PC almost at standstill

Terry Pinnell wrote:
Latest info. Disk Mgmt window raises various puzzles:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...DiskMgmt-2.jpg

Device Mgr also shows 3 optical drives instead of the 2 I actually have.
Probably unrelated to the current issue, but reported just in case...

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/.../Devices-1.jpg

Everything still impossibly slow. Back on main PC to send this during the
¾ hour needed for close/restart, to check if my attempts with sfc /scannow
and my fiddling with page file have had any effect.


Simple.

Disconnect the optical drive cable, with the two optical drives on it.
All optical drives should disappear, all *three* of them in Device Manager.
There is a problem there, but I cannot figure out exactly what. And I
think the detection of three devices, where two exist, is *the* problem.
The OS is "pinging" the hardware status of the phantom optical drive,
and that's chewing up cycles.

While you might be running some virtual CDROM software, and mounting
an ISO as an optical drive, somehow I doubt that. You'd probably remember
doing that.

Once the optical drive cable, with two optical drives is removed, you
can try removing or deleting the phantom item in Device Manager.

*******

That would leave the two Maxtor hard drives on the other IDE cable.

The thing that was D: and changed to J:, and you changed it back
to D: again, is "raw". That means you've lost the file system
on it. It could be, there is some damage near the beginning
of the file system. The header of the file system likely no
longer says it is NTFS.

Since it is a logical inside an extended, now you're going to
need to figure out where it starts. Probably two sectors
past where the Extended is located.

With a Linux LiveCD and hexdump, you would normally see
something like this. In this example, you work out a potential
sector offset (do the math to locate where D: starts), and then
when you display the data, the word "NTFS" should show up. That's
how you know you've located it. You can use PTEDIT32 in Windows,
to dump the MBR and get the offset. PTEDIT32 should show the
Extended, and the D: might be a couple sectors past that.

(You can run this first, and capture MBR information... I sometimes
prefer this to using "sudo fdisk /dev/sda" type commands in Linux.)

ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/englis...s/PTEDIT32.zip

(Then boot into Linux, and actually track down the beginning of D: .
This is what I use as a disk editor, of sorts. This is the command
I used, to locate a partition on a 3TB hard drive.)

sudo hexdump -C -s 0x20000140000 -n 512 /dev/sdc

20000140000 eb 52 90 4e 54 46 53 20 20 20 20 00 02 08 00 00 |.R.NTFS .....|
20000140010 00 00 00 00 00 f8 00 00 3f 00 ff 00 00 08 00 00 |........?.......|

The program "TestDisk" could scan and locate these things,
but it'll likely run into the same problem, of not seeing
a file system on the old D:. And CHKDSK is not going to
want to run on D:, because at the moment it is raw, and
CHKDSK won't know it needs to run CHKNTFS. There is a way
to tell CHKDSK to run when no drive letter is evident, but
that still doesn't solve the problem of CHKDSK figuring out
which version of tool to run (FAT or NTFS).

(Tool used to repair an MBR. In this case, you may be able
to view files once the tool has scanned the disk. It may
be able to see the file system, but no guarantees. There is
no point repairing the MBR, because it's not the thing that
is broken. So the only reason to run this first tool, is
to see if the files can be listed on the partition or not.)

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

(This is an example of a file scavenger, for cases where
perhaps the MFT (master file table) is gone. Scavenging
if there was no backup...)

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

I don't know how to "hand repair" a file system. I'd be probing
the head of the file system, just to see if the sectors
are readable there or not. It could be, the system will
freeze when you hit the bad spot in the disk.

*******

You can run a tool like this, to try to recover the data on D:
You'll need some more disk space, to put the recovered files.
This is a free tool someone wrote, and when I offered this to
one user, they got their files back. I haven't tested it here.
This tool, the source code, was eventually sold to some other
developer, and the originating web site removed. But archive.org
still has a copy.

http://web.archive.org/web/200701010...rescue19d.html

driverescue19d.zip 1,007,764 bytes
MD5SUM = 63b7e1e8b1701593d5f52c7927d01558

*******

So now it's a data recover effort on the former D:. Or,
restoring D: from backups and blowing away the file system
on D: using the restoration.

