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Category : PC Hardware

Question : I really need to understand TRANSLATION MODE and LARGE MODE. This has some thing to do with hard drives and I think the bios? I can't thank you enough!

Answer : These BIOS settings (usually called "Normal", "Large" and "LBA") come about due to a limitation in the communication (and maintaining compatibility with DOS-based apps that use Int13h to execute hard disk reads and writes) between the motherboard (BIOS) and the hard disk controller (IDE). The problem is that each supports a different maximum number for each of the 3 main items of physical geometry that defines a hard disk. These items are the number of Cylinders, the number of Heads, and the Sectors-per-track. Here are their respective maximums:

------C---H----S
BIOS 1024 256 63
IDE 65k 16 256

The problem here is that taken individually either the BIOS or the IDE controller circuitry (on a circuit board mated to the disk) can both address large hard disks (7.8GB for the BIOS and 128GB for IDE) since they have to work together to maintain compatibility only the lowest value from each column can be used in addressing a disk through the BIOS (required for compatibility with DOS). So a maximu of 1024 cylinders, 16 heads, and 63 sectors-per-track is allowable.

The various translation methods in the BIOS are, in some cases, ways of getting around this limit (translation makes larger groups of clusters appear as one cluster) while others are similar methods, but allow the IDE circuitry to interpret calls (which depending on the quality of the firmware of your drive may result in slightly slower performance). All recent (last 5 years) hard disks support LBA transfer modes and you will likely have good luck with LBA.

Paul Doherty

Rating : You are the man! THANK YOU !

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FAQId : 116425
Subject : More Terms I need to understand

Question : Your last annswer was right on, and FAST. I wonder if you could tell me the difference between SYSTEM CACHE and HDD CACHE? and any and all about the 2 would be very helpful. Thank You in advance. You are the man !

Answer : The idea behind cache is to let a fast device store some of it's needed data (usually the most recently used) in a small (relatively) area for quicker access in the event that data is needed again. In the case of the CPU the cache holds an amount equal to the cache size of whataver the CPU has most recently done, in the hopes that things like loops or instrcutions being performed multiple times on redundant data can be sped up by reading this data from the cache, rather than having to go to the "slow" RAM of the system. The same applies to hard disks. They use RAM (which is slow for the CPU, but 1000 times faster than a hard disk) for a cache so that data that has recently been read for the disk can be gotten faster if needed again relatively soon. When a device like a CPU or hard disk checks with it's cache controller and acquires data from it (meaning the data has needed is available in the cache memory) that is known as a cache "hit". When the device requests data from the cache controller and the cache memory no longer has the data requested that is a cache "miss". A high percentage of "hits" is the goal for optimal performance. So you can think of a cache as a middle-ground between a faster device and it's slower method of retrieving data.

Now on to the two types you mentioned:

"System cache" is the CPU's domain. There are several levels of cache, and where they are located depends on what CPU architecture you have. For purposes of example I'll use the common Pentium 2 arrangement. System cache here exists in several places: on the CPU itself there are two caches of high-speed memory, both 16k in size. One caches instructions and the other caches data. This cache is called L1 (level 1) cache and is the first place the CPU looks for items. If you've ever seen a P2 or P3 (pre-Coppermine) CPU you know it's a wide black thing on a circuit board. The reason for that is that the fab size (.28 or .22 micron) is too large for them to include the L2 (level 2) cache (which is 512K).

hard disks use RAM since it's so much faster than the physical disk itself. They can also set aside much larger amounts since RAM is cheap compared to the speed of memory required for the cache on a CPU. So you may have an 8 or 16MB (or larger) cache on your hard disk, that allows the OS to retrieve data from the cache when a hit occurs, rather than take the long, expensive time penalty to move that hard disk head around.

Paul Doherty
Rating : Excellent! he knows what he is talking about!

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FAQId : 165374
Subject : Purchase of a computer

Question : I am about to purchase a new system. I am torn between a PentiumIII 733 and the Athlon 700-800 systems. I want to edit analog videos from my sony handicam and I do photography work for hobby enjoyment on the computer, also I am confused as to weither to buy a compaq or not due to reputation. Also the new RDAM from Dell by Rambus vs the SDRAM
Please help.

Answer : In another question I complete cover the differences between RDRAM and SDRAM - I will paste it into here since I don't know yet how to add that question to my FAQ list. Look for it at the bottom after the answer.

