I have a Dell Dimension PC, purchased in 2005, that runs Windows XP Home Edition. I have read that if you install a second hard disk drive, you can use something called RAID to back up the contents of the main drive to the second drive automatically so that if the main drive fails, RAID recovers the situation automatically when you replace the failed drive. Is that true, and, if so, how can I install RAID after I have installed a second hard disk drive?

Answer

Click here! to go to the information provided on this site on RAID. It should answer all of your questions.

Windows XP won't install because it can't set up the motherboard's RAID Controller

Problem

I am trying to install Windows XP Home edition, but it doesn't seem to have the drivers for the motherboard's RAID Controller, which are required if the system's two hard disk drives are to function in order that Windows can install on the boot drive.

Answer

When trying to install Windows XP or Windows NT or Windows 2000 on a RAID controller, you need to transfer the RAID drivers to a floppy disk. Then, at the appropriate moment during the setup process, press the F6 key and use the floppy disk as instructed. The reason Windows XP won't install is that the NT kernel (which Windows NT, 2000, and XP all have), doesn't have the RAID drivers, and therefore doesn't know how to access the motherboard's RAID Controller - unless it can load the Controller's drivers from an external source such as a floppy disk or CD.

1. - If necessary, implement your backup strategy. Visit this Software page on this site if you need to develop one.

2. - Obtain the RAID driver file from the motherboard's website, and copy it on to a floppy disk or CD-R/RW disk.

3. - Set the boot order in the BIOS to boot from CD, then RAID, then other drives.

4. - Insert the Windows XP CD, and restart the computer. Press the F6 key to install an additional or third party driver when prompted, and follow the instructions to do so.

It would be a good idea to download all of the latest device drivers for the motherboard from its site, and copy them on a CD-R so that you can install them immediately after Windows XP has been installed. This is a good idea because Windows can load its own standard device drivers, or outdated drivers made by the motherboard chipset and HDD manufacturers.

After using Norton Ghost to restore my computer, this sporadic message comes up: "Corrupt File The file or directory C: is corrupt and Unreadable. Please run the Chkdsk utility"

Problem

I recently had to recover my computer system that is running Windows XP Home Edition by restoring recovery points created by Norton Ghost. Now the following warning message comes up sporadically when I'm using various applications: <Application filename> Corrupt File The file or directory C: is corrupt and Unreadable. Please run the Chkdsk utility. A particular application is always named in the message. I've run Chkdsk, but it says that there is no problem. The system itself and the application software seems to be running properly. My research discovered that the problem is probably caused by a corrupt Master File Table (MFT). However, I haven't been able to find a remedy. Is the problem potentially serious, and can you suggest a solution?

Answer

Before you take any of the following advice, back up any files that you want to save. Not as an image, because imaging software copies everything, including disk errors, unless the imaging utility's internal checks discover them. You can use the Windows Backup utility or zip the files up with a zip-file program and burn the zip files to a recordable CD/DVD. If you don't know how to zip many files into a single .zip file, use the search term: how to zip files followed by the version of Windows being used. Windows XP doesn't provide a built-in utility so you have to use one of the many free third-party utility, but Windows Vista and Windows 7 have an in-built facility that can zip and unzip files.

Try using the Recovery Console. It is best to run it from the Windows XP CD because the hard drive installation of Windows XP isn't active and in use.

In the Recovery Console, enter the CHKDSK C: /R command, which runs a thorough test of the C: drive, repairs correctable data errors, and recovers bad sectors. It takes a while to run. If that command doesn't fix the problem, try using the FIXMBR command (the equivalent of fdisk /mbr command in Windows 95/98/Me systems - rewrites the code of the Master Boot Record of drive 0 - the primary master hard disk drive), and the FIXBOOT command, which rewrites the above-mentioned drive's boot sector. Fixing the Master Boot Record (MBR) should fix any problems with the Master File Table (MFT).

System recovery in Windows Vista should be a simple matter, because the process has been automated.

The Windows Vista installation DVD provides a comprehensive automated recovery suite called the Windows Recovery Environment.

Windows XP users have to fix a corrupt MBR and hard-drive boot sector manually by making use of the relevant commands used by the Recovery Console, which no longer exists in Windows Vista. The hard drive also has to be scanned for errors manually by making use of the chkdsk utility in Windows XP. However, the Windows Recovery Environment provided with Windows Vista corrects a corrupt MBR and boot sector, and performs a hard-disk checkup automatically.

How to use the Startup Repair feature that uses the Windows Recovery Environment is discussed on the Recovering Windows Vista section of this website.

If you're still running Windows 95/98/Me, reboot and press the F8 key before Windows starts to load to bring up the boot menu. Select the Command Prompt option and enter the SCANDISK C: /SURFACE command to run a thorough repair and recovery scan of the C: drive. If doing that doesn't fix the problem, try entering the FDISK /MBR command, which renews the Master Boot Record without destroying any data on the drive.

How can I change the file system on my PC's hard drive from FAT32 to NTFS and then tweak it to increase its performance?