Most of what I've suggested above, is for idle curiosity.
The "driverescue" stands the best odds of getting anything
you don't have backed up from the old D:. But, you'll need
to connect an external USB hard drive, as a place to
put the data, as you've run out of spots on the IDE cables.
The TestDisk and Photorec, are likely poor substitutes
for "driverescue", since driverescue will be attempting
to use an MFT if one can be located. Photorec can't handle
fragmentation for example, and as far as I know, fragmented
files will show up as damaged files if recovered that way.
I have tested Photorec, by copying a file, then erasing
it, and the unfragmented test file was successfully recovered
by scanning for it.

There are any number of $39.95 commercial programs for
data recovery that you could try. Some, they offer
a trial version, that will display the file names as
proof of recoverability. Then you pay the $39.95, and with
the license key in hand, you can complete the recovery
operation.

Paul

On Wed, 05 Jun 2013 08:58:29 +0100
AC wrote:

I had something like this. Its was one of the disks dying and I
guessed that the bios / disk controller was desperately trying to fix
or resolve it.

That's what I was going to suggest.

I'd pull all the hard disks, and the CD rom, and bung in a known good
disk and see what happens. If the PC gets quickly to the point it
cant find an OS (or boots if it has an OS), you can be sure the MB,
RAM etc are OK. Then go from there.

Or pull all the drives and try connecting each one in turn.

Terry Pinnell wrote:
"Bob F" wrote:

Terry Pinnell wrote:
This follows on from my post describing a boot up failure, as the
subject heading of that is now misleading.

The consistent state now is that my Athlon XP 1800 PC takes about
half an hour to boot! And then every operation is similarly glacial.

Things I might try.

1. Run the disk manufacturers disk check program on every drive.

2. Run Memtest+ overnight. Add more memory if the motherboard allows.

3. Check that the drives each are running in the proper DMA mode.

4. I've seen Anti-spyware programs drastically slow down PCs.
Remove/disable any anti-spyware programs and all but one anti-virus
programs. If that doesn't do it, try running consecutively, at least
one or two other carefully chosen such programs and do full scans on
all drives. Then remove extra such programs. You don't want
duplication here on any continuous basis.


Thanks Bob, I'll try to check out #3. Might take half an hour or so! I
can't see any chance of attempting #1 and #2 in the current state.
And I'm pretty sure #4 isn't the cause.

Both 1 and 2 can be done off floppies, not using windows, so they should work if
anything will. You do need a working machine to download them and create the
floppies.



For the few days before this sudden problem I had been methodically
removing many unwanted programs in an attempt to free up more space
on my C drive. All was working normally. There was and is no internet
connection.

Terry Pinnell wrote:

Latest info. Disk Mgmt window raises various puzzles:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...DiskMgmt-2.jpg

Device Mgr also shows 3 optical drives instead of the 2 I actually have.
Probably unrelated to the current issue, but reported just in case...

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/.../Devices-1.jpg

Everything still impossibly slow. Back on main PC to send this during the
¾ hour needed for close/restart, to check if my attempts with sfc /scannow
and my fiddling with page file have had any effect.

Gave up on that and pulled plugs from the lower HD instead. That's looking
more promising. No idea yet what data and programs I now have with only
one of the two 60 GB drives in play, but what joy to have instant response
to clicks and commands again!

What can the experts conclude from this so far please?

Terry, East Grinstead, UK

"Terry Pinnell" wrote in message
...
Terry Pinnell wrote:

Latest info. Disk Mgmt window raises various puzzles:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...DiskMgmt-2.jpg

Device Mgr also shows 3 optical drives instead of the 2 I actually have.
Probably unrelated to the current issue, but reported just in case...

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/.../Devices-1.jpg

Everything still impossibly slow. Back on main PC to send this during the
¾ hour needed for close/restart, to check if my attempts with sfc /scannow
and my fiddling with page file have had any effect.

Gave up on that and pulled plugs from the lower HD instead. That's looking
more promising. No idea yet what data and programs I now have with only
one of the two 60 GB drives in play, but what joy to have instant response
to clicks and commands again!

What can the experts conclude from this so far please?

Terry, East Grinstead, UK

Quit obvious that the "lower HD" is faulty.
You've found the failing device that is causing your "slowdown".