I would have to say go with the Pentium 3 for a few reasons:

1) As fast or faster than the Athlon - the older P3's were slower than the Athlons but the new Coppermine chips with their full-core speed 256K cache are the equal of an Athlon of the same clock speed (this may change when AMD starts producing their new .18 micron Athlons with integrated cache - in fact I expect it to change but nonetheless suggest a P3 for reason #2)

2) COMPATIBILITY - The CPU itself is not a concern as the Athlon is fully instruction-set compatible with the Intel CPUs. That's the easy part. Where things fall apart is in what's called the "chipset" of the motherboard. This is the main logic that controls everything from movement of data across every bus in the system, to providing the advanced features you want like ATA66 hard drive support and AGP 4X transfers, etc. AMD CPUs do not use Intel chipsets (for obvious reasons - Intel won't let them is a major reason) and the chipsets that ARE available for the Athlon (and indeed the K6-2 and K6-3's as well) are not up to snuff IMO. I tend to beat my machines mercilessly and if you're doing video you will too. I also run many alternative OS's and had major problems when attempting to do on an AMD K6-s I used to have (not the "used to"). In summary: You will have less problems if you go with the Intel.

Another nice thing to know is that you can now get an Intel Coppermine running at 800Mhz - this is not a CPU that Intel currently produces, but is coming from overclocking a lower (600Mhz) and *less costly* CPU. The beauty of this is that the people who do this stand behind the CPUs and coolers (heatsink/dan combos) with a lifetime warranty. No longer is overclocking a crapshoot where you just have to hope the quality of the chip is good enough to make it to the speed you want.

Check out the site - step-thermodynamics

http://www.step-thermodynamics.com/

And their Internet Specials page

http://www.step-thermodynamics.com/InternetSpecials.htm

For about *half* what a P3-733 alone costs you can get a P3-800 from these guys *with cooling system* and guaranteed to run at 800Mhz for life...

You will need PC133 RAM for this system since the overclock involved running a CPU intended (meaning multiplier-locked) for a 100Mhz FSB (Front-Side Bus) at 133Mhz, which in turn is where the 800Mhz comes from. This is THE best way to go to build a system yourself as far as I'm concerned. You'll save enough on the CPU to buy yourself another 40GB hard disk!

Good luck!


*****************************************

SDRAM vs RAMBUS

SDRAM is Single Data-Rate RAM. It runs at speeds of 100, 133 and 150Mhz. It is on a 64-bit bus.

RDRAM is RAMbus memory - a new spec by Intel that is utilized by their new motherboard chipset the i820. Rambus mainly differs from SDRAM in it's clock speeds. It is a clock-doubled RAM that can send and receive data on the rising and the falling of each clock tick. So RDRAM that runs at 100Mhz for instance effectively really moves data at 200Mhz. Rambus speeds are even higher than that - I'm not sure of the highest clock speed but I believe it's 400Mhz - which when clock-doubled makes for a whopping 800Mhz of speed. Sounds good, doesn't it? 800 vs 133 on SDRAM? But it ain't so. The missing piece of the puzzle I left out is that, while SDRAM has a 64-bit bus (which means 8 bytes per clock tick can move back or forth across the bus), RDRAM is only a 16-bit bus (which means 2 bytes per clock tick). So, RDRAM at 8 times the frequency, when this 1/4 sized bus is taken into consideration is now only (all other things being equal) twice as fast as 100Mhz SDRAM. And as I mentioned there is 133Mhz SDRAM available now. On top of that RDRAM is expensive. And I do mean expensive. A 128MB stick (DIMM) of SDRAM will run you about $150.00. The same capacity of RDRAM will set you back a cool thousand bucks! And to fit the final nail into the coffin on it's way to your RAM slots is a new memory standard DDRAM. It's clock-doubled memory just like RDRAM is, but it's like the SDRAM with it's wider 64-bit bus. And it will likely be a lot less than comparable RDRAM 9and right now now RDRAM would touch it at a clock-doubled 133Mhz (266Mhz effective, 64-bit)) speed. DDRAM is on video cards with the NVidia GeForce card and will be coming to PCs in the form of DIMMs very soon I suspect.

Paul Doherty
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FAQId : 218121
Subject : CPU

Question : sir, i'm a student. Can u please tell me ....

1)How does CPU work in co-relation with a PCI ?

2)What is basically the use of PCI ?

