xp pro stability

[zeretul1]

i have just installed xp pro by fresh installation, and
had xp home previous. i heard how great it was, and how
much more stable that home it was. i have had it for 2
days, and have had numerous crashes, freezes, and the
topper, i was just perusing my data files when i noticed
multiple folders just missing. these data folders were on
a seperate physical drive than the OS, and i kept them
seperate to protect my data.

i want to know if there is anyway to retrieve these
folders, and why the hell they were deleted. this is my
home compy, and has no ther users. the other computers on
my network dont have access to delete anything, so what
happened?

i borrowed the xp pro disk from a friend who activated it
on his compy, just to see if i liked it. if i can't get
my data back, and the stability doesn't get any better,
microsoft can go screw with there xp pro b*@$%^&t!!!!!

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Purchase your own copy of Windows XP Professional
and perform a "clean install". You did not install XP
correctly!

The Windows XP CD is bootable and contains all the tools necessary
to partition and format your drive. Follow this procedure and allow
Windows XP to partition and format your drive:

NOTE: It would be best to physically disconnect all your peripheral hardware
devices, except the monitor, mouse and keyboard, before installing XP.

NOTE: If you have an internal Zip Drive installed, physically disconnect the
EIDE and power cable to it before proceeding, otherwise your main
hard drive may not be assigned the customary C: drive letter.
After installing Windows XP, you may then reconnect it.

1. Open your BIOS and set your "CD Drive as the first bootable device".

===> Accessing Motherboard BIOS
===> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm

2. Insert your Windows XP CD in the CD Drive and reboot your computer.
3. You'll see a message to boot to the CD....follow the instructions.
4. The setup menu will appear and you should elect to delete all the existing
Windows partitions, then create a new partition, then format the primary
partition (preferably NTFS) and proceed to install Windows XP.

5. Clean Install Windows XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

[Courtesy of Michael Stevens, MS-MVP]

6. ==> Immediately after installing Windows XP, turn on XP's Firewall.
==> http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

7. After Windows XP is installed, visit the Windows Update website
and download the available "Critical Updates".

8. After installing the critical updates, be sure and visit the support website
of the manufacturer of the computer to download and install any
available Windows XP compatible drivers, such as video adapter
and audio drivers.

9. If you happen to run into any installation difficulties, use the following resources:

How to Troubleshoot Windows XP Problems During Installation
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;310064

Troubleshooting Windows XP Setup
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_setup.htm

[Courtesy of MS-MVP Kelly Theriot]

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


|i have just installed xp pro by fresh installation, and
| had xp home previous. i heard how great it was, and how
| much more stable that home it was. i have had it for 2
| days, and have had numerous crashes, freezes, and the
| topper, i was just perusing my data files when i noticed
| multiple folders just missing. these data folders were on
| a seperate physical drive than the OS, and i kept them
| seperate to protect my data.
|
| i want to know if there is anyway to retrieve these
| folders, and why the hell they were deleted. this is my
| home compy, and has no ther users. the other computers on
| my network dont have access to delete anything, so what
| happened?
|
| i borrowed the xp pro disk from a friend who activated it
| on his compy, just to see if i liked it. if i can't get
| my data back, and the stability doesn't get any better,
| microsoft can go screw with there xp pro b*@$%^&t!!!!!

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

Whoever told you Windows XP Pro is more stable than Home, knows less
about the two than you.
They are both identical in stability and performance.
In the future you should get information from reliable sources and
leave your current source to hamburgers, French fries and funny hats
where the source belongs.

As for your data, hopefully you have back-ups...always a good idea,
not just when upgrading.
From an Administrator account search for a lost file by name.
If you find one, you will likely find the rest.
Also try Disk Management:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=309000

As for crashes, freezes etc, if it worked with Windows XP Home, it
will with Pro for the reasons previously stated.
You could have a driver issue or some other issue.
A Clean install may be best if you still want Pro and necessary since
there is no downgrade path to Windows XP Home if Home is desired:
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/cleanxp.htm

For what you stated, there is no reason to get Pro.
You do not seem to need any of the features, certainly not $100 worth.

 

[Guest]

zeretul1,

Can't say anything from MS, but have some thoughts of my own...

I've been running Windows 3.x, 95, 98, 2000, XP, 2003 (on many computers) for years. And to be honest, 2000 and XP are the best things “they†made so far. Don't see much difference between XP Home and XP Pro (at least for home/small business users).

