Some windows xp questions.

[Unregistered]

I seem to have the shutdown problem with my windows xp home. I rarely happens. I havent been able to tell when it happen since like I said it rarely happens. Usually I have to leave the computer on for a while. But it will just hang during the shutdown screen. I have found a link to microsofts website here http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;320008 That is supposely the remedy for the problem but I was wondering if there is any other way to get this fix instead of downloading the Service Pack? I havent downloaded the service pack yet because I have heard some bad things about it. My windows copy is genuine OEM version. Second question I have is, when I built my computer back in July I got a Western Digital 120gb 8mb cache harddrive and when I installed windows xp I set all my space to one partition. When I go to check my total space it says I have 111 gb under windows xp. I know that harddrive companies sometimes round but 9 gb? Thanks

[ECA]

Is this the Personal version or the PRO version of XP.
The PRO version is the MORE stable.

The Limit may be due to 1 of 2 things.
HD need a Directory, and this is what you lost.
MAX size of HD for XP. I think is 128 meg drive.
"""Why dont you Partition it into 2 or 3 drives at least.

[Unregistered]

First:
XP Home does hang occasionally on startup/shutdown, but (for me) upgrading to XP Pro solved that problem. In fact, over all XP Pro is more stable than Home. SP1, however, is a mixed damnation. It did successfully solve most of the problems that switching to Pro hadn't. The catch is that XP (Home or Pro) + SP1 is substantially less stable, in my experience, than XP. The return of the BSoD, random system hangs and intermitant networking fall-overs. So realy, you picks your poison with that one.
Second:
There are several reasons this could be happening. Out of curiosity, is your drive formatted with FAT32 or NTFS? While FAT32 does support a theoretical limit of 8 terabytes per partition, random wacky-ness ensues when you get above 32 gigs. While the maximum theoretical size for NTFS is substantially higher, XP has an artifical maximum of 2 terabytes.
If you are using NTFS, then there are a few things which together could be causing this:
-NTFS will eat roughly 4 MB per 100 for it's directory. (Which will account for ~5.1 gb lost)
-Cluster size. Bigger cluster sizes (ie 32/64 KB) will search faster but cause more loss. Much better to go with 4 KB clusters, which, FWIW, is the XP default.
-Hibernate partition. Sometimes, OEM copies of XP create a large, seperate hibernate partition. If you have hibernate enabled, this could be the rest of the missing gigs. To test this, the simplest way is to download a 30 day free trial of a 3rd party partition editor, and look.

You may also want to check out this Microsoft KB article dealing wiht probelms similar to your own:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;316505

Hope this helps!

Note: 128 gigs (ECA, I assume you meant 128 gigs, not megs) is NOT the max size for a HD in win XP, it is 2 teras. Also, XP Home is the Personal version of XP, XP Pro is the Professional version.

[ECA]

Im talking to persons that aint registered, looks like you are talking to yourself.

I dont USE XP, Dont want to RUN XP, would RATHER NOT run windows. But what course do I have when ALL the games are made for this environment.

[dang]

FYI:

XP will not allow a FAT32 partition over 40GB. They want to push people into using NTFS because its more stable and secure.

As for random failures to shutdown, sounds like its failing to flush the queue to disk. I know windows ME used to have an issue with this that they released a fix for. If its supposed to be fixed by XP SP1, then upgrade! I haven't had any problems with windows XP Pro SP1, and I've been running it on 3 or 4 different machines. If you can, I would highly recommend at least breaking your drive into 2 partions, one for windows (10 or 15GB so you can at least install common aps and have temp files) and the other partition for all your other crap (mp3s, etc).


That way, if you ever need to reformat and re-install windows again, you dont lose all your important stuff (documents, mp3s, movies, etc)

Also, when was the last time you did a defrag on your disk? Might want to do it.

[ECA]

My opinion is that you MAY have a driver problem. Windows sounds like its having problems with a driver Starting some hardware.
Excuse you said shutdown. FIND MSCONFIG, and TASK manager. See whats running in the background. Do you have ALL the update WINXP drivers. WINXP dont like ANYthing that AINT winXP.

I have 29gig, and 9 partitions on 2 drives.
IMHO
you should have 4 partitions.
1 for windows.
1 for loaded progs
1 for DATA & WIN backup.
1 for games

REASON: If your winXP DIES, you only reinstall winxp and the needed parts that were lost. ALOT of progs can run from there own Dir. And if you have a backup you can install all the other stuff that you need.
Also, if you need to run Defrag, surface tests, or diags on windows, it is ALL ALONE, and is MUCH faster. want to REDO, defrag, or anything to a 120+ gig drive.... takes forever.

[ECA]

DANG, we should put together a HD handling section for newbies. REALLY.
Reformating and diag on a 120+gig drive sucks.:mad:

I would be REAL pissed if 1 little prob Screwed my HD, and it could have been so easy to fix, or reformat 4 gigs, insted of 120+ gig.:argue