3)In my book, its written that "PCI is High Band-width Processor-Independent Bus and It Delivers better System Performance for high speed I/O subsystems. It does 64 Data Lines transferring upto 264MB/sec at 33MHz.
Now my question is....
(a)What do u mean by High Speed I/O
"SUBSYSTEMS" ?
(b) What does it mean by 64 Data Line
Transferring?
(c) At what speed does a PCI bus work?
(d) According to me ....it is not possible
that a PCI can transfer 264MB in a
second that too at 33MHz. Please tell
me something about Data Transfer
through PCI & whether the transfer rate
i told above is possible or not.
According to me if data transfer can
be so high....then the system must be
a supercomputer.
(e) Can such a high Data Transfer take
place on normal server systems.
(f) If my Processor has a speed of 450MHz
then at what speed would my PCI work &
how will it effect DATA TRANSFER.
(g) Does 64 Data lines mean 64 BITS.
(h) Is 33MHz the speed of cycle. If it is
then which cycle are we talking about.
Is it the cycle of CPU or the PCI.
(i) Is the above line written in my book
wright or wrong ?

Sir...i would be highly greatful if you can send me the answers to all my questions as soon as possible. If u can give the answers in detals ...that would do the best for me.

My email address is sidharth_verma@hotmail.com.

Thanking you.....

Sincerely,
Sidharth Verma

Answer : Ok here we go...

1) The CPU and PCI have no real relation in the workings of the computer. The CPU does calculations, while the PCI bus (and it's corresponding controllers) handles peripheral cards plugged into it (the PCI bus, that is).

2) The basic use of PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) is to enable you to plug in high(er) speed add-in cards like sound and video cards. PCI was a step away from the older architecture of 8 and 16-bit ISA slots. ISA slots ran at a much slower rate (around 8Mhz) and, as stated, were only 16-bits wide at a maximum. In the beginning of PCI only things like video were put on the PCI bus but nowadays everything from sound cards, modems and SCSI controllers are put on the PCI bus.

3a) High-speed IO system is exactly what PCI is - it is simply a series of electrical (and physical) contact points ("slots") and their corresponding controlling circuitry. PCI slots simply allow you to add functionality to your computer to customize it's capabilities to your specific needs. "IO" (usually written "I/O") stands for Input/Output indicating that PCI is a mechanism for moving data. Subsystem seems to be causing you some confusion as well. Sub means "below" so subsystem is something below the system as a whole. That is, a subsystem is an underlying working piece of what makes the whole possible.

3b) "64 data lines" is actually 64-bit data lines and refers to how many bits can be sent back or forth across the PCI bus at one time. 64 bits is 8 bytes at a time since a single byte is 8 bits (8 * 8 = 64).

3c) 33Mhz is the clock rate of the current PCI slots. This means that the slots work off an oscillator signal that "pulses" 33 Million times per second. These pulses are the conductor of the transfers across the bus and let the controlling circuitry know *when* sends or receives are eligible to take place.

3d) The PCI bus can indeed move that amount of data per second. But remember this is an electrical bus with no moving parts - electronics are quite fast when they are not encumbered by physical devices (like spinning hard disks). Your number is right on the money too - here's how to calculate it:

64 bit bus width = 8 bytes (8 bits per byte * 8)

So in theory we have 8 bytes per transfer across the bus based on this 64-bit width. Now all we do to find the throughput is multiply this width by the number of "opportunities per second" the bus will get to move data (and for maximum transfer purposes assume every opportunity to move data is utilized). So with our 33Mhz (33,000,000 cycles per second) oscillator we have 33 million opportunities per second. So we multiply:

33,000,000 x 8 (bytes per transfer) =

264,000,000 bytes

Now divide that by 1,000,000 to get (roughly) 264MB of throughput per second. I say "roughly" because a megabyte is actually based on 1024 x 1024 (1,048, 576) but we're getting nitpicky here.

3e) Yes, such high transfers take place across the PCI bus all the time - but remember there is contention involved (more than one card vying to use the PCI bus at the same time) which dwindles available throughput for any one card, there is overhead in each transfer that also whittles away at the effective speed. But the burst available to the electronics of any PCI card is the 264MB per second figure quoted (and calculated). In fact there is a faster bus - the AGP bus - intended for graphics boards only that runs at multiples of the 33Mhz speed that PCI runs at. The standard AGP on most motherboards today is what is known as "AGP 2X". The "2X" refers to the fact that AGP is a clock-doubling bus technology. Instead of being able to move data on only the rising portion of each clock pulse like PCI does, the AGP bus can move data on the rising *and* falling of each clock pulse, effectively doubling the number of opportunities for transfers. There is also an AGP 4X that quadruples this speed. AGP 2X and 4X move 528MB and 1056MB respectively. Well past the PCI speed.

