Camera to PC Question - And a Win 2003 Question

[bork[e]]

Got a Kodak C813 camera for Christmas this year. Never installed Kodak's bs easyshare software until a few days ago when some stuff stopped working.

At first whenever I plugged the camera into the usb port it showed up just like a flash drive or some other type of removable media in My Computer. Then out of the blue it stopped showing up. I've made zero changes before this happened, and this forced me to install the software...and I can't stand it.

There's got to be away to allow it to show up like normal, but I'm at a lose in figuring this out. Any ideas? Running XP.



The Windows Server 2003 question is this: This semester I'm taking a course on managing windows 2003 servers, and in the book was the OS. I've never owned a legit version of windows and I'm thinking of slapping this baby in my PC. Mainly because as you all know I can no longer pull any updates. That and the fact it's about that time for a format anyway...

What do you all think? I could get a free copy of XP from my school, but I wouldn't mind playing around with 2003 just for class purposes, if I'm not going to lose any functionality.

[creep]

Try a different USB port, preferably NOT the one right beside the one you're using now.

There's probably no reason why you can't use 2k3 for a desktop OS, but you may find you prefer going back to XP. Plan ahead and dual-boot.

[bork[e]]

but you may find you prefer going back to XP.

will try what you said, but do you mind telling me why I would prefer going back?

The instructor of this class said win 2003 is (in his opinion) the best OS for gaming that's out there. I do very little gaming on my system, but he was mainly stating that you could minimize the processes going on with the server edition more than any other OS out right now...not counting any *nix OS...but as far as the pretty factor of XP, I've been using the classic view since my first install, if that was any reason for you statement.

[Foo]

You my run across driver issues running 2003 Server as a workstation operating system, especially if you want to game with it. Sound support may lack also.

Stick with XP for a gaming platform. If you want to dick about with S2003, download MS Virtual PC, install it on that. It's very convenient.

[Tormentius]

I'll second using Virtual PC especially for doing lab work of the type you'll be doing in a course. You can just set it to not save changes to the image so when you finish the lab and shut it down you're back to an untouched fresh install without all the hassle of installing the OS again.

[bork[e]]

Sounds good, that's guys.

Once I find my cable to my camera I'll give the other suggestion a go also.

[Foo]

BTW if you do decide to go for 2003 as your main OS, I came across this article today and figured it might be useful to you:
http://www.windowsxlive.net/?page_id=92

[bork[e]]

Thanks for the link Foo. I've always been kind of turned off by total conversion kits, but unlike others, this one isn't based on looks from what I can gather. Seems they have actually changed how the OS functions in some areas.

Gave the article a fast read and will check into more deeply later. Seems like even more of a reason to check it out.

edit: btw I snagged a laptop from a friend of mine the other day. His HDD crashed on him due to a couple of years of monthly viruses (and he's the kind of guy that immediately called me to go to best buy with him to pick up another). Everything appears to be in good shape other than the drive. If I do decide to buy the computer I'll definitely be checking this out. Thanks again.

[bork[e]]

Finally got around to finding that cable. Still having to use Kodaks suck ass software.

I have 3 different areas for usb. The on board, some in the front of my case, and then a completely separate card that has 4 ports on it I installed about a year ago.

All my flash drives, my mp3 player, and other controllers work just fine on every port.

Their knowledge base isn't so much up to par on this problem from what I can tell, though I'm sure they would like you to be using their software.


Any other ideas, maybe even a 3rd party program that doesn't have all the bulk and flashy features?

[creep]

You could always use a card reader.

[Doombrain]

I had this with a removable HD. Turned out the drive name had changed to a network drive letter.

i just changed it back using computer management > disk management

[bork[e]]

well, it worked just fine on other computers. So when I got back home a bit ago I uninstalled the kodak software, and all is fine now.

Must have changed something without knowing.