I think I have Fawked it !!!

[SmuttyChiken]

I have my 2 X 250G SATA HDD set up in Raid 0. Phatty and I tried to partition the drive using Partition Magic 8. It let us, but when we went to install XP it reformatted the drive into one partition.

I really wanted to have the partitions so when I got home I tried to reset the other partitions. It kept coming up with Errors relating to Partition Magic eg #1513, which it suggested running CHKDSK /F to fix.

This didn’t fix the problem so I thought I would just reset all the partitions from scratch. Having done that and trying to reinstall XP it came up with ‘can’t find drive’ and exits setup.

When I go into the Raid setup I can see my 2 X 250 Drives and that they are set up in striping 128k as they were in the beginning. During the initial start up process it shows the Raid drive with 468G available.

However when I enter my Bios setup it doesn’t recognize the SATA 1 and 2 slots. It does however show the SATA 3,4,5 & 6 slots empty.

Have I fawked it ? or is there a salvation?

[DruidChiken]

that error is a common problem with PM 8.01

There is a patch available here http://www.softwarepatch.com/utilities/partitionm8-security.html

[SmuttyChiken]

I should have asked before I had an unbootable system then. The version of PM that I am using is combined into the instalation disc that Phatty gave me.

[SmuttyChiken]

With a bit less hysteria (*running around screaming "the sky is falling ... the sky is falling") I have worked my way through the problem ... I have always thought I knew just enough about computers to make me real dangerous ...

Now I just hope my new partitions haven't disappeared while I am not looking ...

[Yin Yang Chiken]

Heya Smutty!

I had the same problem in XP except I used WD's partition program, (I forget the name) ....wouldn't recognize my SATA partitons. So, I tried partitioning using the computer managent tools installed from the XP disk. Worked great and was able to use all the disk space unlike some other partitioning programs.

Glad you fixed the problem!

[SmuttyChiken]

Well I am not sure what has happened ... I am not sure who to blame either ...

my computer won't start ... and it appears that the only way out is a complete re-install. *hides from Chunky ...

now this normally doesn't phase me ... but this is because I would have saved all my important shit to disk ...

I am still phrantically looking for a way out of this mess ... but until I do I won't be available for matches ...

Hope I get this fixed before the weekend ... although it takes a while to get everything back ...

[DruidChiken]

can u get in via safe mode?

if u can try a system restore from there

[SmuttyChiken]

I have tried ... but it wont let me even do that ...

[LoneStarChiken]

This is a long shot, but once when my drive wouldn't boot and my backup was too old to lose what would be lost...

I moved the drive to another PC as the 'slave' drive, booted up, and then ran "Recover My Files" utility to retrieve my data. I then reformatted the 'slave' drive, moved back to original PC, and did the reinstall.

[Crestline Kid]

Wow, Lone Star wish you'd been there when mine screwed up. That didn't occure to me till two days later, missed a match too.

[SmuttyChiken]

I connected my new HDs to my old puter and set up the Raid 0 ... it recognises the drives in the start up process but when I go to Explorer I can't see the drives ...

I am getting close to going to a PC doctor to have my files extracted ... didn't want to go there as it is going to be expensive ... I can just feell it ...

[DysedChiken]

Hmmmm if they are in your old machine....is it possible for you to boot into safe mode using your old drives?

Have ya tired to email the techies at Norton (I beleive they still produce Norton, could be wrong). They might have a tip or trick for you to use. I know in the past when I have had problems with Norton products, an email went miles.

Just my two centavos.

[SmuttyChiken]

Well I am still in cyberspace ... PhattyChiken is coming to stay next week to see if he can get it back to health ...

While he is here he is going to set up a network in the house so maybe Kamakazi can play Mechy with us as well ... I may have to upgrade my connection though ...

Anyway until this all happens I will be a bit quiet ...

BAWK!!! Chikens

[SmuttyChiken]

Well Bawk! Chikens ... from my newly re-built puter. I lost everything ... what a dickhead ... had been thinking of getting a backup drive for a while ... I guess I am a bit late.

Anyway I am in the slow and very painful rebuild from scratch phase ... I still don't have Mechy re-installed but will get up to speed over Xmas I hope.

I have lost a lot of stuff that I will never get back, which is the most painful thing ... a bit like your house burning down ... the one saving grace was that only a week before this happened I e-mailed all my darts stats spreadsheets to myself at work ... now there is about 6 months solid work saved ... THANK CHRIST ...

Anyway ... my puter is back ... so see you around soon ...

BAWK!!!

[VectorChiken]

Great to hear bud look forward to playing Mech with you after you get it back up and running.Damn shame about you loosing a lot of your stuff though.

[DruidChiken]

Smut i hope that this time u stay away from a Raid0 config the slight gain in speed is not worth the inbuilt instability of the set up

[SmuttyChiken]

I have reset it up with individual HDDs ... with an external 80G USB HD to back-up all the really important stuff ...

... so yes I have learnt to stay away ...

[SmuttyChiken]

I am BAWK!!! ...

I have a backup of my whole Mechy folder now as well ... ready for the express of all installs if this crap happens again ...

[Crestline Kid]

Yea, Make sure you save the associated dlls as well. Or to save space on a litte 80 gig, you might just save your variants. The maps are avalable at MWL and they are space hogs.

[SmuttyChiken]

Downloading those huge files is a real pain in the arse for me and my 'super fast connection' ... this way I can do a complete reinstall while I wait for some teams to build a mech ...

[SmuttyChiken]

Well ... you know when you have one of those moments with something ... and it is nice to spend some money on oneself to make it feel better ... (usually applicable to wives) ... well I thought I'd give it a go after that last effort ...

I just picked up 2 ASUS 8600GT 512 cards for $314.50 Aussie (one was absolutely brand new)

So that is about ... 132 Pounds to you lot on one side of the world

and ... $235 US to the other side of the world ...

was that a good deal?

SLI here I come ... I have the same motherboard as Druid ... already have a 700W PSU ... and an AMD 4600 chip, with 2G RAM ...

[DruidChiken]

Nice one Smut

those are the cards i am running SLI and i am very happy with my set up

:)

and yep good price my 2 8600Gt's cost me £170 from a online outlet full retail is over £200

[Tarn]

No idea if it's good Smutty but it sure as hell is enough to make me jealous. :D Let us know how they run.