3f) The speed of PCI is not dependent (anbd thus will not benefit from) on the speed of the CPU. You even quoted from your book in your question that PCI is a "Processor-Independent bus". And that is the correct term. The PCI needs a 33Mhz signal and will derive it from other signals on the board (or be fed a direct 33Mhz signal - doesn't matter which) based on the motherboard designer's choice. In the end the PCI bus runs at the same speed whether it's in a 200Mhz Pentium or a 733Mhz Coppermine Pentium 3. The only benefit you may potentially see is a very slight increase in efficiency of the PCI bus transfers on a faster CPU. This would be due to the CPU being less of a potential "bottlenck" and less likely to hold up a pending transfer on the PCI bus.

3g) Yes - 64 "data lines" is just another way of saying "64-bit" - covered above.

3h) As discussed above 33Mhz is the clock signal fed to the PCI circuitry and has no relation to the CPUs speed.

3i) The line in your book is correct (other than the minor quibbling over what constitutes a MB)

I'm very glad to help a polite person such as yourself - I hope this has answered your question to your satisfaction...

Paul Doherty


Rating :
Rating :
Rating : This is the best answer i could ever get. Mr. Paul Doherty has explained everything in a very well organised , step by step, to the point & informative way.
I'm am highly satisfied with Mr. Paul Doherty's answers. The reply to my questions was also given very quickly. I'm highly impressed.
I here by rate his answer the BEST.

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FAQId : 772926
Subject : DMA or not DMA

Question : Hi, Should I check the DMA checkbox in my Hard Drive and CD-Rom properties or not? I have a WD 13.2 Gb Hard Drive and an Asus DVD-Rom Drive. I have run 2 benchmarks on the HD performance and get conflicting results. Using Sisoft Sandra 2000 I get better results with DMA checked, but using Norton System Information 2000 I get better Physical Read Performance with it unchecked.

Answer : It should be checked regardless of what the benchmarks say. DMAs function is not to speed up hard disk or CD performance - it's purpose is to *take the load of disk transfers off the CPU* with a secondary benefit being an increase in some disk performance areas. It's far more important that you drop the load from the CPU to keep multitasking and real-time apps like games from stuttering than it is to get an extra 500K a second off the disk. Try running a program like WinTop to get an accurate view of how much CPU time is used in DMA versus non-DMA disk copies and you'll likely find that with DMA disabled your usage will be between 20%-50% (depends on CPU) and with DMA enabled it will be between 2%-6%.

Paul Doherty

Answer : Some CDR drive manufacturers will recommend turning off DMA on their drives - but this is usually only for people who call in - and people who call in are having problems, not raving about how good things are, so I would say leave DMA if the unit works. If it starts to give you trouble burning only then try it with DMA off.

Paul Doherty
Rating :

FUQuestion : Thanks Paul. Now Acer has said that for their CD-RW drive, I should uncheck the DMA. (I have a third, CD-RW drive as well) Does this sound accurate?

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FAQId : 2303674
Subject : CD Recorder

Question : I just tried to install a cd-recorder on my machine. It is one of the original "smart and friendly" devices (2x). I replaced my original cd-rom (not cdr) with the cdr and turned on my computer. It gave me a whole bunch of error messages (which I neglected to write down) and then went to the windows prompt. I recorded one CD and then turned the computer off. Then the next time I turned on the computer it tried to enter windows and then it frose. The next time it gave me a window asking if I wanted to enter windows: 1)normally 2)log mode 3)safe mode 4)dos prompt. I tried all options and the only one that doesn't cause the computer to freeze is DOS prompt. I removed the CDR (without replacing it with the old drive) and tried again and it produced the same result. HELP! Thanks for any tips you can provide.

-Josh

Answer : Initially I would have said you had the jumpers for an IDE device (the CDR) set improperly (I may still say that - check it). Since the behavior stayed with the machine even after removal of the drive you have done something permanent to the install of Windows. A couple of things you can try:

(I'm assuming Win98 since you didn't say)

1) Open a DOS prompt (or boot to pure DOS since it's all you can really get to anyway) and type the following:

c:
cd \windows\sysbckup
dir *.cab

You should see a list of files - these are backups of your registry that are taken at intervals determined by Windows. Find the newest-dated one and type:

extract /e newest.cab

now you will have four files:

system.ini
win.ini
system.dat
user.dat

Now type the following:

cd ..
attrib -r -h -s *.dat
copy /y system.dat system.ped
copy /y user.dat user.ped
copy /y system.ini sysini.ped
copy /y win.ini winini.ped
copy /y sysbckup\system.dat .
copy /y sysbckup\user.dat .
copy /y sysbckup\system.ini .
copy /y sysbckup\win.ini .

