Format question

[Furr]

Im about to format my hard drive, now what i was wondering was should i create a partition of 2 gigs for Windows XP, and have all the other programs reside in a differnt partition, would that be wise

 

[xane]

Okay, this is my stance on partitioning.

Basically, one of the primary objectives of a separate partition is to reduce defragmentation, which occurs when files are constantly created, recreated, extended or deleted.

So, there is in fact little difference between the OS files and the various program files, therefore there is little to gain from separating them. When you reinstall you need to do both anyway, so nothing gained in that direction either.

I always create one partition, normally quite small (< 1GB) for the temporary files. I move the temporary area (TEMP), temporary internet files area and the swapfile onto it. This removes a huge amount of defragmentation from the main partition.

If possible, I move things like games to a separate partition, basically because they often create lots of intermediate files and are constantly being updated.

Lastly, I move all my data files, including e-mail client files and PDA backup files, etc onto another small partition, this gives a small amount fo security and again removes defragmentation from the main partition.

Another candidate for a separate partition is an area for ripping CDs/DVDs, this reduces the occurrance of a defragmented image file and makes burning just slightly more reliable, and it can be wiped easily.

You could use partitioning to separate directories so they look nice, but this is no different from having top-level directories on the same partition.

 

[Furr]

Thanks mate

 

[Embattle]

TBH I find nowadays its pointless.

 

[Testin da Cable]

depends.

 

[PR.]

I don't like partitioning cos they only end up being to small for what I needed em for :/

 

[xane]

The only partition of any real use is the TEMP one, as I mentioned, not only does it remove a crapload of defragmentation but if you crash it is normally the only partition that needs a scandisk (which is quick because its small).

 

[Furr]

I HATE MY COMPUTER AND TRIBES 2. right now thats off my chest.

So i reinstall everything, its all working nice apart from the odd bloody ACPI IO errors i seem to be getting every once in a while, which i might add never exisited before the clean install. And Tribes two seems to have this new bug since i last played (A Very long time ago) the UE bug which also pisses me Off.
The ACPI IO read from Sumin.. error is meant to be caused by my BIOS, according to the MS knowledge base that is. But! I have the latest BIOS upgrade and its meant to specificaly fix the problem, And i had it before, and the last time my PC crashed from this error, my IDE 2 port stopped working. and to get it working again i had to pop open the lid and disconnect various things and then put it all back together. Grrrr. Last time i format my Hard disk thinking it will fix more things than it will break.

/me walk of grumbling and goes to bed

 

[xane]

ACPI is a bugger, you need to make the decision whether you are going to use it before you install, and then set your BIOS appropriately. If you don't want ACPI, simply disable it in BIOS and re-install, but there is no way to get rid of it later.

What ACPI error are you getting ?

 

[Embattle]

ACPI is like any thing....its great if it works

 

[xane]

ACPI is not implemented correctly under Windows, although you can get a Windows machine to go into standby/hibernate by pressing a key or the power switch, it rarely works via the Windows power manager, i.e. after a specified idle time.

Windows is also picky on how and what can wake up the machine from standby, it is best controlled by using the Scheduler, but many utilities, particularly Anti-virus, avoid using Scheduler. I've personally found it a hit and miss affair to see which can wake up the machine.

Most of the time a Windows screen saver will stop ACPI standby mode from working.

All this is not helped by the ACPI standards changing all the time and various manufacturers building half-designed solutions. I have a machine with a USB scanner, if you switch off the scanner whilst the machine is in standby it wakes up, if you switch off before standby its ok. I've tried using a separate USB card with newer drivers and it still fails, the problem is the ACPI firmware in the motherboard or in Windows.

Saying all that, my knowledge is limited to Windows 9x ACPI, I don't know what advances they've made under XP.

 

[]SK[]

The thing that stood out for me was the "Windows XP" bit. Install something better?

