New to XP and confused

[Smoker]

I'm having trouble getting used to XP. It's very slow at doing anything.

I formatted a new hard drive and XP (OEM full version) had at least one
hickup during the NTFS install. It didn't seem to behave correctly on the
desktop so I tried to reinstall it ontop of itself which wasn't any help.

I decided to start over by reformatting C:\ and it deleted everything on my
primary slave D:\ drive! (In DOS mode or whatever, it was obviously C:\)

Now when I boot I get asked which version I want to use... two XPs are
listed with identical names and they appear to act identical on the
desktop/operating environment regardless of which one I choose when I boot.
Except now one won't boot having lost <windows root>system32\hal.dll

XP is using up 4GB of space even though I've installed no programs except
for small apps like AntiVir, Spybot, etc.

I went to PC Pitstop and ran the full tests. It said my hard drive was
running about 1/3 of what it should and it was badly fragmentd. I defragged,
rebooted and that helped very little. When I click on something the mouse
cursor turns into the hourglass while I wait for a folder or anything else
to open. The video is goofy too, sometimes dripping down the screen and
taking awhile before bringing a window in the back to the front when it's
clicked on.

MSCONFIG shows only 7 items starting up and I deleted a few Services:
Infrared Monitor, Task Scheduler, UPS, & Automatic Updates.

The BIOS is the next most recent as the most recent one wouldn't let me
POST. I installed .NET Framework to get my video card drivers updated. My
hdd is in DMA 5 mode.

Should I start over and how is that done without erasing everything on my
other patitions? (I don't trust because it wiped out by D drive earl;ier
which was claimed to be C.) BTW, with only one hdd in now the sequence goes
C - E - F drives skipping the D drive that used to be there. Is that normal?
Trying to find help on Google was futile. Please give me some direction,
thanks.


System:

Win XP home SP2 OEM full version
ASrock K8 Combo-Z mobo
Athlon 64 3000 socket 939
2x 256MB DDR 2100
Radeon 9550 128MB video
Enermax 431W PSU

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

I recommend that you start over. However, starting over with an OEM cd is
trickier than it is with a retail cd. We probably need to know a couple of
things before we can go further. There are some issues in getting the hard
drive back to its original condition.

What do you mean by "OEM full version"? (there is no upgrade version) Does
the cd say on it "only for a new computer"?
What size is your hard drive and is it on an IDE, SATA, or SCSI controller?
Do you have any other Windows installation media for any other computers?
(doesn't have to be XP)

As for XP using 4GB with just the system and a 'few' programs, that does not
surprise me. It sounds pretty normal, given that you have some duplicate
files.

 

[Smoker]

Thanks for your response Colin. I'll be happy to start over.

The only drive in the system now is an IDE 80GB Seagate with 3 partitions on
it, C - E - F according to XP. The C:\ partition is 20GB.

The CD is an OEM disk for new PCs. I copied it to a partition hoping I could
either install from there or at least not be bothered by Windows' request to
shove the install CD in the drive every once in awhile like Win98 does.

I have a Win98 CD and Win98 boot disk that I use often when I want to do
things from DOS. I can change the BIOS to boot first from wherever you
advise.

I have read most everything on this site:

http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html#steps

Seems it assumes you are using a retail version. How do you recommend I
proceed? I've never used Fdisk before.

I recommend that you start over. However, starting over with an OEM cd is
trickier than it is with a retail cd. We probably need to know a couple of
things before we can go further. There are some issues in getting the hard
drive back to its original condition.

What do you mean by "OEM full version"? (there is no upgrade version)
Does the cd say on it "only for a new computer"?
What size is your hard drive and is it on an IDE, SATA, or SCSI
controller?
Do you have any other Windows installation media for any other computers?
(doesn't have to be XP)

As for XP using 4GB with just the system and a 'few' programs, that does
not surprise me. It sounds pretty normal, given that you have some
duplicate files.

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)

I'm having trouble getting used to XP. It's very slow at doing anything.

I formatted a new hard drive and XP (OEM full version) had at least one
hickup during the NTFS install. It didn't seem to behave correctly on the
desktop so I tried to reinstall it ontop of itself which wasn't any help.

I decided to start over by reformatting C:\ and it deleted everything on
my primary slave D:\ drive! (In DOS mode or whatever, it was obviously
C:\)

Now when I boot I get asked which version I want to use... two XPs are
listed with identical names and they appear to act identical on the
desktop/operating environment regardless of which one I choose when I
boot. Except now one won't boot having lost <windows
root>system32\hal.dll

XP is using up 4GB of space even though I've installed no programs except
for small apps like AntiVir, Spybot, etc.

