*ugh* ... computers ...

[MinionZombie]

So the other day I booted it up and it was cryin' at me about not being able to start windows, turns out it was a corrupted registry, but it seemed to fix itself (XP Pro), but PowerDVD doesn't work and some MP3 files don't work, and apparently it's ready to have a hard-drive failure. Now I've gotta take it to the shop, get the data (hopefully) cloned onto a new hard-drive and ugh, splash out a wodge of cash for the privilege. But then again, I'd rather take it to a professional rather than Googling my way to blissful ignorance before one day it actually does crap out and I lose all the data (yeah, it's backed up, but it's the hassle and extreme annoyance) ... so I'd rather have peace of mind. But I tell ya, computers - it's not if they crap out with some disease, it's when they crap out with some disease. I'd equate a corrupted registry to a stroke ... it's not quite the same afterwards and you start thinking it's going to conk out once and for all... Now, I have two hard-drives and Windows is installed to the C Drive - does this mean the D drive can be left alone and only the C Drive gets cloned to a new one?

[capncnut]

Not long ago I had to reconfigure my whole pc from factory settings due to corruption. When that little screen goes black, it is enough to make a grown man cry. Aint too proud to admit that either!

[MaximusIncredulous]

Now, I have two hard-drives and Windows is installed to the C Drive - does this mean the D drive can be left alone and only the C Drive gets cloned to a new one? Provided the the C drive is the only one that's kaput, the D drive should be fine. You might want to run chkdsk or some other diagnostic utility on the D drive to be sure.

[MinionZombie]

I was close, but not quite, more like a complete and utter look of crestfallen disaster, which gave way to anger, and denial, and frustration and some more anger, then some giving up and a bit of acceptance, then more disappointment in myself - if it was indeed downloading and installed Scarface (game) that did it. Although I wonder if it had been long coming...hopefully I won't lose the data and only one drive needs replacing (the one with Windows installed on it) ... but knowing sod's law, that won't happen. I actually think me saying that game wasn't good has made it take revenge on me (it's Tony Montana after all!) I'll watch the movie, try and make peace with the man... *edit* Just put it in this morning to get fixed, gonna be about a week until I get it back (guy has a lot of work coming in this month) ... damn, a week without games, sheeeeiiiiit. Anyway, the problems I've encountered have all been from things on C: Drive (like PowerDVD not working, MP3 files that didn't work, folders that wouldn't delete). It could all be partly down to wear and tear maybe? The C: Drive has had excessive use over the past almost 3 years and has often been completely full. Gonna upgrade to a new 160gig for C: Drive, which would give me 240gigs of space in total. I'm sure he'll check out D: Drive when he's at it, but hopefully it'll be okay. I have only once, maybe twice transferred data between C and D, and both times it was going from D to C. D drive is where I upload video to and render out files to, so the frequency of file traffic is much lower on the D drive than on C drive, which has data coming in and out (filling up the drive almost completely at all times) constantly - excessive use for 3 years basically. Had to recently replace my CD/DVD writer actually, it conked out from excessive use and gradually stopped writing DVDs properly - damn thing didn't quite make 2 years before it started going wiggy, gave up a few months ago and got a new and improved one. I'm hoping everything goes smoothly ... otherwise I'll have no choice but to break down and weep like a man only can do when faced by technological backlash. ... hehe, er, yeah...

[LouCipherr]

MZ - i'm going to give you a tip that a friend of mine gave me in regards to how to partition your drives, and it has turned out not only to be the simplest mod I ever made to my rig - but the one that has come in the most handy. here's the deal: take your frist hard drive (your "C" drive) and partition it into 2 partitions: one partition that is 10gb (which will now be your "C" drive), and the 2nd partition as the rest of the drive (now your "D"). The other physical hard drives can be partitioned however you want. There's a really good logic behind this. First, put your operating system ONLY on Drive C - everything else on drive D, E, or whatever. This has many advantages, but the main one is that when your operating system becomes corrupt or craps out on you, all of your other data is secure and won't get FUBAR'd by the reinstallation of windows. Yes, some programs that require registry entries will need to be reinstalled, but all that data you have on the other drives will not have to be moved or copied to another drive while you try and recover your OS (operating system) or reinstall it. This was simply the best mod I ever did, because even Dj will tell you, him and I re-install windows at least twice a year if not more, just to keep it running in tip-top shape. I liken windows to a filing cabinet - people keep shoving papers (programs) into the filing cabinet over and over and over again. Eventually, you remove the files (program) from the filing cabinet, but you end up leaving behind a few paper clips, staples, and pages that have fallen into the back of the filing cabinet. You many think you've cleaned the cabinet, but there's always "leftover" stuff floating around in there. Anyway, there's "Lou's PC tip of the day" for ya. Put that OS on a seperate partition all by itself, so when it screws up, you don't lose any data and no need for lengthy backups (although I recommend doing that at least once or twice a year as needed). Make sure if you do this, you install all your programs onto Drive D or another drive - not on C. You need that 10gb for the OS an the pagefile, etc. I usually put my antivirus on C too ('cause I know if the OS screws up, my AV is gonna have to be reinstalled anyway), but everything else goes on a seperate drive from the OS. LC ***edited to say: if you do this with your current rig, your data will be fine, but the drive letters will change. your current "D" drive will become "E", and your "C" drive will now become "C" and "D" if that makes sense. My drives are mapped like this: C: - 10gb partition, OS and Antivirus only. (this is the first part of a 80gb hard drive) D: - 70gb parition - this is where I install all my games, programs, etc. (this is the remainder of the 80gb hd) E: - 160gb parition - this is one large partition of a 160gb drive, used for archiving everything else. Confused yet?

