mezron

Quote: I just lost a 120MB hard drive. I now have to do a fresh install and am wanting suggestions on how to partition and install XP Pro to get the best results. Is it possible to mount drives as folders? For example, can I put all my program folders in partition D: and mount it to "c:/program files"? I have heard something about this but I might have it backwards (mount a folder as a drive). It looks like you can do that with the dynamic disks feature. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314343 Be sure to look around for more info on it since it looks like there are a few gotchas if you're not careful. Another good place to look around is in the Windows help files under disk management. Jim

Quote: It just seems like there would be better options for both of these features. I don't see it and probably never will. I really think you're being a little narrow minded about this... I mean really, the possibilities are endless http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,50688,00.html on this sort of thing Jim

Quote: * Heh, only problem is, I am finding that keeping HUGE data like that online on an NTFS compressed partition riding on an HighPoint 370 RAID controller as a single disk is touchy... I lose alot of files due to corruption strangely, & this has me wondering about something ChristianB said about these 8mb buffered disks losing data in fact. APK I remember about the time the 2Mb buffered disks came out that corruption was happening at shutdown. MS released a patch the really only delayed the shutdown by a couple seconds to allow the cache to clear before powering down. Could be something similar? Maybe try disbling the write cache on that drive for a little while to see if the corruption mysteriously disappears? Jim

While 60GB might be more than most people could use for music, you can also use the ipod (and maybe the others also) as additional storage. An external hard drive if you will. That would be handy Jim

Quote: VESA was only used for graphics, as I remember. I think thats really all it was ever used for, but it wasn't limited by design to just graphics. It was kind of a competing bus to pci and eisa (32 bit isa). pci won out. I'm not exactly sure but I think it was due to pci being more plug and play by design. A lot of things like diagnostic software had a hard time with vesa, you sometimes had to tell the software there was a vesa bus there for it to find any devices on it. Jim

Quote: I did use Fdisk to delete and recreate 2 partitions and used the Windows setup to format, but that 8MB was still there. When you say "pick the unformatted one" I assume you mean the one you made active, since all partitions are unformatted after using Fdisk. I haven't tried it with more than one partition so I don't know what'll happen there. I just did it again on a test system the way I described and it worked for me. One thing though, you have to do it in the exact sequence I described. When you get to the point in the install where you choose the partition to install to just select the one you want and then continue. The next screen will tell you that setup needs to format, etc... If you choose the create a partition first and then select it to install to you'll be left with 8MB left over. One thing I just discovered. I was mistaken about not being able to convert to dynamic disk if you remove the 8MB slack. I could swear I read that http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=225822 it was needed to be able to convert to a dynamic drive, but I just converted mine without problem. YMMV Jim

Quote: I would wager that it referred to the CPU socket. If I recall correctly, some of the pre-ZIF systems actually had the CPU soldered to the board. But it's been awhile, and my memory is not everything it used to be., That was waaaayyy back when the cpu's were soldered (before my time with computers anyway, my first was a 286). During the 286-486 era pre zif socket I forget the name of the socket that the cpu went in to but you had to give it a good push to get it in. It didn't have the lever on the side to release it, and you had to be really careful to take the cpu out otherwise you'd break or bend the cpu pins. Kind of like taking the lid off a paint can but with a lighter touch Jim

Quote: Well, I cleaned the disk and at least I can't see any scratches on it. But it doesn't mean that there wouldn't be= bad eyes . The avis used to install just fine, but now I've tried several times with same results. Knowing how hard many cd-drive trays can be on your disks, scratched cd is a possibility. Guess I'll go and buy another, different version and see how it works. Thanks guys, now matter how this turns out Before you do that I'd try it in a different cdrom first. Maybe a friends computer or something. It could be the drive failing (or even just dirty) and a new disk won't help that. Jim

Quote: I used the Windows setup to partition and format the drive and that 8MB space did show. I tried to partition that, but Windows barked at me stating it was needed for setup or something like that. That 8MB left over is put there intentionally by the Windows installer. If you ever decide to convert your drive to a dynamic disk Windows will need that space during the conversion process. Most people won't use it on thier home system, but if you think you'll ever want to go the dynamic disk route don't remove that free space. One way I've found to get around that since I don't do the dynamic disk thing is boot the system with a Win98 boot disk. Go into the fdisk utility and delete all the partitions, then create a primary partition and set it active... blah blah anyway reboot but don't format yet. Boot off the Win2000 disk and start the setup when it gets to the point where it wants you to choose the destination drive pick the unformatted one then continue. It'll say it needs to format the drive so choose the format (NTFS or FAT32) and continue on. This should format your drive using it's full capacity (no 8MB slack left over). It's worked for me hopefully it will for you too Jim

