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Harddrives switched places (!), everything very slow...


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#1
Idgie

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Hi,

Friday night, I rebooted my computer, and it just stopped and hung, so I did a cold boot.

The next thing that happened was I got a message that Windows could not be started, there was a corrupt system file or directory, please insert disk and press R for repairs. I did that, but it didn't want to repair. It was then that I noticed that the windows was listed as being on D drive. Another reboot showed me that D drive had become C, and C drive had become D. There was also a registry error, possibly brought about by me running a program to fix it.

I wanted to put Windows on the former D drive anyways so I figured then was a good a time as any to install XP on the 'new' C drive.

Twenty hours later (no exaggeration) XP was installed. Now, I am grateful at this point that I can get online to find the help that I need, but it's SO slow and I am finding it quite difficult to find what I need - I am reminded of using an XT and a 1200 BPS modem and trying to surf the internet. My typing on here is very slow... I'm way ahead of what's showing on the screen. If I load the task manager, it takes about 60% of the CPU. As far as I know, my system is clean, and the harddrive light isn't constantly on either.

I don't really know what to do now. I may try and install XP on the 'new' D drive and see if that can fix anything, but after that, I'm not sure what else to do. But as that may take another couple of days, I'd rather wait to see if anyone has any ideas on here, first.

Thank you for your time!
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#2
Idgie

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I fixed the slowness by fiddling with the CMOS and enabling the cache thingie (I'm bad at remembering names) which I had disabled during the fix-a-thon. The drives remain switched, though, yet it seems to have worked out in my favour. The computer works great now. It booted in about a minute, which made me nearly fall off my chair in shock. I have never, ever seen it do that before. Maybe it's because I installed XP fresh on a newer hard drive, one that's not FAT (I have forgotten what it is).

I can't seem to find anything on Google that says anyone has looked for information about switched hard drives, so I'm curious if anyone else has heard of it happening and maybe knows why it happens.

Cheers :whistling:

Edited by Idgie, 14 March 2007 - 12:36 AM.

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#3
happyrock

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it probably had to do with you trying to "repair" windows and it instead started putting windows on your second drive...the speed increase I bet had something to do with getting the 2nd drive switched from PIO mode to DMA...
when you aren't sure how to do something ASK for some instructions first or google it...
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#4
Idgie

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Thanks for your response. Just so you know, there was no switching to/from PIO and DMA, I had checked that. And, I never do repairs or change things without asking questions or googling it, if I am unsure; I've been working on computers too long to just play the guessing game and hope for the best. The computer somehow switched the drives around by itself, before anything was repaired or installed, and showed that the drives had switched when the computer was booted up with the XP disk in the drive.

Cheers.
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