[MaximusIncredulous]

Just put it in this morning to get fixed, gonna be about a week until I get it back (guy has a lot of work coming in this month) ... damn, a week without games, sheeeeiiiiit. Best thing to do is learn how to do that thing yourself. Hard drive replacement is pretty easy to do. Just open up the computer case, unplug and remove the crap drive, install and plug in the new drive, turn on the comp, make sure BIOS knows it's there, use the partitioning/formatting software that comes with the drive to set it up, and reinstall stuff. That's it. It could all be partly down to wear and tear maybe? Yeah. Last summer I had to replace both my Seagate drives (I do the C: D: deal as well), one of which was 2 years old the other 4. So for a drive to fail within 3 years is not that uncommon. Depends on the manufacturer and other things.

[MinionZombie]

How the fudge do you partition a drive? I might give that some thought, D Drive getting reclassed as E wouldn't cause problems? E and F are classed as my disc reader/writer drives. Also - can't really do the re-install thing on my own, because the main thing is I don't have a Windows disc. Like many small companies that build computers, they use one Windows disc for all their machines - hence why I had trouble briefly with Genuine Advantage ... until I used the cracked version. And like I said before - such things piss me off big time and I cry like a bitch and stomp my feet and pound my fists into the desk ... kinda like Dj when a car drives through his shot. I suppose doing Defrags would be a good idea, I only ever did one of those on C Drive, ha! Geezus it took hours to do it. Perhaps it wasn't Scarface that fudged me over, perhaps it was co-incidence. Apparently registry corruptions or corrupt hives can be caused by not enough space when something needs doing, perhaps pagefile space, I duno, something I read on MS' website. Wear and tear must have been a major contributor, that C Drive was like the village bicycle. Extensive use.

[LouCipherr]

"How do you partition a drive?" MZ, am I gonna have to reach through my screen and smack you? Seriously, when you setup windows initially, it gives you options of how to partition your drive. You tell it "Drive C I want to be this size, Drive D I want this size.. Drive E should be this size" - then it'll take care of the partitioning for you. Then it's just up to you to format the partitions that windows doesn't. Usually, windows only formats the "C" drive where it's being installed, the others you have to format yourself - unless they're already formatted and have data on them, then you don't need to mess with the format stuff.. I can explain all this to ya in more detail if need be. just lemme know. As far as WGA and Windows - I will PM you and we'll take that conversation offline. Not for public consumption. LC

[MinionZombie]

lol ... despite knowing a damn sight more about computers than the average punter, I'm still rather computer-dim, lol. "Setup windows initially"? ... duno what you're on about. I don't even have a Windows disc, nor do I have an *ahem* acquired version of it. You can try as much as you want, it's like talking to a brick wall with me. I'm still entertained by the thing that makes what you type talk in a computer voice. While you guys all seem to have computer knowledge that's grown up with a mortgage and kids and a minivan, my computer knowledge is still in college desperately trying to shag first years but failing miserably, retiring to its dorm to slap and tickle the infra-red mouse for a few hours before passing out from all that college-grade weed.

[Eyebiter]

I wouldn't bother with partitioning the hard drive. Honestly it's more of a pain that it's worth. If you have a 160 gig hard drive your likely not going to to many tape backups anyway. Get a DVD burner and get in the habit of burning important projects to DVD on a regular basis. So if your working on a film project make a backup copy of everything every few days (or once a week). That way not only do you have a snapshot of how things evolve, but you have a dated DVD in case there is a problem. With the old Windows 3.1 you had to reload about once a year. Windows 95 would usually get funky after two. Windows XP will start getting hosed up after three years. Sometimes it's a good idea to start from scratch. Back up your data to DVD, and load up a fresh copy of the OS. Certainly will improve performance once you get everything reloaded. If you keep the old HDD and don't format it, that way you can access it if you find something you need from before.

