Computer-Related DilEma **HELP ME**

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-- Computer-Related DilEma **HELP ME**

Posted by Tranex02 on Jan-31-2003 18:47:

hey guys....what's up!!!!
well, i havn't been on the boards for about 2 weeks now...since university started and stuff... i was having some internet probelms.....and now i've got a computer problem... i know this is kinda boring...but hey... i need ur help...

ok....so i had a lot of junk on my computer...and got really sick of...and didn't want to install/uninstall.... and i also wanted to update to WinXP.... so....i decided i would format both my drives..and then install winXP....
well, once i did that... WINXP didn't boot!... so i couldn't install it... so i had no choice but to use the win98 recovery cd.... i used that....and it still isn't starting.... once i start the comp.... it then gives me a DOS promt:

Type the name of the command controller (eg. C:\Windows\Command.com)
C>

something like that.... and i just can't get passed it....

n e body know anything about this??? or do you think i can make another WinXP...and have it boot... ( NERO make bootable cd's)???

any help is very much and dearly appreciated!

btw.... when i installed my 2nd HD like 7months ago...i installed EZ-BIOS with it....and it's still there..any way i can get rid of it...it messed up my computer!!!!

LatEr guys!

Posted by Kamaya on Jan-31-2003 19:05:

If you want to boot from your winxp cd, make sure that in your bios settings 'first booting device' is set to 'cd-rom'. That way your cd will boot....

atm it's probably set to floppy, 2nd to hd, 3rd to cd-rom, but you should set the 1st to cd-rom......

This will probably help, goodluck!!!

Posted by Agent_WD40 on Jan-31-2003 19:29:

I was unable to boot off of my win xp cd as well when I was trying to re-install. I searched microsoft,here, and found a set of xp boot floppys for those of us who can't boot off of our cd roms. The programs about 4mb and you will need six blank diskettes. Good luck!

Posted by mndeg on Jan-31-2003 21:43:

find a win98 computer and make a startup disk with a floppy
then put it on your new computer it will boot to DOS
type D: or whatever your cd-rom drive is and type run setup.exe
or whatever the install file is called

Posted by imprt2nr on Feb-01-2003 01:27:

i suggest jiggling your scuzzy port....

jk i didnt even read your whole post, just wanted to put that in....

Posted by Tranex02 on Feb-02-2003 22:05:

lol....ok!

ThX for the tips ppl...... altho non of them worked for me that is.... jk....

the cd i had XP on was an iso.... so obviously...it wouldn't boot...
so i ended up creating a boot cd with some program...and it did the job.....

btw....when i was formating my HD's.... i didn't know what the NTFS
was about.... so i just used the regular FAT32...

Thanks again!

Posted by drizzt81 on Feb-02-2003 22:39:

quote:
Originally posted by Tranex02
lol....ok!

ThX for the tips ppl...... altho non of them worked for me that is.... jk....

the cd i had XP on was an iso.... so obviously...it wouldn't boot...
so i ended up creating a boot cd with some program...and it did the job.....

btw....when i was formating my HD's.... i didn't know what the NTFS
was about.... so i just used the regular FAT32...

Thanks again!

NTFS > FAT32

NTFS (NT File System) has many advantages over FAT32.
It enables ANY cluster size you want to on any partition. It uses a Master File Table (MFT) to store file information and small parts of each file. The entry for a file is 4K. That means if you file <4K, it can be stored completely in the MFT. This helps a bit at reducing file fragmentation and speeds up file access for many small files.

WinXP and Win2K boot significantly faster on NTFS. NTFS is more secure if you want it to be. You have per-file and per-directory settings for access. You have more control over which user can access which files and from what location.

Anyway, NTFS is good, FAT32 not.

Posted by benfica88 on Feb-03-2003 01:55:

quote:
Originally posted by drizzt81
NTFS > FAT32

NTFS (NT File System) has many advantages over FAT32.
It enables ANY cluster size you want to on any partition. It uses a Master File Table (MFT) to store file information and small parts of each file. The entry for a file is 4K. That means if you file <4K, it can be stored completely in the MFT. This helps a bit at reducing file fragmentation and speeds up file access for many small files.

WinXP and Win2K boot significantly faster on NTFS. NTFS is more secure if you want it to be. You have per-file and per-directory settings for access. You have more control over which user can access which files and from what location.

Anyway, NTFS is good, FAT32 not.