Problem

My computer runs Windows XP Home Edition. A young friend of mine advised me by e-mail to convert my FAT32 file system to NTFS and then tweak the Windows Registry to increase performance. He told me to enter xp + convert + ntfs and then tweak + ntfs + registry in a search engine in order to find out how to do it. Being 70 years old, I find the information on the web too geeky to understand properly. I'm hoping that you can tell me step-by-step in plain English what to do, if anything, because perhaps he doesn't know what he's talking about.

Answer

For anyone who doesn't know how to find out which file system a particular PC is using, in any version of Windows from Windows 95 to Windows XP/Vista you can find out by opening My Computer (just Computer in Windows Vista) and right-clicking with the mouse on the drive letter (say, C:), then click Properties on the menu that comes up. Look under File system on the General tab.

To convert a hard disk drive or partition formatted to use the FAT32 file system to the NTFS file system in Windows XP, you can enter a command at the Command Prompt by first entering cmd in the Start => Run box (the Start => Start Search box in Windows Vista). The syntax of the command is: convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs. The boot drive is usually (but not always) the C: drive, so to convert it, in the Command Prompt, enter convert C: /fs:ntfs. Enter convert /? to find out what the other switches for the convert command are.

From a security point of view, especially when used in Windows XP Professional Edition and Windows Vista, NTFS is a superior file system to FAT32, but it has to do more record-keeping, which slows it down. For that reason, on relatively small hard drives of around 30GB and 40GB in size, FAT32 is significantly faster than NTFS. However, because NTFS has a superior indexing system, it is the best file system to use on drives that are 60GB in size and larger.

FAT32 drives become fragmented very easily, especially if the user visits many websites and then deletes the files in the Temporary Internet Files folder by making use of a file-cleaning utility, or via the General tab in Internet Options in the Control Panel. Internet files are small and when they're deleted the FAT32 system tries to fill the small gaps with much larger files, can't place the whole of a large file in a small space and therefore has to locate the rest of the file elsewhere on the drive. The small gaps therefore lead to rapid fragmentation of the drive, which slows access to files down the more markedly the more the drive is fragmented. In any case, the Windows Disk Defragmenter should be run frequently if FAT32 is the file system. NTFS spreads saved files over the entire storage space of the drive, and suffers much less from fragmentation because there is space to save entire files, even when they grow in size. However, when an NTFS drive is running out of space, that is no longer the case, and the drive will fragment much more than is usual. NTFS drives fragment severely when the drive is more than 75% full. To find out how fragmented a drive is, run the Windows XP Disk Defragmenter under Start => All Programs => Accessories => System Tools, click on its Analyze button and then when a window comes up, click on its View Report button.

The utility is accessed in the same way in Windows Vista, but the easiest way to launch it is to enter defrag in the Start => Start Search box. Vista's version of Disk Defragmenter has a much simplified user interface compared to the Windows XP version that no longer has the disk layout view that shows a graphical depiction of the defragmentation process. More importantly, it runs automatically by default at 4:00 a.m. every Sunday morning, but can be scheduled to run at any time, which is not the case with the previous version.

Note that there is no information on the web that suggests that the following Registry tweaks can be used in Windows Vista, so do not use them in Vista.

If your PC already has an NTFS boot drive, there are a few Registry tweaks that can speed it up.

DO NOT APPLY THE FOLLOWING TWEAKS TO A SYSTEM WITH A FAT32 BOOT DRIVE!

Note well that editing the Registry incorrectly can lead to the system not booting the next time it starts up, so you are advised to back up you system or at least create a System Restore restore point before you make any changes. If the PC starts up in Safe Mode, or you can boot to the command prompt, you can restore the restore point, which will backdate the system to the state it was in before you made the change. Look it up in XP's Help and Support, or click here! to go directly to information on System Restore on this site.

Note that the following Registry tweaks apply to both Windows XP and Windows Vista.

The first Registry tweak involves disabling the last access time field, which can speed up file reading quite a bit. To open the Registry, enter regedit in the Start => Run box. (It is the Start => Start Search box in Windows Vista.) Click on the + beside HKey_Local_Machine, then open System => CurrentControlSet => Control => and select FileSystem. Several entries (for this entry) should appear in the right-hand pane of the window. If there is an entry called NTFSDisableLastAccessUpdate and it has a value of (0), double-click on the entry and change the value from 0 to 1 in the Value data box. Right-clicking on an entry provides editing options. You don't have to save entries; they are saved automatically.

If there is no such entry you can create one by right-clicking with the mouse on an empty area in the right window pane. Then choose New => Dword Value. Enter NTFSDisableLastAccessUpdate, exactly as it is written here with regard to lower and upper-case letters, exit, double-click on the new entry, and enter 1 in the Value data box. When the PC is restarted, the Date Last Accessed field will no longer be modified every time a file is read, and scanning the drive with a virus or spyware scanner will be considerably faster.

The next Registry tweak can speed up a brand new system, or a newly partitioned and/or formatted drive.

As before, click on the + beside HKey_Local_Machine, then open System => CurrentControlSet => Control => and select FileSystem.

