Al,

Thanks for your response.  Looking back at this, I probably could (should)
have been a little clearer on this.

Yes, AOL is an ISP with built in browser.  Thanks to the people on PCSOFT, it
has become abundantly clear to me that AOL has messed with my computer, and
not for the better.  As my HP Pavilion 8380 running Windows 98 has become
increasingly unstable, and I want to get rid of AOL, and start with a
broadbrand connection, and I have a 2 year old, new in the box 40G Maxtor
hard drive waiting to be installed, I thought I could kill a lot of birds
with one stone.  Fact is, at least in the short run, I will have to have
access AOL to close things out.  And, over time, I will still want to access
it, because I have things tied to it, such as favorites, address book and
downloads that are tied to proprietory AOL software.  (Anybody out there know
how I can coax these out of AOL?)

Anyway, it would seem to me that one way to solve this would be to install
the new hard drive as the primary drive, load everything, including new ISP
software unto that drive, and carry on.  The second drive could be accessed
to pull files, but the operating system would remain on the new drive,
unpolluted by all the AOL settings.  However, I am hoping that I can dual
boot from the original hard drive so that I can still access AOL during this
transition period.

So, how do I do that?  Is there a beginners tutorial out there that can set
me in the right direction?

William Closure

In a message dated 11/3/02 [log in to unmask] writes:

> William,
>
> As no one has replied thus far, I'll give it a shot. To be sure, I know
> absolutely nothing about AOL, so my
> reply may be useless to you. With that said, I've always assumed AOL is
> just an ISP-oriented web browser, is
> that correct?
> If so, then adding a new hard drive, making it the master, and installing
> an operating system on it would work
> just fine, assuming your motherboard can support it. You would also need to
> designate it as the boot drive
> (active partition). Since you talk about dual booting, I get the impression
> that AOL is an operating
> system(?). If that's the case, then you can still do the above, but you'll
> need a boot manager program as
> well. You might want to throw these questions at the good folk on the
> PCBUILD list. hth
>
> Al Thompson
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "William Closure" <[log in to unmask]>
>
> > OK, folks, be gentle.  I read all these posts about all the things you
> can do
> > with computers, and you get me all excited about the prospects.  I want
> to go
> > out on a limb here, so can you help me out?
> >
> > I want to get off AOL, and am pleased to see that there may be a way to
> get
> > my favorites converted, and hopefully will be able to do the same with
> > address book.  So, what's the next step?  Get a system that is free and
> clear
> > of AOL.
> >
> > As I have been informed, AOL has taken over a lot of things on my computer
> > and changed some settings, not necessarily for the better.  So I was
> thinking
> > (a dangerous thing) since I have a new hard drive, why not disconnect the
> old
> > hard drive, install the new one and load with original operating system,
> and
> > then add the original hard drive as a slave?  For the transition period,
> if I
> > chose, I could boot to the original hard drive and access AOL, as needed,
> but
> > otherwise, I would have a clean hard drive, not polluted by AOL, that I
> can
> > use for a new DSL provider.  As needed, I can go back to retrive anything
> I
> > needed from AOL by booting up on the old drive, but otherwise I will have
> > escaped AOL.
> >
> > So, how do I do this?  (You guys get me past this, I might even jump on
> the
> > Linix bandwagon and escape Uncle Bill!)
> >
> > William Closure

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