Where is my Topic

I just posted a new topic about computer hanging and edited it and now it has disappeared. Can the mods enlighten me please?

Yes, actually you posted two, I merged them and then deleted the post which had less info in it... thing is, it deleted the entire thread, not just the first post. Sorry :(

I have managed to get the text back if you would like to repost the thread...

Computer slow or hanging after redistributing disc space

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I have 3.4GB Intel Processor PC with IGB memory and 200GB SATA hard drive running XP Professional and I have two data drives, one exclusively for the very large amount of digital photos I store (yes they are backed up on DVD but I want them handy). The other data drive has a large amount of music in MP3 and WMA format. I do a lot of memory intensive work such as ripping my own CDs to MP3 or photo processing.

I decided to redistribute space as my photo drive was getting full and I took some from the other data drive and some from the system drive using Partition Magic 8 and the whole thing took two hours!

I now find my computer is slow by comparison and often hangs and also I seem to have lost some of the features of my Creative Soundblaster card and my CD/DVD drives are misbehaving and one won't play audio at all. Rebooting to free the memory sometimes works if the computer hangs but does not rectify the CD/DVD drive problem.


I wonder if I have left too little space on the system drive for the swap files to work properly and I am getting a memory block? The drive has 38GB of which only 15GB is free.

The other reason might be that I installed Virtual PC from Microsoft and put Vista Business Edition on it to evaluate , could this be slowing down my memory even when it is not being used? It will time out in a few days anyway and I am not planning to by Vista yet so shall I take it off now or even delete Virtual PC from my computer?

I assume it is not a virus or worm as I am using Norton AntiVirus and Windows Defender and AdAware. I clean my computer and defrag regularly.

It's usually a good idea to run chkdsk after a Partition Magic session.
Give that a try and see if there's any improvement.

15 gigs of space on a 40 gig drive is more then ample free space so it isn't that.
You might try an online scan at
www.bitdefender.com just to back check Norton but I don't think thats it either.
Virtual pc doesn't slow it down either.
Try running the new spybot 1.5 after an update

Thank you for restoring my post Noo and thanks Ferrit and Shamus for the advice, I will try those tips. I tried edit the post immediately to add about defraf and I must have posted within the 30 seconds or whatever it is you cannot post.

I also notice I have to defrag more often and when I say my drive is fragmented I mean it!

I wonder if it's not a problem with partitions overlapping... or the pagefile needs killing and recreating... or perhaps system restore?

I have done the virus scan and it found a downloader trojan which Norton missed. I have also done chkdsk. I also deleted Virtual PC because I had lost interest anyway, prefer to try out Windows versions on a proper disk.

Despite running defrag about two hours ago after I deleted Virtual PC and the two versions of Windows on it the system partition is already showing quite a lot of fragmentation although no recommendation to defrag. Data partition is also a bit fragmented but the photo partition is not.

Your theory about overlapping partitions is interesting Noo because when I was redistributing space I got the impression that Partition Magic was a bit confused. Maybe I did too much at once resizing all three partitons at the same time. I do not see how system restore can help it won't restore my partitions as they were will it.

I was looking at the symptom of apparently slow disk access and while overlapping partitions can cause some problems, I was wondering whether pagefile.sys or system restore might have been split across partitions? It would not do any harm to run checkdsk or to set no pagefile and uncheck system restore, reboot and then set the pagefile and system restore back on.

When I tried to do a system restore to go back to before I redistributed space it would not said me and the message mentioned this.

I have just posted in Sound Drivers,my topic is called "Soundcard features lost but I have sound" http://forums.windrivers.com/showthread.php?t=80485
and I feel it is related to this problem.

My feeling is to merge the two data partitions and see if that sorts out the problem and maybe give some space back to the system partition.

System restore is about system files, not the underlying partition and file structure, so I would expect it to throw a fit... hence my suggestion you destroy system restore and recreate it... same for the pagefile and then reinstall the sound card software/drivers.

