Pikey

Hi Since installing SP2, Norton Speedisk throws up a warning about compatibility with said SP. It seems to run fine in analysis, but should i be aware of any issues if i put it to work optimizing? My guess is that it will work just fine anyway, its only a bloody SP. Any horrific personal experiences to report before i proceed? LiveUpdate has nothing to offer. Cheers

If you don't want to get your hands dirty, check out Reg Cleaner. Very handy at backing up and removing startup items. Check out www.utilitygeek.com. I believe that they have it there. If not, search around. Cheers

Oh yeah, 'fore i forget... You might want to check out this lot: www.sysinternals.com Amongst other things they have a Page File/Registry defrag utility. Lots of other handy apps for NT as well. Happy hunting

Hi Yeah, Diskeeper is an excellent defragger. If you're running NT 4 you can get yourself a freeware version called Diskeeper Lite. This doesn't defrag the page file, registry etc. but it's still pretty good. It's very similar to the copy of Diskeeper bundled with Windows 2000. Check out the Executive Software website for more info. Cheers

Hi again, Are you multi-booting here, or are you after a full NT install on this 45GB drive? If you want NT setup to recognise the full disk you need to patch the install with the SP4 ATAPI.SYS file. You can find this at: ftp://microsoft.com/bussys/winnt/winnt-unsup-ed/fixes/nt40/atapi/ATAPI.EXE Either that or search out knowledge base article "Q197667 - Installing Windows NT on a large IDE Hard Disk" I believe that the max boot partition can only be 8GB here, but it may help. I'm guessing that you know this already anyway re: your multi boot system previously. Cheers

Upgrading to NT4 from Windows 95/98? Herein lies your problem:- It's not supported. You'll need NT 3.51 or earlier (or Windows for Workgroups) to make the upgrade. There may be a crack for this out there but i don't have it. Let me be sure you have this right - You have an Upgrade copy of NT4, not the full version?

Hi 2 questions: What OS are you upgrading NT4 from? & Are you patching the install with the SP4 IDE large disk driver? Cheers

Hi I do a lot of work in AutoCad, and i am sick and tired of Windows 98 BSOD's at critical moments. I am thinking of upgrading my workstation OS but my questions is, which is the best OS for my system. I am not interested in playing games on this machine so should i install Windows NT4 or Windows 2000 Professional? The machine's main specs are: Pentium II 400mhz 30.7GB IBM 75GXP Deskstar on ATA33 controller 256MB PC100 SDRAM 16MB Voodoo 3 3000 Which, in all honesty will perform better? Is it worth installing Windows 2000 or will performance suffer compared to Windows NT on such a machine? I would appreciate your candid opinions here. As far as i understand it Windows 2000 Professional is only really worth installing on a Pentium III system at least, so is NT4 the better bet for me?

Same as ever i believe Provide the qualifying NT disk when setup prompts you to do so.

Thanks a lot chaps, you have put my doubts to rest. Windows 2000 Pro it is. Cheers

I have two physically separate hard disks and i want to set up a dedicated page file in a partition of its own on the second disk for Windows 2000 as i have heard that performance is improved by doing this. However, should i then remove the page file that exists on my current c:\ drive disk? This is set at 768-768MB at the moment (I have 256MB physical memory). I understand that if the second disk should fail the absence of a page file on the primary disk can cause problems with startup and/or recovery procedures? Should i then maintain a smaller page file on the master disk AND a larger one on the second? Basically i want Windows 2000 to only use the dedicated page file and to leave drive c:\ unruffled. Any advice?

