Author Topic: Technical Discussion, need help (Read 7873 times)

animecyberrat · « **on:** May 16, 2008, 03:52:58 PM »

Well since there is no official Technical Discussion forum and I have been having a lot of questions I wanted to start a new thread where I intend to put ALL of my computer and other hardware questions so as not to clutter this place up.

So here is my latest dilemma, I got a 120GB hard drive off someones computer that wasn't using it when they upgraded to a newer computer, well turns out it is all formatted weird, instead of the ususal 1 or 2 partitions, there are five smaller drives which makes using the stupid thing extremely difficult. So what I want to do is reformat the entire drive to just 1 partition, how do I do that?

I tried just right-clicking on them and selecting Format but when I do that it only lets me select 1 drive at a time. I am going to try some things, but if I can't figure it out I will check back here incase someone posts something usefull thanks.

DAaaMan64 · « **Reply #1 on:** May 16, 2008, 04:05:37 PM »

You should be able to do it from the comp management console.
So straight from MS help files:
1.   Log on as administrator or as a member of the Administrators group.
2.   Click Start, click Run, type compmgmt.msc, and then click OK.
3.   In the console tree, click Disk Management. The Disk Management window appears. Your disks and volumes appear in a graphical view and list view. To customize how you view your disks and volumes in the upper and lower panes of the window, point to Top or Bottom on the View menu, and then click the view that you want to use.

Once your in that Disk Management window, just delete the partitions or format the drive, should be an option right their in the near by menu options or in a right click menu.

animecyberrat · « **Reply #2 on:** May 16, 2008, 05:10:34 PM »

thanks, that was easier than what I was going to do. The only other way I could think of to do it was to use a Windows Installation Disc and I couldn't find one that works

But I will try this method and report back.

animecyberrat · « **Reply #3 on:** May 16, 2008, 05:14:59 PM »

Ok so there are 4 different ones, two have "Delete Partition" and "Format" as options, the other two say "Delete Logical Drive" but Format is not an option. The root drive (the main drive letter) is all that shows up now, but it still doesn't let me format the drive.

DAaaMan64 · « **Reply #4 on:** May 16, 2008, 05:25:29 PM »

Just delete all the partitions off that drive. Then it will become one partition and you can format it.

animecyberrat · « **Reply #5 on:** May 16, 2008, 05:33:31 PM »

I tried that, it won't let me./

DAaaMan64 · « **Reply #6 on:** May 16, 2008, 05:42:06 PM »

Have you tried just opening a command prompt and type:

format k:

that might work. Otherwise maybe get a program like partition magic. I'm secretly a linux user who has to use a windows machine at work, so I'm not perfect.

animecyberrat · « **Reply #7 on:** May 16, 2008, 05:46:24 PM »

"Cannot Lock the Drive, Volume is still in use"

What the hell does that mean? I think I am just going to have to find a working Windows install disc, or try my only MAC OS install disc on it.

Ok so I went into My Computer and it lets me format the drive there, but it shows as only 20GB available!? How do I get the rest of the drive back? Damn it this is starting to frustrate me/

ShyGuy · « **Reply #8 on:** May 16, 2008, 07:18:31 PM »

I like to use a utility called BootIt from www.terabyteunlimited.com

DAaaMan64 · « **Reply #9 on:** May 16, 2008, 07:20:12 PM »

It's because the drive is mounted. Windows doesn't really talk about mounting much so it doesn't surprise me it doesn't want you too. Try ShyGuy's program, otherwise just find that install disk.

animecyberrat · « **Reply #10 on:** May 16, 2008, 07:25:12 PM »

I tried Partition Magic, it gave me an error. I am reformatting the different partitions and just going to leave it alone. At least I still get to use all 100GB of the damn thing, I just have it allocated into 4 smaller drives I guess. No big deal as long as I can still use the damn thing.

DAaaMan64 · « **Reply #11 on:** May 16, 2008, 09:07:37 PM »

I would die if my drive was doing something I wouldn't want it to and a solution existed. FIX THE PROBLEM

Shift Key · « **Reply #12 on:** May 16, 2008, 09:23:57 PM »

Quote from: DAaaMan64 on May 16, 2008, 09:07:37 PM

I would die if my drive was doing something I wouldn't want it to and a solution existed. FIX THE PROBLEM

To fix the mounting issue, click the "Change Drive Letters and Path" for the School partition and remove the K drive letter (there shouldn't be any set). Then right click on that partition in the lower part of the screen and the delete option should be enabled.

Basically, delete all the partitions on there until it says "Unallocated" and it adds up to something close to 120GB. Then you can format it to be one big drive.

animecyberrat · « **Reply #13 on:** May 16, 2008, 09:30:10 PM »

I tried that Shift Key and it tells me it cannot change drive letter because the partition contains a Page File.

This is really pissing me off.

DAaaMan64 · « **Reply #14 on:** May 16, 2008, 09:43:39 PM »

Try formating the Page file specifically first. You said you could format drives.

animecyberrat · « **Reply #15 on:** May 16, 2008, 09:51:39 PM »

I tried that and it told me Windows could not Format it because something was using it, but I don't know what is using it. It said close all windows, and make sure no disk utilities are using the drive and I checked and nothing was running and it still said nope. grrr.

The last time I had a hard drive give me any trouble like this it turned out to be the *^%#&W%$ jumper settings. I had to use FDisk the last time to get a drive to partition right and I feel stupid for saying this but I forgot how to get to FDisk since I only used it the one time.

DAaaMan64 · « **Reply #16 on:** May 16, 2008, 09:58:47 PM »

Windows is using the paging file actually.

