Joel <Joel@NoSpam.com> wrote
> Rod Speed <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> wrote
>> Joel <Joel@NoSpam.com> wrote
>>> Rod Speed <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> wrote

>>>>>> That sounds like the cmos battery going bad.

>>>>> Battery is what I have in mind to, and I have my fingers crossed
>>>>> hoping for the luck. I just went to local store to get a 500GB
>>>>> SATA drive, and will try to find a way to transfer the system
>>>>> (just reinstalled WinXP few weeks ago) to other drive, and trying
>>>>> to figure out what eating 46GB or turning 100GB into 56GB drive.

>>>> Bet that is due to the drive type getting changed behind
>>>> your back, or you managed to change it yourself when
>>>> you were doing the changes you list below.

>>> It seems like it but I still can't figure out what causes all
>>> these problems. Right now, even the system is running
>>> but still don't know what eats 45GB of the 100GB drive

>> Yeah, odd given the new detail provided below.

> That's one of the reasons why I decided to join the newsgroup hoping
> to read more quesion/answer of the problem of newer technology
> which I haven't learned for so many years. Or I am still depending
> on experience of older system and the newer Plug-And-Pray.

>> I guess its possible that the flakey motherboard is somehow
>> getting in the road of the interrogation of the drive on its details,
>> particularly the size it claims to be, but I have never seen that happen.
>
>> What does Everest have to say about the drive ?
>> http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181

> I am downloading it now, but I don't know if it will find anything
> while the system is running (it has been runing for 24 hrs now),

Thats a check to see if there is any problem with the hard drive itself.

If there isnt, its more evidence that the problem is outside the drive.

> and it may not be able to detect anything when
> the system won't boot to run the program.

Yes, it wont help with that situation.

> But who knows, and I want to learn anything <g>

>>>> Ideally the drive type should always be AUTO, but
>>>> you may have chosen to use the CHS values earlier.

>>> All of them have been set to AUTO and they were still AUTO
>>> when I checked the first time. Matter fact, it has been more/less
>>> a decade I never done any manually ever since the first mboard
>>> had the auto-detect and setting. Before I had to follow the
>>> manual to set the Heads, Cyls, Tracks/Sectors etc..

>> Stranger and stranger.

> That was why I couldn't be able to nail the problem, and was about to
> build another system. Usually, if it won't boot (if not the sign of power
> supply) then at least I can just remove everything and put them back
> one-by-one, but this time it detected Master = Slave and Slave = Master
> which I have never experienced before to know what to go about.

> So, the only thing I can do is to replace the cable to make sure
> the cable is ok, check to make sure the connection, jumper is ok
> etc.. then I disabled drive D: and changed drive C: to Single_Drive
> etc., and still can't get WinXP to boot. And all problem solved
> when I replaced the fan of the video card.

Likely thats a coincidence or the time you took to do that
allowed the system cool down enough so it booted fine and
the problem is just getting it to boot, once its booted, it runs fine.

> And I figure that the video-card will only get warm after
> running for awhile, and hot video card may cause problem
> to system not changing Master->Slave and Slave->Master.

Shouldnt be relevant.

> And that's the reason why I post the problem here hoping
> other may learn something or sharing some information.

Sure.

>>> I only know that the mboard I have "Epox 8KDA3I" says it has
>>> built-in something to detect and report around 34 or 44 errors.
>>> Hmmm.. if I remember correctly the manual may say it reports
>>> Error #'s (LED) then I may have to check with manual to know
>>> more detail .... I forgot all about this and now can't find the
>>> manual (I still have the box but no manual <g>)

>> You can download it.
>> http://www.epox.com.tw/eng/download....5KSUZZeU1BPT1D

> You are good! Months ago when I first got the mboard,
> I did download the manual, and yesterday I did try to
> download manual but it's no longer available.

I could get it fine.

>>>>>> Its more likely that whatever changed the drives around
>>>>>> also change the drive type setting. It should be AUTO.

>>>>> I did change the drives around server times, changed the bootting
>>>>> order few times but none worked... because the system is on drive
>>>>> C: (it's the only bootable drive) and it was recognized as SLAVE
>>>>> of drive D:

>>>> Doesnt matter, any modern bios will boot a slave fine.

>>> This I do know newer windows have option to install
>>> and boot from different drive, but I never have more
>>> than one to have any experience with this option.

>> I was actually talking about the bios, not XP.

> BIOS, yes, I see it has option to boot from so many different
> devices (4,5 or 6 different options I don't know them all <g>).
> I know some like CD-ROM, Hard Drive, Floppy, External Card ..
> and it has few more I don't even know what they are to remember.

> Yes, if has option to boot from different hard drive,

They always do and have done for a long time now.

> or option to re-anarage the hard drive's.

Not with the letter they get if that's what you mean. That's done by the OS.

> But I don't know if it will do any good when

> - Win XP is installed on Drive C:

> - Win XP booting should give instruction to load Windows
> from Drive C: and Drive C: got messed up.

Sure, it isnt relevant to that.

>>> About booting, I am still pretty much in DOS age <g> that
>>> format has option to copy the booting option (system file?)
>>> to make the drive bootable, and usually drive C:

>> Its much more complicated than that with XP.

> You are right! I came from DOS and was still using the same
> old DOS applications, was still using DOS command under Windows
> until I upgraded to Win XP probably less than 2 years ago ... when
> DOS Prompt and DOS Command are no longer user-friendly, and
> I was forced to learn to use Windows Explorer for the first time.
> It took me many months to get used to with Windows Explorer