Problems after installing additional new drive.

[el_omega]

Hello Zeropaid,

First of all I got my new extra drive installed. But I am having trouble with my files.

My music files are all messed up, I had to get rid of them.

I want to know what is the best way of having my second drive partitioned and what programs should be together.

My new drive is partitioned like this:

E: 70gb
F: 40gb
G: 10gb

Now my E drive has all that is music related
F: has most software applications.
G: has stuff I have d/l from internet, mixed stuff.

I am having trouble with playing my music, the files will play but with some distortion and I think it has to do with cpu usage of something I have no idea of yet.

Anyways, I am on my way home, I will explaing with further details,\

Hope you guys can give me the best way of managing my partitions and what should I put there in order for everything to work with no conflictions.

For those who don't know what my situation is read this is how all started, posted by me el_omega (http://www.zeropaid.com/bbs/showthread.php?threadid=9874)

See ya.

[Winphuk]

I have two hard drives. I use partition C: for the first one, and that I use for my system and program files. My other Hard drive is partitioned as F: and I use that for storage. Programs, music, you name it. I also share from that drive. (I put everything in a folder, not share the drive itself. )
Alot of people like to create a bunch of logical partitions, but I don't see much use for it really.
You can manage them by putting them in seperate folders, or arrange icons by type.

[mrlipring]

if you're getting excessive cpu usage after installing a new drive i'd check if dma has become disabled.

[el_omega]

Ok, I am home thanks for the info provided by the first two members.

I have done this so far. I put the jumpers on the right selections. The way I had them at the beginning were cable select for both drivers. Now my 40gb drive has the master jumper selection. And my new drive 120gb has the slave selection.

Trouble I am getting is :

I had Kazaa installed in my master but my downloaded music was at E: drive ( new hard drive ).

So whenever I wanted to play a song using either winamp or WMP, the music plays but with some distortion, then checked task manager and it was Kazaa responsible for this, because it was making use of almost all my cpu, stopping me from playing the music correctly. In other words is not that the file is corrupt, it is that when I tried to play it or do any other task like opening another program, or just by right clicking on an icon it would take my whole cpu usage and as a result my computer starts to slow down and I had to stop Kazaa from running.

Well, I thought I had this figured, because I did uninstalled Kazaa from my C: and did a registry clean using JV16Powertools, making sure there were no traces of Kazaa left out.

Then I re-installed Kazaa in my E: along with my music folder and also did the same with winamp, thinking that by doing so I would not have this trouble again.

At the beginning it did, when I opened up Kazaa, everything was fine I d/l a couple of songs, and played them and everything was normal.

After a while I tried to play same songs using WMP9 which is in C: drive and same problem again it started to distort my song.

So I have been thinking of maybe just using my 120gb as my master. But would not know how to do it, because it has been already partitioned, maybe I could.

I don't know what is the use for partitioning, maybe Winphuk is right.

Any suggestions?

[mrlipring]

partitions help you not lose things when you reinstall windows...

when reinstalling, formatting is a must. you should always start with a clean install.

i have a 30gb and a 60gb drive in this machine.

the 30gb has a 5gb windows partition, and a 25gb temp partition for downloads, temp file from dvd ripping and all that.

the 60gb drive is full of albums.

if i reinstall windows, my mp3 and temp drive don't get affected.

[el_omega]

if you're getting excessive cpu usage after installing a new drive i'd check if dma has become disabled.

I just checked and DMA is enabled.

I don't know what is causing this, as far as other applications they run just fine.

If I wanted to install O/S in my new drive, and use it as my master drive, could I do this using Partition Magic?

This would be my last alternative if I can not make my computer work right.

[el_omega]

ok, I can see there are some other interesting threads.

Well, I will be patient and just wait. What other alternative I have, right?

[g l i t c h]

Also put your swap file on a different drive other than the main os drive, or spread it over 2 or all 3.

[mrlipring]

yeah, it's a good idea to have your swap file on a separate PHYSICAL drive to the one windows is installed one.

Make it a fixed size too, a gig or a gig and a half if you don't have much physical memory.

[el_omega]

yeah, it's a good idea to have your swap file on a separate PHYSICAL drive to the one windows is installed one.

How do I do this?

[mrlipring]

depends on the os.

i'll assung you're using winXP.

right click my computer.

advanced.

performance/settings.

advanced.

virtual memory/change.

select c and choose no paging file.

press set.

select whatever partition is on another physical drive and choose custom size.

make initial size and maximum size both 1024. press set.

that's you.

it'll ask you to restart windows.