So to turn of a paging file just right click on my computer => click properties => some tab called performance or something => there should be a button around there called Virtual Memory => Once your in there turn off virtual memory/paging. Restart the comp and attempt the format again.

animecyberrat · « **Reply #17 on:** May 16, 2008, 10:14:37 PM »

I knew that, I just been so pissed off at this thing I forgot about the damn VM.

IT WORKED thanks DaMan64 you are da **** my friend. Now I can start moving my movies over to the new drive. I desperately needed this so badly, I am down to less than 2GB left on my primary drive and that won't last long at all.

DAaaMan64 · « **Reply #18 on:** May 16, 2008, 10:29:47 PM »

Don't forget turn paging back on on C:

animecyberrat · « **Reply #19 on:** May 17, 2008, 12:41:15 AM »

I never changed that.

DAaaMan64 · « **Reply #20 on:** May 17, 2008, 12:45:54 AM »

ya I didn't know. :p

animecyberrat · « **Reply #21 on:** May 17, 2008, 12:58:32 AM »

well it worked anyways that is all that matters.

I feel stupid for forgetting what paging file was in the first place, just this morning I installed a bigger hard drive for my moms dinosaur pc and was adjusting the VM on it at the same time getting totally stumped on why this wouldn't format. So now I am up to 200GB of total disk space, and my mom now has a whopping 75GB between 2 drives. Not to mention the amazing 256MB of state of the art SDRAM.

animecyberrat · « **Reply #22 on:** May 17, 2008, 07:33:07 PM »

So I did some looking into maybe swapping her processor for a faster chip. Now the problem is, I am not 100 percent sure what chip to get to upgrade her pc.
Currently she has a Celeron 560 Mhz processor, I think it was a 3.8v but I can't remember exactly. Now I did some google and apparently Celeron processors are just skimped Pentiums so I was wondering if I should try and find a compatible Pentium that would work with her motherboard, but I can not figure out how to tell what exactly I need to look for. I did an ebay search and found tons of cheap CPUs for like 2-3 bucks each. This is a little closer to our affordable range right now so I was thinking I'd pick up a few and find out which one works.

So my question is, when I go to swap the CPU, if it fits the socket is that all I have to do is take the old one out and put the new one in? I know from experience that it is usually never that easy so I wanted to make sure first. Also if I put a new processor in and it doesn't work with her board, is it easy to switch back to the old one?

DAaaMan64 · « **Reply #23 on:** May 17, 2008, 08:01:18 PM »

Well if your talking about seriously upgraded a computer with only a 560 Mhz processor, you should just quit now. You might find a computer to bring it up to a 700 but it will make little difference. If you need speed upgrade the RAM first.

Switching out CPUs is easy, release the Heatsink/fan, pull the CPU out. Then apply the thermal paste/grease to the new CPU and put it back in the socket. But you NEED thermal paste/grease.

Are you 100% sure your talking about a processor from like, 1997?

animecyberrat · « **Reply #24 on:** May 17, 2008, 10:30:23 PM »

It says Intel Celeron 560Mhz. The PC started out as an HP running windows 98, the first thing I upgraded was the RAM, went from a mere 64MB up to 256MB.

I don't think it could go any higher than that but I can't find any SD RAM chips larger than 128BM anyways so that's where it is at.

If it was up to me I would just replace the damn thing, but it's my moms and she is stubborn. Well that and broke due to excessive medical bills but that's a different thread. I got it running Windows XP but it is a "hacked" version called XP Essential. Basically Windows XP Pro but it also runs a lot of Vista Features.

Originally it had a puny little 10GB HD, I replaced that with a spare 20GB I had about six months ago and added a second 20GB to kinda spice it up a bit.

Well that wasn't enough for her, she got on Myspace and started taking digital copies of all her photo albums and uploading them to Myspace and needed more room, so I got that 100GB drive I fought with yesterday, took my 60GB slave drive and put that in hers replacing the second 20GB. Now I have thought since the machine was originally designed for Windows 98 in the first place, I would just downgrade back to that, but she uses office 2007 at work and wanted to bring work home so I gave her XP and Office 2007, which aside from Norton 2007 there is NOTHING else on the system.

The only other programs on the PC are Firefox, Yahoo Messenger, which I have tried to talk her out of but she won't listen, and Quicktime because that is what her digital camera uses and she doesn't like Windows Media Player.

The thing of it is, her computer before this was worse, it was a Compaq from 2000 but it only had a 533MHZ processor, also Intel I believe but I could be wrong. But it died a few years ago. This HP that I am working with, well it started life out as an HP, I put the motherboard into an e-machines case we found at a thrift store, added some RAM, replaced the 56k modem with a LAN Adapter, and some other minor tweeks.

The only reason she has this Pile of Garbage in the first place is my sister left her computer in the tent one night and it rained on it and she thought it was dead so she gave it to me for spare parts. Well I opened it up and the only thing wrong was the power switch came loose so I plugged it back into the motherboard and the computer was running fine. Since my mom's computer died I fixed this one up for her. I would have preferred to just buy a new one, or newer one, but she is stubborn and like I said, we just don't have the money right now so this is all I got to work with. As far as work goes and Myspace she is fine, but my sisters all chat with her on Yahoo and since we disconnected the directv she watches her favorite shows online and basically I am trying to get it so that it can at least do that respectfully.

Damn, long post sorry. I just wanted to explain it all. Anyways thanks for the tip, I thought that was all there was to it, cuz I've taken processors off old mother boards before but never tried to install a new one.

Will plumbers putty work?

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Author Topic: Technical Discussion, need help (Read 7873 times)