Now press CTRL-ALT-DEL to reboot and see how you fare (keep the CDR disconnected for the moment).

2) A more drsatic measure you can try is to make Windows redetect all hardware as if it was the first boot again. Type the following into a DOS prompt to try this one if #1 fails to help:

c:
cd \windows
attrib -r -h -s *.dat
attrib -r -h -s \system.1st
copy /y system.dat system.ped
copy /y \system.1st system.dat

Then reboot and let Windows redetect all the devices (drivers and your user settings (wallpaper, Start menu, etc) should remain.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Answer : One thing I just realized you'll need to change in step #1:

The first line below is new and needs to be executed before the rest...

attrib -r -h -s *.dat
cd ..
attrib -r -h -s *.dat
copy /y system.dat system.ped
copy /y user.dat user.ped
copy /y system.ini sysini.ped
copy /y win.ini winini.ped
copy /y sysbckup\system.dat .
copy /y sysbckup\user.dat .
copy /y sysbckup\system.ini .
copy /y sysbckup\win.ini .

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities


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FAQId : 2755957
Subject : Computer Monitors health

Question : In your judgment and experience, what is the best way to preserve the monitor's life and well being if you are going to be away from the monitor for a couple of hours or more: 1) Permit to power down in sleep of screen saver mode, or 2)Press monitor on/off button to turn monitor off. I have a monitor that came with my Gateway that has one button that you press when you wish to turn on or off. I shut down the whole system at night when retiring, monitor and computer.

Thanks.

Answer : I leave my systems on 24/7 all year long. Why? When a system first powers up it is at room temperature. Over a short time it heats up until it reaches an equilibrium point (where the heat it produces is counterbalanced by the environment's ability to take on the extra heat). At that point unless the environment changes the system temperature is fairly stable, fluctuating several degrees but nothing like the initial powerup. Powering systems off allows them to cool back down. Doing this power off, power on cycle repeatedly decreases a system's life by stressing the power supply and all ICs and other components by the sudden application of power. The heating up/cooling down cycle can also lead to traces failing on the CPU and motherboard, and can add to the tendency of solder to become brittle. So leave the system on...

As for the monitor - I leave mine on all the time too, but I have my screen saver set to come on with 30 minutes of inactivity, and have the monitor power down after an hour. Why is this better than turning it all the way off? Well this stand-by mode:

1) Uses less electricity by far (about 1/10th of normal full-on state).

2) Maintains some heat inside the monitor to avoid the full cool-down discussed above/

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A.Sc., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

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FAQId : 2873559
Subject : about computer memory

Question : hi, i just wondering whats the differences between all of the 168 pin memory chips, like there are SDrams , EDOrams, 66mhz ones and 133 mhz ones, whats the differences? can u mix them together in one computer?
thanks.

Answer : The chips you see in motherboards for the last few years and today are called "DIMMs" (Dual Inline Memory Module). They come in 3 basic flavors, all related to speed:

66Mhz ("standard" DIMMs for older machines)
PC100 (100Mhz for fast P2s/P3s/Coppermines)
PC133 (133Mhz for P3 Coppermines)
PC150 (relatively new - non-supported by Intel/AMD but useful for overclockers)

That's basically it - the other things you mentioned like EDO (older SIMMs) and such do not apply. One thing you may see is ECC-enabled DIMMs - this is an error-correcting technology that is of dubious value - stay away from ECC unless you know you need it.
Rating :

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FAQId : 3151492
Subject : Plextor 1210 ta

Question : Hi

I am having problems enabling DMA on this drive, i have been back and forth to both the plextor technical and Soyo (motherboard 6BA+IV) and each of them is passing the buck it seems... If I enable dma on the writer it then isnt accessible yet it shows up in the device manager.The minute I disable DMA the writer becomes available. Plextor say on their web site to disable DMA when flashing the firmware but to enable it when flashing is done. Thats how I found out I could use it, because as soon as I enabled DMA the writer dissappeared from Windows explorer....

Thanks

Answer : Have you done a regustry search for the term "noide" yet? Sometimes when Windows attempts to enable a device for DMA and initially fails it puts this NOIDE entry into the registry which essentially means "don't try it again in DMA mode". Remove any NOIDE entries you find (Start/run/regedit.exe - CTRL-F, noide, ENTER) and try enabling it again.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue

Rating : Well, I`ll have a go. anythings worth trying.. thanks for your advice. I`ll let you know if I`m successful

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FAQId : 5318542
Subject : Hard Drive

Question : I am trying to reformat my hard drive, it is a WD 4.0 GB Hard Drive…I have tried to run FDISK though DOS and delete the partitions but I get an error message saying disk could not be locked. Than when I try to run format c: I get a message saying the disk is being used in another operation. I have tried the HD on 2 different systems and I keep getting the same error….any advice?

