved to install Windows XP by now but this has to wait for another month, I guess.

Guenther Schoett is the editor of the Fallbrook Commputer club as well as I believe the Advertising Director. If you use his article please send him an email to let him know. Thanks.

There is no restriction against any non-profit group using the article as long as it is kept in context, with proper credit given to the author. This article is brought to you by the Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an International organization to which this user group belongs.

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