Dirdian

Mmmm, I had the same problem where my rig would freeze for a split second every few seconds. I found it to be a problem with the motherboard Promise controller. This can easily be tested by plugging your HD into the standard IDE channels. Worth a go. If this does the trick, it may be a "serious" underlying problem with your mobo. I ended up changing my mobo.

Not too familiar with NT but in 2k you need to check that there are no locked files in the users profile. If there are, close the open files and folders. Normally done from the profile servers MMC in 2k at least... Hope this helps.

Yep, there is a piece of software that will scan a partiion and recovery the contents. I have used this myself and it works a treat. A real life saver. Try EasyRecovery Professional by onTrack, http://www.ontrack.com/easyrecoveryprofessional/ Happy recovering!!!

These drivers are the WDM drivers for the Aureal Vortex 2 (8830) chipset. http://www.vortexofsound.com/drivers/drv_v2wdm.htm (Note: These drivers are not hosted on the Vortex of Sound site and may not be available at any given time. We are not responsible for any problems arising from your downloading and/or use of these drivers.) Note that they were designed for Windows 2000, and while they may function under Windows 98 SE or Windows ME, it is not recommended that they be used in either OS. From Aureal: This driver release is beta and will not be supported in any way. Because these drivers have not been through the Microsoft certification process, they are unsigned. This means that the installation process is much more involved than usual, and is to be pursued at your own risk. By downloading these drivers you certify that you understand that Aureal and its employees cannot be held responsible for any disruption or damage to your system that this installation may cause. These drivers are posted purely as a courtesy to our most adventurous and technically adept customers. To install the drivers: Downloading the drivers Download the drivers from the link above to a temp directory on your hard drive. In Explorer, navigate to the temp directory. Double click on the "wdm5_12_01_2559.exe" file to extract the drivers. Copy the AU30GM.ARL file from your original Vortex CD (or any Windows 9x driver install) to the temp folder and rename it to AUREALGM.ARL. If you have the native Vortex drivers (from the OS) installed, continue with the next section. If not, skip ahead to the following section - Installing the drivers. Uninstalling the native drivers Launch the Windows Control Panel. Double click on System. Click on the Hardware tab. Click the Device Manager button. Select "Aureal Vortex PCI Adapter" under Sound, video, and game controllers. Click the Remove button. Close Device Manager. Launch Windows Explorer. Select Tools from the menu items, then Folder Options. On the View tab, check the option "Show All Hidden Folders". Uncheck the option "Hide File Extenstions for Known File Types". Uncheck the option "Hide Protected Operating System Files". Close the Folder Options window. Navigate to the WINNT\INF folder. Delete the following files: WDMA_AUR.INF WDMA_AUR.PNF ADM_MULT.INF ADM_MULT.PNF ADM_PORT.INF ADM_PORT.PNF Navigate to the WINNT\DRIVER CACHE\I386 folder. Rename the DRIVER.CAB file to DRIVER.OLD. Navigate to the WINNT\SYSTEM32\DLLCACHE folder. Delete the following files: ADM8830.SYS ADMJOY.SYS Navigate to the WINNT\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS folder. Delete the following files: ADM8830.SYS ADMJOY.SYS Reboot. Installing the drivers When Windows starts, it will detect new hardware. When it asks for drivers, point it to temp folder you unzipped the driver files to in step 2 of "Downloading the drivers". When prompted for the KSUSER.DLL file, point it to the WINNT\SYSTEM32 folder. When prompted for other KS*.DLL files, point it to the WINNT\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS folder. When prompted for some *.DRV files, point it to the WINNT\SYSTEM32 folder. When prompted for the PORTCLS.SYS file, point it to the WINNT\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS folder. For any files, point it to the temp folder you unzipped the driver files to. When prompted to reboot your system, do so. Finishing the install After Windows restarts, launch Windows Explorer. Navigate to the WINNT\DRIVER CACHE\I386 folder. Rename DRIVER.OLD to DRIVER.CAB. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A3D Drivers These are the latest A3D driver components for the Vortex 2 cards. To install these drivers: Download the drivers to a temp directory on your hard drive. In Explorer, navigate to the temp directory. Double-click the "a3ddrivers312.exe" file, and follow the directions to install. Be sure to not close the window during the install, but wait for it to complete - it will display an error and that's fine. Reboot your system and you're set. Note: Advanced users may wish to delete the A3DAPI.DLL file from their local game folders so the games will use the latest one installed in the Windows System folder.

You can use PM6/7 to resize the cluster size. You may want to use PM to increase the cluster size. This could have a positive effect. What filing system are you using on the drives?

You can pickup the latest drivers from http://www.vortexofsound.com This seems to be the only surviving site for Areal sound cards and contains a host of information. You may (will) find problems using this sound card if your motherboard has a Via chipset. To find out more about Via chipset problems head over to http://www.viahardware.com/faq/kt7/faqsound.html Regards, Dirdian

Because of the way NTFS stores the directory structure it is extremely fast at indexing (locating and reading individual file headers) and is therefore only of real use on large partitions. NTFS partitions also have better recovery information should a failure occur. Try a find files on a NTFS and compare that to a FAT32.

I think this is a problem with graphic card drivers. Prior to Nvidia's 3.81 drivers all was well, now I get random freezes and the blue screen of death saying Stop error occurred - Bad_Pool_Caller This is a paging fault error which is probably due to timing issues with the cards drivers. Another thought is have any of you installed or tried to install Direct CD as this had enormous repercussions on my system....?