| |
ZL3AI > APRDIG 18.02.03 10:33l 155 Lines 6880 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 914-ZL3AI
Read: GUEST
Subj: TAPR Digest, Feb 15, 2/2
Path: DB0FHN<DB0ZWI<DB0HST<HB9OK<HA3PG<7M3TJZ<ON0AR<VK3TE<ZL2BAU<ZL3VML
Sent: 030217/1009Z @:ZL3VML.#80.NZL.OC #:59783 [Chch-NZ] FBB7.00i $:914-ZL3AI
From: ZL3AI@ZL3VML.#80.NZL.OC
To : APRDIG@WW
Subject: RE: Locked Up
From: "Ray McKnight" <shortsheep@worldnet.att.net>
Date: Sat, 15 Feb 2003 15:48:34 -0800
X-Message-Number: 12
Well, to start I'd ask, how long has it been since you did any of the
following:
1) backed up your data and/or entire system
2) FDISK'd your hard drive and reloaded Winderz
You've got a lot of stuff going on with your system. A LOT of drivers,
widgets and gizmo's all trying to coexist with a notoriously unstable OS.
A good place to start is to verify hardware compatibility from MS's support
web site. If you can't verify a particular piece of hardware has been
certified under Win98, then consider replacing it with one that has. Yes,
this is a harsh reality.
Recognizing that almost no one will take THAT advice, I'd suggest the
following approach:
1) Make a full backup of system and data (if you DON'T have a way of doing
this then tough luck, your system will go down soon enough and you'll be
forced to wipe the drive and lose everything. That ZIP drive isn't going
to cut it for backups, way too tiny, too many disks involved. Worst case,
you don't absolutely need to back up Winderz or large programs that you
have installation disks for.
2) I'd recommend getting a copy of Win2000 and "upgrading". It's MUCH
better, at least it's more stable and handles hardware better than 98. Try
and look for a full installation CD, not just an upgrade CD. If you DO use
an upgrade, you are at risk of just migrating your problem to Win2K.
3) Before you start, look again to make sure you have downloaded all of the
latest drivers for all your hardware for Win2K. If they can be found on
MS's site, even better, that means they've been tested and certified by MS.
4) FDISK your hard drive. If you know how, and can (your BIOS has a
utility included for this, probably) do a surface scan to make sure the
disk has no errors. If it has errors, best approach is not bothering to
identify and lock them out with the bad sector table, just replace it, it's
probably close to failure anyway.
5) Systematically reinstall your hardware, from the ground up, one at a
time. Video, sound card (personally I'd not worry about sound right away),
CDROM, etc. Let Win2K identify and load the recommended drivers first, and
if it asks for a driver disk, supply it. You can go back later and update
drivers individually if there is a better one or more recent one.
6) At each stage, stop, test the system to see if the next driver or
hardware has introduced your problem again. I strongly advise getting the
BASIC Win2K up and running with video, CDROM, bare bones, then installing
the Service Paks from MS's support site, then STOP AND MAKE A FULL BACKUP
of the system as this stable, initial state. Store the backup away. The
next time you need to wipe the system, you can just restore the backup to
this desired condition and go from there.
7) I'd also strongly recommend, IF YOUR HARD DRIVE is of sufficient size,
to create a SYSTEM PARTITION, drive C:, of maybe 3GB. DON'T LOAD ANYTHING
EXCEPT THE OS ON THAT PARTITION. Install ALL other software on D: I also
like to make a separate partition that only holds my swap file. It can be
1GB, and this REALLY helps keep the system more stable by not fragmenting
the drive so quickly. You can look in control panel and specify the swap
file size and location. I NEVER install software to the default directory.
They ALWAYS want to dump it in C:\System_File. Bad idea, you'll be wiping
your system every 6 months that way!
8) REGULARLY (like once a week) backup your data - clean up old files,
delete the bit bucket, old e-mails, etc - run defrag. It only takes a few
minutes if done regularly. It takes DAYS if you do it once a year.
9) It also helps to clean out IE once in a while. Delete history files,
recent's, downloaded program files, delete cookies, etc. IE is probably the
worst culprit for slowly corrupting your system. It's like a bad weed that
won't stop taking over.
10) BIGGIE - BACK UP BEFORE installing any new software! If it trashes the
system you won't have to start over! I keep backups for at least a month
back. Corporate SysAdmins sometimes keep 3-6 months or longer!
Did I forget anything? This is a good start and should give you a firm
foundation to coexisting peacefully with Winderz.
73's
Ray - WB3ABN
Kingston, WA
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: RE: Locked Up
From: "JB Crafts" <jbcraft@adelphia.net>
Date: Sat, 15 Feb 2003 20:56:02 -0500
X-Message-Number: 13
Ray,
He has a 2GB hard drive, he cannot upgrade to (new install etc) Win2K.
Windows 2000 requires a min of 2GB, if he has anything else on that HD it
will hic-up.
Bob
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: My packet elmer is sk
From: "Tim Cunningham" <tim_cunningham@mindspring.com>
Date: Sat, 15 Feb 2003 21:07:55 -0600
X-Message-Number: 14
Jack Blair, N4KMJ, was one of the great Hams that one meets in
a life time. His dedication to Packet Radio in Alabama and the impact
he has made on packet radio will remain with us for a life time. Jack
was a wonderful person to have known. I always looked forward to
seeing Jack at a hamfest or other Amateur Radio related event to talk
about packet radio. He had a passion for digital communications and
I will never forget our discussions on the subject. His wide coverage
APRS and traditional BBS nodes made it possible to pass traffic from
North Alabama, down to South Alabama, and on over to Georgia. He
will be greatly missed in the world of Amateur Radio.
73's my good friend...
Tim - N8DEU
Huntsville, Alabama
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: RE: Locked Up
From: "Ray McKnight" <shortsheep@worldnet.att.net>
Date: Sat, 15 Feb 2003 20:25:40 -0800
X-Message-Number: 15
I eluded to the fact that his system was just about pushed to the point of
splitting a seam. But, he CAN load W2K, I've just reloaded 2 of my machines
with a fairly standard build, including networking. It can easily be done
in less than 800MB of space. Granted, there's not a lot to work with here,
but it's not insurmountable. His only major concern will be whether W2K
install chokes when it calculates disk space. I've set boot partitions to
2.5GB and got away with it, but that seems to be about the lower limit. The
swap file won't need to be more than 175MB or so. So that leaves about 1GB
of space for programs/data.
I really suggest he put a bigger disk in, since he's already at the point
where he has to start from scratch anyway. He can find a new one under $xx,
or a decent used one for a few bucks on eBay. It's ashame he doesn't have
a SCSI controller, I have about 5 dozen drives sitting around looking for a
new home.
---
END OF DIGEST
Read previous mail | Read next mail
| |