I went to PC Pitstop and ran the full tests. It said my hard drive was
running about 1/3 of what it should and it was badly fragmentd. I
defragged, rebooted and that helped very little. When I click on
something the mouse cursor turns into the hourglass while I wait for a
folder or anything else to open. The video is goofy too, sometimes
dripping down the screen and taking awhile before bringing a window in
the back to the front when it's clicked on.

MSCONFIG shows only 7 items starting up and I deleted a few Services:
Infrared Monitor, Task Scheduler, UPS, & Automatic Updates.

The BIOS is the next most recent as the most recent one wouldn't let me
POST. I installed .NET Framework to get my video card drivers updated. My
hdd is in DMA 5 mode.

Should I start over and how is that done without erasing everything on my
other patitions? (I don't trust because it wiped out by D drive earl;ier
which was claimed to be C.) BTW, with only one hdd in now the sequence
goes C - E - F drives skipping the D drive that used to be there. Is that
normal? Trying to find help on Google was futile. Please give me some
direction, thanks.


System:

Win XP home SP2 OEM full version
ASrock K8 Combo-Z mobo
Athlon 64 3000 socket 939
2x 256MB DDR 2100
Radeon 9550 128MB video
Enermax 431W PSU

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Boot order should be floppy, cd, hdd.

What is in the D: and E: partitions? Do you have data stored there?

To determine if the OEM cd will ignore what you have done so far (I hope so,
but doubt it):

Put the XP cd in the drive and reboot into the installer. If all goes well
you will reach a screen which lists the partitions on the drive and asks
which one you want to use. Use the first partition, since you want to use
the C: drive. Do a full NTFS format and then proceed.

If you get a message along the way that you cannot use the OEM cd because
there is a copy of Windows on the drive, then we will have to take
additional steps. I don't want to use fdisk unless we have to or you decide
you do not want the present partitioning of the drive (I would not partition
it, but it does not matter).

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)

Thanks for your response Colin. I'll be happy to start over.

The only drive in the system now is an IDE 80GB Seagate with 3 partitions
on it, C - E - F according to XP. The C:\ partition is 20GB.

The CD is an OEM disk for new PCs. I copied it to a partition hoping I
could either install from there or at least not be bothered by Windows'
request to shove the install CD in the drive every once in awhile like
Win98 does.

I have a Win98 CD and Win98 boot disk that I use often when I want to do
things from DOS. I can change the BIOS to boot first from wherever you
advise.

I have read most everything on this site:

http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html#steps

Seems it assumes you are using a retail version. How do you recommend I
proceed? I've never used Fdisk before.

I recommend that you start over. However, starting over with an OEM cd is
trickier than it is with a retail cd. We probably need to know a couple
of things before we can go further. There are some issues in getting the
hard drive back to its original condition.

What do you mean by "OEM full version"? (there is no upgrade version)
Does the cd say on it "only for a new computer"?
What size is your hard drive and is it on an IDE, SATA, or SCSI
controller?
Do you have any other Windows installation media for any other computers?
(doesn't have to be XP)

As for XP using 4GB with just the system and a 'few' programs, that does
not surprise me. It sounds pretty normal, given that you have some
duplicate files.

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)

I'm having trouble getting used to XP. It's very slow at doing anything.

I formatted a new hard drive and XP (OEM full version) had at least one
hickup during the NTFS install. It didn't seem to behave correctly on
the desktop so I tried to reinstall it ontop of itself which wasn't any
help.

I decided to start over by reformatting C:\ and it deleted everything on
my primary slave D:\ drive! (In DOS mode or whatever, it was obviously
C:\)

Now when I boot I get asked which version I want to use... two XPs are
listed with identical names and they appear to act identical on the
desktop/operating environment regardless of which one I choose when I
boot. Except now one won't boot having lost <windows
root>system32\hal.dll

XP is using up 4GB of space even though I've installed no programs
except for small apps like AntiVir, Spybot, etc.

I went to PC Pitstop and ran the full tests. It said my hard drive was
running about 1/3 of what it should and it was badly fragmentd. I
defragged, rebooted and that helped very little. When I click on
something the mouse cursor turns into the hourglass while I wait for a
folder or anything else to open. The video is goofy too, sometimes
dripping down the screen and taking awhile before bringing a window in
the back to the front when it's clicked on.

MSCONFIG shows only 7 items starting up and I deleted a few Services:
Infrared Monitor, Task Scheduler, UPS, & Automatic Updates.