Right-click with the mouse on an empty area in the right window pane. Then choose New => Dword Value. Enter NtfsMftZoneReservation, exactly as it is written here with regard to lower and upper-case letters, exit, double-click on the new entry, and enter 2 in the Value data box. A value of 2 has been found to be the best setting in Windows XP, but you can try using 3 and 4.

How NTFS reserves space for its Master File Table (MFT) - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/174619

An NTFS drive begins with a fairly few number of entries in its Master File Table (MFT), the system's file index, which should not be confused with the Master Boot Record (MBR). The Master Boot Record contains code that is loaded at startup. It selects the boot partition and transfers control to code in the boot sector of that partition. That code, in turn, loads the operating system or a loader program that loads the operating system, such as NTLDR, which loads Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

Additional space is reserved in the drive in order to allow the MFT to grow as more files are added and indexed. However, for technical reasons due mostly to the poor design of Internet Explorer, which creates tiny files for cookies, bookmarks, IE Favorites, etc., instead of storing the entries in a single database file, the MFT can become fragmented. The Disk Defragmenter in Windows XP and even in Windows Vista does not defragment the MFT, so the fragmentation increases with time, slowing the system down significantly.

The above Registry tweak only works on a new drive volume. If you want to defragment the MFT on a used drive, the third-party utilities Diskeeper and Partition Commander can defragment it. You can make use of a search engine to find vendor/download sites.

This MS Knowledge Base article - 174619: How NTFS Reserves Space for its Master File Table (MFT) - provides information on MFT fragmentation, and this article provides general information on it - Master File Table (MFT) - http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/file/ntfs/archMFT-c.html.

The free Sysinternals PageDefrag utility defragments other system files, such as the Registry and the virtual memory swap file, which improves system performance.

Sysinternals was an independent organisation, but it is now owned by Microsoft. Visit http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/sysinternals/default.aspx for the great free utilities.

Why won't the Windows XP/Vista Disk Defragmenter defrag program defragment the Windows XP/Vista Hibernation file hiberfil.sys?

Problem

I have a Dell Inspiron 5100 notebook computer running Windows XP Professional. When I last used the Disk Defragmenter, it finished off with the message telling me that some files couldn't be defragmented. I read the report it provided, and one of the files called hiberfil.sys - the hibernation file - occupies a whopping 767MB. I tried to find the files mentioned in the report, but even after changing the file setting to show hidden files, I couldn't find them. I couldn't help noticing that the hiberfil.sys file is about the same size as the amount of RAM installed in my system. How can I defragment those unfragmented files?

Answer

When the system goes into hibernation, the entire contents of the RAM are written into the hiberfil.sys file. That is why it's only slightly larger than the amount of RAM installed. A small piece of program code that works without the hard disk drive being fully operational makes Windows resume after hibernation. That code has to know exactly where the hiberfil.sys file is, so it has to occupy the same disk sectors and can't be moved by the defragmentation process. After it comes out of hibernation, Windows should boot into exactly the same state it was in when the system was last used.

The other files that can't be defragmented are: the Registry hive files, the virtual memory swap file (also known as the paging file), memory.dmp, safeboot.fs, safeboot.csv, the NTFS Change journal, the FAT32 directories, and the NTFS Master File Table (MFT) in versions of Windows earlier than Windows 2003 Server. Files in use by the system and any files in the Recycle Bin also won't be defragmented.

Advanced fragmentation of the Windows Registry, swap files (which the Windows Disk Defragmenter won't tell you can't been defragmented), and the MFT will seriously impair the system's performance, but fragmentation of the other files that can't be defragmented, including the hiberfil.sys file, has little affect on the system's performance. However, the message saying that these files can't be defragmented is annoying. There are two ways to get rid of it. First, you can obtain the freeware Sysinternals program called PageDefrag that works with Windows 2000 and Windows XP (but not with Windows 9.x or Windows Me or Windows Vista).

Sysinternals was an independent organisation but it is now owned by Microsoft. Visit http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/default.mspx for the great free utilities.

It defragments the hibernation file, the Registry files, and the virtual memory swap file. Defragmenting the Registry files and the swap file can increase the performance of Windows significantly.

Additional space is reserved in the drive in order to allow the MFT to grow as more files are added and indexed. However, for technical reasons due mostly to the poor design of Internet Explorer, which creates tiny files for cookies, bookmarks, IE Favorites, etc., instead of storing the entries in a single database file, the MFT can become fragmented. The Disk Defragmenter in Windows XP does not defragment the MFT, so the fragmentation increases with time, slowing the system down significantly.

If you want to defragment the MFT on a used drive, if you have the third-party utilities Diskeeper and Partition Commander, they can defragment it. You can make use of a search engine to find information more vendor/download sites for those programs.

The second option to use is the only official way Microsoft provides to address the problem. You have to disable hibernation, which deletes the hibernation file, then run the Disk Defragmenter, and then re-enable hibernation. A new defragmented hibernation file will be created, because it will be created over a defragmented part of the disk.

