Windows XP 64

Since my Raid Array Failed and my Windows Installation just died, i had to reinstall my PC ... and becouse i have a Athlon 64 i decided to install Windows XP 64...

First some word about the Windows Recovery Console... my old Windows XP (normal) CD does not have an option to start the Console.. the XP 64 CD showed it.. that's a good start.
The Problem with the damn thing is: You can not change anything on other Directories than in the Windows Directory...
So if you wish to backup some very important File from your My Documents Directory, which concidential happen to be, you get a "Access Denied" Message ... WHAT THE %&$*%!!! How am i suppose to backup any files so i can reinstall Windows?

The Answer: You have to get into regedit and change it there... well without windows (which still was not able to start, what a coincidence) there is no possible way.... good work microsoft... really ;-(

Finally i found a Bootdisk for Dos, with a driver which is able to read ntfs partitions, and copied the files by hand (and with Norton Commander 5.0... still great tool)

Then i installed the new Windows without formating the harddisk, which i would have done if i could backup the files in the Recovery Console... the Problem.. dos is only able to work with Filenames which have a length of 8....

Ok, i installed the OS, i downloaded the newest drivers for my mainboard an graphic card (which were still Beta) and voila i had windows installed..

After some Windows Updates the next part for me is installing Antivirus Software.. and well look at that, Symantec is currently not having Antivirus Software for noncomercial People for Windows XP 64.. ok, what now? I mean what the hell should i do without an Antivirus Software? My first ideas of reinstalling the old windows were coming... but i finally installed the Freeware Antivirus Software from Avast.

I do not know if the Software is good or not, but if i find anything out i will probably write it down.

My Mouse (a razer diamondbback) is still not working with the razer drivers.. becouse i could not find any razer drivers for windows xp 64... they are still developing those and tuneup is also not working...

So it may be that XP 64 has some advantages, but you will definetly have problems installing your drivers and applications to it...