The BIOS is the next most recent as the most recent one wouldn't let me
POST. I installed .NET Framework to get my video card drivers updated.
My hdd is in DMA 5 mode.

Should I start over and how is that done without erasing everything on
my other patitions? (I don't trust because it wiped out by D drive
earl;ier which was claimed to be C.) BTW, with only one hdd in now the
sequence goes C - E - F drives skipping the D drive that used to be
there. Is that normal? Trying to find help on Google was futile. Please
give me some direction, thanks.


System:

Win XP home SP2 OEM full version
ASrock K8 Combo-Z mobo
Athlon 64 3000 socket 939
2x 256MB DDR 2100
Radeon 9550 128MB video
Enermax 431W PSU

 

[Smoker]

Thank you once again. I will give it a go and let you know how it goes.

Meanwhile I ordered another hdd, a SATA this time and also 80GB in case this
doesn't workout.

I partition because I have the Win 98 mindset I guess. If the system went
afoul on C: and I had to reformat it, I'd still have my backed up junk (lots
of little customizing apps, drivers, personal stuff, My Documents contents,
etc.) on a partition.

Why would you not partition? Because an 80GB drive is small these days?

WinXP has proven to me from the get-go that it isn't foolproof and even
having backups on a separate hdd made no difference (I'll be getting a DVD
burner or external hdd). I don't play games and the only massive program I
have is MS Picture It which used to take 1GB space on Win98 and I'd still
like to install '98 again on a partition or separate drive once I learn
about dual booting.

Currently I have no data on D (a copy of the WinXP disk), but backups are on
E. I don't mind combining C & D into a 50GB partition if that's advisible. I
feel fortunate to have an MVP helping me along.

Boot order should be floppy, cd, hdd.

What is in the D: and E: partitions? Do you have data stored there?

To determine if the OEM cd will ignore what you have done so far (I hope
so, but doubt it):

Put the XP cd in the drive and reboot into the installer. If all goes
well you will reach a screen which lists the partitions on the drive and
asks which one you want to use. Use the first partition, since you want
to use the C: drive. Do a full NTFS format and then proceed.

If you get a message along the way that you cannot use the OEM cd because
there is a copy of Windows on the drive, then we will have to take
additional steps. I don't want to use fdisk unless we have to or you
decide you do not want the present partitioning of the drive (I would not
partition it, but it does not matter).

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)

Thanks for your response Colin. I'll be happy to start over.

The only drive in the system now is an IDE 80GB Seagate with 3 partitions
on it, C - E - F according to XP. The C:\ partition is 20GB.

The CD is an OEM disk for new PCs. I copied it to a partition hoping I
could either install from there or at least not be bothered by Windows'
request to shove the install CD in the drive every once in awhile like
Win98 does.

I have a Win98 CD and Win98 boot disk that I use often when I want to do
things from DOS. I can change the BIOS to boot first from wherever you
advise.

I have read most everything on this site:

http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html#steps

Seems it assumes you are using a retail version. How do you recommend I
proceed? I've never used Fdisk before.

I recommend that you start over. However, starting over with an OEM cd
is trickier than it is with a retail cd. We probably need to know a
couple of things before we can go further. There are some issues in
getting the hard drive back to its original condition.

What do you mean by "OEM full version"? (there is no upgrade version)
Does the cd say on it "only for a new computer"?
What size is your hard drive and is it on an IDE, SATA, or SCSI
controller?
Do you have any other Windows installation media for any other
computers? (doesn't have to be XP)

As for XP using 4GB with just the system and a 'few' programs, that does
not surprise me. It sounds pretty normal, given that you have some
duplicate files.

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)
I'm having trouble getting used to XP. It's very slow at doing
anything.

I formatted a new hard drive and XP (OEM full version) had at least one
hickup during the NTFS install. It didn't seem to behave correctly on
the desktop so I tried to reinstall it ontop of itself which wasn't any
help.

I decided to start over by reformatting C:\ and it deleted everything
on my primary slave D:\ drive! (In DOS mode or whatever, it was
obviously C:\)

Now when I boot I get asked which version I want to use... two XPs are
listed with identical names and they appear to act identical on the
desktop/operating environment regardless of which one I choose when I
boot. Except now one won't boot having lost <windows
root>system32\hal.dll

XP is using up 4GB of space even though I've installed no programs
except for small apps like AntiVir, Spybot, etc.

