My computer has more issues than an emo kid

dfacto

Maybe.

Anyways, it crashed on me this weekend and in the end I had to just do a format and install. Now it works (sort of) but I made the cardinal error of reinstalls and went on IE 5 right after install to look for as few drivers I needed. Trojans up the ass in 5 minutes flat, and now I´m weeding them out. However, while doing HD scans for problems, my D partition (where all my precious files are stored) keeps returning paging errors from time to time. To be honest this freaks me the hell out since it is possiblz connected to impending HD failure, so I´m going to run out and grab an HD today just to be sure.

I have a 250 GB maxtor partitioned into a 20 Gb C: and 230 GB drive. I´m going to go get a 320 GB maxtor, and I want to basically use 250 GB of it to back up my other drive, with the rest of the space going towards an alternate boot partition, and porn or something

The problem is that I have no idea how to set this up, since Iäve never had a comp with more than one HD. If I want to have the 320 maxtor backup the 250 do I need to set up a RAID, or use any software for the job, or should I just copy and paste? :P

Any suggestions or links to related articles or tutorials would be much appreciated.

And still on the computer issue, anyone know of radeon x800 cards causing massive startup slowdowns or freezes? This is what started the whole crap I had with my comp this weekend, as I restarted and it froze on the windows load screen over and over. I couldn´t get it to work so I formatted and reinstalled xp, at which point it worked fine. But after I loaded the radeon drivers (original CD, plus not-quite-the-latest-drivers), the xp load screen started to load very slowly again, to the point where I have to wait 2-5 minutes to get into windows. Anyone know whether that would be a driver issue or if my card (or psu) is borked?

wille

mac.in.tosh ^_^

Joshua Stubbles

What if he wants to play real games? Can't do THAT on a mac.

bearkub

boy, you guys are sure helping him with his problems. Oh wait, you aren't! you are just having a stupid, Mac/PC war! this thread is a request for help with a problem. If you can't provide that, go elsewhere.


dfacto: If you just want some files like documents, max files, jpgs and such, just flop new drive in and copy the stuff over. What exactly are you trying to copy over?

Mark Dygert

I think the problem with just plugging in and coping over is that he wants this new drive in two partitions so it can replace both C:\ and \ and he isn't sure how to do that? He runs the risk of backing everything up and having to back it up again to break it into two partitions if he doesn't do that first. At least I think that is the issue...

How to partition your HD using WinXP.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313348

Or he isn't sure how to set up a raid?
Hardware raids are normally covered in your mo-bo manual and can be slightly different for each main board. My best advice is figure out what type of raid you need and then look for answers on setting that up. Most Main Board manuals are online if you can't find yours.

Also next time your system fails to boot or hangs on the loading screen try starting up in safe mode. This is essentially windows with a default set of drivers. If it works you know your issue is more than likely software/driver related and you might be able to fix it. I think you punch F8 or F12 (depends on your computer mfg) after the post screen (dos looking list of drives normally beeps) and before the windows load screen. Might want to look up booting into safe mode, I haven't had to do it in a while.

dfacto

Well, I know how to partition everything like I want, but I was just wondering if there is a program that can do the backing up for me with the click of the mouse, or if I need to go and copy everything and then paste it into the same sized partition on the new drive. I don't really need the backup partition for anything, I just want to be able to have a copy of everything handy in case my HD dies on me. Is there a backup program that would do that efficiently for me, or should I just do it manually with copy and paste?

Also, I've got no idea whether I need ot set up a RAID or not. :P I'm sure I don't want Level 1 RAID where the HD's act as one, but I'm not sure if something like level 5 would allow me to duplicate my C and D partitions while still letting me use the extra space on the larger 320 GB drive for whatever I want, without affecting my original 250 GB drive.

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Also next time your system fails to boot or hangs on the loading screen try starting up in safe mode. This is essentially windows with a default set of drivers. If it works you know your issue is more than likely software/driver related and you might be able to fix it. I think you punch F8 or F12 (depends on your computer mfg) after the post screen (dos looking list of drives normally beeps) and before the windows load screen. Might want to look up booting into safe mode, I haven't had to do it in a while.