How to enable/disable Hibernation mode in Windows XP/Vista

In Windows XP, open Start => Control Panel. In the Control Panel, open Power Options. In the Power Options Properties window, click on the Hibernate tab and either enable or clear the Enable hibernation check box with your mouse, click Apply, and then click OK. If the Hibernate tab is not available, your computer's motherboard and BIOS setup program does not support this feature.

With regard to enabling/disabling hibernation in Windows Vista, read the following page on Microsoft's website: How to disable and re-enable hibernation on a computer that is running Windows Vista.

How to go into Hibernation mode in Windows XP immediately

The Shut Down dialog box used in Windows 95/98/Me/2000 is called Turn Off Computer in Windows XP. It only has the Standby, Turn Off and Restart options and no longer offers the Hibernation button that those other versions of Windows have. Therefore, some users may be confused about how to go into Hibernation mode in Windows XP immediately.

However, if Hibernation mode and ACPI power management are supported by your computer's motherboard and are enabled in the BIOS setup program (which is the case by default with most recent computers), if Hibernation is enabled in Windows XP Home Edition or Windows XP Professional, to go into Hibernate mode immediately click Start => Turn Off Computer. Press one of the two Shift keys. The Stand By button changes to Hibernate. Click Hibernate. Note that Fast User Switching must be turned on. To find out if is turned on, open User Accounts in the Control Panel, click on Change the way users log on or off. One of the two option boxes there is called Use Fast User Switching, which should be enabled by default. You cannot use it if the computer is part of a network domain.

How to go into Hibernation mode in Windows Vista immediately

To put a computer into hibernation in Windows Vista, click the Start button, click the small arrow next to the Lock button and then click Hibernate. Most computers can be brought out of hibernation by pressing the power button or by lifting the lid if you're using a laptop PC. However, not all computers are the same, so you may have to press a key or click the mouse.

The following MS Knowledge Base article deals with the problem of the Hibernate option not being available in Windows Vista.

The Hibernate option is not available in Windows Vista - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929658

Hibernation problem on PCs running Windows XP with 1 GB or more of RAM memory

If you have a computer with 1GB or more of RAM memory and you haven't installed the Service Pack 2 or Service Pack 3 (SP2/SP3) updates, with regard to Hibernation in Windows XP, you might like to read this MS Knowledge Base article: Hibernation Problem on Computers with 1 GB of RAM: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=330909.

How can I make an ordinary internal IDE PATA hard disk drive into an external backup drive?

Question

I've heard that it's possible to use an ordinary IDE hard disk drive as an external drive by installing it in a special enclosure designed for that purpose that uses a USB or FireWire port. If this is possible, I would like to install Windows XP and all of my applications on such an external drive so that if my system's boot drive goes wrong, I can then use it to restore the system. I don't want to use Windows Vista, because too much of my software does not work with it. I have an 80GB Western Digital hard drive that I can use for this purpose. Is it possible?

Answer

You heard correctly. You can locate information on and images of such enclosures by entering a search query such as external + ide + hard + drive + enclosure (as is) in a search engine. You should be able to buy such an enclosure from the US if you can't get one in the UK. Here is a good example that has annotated images of the enclosure:

External IDE or SATA Drive Enclosure with USB 2.0 and FireWire Interface -

"The External Drive Enclosure UF comes with both USB 2.0 and FireWire interface all built into one stylish aluminum housing. You can now turn any IDE, SATA hard drive or half height ATAPI DVD+/-R/RW, DVD/CDRW into an external storage device that can be attached to any computers via either USB 2.0 or FireWire connection. The sturdy aluminum body also ensures durability and tough handling in wide range of computing environments." - http://www.addonics.com/products/enclosures/ae5idecsu2f.asp

Note that if you have an internal SATA hard drive and your computer's motherboard has an external SATA (eSATA) port (or you add eSATA by making use of a PCI or PCI Express adapter card), enclosures are available that support eSATA connections.

There is no doubt that having a complete backup of a system of this kind is a very good idea, because reinstalling Windows, the programs it uses, and all of the updates and security patches from Microsoft Update is a very time-consuming (but very necessary) business.

You could use an internal PATA IDE (or an SATA) hard disk drive for that purpose, but that could easily be killed off in the same way as the main drive. E.g., a power surge could take both internal drives out, or a virus could infect and destroy the data on both of them. An external drive wouldn't be prone to this weakness, because it would only need to be connected when creating, updating, or restoring a backup.

Click here! to go to the information on backup strategies and creating backups on this website.

If the computer only has USB 1.1 ports, these are very slow compared to the data transfer speeds of an IDE PATA 100 133 hard drive, and using one to back up an entire system would be a very time-consuming operation. If this is the case, you should install a PCI USB 2.0 or FireWire adapter card that adds the much faster USB 2.0 or FireWire functionality. These PCI cards are relatively cheap and can be purchased from any major vendors of computer components. Buy the PCI card that the enclosure has the ports for. That is, don't buy a PCI FireWire card if the enclosure doesn't provide a FireWire port. You should also be able to buy a PCI Express x1 adapter card.

Visit http://www.addonics.com/products/host_controller/ to see what is available in PCI (PCI-X) and PCI Express host controller/adapter cards.