Now, let’s talk about your problems:

First make sure your hardware is OK.
Check Windows XP Professional System Requirements:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/upgrading/sysreqs.mspx

Check Device Manager for improperly installed devices, update wrong/old drivers, scan your hard drive (s) for errors, etc.

Then scan for spyware and viruses:
http://www.fixyourwindows.com/windowsxpsolutions.htm
If you have no AV installed, please use links to free virus scans on the same page.

After checking all this, please see the following Optimization Instructions:
http://www.fixyourwindows.com/optimizewindows.htm

Good Luck!

 

[Richard Urban]

XP Pro is nor more stable than XP home. With a few exceptions, they are the
same. If your computer does not run well with one, it will not run any
better with the other!

You have other problems that affect both, probably hardware problems. OR,
you are becoming infected with malware.

--
Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

In

i have just installed xp pro by fresh installation, and
had xp home previous. i heard how great it was, and how
much more stable that home it was.

What you heard is completely wrong. They are identical in
stability because they are identical in all respects except that
Professional has a few extra features. If you don't need or use
those extra features, you can hardly tell the difference between
the two.

i have had it for 2
days, and have had numerous crashes, freezes, and the
topper, i was just perusing my data files when i noticed
multiple folders just missing. these data folders were on
a seperate physical drive than the OS, and i kept them
seperate to protect my data.

i want to know if there is anyway to retrieve these
folders, and why the hell they were deleted. this is my
home compy, and has no ther users. the other computers on
my network dont have access to delete anything, so what
happened?

If you are having these problems, you either didn't install it
correctly or you are the victim of a virus, spyware, or other
malware. It's difficult to provide specific help when you provide
so little specific information.

i borrowed the xp pro disk from a friend who activated it
on his compy, just to see if i liked it. if i can't get
my data back, and the stability doesn't get any better,
microsoft can go screw with there xp pro b*@$%^&t!!!!!

You have a problem with a product that millions of people around
the world don't have a problem with, and you blame it on
Microsoft?

If you're looking for help here, you can start by realizing that
if XP Home ran stably on your machine and professional doesn't,
the problem is clearly not Microsoft's fault. It's either
something *you* did wrong or some malware you've managed to get
yourself infected with.

If you want help, a little humility on your part would go a long
way, as would some *specific* description of the problems.

 

[zeretul]

"You have a problem with a product that millions of
people around the world don't have a problem with, and
you blame it on Microsoft?

If you're looking for help here, you can start by
realizing that
if XP Home ran stably on your machine and professional
doesn't, the problem is clearly not Microsoft's fault.
It's either something *you* did wrong or some malware
you've managed to get yourself infected with.

If you want help, a little humility on your part would go
a long way, as would some *specific* description of the
problems."


Sorry, I didn't realize I had hurt the multi-billion
dollar company's feelings.

As far as being specific, I said exactly what happened.
Multiple crashes, freezes, and folders vanishing from a
seperate physical drive than the OS.

It's not malware, spyware, or adware. It's not a virus.
It's not a hacker. So, being that the program is the only
thing new to the system, yes, I blame microsoft.

If you decide to post some useful information instead of
telling me to show some humility before the great deity
WINDOWS XP PROFESSIONAL, I would be much obliged.

Much love!

 

[zeretul1]

I did a search for the specific files in the missing
folders and came up zilch. Anything else I can do, maybe
something in dos?

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

If you tried Disk Management and you still can not locate the files,
perhaps something here can help:
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/datrec.htm

 

[zeretul1]

I'm a little confused by what your suggesting I do with
disk management.

I have two physical drives, and the partitions are set up
as one physical drive with two virtual drives, and then
one physical drive with a single partition. My OS is kept
on the drive with two partitions, and my lost data on the
single partition drive.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

In

"You have a problem with a product that millions of
people around the world don't have a problem with, and
you blame it on Microsoft?

If you're looking for help here, you can start by
realizing that
if XP Home ran stably on your machine and professional
doesn't, the problem is clearly not Microsoft's fault.
It's either something *you* did wrong or some malware
you've managed to get yourself infected with.

If you want help, a little humility on your part would go
a long way, as would some *specific* description of the
problems."


Sorry, I didn't realize I had hurt the multi-billion
dollar company's feelings.

I am not "the multi-billion dollar company." I don't even work
for them. And you haven't hurt my feelings. You may not realize
it, but I was trying to help you.