Thanks for the advice. The disks are on separate controllers so there shouldn't be any performance degradation. Cheers

Hello all I have two 30GB IBM Deskstars running under Win2000. Currently i have a 4GB system partition on a simple volume and a 54GB spanned volume under dynamic disk management. I am reasonably happy with this setup but i am wondering about the performance benefits of striping the disks. I have experimented with this setup but never got beyond formatting. This always leaves me with an identical 4GB drive at the tailend of the second disk (as striped volumes only use exactly the same amount of space over two or more disks, yes?) but thats fine as i can use that extra space as a dedicated page file. However, as i understand it a two disk stripe writes everything in duplicate? So really you only end up with half the total disk space? Thats basically my question. Does the performance benefit justify the "halving" of available disk space? I don't think i'm going to use up 50GB disk space in the near future and i do a lot of work in disk intensive CAD applications, so is striping worth considering for the performance gain? Cheers in anticipation Pikey

I hate to disgace this forum with a complaint as trivial as this, but here goes: I have recently installed a second IBM IDE 30.7GB Deskstar HDD to complement my existing drive. It's a good fast disk and the noise it make while in action is reasonably quiet compared to some others. So read/write noise is not a problem...so? The problem is that the two disks combined produce an unholy reverberation within the case. It sounds like a Buddhist "om", i kid you not. If the noise was constant i could probably deal with it but it rises and falls, and i'm seriously finding it hard to take. At first i thought it was a vibration from a failing CPU fan or loose PSU, but that's not the case. It's bizarre. In isolation neither disk produces a noise like this - but together! Anyway, what i'm after is: has anyone got any tips for reducing this sort of intense ambient racket? I have heard that sticking a great glob of BluTack on to a disk can help reduce vibrations between the disk and the case, but i'm not keen to put putty on a hard disk - you know how warm these things get! Oh, the case isn't at fault here as i've previously run a Quantum disk in tandem with the IBM, but that became too full. Any practical suggestions, or shall i just invest in a pair of ear mufflers? Willing myself deaf.... Pikey

Hi Okay, Deadcats (why on earth did you come up with that name? I like my cat "live" thank you!) But, yep you where right about insulating the disks, so hats off to you. I experimented with some foam tape that i've had lying around since a promotion that my company ran recently (to hold up signs, if you want to know) and i lined the removable sides of my tower case with the stuff. I also stuck some onto the sides of the drive cage and voila! No more bad vibes! Amazing. I guess it was the damn case after all...Doesn't explain the Quantum but maybe my pulling the case apart on a regular basis has loosened something somewhere? Anyway. i must doff my hat to Bandit at www.tomshardware.com community for some fantastic and technically detailed guidance on this one,(in fact that site has got to be the mecca for hardware probs) but all the same Deadcats, you were right on the money here and i thank you. Have a top Xmas/Hannukah etc. Cheers Pikey

Hi Thanks to you all for the input. Ok, first off, the hard disks are absolutely secured. In fact i've filled all six screws. Hell, that could be the problem! The case is a Vasco Midi Tower. A fine case as far as i am concerned. I first thought that the vibration was caused by the hidden drive bays that sit underneath the removable ones, as they are open. I guessed that it was acting as a sort of tuning fork to enhance the vibrations. It wasn't. I can't fault the case as it worked fine with no "ommmms" when i had the Quantum disk set as secondary master. Soooo, it's just another of those incompatibility issues you get with the PC being a free platform i suppose. Previous to this case i had an Enlight Micro case that produced no vibrations whatsoever, but then i only had room for the one disk back then. I've since disconnected the second IBM and there are no vibes now at all. This isn't much of a solution as a badly need the extra 30GB, and after all i have paid for it. What i am saying is that i don't want to fork out for another case only to find that i have the same problem, particularly as this Vasco case absorbs the read/write racket very well. Hell, maybe that is the problem, because the vibes are an ambient sound coming from within the case - no single part is vibrating. Or maybe i just have a duff HDD? Thanks anyway. Pikey

Dear GeOph (Or may i call you Geoff? Or is that too square?) Fantastic solution! You send me £150 pound sterling and the damn thing is yours! Do you think you can convert that into hardfast currency dollars-wise? Apart from that; and i am sure that 3M have all the answers; but how exactly do i apply this tape, and where? Will this tape roughly equal the cost of an insulated server case or should i just take Geoff's advice? May the farce be with you Pikey