[el_omega]

Cool, I just finished doing so,

I cancelled swap file on my c: and allocated 1024 on e: which is on the new hard drive.

Hope this helps out with something.

Thanks mrlipring

[el_omega]

This thing is driving me crazy, why is it that is doing this to my pc?

It only happens when I am playing music and want at the same time open up another app or by only pointing another music file with my mouse, then the player kind of stalls when playing the file.

What is it I have to do for this to stop from occurring?

Anyone, please possible solutions?

[el_omega]

Ok, I went and burned a cd using Nero which is installed in C: master drive. It did not have trouble dragging files from E: new h/d and burned the cd with no problem.

I did this just to prove if the files were corrupt or not.

The cd is playing right on my home surround system.

But the trouble I get is when I play these files on my pc. They play right as long as I don't do anything else on my pc.

As soon as I just move my mouse to do something else, then my music file being played get distorted, and can't play it right afterwards.

I remembered that I had upgraded to WMP9 from 8 version, don't konw if this has anything to do with it.

I wanted to uninstall WMP9 from PC, but forgot how to do this,

GGRRRRRRRRRrrr, gotta go to google and see what I can find.

Come on guys, I know somebody should have the answer,

[el_omega]

Ok, I have found the source of my problem.

THE INFAMOUS WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER LATEST RELEASE 9.

I just uninstalled all other players I had leaving only WMP, then opened up task manager and realized this f......g player was taking up to 80% cpu causing my pc to stall when directed multitask commands.

Now, I don't know how to get rid of WMP or maybe downgrade to version 8 which was working just fine in my pc.

I guess, I will get a visit to the audio forum, and see what i can find.

Any takers for giving solutions?

[Winphuk]

Actually Microsoft says that you can't uninstall WMP9 once you install it. You don't have to use it though.
You can download Winamp and there are other players that consume less resources.

[mrlipring]

yep. i'd use winamp for audio and media player 6 for video.

start, run, "mplayer2".

[el_omega]

Still, if I use Winamp or any other player, for some reason, I would be having same kind of problem, thought these players are not responsible for taking up cpu, I say these because I tried it, and have seen their activity in task manager.

I think somehow WMP9 is not letting any other players work properly. I have been thinking on making a system restore, though I have read I may f.....up my O/S or different programs I have installed.

Maybe I would just install Windows >>> on my second drive and make it my master, I don't know, so many options.

Why Microsoft has to be so monopolist, by not letting their customers uninstall this player?

I have nothing against Microsoft, but I just think this is anarchy.

[ATLien]

Originally posted by el_omega
Still, if I use Winamp or any other player, for some reason, I would be having same kind of problem, thought these players are not responsible for taking up cpu, I say these because I tried it, and have seen their activity in task manager.

I think somehow WMP9 is not letting any other players work properly. I have been thinking on making a system restore, though I have read I may f.....up my O/S or different programs I have installed.

Maybe I would just install Windows >>> on my second drive and make it my master, I don't know, so many options.

Why Microsoft has to be so monopolist, by not letting their customers uninstall this player?

I have nothing against Microsoft, but I just think this is anarchy.

Do you have the ability to "reformat" the drive that run your OS on?
I installed three HD's on my computer. i reformated my systems hd(after i saved everything on my external hd), then i did a free and clean, full install. After XP was installed it recognized the two other drives.
I turned the external drive off, while doing this because xp will list the external drive first, then internal drives when renaming. i use one drive for music, one drive for movies one drive is my systems drive, and my external drive i use for anything and on-the-go shit. Havn't had a problem since

[ATLien]

Also, if you install WMP 9, the only way you can remove it is to reformat or use the build in restore that xp has. I have my restore turned off because it uses a lot of hd space, plus i reformat every month or two. WMP 9 works great especially when you get all the plugins for it. But also use other media players, too.

LOL

[el_omega]

Atliens, thanks for the info.

How do I do a reformat of my old drive ( master )?

I have Partition Magic, don't know if this could do it and how.

About programs, I wouldn't worry I have them all saved to cds.

How would I clean my master drive off of WINDOWS XP PRO?

so I can make a clean full re-install of windows again.

Thanks.

[ATLien]

Originally posted by el_omega
Atliens, thanks for the info.