As far as being specific, I said exactly what happened.
Multiple crashes, freezes, and folders vanishing from a
seperate physical drive than the OS.

You haven't come close to saying "exactly what happened." Under
what circumstances do the crashes and freezes occur? What are you
doing at the time? Crashes are accompanied by error messages;
what are the error messages, *exactly*? What folders vanish?
When? What were you doing? And so on. Problems can be diagnosed
with specific information, not without it.

It's not malware, spyware, or adware. It's not a virus.

Again, you need to provide specific information. How do you know
those things? What have you done to rule them out?

 

[zeretul1]

Well, I have had valuable advise posted on various
problems with less specific information, but some people
need to have it spelled out for them, so here goes...


No crashes with error codes, so I guess that means only
freezes. I have to reboot the computer. They have occured
when using video editting software, viewing video clips,
viewing picture files, accessing folders, accessing
drives, accessing portable storage media, and opening a
host of programs.

The folders that vanished were, as stated on a seperate
drive than the OS, in my E: drive. The folder path would
be something like E:\my stuff\software\video tools, with
the video tools folder being the one that vanished. I
lost 4 folders in my "software" sub-folder, and 5 folder
in a sub-folder labeled "Word pages". The folders that
vanished in the word pages sub-folder were all the
folders in that sub-folder. The data lost in each folder
were between 3 and 15 files of various type, such
as .exe, .txt, .zip, and others. As far as when these
folders were lost, I shut down my computer after the in-
program full re-install (meaning I did the full re-
install from inside windows, not a fresh boot) and when I
restarted the pc the next day and went to access one of
those folders, I noticed it was not there. I checked all
my folders on this drive, and these 9 are the folders I
lost.

And I said that It is not a virus, spyware, malware or
adware because I have spybot 1.3, ad-aware 6.0, McAfee
virusscan 8.0 and mcafee firewall 5.0. And The fact that
this is a re-installation with no initial internet
access, so how could malicious software be uploaded?

Hope this helps. If you need any further information,
please reply with some info first on what you think it
may be

I am not "the multi-billion dollar company." I don't even work
for them. And you haven't hurt my feelings. You may not realize
it, but I was trying to help you.

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

If your computer already recognizes the drive, you are stuck with the
options in the link I provided.

 

[Mark]

No crashes with error codes, so I guess that means only
freezes. I have to reboot the computer. They have occured
when using video editting software, viewing video clips,
viewing picture files, accessing folders, accessing
drives, accessing portable storage media, and opening a
host of programs.

Is that an NTFS disk? When Premiere locks up or spontaneously reboots
my PC (as it likes to do now and again), XP has often deleted files
from my NTFS capture disk, and/or corrupted other files... seems that
if you want to make sure files will actually stay on your NTFS hard
drive and still have the contents that you put in them, you need to
reboot after writing them.

Mark

 

[Steve N.]

Well, I have had valuable advise posted on various
problems with less specific information, but some people
need to have it spelled out for them, so here goes...


No crashes with error codes, so I guess that means only
freezes. I have to reboot the computer. They have occured
when using video editting software, viewing video clips,
viewing picture files, accessing folders, accessing
drives, accessing portable storage media, and opening a
host of programs.

The folders that vanished were, as stated on a seperate
drive than the OS, in my E: drive. The folder path would
be something like E:\my stuff\software\video tools, with
the video tools folder being the one that vanished. I
lost 4 folders in my "software" sub-folder, and 5 folder
in a sub-folder labeled "Word pages". The folders that
vanished in the word pages sub-folder were all the
folders in that sub-folder. The data lost in each folder
were between 3 and 15 files of various type, such
as .exe, .txt, .zip, and others. As far as when these
folders were lost, I shut down my computer after the in-
program full re-install (meaning I did the full re-
install from inside windows, not a fresh boot) and when I
restarted the pc the next day and went to access one of
those folders, I noticed it was not there. I checked all
my folders on this drive, and these 9 are the folders I
lost.

And I said that It is not a virus, spyware, malware or
adware because I have spybot 1.3, ad-aware 6.0, McAfee
virusscan 8.0 and mcafee firewall 5.0. And The fact that
this is a re-installation with no initial internet
access, so how could malicious software be uploaded?

Hope this helps. If you need any further information,
please reply with some info first on what you think it
may be

I would do a thorough disk check (scan for bad blocks) on your E: drive
if you haven't already.

Steve