Host Controller Tutorial -

"A host controller acts as a bridge to allow connection between a host system and external or internal computer peripherals. Host controllers are generally depicted as add-in cards which attach to a system through the PCI, PCI-X, or PCI-Express slots built into a motherboard, but can also be found in external form factors such as PCMCIA, Cardbus, or ExpressCard for mounting inside notebook computers." -

http://www.addonics.com/technologies/tutorial_hc.php

You would obviously want just be able to plug in the external drive and have it load Windows automatically should the main boot drive fail for some reason.

The problem here is that very few USB or FireWire devices can work without using Windows (few of them come with DOS device drivers that can be installed from a floppy disk at start-up), so you wouldn't be able to use one to restore the system without first reinstalling Windows, which would defeat the purpose you have in mind for such a drive.

However, backup software, such as Norton Ghost or the free XXCopy can create an exact bootable clone of the system, which means that you would be able to remove the drive from its enclosure and install it in the computer as a replacement for the main boot drive, and it will boot as usual.

If you used XXCopy, you install it and then enter the command xxcopy c:*.* d: /clone (where d: is the drive letter of the external drive) in the Start => Run box in Windows XP and in the Start => Start Search box in Windows Vista to clone the system. You wouldn't have to keep redoing the backup, because you could then make use of a free program such as the Replicator from http://www.karenware.com/ to update the cloned system.

You could also use the free copying/cloning utilities that most hard drive manufacturers supply from their sites. Western Digital's is called Data Lifeguard, and Maxtor's is called MaxBlast. There is also an excellent program called FilebackPC that can be used.

Note that some of these external drive enclosures are very difficult to prise open after a hard disk drive has been placed in them.

Can I install a standard 2.5" laptop hard disk drive in my Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop/notebook computer?

Question

I'd like to upgrade the hard disk drive in my Dell Inspiron laptop computer, but Dell charges an arm and a leg for them. I've seen the 2.5" hard drives advertised for sale by many vendors for much less. Is there any reason why I couldn't buy one and install it, or do I have to fit a Dell drive in a Dell laptop? And, if this is possible, how do I transfer the contents of the old drive to the new drive? Because I don't think that you can fit two hard drives into a laptop in order to clone the old drive's contents to the new drive?

Answer

Good news! You can install a standard 2.5" notebook IDE PATA or SATA hard disk drive in a standard laptop computer as long as it has the correct data and power cables for an IDE or an SATA drive.

Note that ultra-portable laptop computers may use a smaller 1.8" hard drive.

If the drive has a 2.5" IDE hard drive, it will have the cables that connect to any other 2.5" IDE hard drive, but won't have SATA data and power cables. In newer laptops, you just take the old drive out and plug the new one in, but in older laptops you may have to remove the cables from the old drive and attach them to the new drive.

In other words, you can only upgrade the type of hard drive (IDE PATA or SATA) that the laptop already supports. You can find out which type is supported. Just enter your laptop's model number in the relevant search box (probably under a support heading) on Dell's website (or the manufacturer's site) and you should be able to find out what the machine's specifications are.

As with all Dell laptops, you can choose your own specification - the processor, capacity of the hard drive, etc. All Inspiron 6400 laptops must have a Serial ATA (SATA) hard disk drive, so you would have to by a 2.5" SATA hard drive with a larger capacity as an upgrade.

The drive itself in this model is just removed, by removing the screws that hold in in place, its faceplate is removed and then fitted on to the new drive, which is the plugged into the drive socket. The following video shows the process. Other laptops might require removing the cables from the old drive and plugging them into the new drive.

How To Install / change a hard drive on a dell Inspiron 6400 laptop - http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gSrIO51voyU

Note that because you can't usually install a second hard drive in a laptop computer, as you can in a desktop computer, you have to find a way of transferring the data from the old drive to the new drive. You could make an image of the drive with drive-imaging software, such as Norton Ghost, and then restore the image on to the new drive via the DVD drive. You can also buy a data transfer kit. The following video show how to use such a kit.

Upgrading Laptop Hard Drive Using Data Transfer Kit - http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&feature=related&hl=en-GB&v=ALCxCav15Lg

Enter a search query such as laptop hard drive data transfer kit in a search engine to find links to other vendors of these kits.

However, note that Dell sells a module bay that can hold a second hard disk drive - the Inspiron 8x00 Module Bay 2nd Hard Drive Module (Dell part 29MFN) for 9.5mm drives. It is described as a "carrier with cable and connector". The fixing screws for it have part number 53965. The bay allows the new drive to be fitted in the module bay that accommodates the CD-ROM or the floppy disk drive so that software can be copied from the existing hard disk drive.

Note that it's also possible to buy external USB hard disk drive enclosures (not fitted internally) that can house notebook/laptop hard disk drives. If the laptop's BIOS setup program supports booting from a USB device, which is almost certainly the case with fairly recent laptops, the new external drive can be made into the boot drive, and the old drive can be left where it is for use as a backup drive. You can find these enclosures and information about them by entering a search query such as enclosures for 2.5" laptop hard drives in a search engine.