The system partition is plenty big enough, I think tampering more with the partitions is likely to do more harm than good at this stage.

Does partition magic give you an overview of your partitions - can you see if they are overlapped or have some other problem?

Noo I don't know how to do the things you suggest, I have forgotten so much since you know what event.

Both Partition Magic and Windows Disk Management show the partitions to be clearly separted.

I am beginning to get stressed and it's getting near throw it in the bin time :( stupid computer or is it stupid me :confused: :o

Ok, let's start with recreating system restore.

Right click my computer, select properties, select the system restore tab and check the box to turn off system restore on all drives and click ok. This will delete the files it has previously saved.

Now, while you are in the my computer properties, go to the advanced tab, click the settings button in the performance options (top section) and select the advanced tab, then click the change button at the bottom. Click the "no paging file" radio button and click set. OK that and restart your computer as requested.

Now go back to my computer properties, uncheck the system restore box and click ok, then set the paging file back to system managed size - don't forget to click set and ok.

Both files have now been recreated. Reboot once more... is there any improvement in the speed?

Oh I thought I had mentioned that after the online scan found that trojan and I did some other things suggested my computer is not hanging so much and seems a little faster, it's the soundcard issues that are bothering me and the second CD/DVD drive not working properly which is why I might merge the two data partitions so the second CD/DVD drive gets it's drive letter back.

Shall I still do the system restore and page file stuff?

I have just had a thought. For two years this computer gave me little trouble until I decided to format and reinstal XP and that was only because I had a corrupt Adobe Viewer that would not uninstal or let me reinstal.

You know the old saying, if it ain't broke don't fix it, wish I had left things alone.

OK,

Yes, still do the system restore and page file stuff, it's easy and does no harm.

The CD/DVD drive letter should not cause it NOT to work properly as a music cd player, but some software tracks the drive letter that was used to install the software and might produce a message to the effect that the original install was not done with the existing drive letter.

You can change the drive letters around manually to put the CD/DVD drive back to the original drive letter in windows disk management. Right click and select change drive letter - you will probably need to assign a temporary drive letter to the drive that is currently using the old CD/DVD drive letter first. I would pick a nice high letter like T, to make sure it's well out of the way.

Now change the drive letter on the CD and then change the drive letter on the one you changed temporarily to the drive letter freed up by changing the CD/DVD drive... if you see what I mean.

If on the other hand you would prefer to have all your hard drives in sequence and then the DVD drive, leave it as it is and describe the exact problems with the CD drive in the next post.

Thanks Noo I did the system restore and page file thing anyway and it was very easy and as I was doing it things started to come back to me and I did not have to look at your post to do the reverse after rebooting. Access seems now almost instant.

I prefer the drive letters as they are so if it's not going to make any difference I will leave it. They are C system partition XP Pro, D DVDR-RW drive, E CDR-RW DVD read drive, F data partition, G photo partition.

The problem with the second drive E which is a combo CDR-RW DVD read(the first drive D is DVDR-RW) is that when you put a CD in it will not come up in Windows Media Player but it does work OK with Roxio if I am copying a disc for the car and using both drives (I lose them so never use originals in the car).

Autorun does not work with audio or software in either CD DVD drive I have just checked. I have to open Windows Media Player manually for audio CDs and access data discs from Explorer. If I open Windows Media Player and put a disc in drive D it loads but I have to start play if I put the disc in drive E the green light comes on for a few seconds but the CD does not load. The CD I used was an original from a good label.

I have not yet resolved my soundcard's mixer problem.

I am thinking that the creative software and autorun problems have something in common.... download this microsoft fix
Download it, run it, follow the wizard... it should help you fix what's wrong.

The computer seems to be running better and I can live without a couple of the soundblaster functions. I have run out of tinker for today.

Thanks for the help.

Computer now running better with everything doing what it should do.

Thanks Noo :thumbs2: :)

my pleasure :)