Chris

Terry Pinnell wrote:
Terry Pinnell wrote:

Latest info. Disk Mgmt window raises various puzzles:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...DiskMgmt-2.jpg

Device Mgr also shows 3 optical drives instead of the 2 I actually have.
Probably unrelated to the current issue, but reported just in case...

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/.../Devices-1.jpg

Everything still impossibly slow. Back on main PC to send this during the
¾ hour needed for close/restart, to check if my attempts with sfc /scannow
and my fiddling with page file have had any effect.

Gave up on that and pulled plugs from the lower HD instead. That's looking
more promising. No idea yet what data and programs I now have with only
one of the two 60 GB drives in play, but what joy to have instant response
to clicks and commands again!

What can the experts conclude from this so far please?

Terry, East Grinstead, UK

You could have at least tried to look at the SMART stats,
to see how bad it is. Look for "Reallocated Sector Count"
and "Current Pending Sectors". A non-zero Data field for
those, is generally a bad sign. HDTune can read out SMART,
via the "Health" tab.

http://www.hdtune.com/files/hdtune_255.exe

Paul

Paul wrote:

Terry Pinnell wrote:
Latest info. Disk Mgmt window raises various puzzles:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...DiskMgmt-2.jpg

Device Mgr also shows 3 optical drives instead of the 2 I actually have.
Probably unrelated to the current issue, but reported just in case...

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/.../Devices-1.jpg

Everything still impossibly slow. Back on main PC to send this during the
¾ hour needed for close/restart, to check if my attempts with sfc /scannow
and my fiddling with page file have had any effect.


Simple.

Disconnect the optical drive cable, with the two optical drives on it.
All optical drives should disappear, all *three* of them in Device Manager.
There is a problem there, but I cannot figure out exactly what. And I
think the detection of three devices, where two exist, is *the* problem.
The OS is "pinging" the hardware status of the phantom optical drive,
and that's chewing up cycles.

While you might be running some virtual CDROM software, and mounting
an ISO as an optical drive, somehow I doubt that. You'd probably remember
doing that.

Once the optical drive cable, with two optical drives is removed, you
can try removing or deleting the phantom item in Device Manager.

*******

That would leave the two Maxtor hard drives on the other IDE cable.

The thing that was D: and changed to J:, and you changed it back
to D: again, is "raw". That means you've lost the file system
on it. It could be, there is some damage near the beginning
of the file system. The header of the file system likely no
longer says it is NTFS.

Since it is a logical inside an extended, now you're going to
need to figure out where it starts. Probably two sectors
past where the Extended is located.

With a Linux LiveCD and hexdump, you would normally see
something like this. In this example, you work out a potential
sector offset (do the math to locate where D: starts), and then
when you display the data, the word "NTFS" should show up. That's
how you know you've located it. You can use PTEDIT32 in Windows,
to dump the MBR and get the offset. PTEDIT32 should show the
Extended, and the D: might be a couple sectors past that.

(You can run this first, and capture MBR information... I sometimes
prefer this to using "sudo fdisk /dev/sda" type commands in Linux.)

ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/englis...s/PTEDIT32.zip

(Then boot into Linux, and actually track down the beginning of D: .
This is what I use as a disk editor, of sorts. This is the command
I used, to locate a partition on a 3TB hard drive.)

sudo hexdump -C -s 0x20000140000 -n 512 /dev/sdc

20000140000 eb 52 90 4e 54 46 53 20 20 20 20 00 02 08 00 00 |.R.NTFS .....|
20000140010 00 00 00 00 00 f8 00 00 3f 00 ff 00 00 08 00 00 |........?.......|

The program "TestDisk" could scan and locate these things,
but it'll likely run into the same problem, of not seeing
a file system on the old D:. And CHKDSK is not going to
want to run on D:, because at the moment it is raw, and
CHKDSK won't know it needs to run CHKNTFS. There is a way
to tell CHKDSK to run when no drive letter is evident, but
that still doesn't solve the problem of CHKDSK figuring out
which version of tool to run (FAT or NTFS).

(Tool used to repair an MBR. In this case, you may be able
to view files once the tool has scanned the disk. It may
be able to see the file system, but no guarantees. There is
no point repairing the MBR, because it's not the thing that
is broken. So the only reason to run this first tool, is
to see if the files can be listed on the partition or not.)

