[angeltherat]

ok, here is the scoop.

my sister's computer has some major drag time when opening certain programs and often when right clicking on a file as well as every time i am looking at the contents of her computer and i hit the file button at the top of the window.

i have come her for help before and followed all the helpful tips and links that you offered but to no avail. i have concluded that maybe, just maybe, it is because the o/s is windows me. the computer also has a reoccuring driver problem and a mscrvt (sp) error that offers no details. and i have tried to replace the stupid dll file but it wont let me. (you would honestly think that this computer had a grudge)

so now i have decided that the best way to help my sister is to format the harddrive and start all over again with winxp pro.

she has a dell dimension 4300. i have a dell dimension 8200

here comes the fun part. she also wants me to install a second hard drive. is there anyway i can install that drive, put xp on it, transfer the files and then format the original drive? or should i transfer her critical info to my hard drive and then wipe her computer and install the new hard drive at the same time?

i have already tried to upgrade her computer from me to xp, but it will not let me, so i can't just keep the files where they are.

 

[Lurker1]

I would just install the new drive as a master, Install XP on it and get the system running, Then you can install the original drive as a slave and copy the data files off it. After you are sure all the files you need have been moved you can repartition and reformat the drive with ME on it from the XP system.

 

[WarC]

Ditto.

QUOTE: " is there anyway i can install that drive, put xp on it, transfer the files and then format the original drive? "

Looks like thats how you were thinking, too! It shouldn't have any problems.

Keyword there is SHOULDN'T...but you'd be surprised how finicky those things get with different brand harddrives running different OSes, etc.




Just the other day I tried slaving a 60gig Western Digital off a 15gig Western Digital...The 60gig having data from my old computer, and the 15gig being the master drive of a completely different computer attached to the network. I wanted to transfer some files and then ditch the thing before it died, as Western Digitals make a fun hobby out of dying.

Even with similar brands it was finicky about jumper placement, the BIOS would only detect the master drive if it was set to Cable Select...Maybe because the master drive was older and smaller than the slave drive...Who knows.

After all that, the damn thing only recognizes 25gig of the slave drive and the thing DIES! ******* Western Digital!!!!

About two years worth of data gone...I had a feeling the thing was going to die soon, even though there were no signs of it coming...Then it dies while I'm in the process of moving my data. I went to the garage and grabbed the sledgehammer and promptly pounded that ******* drive six inches into the ground in the backyard.

Got a 80gig Seagate from newegg waiting to hit my doorstep any time now, though...Mmmm. Then we can get back to gaming goodness...

Sorry for the long winded story, your situation reminded me of it. Theres probably a morale in there somewhere, but I'm far too lazy to think one up right now.

 

[griffinspc]

Before you go through this what are the machines specs, how much ram in particular since XP Pro should have a minimum of 128, at least according to Microsoft. I think most of us would agree 256 is better. The Dell spec site says that machine could have come with a 64 MB setup.

 

[angeltherat]

it did but a year or two ago, i got more active memory for the machine. something like 256? more.

omg. my sister got a western digital hard drive. eep!

 

[griffinspc]

Now now, I happen to have a lot of WD drives and have never had a problem.

You should make sure the machine's running 256 or higher before you begin. It seems odd to me that the machine wouldn;t let you upgrade to XP from ME. memory requirements may be the cause or you may have other issues.

 

[angeltherat]

the active memory has really been draind for some reason. and i cannot find the source. i have tried so many things that so many from here have suggested and nothing helps.

one of my sister's friends came over one nite and installed something along the lines of a play online game. and i think that may have something to do with it. or not.

 

[griffinspc]

That defiantly could have something to do with the slowdown of the system. She may have a ton of malware / spyware which is taking over her system.

Can you download and run Hijack this and post the results; http://tomcoyote.com/hjt/

This link ids good because it has a how to.

 

[WarC]

You might also want to run disk defrag and scandisk after clearing up whatever bugs you find. That should help speed things up.