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I did, and it didn't really help. I tried system restore, which restored once and then refused to restore again, I tried virus checks, checkdisk, xp recovery console, uninstalling my graphics drivers, taking out PCI cards, swapping them around, unplugging things, changing cables, messing with BIOS, etc etc. Nothing I tried worked, and the problem is a nonspecific freeze after mup.sys loads, which basically means that some driver or hardware problem is causing the crash (from PSU to HD o RAM) so there really wasn't any helpful stuff online for that.

Then I formatted, dicked around with the graphics card, fucked up my boot.ini, and had to use recovery console to fixboot. After that it all worked ok, aside from the aforementioned trojan problem. That ended up getting my internet suspended today cause they were apparently mailers :S

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mac.in.tosh ^_^

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...

Why didn't I think of that!? Why bother fixing my computer for free, or at most for $300 when I could shell out thousands of dollars for something I don't need? You've convinced me, I'm going to order a mac immediately!

JKMakowka

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Why didn't I think of that!? Why bother fixing my computer for free, or at most for $300 when I could shell out thousands of dollars for something I don't need?

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There is a solution to that: LI-NU-X... MACs suck anyway
*runs*

Sorry can't really help you in windows, in linux there is a program called "dd" that would do what you want, but that is probably not what you are asking for.

dfacto

Considering I'm going to have some extra space left over on my 320 GB drive, I might actually give Linux a shot. Any recommendations for a stable, noob friendly version that can run Photoshop, modo, silo and maya?

Mark Dygert

Copy paste will be the quickest most sure way. Some autoback up software compresses which can be a pain when you go to retrive info. I wouldn't worry about the raid unless you want the drive to act as a real time back up. If you're just going to do a one time back up hook it up, copy/paste and call it good.

If you're planning on making it a replacement drive at some point just make sure to partition it ahead of time, but it sounds like you have that covered.

JKMakowka

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Any recommendations for a stable, noob friendly version that can run Photoshop, modo, silo and maya?

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Can't quite tell if you are beeing sarcastic or not
Anyways Ubuntu or better the Kubuntu flavour is very n00b friendly, and Photoshop should run just fine with WINE. Modo has an old version available for Linux but I really don't expect that to change anytime soon. Silo isn't available for Linux, but it is beeing "investigated"... what ever that means.
Maya has a good Linux version, but last time I checked it was a seperate license, so if you already got a windows license you are kind of out of luck, but maybe that was changed lately.

Psyk0

There's norton ghost, it will backup and restore a whole partition in no time.

I made backups of a "clean installation" so whenever i crash i load that bitch on the root drive and i'm up and running in a few minutes. I use extnernal drive to backup important stuff anyway.

Of course the simple copy paste will work.

Mark Dygert

I completely forgot about this until now, but two systems ago I had two removeable HD's. The HD enclosure fit into one of the drive bays and was set as my master drive. One was loaded with Windows and the other Linux. Depending on what I was doing (trying misserably to teach myself linux) I would slide in one or the other. After awhile I just started using the linux HD as a back up drive and reconfigured my HD's. At the time it was all IDE but I'm sure they have the same set ups for SATA now.

Of course with most Mo-Bo's set so you can choose your OS at boot you might not need to go to such extremes. Still it might be handy as it turns any HD into an external drive and is easy to install/remove and was pretty cheap, well cheaper than external HD's anyway. I think I'm going to look into setting that up again this time with SATA. Who knows I might even try Linux again... maybe...

FightingChance

Don't bother with RAID, it's overkill in this sort of application.

Going onto the internet before applying patches/security is dangerous, but you are behind a firewall, yes? (any router, or at least Windows XP SP2 built in software firewall.)

Are you using XP? I don't think we ever established that. You mentioned IE5 earlier, which would suggest Windows 98 or 2000. I suggest an alternative browser such as Firefox, or at least upgrading to Internet Explorer 7.

Microsoft has a free powertoy called 'SyncToy' (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e0fc1154-c975-4814-9649-cce41af06eb7&displaylang=en) that can basically mirror data from a directory of your choosing. You can set it so that it can sync your data from the C: drive to an identical folder on your drive, and a USB drive for travel. You can set it so that the newest file always wins, and that deletes are copied (so if you delete something on one side it'll get rid of it on the mirrored side too, reducing clutter.)

I suggest two physical drives, one for the OS and programs, one purely for backup, as well as a mobile solution like a USB thumb drive or similar.

moose

(///-)