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

(This is an example of a file scavenger, for cases where
perhaps the MFT (master file table) is gone. Scavenging
if there was no backup...)

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

I don't know how to "hand repair" a file system. I'd be probing
the head of the file system, just to see if the sectors
are readable there or not. It could be, the system will
freeze when you hit the bad spot in the disk.

*******

You can run a tool like this, to try to recover the data on D:
You'll need some more disk space, to put the recovered files.
This is a free tool someone wrote, and when I offered this to
one user, they got their files back. I haven't tested it here.
This tool, the source code, was eventually sold to some other
developer, and the originating web site removed. But archive.org
still has a copy.

http://web.archive.org/web/200701010...rescue19d.html

driverescue19d.zip 1,007,764 bytes
MD5SUM = 63b7e1e8b1701593d5f52c7927d01558

*******

So now it's a data recover effort on the former D:. Or,
restoring D: from backups and blowing away the file system
on D: using the restoration.

Most of what I've suggested above, is for idle curiosity.
The "driverescue" stands the best odds of getting anything
you don't have backed up from the old D:. But, you'll need
to connect an external USB hard drive, as a place to
put the data, as you've run out of spots on the IDE cables.
The TestDisk and Photorec, are likely poor substitutes
for "driverescue", since driverescue will be attempting
to use an MFT if one can be located. Photorec can't handle
fragmentation for example, and as far as I know, fragmented
files will show up as damaged files if recovered that way.
I have tested Photorec, by copying a file, then erasing
it, and the unfragmented test file was successfully recovered
by scanning for it.

There are any number of $39.95 commercial programs for
data recovery that you could try. Some, they offer
a trial version, that will display the file names as
proof of recoverability. Then you pay the $39.95, and with
the license key in hand, you can complete the recovery
operation.

Paul

Thanks a bunch, Paul, appreciate the thorough reply. But I guess you
didn't see my comment about my low skill level in an earlier post:
"Whatever little I ever once knew about this stuff, is now a blurry
memory. Primary and Secondary Channels? Master and Slave? etc, etc? IOW,
I'm no techie ;-)"

So your "Simple" made me smile!

I actually replied some hours ago via my iPad while in the shed but it
seems to have got lost. Anyway things have moved on now.

The current status is that after disconnecting the lower HD, leaving
partitions C and N, I have regained normal performance - and, of course,
lost all data and programs on D! On balance I'm not too unhappy. I reckon
fro the limited use I make of the PC in my shed (mostly in conjunction
with my practical electronics hobby) I can get by comfortably with 60 GB.

Here's a screenshot summarising the position:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...us19305May.jpg

One puzzle is that after the reboot to this status, the screen resolution
dropped. I've now dragged the slider to its max and it's stayed there
throughout my last session. (I'll leave the PC running tonight.) Any idea
why it might have dropped down the pixel resolution like that please?

I have a LOT of work left to do, but am very grateful to all who've helped
me. It does indeed look like that HD was about to expire. Guess I'll never
know for sure. I'm scared to connect it again anyway!

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...us19305May.jpg

Terry Pinnell wrote:
Paul wrote:

Terry Pinnell wrote:
Latest info. Disk Mgmt window raises various puzzles:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...DiskMgmt-2.jpg

Device Mgr also shows 3 optical drives instead of the 2 I actually have.
Probably unrelated to the current issue, but reported just in case...

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/.../Devices-1.jpg

Everything still impossibly slow. Back on main PC to send this during the
¾ hour needed for close/restart, to check if my attempts with sfc /scannow
and my fiddling with page file have had any effect.

Simple.

Disconnect the optical drive cable, with the two optical drives on it.
All optical drives should disappear, all *three* of them in Device Manager.
There is a problem there, but I cannot figure out exactly what. And I
think the detection of three devices, where two exist, is *the* problem.
The OS is "pinging" the hardware status of the phantom optical drive,
and that's chewing up cycles.

While you might be running some virtual CDROM software, and mounting
an ISO as an optical drive, somehow I doubt that. You'd probably remember
doing that.

Once the optical drive cable, with two optical drives is removed, you
can try removing or deleting the phantom item in Device Manager.