Quote: When trying to copy the avis directly from a disk, I get a message 'Cannot copy. A CRC-error'. I'd suspect a bad cd unfortunately. If you have a different cdrom you could use try it in that, or if you have a network try to copy the files from a different machine. crc errors generally mean corrupted files, but sometimes the disk will read in a different drive (cross fingers). Jim

I have a computer with Win2k Pro on it. It's for home use so security isn't all that important... might not even connect to the internet with it. I'm going to set up a couple user accounts, both as Administrators. What I'd like to do is when the computer boots up and gets to the logon screen I'd like to set it so that it's similar to WinXP. Either click on a picture representing the user or, even better have the user field of the logon prompt be a drop down menu with both of the users names listed and you just choose which user to log on as. Without passwords is ok for my purposes. I'd just like to not have to highlight the previous user and type in the new user name when I log on. Any suggestions? Jim

Quote: You know I would love to say s*w windows, just use Linux since I know it can do this. But I don't mean to be a jerk here. If you insist on using Windows to acheive this, may I suggest you consider upgrading to XP? It seems Xp finally caught up with the idea with multiple simultanous logins by different users. So no, I am not being sarcastic or rude. My suggestion is either consider Windows XP, or maybe switch over to the dark side (Linux), LOL Did you mean to post this here? Simultaneous logins aren't what we're talking about. Jim

Couple things to know about refilling cartridges. 1. It'll void your printer warranty if it leaks and ruins your printer. If this is no biggie go to #2 2. Be sure you seal the hole completely when your done. A vacuum is what holds the ink in the cartridge. If there is a hole in the cartridge to allow air in, the ink will flow out. Thats an ugly mess... go back to #1 if this happens A lot of people do it and for almost all it's ok, and saves a lot of money. Eventually the cartridge will wear out but I've seen some go for dozens of refills without problem. Jim

Quote: The system starts to boot then stops with a long beep every 5 seconds. When it does get past all of this it never completely loads the destop. Hangs at the wallpaper stage. Scandisk hangs if it runs. Take a look here http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/sys/beep/ That beep is trying to tell you something. Jim

Quote: I probably wouldn't of bothered even setting up a additional user and just renamed the administartors screen! I'd strongly recommend against doing that. I've seen on occasion (it's rare, but does happen) that the user profile gets corrupted and the only way to fix it is log into an another administrators account. From there you can just create a new account and move the data to the new one or whatever. If THE Administrator account is the only account on the system and it gets corrupted somehow you'll be locked out of the system. You're much better off just creating an account with admin priveledges to use as a personal account. Jim

Quote: Yes I use both Progman and File Manager in XP... worth their weight in gold, super fast, super light (not leaky) and super stable Dude, you just posted this yesterday in response to this one http://www.ntcompatible.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=24712 Whats up? ;( How long have you been using it to know that it's super fast, stable, not leaky and all that? Jim

Quote: To slightly change the subject; I wanted to setup a user account with restricted privledges that software can't be installed which I thought was the case by default. I set it up, checked a couple of D/L'ed programs and it barked at me stating there wasn't any administrator rights (something as that). Fine. I went to install some old store bought games and it let me do so, though most didn't install properly. Why? Some programs just won't run if you don't have administrator priveledges. Some programs don't understand the NT security model, mostly stuff that was written for Win9x will fall into this category. Other programs I think were just written lazily, Things like Quickbooks which is supposed to work on NT will only work if you have Admin priveledges. I got one program to work by giving full access to the Windows directory once, but that totally defeats the security model as far as I'm concerned. Another thing you can try is hold the shift key while right-clicking on the executable you're working with. You should see a Run As command... try using that. You'll need to have an Administrator's password to use it so you might be SOL there, but if you're one of those guys that like to run as a user to minimize damge from a virus, etc... and just do Admin stuff from time to time it's kinda handy. Quote: Next, to rearange the start menu by adding, deleting, moving and renaming folders I have tried to use the advanced mode, but since there are 3 user start menu folders it is very confusing what to put where. I always use to just creat the folder there and use the start menu from the destop to move or delete the shortcuts there, but you get that annoying "this will affect all users" box most of the time. Is there a better/easier way? Open an Explorer window and go to the C:\Documents and Settings folder. In there you'll see your user directory. In your user directory is a Start Menu folder. Do your damage in there Jim

