-=PCTechTalk=- Re: Compaq Problem
- From: Gman <gman.pctt@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 16:25:53 -0500
Steve,
The only reason for the dual-boot is because of whatever is trying to
install. MS's install routines automatically make that change so that
subsequent boots will go straight into the install rather than back into the
main OS it's trying to 'upgrade'. These changes to the boot.ini file are
removed once the upgrade has been completed.
The cure, as you discovered, is to us the arrow keys to force the boot
menu to stop its two second countdown so you can select the main OS instead.
You then have to edit the Boot.ini file to remove the reference to the
install routine. You may have noticed that the install also changed how
much time the boot menu will wait before going back to the install. The
default is 30 seconds, although that's ignored if there is only one choice
in the boot.ini file. The Windows installer changes that to the 2 seconds
you experienced here. Again, it's reset back to 30 seconds once the install
has successfully completed.
You are not going to be able to Defrag until there is enough free space
for Windows to move files around while it puts the pieces back together.
Boot back into Vista and either run the Cleanup utility or empty out the
various Temp folders manually (in XP, there's one in the Windows folder and
one within the Local area of each user account. Vista should be similar).
Chances are VERY good that they're overflowing with useless junk that's
taking up a ton of valuable space. Don't forget to also empty out the
Temporary Internet Files and then empty the Recycle Bin. Then, run a full
CHKDSK before attempting the Defrag again. For CHKDSK, open a Run box and
type in CHKDSK /F to get it started. you'll likely be told that it cannot
be run while files are in use and would you like to schedule it to run
during the next reboot. Click Yes and reboot. The scan will likely take a
while to run, so start it just before going off for a meal or bedtime.
Then, you can give Defrag another shot knowing that you won't be disturbing
any possibly corrupted files (CHKDSK will have taken care of those ahead of
time).
I can't help you much to determine what's clogging up the D drive. With
the possible exception of it being used as a temporary 'holding tank' for
Windows Updates (and even that shouldn't happen), nothing should ever be
allowed to write to that volume. Check the dates of every folder in the
root of the D:\ drive and see if there's anything newer than the others. If
you find something, look at the dates of the folders within it. Keep going
like this until you find the folder or folders that caused those date
changes. It might turn out that the computer maker has pushed some updates
to its own Recovery routine. Then again, you might find some things
unrelated to the routine that really shouldn't be there. Whatever you find,
report back BEFORE you do anything to any of the files on that volume. You
don't want to do anything that might damage his ability to use the recovery
routine once the rest of the system is cleaned up.
Finally, discuss with him his options for getting some of his more
important stuff backed up. If he has a second physical drive or access to
one (a friend who has an extra, perhaps?), he should get his stuff backed up
ASAP, just in case anything here goes poorly. If no external or spare is
available, there are sites online that will let you back up a certain amount
for free. Several of these sites might provide enough room to save the most
important things he has in there. As it is, the system was trying to do
something he knew little, if anything, about so who's to say the next time
won't wipe out the entire drive.
Happy Holidays,
Gman
"The only dumb questions are the ones we fail to ask"
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Aiello" <deacondeamon@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2009 3:55 PM
Subject: -=PCTechTalk=- Re: Compaq Problem
> Hi G an update on this Compaq problem.
> started fresh about 12:30 eastern. Still hit the set-up screen. Tried to
> install a rescue of a Acer Vista. It just laughed at me.
> Didn't think that would work but had to try it.
> Next tried the HO XP MCE rescue. That did not work ether.
> Before I started to pull apart the machine in the day room I decided to
> try
> the down arrow step. By God that worked. That caused the dual boot
> screen
> to show.
> I run some of the tests from there and got Vista to boot up. problem was
> it was a black background, with his icons showing. Shut it down and
> turned
> it back on and right back to the set-up screen.
> Back to the down arrow. This time I took the time to read not just push
> keys. He had a Dual boot system there. The first one was Windows set-up
> and
> the 2nd was Vista. Clicked on vista and everything loaded properly.
> Including his background. Only thing at this point was the icons had gone
> to
> the large setting. no big thing.
> I did some other minor changes and got the unit to load straight to Vista.
> I looked into the my computer area and he has a partitioned hard drive,
> with D being the recovery. When I first looked there it was appox 9 Gigs
> with 500Megs free. we kept getting a low space warning on the D drive.
> There was more than the recovery on this drive, so I deleted everything
> but
> the recovery folder, and it dropped down to 20 Megs free.
> There are some programs on it that won't work. Tried to make a set of
> rescue disk. would not even try to run. Tried to get defrag to run, no go
> there ether.
> Any ideas on what would cause the free space on D to drop?
> The programs he uses all open and work so he's happy right now, I'm not.
> Need to figure out way defrag won't work, why I could not make a rescue
> disk
> and what's eating the free space on D.
>
> Thanks for the help
>
> Steve
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