*******

That would leave the two Maxtor hard drives on the other IDE cable.

The thing that was D: and changed to J:, and you changed it back
to D: again, is "raw". That means you've lost the file system
on it. It could be, there is some damage near the beginning
of the file system. The header of the file system likely no
longer says it is NTFS.

Since it is a logical inside an extended, now you're going to
need to figure out where it starts. Probably two sectors
past where the Extended is located.

With a Linux LiveCD and hexdump, you would normally see
something like this. In this example, you work out a potential
sector offset (do the math to locate where D: starts), and then
when you display the data, the word "NTFS" should show up. That's
how you know you've located it. You can use PTEDIT32 in Windows,
to dump the MBR and get the offset. PTEDIT32 should show the
Extended, and the D: might be a couple sectors past that.

(You can run this first, and capture MBR information... I sometimes
prefer this to using "sudo fdisk /dev/sda" type commands in Linux.)

ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/englis...s/PTEDIT32.zip

(Then boot into Linux, and actually track down the beginning of D: .
This is what I use as a disk editor, of sorts. This is the command
I used, to locate a partition on a 3TB hard drive.)

sudo hexdump -C -s 0x20000140000 -n 512 /dev/sdc

20000140000 eb 52 90 4e 54 46 53 20 20 20 20 00 02 08 00 00 |.R.NTFS .....|
20000140010 00 00 00 00 00 f8 00 00 3f 00 ff 00 00 08 00 00 |........?.......|

The program "TestDisk" could scan and locate these things,
but it'll likely run into the same problem, of not seeing
a file system on the old D:. And CHKDSK is not going to
want to run on D:, because at the moment it is raw, and
CHKDSK won't know it needs to run CHKNTFS. There is a way
to tell CHKDSK to run when no drive letter is evident, but
that still doesn't solve the problem of CHKDSK figuring out
which version of tool to run (FAT or NTFS).

(Tool used to repair an MBR. In this case, you may be able
to view files once the tool has scanned the disk. It may
be able to see the file system, but no guarantees. There is
no point repairing the MBR, because it's not the thing that
is broken. So the only reason to run this first tool, is
to see if the files can be listed on the partition or not.)

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

(This is an example of a file scavenger, for cases where
perhaps the MFT (master file table) is gone. Scavenging
if there was no backup...)

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

I don't know how to "hand repair" a file system. I'd be probing
the head of the file system, just to see if the sectors
are readable there or not. It could be, the system will
freeze when you hit the bad spot in the disk.

*******

You can run a tool like this, to try to recover the data on D:
You'll need some more disk space, to put the recovered files.
This is a free tool someone wrote, and when I offered this to
one user, they got their files back. I haven't tested it here.
This tool, the source code, was eventually sold to some other
developer, and the originating web site removed. But archive.org
still has a copy.

http://web.archive.org/web/200701010...rescue19d.html

driverescue19d.zip 1,007,764 bytes
MD5SUM = 63b7e1e8b1701593d5f52c7927d01558

*******

So now it's a data recover effort on the former D:. Or,
restoring D: from backups and blowing away the file system
on D: using the restoration.

Most of what I've suggested above, is for idle curiosity.
The "driverescue" stands the best odds of getting anything
you don't have backed up from the old D:. But, you'll need
to connect an external USB hard drive, as a place to
put the data, as you've run out of spots on the IDE cables.
The TestDisk and Photorec, are likely poor substitutes
for "driverescue", since driverescue will be attempting
to use an MFT if one can be located. Photorec can't handle
fragmentation for example, and as far as I know, fragmented
files will show up as damaged files if recovered that way.
I have tested Photorec, by copying a file, then erasing
it, and the unfragmented test file was successfully recovered
by scanning for it.

There are any number of $39.95 commercial programs for
data recovery that you could try. Some, they offer
a trial version, that will display the file names as
proof of recoverability. Then you pay the $39.95, and with
the license key in hand, you can complete the recovery
operation.

Paul

Thanks a bunch, Paul, appreciate the thorough reply. But I guess you
didn't see my comment about my low skill level in an earlier post:
"Whatever little I ever once knew about this stuff, is now a blurry
memory. Primary and Secondary Channels? Master and Slave? etc, etc? IOW,
I'm no techie ;-)"

So your "Simple" made me smile!