I agree

Posted by Tranex02 on Feb-03-2003 16:46:

so do you think i should reformat!?!?!
do the advantages outway the effort of reinstalling windows and my progs....?

btw....when my comp starts up... it ask if i want boot to WinXP pro
or some other windows ....i was able to disable that...and just start WinXP...but why would u want such an option....

anybody know a good partition software?..... i really don't know much about the use of having more than 1 partition...so maybe someone could shed some light on this matter...

Posted by Tranex02 on Feb-04-2003 18:32:

*bump*

Posted by drizzt81 on Feb-04-2003 23:27:

quote:
Originally posted by Tranex02
so do you think i should reformat!?!?!
do the advantages outway the effort of reinstalling windows and my progs....?

how shall i know, if you'd rather have a little more security.
I don't know how long it takes you to reformat/ reinstall anyhow.
There is a FAT32-NTFS conversion tool in winXP, but i am not sure if it works on the system partition.

quote:

btw....when my comp starts up... it ask if i want boot to WinXP pro
or some other windows ....i was able to disable that...and just start WinXP...but why would u want such an option....

what are the other choices?
You might want that if you have software taht doesn't run on XP. Like a lot of my assembly programs never ran under XP, since you aren't allowed to write directly to the vido memory anymore, i guess.

quote:

anybody know a good partition software?..... i really don't know much about the use of having more than 1 partition...so maybe someone could shed some light on this matter...

Partition Magic?! I don't know of any _GOOD_ partitioning software, PM is the only one i know.. pretty much. But why don't you www.google.com it?

The advantage of multiple partitions is that with older File systems, such as FAT16/32 you have a limited size File Allocation table. Therefore the cluster size is sometimes rather large. With FAT16 you have the problem addressing large HDD's in General. I think 8GB is the max you'd ever be able to use and that requires a HUGE cluster size (like 128K).

Nowadays you might want to create partitions for multiple OS's or for you to logically seperate files. For example, when u reformatted, you had to back up all your personal data, right? If you have two partitions, you could have a small/ medium sized system partition and another "data" partition. If you kept all your documents/ personal files on the data partition you can reformat and reinstall a new system, without having to move them.

Posted by Tranex02 on Feb-05-2003 01:42:

interesting.....Thanks for the info i'll probably think it over and see what's best!

appreciate ur input!

Posted by drizzt81 on Feb-05-2003 01:44:

no problem.. anytime you have a question just shoot me a line

Posted by jon on Feb-05-2003 01:46:

quote:
Originally posted by drizzt81
There is a FAT32-NTFS conversion tool in winXP, but i am not sure if it works on the system partition.

that tool is shite, it sets the cluster size to the lowest size possible (cant remember wot it is) thus lowering performance

Posted by drizzt81 on Feb-05-2003 02:01:

quote:
Originally posted by jonsimmonds
that tool is shite, it sets the cluster size to the lowest size possible (cant remember wot it is) thus lowering performance

size: 512bytes, methinks

and why would small cluster size reduce performance, if your files are not fragmented?

it will improve space efficiency

Posted by jon on Feb-05-2003 02:06:

i cant remember the main points the artical made but i remember is said that a 4k cluster size is the prefered size, ill try and find the article where i saw this

Posted by drizzt81 on Feb-05-2003 02:19:

quote:
Originally posted by jonsimmonds
i cant remember the main points the artical made but i remember is said that a 4k cluster size is the prefered size, ill try and find the article where i saw this

probably related to the entries in the MFT being 4K in size, for all i know

http://www.ntfs.com/ntfs-mft.htm

Posted by Tranex02 on Feb-05-2003 03:12:

hmm..good link...

Posted by [mart] on Feb-05-2003 13:31:

I am almost certain that in Windows XP Professional Edition you can format a drive to NTFS without losing any data. I don't think this is supposed to be quite as effective as formatting 'from scratch', but I can't see it being much worse.

Posted by drizzt81 on Feb-05-2003 19:25:

quote:
Originally posted by MaRt
I am almost certain that in Windows XP Professional Edition you can format a drive to NTFS without losing any data. I don't think this is supposed to be quite as effective as formatting 'from scratch', but I can't see it being much worse.
i think u are talking about teh tool that MDMA and I mentioned earlier

Posted by Turbonium on Feb-06-2003 01:30:

Just reformat. Install your OS (XP) on your faster drive (set as master), and don't partition at all. Your second drive, set it as slave, and use it as a multimedia storage drive. This can reduce fragmentation on your main drive (although you can't prevent it, especially with page filing... that is unless you disable page filing, but I wouldn't recommend that unless you have at least 1Gig or RAM). Do NTFS for sure on both drives.