Sadly, I think you're probably right. I was kinda hoping someone a little more prolific in that sort of thing would have hacked it up by now for me So far I haven't been able to find that person... still looking though Jim

Hey! If there's gonna be a throw down let me know what forum it's in! I'm an American after all... I gotta see it live!! :x uhmmm... what's this in response to anyway? Jim

Quote: I pretty much agree with everything you said, Clutch. I think, to a degree, that the ATI hardware may be superior, but the driver support has always fallen short when compared to Nvidia's. I'd have to agree also, but from a different angle. NVidia has always had very good designs and drivers. I've been very happy with NVidia since the TnT days. I'm not going to just jump ship to ATI because they're experiencing a little trouble at the moment. And really, there just isn't a game out there that requires the perfomance difference that a 9700 offers over my Ti 4200. I'm not a benchmarker so the extra fps in Quake3 don't mean anything to me. Jim

I like it a lot myself. It handles compatability with older stuff, especially games a bit more gracefully than Win2k does. I like that it boots a lot faster than 2k does also. As far as the Fisher-Price theme thats used by default in XP that can be changed back to classic explorer in like 3 mouseclicks. I like the way the Start menu has been changed. It takes all the icons from the desktop except for the Recycle bin and puts it on the Start button. It's another one of those things you can change back to the old way in under 3 mouse clicks if you don't like it. All in all, it's everything Win2k is plus it adds some really nice little things. As far as system requirements go, if you're using anything over about 500 Mhz with 256 MB RAM you'll be good. The last time I saw a blue screen on my system was over a year ago. That was on my old motherboard, which I suspect as flaky. My video card fit loosely in the agp slot. No probs since new motherboard. I still have problems with the whole product activation thing though. It's kinda funny, I bought XP Pro but I actually use the corporate disk that you can download from the shadows of the Internet. Jim

Quote: On a somewhat-related note, wondering if anyone else saw this article over at Warp2Search. A brief summary: "Website Spong posted that we may have to face an unpleasant change in the way we know gaming. Right now we are all PC gamers. If it comes to what they outline there will soon be Nvidia and ATI gamers. Spong claims to have learned from insiders that Valve Software is currently investigating to make Half-Life 2 exclusive to Nvidia hardware. Half-Life was originally published in 1998 and brought innovations to the genre still referred to today. Spong also reports that both chipmakers have been in negotiations with game developers for such exclusivity deals for quite some time. More details are said to be revealed at this years E3." Is it "Exclusive" to NVidia hardware or "optimized"? Seems to me they'd have to intentionally break things for the game to not run on the other cards especially if the game is essentially a D3D or OpenGL game. Unless NVidia is going to pull a Glide on us all... I don't miss those days. Jim

Quote: Quote: I'm gonna set mine to progman.exe... just for nostalgia's sake :x Jim * Are you kidding, or are you serious? (Not busting on you, but I see alot of folks using shell replacements for that very reason: lighter & faster etc. & they have one the WHOLE time basically in Progman!) APK I did set mine to Progman, it's been since... early "95 (I bought Win 95 within a week of release) that I've used it as a shell. The one that is in XP is a bit more stark than I remember in 3.1. It looked like I'd need to create my own program groups and all that, and I'm just not feeling THAT nostalgic so I changed it back to Explorer after about 15 minutes. Actually, I like Explorer. The only time I've really messed with it was during the Win98 and the early Pentium2 days. I used 98lite to put the Win95 Explorer in 98. It made a huge performance difference for me then. After about the time the Pentium3 was released the hardware just passed the software requirements by leaps and bounds and I just don't see it as necessary anymore. Heh... I still have DOS 6.22 and WFW 3.11 disks here and an old computer lying around here. Might be a good day for a trip down memory lane If nothing else I'm sure it'll remind me just how far MS products have advanced in the last 10 years. Jim

well, so far I've found in the registry this... HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon In there is a Shell key which is set to "Explorer.exe" I'm gonna set mine to progman.exe... just for nostalgia's sake :x Jim

hehe... after I saw this question I just had to look... Yup, Progman is still around!! It's in XP Pro!! 8) Are there still people that prefer Progman over Explorer? Just thought I'd share that... not like I know the answer to your question right off the top of my head, but I'll take a look around Jim