 

[Furr]

this is the error o a, getting. from the system events log

Event 1:
AMLI: ACPI BIOS is attempting to write to an illegal IO port address (0x70), which lies in the 0x70 - 0x71 protected address range. This could lead to system instability. Please contact your system vendor for technical assistance.

Event 2: AMLI: ACPI BIOS is attempting to read from an illegal IO port address (0x71), which lies in the 0x70 - 0x71 protected address range. This could lead to system instability. Please contact your system vendor for technical assistance.


And all my IO addresses:
0x00000000-0x00000CF7 PCI bus OK
0x00000000-0x00000CF7 Direct memory access controller OK
0x00000040-0x00000043 System timer OK
0x00000060-0x00000060 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard OK
0x00000061-0x00000061 System speaker OK
0x00000064-0x00000064 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard OK
0x00000070-0x00000071 System CMOS/real time clock OK
0x00000081-0x00000083 Direct memory access controller OK
0x00000087-0x00000087 Direct memory access controller OK
0x00000089-0x0000008B Direct memory access controller OK
0x0000008F-0x0000008F Direct memory access controller OK
0x000000C0-0x000000DF Direct memory access controller OK
0x000000F0-0x000000FF Numeric data processor OK
0x00000170-0x00000177 Secondary IDE Channel OK
0x000001F0-0x000001F7 Primary IDE Channel OK
0x00000274-0x00000277 ISAPNP Read Data Port OK
0x00000279-0x00000279 ISAPNP Read Data Port OK
0x000002F8-0x000002FF Communications Port (COM2) OK
0x00000376-0x00000376 Secondary IDE Channel OK
0x00000378-0x0000037F ECP Printer Port (LPT1) OK
0x000003B0-0x000003BB AMD-751 Processor to AGP Controller OK
0x000003B0-0x000003BB NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX 400 OK
0x000003C0-0x000003DF AMD-751 Processor to AGP Controller OK
0x000003C0-0x000003DF NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX 400 OK
0x000003F2-0x000003F3 Standard floppy disk controller OK
0x000003F4-0x000003F5 Standard floppy disk controller OK
0x000003F6-0x000003F6 Primary IDE Channel OK
0x000003F7-0x000003F7 Standard floppy disk controller OK
0x000003F8-0x000003FF Communications Port (COM1) OK
0x00000778-0x0000077B ECP Printer Port (LPT1) OK
0x00000A79-0x00000A79 ISAPNP Read Data Port OK
0x00000D00-0x0000FFFF PCI bus OK
0x0000A000-0x0000AFFF AMD-751 Processor to AGP Controller OK
0x0000D400-0x0000D4FF Realtek RTL8139/810X Family Fast Ethernet NIC OK
0x0000D800-0x0000D81F Creative SB Live! series(WDM) OK
0x0000DC00-0x0000DC07 Creative SBLive! Gameport OK
0x0000DE00-0x0000DE03 Motherboard resources OK
0x0000F000-0x0000F00F AMD-756 PCI Bus Master IDE Controller V1.43 OK

So my ACPI is trying to read and write to the: 0x00000070-0x00000071 System CMOS/real time clock, should it be allowed too?

 

[Summo]

This is exactly the problem I had (same errors) when I installed XP. Turned out it was shoddy code in my Abit KT7A-RAID BIOS. Had to wait a long time for a firmware upgrade which fixed the problem.

Are you 100% sure you have the latest BIOS update installed? What motherboard do you have?

 

[Furr]

A crappy gigabyte 7IXE

 

[FuZor]

Strange I used to use Gigabyte M/B's on win2000 with ACPI no probs

meh last one was an ancient GA-7ZX! ANYWAY...

It used to work right???

Sooooooooooo

therefore you have changed Something!

Logical

Meh thinks you should re-seat all your HD connections and PCI cards. Then try it, if no go try a re-install!

If not meh thinks you have some fooked hardware

 

[Furr]

It worked fine before the clean install of win xp, and i haven't changed anything