I actually replied some hours ago via my iPad while in the shed but it
seems to have got lost. Anyway things have moved on now.

The current status is that after disconnecting the lower HD, leaving
partitions C and N, I have regained normal performance - and, of course,
lost all data and programs on D! On balance I'm not too unhappy. I reckon
fro the limited use I make of the PC in my shed (mostly in conjunction
with my practical electronics hobby) I can get by comfortably with 60 GB.

Here's a screenshot summarising the position:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...us19305May.jpg

One puzzle is that after the reboot to this status, the screen resolution
dropped. I've now dragged the slider to its max and it's stayed there
throughout my last session. (I'll leave the PC running tonight.) Any idea
why it might have dropped down the pixel resolution like that please?

I have a LOT of work left to do, but am very grateful to all who've helped
me. It does indeed look like that HD was about to expire. Guess I'll never
know for sure. I'm scared to connect it again anyway!

You know enough to take shots of the BIOS. I think
you're more of a techie than you let on.

The video resolution may drop, if the hardware was somehow
redetected. Normally, that wouldn't happen. You can look for
"setupapi.log" on C:, somewhere in C:\Windows for more details.
Every hardware installation operation gets logged in there.
I've had a few strange ones myself, such as virtually all
my hardware being "rediscovered" one day. Took several minutes
for all the old, existing drivers, to get associated with
the "new" hardware. Dialog boxes flashing on the screen.
No explanation of why. Disks healthy, and no file system damage,
as I use a UPS, and haven't had a dirty shutdown that I know of.
I even run CHKDSK occasionally, to try to cover off latent faults.

What you might consider, is somehow, when installing the video
driver, portions of it (NVidia specific) ended up on D:. And
now they're no longer to be found. You might want to go to
Device Manager, do Properties on the video card, check the
driver file list, and generally see if the video card entry
is still all-healthy. There might be more evidence there,
that something broke with respect to the driver. Since you have
an older video card, you likely won't find the driver on
the NVidia download site - it might require searching their
driver archive, and finding the last "best" driver. That's if you
haven't archived the driver already. I keep my installed driver
files, in a folder called "installed", for easy retrieval later.

I still think you should "pretend" to do data recovery
on the pulled 60GB. You don't get a "half dead" Maxtor that
often, and running Drive Rescue over it would be fun.
Only practical, if you have some place to put the
recovered data. The objective of doing this, is so the
next failed disk, won't be quite as much of a scare.
It helps to have a tool you can trust, in hand.
And with the limitations of CHKDSK, and how it
can't help when there are real problems, you'll
need something from outside Windows, to help with
things like that.

I recommend the same empirical approach, to any RAID
array owner. Learn how to do maintenance on your array,
so when you get a "degraded" or "failed" status, you
won't come screaming in a panic, back to the news group.
The time to test and learn about any new storage capability,
is when it is empty. Whereas, being "forced to learn" when
it is broken, is just the wrong time for learning...
So pretend your 60GB is broken, you have no backup,
and see what you can get from the drive. Then you'll
have a proven solution for next time.

Paul

Paul wrote:

The video resolution may drop, if the hardware was somehow
redetected. Normally, that wouldn't happen. You can look for
"setupapi.log" on C:, somewhere in C:\Windows for more details.
Every hardware installation operation gets logged in there.

I took a look at it on this, my main XP PC (a mere 4 years old) and it's a
612 KB file. Never seen it before. Last 5 of 6418 lines a

[2013/04/16 08:03:15 5140.729]
#-198 Command line processed: "C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE"
/IDLIST,:7204:1932,/S
#-166 Device install function: DIF_PROPERTYCHANGE.
#I292 Changing device properties of "ROOT\MS_PSCHEDMP\0001".
#I306 DICS_START: Device has been started.

Virtually incomprehensible to me! And no dates/times?


I've had a few strange ones myself, such as virtually all
my hardware being "rediscovered" one day. Took several minutes
for all the old, existing drivers, to get associated with
the "new" hardware. Dialog boxes flashing on the screen.
No explanation of why. Disks healthy, and no file system damage,
as I use a UPS, and haven't had a dirty shutdown that I know of.
I even run CHKDSK occasionally, to try to cover off latent faults.