Answer : Before running the fdisk command issue this command:


lock c: /off

The later versions of DOS include protection for the disks that must be disabled before you can use commands like fdisk.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : Paul, I used the command you recommended and I did get a prompt that this command would enable direct disk access, so I typed Y and then got “Locking operation failed”

Any more ideas? Thanks again for your help!

Travis


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FAQId : 5406862
Subject : Using old hard drive in new computer

Question : My new computer is sitting beside me. I want to put the HD that is in this computer in the new one because of a critical program (and its data files) that I use for business.

I have heard that there are 2-3 options but that each of them have their potential problems.

I'll want both my current HD and the new one in the new computer and I suppose I do not care which one is the Master...just as long as I have no problems with TenantPro (the software I spoke of).

Can you offer advice or help? I've seen a half a dozen sites about installing HDs and some of them do a nice step by step job but I have not found one that deals with my situation specifically.

Very, very thankfully,

Rick.

Answer : The best way to approach this is to treat the old hard drive with the software on it like a backup and not modify it in any way. Leave it out of the new machine for now. Do the base install on the new machine - get the OS on there, along with any needed drivers to support your hardware. Once that's all done then shut down the machine and install the second drive (either as master on the second IDE controller or as slave on either). Close up the machine and as it boots that first time hold the CTRL key down until the boot menu appears. Choose "Safe mode - command prompt only". Then ensure you can see both disks (before adding the drive ensure the BIOS is set to "Auto" for the IDE spots you'll be using or just set all to Auto to be safe). Issue a few DIR command:

dir c:\
(should be the new hard disk)

dir d:\
(should be the old)

Assuming you see everything is OK do this:

d:
cd \
move windows windows.bak

This will change the directory name on your old hard disk to avoid Windows seeing two installs of Windows. I'm not certain it would cause you any trouble but it's better to be safe. OK - now reboot normally and when you get into Windows copy the installed version of your application and data from the old hard disk to the new. So if the app was in D:\PROGRAM FILES\MYAPP copy that dir (MYAPP) to C:\PROGRAM FILES - copy the data directory (if different) the same way. Once the directory is copied there you will want to create the shortcuts that launched the program. If there was only one or two you may remember what they were and can make them in your Start menu. If you can't remember them or there were a lot you can open the My Computer icon and drill down to:

D:\Windows.bak\Start Menu

That subdirectory on down represents what you saw when this was your Windows drive. IOW - What you saw when you click the Start button is directly reflected in this subdirectory structure. Notice there is a "Programs" subdirectory. Open it and you'll likely find your program's shortcuts folder. If you do just copy that folder or icons to your own C:\WINDOWS\START MENU\PROGRAMS directory and you should be done with this step. Or you can right-click each and examine the properties to see what they point to.

Once you're done with the program/data move and the shortcut creation you'll want to try running the app. Be aware it's likely to fail the first time as it may be missing some DLLs or other files it may have copied when it was installed. If it does fail and gives an error message about a missing DLL or other do a Start/Find/Files and Folders and search the D: drive for the file you need. When you find it copy it to the same path on the C: drive and try again. Repeat until the app works or you get stuck, in which case respond back with details.


--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities


Rating : Wow! Deserves 6!
Thank you.

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FAQId : 5412420
Subject : file extension names

Question : Hi, I have this folder name TEMP and inside there are a lot of files that have an extension tmp.
I was wondering what does tmp mean and are the files in there important
These files are taking up too much space and I would like to delete them, would it screw up my computer if I did?

Answer : You can delete these files - they are temporary "scratch" areas for programs and are non-critical unless the app is currently using them (in which case you suaully can't delete them - sharing violation). Just to be safe add this line to the C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT file at the bottom:

if exist c:\temp\*.tmp del c:\temp\*.tmp

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of DOS/Windows Utilities

Answer : Yes anything in the C:\TEMP directory can be considered fair game for removing - if you institute the removal line like I showed you above I'd recommend changing it to this:

@echo off
if exist c:\temp\*.* echo y | del c:\temp\*.* >nul

Save this into a file named c:\windows\command\cleanup.bat

and create a shortcut to this cleanup.bat in your Start/Programs/Startup folder and it will run at each boot. You'll want to change the properties the first time it runs by clicking the top-left icon on the window and going to Properties at the bottom. Inside there drop-down on "Run" and select Minimized, and check the box for "Close on Exit".

