PC shutdown & SOBD

[luke]

Was multiplaying last night, with 5-10 others & chat & fsNav windows on the screen, while vigorously

[congo]

Get another hard disk and make formatting your friend.

The second drive will enable you to get a second new and clean op sys up and running.

From there you can start backing up your data onto it and then you can deal with your original drive.

There are methods you can employ to make the format / re-install process as painless as possible.

Once you are comfortable using a second drive you'll find manageing your PC is a lot less stressful.

[luke]

Come on Congo, if I back these present data with the conging out fs9 in them to a new HD, what will i get then?

I have all my staff backed up on the wfe's PC, but I am trying to find out what is the problem now, so that if I bring them over same fault will not happen again.

[congo]

I don't believe your FS9 is the fault, that's why.

I think your windows and registry are sufficiently messed up to warrant a re-install, this doesn't mean I want you to delete all your data or format.

I was just stating the best and cheapest way for you to get a whole new system  up and running without all the errors and mistakes made on your present system, without you worrying about anything at all. You still have your present system totally intact if you use a second drive to rebuild to.

As far as faults not happening again, I think that's an unrealistic expectation.

It's far better in my opinion to strive to learn the re-install process and just how to get the best and cleanest widows  installation, than to try and maintain a corrupted system long term.

This is my philosophy, and I'm not saying it's right for you but I recommend it nonetheless, as Windows just gets more bogged down with all kinds of junk and errors the longer it remains installed, particularly if used online and if the OS is frequently modified by driver updates, patches, new programs, removed programs, spyware, registry changes, etc. etc. etc......

The perfect XP system is always in a state of flux and the ability to do a quick re-install is a most valuable asset.

A second hard drive enables you to experiment and learn without the stresses and consequences of a single drive system. A second drive is a low cost, time saving solution. A second drive is an effective prescription for stress relief, it allows you to have some fun with XP.

[luke]

"........methods you can employ to make the format / re-install process........."

Always used the Maxtor freebee "MaxBlast" it partitions, formats, and and installs any OS.

Is there something better?

[congo]

"........methods you can employ to make the format / re-install process........."

Always used the Maxtor freebee "MaxBlast" it partitions, formats, and and installs any OS.

Is there something better?

Yes, but it has more to do with method than software.

[luke]

Expectation is killing me, how?

Done my streamlined all in CD, maxblast prepared the HD and all gets done.

Long ago I backed up each partition with Nero, but the blasted thing will not install on an exact clean HD saying it was not right.

[congo]

Expectation is killing me, how?

Done my streamlined all in CD, maxblast prepared the HD and all gets done.

Long ago I backed up each partition with Nero, but the blasted thing will not install on an exact clean HD saying it was not right.

Ok, I've come to the conclusion that sometimes it's best to let windows do certain jobs, I'm not certain I'm

[luke]

Thanx for taking time.
Windows inveriably would not let me use fat32 so I stayed with the HD manufacturer

[congo]

[quote]Thanx for taking time.
Windows inveriably would not let me use fat32 so I stayed with the HD manufacturer

[luke]

Is it not better to use fat32?   M O D I F Y : OK just seen the post about this here by N.Nick.


The raid business, I seem to remember you asking the forum about something which seemed too complecated for me to follow, did you sort it out easily, or it would be beyound hams like me to attempt?

[congo]

I've been using the raid array and I'll never go back to a single drive again, but I still don't understand exactly how to configure it for best performance. It seems to be working fine the way I have it now, so I just leave it alone.

Setting up RAID was confusing to me at first but once learned you wonder what all the fuss is about.
My main concerns were with finding out how to configure and format the raid array using the optimum stripe and cluster sizes.
I finished up using a 128kb raid0 stripe size and a formatted 64kb cluster size.
Despite concerns about large clusters using excess drive space, I find that 100gb of data uses 114gb of drive space, so it's not really an issue on my system.

Since Windows OpSys's beyond XP-SP2 only install to 4kb cluster size, a cluster size fix needed to be applied to a modified windows XP install disk, so I incorporated that fix into my usual nlite XP install disks.
The cluster size fix is just a matter of overwriting a few new SP2 files with older ones from the original WinXP install disk.

[NicksFXHouse]

RAID is not a requirement... but NTFS is

[luke]

Why is NTFS a must, do you reckon the shuting down in fs9 with fsNav & plus chat, which is then that it does it, is because I use fat32?

If so, is it enough to just change each partition to NTFS (XP does it I think) or do I reformat all?

[NicksFXHouse]

Why is NTFS a must, do you reckon the shuting down in fs9 with fsNav & plus chat, which is then that it does it, is because I use fat32?

If so, is it enough to just change each partition to NTFS (XP does it I think) or do I reformat all?

I do not think your crash or other problems are related to FAT32.

Fat32 limits the partition size, is not secure at all and is also not as efficient or as fast as NTFS with modern hardware.

FAT32 makes a computer 1000% more vulnerable to hacker, browser and virus attack and a real hacker would have no problem getting into your system on a FAT32 installation through the network assuming they could get past the router hardware nat firewall (if one is installed) ... it would be like a car thief finding a car door open with the keys in the ignition, that