I went to PC Pitstop and ran the full tests. It said my hard drive was
running about 1/3 of what it should and it was badly fragmentd. I
defragged, rebooted and that helped very little. When I click on
something the mouse cursor turns into the hourglass while I wait for a
folder or anything else to open. The video is goofy too, sometimes
dripping down the screen and taking awhile before bringing a window in
the back to the front when it's clicked on.

MSCONFIG shows only 7 items starting up and I deleted a few Services:
Infrared Monitor, Task Scheduler, UPS, & Automatic Updates.

The BIOS is the next most recent as the most recent one wouldn't let me
POST. I installed .NET Framework to get my video card drivers updated.
My hdd is in DMA 5 mode.

Should I start over and how is that done without erasing everything on
my other patitions? (I don't trust because it wiped out by D drive
earl;ier which was claimed to be C.) BTW, with only one hdd in now the
sequence goes C - E - F drives skipping the D drive that used to be
there. Is that normal? Trying to find help on Google was futile. Please
give me some direction, thanks.


System:

Win XP home SP2 OEM full version
ASrock K8 Combo-Z mobo
Athlon 64 3000 socket 939
2x 256MB DDR 2100
Radeon 9550 128MB video
Enermax 431W PSU

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Because making a backup partition on the same hard drive does not protect
against a hard drive failure. Also, most of the partitioning advice from
the old days pertained to operating systems that could not support large
hard drives, not because there was much of a gain from partitioning. In
fact, separating programs and data in partitions on the same drive usually
increases the distance the read/write heads have to move. The only gain to
be had is if the separation is between drives on different controllers, not
partitions on the same drive.

With NTFS and support for drives greater than 137GB, all of those reasons
have gone away. A second drive is a good place to use for backups. I use
an external usb2 hard drive but an internal SATA drive is a little bit
faster.

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)

Thank you once again. I will give it a go and let you know how it goes.

Meanwhile I ordered another hdd, a SATA this time and also 80GB in case
this doesn't workout.

I partition because I have the Win 98 mindset I guess. If the system went
afoul on C: and I had to reformat it, I'd still have my backed up junk
(lots of little customizing apps, drivers, personal stuff, My Documents
contents, etc.) on a partition.

Why would you not partition? Because an 80GB drive is small these days?

WinXP has proven to me from the get-go that it isn't foolproof and even
having backups on a separate hdd made no difference (I'll be getting a DVD
burner or external hdd). I don't play games and the only massive program I
have is MS Picture It which used to take 1GB space on Win98 and I'd still
like to install '98 again on a partition or separate drive once I learn
about dual booting.

Currently I have no data on D (a copy of the WinXP disk), but backups are
on E. I don't mind combining C & D into a 50GB partition if that's
advisible. I feel fortunate to have an MVP helping me along.

Boot order should be floppy, cd, hdd.

What is in the D: and E: partitions? Do you have data stored there?

To determine if the OEM cd will ignore what you have done so far (I hope
so, but doubt it):

Put the XP cd in the drive and reboot into the installer. If all goes
well you will reach a screen which lists the partitions on the drive and
asks which one you want to use. Use the first partition, since you want
to use the C: drive. Do a full NTFS format and then proceed.

If you get a message along the way that you cannot use the OEM cd because
there is a copy of Windows on the drive, then we will have to take
additional steps. I don't want to use fdisk unless we have to or you
decide you do not want the present partitioning of the drive (I would not
partition it, but it does not matter).

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)

Thanks for your response Colin. I'll be happy to start over.

The only drive in the system now is an IDE 80GB Seagate with 3
partitions on it, C - E - F according to XP. The C:\ partition is 20GB.

The CD is an OEM disk for new PCs. I copied it to a partition hoping I
could either install from there or at least not be bothered by Windows'
request to shove the install CD in the drive every once in awhile like
Win98 does.

I have a Win98 CD and Win98 boot disk that I use often when I want to do
things from DOS. I can change the BIOS to boot first from wherever you
advise.

I have read most everything on this site:

http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html#steps

Seems it assumes you are using a retail version. How do you recommend I
proceed? I've never used Fdisk before.


I recommend that you start over. However, starting over with an OEM cd
is trickier than it is with a retail cd. We probably need to know a
couple of things before we can go further. There are some issues in
getting the hard drive back to its original condition.

What do you mean by "OEM full version"? (there is no upgrade version)
Does the cd say on it "only for a new computer"?
What size is your hard drive and is it on an IDE, SATA, or SCSI
controller?
Do you have any other Windows installation media for any other
computers? (doesn't have to be XP)

As for XP using 4GB with just the system and a 'few' programs, that
does not surprise me. It sounds pretty normal, given that you have
some duplicate files.