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of DOS/Windows Utilities

Answer : Use notepad (Start/run/notepoad.exe - hit ENTER) - type in the lines so the file appears like this:

@echo off
if exist c:\temp\*.* echo y | del c:\temp\*.* >nul


Then save the file with the path and name:

c:\windows\start menu\programs\startup\cleanup.bat

(this will save you the step of creating a shortcut I mentioned earlier).

Now just reboot and every time you boot it will run and cleanup the TEMP directory. Be sure to set the properties as I mentioned above the first time it runs.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating :

FUQuestion : hi, I deleted the .tmp files but inside the temp folder there are other files with different extensions such as .exe,doc,url,cab,hdr,dll,smi and so on also there are several folders name temp with .aaa aab extensions.
Can I delete them as well?

FUQuestion : where would I type that line that you have recommended?

----------------------------------------------------------------------
FAQId : 6262121
Subject : HDD problem

Question : Hi there,

I have a 2-year old Western Digital Caviar 10.2GB HDD running in a Pentium III – 400MHz computer. I seem to be having problem booting from the HDD.

This is my observations:-
1. The HDD has it’s own BIOS called EZ-BIOS that starts up every time the HDD is booted.

2. EZ-BIOS needs to be started every time (even when booting from the FDD or CD) or else the system will not be able to read the C: or HDD.

3. I tried booting the system directly from a FDD or CD before starting EZ-BIOS. After typing the DOS command “cd c:” the system returns the “invalid drive specification” error. Hence the conclusion in the previous paragraph.

4. I tried running Microsoft’s scandisk and Norton’s Disk Doctor. Both programs hang mid-way through scanning the HDD directory structure.

5. The system BIOS (motherboard BIOS) comes equip with Trend Micro’s built-in anti-virus detection. Every time I try to boot from the CD or FDD (after starting EZ-BIOS and before inserting the floppy or CD), Trend Micro alerts me with a virus warning stating that the boot sector of the HDD is infected with a virus.

6. I then burned a CD containing Norton Antivirus (dos) program and the latest virus definition files. When I use this to scan the HDD, Norton says there were no viruses found in the either the master or boot sector of the HDD.

7. I am still unable to boot to windows from the HDD.

I need help to figure out what’s wrong with the HDD or system. I’ve ruled out the HDD’s IDE cable or port since both the CD drive and HDD share a common IDE cable and there’s no problem booting and running from the CD. I’ve also auto-detected the HDD in the motherboard’s BIOS and verified it against the HDD drive label parameters.

My questions:-
1. Is EZ-BIOS really required by the HDD? Shouldn’t the motherboard BIOS be doing the job of controlling it?

2. How can I disable or remove EZ-BIOS without jeopardizing data on the HDD? Should I even try this?

3. When using EZ-BIOS, should the HDD SMART capability in the motherboard BIOS be enabled or disabled?

4. Why is scandisk and Norton’s disk doctor having problem checking the HDD?

5. Could a virus still be the problem? If so, how can I detect/remove it?

6. What in your expert opinion is the best and least destructive way to solve this problem?

Thank you for your patience in reading my long narrative.
Gill

Answer : 1. Is EZ-BIOS really required by the HDD? Shouldn’t the motherboard BIOS be doing the job of controlling it?

(EZ-BIOS and other software like it (Maxtor's MaxBlast comes to mind) are required only when the BIOS on your PC is too old to support the size disk you want to add to a system. Older BIOSs had limits at 2GB, 4GB and 8GB, roughly)

2. How can I disable or remove EZ-BIOS without jeopardizing data on the HDD? Should I even try this?

(see steps below)

3. When using EZ-BIOS, should the HDD SMART capability in the motherboard BIOS be enabled or disabled?

(SMART is a disk failure monitor - I'd leave it off. If your disk fails and you don't notice it's probably for the best ;-)

4. Why is scandisk and Norton’s disk doctor having problem checking the HDD?

(They can't deal with the translated disk without the translation software in operation - the EZ-BIOS is what makes the disk available at its current capacity. Without it running the disk may as well be laid out in Chinese)

5. Could a virus still be the problem? If so, how can I detect/remove it?

(Doubtful this is a virus - the drive may have become unbootable from changes to the disk settings when adding a device like a CD-ROM - using "Auto Detect" may have changed the settings from "Auto and LBA" which is likely where they need to be)

6. What in your expert opinion is the best and least destructive way to solve this problem?

(see below for steps)

You very likely do NOT want the true geometry of your drive reflected in the BIOS as that is the primary reason for EZ-BIOS type extenders - they get around older machine disk-size limitations. You will likely want the disk set to "auto" for type and set to LBA for EZ-BIOS to work.