What you might consider, is somehow, when installing the video
driver, portions of it (NVidia specific) ended up on D:. And
now they're no longer to be found. You might want to go to
Device Manager, do Properties on the video card, check the
driver file list, and generally see if the video card entry
is still all-healthy. There might be more evidence there,
that something broke with respect to the driver. Since you have
an older video card, you likely won't find the driver on
the NVidia download site - it might require searching their
driver archive, and finding the last "best" driver. That's if you
haven't archived the driver already. I keep my installed driver
files, in a folder called "installed", for easy retrieval later.

Thanks, I'll investigate along those lines.

I still think you should "pretend" to do data recovery
on the pulled 60GB. You don't get a "half dead" Maxtor that
often, and running Drive Rescue over it would be fun.
Only practical, if you have some place to put the
recovered data. The objective of doing this, is so the
next failed disk, won't be quite as much of a scare.
It helps to have a tool you can trust, in hand.
And with the limitations of CHKDSK, and how it
can't help when there are real problems, you'll
need something from outside Windows, to help with
things like that.

I recommend the same empirical approach, to any RAID
array owner. Learn how to do maintenance on your array,
so when you get a "degraded" or "failed" status, you
won't come screaming in a panic, back to the news group.
The time to test and learn about any new storage capability,
is when it is empty. Whereas, being "forced to learn" when
it is broken, is just the wrong time for learning...
So pretend your 60GB is broken, you have no backup,
and see what you can get from the drive. Then you'll
have a proven solution for next time.

OK, I'm curious about it too. I'll see what I can do once I've stabilised
the new '1 HD, 2 partition system'. But when I reconnect the failing HD,
won't I be plunged back into the almost frozen behaviour?

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

On Wed, 05 Jun 2013 10:17:11 +0100, AC wrote:

TMack wrote:
On Wed, 05 Jun 2013 08:58:29 +0100, AC wrote:

I'd pull all the hard disks, and the CD rom, and bung in a known good
disk and see what happens. If the PC gets quickly to the point it cant
find an OS (or boots if it has an OS), you can be sure the MB, RAM etc
are OK. Then go from there.

Ubuntu live CD is much less hassle

No it is not.

and much more use - see my other post in this thread. If it doesn't
boot properly with Ubuntu live then he can remove hardware
progressively until it is down to CD drive, memory and motherboard
(plus graphics card if it isn't using onboard graphics). If there is
still a problem at this stage it would probably be easiest to scrap the
superannuated pile of junk and replace it.

See. All that, including the sourcing and burning of a disk, learning
Linux if you dont already know how to use it, or ...... just bung in a
spare ****ing hard drive.

Just bunging in a spare hard drive won't tell you whether or not onboard
hardware like ethernet, sound etc is working properly. It won't stress
the graphics card enough to pick up likely problems. It won't tell you
whether the "****ing hard drive" is actually being read properly. There
is a whole bunch of useful stuff it won't check.

Oh, the hassle.

Don't be silly. Downloading an iso isn't rocket science and burning a CD
is hardly a major task. With the live CD, even somebody who knows nothing
about linux would know that the hardware was all OK if it booted properly
without error messages - apart from the hard disk, which would then be the
obvious culprit - either flaky disk or flaky windows installation. A quick
bit of googling would be all it would take for a complete Ubuntu novice to
be able to access the hard disk and check it out

I really wish Linux fanboi bores would just **** off and die. Do you
guys realise how off putting you are to normal people? Im sure more
people would use Linux if you lot just shut up. Im surprised you people
don't email the UN and tell them that installing Linus will bring peace
to Syria, and feed the bloody third world.

It's got nothing to do with liking Linux and everything to do with being
able to boot a complete OS without needing to install it on a hard disk.
As a problem investigation tool it's really handy. This isn't just my
view, there are loads of others who understand how useful it can be. I
don't use Linux as an OS on any of my systems - but I DO use an Ubuntu
live CD for checking out hardware. Its the quickest way I know of
checking that the hardware is paying together properly. Refusing to use
something that is so useful and so easy is just plain ****ing stupid.

--
Tony
'09 FJR1300, '04 Ducati ST3, '87 TW200,
'94 PC800, OMF#24