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)
I'm having trouble getting used to XP. It's very slow at doing
anything.

I formatted a new hard drive and XP (OEM full version) had at least
one hickup during the NTFS install. It didn't seem to behave correctly
on the desktop so I tried to reinstall it ontop of itself which wasn't
any help.

I decided to start over by reformatting C:\ and it deleted everything
on my primary slave D:\ drive! (In DOS mode or whatever, it was
obviously C:\)

Now when I boot I get asked which version I want to use... two XPs are
listed with identical names and they appear to act identical on the
desktop/operating environment regardless of which one I choose when I
boot. Except now one won't boot having lost <windows
root>system32\hal.dll

XP is using up 4GB of space even though I've installed no programs
except for small apps like AntiVir, Spybot, etc.

I went to PC Pitstop and ran the full tests. It said my hard drive was
running about 1/3 of what it should and it was badly fragmentd. I
defragged, rebooted and that helped very little. When I click on
something the mouse cursor turns into the hourglass while I wait for a
folder or anything else to open. The video is goofy too, sometimes
dripping down the screen and taking awhile before bringing a window in
the back to the front when it's clicked on.

MSCONFIG shows only 7 items starting up and I deleted a few Services:
Infrared Monitor, Task Scheduler, UPS, & Automatic Updates.

The BIOS is the next most recent as the most recent one wouldn't let
me POST. I installed .NET Framework to get my video card drivers
updated. My hdd is in DMA 5 mode.

Should I start over and how is that done without erasing everything on
my other patitions? (I don't trust because it wiped out by D drive
earl;ier which was claimed to be C.) BTW, with only one hdd in now the
sequence goes C - E - F drives skipping the D drive that used to be
there. Is that normal? Trying to find help on Google was futile.
Please give me some direction, thanks.


System:

Win XP home SP2 OEM full version
ASrock K8 Combo-Z mobo
Athlon 64 3000 socket 939
2x 256MB DDR 2100
Radeon 9550 128MB video
Enermax 431W PSU

 

[Kris]

Because making a backup partition on the same hard drive does not protect
against a hard drive failure. Also, most of the partitioning advice from
the old days pertained to operating systems that could not support large
hard drives, not because there was much of a gain from partitioning. In
fact, separating programs and data in partitions on the same drive usually
increases the distance the read/write heads have to move. The only gain to
be had is if the separation is between drives on different controllers, not
partitions on the same drive.

With NTFS and support for drives greater than 137GB, all of those reasons
have gone away. A second drive is a good place to use for backups. I use
an external usb2 hard drive but an internal SATA drive is a little bit
faster.

We actually recommend that you do smaller partitions for harddrives as
Windows will boot up quicker.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

I'm running on a 200GB C: drive and my XP desktop appears in seconds, even
with 30GB on the drive. I don't see how the size of the partition makes any
difference. Partitioning is just going to increase the travel for the
read-write heads during bootup.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Rather than dual booting, consider Virtual PC 2004.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx

Then you could run Win98 right on your XP desktop. You can drag and drop
between them. You can also run other operating systems without
multibooting, such as Linux and other versions of Windows (as long as you
have licenses for each one). Is your Win98 cd a retail cd or an OEM or
restore cd?

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)

Thank you once again. I will give it a go and let you know how it goes.

Meanwhile I ordered another hdd, a SATA this time and also 80GB in case
this doesn't workout.

I partition because I have the Win 98 mindset I guess. If the system went
afoul on C: and I had to reformat it, I'd still have my backed up junk
(lots of little customizing apps, drivers, personal stuff, My Documents
contents, etc.) on a partition.

Why would you not partition? Because an 80GB drive is small these days?

WinXP has proven to me from the get-go that it isn't foolproof and even
having backups on a separate hdd made no difference (I'll be getting a DVD
burner or external hdd). I don't play games and the only massive program I
have is MS Picture It which used to take 1GB space on Win98 and I'd still
like to install '98 again on a partition or separate drive once I learn
about dual booting.

Currently I have no data on D (a copy of the WinXP disk), but backups are
on E. I don't mind combining C & D into a 50GB partition if that's
advisible. I feel fortunate to have an MVP helping me along.

Boot order should be floppy, cd, hdd.

What is in the D: and E: partitions? Do you have data stored there?

