[Jon DeMassey]

I am on Windows XP2000 Home SP2

I have installed a new Hitachi 160GB deckstar as a slave drive F: to the original Samsung 36GB master C:
I converted the master C: to NTFS in line with the new slave F:

NOW.....
The PC has slowed down almost to a halt
- When I right click a folder it takes 10-20 seconds for the dropdown list to appear.
- When I then hang the cursor over "send to" it either takes over 10 seconds for that dropdown list to appear or it times out
- When I copy a file/folder it takes nearly 30 seconds to respond to a paste instruction
- Where I used to access a Java Chatroom in about 5 seconds it now times out after about 90 seconds so I cannot raise a question online
- Even the righthand scrollbar takes 2 seconds to respond!
- I even posted this topic on this forum an hour ago and it has disappeared!!

Why has all this happened?

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The reason it has ground to a halt is the CPU usage is permanently 100% even when all programs are closed

Why should installing a 160GB HDD and converting the original HDD from FAT323 to NTFS raise the CPU usage to 100%?

Edited by Jon DeMassey, 28 December 2005 - 01:38 AM.

[Jon DeMassey]

The reason it has ground to a halt is the CPU usage is permanently 100% even when all programs are closed

Why should installing a 160GB HDD and converting the original HDD from FAT323 to NTFS raise the CPU usage to 100%?

Edited by Jon DeMassey, 28 December 2005 - 01:38 AM.

[Retired Tech]

If you click processes on task manager, is there any programme using 100%

[Jon DeMassey]

No
System Idle Process takes up all the CPU other processes are not using, varies between 90% & 98%

Edited by Jon DeMassey, 28 December 2005 - 02:47 AM.

[Retired Tech]

Process File: System Idle

Process Name: System Idle Process

Description:

the System Idle Process is not a process, more a counter which is displayed in WinTasks used for measuring how much idle time the CPU is having at any particular time. This counter will display how much CPU Resources, as a percentage are 'idle' and available for use.

[Jon DeMassey]

Thanx Keith

Ok; then how come the system takes several seconds to open a folder in Windows Explorer?
How come so many applications time out so they freeze on screen?And as another issue, how did Outlook Expres detach itself from the addres book during conversion from FAT32 to NTFS, so that I will have to re-install Internet Explorer in order to repair Outlook Express

[Retired Tech]

Click start then run, type sfc /scannow then press enter, you need the XP CD and get an onscreen blue progress bar, when the bar goes, reboot.

Click start, all programmes, accessories, system tools to run disc clean up, click more options then clean up restore points, click confirm, click OK. Then from system tools, run disc defragmenter.

Click start then run, type prefetch then press enter, click edit then select all, right click any file then click delete, confirm delete, then reboot

When it gets to the desktop, the system files and the hard drive will be as they should

You should see an improvement now, you can continue to run Tune Up, though this is optional

Download and install Tune Up 2006 Trial

Run disc clean up then registry clean up then click optimize to run reg defrag, which needs a reboot

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to optimize the computer, select computer with an internet connection from the drop down menu, this also requires a reboot

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to accelerate downloads, select the speed just above your actual connection speed, this requires a reboot

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to run system advisor

If no change, the next thing to do would be a repair install, this will leave data and settings intact

XP Repair

If you are unable to run XP Repair

Alternate XP Repair

Use the last one, Windows Installation CD to repair the current installation, which uses a slightly different method


After running the repair it will be necessary to install all Windows Updates

Microsoft Update

Beyond this, it could be a hardware fault

[Jon DeMassey]

Thanx Keith, I'll try all of that!

I've already done a system file check / scannow. No real answer!!!!!

Incidentally, Platypus at Windrivers helpfully suggested that the C: drive may be partitioned in 512 byte clusters! He is right but I thought this was only supposed 2 hapn in early versions of XP. I am XP2000 SP2.

What can I do the re-partition the 512 byte clusters please?

He suggested the drives may be in PIO mode. Yes the Hitachi slave was in PIO mode but that's NOT the 1 I'm having trouble with. The slow op' is on the Samsung SV4012H, which, ironically, was on Ultra DMA mode 6 !?!

Oh yes........ Outlook Express seems to have lost its Address Book and all records prior to the NTFS conversion. I am being told to reinstall it! I thought you had to reinstall all of Windows XP to get any component of it! I am hoping your advice will see me through this. Unfortunately I do not have a system disk, just a reload disk (was Time/Tiny you see)
If I eventually have to reload windows, with my data files on drive F:, can I reload just on drive C: (so as not to lose the files) either by removing F: or separating it?

[Retired Tech]

You can only change the cluster size you are using by reformatting the volume. To do this, back up the volume, and then format the volume by using the format command and the /a switch to specify the appropriate allocation. For example:

format D: /a:2048

(This example uses a 2-KB cluster size).

Note: Alternately, you can enable NTFS compression to regain space that you lost because of an incorrect cluster size. However, this may result in decreased performance

http://support.micro...kb/814594/en-us

System File Check would have asked for an XP CD if it needed to replace files

An XP repair install will replace IE and OE, especially if you need to install SP2 afterwards

You can borrow an XP CD to run the repair, however you will need to use your product key when it asks

The better long term option is to get an OEM XP CD for around 50 GBP / 75 USD because it will give you more options to repair

[Jon DeMassey]

Hi Keith

Everything's going fine so far.

I now want to re-convert C: into larger clusters. When I originally converted, the general theory was that backing up wasn't necessary. As I have moved or copied all the data files to F:, can I safely use "format C: /a: xxxx", bearing in mind it is C: that has all the system files on it? If not, how do I back up C: on to F: and protect F: from the format, given that XP2000 help has no reference as to how to back up?

Also, all I have is a prile of Reload / Backup disks. These I am sure do not serve as system disks. Is there anywhere I can download the system repair from?

[Retired Tech]

Do you want to partition the drive rather than change the cluster size

[Jon DeMassey]

Thought I'd answered this Keith but the post has disappeared.

I have 75 million 512byte clusters of NTFS file system that has gridlocked my PC! The processor's running at about 2Hz!

All I want is that the PC runs as fast as if not faster than previously.

I thought the clustering was pretty paralysing. Are you saying that by partitioning I can return the PC to its former speed despite the cluster-size?

[Retired Tech]

What is the combined size of programmes and data on both drives

[Jon DeMassey]

Now this is why I undertook this venture!

These was less than 2GB of space on 36GB drive C:.

To convert I moved 15GB to the newly-installed 160GB drive F:.

It is now 19GB on C: including 3.8GB in Windows, 4.9GB in Programs & 1.8GB of docs & settings.

[Retired Tech]

I was wondering whether to move it all to C then you can clear F and the cluster size will default to 512, it will be NTFS and then you can move the files back, or are you trying to avoid having to do this