To find out if the prices are competitive conduct a web search for vendors. Most of the time you just have to use a general term or the make/mode to find them.

How can I remove a hidden partition on a computer from Time Computers?

Note that Granville Technology the holding company of Time Computers went into administration on July 27, 2005.

Problem

I bought a computer from Time Computers that has a 40GB Seagate hard disk drive, which has a hidden partition that contains the System Recovery files. I have installed a new hard drive as the primary master drive, and installed Windows XP Professional on it. I want to use the original Seagate drive for back-up purposes, The hidden partition amounts to only 1.5GB, but the space belongs to me not Time Computers, and I want to recover it. I've tried everything I can think of. I've used the Seagate Disk Tools, various MBR tools, etc., and have even zero-filled (low-level formatted) the drive as per the instructions. [Note that the tools are now called SeaTools, and they are being improved. This message was on the following page at the time of writing this on February 26, 2007: "SeaTools for Windows. - Please check back soon to download a copy of SeaTools for Windows." - http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/

I can trick the BIOS, Windows XP and Linux into seeing the full capacity of the drive using the Seagate Disk Tools to write a new Master Boot Record (MBR) on the drive, but this only lasts until I switch the system off. When I start the computer up again, the space disappears. Time Computer's L1 a minute technical support say the only way to get it back is to send it to them and one of their technicians will restore the lost capacity... Now if they can do it, surely I can.

Answer

There's no need to make use of Time Computer's kind but expensive offer. If you have low-level formatted the drive, all of the data, including any hidden partition would have been destroyed, leaving an empty drive. It looks as if the drive has been set to have a capacity of 38.5GB so that older BIOSes that can't handle larger drives don't freeze the system at start-up.

Download the hard drive's user manual from Seagate's site and read it for information about how the capacity can be restricted. It's done by setting a jumper on the drive itself, or by using Seagate's DiscWizard utility.

All of the jumper settings I've seen restrict the drive to 32GB, but Time could have got Seagate to customise the drive for its purposes. Click here! to go to information on this site about hard-disk-drive user manuals. Use your browser's Back button to return to this point.

If there is no jumper setting, you should download the files and burn Seagate's latest DiscWizard boot CD that presents a user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI). You can also use DiscWizard from a floppy disk. See this page for more information:

http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/drivers/discwiz.html

Look into Utilities =>" Set Hard Drive Size. The Current Maximum LBA/Sector should be 1.5GB less than the Native Maximum LBA/Sector. If so, set the Current Maximum LBA/Sector to equal the Native Maximum LBA/Sector. After doing that, the hard disk drive should report its true capacity.

How can I transfer Windows XP and all of my programs and files from an IDE PATA hard disk drive to a new SATA hard disk drive?

Problem

My Asus A8V Deluxe motherboard running Windows XP supports Serial ATA (SATA) hard disk drives, so I want to buy one and transfer the files to it from my existing standard IDE ATA hard disk drive. I want to use the old drive as a back-up drive in an external USB 2.0 disk enclosure, but first I have to know how to go about transferring Windows and all of the other files to the new drive. The existing drive is divided into three partitions. Windows is on the C: drive, the CD/DVD drive uses the D: drive, the applications are on the E: drive, and my data files are on the F: drive.

Reply

Click here! to go to a section called Hard drive diagnostic utilities and tools on the first Disk Drives page on this site.

You have to use a tool that can copy the files to the new drive while Windows XP is in use, and the free utilities provided by the manufacturers of hard drives are designed to do that, but each tool can only be used on its manufacturer's drives. If the manufacturer of your new SATA drive doesn't provide a utility, you can use the one provided by the manufacturer of the old drive. You should also be able to use the free XXCopy from xxcopy.com. That website provides extensive information on how to use it.

You should use the latest versions of a particular tool because an old version that was created before SATA drives became available in 2003 won't be able to recognise an SATA drive.

If you install the new drive and transfer all of the files to it, when you replace the old drive with it, the version of Windows XP on the new drive (now the boot drive) won't have the device drivers it requires in order to be able to use the motherboard's SATA controller, and therefore won't be able to boot the system. In order to boot, Windows XP must have the boot hard disk drive's drivers installed.

To get around this, you should install the new SATA drive as a secondary drive. When you start up after the installation, Windows XP will detect new hardware and ask you to press the F6 key, which allows you to install the SATA drivers from floppy disk in a floppy disk drive. You obtain the SATA drivers from the PC manufacturer's or the motherboard manufacturer's website.

If you use an IDE PATA drive as the boot drive, an SATA drive will automatically be installed as a secondary drive. But if there are two SATA connectors on the motherboard and you were to install two SATA drives, the BIOS section of motherboard's manual should contain the information about how to install them as primary and secondary drives. You will have to set which drive is the first boot drive in the BIOS. I don't know if your PC's motherboard has this option, but many of the newer boards have the Hard Drive Priority option in addition to the boot sequence or boot order.

