[rshaffer61]

OK that shows only 15% fragmentation which is not good it is much better then 41%.
Have you given any thought to maybe upgrading your hard drive to a larger capacity? I'm afraid with the limited space you have that we may not be able to open enough to help without you uninstalling some programs you don't need or use anymore.
Something like this HERE would give you 5 times the storage capability and be faster.

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RShaffer61

We'll either do that, or maybe get a new computer. This one's about seven years old. You helped me with a problem I had starting Windows, and the problem was this computer, an Inspiron 8500, had too big a hard drive for the bios, and I got a smaller one, and it's been working fine.

http://www.geekstogo...rt/page__st__45

Thanks very much for all the help. It was interesting and educational this time as well. Thanks again. Jim

[JimSellers]

RShaffer61

We'll either do that, or maybe get a new computer. This one's about seven years old. You helped me with a problem I had starting Windows, and the problem was this computer, an Inspiron 8500, had too big a hard drive for the bios, and I got a smaller one, and it's been working fine.

http://www.geekstogo...rt/page__st__45

Thanks very much for all the help. It was interesting and educational this time as well. Thanks again. Jim

[rshaffer61]

You are welcome and please let us know what you decide to do.

[JimSellers]

Would you happen to know if that 137GB hard drive restriction would apply to my wife's Dell Inspiron b130. That 160GB drive you recommended would be great if it wasn't too much for the bios, as it was for my Inspiron 8500 referred to in my last post. Thanks again, Jim

[rshaffer61]

It has to be 120 gigs or smaller according to what I have found.
This one HERE will work for her laptop.
Do you know what size hers is now?

[JimSellers]

Hers is a 40GB, so a 120 ought to be perfect. I've got a caddy, and will clone her drive to the new one, unless you think that is unwise, and away we go. Order successfully completed, and it should be here in a day or two. Thanks yet again. Cheers, Jim

Edited by JimSellers, 09 May 2012 - 01:05 PM.

[rshaffer61]

Yep everything should work fine as long as your cloning software works right.

[JimSellers]

I got the drive the day after i ordered it. Too good to be true, and sure enough, the computer doesn't recognize it! It doesn't recognize it in my computer either, but when I put the old drive back in the enclosure, it recognizes the old drive OK. It's an Apricorn enclosure, that I bought with an 80GB drive for my computer, when you helped me a couple of years ago. http://www.geekstogo...rt/page__st__45 It's worked fine ever since, using it for backup. Back on my Wife's computer, the WD1200BEVE appears in Device Manager, and I used the WD Data Life Guard Diagnostics and it passed both the quick and the extended tests. When I go to My Computer, no drive. WD support is not open on the weekends, but I'll call Monday, unless you've got any ideas. I tried to update the driver, but the computer says nothing more recent is available. Thanks for the patience, and the help. Cheers, Jim
P.S. On the WD Data Life Guard Diagnostics, it lists the WD1200BVE as "unavailable," but goes ahead and tests it and it passes in both the extended and quick tests.

Edited by JimSellers, 12 May 2012 - 06:37 AM.

[rshaffer61]

With the drive attached it probably doesn't see it in My Computer because it hasn't been partitioned and formatted.

That would make it visible then.
What you would need to do is put it in a system that is working as a second drive and then do the following.



Go to Start then to Run
Type in compmgmt.msc and click Enter
On left side click on Disk Management
On right side you will see you hard drive and it should show as unallocated space.
You then right click on that space which should just about match the total capacity of the drive and then click on Setup partition
Set it up as the complete drive space available which I believe should be somewhere between 110 and 120 gigs.
Once that is done the right click on the space again and format it using NTFS.
Once that is done then the drive should show up in My Computer

[JimSellers]

That's great. Now I have a drive, and I will start the Cloning, and let you know how it worked out. I was afraid I had a faulty drive, and would have to send it back. I'm glad I asked you first. Thanks yet again, Cheers, Jim

[rshaffer61]

Great and I will watch for your results. good luck and great job following the steps to get it working. Keep up the great work.

[JimSellers]

STUNNING!!! From 3 minutes between the first "Windows" screen to the "To Begin Click User Name" screen to 21 seconds!! From one minute to launch Firefox to 10 seconds. It's almost scarey. Thanks so very much. Now that I've got so much space on the drive, should I do the Defrag again, or leave well enough alone? Hats off to you, RShaffer61. Cheers, Jim

[rshaffer61]

You might try the defrag again to see if it will straighten any more out. I'm glad you got everything working so much faster now.

[JimSellers]

Here's the summary for the Defrag, performed after installation of the new hard drive. No significant change in speed, but how much faster can you make lightening? I cannot thank you enough again for fixing the problem, and providing a fun and educational experience. You are 2 for 2 in solving my problems, and GTG is 5 for 5 in solving my problems. Thanks so very, very much again. Cheers, Jim


Disk Size 111.79 GB Free Space Size 79.53 GB Clusters 29304560 Sectors per cluster 8 Bytes per sector 512 Started defragmentation 5/13/2012 10:16:05 AM Completed defragmentation 5/13/2012 10:37:03 AM Elapsed time 00:20:57 Total Files 81825 Total Directories 9354 Fragmented Files 619 Defragmented Files 619 Skipped Files 0 Fragmentation Before 42.59% |||||||||||||||||||||| Fragmentation After 0.00%

[rshaffer61]

Fragmentation Before 42.59% |||||||||||||||||||||| Fragmentation After 0.00%

This says it all. With all that free space it was finally able to get everything in the right places again. Congrats for a great topic and resolution. Let us know if there is anything else we can help you with in the future. I also wanted to thank you for allowing GTG to help you and hopefully we can keep that perfect score with you.