To determine if the OEM cd will ignore what you have done so far (I hope
so, but doubt it):

Put the XP cd in the drive and reboot into the installer. If all goes
well you will reach a screen which lists the partitions on the drive and
asks which one you want to use. Use the first partition, since you want
to use the C: drive. Do a full NTFS format and then proceed.

If you get a message along the way that you cannot use the OEM cd because
there is a copy of Windows on the drive, then we will have to take
additional steps. I don't want to use fdisk unless we have to or you
decide you do not want the present partitioning of the drive (I would not
partition it, but it does not matter).

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)

Thanks for your response Colin. I'll be happy to start over.

The only drive in the system now is an IDE 80GB Seagate with 3
partitions on it, C - E - F according to XP. The C:\ partition is 20GB.

The CD is an OEM disk for new PCs. I copied it to a partition hoping I
could either install from there or at least not be bothered by Windows'
request to shove the install CD in the drive every once in awhile like
Win98 does.

I have a Win98 CD and Win98 boot disk that I use often when I want to do
things from DOS. I can change the BIOS to boot first from wherever you
advise.

I have read most everything on this site:

http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html#steps

Seems it assumes you are using a retail version. How do you recommend I
proceed? I've never used Fdisk before.


I recommend that you start over. However, starting over with an OEM cd
is trickier than it is with a retail cd. We probably need to know a
couple of things before we can go further. There are some issues in
getting the hard drive back to its original condition.

What do you mean by "OEM full version"? (there is no upgrade version)
Does the cd say on it "only for a new computer"?
What size is your hard drive and is it on an IDE, SATA, or SCSI
controller?
Do you have any other Windows installation media for any other
computers? (doesn't have to be XP)

As for XP using 4GB with just the system and a 'few' programs, that
does not surprise me. It sounds pretty normal, given that you have
some duplicate files.

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)
I'm having trouble getting used to XP. It's very slow at doing
anything.

I formatted a new hard drive and XP (OEM full version) had at least
one hickup during the NTFS install. It didn't seem to behave correctly
on the desktop so I tried to reinstall it ontop of itself which wasn't
any help.

I decided to start over by reformatting C:\ and it deleted everything
on my primary slave D:\ drive! (In DOS mode or whatever, it was
obviously C:\)

Now when I boot I get asked which version I want to use... two XPs are
listed with identical names and they appear to act identical on the
desktop/operating environment regardless of which one I choose when I
boot. Except now one won't boot having lost <windows
root>system32\hal.dll

XP is using up 4GB of space even though I've installed no programs
except for small apps like AntiVir, Spybot, etc.

I went to PC Pitstop and ran the full tests. It said my hard drive was
running about 1/3 of what it should and it was badly fragmentd. I
defragged, rebooted and that helped very little. When I click on
something the mouse cursor turns into the hourglass while I wait for a
folder or anything else to open. The video is goofy too, sometimes
dripping down the screen and taking awhile before bringing a window in
the back to the front when it's clicked on.

MSCONFIG shows only 7 items starting up and I deleted a few Services:
Infrared Monitor, Task Scheduler, UPS, & Automatic Updates.

The BIOS is the next most recent as the most recent one wouldn't let
me POST. I installed .NET Framework to get my video card drivers
updated. My hdd is in DMA 5 mode.

Should I start over and how is that done without erasing everything on
my other patitions? (I don't trust because it wiped out by D drive
earl;ier which was claimed to be C.) BTW, with only one hdd in now the
sequence goes C - E - F drives skipping the D drive that used to be
there. Is that normal? Trying to find help on Google was futile.
Please give me some direction, thanks.


System:

Win XP home SP2 OEM full version
ASrock K8 Combo-Z mobo
Athlon 64 3000 socket 939
2x 256MB DDR 2100
Radeon 9550 128MB video
Enermax 431W PSU

 

[Smoker~]

Thanks a million Colin! It feels great to be flying normal again. Thanks

also for explaining your reasoning about partitions and backups.

In case anyone else ends up here I'll detail my experience a little

further:


I set the BIOS boot order as you said, but for some reason it bypassed the

XP CD to the hdd wanting to start Windows again. I put the Win98 boot disk

in, rebooted, had a look around, (realized that I likely had formatted my D

drive because a Win98 Startup disk probably can't read NTFS so D became C

as it was still FAT 32?) pulled the boot disk out, rebooted and this time

it picked up the XP CD immediately. It took awhile going along with the

prompts until I reached the partition screen you mentioned. I didn't do the

quick NTFS format and chose the other one -- since you said to do a *full*

format, which took some time, but all went smooth after that.