As for the western digital thing...I've just never seen a WD hard-drive last anywhere near as long as I've seen some Seagates and Quantums last...And Maxtors, too, up until recently.

Take a look at our department's dead hard-drive box, and it is full with a disproportionate amount of Western Digital harddrives, the earliest one manufactured in 1998, the latest manufactured 2002.

This, when well over half of our computers have/had 3gig Quantum Fireballs manufactured between 1994-1996. ('Had', because we have been in the process of upgrading all of our computers since this summer)

The longest working WD harddrive I've ever seen was manufactured in 2000 and is still working. It's like a miracle or something. I think it was actually built a few months ago and they spirited it into the computer without me knowing somehow.

I could go into the lab right now and hook up a dust-ridden Quantum from 1996 thats been in two different warehouse computers and it would boot right up, reformat and install a fresh copy of Windows 2000 no questions asked...

I couldn't even get two full years out of my last Western Digital, and if I hadn't pounded it into the ground in frusteration it'd be sitting alongside more than two dozen of its comrades-in-broken-arms.

I would strongly advise against using any Western Digital...That might be my own bias, but life is a thing of experience

 

[griffinspc]

I've just never seen a WD hard-drive last anywhere near as long as I've seen some Seagates and Quantums last...And Maxtors, too, up until recently

I have one machine that has an old p200, wd 550 and wd 800 in it and I've been running it since the dawn of time in PC years. I've loaded W95,98 and different versions of Linux on it and never had a problem with either drive. It's kind of a test machine.

I built my wife's K62 333 at least 4 years ago and it also has a WD. Never a hiccup.

My current machines also have mainly WD and no problems. Are you sure you weren't using WMD's

 

[WarC]

LOL


Just my luck, I suppose. The Western Digital Gods have a serious distaste for me.

EDIT: I think they just dislike being physically moved too much, perhaps a seeking arm that is too prone to being knocked or something. Is it even called a seeking arm?

 

[griffinspc]

I know that feeling, here at work I have the same problem with IBM drives that were actually great drives before they started farming them out but not for me. Failure after failure, weird.

 

[angeltherat]

i did run a hijack log sometime in the past month and while i did need to clean it up a bit, it showed nothing virus related. all i can figure is that something keeps trying to log on to the internet in the background or it is symply winme piling up loads of garbage.

okay, i took the plunge and hooked up the new hard drive. i installed it as the master and the old hd as the slave. everything went so smooth. i was so suprised. (okay, it was my first install of a new hard drive). now i have to help my sister install all the programs she wants on it.

i was planning on wiping the old hard drive and using it as a backup for documents and stuff (bless my sister's heart, she keeps trying to sound like she knows something about computers, she thinks the old hd is useless and needs to be replaced to since it has all this fragmented stuff on it...)

it has served us well, i just think it got mixed up with some bad program. i seriously think that it involves some programs that a friend of hers installed on it to allow her to "play online" even though she is far more interested in age of empires.

i digress

tonite, after work, i plan on loading the xp updates and such...
but reading other threads, i noticed that i should be able to choose which operating system i want to use. i am offered no options at startup tho. it just takes me directly to xp pro. i do have access to all of the other hard drive (even tho the programs most likely won't work) (i haven't tried that yet).

should i even want to try to acces winme?

and does anyone have a link to xp pro computer management tools that can be safely disabled? you know, like messenger? i hate the thought of unnecessary stuff running in the background.

 

[griffinspc]

Originally posted by angeltherat:
i did run a hijack log sometime in the past month and while i did need to clean it up a bit, it showed nothing virus related. all i can figure is that something keeps trying to log on to the internet in the background or it is symply winme piling up loads of garbage.

virus related isn't what we were looking for. Malware or spyware is what might be causing the slowdowns and you are correct that it's probably trying to get out to the internet. It won't show up as a virus.

okay, i took the plunge and hooked up the new hard drive. i installed it as the master and the old hd as the slave. everything went so smooth. i was so surprised. (okay, it was my first install of a new hard drive). now i have to help my sister install all the programs she wants on it.

i was planning on wiping the old hard drive and using it as a backup for documents and stuff

That's the right approach

tonite, after work, i plan on loading the xp updates and such...
but reading other threads, i noticed that i should be able to choose which operating system i want to use. i am offered no options at startup tho. it just takes me directly to xp pro. i do have access to all of the other hard drive (even tho the programs most likely won't work) (i haven't tried that yet).

should i even want to try to acces winme?

