 Vista Crashing |
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 May 2 2007, 04:08 AM
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#1
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 Member  Group: Members Posts: 94 Joined: 25-March 07 From: Honolulu, Hawaii Member No.: 119,903  |
New build, started to load XP Pro, needed product verification code, of which I inadvertently through away Got as far as code request, then aborted the installation. Turned this place upside down looking for this code, no luck Wound up buying Vista Home Premium, loaded it OK for the most part.......... Turns out XP still on my hard drive, waiting for the product code, of which I do not have. System has 3 hard drives, all WD SE sata, 2 250 mb, and 1 500 mb XP was loaded onto 500 drive, disconnected it because of not being able to input code. Loaded Vista onto either 1 or both of the 250's Vista now crashes regularly, I am surprised that it loaded at all....... 500 drive with partial XP load out of the loop, disconnected its input How do I go about dumping XP from this drive? I am almost certain that my problem lies with not enough space on the 2 drives that Vista is loaded onto now..... Is there an easy way to dump partial XP load from 500 drive? If I reconnect this drive to the system, XP starts, cannot exit it without shutting down the system Am I correct in my assumptions? 
-------------------- "Ua mau ke ola o ke kai"
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May 2 2007, 05:28 AM
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#2
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 Forum Addict Group: BC Advisor Posts: 1,875 Joined: 25-November 04 From: Finland Member No.: 5,870 |
I would put the 500GB drive as slave, back-up anything important on it and then reformat it.
Sounds like reformatting and reinstalling Vista would be a good idea as well. -------------------- "Anyone who cannot form a community with others, or who does not need to because he is self-sufficient [...] is either a beast or a god." Aristotle
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ | ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe | 2GB Corsair TWINX2048-3500LLPRO | Gigabyte GeForce 8800GTX | Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS | ASUS PhysX P1 | Logitech G15 | Logitech MX Revolution | LG Flatron L2000C | Logitech Z-5500 Digital Stubborn attempts to think clearly |
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May 2 2007, 06:13 AM
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#3
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 Still visually handicapped, new avatar :0) Group: Moderator Posts: 14,697 Joined: 2-October 05 From: Southeastern CT, USA Member No.: 35,824 |
I agree with Mr Alpha - sounds like the boot sector is also involved in this. First get rid of XP by formatting the drive that it's on. Then format the drive that Vista is on. Finally, format the drive that the computer boots from (if it's different from the Vista and XP drives). You can do this with the Vista boot DVD. Once you choose the partition for Vista, you may want to also create a small (4 - 6 gB) partition at the beginning of one of the drives for use later on (see the last part of this post). It's important that this partition be the first one on that drive - you can then create a partition in the remaining space for storage.
FWIW - I suspect you've got 2 boot sectors - one on the hard disk that XP is installed on, and another on the hard disk that Vista's installed on. Once that's done, have your SATA drivers ready on a floppy - and start to install Vista. When it asks if you want to load drivers for SATA/RAID/SCSI drivers, insert the floppy and let it load. Then finish the Vista installation. If you get the error message again, please let us know the code that it gives. Most likely it's a driver issue with a piece of hardware, and I find that most times the drive issue is related to the SATA drivers. Finally, once it's up and running, here's a tweak to make it a bit more peppy - go to Start and type in "sysdm.cpl" (without the quotes) and press Enter. Then click on the Advanced tab, then on the Performance Settings button, then on the next Advanced tab, then on the Virtual Memory Change button. Set the paging file to "No Pagefile" on the C: drive, and set the Custom size on the 4 - 6 gB partition to be 2000 max and 2000 min. Then click on the Set button, Click OK to exit all of the dialogs and reboot for the changes to take effect. This'll help to reduce the hard disk bottleneck when using the pagefile - as the pagefile can operate independently of the OS since it's on another physical hard drive. -------------------- - John
**If you need a more detailed explanation, please ask for it. I have the Knack. ** |
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May 2 2007, 06:38 AM
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#4
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Forum Addict Group: BC Advisor Posts: 1,875 Joined: 25-November 04 From: Finland Member No.: 5,870 |
QUOTE(usasma @ May 2 2007, 02:13 PM)  Finally, once it's up and running, here's a tweak to make it a bit more peppy - go to Start and type in "sysdm.cpl" (without the quotes) and press Enter. Then click on the Advanced tab, then on the Performance Settings button, then on the next Advanced tab, then on the Virtual Memory Change button. Hey, that's a really good idea. I never though of that.