How do I do a reformat of my old drive ( master )?

I have Partition Magic, don't know if this could do it and how.

About programs, I wouldn't worry I have them all saved to cds.

How would I clean my master drive off of WINDOWS XP PRO?

so I can make a clean full re-install of windows again.

Thanks.

If you have a copy of the XP disc, run it and it will take you threw the key code, and ask you, either upgrade or full install. Chose the full install and it will go threw all the stuff it does. Then it will reboot. After it reboots, and loads the program, it will ask you which drive do you want to install, choose your system drive, when it read the system drive it will tell you that you have a previous installation, and what to do. Hit full install and then i will ask do you want to format, choose that and it will format.

After it formats, you have to make sure that when it reboots that, the system disc boots so you can re-install. you will have to put the key code in again, but this time when it shows the partition that you want , choose it and it will start to install. Remember when it reboots this time, take the disc out. When xp starts put the disc back in, and let it do it's "thang".

It may sound a little buggy, cause i might have left out minor details, but it is really easy to do. As long as you have an actual copy of the OS system disc. You cant format if you have one of those stupid ass restore disk. This method you don't need to use Partition Magic, either. Let me know if you have any problem.

LOL

[el_omega]

Cool, I am backing up my data now, just in case.

Here is what I had planned to do. I will install Windows Xp Pro in my new drive ( bigger, faster, better ).

Once I have my data backed up ( programs, music, blah, blah ) I will use Partition Magic to get rid of partitiions created and that way I will just have a plain hard drive of 120gb with no partitions and formatted.

Then I will install Windows Xp, and choose full install and the rest is history.

Thanks for support shown my friend.

[chipperrox]

i got one for windows and programs,
one for games music and video- works perfect +swap file

[ATLien]

Originally posted by el_omega
Cool, I am backing up my data now, just in case.

Here is what I had planned to do. I will install Windows Xp Pro in my new drive ( bigger, faster, better ).

Once I have my data backed up ( programs, music, blah, blah ) I will use Partition Magic to get rid of partitiions created and that way I will just have a plain hard drive of 120gb with no partitions and formatted.

Then I will install Windows Xp, and choose full install and the rest is history.

Thanks for support shown my friend.
Dude, you don't need Partition Magic. XP can partition it for you.
when you go to format a 120gb hd, you are actually going to end up with about 112gigs, when done. You also are going to have some "unallocated" space on it around 8-16MB. If you use Partition Magic It's going to move to the unallocation spot of your hard drive. Remember you won't have exactly 120gigs. All three of my hard drives are a 120 gigs advertised, and my systems hd is 80gigs, but when it's all said an done your going to end up with less than that. I'm looking into a 200 gig next. Also can i recommend for a hard drive, i use the WD Cavier hd's, because they came with a 8mb cache, which make they very fast, plus they have a built in data protection, in case they crash(havnt hard that problem).

LOL

[el_omega]

ATLien

Ok, I am done with backing up my files.

If I am right I am going to install windows in my new drive without using Partition Magic. I will let my windows cd do its work.

I will update later.

[el_omega]

No luck, I just tried to install Windows Xp in my new drive with no luck.

Everything went fine, first Windows Startup did the format of my disk then started to install all files from cd to disk.

Finally, it asked me to reboot, and when I did it, nothing.

And I know it is installed because when I tried to do it again on same partition it warned me that I already had an O/S installed on this partition.

This is what I get when restarted my pc:

DISK BOOT FAILURE......INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER

When I do this, this will take me to the set up part again.

I checked the cables and jumper settings and everything is fine.

What did I do wrong?

What do I have to check now?

PLEASE, HELP!!!!!

[el_omega]

Never mind, got it up and running.

Thanks for all help provided.

FYI, I had to go to BIOS and change my boot settings so that my hard drive boots before cdrom.

That just fixed it.

[ATLien]

Originally posted by el_omega
Never mind, got it up and running.

Thanks for all help provided.

FYI, I had to go to BIOS and change my boot settings so that my hard drive boots before cdrom.

That just fixed it.

Yea, remember you have to change your bios so that when you reboot it will start the windows disk and install. Change it back to what ever you want it to be once you get XP installed.

[el_omega]

That is what I meant by my sig

PRACTICE AND BECOME MASTER

[ATLien]

Originally posted by el_omega
That is what I meant by my sig

PRACTICE AND BECOME MASTER

What?