I'm off to blow up my hard drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rossell
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Rossell

Rossell

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Hi folks. I hate to say but I am now off to format my HDD COMPLETELY. That means I lose 20Gb of data, :(

Ah well, it had to be done, it was starting to malfunction.

So I'll see you all maybe Monday when my system is back together.

Cheers.
 
Man, you can pick up a 20GB drive for like nothing these days. Gotta be worth a quick drive-drive copy before you reformat!
 
Much of it is corrupted. Thats why. And anyway I am already using a 10Gb to backup all the uncorrupted stuff I need.

And Defrag crashes the system.

Cheers anyway. The format has been put off for a few days....
 
As long as you get what data you need off, I totally support a clean boot of windows. Nothing runs better than a newly formatted, reinstalled Windows (9X, 2000, XP etc etc...)

:)

Btw, be sure to write down your favorite webistes or back them up, that is the most overlooked error that I make when reformatting.
 
I hate when i for get to back up my favorite and junk.

also partition your drive and put the o/s on its own partition. that way when you reinstall the o/s you dotn ahve to back upt he data everytime.
 
In fact, I have had a partition for 1 year now.

I also have a Word file outlining what I need to get on my sisters floppy disc.
 
How many partition do you run?

I run 4

c:\ for the o/s
d:\ for music
e:\ video game music (used to be all my junk)
f:\ for programs

When i have to reinstall the o/s all i have to do is reformat c, and sometimes f and thats it.
 
We have a removeable HDD in the lounge.
I don't need one, as i have a 40GB HDD on this. :)
 
Originally posted by risingson77
Partitions? I just make new folders. What's the advantage? :confused:
Click to expand...

Depends upon the operating system. Basically though, if you partition your data, if you corrupt the File Allocation Table in one partition, you only lose that partition's data.

Secondly, smaller partitions lead to smaller cluster sizes (again, depending upon the OS). A "cluster" is the smallest physical unit of disk space occupiable by a file, so if you have a 1 byte file and a 4096 byte cluster, then the 1 byte file takes up 4096 bytes of disk space. Since there is a limit to the number of clusters that can be supported, whenever the maximum number of clusters is reached, the size of each cluster is increased, thus your 1 byte file may take up 32768 bytes of disk space, which is massively less efficient. That said, if you have an OS that uses NTFS as the file system, this is all irrelevant, since a single drive hasn't been invented that can cause NTFS to run out of clusters.

Deathhawk is right on the second-drive option. Two 50GB drives connected to the primary IDE channel will run faster than one 100GB drive partitioned into 2x50GB, assuming that all other parameters, such as the drive's inherent performance, are the same. This difference can be overcome to an extent with some of the intelligent defragmenters though.
 
Ghost your HD over to another HD or if you have zip disks, they can save up to a couple of hundred megs :( so save all the important stuff :)
 
Partitions are great for subdividing your files into logical drives on your comp. I had a 80gb partitioned to 1 primary, 3 logical, and 2 extented partitions. This works great until you try to move the partitions around and the HD fails and cross links 76 gb's of data, corrupting all 80gbs of data. Yes this happend, it's true. I only have two partitions now, one for an older OS and another for XP. All other segrigations are done by actual physical HD's.

:cheers:
 
Originally posted by eddy_2790
i thought you were going to actually blow up your had drive :D
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ArGH! this actually happened to me today! its not my week for computer related incedents. First I spilled tea on my keyboard and today my removable HDD (with my updated GTC pics :mad: ) got soaked because it was on the window sill and it just started to pour down when I went out of the room(damn you english weather :mad: ) does anyone know if you can recover a water logged HDD?
it just makes funny noises and smells of burnt out stuff i think there isnt any hope for it. And i had like 20 episodes of Initial D on it as well :mad:

Oh yeah I have 2 HDDs in my comp
6gb for the os and programs
20gb for my music and misc crap (all the usefull stuff I burn to cd)
 
Even having a 10GB drive with your 40 is a good idea. Put your OS on your 10, and set your swap file on the 40, it will increase preformance, and you will be able to clean up much easier, as no important files (read: anything that is required to run the computer) will be located on the second drive.

For some bizzare reason, windows runs better with the swap file on the disk that is not windows... Putting the swap file on your 2nd partition however is useless. It is the same thing.
 
Originally posted by Rossell
Y2TUSCAN: Blow dry?
Click to expand...

Yeah I actualy tried that with a haidryer :lol: and I left it for a day to see if maybe it was just the circuit board that was wet. But it was rained on for about 30mins before I realised that I had left the window open. Mind you it was only a crappy 4gb fujitsu HDD that I used to transfer files occasionally.
This week I learned
Computer Equpment and Liquids DONT mix :mad:
 
My wife threw a glass of water down the back of my Sony 21" monitor, which was on at the time! I yanked the power out of the back, and left it for a day, then powered it back up and it worked fine!!! Actually I wasn't that bothered - I mean, a monitor's replaceable, and that's what house insurance is for! Still, it was like three days before the start of the F1 season, and I was kinda busy with Fantasy F1!
 
The same thing has happened to me, the roof was leaking, and the monitor was on. It turned a greeny color, and I left it for a while to dry out then it worked fine.
 
Originally posted by GilesGuthrie
My wife threw a glass of water down the back of my Sony 21" monitor, which was on at the time! I yanked the power out of the back, and left it for a day, then powered it back up and it worked fine!!! Actually I wasn't that bothered - I mean, a monitor's replaceable, and that's what house insurance is for! Still, it was like three days before the start of the F1 season, and I was kinda busy with Fantasy F1!
Click to expand...
Um, Giles, why did your wife do that? :eek:
 
If that happened to me the story would start out with, "My ex-wife threw a glass of...":p
 
Originally posted by Jordan
Um, Giles, why did your wife do that? :eek:
Click to expand...

:lol:

She always gets antsy about the amount of time I spend on the computer, especially in late Feburary/early March. However, this is secondary to the fact that she's simply clumsy.

If that happened to me the story would start out with, "My ex-wife threw a glass of..."
Click to expand...

:lol:

Actually, even I was surprised at my reaction. She was mortified, I just pulled the power and said "Oh well, that's what house insurance is for". Of course, had it been destroyed, it would have been a 19" 1600x1200 flat panel! 😈
 
Fifty GB! Spend a lot of time with file sharing services, do we? :)

This thread has some pretty interesting info on HDDs. I'm going to have to take some of this down for future reference.

Also, you guys should check out http://www.speedguide.net/ . It has some great tweaks. I applied a couple of the basic ones to my older PC (a K6-2 500, which I am using right now) and the speed and smoothness with which the computer operates has vastly improved. It's not as "crashy" when you really test it, either.
 

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