Set the paging file to "No Pagefile" on the C: drive, and set the Custom size on the 4 - 6 gB partition to be 2000 max and 2000 min. Then click on the Set button, Click OK to exit all of the dialogs and reboot for the changes to take effect. This'll help to reduce the hard disk bottleneck when using the pagefile - as the pagefile can operate independently of the OS since it's on another physical hard drive. -------------------- "Anyone who cannot form a community with others, or who does not need to because he is self-sufficient [...] is either a beast or a god." Aristotle
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ | ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe | 2GB Corsair TWINX2048-3500LLPRO | Gigabyte GeForce 8800GTX | Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS | ASUS PhysX P1 | Logitech G15 | Logitech MX Revolution | LG Flatron L2000C | Logitech Z-5500 Digital Stubborn attempts to think clearly |
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May 2 2007, 06:43 AM
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#5
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Still visually handicapped, new avatar :0) Group: Moderator Posts: 14,697 Joined: 2-October 05 From: Southeastern CT, USA Member No.: 35,824 |
I stumbled upon it while reading up on pagefile performance a while back. The idea is that most pagefile access' will be done while the OS or programs are working - so it'll compete for access to the hard drive (thereby slowing the system down). It'd be even better (IMO) if you put all the Program Files on a 3rd physical hard drive - but haven't tested that and suspect that the difference wouldn't be as noticeable as it was with the pagefile.
I tried this with XP Pro a while back and found a noticeable speed improvement on my system (using 2 W-D Raptor I's). On the new system I set it up that way from the start, so I didn't have a chance to notice any differences with it. -------------------- - John
**If you need a more detailed explanation, please ask for it. I have the Knack. ** |
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May 2 2007, 06:51 AM
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#6
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Forum Addict Group: BC Advisor Posts: 1,875 Joined: 25-November 04 From: Finland Member No.: 5,870 |
I already have my Program Files and games on a separate physical hard drive.
I'll move my pagefile to the new 1TB Hitachi Deskstar drive I'm waiting on and see what happens. Its got 32MB of cache and in some cases performs as fast as the Raptors. Linky QUOTE( Gary Key@AnandTech) Our limited experiences to date with the Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 have been terrific and beyond expectations. The overall performance of this drive has been phenomenal and is close enough to the WD1500ADFD Raptor drive that we consider it a worthy adversary. The Raptors are still the drives to own for benchmarking but this drive is a better overall performance value. In fact, based upon subjective testing we could seriously consider tossing this drive into the same performance sector as the WD Raptor when utilized in the typical gaming or enthusiast level machine where this drive will likely find a home.
-------------------- "Anyone who cannot form a community with others, or who does not need to because he is self-sufficient [...] is either a beast or a god." Aristotle
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ | ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe | 2GB Corsair TWINX2048-3500LLPRO | Gigabyte GeForce 8800GTX | Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS | ASUS PhysX P1 | Logitech G15 | Logitech MX Revolution | LG Flatron L2000C | Logitech Z-5500 Digital Stubborn attempts to think clearly |
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May 2 2007, 07:01 AM
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#7
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Still visually handicapped, new avatar :0) Group: Moderator Posts: 14,697 Joined: 2-October 05 From: Southeastern CT, USA Member No.: 35,824 |
Wow! Way cool! I'm using the new Raptors on my system (got a deal on them from work) and they are the bomb!