(Obviously I have a lot of tweaking to do

Boot order should be floppy, cd, hdd.

What is in the D: and E: partitions? Do you have data stored there?

To determine if the OEM cd will ignore what you have done so far (I hope
so, but doubt it):

Put the XP cd in the drive and reboot into the installer. If all goes
well you will reach a screen which lists the partitions on the drive and
asks which one you want to use. Use the first partition, since you want
to use the C: drive. Do a full NTFS format and then proceed.

If you get a message along the way that you cannot use the OEM cd because
there is a copy of Windows on the drive, then we will have to take
additional steps. I don't want to use fdisk unless we have to or you
decide you do not want the present partitioning of the drive (I would not
partition it, but it does not matter).

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)

Thanks for your response Colin. I'll be happy to start over.

The only drive in the system now is an IDE 80GB Seagate with 3 partitions
on it, C - E - F according to XP. The C:\ partition is 20GB.

The CD is an OEM disk for new PCs. I copied it to a partition hoping I
could either install from there or at least not be bothered by Windows'
request to shove the install CD in the drive every once in awhile like
Win98 does.

I have a Win98 CD and Win98 boot disk that I use often when I want to do
things from DOS. I can change the BIOS to boot first from wherever you
advise.

I have read most everything on this site:

http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html#steps

Seems it assumes you are using a retail version. How do you recommend I
proceed? I've never used Fdisk before.

I recommend that you start over. However, starting over with an OEM cd
is trickier than it is with a retail cd. We probably need to know a
couple of things before we can go further. There are some issues in
getting the hard drive back to its original condition.

What do you mean by "OEM full version"? (there is no upgrade version)
Does the cd say on it "only for a new computer"?
What size is your hard drive and is it on an IDE, SATA, or SCSI
controller?
Do you have any other Windows installation media for any other
computers? (doesn't have to be XP)

As for XP using 4GB with just the system and a 'few' programs, that does
not surprise me. It sounds pretty normal, given that you have some
duplicate files.

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)
I'm having trouble getting used to XP. It's very slow at doing
anything.

I formatted a new hard drive and XP (OEM full version) had at least one
hickup during the NTFS install. It didn't seem to behave correctly on
the desktop so I tried to reinstall it ontop of itself which wasn't any
help.

I decided to start over by reformatting C:\ and it deleted everything
on my primary slave D:\ drive! (In DOS mode or whatever, it was
obviously C:\)

Now when I boot I get asked which version I want to use... two XPs are
listed with identical names and they appear to act identical on the
desktop/operating environment regardless of which one I choose when I
boot. Except now one won't boot having lost <windows
root>system32\hal.dll

XP is using up 4GB of space even though I've installed no programs
except for small apps like AntiVir, Spybot, etc.

I went to PC Pitstop and ran the full tests. It said my hard drive was
running about 1/3 of what it should and it was badly fragmentd. I
defragged, rebooted and that helped very little. When I click on
something the mouse cursor turns into the hourglass while I wait for a
folder or anything else to open. The video is goofy too, sometimes
dripping down the screen and taking awhile before bringing a window in
the back to the front when it's clicked on.

MSCONFIG shows only 7 items starting up and I deleted a few Services:
Infrared Monitor, Task Scheduler, UPS, & Automatic Updates.

The BIOS is the next most recent as the most recent one wouldn't let me
POST. I installed .NET Framework to get my video card drivers updated.
My hdd is in DMA 5 mode.

Should I start over and how is that done without erasing everything on
my other patitions? (I don't trust because it wiped out by D drive
earl;ier which was claimed to be C.) BTW, with only one hdd in now the
sequence goes C - E - F drives skipping the D drive that used to be
there. Is that normal? Trying to find help on Google was futile. Please
give me some direction, thanks.


System:

Win XP home SP2 OEM full version
ASrock K8 Combo-Z mobo
Athlon 64 3000 socket 939
2x 256MB DDR 2100
Radeon 9550 128MB video
Enermax 431W PSU

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Great news! Glad to help out.

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)

Thanks a million Colin! It feels great to be flying normal again. Thanks

also for explaining your reasoning about partitions and backups.

In case anyone else ends up here I'll detail my experience a little

further:


I set the BIOS boot order as you said, but for some reason it bypassed the

XP CD to the hdd wanting to start Windows again. I put the Win98 boot disk

in, rebooted, had a look around, (realized that I likely had formatted my
D

drive because a Win98 Startup disk probably can't read NTFS so D became C

as it was still FAT 32?) pulled the boot disk out, rebooted and this time

it picked up the XP CD immediately. It took awhile going along with the

prompts until I reached the partition screen you mentioned. I didn't do
the

quick NTFS format and chose the other one -- since you said to do a *full*

format, which took some time, but all went smooth after that.


