The RPC server is unavailable: computer problems continue

It looks like I just have miscellaneous problems after that partition merger failure last weekend. I’m probably just going to bite the bullet and install a fresh copy of Windows XP Pro SP2 on the new 250 GB hard drive. It’s free, provided by MSDN AA (Academic Alliance) which is provided to all students taking CS classes at USC. So it looks like a good opportunity to upgrade to XP Pro without doing it illegally. I just need an IDE cable to hook things up.

Another problem I get is “The scanning software could not be found. . . .” despite the fact that Windows XP used to include its own scanning software built-in.