-------------------- - John
**If you need a more detailed explanation, please ask for it. I have the Knack. ** |
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May 2 2007, 07:16 PM
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#8
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Member Group: Members Posts: 94 Joined: 25-March 07 From: Honolulu, Hawaii Member No.: 119,903 |
QUOTE(usasma @ May 2 2007, 01:13 AM) I agree with Mr Alpha - sounds like the boot sector is also involved in this. First get rid of XP by formatting the drive that it's on. Then format the drive that Vista is on. Finally, format the drive that the computer boots from (if it's different from the Vista and XP drives). You can do this with the Vista boot DVD. Once you choose the partition for Vista, you may want to also create a small (4 - 6 gB) partition at the beginning of one of the drives for use later on (see the last part of this post). It's important that this partition be the first one on that drive - you can then create a partition in the remaining space for storage. FWIW - I suspect you've got 2 boot sectors - one on the hard disk that XP is installed on, and another on the hard disk that Vista's installed on. Once that's done, have your SATA drivers ready on a floppy - and start to install Vista. When it asks if you want to load drivers for SATA/RAID/SCSI drivers, insert the floppy and let it load. Then finish the Vista installation. If you get the error message again, please let us know the code that it gives. Most likely it's a driver issue with a piece of hardware, and I find that most times the drive issue is related to the SATA drivers. Finally, once it's up and running, here's a tweak to make it a bit more peppy - go to Start and type in "sysdm.cpl" (without the quotes) and press Enter. Then click on the Advanced tab, then on the Performance Settings button, then on the next Advanced tab, then on the Virtual Memory Change button. Set the paging file to "No Pagefile" on the C: drive, and set the Custom size on the 4 - 6 gB partition to be 2000 max and 2000 min. Then click on the Set button, Click OK to exit all of the dialogs and reboot for the changes to take effect. This'll help to reduce the hard disk bottleneck when using the pagefile - as the pagefile can operate independently of the OS since it's on another physical hard drive. Will do tomorrow John, Thanks again....... -------------------- "Ua mau ke ola o ke kai"
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May 4 2007, 11:37 AM
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#9
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Member Group: Members Posts: 94 Joined: 25-March 07 From: Honolulu, Hawaii Member No.: 119,903 |
QUOTE(usasma @ May 2 2007, 01:13 AM) I agree with Mr Alpha - sounds like the boot sector is also involved in this. First get rid of XP by formatting the drive that it's on. Then format the drive that Vista is on. Finally, format the drive that the computer boots from (if it's different from the Vista and XP drives). You can do this with the Vista boot DVD. Once you choose the partition for Vista, you may want to also create a small (4 - 6 gB) partition at the beginning of one of the drives for use later on (see the last part of this post). It's important that this partition be the first one on that drive - you can then create a partition in the remaining space for storage. FWIW - I suspect you've got 2 boot sectors - one on the hard disk that XP is installed on, and another on the hard disk that Vista's installed on. Once that's done, have your SATA drivers ready on a floppy - and start to install Vista. When it asks if you want to load drivers for SATA/RAID/SCSI drivers, insert the floppy and let it load. Then finish the Vista installation. If you get the error message again, please let us know the code that it gives. Most likely it's a driver issue with a piece of hardware, and I find that most times the drive issue is related to the SATA drivers. Finally, once it's up and running, here's a tweak to make it a bit more peppy - go to Start and type in "sysdm.cpl" (without the quotes) and press Enter. Then click on the Advanced tab, then on the Performance Settings button, then on the next Advanced tab, then on the Virtual Memory Change button. Set the paging file to "No Pagefile" on the C: drive, and set the Custom size on the 4 - 6 gB partition to be 2000 max and 2000 min. Then click on the Set button, Click OK to exit all of the dialogs and reboot for the changes to take effect. This'll help to reduce the hard disk bottleneck when using the pagefile - as the pagefile can operate independently of the OS since it's on another physical hard drive. Thanks John for the response again, Still having problems, before I go any further I have a few questions, Was I supposed to format the drive that the O/S was loaded onto before actually loading Vista, or did the program do that automatically? I think that the initial load of XP (remembering that I aborted this load) was incompletely loaded onto the 500 mb drive, I reformatted this drive (did not realize that it would take so long). I also believe that Vista was loaded onto this drive also. However, Vista still operates, albeit not too well, it still crashes. Is it possibel that part if not all of Vista was loaded elsewhere in the system? How would I be able to verify this? I think that at this point I will re-format all 3 hard drives (2X250, 1X500) and start anew. The boot order is set for DVD/CD player first, 500 drive second, 1 of the 250 drives third, then the second 250 drive last, is this correct? Will I be able to reformat all drives using the cd that came with the drives (Western Digital) ? How do I go about doing this? Please remember that I am a newbie, please bear with me, your patience so far is amazing...... Would you be able to provide a step by step guide for this, or direct me to a blog that would put this in laymans terms? 
