Help - CPU to busy -!!!

[Biker]

Hi Chaps

Where do I start, - every so often (to often) my dear little windows machine gets very busy all by itself.The hard disc starts chattering away etc, often at this point the machine is working so hard that even if I try to click on a button the mouse motion is all jerky and the button often cannot respond.

Now my machine is fairly heavily loaded with elderly drives and dozens of large programs.

Whats going on, there is no way I can guarantee to capture any video reliably now and even worse I cannot write a CD. So can I disable something. A friend said my registry is probably in a right mess.

Specs = AMD333. 128Mb RAM.
Primary IDE = 1.0 Gig
2 SCSI 4.3 Gig
2 CD'sS (one is a writer)

Software = Full MS office pro suite 97/2000.
Photoshop, MS pro, Hot Dog, Flash,Dr Solomons AVT, Frontpage + many many more.

It used to be OK - what has happened any ideas Boys and Girls please?

Many thanks

Biker



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[Elie]

Is your Primary IDE the bootup drive?
If that's the case how much free space is left on it?

I think what's happening here is your hard drive is swapping like mad.. either because there's not enough disk space left or your running out of ram.

Here are some recommendations..

Check the swap file size in the control panel system performance virtual memory, and click on "Let me specify my own virual memory" and set a minimum value of 50mb and a max of lets say 200mb click ok Windows will reboot and see what happens.

Also you can check http://idiots-guide.matroxusers.com/ and click on the Tips a Tricks section for more information about Vcache which could help prevent HD swapping.

The last recommendation is to buy a larger drive

Regards,
Elie

[Biker]

Thanks Elie

Yes I do not have much HD space left, the IDE is my boot up, I bought a replacement big drive but am having nightmares with install. I used Ghost to back up the original IDE with all my internet and business stuff, but after I enabled big block support for the 6.4gig IDE, Ghost would not return the files, kept saying invalid etc.

I will try your suggestion tonight regarding swap files and look in tips and post up my result findings.

Many thanks

Biker

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[Elie]

Hi,

Here's what I would do to install the replacement drive.

1-install the new drive as a secondary
2-Use a package like Drive Copy to create the exact image of you existing drive on to the new one.
3-disconnect the 1 gig drive and change the new drive to primary Master and your set.

Good Luck
Elie

[Biker]

Thanks Elie

Can I ask some BASIC advice here - whats worrying me with that suggestion is - wait for it - - - I dont know how to Physically do what you suggested?

IE. Do use a split cable and have both HD's on it for that, or do I use the CD-rom Drive cable temporarily, or do I find a NEW place on the Mother Board to plug the 2nd drive into?

Please help. (I felt real stupid asking something so basic - but I have not got a clue with this one!)

Thanks

Adrian

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[Elie]

Hi,

No Question is a stupid question, were all here to help

Use the cd rom drive cable temporarily, don't forget to add the drive in the bios as well.
Now you can try the procedure, just take it one step at a time and you'll be fine

The software that I mentioned above asked me to create a floppy bootable so when you boot up your machine with the floppy inserted, the program will run automatically and start the process of copying from the 1 gig to the new drive.

Good Luck
Elie

[Marijn]

Hi guys,

there is an option where you don't need special software. Insert your second drive and make it a system drive. From DOS, type:

C:\SYS d:

If your new drive is D of course. Then copy, using explorer, all files of your C-drive except for the virtual memory file. That file cannot be copied. This file is called win386.swp and is located in the windowsdirectory.

Verify that all (exept 1) files are copied.

Now change the drives and everything should work. Just make sure that when you copy all files you also copy the hidden files.

I have done this before and worked without any problems.

Succes, Marijn

[Biker]

Thanks Elie and Marjin

(Excuse if I have spelled your name wrong, only it USED to be possible to scan down through when replying to get details from the other messages - Chris/Ant please take note!!!)

To carry on thanks to both of you. I shall be trying one or both of these very shortly.

I tried replying yesterday but this notice board would not let me post any messages!

Marjin? If I do what you suggested, can I then just take out the old drive and the new drive will it automatically become 'C:\'?

Also because my last drive CD-ROM is 'K:\' do I make the replacement 'L:\'? IE. copy to 'L'.

Thanks for the help and advice to all.

Biker



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[This_Idiot]

Hi Adrian,

First things first. When you reply to a topic, if you scroll down a bit you will see a "click here to view this topic again" tag. This will open up the whole topic in a new window, allowing you to flip back and forth between your reply and the original.

About Marijns advice. "SYS" will copy system files to your blank drive (it's basically the same as doing a FORMAT X:/S). But BEFORE you copy all the files across from C:/ to X:/, make sure that you do a view/options and uncheck the "hide files" box, or you will lose nearly all system type files. It's probably better to do this in DOS using XCOPY. You also need to check that you don't have any files that are hidden and if so change their attributes with attrib -h.

You'll get the picture that this isn't a straight forward operation. In theory, a utility such as ghost or similar should do the job for you, but Sods Law will always redouble in spades, so make sure and double sure that you test everything after transferring before initialising that original boot drive !

[Marijn]

Hi Biker,

Yes my name was spelled wrong but that's ok. About that automatically being the bootdrive: You may need to set the partition of your new drive to active, since there can (I believe) only one active partition, which is your C-drive.

You can use Fdisk for this.

Greetings, Marijn

[Biker]

Thank Marijn & Chris

All points taken thanks!!!

Dont think I am brave enough for this yet. Gonna wait till I can afford some down time on the machine, it looks as if the operation could go that way.

Cheers for the advice.

Byeee

Adrian

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[This_Idiot]

Adrian,

Don't wimp out on me after all this !

The way to go is to keep your current C: drive intact. Meanwhile format the new drive using /s to copy the system files across. Next copy over any drivers (especially them Matrox ones) to a "driver" folder on the new drive..... Oh, I could go on all nite like this. I'll think about it tonight and email you

BTW, is your ICQ SNAFU or are you hiding ?

[This message has been edited by This_Idiot (edited 10-06-1999).]