Ok, After the NT4/Win2000 debacle I am on a roll here, might as well get it out of my system (no PC puns included) But, hell, Windows 2000 runs beautifully on my system but for the life of me i cannot come to terms with the 'disk cleanup' utility. It takes bloody ages to do anything! In fact it gets stuck (nothing like technical terms here) at the "Compress Old Files" stage and remains aimlessly thrashing away ad infinitum. I have always cancelled after 10mins at this point. By the way i am background running Norton Utilities 2001/Anti-Virus 2001 at the same time. What gives?

Hi Is it possible to have a happy long term dual boot relationship with Windows NT Workstation 4 and Windows 2000 Pro? On the face of it it would seem like a dream combination (both sharing NTFS) but i've run into a few problems. Mainly, upon installing Norton Utilities 2001 on each partition i was presented with some impressive nonsense about core files from Drive C:\ (Windows NT) having been "relocated" to drive E:\ (Windows 2000). I ***ume this is because of NTFS being updated to NTFS5 by Win2000? Also, there were problems in explorer with NT/2000. Naturally Microsoft maintain that this dual boot arrangement is not a viable long term proposition, having being utilised for "evaluation purposes only". But then they would say that. Any advice would be mucho appreciated!

Hi Well, thanks to the lot of you for the input - i'm very grateful. The only reason i enquired was due to my intention to pursue an MCSE qualification. Of course, now i have been informed that NT 4 has been "retired" in favour of Windows 2000; in fact any NT4 based qualification is now redundant as far as Microsoft are concerned. Pretty incredible, eh? How this translates to the real world remains to be seen, as no doubt many companies will be sticking to NT4 for a while yet - my own organisation included. (Thats not my decision by the way, but i still wouldn't argue with it) Many thanks for the advice!

Thanks for the advice. I remain to be convinced. Don't know where the ***sumed bit came from! Cheers

Is it possible to dual boot (on two separate physical disks) a basic disk (Win98) and a dynamic disk (Win2000) with both OS's recognising each other on boot? I know that a partitioned disk won't support this configuration. How about separate disks? In anticipation Pikey

I have no idea why this is happening, but.... On installing Win2000 i clearly specified system locale as United Kingdom (English) etc. On the Regional Options tab it clearly shows Locale as UK. Input locale is UK English. Fine! But, on System Information the locale is stated as United States!!! This has led to a few problems installing programs that expect to find UK settings (Quake II is an example). I've found a way around this with the help of another forum menber, but still...this is deeply puzzling. Is there a registry trick i can use here? The only thing i can think of is that i downloaded the games compatibility patch from the Microsoft support site which states that it will work only with US versions of software - but this shouldn't have affected my settings. Any ideas?

Ok, An irritating problem has occurred with Windows 2000. Since installing Norton Anti-Virus 2000, Windows 2000 takes forever to settle down at startup. It's not a major problem, but i could easily smoke a large cuban cigar and possibly organize peace in Northern Ireland between the time the desktop appears and Windows finally settles down. Any suggestions please?

Oh dear.......... For some reason known only to God and Gates Quake 2 will not install under Windows 2000. The message i get after clicking the installation prompt is that "This version of Quake II will not install on to this language version of Win95/NT". Funny one this, as I have the english Winy2k and the uk English Quake II, which previously ran fine under the English Windows 98. It's got me stumped. I've tried switching between Regional Settings (Uk & US settings) as suggested by the Activision Support Site to no avail. Perhaps Windows 2000 is cunningly leading Quake II setup to believe that I have a Mandarin or Jamaican English OS version just to serve me right for installing it on a standalone. Who knows? Not me, that's for sure. What's particularly annoying here is that Quake II is NT 4 compatible!! Anyway, it's just that, an annoyance, but I would like to get some fragging in at some point. Oh, Quake 3 Arena (Demo) runs sweetly. Any ideas?