(Obviously I have a lot of tweaking to do

Boot order should be floppy, cd, hdd.

What is in the D: and E: partitions? Do you have data stored there?

To determine if the OEM cd will ignore what you have done so far (I hope
so, but doubt it):

Put the XP cd in the drive and reboot into the installer. If all goes
well you will reach a screen which lists the partitions on the drive and
asks which one you want to use. Use the first partition, since you want
to use the C: drive. Do a full NTFS format and then proceed.

If you get a message along the way that you cannot use the OEM cd because
there is a copy of Windows on the drive, then we will have to take
additional steps. I don't want to use fdisk unless we have to or you
decide you do not want the present partitioning of the drive (I would not
partition it, but it does not matter).

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)

Thanks for your response Colin. I'll be happy to start over.

The only drive in the system now is an IDE 80GB Seagate with 3
partitions on it, C - E - F according to XP. The C:\ partition is 20GB.

The CD is an OEM disk for new PCs. I copied it to a partition hoping I
could either install from there or at least not be bothered by Windows'
request to shove the install CD in the drive every once in awhile like
Win98 does.

I have a Win98 CD and Win98 boot disk that I use often when I want to do
things from DOS. I can change the BIOS to boot first from wherever you
advise.

I have read most everything on this site:

http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html#steps

Seems it assumes you are using a retail version. How do you recommend I
proceed? I've never used Fdisk before.


I recommend that you start over. However, starting over with an OEM cd
is trickier than it is with a retail cd. We probably need to know a
couple of things before we can go further. There are some issues in
getting the hard drive back to its original condition.

What do you mean by "OEM full version"? (there is no upgrade version)
Does the cd say on it "only for a new computer"?
What size is your hard drive and is it on an IDE, SATA, or SCSI
controller?
Do you have any other Windows installation media for any other
computers? (doesn't have to be XP)

As for XP using 4GB with just the system and a 'few' programs, that
does not surprise me. It sounds pretty normal, given that you have
some duplicate files.

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)
I'm having trouble getting used to XP. It's very slow at doing
anything.

I formatted a new hard drive and XP (OEM full version) had at least
one hickup during the NTFS install. It didn't seem to behave correctly
on the desktop so I tried to reinstall it ontop of itself which wasn't
any help.

I decided to start over by reformatting C:\ and it deleted everything
on my primary slave D:\ drive! (In DOS mode or whatever, it was
obviously C:\)

Now when I boot I get asked which version I want to use... two XPs are
listed with identical names and they appear to act identical on the
desktop/operating environment regardless of which one I choose when I
boot. Except now one won't boot having lost <windows
root>system32\hal.dll

XP is using up 4GB of space even though I've installed no programs
except for small apps like AntiVir, Spybot, etc.

I went to PC Pitstop and ran the full tests. It said my hard drive was
running about 1/3 of what it should and it was badly fragmentd. I
defragged, rebooted and that helped very little. When I click on
something the mouse cursor turns into the hourglass while I wait for a
folder or anything else to open. The video is goofy too, sometimes
dripping down the screen and taking awhile before bringing a window in
the back to the front when it's clicked on.

MSCONFIG shows only 7 items starting up and I deleted a few Services:
Infrared Monitor, Task Scheduler, UPS, & Automatic Updates.

The BIOS is the next most recent as the most recent one wouldn't let
me POST. I installed .NET Framework to get my video card drivers
updated. My hdd is in DMA 5 mode.

Should I start over and how is that done without erasing everything on
my other patitions? (I don't trust because it wiped out by D drive
earl;ier which was claimed to be C.) BTW, with only one hdd in now the
sequence goes C - E - F drives skipping the D drive that used to be
there. Is that normal? Trying to find help on Google was futile.
Please give me some direction, thanks.


System:

Win XP home SP2 OEM full version
ASrock K8 Combo-Z mobo
Athlon 64 3000 socket 939
2x 256MB DDR 2100
Radeon 9550 128MB video
Enermax 431W PSU

 

[Walter Clayton]

We actually recommend that you do smaller partitions for harddrives as
Windows will boot up quicker.

Say what? You have it backwards. Fewer partitions to enumerate, mount and
few directories to have to have to preload.

 

[Guest]

smoker are you looking up my trouble with sound where are you going to answer
from i am new to this