If the motherboard has connectors for both IDE PATA and SATA drives, you may also have to enable a jumper on the motherboard in order to be able to use its SATA controller. That information will also be provided by the manual. If you don't have a manual, download a copy from the motherboard manufacturer's site. If you don't know the make and model of the motherboard installed in your computer, here is a good free utility - Belarc Advisor - that creates an analysis of the hardware and software on a personal computer. Look under FREE DOWNLOAD on belarc.com. Another utility that also provides information on the motherboard is CPU-Z from cpuid.com.

Click here! to go to information on SATA hard drives on this site.

After the SATA drive has been installed successfully, use the relevant disk-copy utility to copy the partition containing Windows to the new drive.

Shut the system down, and remove the old hard disk drive before rebooting the system. Doing that makes Windows allocate the same drive letter (C:) to the new drive, and also makes it give the new C: drive the same volume serial number that was created when the C: drive on the old drive was formatted. You should then boot the system and enter the BIOS setup program (by pressing the relevant Setup entry key) and set the SATA controller to be the first boot device. If there isn't an SATA option in the boot order, use the SCSI option, which works with SATA drives.

Windows 95, 98, and Me automatically boot from the kind of drive that is set as the first boot device in the boot order in the BIOS. However, Windows 2000 and Windows XP require the boot manager to be set in order to load from a particular type of hard disk drive controller (IDE, SCSI, SATA). The boot manager is controller by a small hidden file called boot.ini. It can be edited manually, but the easiest method is to set the CD drive as the first boot device in the BIOS and then boot from the Windows 2000/XP CD.

During the boot process that follows, you are asked to press the F6 key and insert a floppy disk containing the driver file for the SATA controller. You should have the driver (which you downloaded from the PC manufacturer's or motherboard manufacturer's website) on a floppy disk ready for use.

Note that even with Windows XP SP3 installed on a computer, if you install an SATA hard drive for the first time, you have to install the SATA controller's drivers at startup (having installed the drive physically) from a floppy disk. You cannot use a CD unless you have a slipsteamed CD/DVD and you use it as instructed below. This problem does not apply to Windows Vista, which can install an SATA hard drive automatically as Windows XP installs an IDE (PATA) hard drive automatically.

If your desktop or laptop PC doesn't have a floppy disk drive and you don't want to buy one, if you have a Windows XP installation CD, you can slipsteam it with any missing service packs and SATA or RAID drivers.

Slipsteaming combines the files on the CD with the service packs and additional drivers to create a folder the contents of which are burned to a CD, thereby creating an updated Windows installation CD, which can be used instead of the original CD as instructed below. Windows XP has Service Pack 1 (SP1), Service Pack 2 (SP2) and Service Pack 3 (SP3). There will be no further service packs for Windows XP. To date (November 2008), Windows Vista has only SP1. There will be one or more service packs for Windows Vista. If you install or repair Windows XP or Vista with a slipsteamed CD/DVD containing the latest service pack, all you have to do is visit Windows Update to install the updates that were issued after that service pack.

Visit Slipstreaming Windows XP: How to create a Windows XP/Windows Vista installation CD/DVD containing the service packs and missing drivers on this website for information on how to create a slipsteamed Windows XP/Vista installation CD/DVD.

After doing that, the Windows Setup screen comes up and presents the user with these three options: 1. - "To set up Windows XP now, press Enter. 2. - "To repair a Windows XP installation using the Recovery Console, press R. 3. - To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.

Follow the instructions of the second option. (Press the R key.)

The Recovery Console is a special DOS-like environment. (Note that Windows Vista does not have the Recovery Console. Visit the Recovering Windows Vista section of this site for information on the methods of recovery that it provides.) All you have to do is enter the command bootcfg at the Console's command prompt. The Recovery Console then locates the copy of Windows on the boot partition and creates the correct entry in the boot.ini file automatically. Windows should then be able to boot the system.

If none of the above does the trick, you will have to perform a repair installation of Windows XP. To do that, boot from the Windows CD, insert the , driver floppy disk when asked to, and choose the first option to run Setup. (Press Enter.) Choose the Repair option. A repair installation retains all of the applications, data, and user settings, but you have to reinstall the Windows updates that the system requires in order to have any security holes plugged and bugs fixed that aren't incorporated into that version of Windows XP.

The new drive only contains one partition with Windows on it. To partition the new drive into the three partitions you were using on the old drive, you can boot from the Windows CD and make use of its partition and format options to split the rest of the drive volume into two additional partitions. You can format a new partition from within Windows by right-clicking on its drive letter in My Computer and then clicking the Format option. Alternatively, you can make use of a third-party partitioning utility, such as Partition Magic. After you have the required partitions set up and formatted, you can use the drive-copy utility that you obtained from the hard drive manufacturer's site to copy the applications and data files to them.

Note Note that a full Windows XP CD or a slipsteamed CD that has been built using it, is required in order to run a repair installation; it can't be done from a System Recovery CD/DVD of the kind shipped with most brand-name computers instead of a Windows XP CD.

Running a Recovery CD/DVD either returns the system to the state it was in when it left the factory, which removes any programs and files that you have added, or it performs a non-destructive repair of the system that keeps the programs and files you have added intact. A Recovery disc can run from the disc itself or activate the process that runs from a partition on the hard drive that contains the files.

