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Best Answer BerDov , 08 June 2021 - 09:51 AM
Once again, thank you very much, Phillipower2 and peterm! Before I click on [Mark Solved], would like to share that, after returning the computer to B&H, I bought another version of the sa... Go to the full post »
Mechanised Mod
You appear to have things in hand so for now I will just chime in with the below.
The computer does have two storage devices, an SSD where Windows is (Disk 1) and a 1TB Toshiba HDD (Disk 0) would suggest taking the Toshiba offline while you are working on this, Dell having involved RAID in the install has made this more difficult for you than it needed to be.
Trusted Tech
Did you use either option on the HDD
Do you still need help with this?
Cheers
Peterm
Trusted Tech
could you please post a new disk management pic as per Post #53
Member
Peter,
sorry, I do not have the computer, it's in the shop. I understand, the screen shot in #53 shows everything as "healthy". On the other hand, looking at Msg #15, much earlier, there was an indication of a disk problem, I just realized.
Member
About three weeks ago, when nothing worked and I could not even wipe out the HDD, much less reinstall the OS, I gave up and took the computer to a store. When the technician got to it, he told me the HDD was failing on him, so I decided I could live with just the SSD, as all my data is kept on an external drive.
Then he told me he could not install the OS on the SSD. This was an indication of a problem elsewhere, e.g. a drive controller and/or the mother board (sorry have no idea whether the controller is a separate physical unit or a component of the MB).
Either way, it pointed to another faulty component and I suspected I could fix fixed it, even with the excellent help and guidance on this forum.
So, I threw in a towel and bought a new computer. It happens to be another DELL, Precision 3640 Workstation. (DELL and HP seem to dominate the market and there was not really much choice to buy an off the shelf computer with the desired specs).
So, I consider the issue closed. With my luck, I am afraid I'll be here again but for now my hat goes off to Phillpower2 who did his best trying to help me. Peterm, who entered the game recently, suggested a few fresh ideas... The silver lining? I learned A LOT!
The issue is closed.
I indebted to you, guys.
Thank you!
Trusted Tech
Thanks for the update
Glad you are going
Mechanised Mod
Sorry that it is not better news but thanks for the update and kind words Boris 
Member
Strictly for your amusement, guys.
Sunday morning, I ordered a DELL Precision 3640 Tower from B&H in New York (the best customer service over the years so I am giving them a plug). The computer arrived at my doors yesterday morning.
Win 10 installed in 12 min. I was elated. After installing the Photoshop, I decided to take a break and check the news on the web. Big mistake. As I was typing the web address, the pointer stopped moving. Ctr-Alt-Del, i.e. the keyboard, was not working either. I shut down the machine, then turned it on. The MS Edge (browser) icon vanished from the toolbar on the bottom of the screen.
I found the shortcut to the program elsewhere, clicked, the browser appeared on screen - and everything froze.
Shut down the machine again. ON again, OFF again, etc., cannot get to the PIN screen. OFF again, ON again, type PIN, dots rotate for a second, then - freeze. Evening wasted.
This morning turned ON, logged in, got a message about a missing Internet connection (wrong). While looking for the screen to troubleshoot this issue, the computer froze.
So, I called the store to return the computer, received a shipping label from them in an email, dropped the box at FedEx.
(Tech support at B&H suggested the OS install got corrupted somehow but agreed it's not a good sign on day one).
Otherwise, life is great.
Edited by BerDov, 02 June 2021 - 10:18 AM.
Mechanised Mod
I won`t be laughing as that is so unfortunate 
Suggestion, when the replacement arrives leave Photoshop well alone until Windows is fully up to date and you have a new system restore point and recovery drive sorted.
Member
Thank you Phillpower!
The Windows WAS fully up to date. I was neglectful and did not create a recovery drive - admit. But still - it's day one!
There will be no replacement as the store sold the inventory of this model. So, I need to see what else is out there.
BTW, for the benefit of the Photoshop users: when I first opened it (I have PS5), it did not recognize the video card. This DELL has ATI AMD Radeon Pro WX 3200 Series. The drivers were current, as per the DELL gods. I planned to call AMD, but the issue took care of itself (see above). The assumption is that PS5, a somewhat old version, is not compatible with this GPU. Oh yes, there was also Intel UHD Graphics 630 in this computer.
Mechanised Mod
Not sure how B&H arrived at their conclusion then, if Windows is broken among other things it will not normally update.
PS5 and Windows 10 are apparently more likely to have problems than your hardware, worked fine with earlier versions of Windows 10 but problems with clean installing on later versions, see example thread here
Trusted Tech
For photoshop 5 you may have to go to Virtual Machine
Member
What is Virtual Machine?
Trusted Tech
A couple of ways
If you have windows 10 pro you can run Hyper V
If not you can run either vmware or Virtual Box
They allow you to run another operating system inside the current system.
e.g Have windows 10 and install Virtual box you the load another operating system in Virtual box
Like xp or win 7. You can then run PS5 in that just like running on an xp/win7 machine
This shows you the basic idea installing ubuntu but it is the same for 98, xp, win 7, etc https://www.youtube....h?v=sB_5fqiysi4
Member
Once again, thank you very much, Phillipower2 and peterm!
Before I click on [Mark Solved], would like to share that, after returning the computer to B&H, I bought another version of the same Dell 3640. This one has NVIDIA Quadro P2200 GPU. So far, everything seems to be working. Photoshop is running smoothly.
Well, I actually almost had a heart attack when, right after installing windows, I attempted to create a recovery USB drive. After about 20 min, an error message popped up stating something like "cannot create a recovery drive". I inserted a different USB stick and the recovery drive was "created successfully", although after 1hr 15min. Looks suspicious but I've no idea what to make of it.
Have a great summer!
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