[PLUG] Dual boot reinstall problem and request for help

[James P Dugan <dugan.james@gmail.com>]

My father has been having a few problems with a dual booting laptop and has asked me to get some opinions from the group on how (and perhaps who) to proceed.

He has a Thinkpad with 3 partitions, a WinXP, a shared drive (FAT32, I think), and a Fedora partition.  Recently his install of XP got screwed up somehow, it now takes forever to read the directory structure anywhere after the top level in some programs (MSOffice, AutoCAD to name a few).  After listening to the symptoms, I came to the conclusion that perhaps the easiest fix would probably be to reinstall XP.

Herein lies the problem.  Although he has a basic understanding of *nix systems, from having used miniframes for CAD and facilities design and management back in the '80s, the technical aspects of the current installations are a bit beyond his comfort zone.  While I would feel comfortable with him installing either WinXP or Fedora as a standalone installation with me as tech support backup over the phone, I do not feel comfortable with him trying to handle the multipartion install in the same fashion.  Unfortunately I am unable to simply go do it myself, being over 200 miles away and he needs it done relatively soon as this is his business computer (he operates his own architecture business).

Does anyone have any recommendations of a shop in the philly area that could handle the reinstall without screwing up the linux and shared data partitions or would anyone on the list be interested in lending a hand for a fee?  Any other options I may have missed?


Thanks,

James P Dugan

-- 
"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?" - Albert Einstein
Registered user #205946 with the Linux Counter, http://counter.li.org.

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