[davidkimdd]

K..I start my computer..."Windows xp Professional" comes out..and after that...a black screen for 20 seconds....and then to the "windows is starting up..." screen (blue), and then the welcome (blue) screen for 5 minutes.......
after that the start takes around 3 minutes.....

I think its the secondary master disk that is the issue....but any help ???

* this just happened like a day ago....so before that it was fine....

PLZ ANYONE PLZ

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Hi davidkimdd
Welcome to geeks to go if it's just day then you could do a system restore which will restore your computer to before you had your problem. To do this go to start then all programs then accessories and then system tools and then click on a restore point. I hope this helps you good luck. see ya


Cheyenne 09

[cheyenne 09]

Hi davidkimdd
Welcome to geeks to go if it's just day then you could do a system restore which will restore your computer to before you had your problem. To do this go to start then all programs then accessories and then system tools and then click on a restore point. I hope this helps you good luck. see ya


Cheyenne 09

[davidkimdd]

system is starting fine now, but it still starts slow sometimes.....

what should i do then?

[cheyenne 09]

Hi davidkimdd
I'm glad that worked for you i am not a tech but i will see if someone else can help you with your slow problem but please be patient as they are usually very busy here. see ya


Cheyenne 09

[pip22]

Hi David. Cheyenne asked me if I could offer any help, though he's certainly been giving you good advice so far! Puzzling is the fact you say startup is now only slow "sometimes", as "sometimes" types of problem (ie intermittent ones) can be a devil to nail.

If you are using Norton Antivirus, that can slow thing down considerably which is why many people prefer to use something else. You might also have other things starting up in the background, some of which you may not need. I use a free utility called 'Startup Control Panel' with which you can selectively disable background startup items to see what difference they make. If everything still works as it should next time you restart, you just leave those items disabled, or if something says it cannot start, you just enable it again. Get it here, try it see if it helps:
If you need advice on what startup items can safely be disabled before using it, get back to me on this thread.
Startup Control Panel:http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

Finally, I noticed in your post you said you thought the problem was related to your Secondary Master drive. What makes you think that, and what type of drive is it?

Edited by pip22, 19 September 2006 - 04:48 AM.

[davidkimdd]

The secondary master disk used to be the primary disk but it failed to load so we took it to this computer dude and he took that disk and put it as secondary and gave us a new primary disk....

so 1st : "primary master disk boot fail"
after replacing and changing to secondary
"secondary master disk boot fail"
and after about 20 restarts..it started again...and started fine for around 40 days now...

2nd: computer wouldn't start fast enough 2 days after deleting some Program files in the secondary disk
like....freezing at welcome message for 2 minutes...taskbar not working for 5 minutes.....and after around 10 minutes the computer is fully started...

3rd: Before the Welcome screen, computer cleans the second master drive for stuff...
and around 20 000 were unreadable???


Yea...so i guessed that it was the secondary master disk that has been the issue lately...
It's been good lately...but Sometimes..like 5% of the time...the computer still starts poorly..

Edited by davidkimdd, 19 September 2006 - 07:49 AM.

[Bobbydoo8]

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[pip22]

So if the secondary master seems to be causing problems I would simply remove it and see how the PC runs without it. Every time you boot up your PC the BIOS (Basic Input-Output System) checks all the drives before Windows starts, so if one of them is faulty it could be causing the BIOS to 'hang' temporarily on every restart. I would certainly investigate how the PC runs without that suspect drive -- I'm surprised that computer guy re-located it in your system since he knew it was faulty -- not very professional of him and bad practice to say the least. A faulty drive can still cause problems (and you lose precious data) even when it's no longer the boot drive,

[davidkimdd]

How would i take it out??

LOL im just a 12thgrader and don't even know how to go through the inside of the computer.....

so far thank you all for your kind help....It was very useful

[wannabe1]

Hi davidkimdd...

I wonder if you may have invalid memory addresses on the Secondary. Click Start, then Run, type cmd and click "Ok".

At the prompt in the command session window, type fsutil dirty query X: (Where X is the letter of the secondary drive in question) and press "Enter".

Is the result of this query "Dirty"?

Type exit and press "Enter" to close the command session.

wannabe1

[davidkimdd]

It says "E: is not dirty" or something like that..so nope i don't think so....

[wannabe1]

Do you have files on that drive that you need?

I think the major slow down here is that there are still boot instructions on the Secondary Master and Windows is a bit confused on what to do with them. This can probably be taken care of by formatting that drive for storage...thus removing the old operating system (which I assume is also still installed on the drive) along with the troublesome boot sector.

Normally, when installing previous drives back into a machine, they should be configured as a Slave. We may have that option, as well, but would require some work inside the case.

Let me know on the files contained on the drive...

[davidkimdd]

It still has the windows folder, program files folder and everything...
but i don't need any files except one program file...which is "easyoffer" and is still used by my parents for business...
everything else can be deleted...

[wannabe1]

We'll need to go a little further than just deleting files. The boot sector is written on the first tracks of the drive so a full format will be required.

Do you have an installation cd for this program, or is it the downloaded version. Does it require a product key for installation?

Go to "Program Files" on the E: drive, and open the folder for easyOFFER. Is there a "setup.exe" file listed?

[davidkimdd]

it was from the installation cd...so i might have to install it again maybe...