From Western Digital's website on how to remove EZ-BIOS (only IF your BIOS will support that capacity hard disk!):

"Insert the EZ-Drive disk in drive A then reboot the system.
From the EZ-Drive main menu, select Advanced Options, then select EZ-BIOS Setup.
Highlight Controlled by EZ-BIOS and press ENTER to toggle the selection to Disabled. (If EZ-Drive displays the message "Your ROM BIOS is not set up to correctly handle this drive" see the note below).
Select Exit - Save Changes. Exit EZ-Drive (your system will now reboot).
Verify that the hard drive boots properly and that your data is accessible (if not, see the note below). If so, reboot the system again with the EZ-Drive disk in drive A.
From the EZ-Drive main menu, select Advanced Options, then select EZ-BIOS Setup.
Select Uninstall EZ-BIOS and press ENTER. EZ-Drive will display the following message:
"Be absolutely sure that your BIOS can access all of the drives correctly before uninstalling EZ-BIOS."

"Press Y if you really want to uninstall EZ-BIOS.
Press ESC to cancel uninstalling EZ-BIOS."

Press Y to uninstall EZ-BIOS. EZ-Drive will display the message:
"EZ-BIOS has been removed from drive 1."

Press any key to continue, then exit EZ-Drive. EZ-BIOS has now been uninstalled.
NOTE: If, after EZ-Drive releases control of the drive, your drive/directories are NOT accessible, then the BIOS LBA translation is different from the translation EZ-Drive used. In this case, enter your BIOS Setup and disable LBA translation. Leave the drive parameters as they are. Boot to a floppy boot diskette, then insert the EZ-Drive diskette and run EZ. Have EZ-Drive regain control of the drive. Backup your data. Once your data is backed up, re-boot to a floppy (make sure the boot sequence in your BIOS looks to the floppy drive first), run FDISK /MBR, re-partition and format the drive using FDISK and Format, then restore your data."

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

Answer : Your drive is dying (physically). You could reparition it because a partitioning does little to the disk; it just updates the partition table. Once you tried to format it is when it starts doing some real work, laying out the sectors on the disk. The fact that you are getting "trying to recover allocation units" indicates you've had a head crash or the disk surface is going out. Since you had already resigned yourself to reformatting you aren't going to be missing any further data. Go on up to Best Buy or other retailer and get a shiny new Maxtor 40GB for 100-140 dollars. Here again you'll need MaxBlast to extend the size (probably - but try it first without anything to be sure) but at the least it's a much larger hard drive and you can move it to the next machine you get.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : See my follow-up question.

FUQuestion : Hi,I would like to thank you for your comments and input on the above problem. Although I had read of your comments earlier, I waited to reply to them because I wanted to test the advice given. So far this is the status of the hard drive:-

1.I noticed that BIOS identified the HDD correctly has being 10.2GB but EZ-BIOS said it was only 8.4GB. Furthermore the HDD had only one partition of 9.7GB.

2.I obtained from WD’s website the DataLifeGuard software containing all their diagnostic and repair tools.

3.I disabled but did not uninstall EZ-BIOS using the DataLifeGuard software.

4.I run Norton Disk Doctor on the HDD. It took a few hours to go through the first portion of scanning where the boot sectors, directory structure, file structure and lost chains are checked for. A lot of problems were encountered which lead me to believe the HDD logical data structure was all screw up. During the surface scanning, NDD kept reporting of bad clustors. I aborted the surface scanning since it was taking too long.

5.I booted the system from a Windows98 Startup Disk and run FDISK. I deleted the primary partition. I then re-created a smaller primary partition of about 4GB. After rebooting, I tried to format the new partition. Windows started formating by stating it was trying to “recover allocation units”. This went on for about an hour and finally the formatting was automatically aborted with the message “Not Ready. Aborting format”. If you don’t mind, can you answer these questions:-

1.Could the conflicting sizes indicated by the motherboard’s BIOS and EZ-BIOS plus the different size of the primary partition be the cause of the drive’s problems?

2.Why did Windows aborted formating with the message “Not Ready. Aborting format”.

3.If the drive is faulty, how come I was able to delete and re-create a new primary partition?

Please advice. Once again, thank you.Gill

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