I'm new here (officially) but have been browsing the forum occasionally over the past few years. Started when I installed Linux Mint on two older computers to extend their useful life, an Acer Aspire One netbook and an old IBM Thinkpad, both mainly used to access music stored on my file server with the Thinkpad functioning as my web browser in my study. That kinda worked but suspect I could do better if I stuck to it and asked for help. Coming from Windows, well, it is an adjustment.
Decided to register now as I'm converting my file server to Linux Mint 17.1 (which should probably make file sharing a bit more seamless) and I'm having issues. Struggled to mount the old OS hard disk and format it. Eventually popped it into my Windows 7 machine, deleted all the partitions and formatted it Ext4. Not much better - Gparted and Disks still hate the disk - Gparted tends to just keep scanning and Disks seems equally confused. Installer starts but end up just hanging after displaying a screen where it does a recommendation for best results (free drive space and internet connectivity). So, tonight I'm downloading 17.2 and shall continue the fight, this time while asking questions here! Until then, having a somewhat quiet day at work, reading the User Guide seems an appropriate distraction.
About myself - I'm from South Africa (don't know how many Saffers are on here...). If someone is from the South African Gunsite forums, they'll recognize my handle. So yes, I'm into hunting and competitive shooting (3 gun). I'm an Electrical (Heavy Current) Engineer dabbling in Project Management and old enough to be married with children.
Thanks for having me
TTT
At any rate, you piqued my curiosity. 