Are vibrations from the sound system harmful to the hard disk drive and other components of a PC/computer?

Problem

My desktop computer has a Logitech 2.1 speaker system. Since it is the most convenient place to put it, its sub-woofer is placed on top of the computer's midi-tower case, which is situated under my desk. I often have the volume turned up loud, so I can't help wondering if the vibrations from the sub-woofer could be damaging the computer's components; the hard disk drive in particular.

Answer

Yes, that set-up is likely to cause damage to the computer's hard drive. Hard drives can easily be damaged by shock and by vibrations. Shock occurs when the drive or the computer itself is dropped. Dropping a hard drive from a height of as little as an inch has been known to cause it damage. But a hard drive fitted to the drive bay in a PC case won't be subjected to as much shock if the computer is dropped compared to the shock that the drive itself would experience from being dropped, because the sudden deceleration of a small object results in much larger G forces than would occur if a much larger object (the PC case containing the drive) were dropped from the same height.

However, the rigid mounting of a hard drive that is required to reduce the affects of sudden shock make it more susceptible to damage from vibrations. Therefore, the manufacturers of notebook/laptop computers have invested plenty of research and development time into designing drive mounts that are rigid enough to protect against shock while being flexible enough to protect the disk drives from the affects of vibrations. The quality of the drive mountings is one of the reasons why brand-name notebook computers designed for business users constantly on the move are far more expensive than those aimed at the home-user market, which are fitted with less expensive mountings. For that reason, any user who intends to make use of a notebook computer mostly while on the move from place to place should invest in a business-class machine.

If you download the manual for a particular hard drive, you should be able to see that its maximum operating shock, measured in Gs, can be as high or higher than 160G, while the maximum allowable random vibration is less than 1G.

If the sub-woofer hits the same resonant frequency of the drive's head assembly, the impact will be far greater than vibrations at other frequencies. It would be much like placing a resounding tuning fork on the drive that is vibrating at the same frequency as the drive's head assembly, which would then vibrate at the same intensity and would no doubt be fatally damaged. The chances are high that sooner or later the frequency of the vibrations from the sub-woofer are going to coincide with the operating frequency of the drive. Therefore, you should find a better place to situate it.

A 300GB SATA hard disk drive installed on a PCI SATA host controller adapter card disappears in Windows XP/Vista intermittently

Problem

I have an problem that happens intermittently with my PC's SATA 300GB hard drive that is connected to a PCI SATA host controller adapter card. The SATA adapter card's device drivers are installed, Windows XP and Windows Vista (installed on its own partition) both recognise the 300GB drive and load all right. On reboot, after the installation, Windows XP and Vista lose the hard drive intermittently. I check in the system's BIOS and it has disappeared. I reboot again and check that the SATA BIOS [the BIOS on the SATA controller card] sees the drive, which it does; it is registered as the bootable device. Any ideas on what is causing the problem? I don't want to reflash the system BIOS if I can help it.

Answer

The fact that the problem exists with both Windows XP and Windows Vista suggests the following cause. The cables for SATA drives are usually quite stiff and the standard connectors don't have any locking facility. I would guess that you may have a loose connection that the application of a little electrical tape should fix.

The following information isn't applicable to your case, because the drive is recognised and only disappears intermittently, but for other users planning on installing a large SATA drive, you need to be running Windows XP with at least SP1, preferably SP2, for hard drives larger than 137GB. Note that SP3, the last service pack for Windows XP, is now available. SP2 has to be installed in order to install SP3.

If you also have an IDE PATA drive installed, make sure that its jumper is set to make it a master drive. If the following problem is applicable to your setup, read: A problem with an old IDE hard drive and a new SATA drive running from a PCI SATA adapter card.

Some hard drive manufacturers, such as Western Digital, use a proprietary SATA cable that locks to the drive. Western Digital calls its SATA cable SecureConnect. The end of the cable that connects to the drive has a special secure connector. Read the following guide to see a drawing of the cable.

Western Digital Serial Hard Drive Installation Guide - http://www.wdc.com/en/library/sata/2779-001006.pdf

The download is in the form of a PDF file, which requires a free PDF reader, such as Foxit. Here is a useful extract from it:

"Q: Why does Windows recognize the drive as "SCSI" when it is Serial ATA? A: Most third party controller cards and RAID adapters are recognized as a SCSI device under Device Manager. This is normal and will not affect your drive or system performance. Q: How do I verify if my Serial ATA drive is recognized by my system? A: Right-click on the My Computer icon, select Properties, left-click on the Hardware tab, and click on Device Manager in the window. Double-click on Disk Drives. Your new Western Digital Serial ATA drive should be listed as a "SCSI Disk Device" or "Serial ATA Disk Device." If not, make sure that all cables are securely attached and that your system BIOS has been properly configured."

The guide provides information on the BIOS settings, and information on how to diagnose problems, partition and format the drive, and how to transfer data from an old drive to the new SATA drive.

Note that it is now possible to buy a PCI Express x1 IDE or SATA host controller card that can be used on a motherboard that has a free PCI Express x1 slot.

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