No, you'd be better off installing a fresh XP Pro on the new drive, after complete installation, install your AV software, then download and install all the critical updates and service pack 1, then when everything is the latest and greatest, create a folder named "Hold" or some name you like and copy all the files (not programs) you want from the old drive then begin installing the actual programs you want on the new drive with XP Pro.

At the end of this process then you can format the old drive, wiping it clean, and begin using it as a backup and storage drive.

and does anyone have a link to xp pro computer management tools that can be safely disabled? you know, like messenger? i hate the thought of unnecessary stuff running in the background.

Worry about this after all the installs and your machine is running perfectly.

 

[angeltherat]

mmmmwua!

thank you.

 

[angeltherat]

ok, i tthhhhink i have everything i want from the old drive.

but after deleting (accidentally ofcourse) all our documents a few months after getting the computer (a couple of years ago) i am so .... freaked by the thought of formating the old drive and wiping away everything, not knowing what it is for and if it is needed.

 

[griffinspc]

i am so .... freaked by the thought of formating the old drive and wiping away everything, not knowing what it is for and if it is needed.

Well, you can hang on to it forever but I guess my argument for not doing that is right in your statement,

but after deleting (accidentally of course) all our documents a few months after getting the computer

which is a perfect reason to use that old drive for a secure backup. It's so much easier to backup (even manually) to a second drive than tape, floppy's, CDs and zip drives and much more secure.

I use a shareware program named; 2nd Copy, that automatically backs up folders and partitions of my choosing to my second drive. My entire "My Documents" folder is just one of the "profiles" I've created in the program.

If you lose the main drive or accidentally delete files they'll be right there for recovery.

 

[Wet Chicken]

Originally posted by angeltherat:
omg. my sister got a western digital hard drive. eep!

Looks like you will be doing this all over again soon when that WD drive dies

Personally I would never use a WD drive. From now on it's Seagate or IBM all the way (unless there's a really good deal on a Maxtor). Life is short and you've got better things to do than to keep transfering all of your files back and forth from one drive to another. How much did she pay for that drive? CompUSA has a great Seagate 200 gig hard drive on sale for only 99 bucks!

Also if you need those files that you deleted you can install a program called RecoveryExpert Deluxe and it will get them all back for you

 

[griffinspc]

Looks like you will be doing this all over again soon when that WD drive dies

Cruel, or should I say Gruel.

You might want to look at this: http://www.maximumpc.com/reviews/hard_drives/review_2004-01-15.html

This mag is the only one in the industry I know of that takes no crap or allows any manufacturer to sway their opinion. It's one reason the hard copy mag is so expensive.

Take a look at their testing methods vs. the others. http://www.maximumpc.com/reprints/reprint_2001-08-16.html

http://www.maximumpc.com/reviews/hard_drives/index.html

 

[Wet Chicken]

I have owned lots of WD drives, and NONE of them have lasted longer than a year That is why I finally stopped buying them! Ripley's Believe It Or Not is filled with people who claim to have good luck with Western Digital drives, but I've never met one knowledgeable tech who would trust a WD drive for his own files If you've had good luck with them then we're happy for you, but because of the way that they are manufactured the odds are against most people duplicating such good luck with them.

freaked by the thought of formating the old drive and wiping away everything,

Even though people will tell you that once you format that the files are up in smoke and gone forever, it really isn't true. Using RecoveryExpert will bring them all back, and even reclaim lost partitions for you. A great program to have on hand for those "accidental" deletions