-------------------- "Ua mau ke ola o ke kai"
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May 4 2007, 11:53 AM
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#10
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Forum Addict Group: BC Advisor Posts: 1,875 Joined: 25-November 04 From: Finland Member No.: 5,870 |
The boot order is fine.
You can use the Vista DVD to format the drives:
-------------------- "Anyone who cannot form a community with others, or who does not need to because he is self-sufficient [...] is either a beast or a god." Aristotle
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ | ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe | 2GB Corsair TWINX2048-3500LLPRO | Gigabyte GeForce 8800GTX | Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS | ASUS PhysX P1 | Logitech G15 | Logitech MX Revolution | LG Flatron L2000C | Logitech Z-5500 Digital Stubborn attempts to think clearly |
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May 4 2007, 08:45 PM
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#11
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Member Group: Members Posts: 94 Joined: 25-March 07 From: Honolulu, Hawaii Member No.: 119,903 |
QUOTE(Mr Alpha @ May 4 2007, 06:53 AM) The boot order is fine. You can use the Vista DVD to format the drives:
Thanks again John, you're amazing........will do tomorrow when I get home and keep you posted...... 
-------------------- "Ua mau ke ola o ke kai"
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May 5 2007, 03:27 AM
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#12
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Forum Addict Group: BC Advisor Posts: 1,875 Joined: 25-November 04 From: Finland Member No.: 5,870 |
QUOTE(newbie in hawaii @ May 5 2007, 04:45 AM) Thanks again John, you're amazing........will do tomorrow when I get home and keep you posted...... Man, you really know how to hurt ones ego. 
-------------------- "Anyone who cannot form a community with others, or who does not need to because he is self-sufficient [...] is either a beast or a god." Aristotle
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ | ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe | 2GB Corsair TWINX2048-3500LLPRO | Gigabyte GeForce 8800GTX | Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS | ASUS PhysX P1 | Logitech G15 | Logitech MX Revolution | LG Flatron L2000C | Logitech Z-5500 Digital Stubborn attempts to think clearly |
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May 5 2007, 02:58 PM
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#13
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Member Group: Members Posts: 94 Joined: 25-March 07 From: Honolulu, Hawaii Member No.: 119,903 |
QUOTE(Mr Alpha @ May 4 2007, 10:27 PM) QUOTE(newbie in hawaii @ May 5 2007, 04:45 AM) Thanks again John, you're amazing........will do tomorrow when I get home and keep you posted...... Man, you really know how to hurt ones ego. Sorry bud, you're just as awesome..... as well as anyone else who's been responding, much Thanks
-------------------- "Ua mau ke ola o ke kai"
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May 6 2007, 12:13 AM
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#14
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Member Group: Members Posts: 94 Joined: 25-March 07 From: Honolulu, Hawaii Member No.: 119,903 |
QUOTE(Mr Alpha @ May 4 2007, 06:53 AM) The boot order is fine. You can use the Vista DVD to format the drives:
 OK here's the lowdown: Loaded Vista as per your directions, formatted all hard drives as directed, I am now presented with the following while trying to re-load vista: a problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_OR EQUAL If this is the first time you've seen this stop eror screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps: Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed, ask your h/ware or s/ware manufacturteer for any windowqs updates you might need If problems conmtinue, disable or remove any newly installed hardware or software. disable bios memory options such as caching or shadoweing.If you need to use safe mode top remove or disable components, restart your computer, press f8 to selwect advanced startup options, and then select safe moide techinical information: *** STOP: 0x000000000A (0xde20D07eE, 0x000000002, 0x000000000,0x888ba8d7 If these values make no sense, I can gladly resend them -------------------- "Ua mau ke ola o ke kai"
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May 6 2007, 02:58 AM
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#15
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Forum Addict Group: BC Advisor Posts: 1,875 Joined: 25-November 04 From: Finland Member No.: 5,870 |
How much memory do you have?
-------------------- "Anyone who cannot form a community with others, or who does not need to because he is self-sufficient [...] is either a beast or a god." Aristotle
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ | ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe | 2GB Corsair TWINX2048-3500LLPRO | Gigabyte GeForce 8800GTX | Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS | ASUS PhysX P1 | Logitech G15 | Logitech MX Revolution | LG Flatron L2000C | Logitech Z-5500 Digital Stubborn attempts to think clearly |
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