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As embarassing as this is to admit, I only just got my computer up and running. The problem, it turned out, was that my motherboard's BIOS sucked and needed a patch that hit over the holidays. The unpatched BIOS caused the computer to randomly reboot, something that is just wonderful for your blood pressure.
So I was basking in the glow of a powerful, finally operating computer for a day or two when Microsoft sent me a retail build of Vista. I am, if you haven't figured it out yet, both an idiot and raging optimist. So I stuck the thing in my computer to do an upgrade.
Why wouldn't it work, I thought, it's supposed to be the final code for a major new operating system? How quickly I forget. Yes, it didn't work. Yes, it caused my computer to totally lock up, during the BIOS boot-up no less, and yes I should have known better.
Fortunately, what did work was the Windows roll-back software which managed to fully restore my operating system to exactly how it was before. Shocking.
So for those of you preparing to upgrade later this year, make sure to check out the Vista Upgrade Adviser.