[LouCipherr]

It's only a pain to partition your drives if you never re-format and never have to re-install windows. If you have a 160gb HD in your computer, and it's formatted to a single partition, then anytime you have to reinstall windows you have to wipe the entire drive. When you reformat at least a few times a year (as I do, if for no other reason than to keep XP running smoothly) it's your best bet, but alas, it's whatever works best for you - just trying to give some helpful suggestions. Backing up is a great idea and something that all of us should do on a regular basis, but you have to remember, if MZ is anything like Dj with dumping camera footage from his DVX camera, backing up on DVDs is more of a pain in the ass than it's worth. Sometimes, those files created by dumping footage from your camera can end up in the 10-30gb range (sometimes even bigger, Dj can confirm this). Not that easy to back up that much data on DVDs, which hold approx 4.5gb. Even though I know it can be done with several different backup programs, wouldn't it be easier to just leave the data on the drive, uncorrupted while you re-install windows on a seperate parition? See what i'm gettin' at? MZ - sorry, I tend to get a bit technical with my explanations, and since I've been dealing with computers since I was 12, I've seen and done it all pretty much with these electronic boxes of sh*t. I've had more frustrations with computers than Michael Jackson does with himself when he's in a daycare center! For me, it's second nature to do these things, and sometimes I think I make the assumption that when I say "repartition that drive" you'll know exactly what I mean - and sometimes that's not the case. It's a good idea if you reformat a lot, but if you don't, it's not worth your time or effort. Just tryin' to spread some helpful advice to those who do format quite often. btw: my xp takes a lot less time to get screwed than 3 years. Usually, I can get by with a full year without a reformat, but by that time, windows is dragging its feet and the "filing cabinet is full of unnecessary stuff" - of course, I use my computer heavily for everything from surfing the net to gaming to home recording - the typical computer user is not as hard on their machine as I am. Mine is on 24/7, 365 days a year - minus evenings with lightning storms.

[DjfunkmasterG]

Partitioning is the best way to go beause you have many things to help speed up the ole PC 1. 10gb's is a little lite, I suggest 30gb (I add a few more things to C drive like YIM, NERO, and VEGAS) 2. with only a small amount of space your computer will boot faster because it doesn't have to search the whole drive for your boot up files, not too mention it runs more effecient 3. Defragging is way quicker. Defragging 30gb is way quicker than say 160 4. Since only crucial files are on the machines partition spaced if something corrupts the partition you're not losing all your data when you have to re-format... you only have to re-format 10gb or 30gb as opposed to waiting for windows to format 160gb. Now when you re-install critical software (Antivirus, YIM, NERO, VEGAS, it is a lot better than loading 50 other proggies that you had before everything went to ****. 5. Since your game files are stored on the other partition all you have to do is copy a shortcut back to your desktop... all the original installs will be fine and the shortcut will put the required registry entries in for you. 6. Re-format (sorry have to tap this again) 20 minutes for a windows install VS 2 hours on a larger un partitioned harddrive. Most of all the best benefit is not losing all your data. Anyone who has a lot of data, especially people like MZ and I should partition just so when the **** does crap out we can be back up and running in an hour. For the casual PC person don't waste your time... if you edit music, movies, are a serious gamer, do you want to be sitting there re-installing 6 cd's worth of Battlefield Vietnam 2 With the old Windows 3.1 you had to reload about once a year. Windows 95 would usually get funky after two. Windows XP will start getting hosed up after three years. . The longest XP install i have going is my home PC at 10 months, and believe me it is limping along. Only reason i am not ****ing with it is I am building a new rig in January and selling this MONSTER to lou for $400 (and it is a kick ass system) WINDOWS XP usually gets funky after 6 months it corrupts 10x easier than windows 3.1 because now everyone who owns a PC is connected to the matrix including the F UCKstick hackers whom spread **** all over the web. My work PC craps after 5 months I have been through 4 reformats in 2 years. However, it's a f ucking dell... need I say more. WINDOWS XP will not last 3 years, it is still 2 buggy. DOS was the only OS that actually friggin worked. (for those of you born after 1985) DOS was THE BE ALL END ALL OS

[LouCipherr]

Yes, MS-DOS by far was the most stable operating system, but alas, people were too lazy to remember 10 commands to get around in it, so they made "windows" which is basically DOS driven by menus. Dj, wanna hear something scary? When I started on computers, the operating system was CP/M (acronym for "Control Program for Microprocessors") - which was a year or two prior to MS-DOS hitting the market. In fact, my first computer was a Kaypro II - it had a 9" green monochrome screen, two 195k full-height floppy drives, the processor was a Z-80 (2mhz!), and it has 64k of memory - which was considered a LOT at the time. Christ, i'm a dinosaur.

[DjfunkmasterG]

In fact, my first computer was a Kaypro II - it had a 9" green monochrome screen, two 195k full-height floppy drives, the processor was a Z-80 (2mhz!), and it has 64k of memory - which was considered a LOT at the time. Christ, i'm a dinosaur. I remember when 50MB's of HDD space was all I ever thought I would need. Now I have over 1TB spread out over 4 drives and I need more space.

[Dtothe3]

Bit of an odd one to throw in the ring... Basically my comp conked out a while back, it seems to boot fine, but the moment it gets to the loading screen immediatly prior to getting onto the desktop it just goes kaput. I hadn't installed any new software or hardware, it doesn't make strange noises, it just stops. All the electrics appear to still work (i noticed my I-pod still charges) but the screen is just blank at that point. Any ideas folks? (cheers in advance) Also i have a linux install disk, seeing as i cannot find the original disk I got with my laptop (laptop doesn't go on the net so I assume I can use the same OS code on both?) what do you folks make of linux, and would i find it preferable to windows? Cheers again dudes *feels like an idiot *