OK, please hear me out, may be a long post. My Pc is nothing special (I'll list specs at the end of post) and it's about to piss me off. A few months ago I purchased a Maxtor 160GB harddrive to add as extra storage. I left my old harddrive in which is only 11GB, I just figured it was fine to leave the operating system and programs on it. Well the time come that I needed to wipe my system clean and do a fresh install of WinXP. When doing a fresh install Windows asked what format the use on the OLD hardrive (which was FAT before) and since the NEW harddrive used NTFS, I figured it was the better of the two. I formatted both drives using the NTSF file system and all seemed well untill windows got fully loaded. It would keep crashing, over and over. I just figured the old (11GB) harddrive did'nt like the NTSF so I removed the old HD just keeping the NEW (160GB) HD. I once again did a fresh install using the NTSF file system. After everything was done the computer still kept crashing on the new HD. I just don't get it, NTSF is the only format I can use on the NEW HD. The NTSF works fine as long as it dosen't have the operating system on it. The only way to get the computer to run perfect is to use the OLD HD format it FAT, install operating system on it and go, as long as the NEW HD is just for storage NTSF works fine. Why can't I use the new HD or the OLD one for that matter with the NTSF system without it crashing? If anyone has any ideas PLEASE help me. 850 AMD Duron 384 Memory 11GB HD 160GB HD 16x DVD+-RW DL WinXP Pro
No, I'm not really sure how to do that, nor that I needed to. I just figured it would work. Could you please explain how to do that. Thanks in advance.
Let me also say to make things clear, It freezes not crashes, and only when I try to defrag or reinstall SP2 after a fresh install. It boots up fine just freezes when you put any strain on it.
Restart the PC and press F1 or F2 when it starts to boot. That will bring up the BIOS menu. Check the settings.
What version are you trying to install? What were you using before? If you are trying to install XP you do not meet the system min. specs. But I really could not go further at this point.
hello, first off, i wouldn't install windows on the 11gig hdd, for the simple reason that the 11gig is 5400rpm, and the 160gig a 7200rpm, the 11gig is outdated and should only be used as storage. booting from a 7200 speed hdd will commence much faster, and is a lot more reliable !!! Good luck !! retro
Here's What You Need to Use Windows XP Professional • PC with 300 megahertz or higher processor clock speed recommended; 233 MHz minimum required (single or dual processor system);* Intel Pentium/Celeron family, or AMD K6/Athlon/Duron family, or compatible processor recommended • 128 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher recommended (64 MB minimum supported; may limit performance and some features) • 1.5 gigabytes (GB) of available hard disk space* • Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher-resolution video adapter and monitor • CD-ROM or DVD drive • Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device Xp Pro does suck alot of power. I would turn off as many of the services I could.
OK let me try to word this diffrent. WinXp Pro has ran fine off of the old hard drive (11gb) for over 2 years with the FAT file system. If I convert the 11gb hard drive to NTFS windows constantly crashes/freezes. It runs fine in FAT format. I'm trying to install a NEW 160gb hard drive. It will only let me use the NTFS file system on it, thus windows does the freezing. My system does'nt seem to like the NTFS format. Thats my whole problem. I'm trying to figure out why the NTFS format is causing my computer to freeze.
I understand your problem. I am missing the cause. The file system should not matter. I ask a pro for some advice.
I really want to Thank everybody for their help. I'm still at a loss about how to fix my problem. The only thing I can think is, is it possible a bios update could fix this problem. Seeing as how my motherboard is pretty old, and I've never updated it. I'm thinking if the NTFS file system didn't come out until windows NT (I may be wrong on that) maybe my system dosen't understand or like the NTFS. I might be heading in the wrong direction, so someone please correct me if so. Thanks again.
the bios can't tell the difference between fat32 & ntfs as the bios only detects hardware not software. does the bios see the 160gig hd as 160gig or a drive a lot smaller like 11gig??
The Bios see's the whole 160gb. I just don't understand. I can use the 160gb as extra storage using NTFS with no freezing, but as soon as I make it my boot drive with operating system and everything it causes my PC to freeze. Even the 11gb hard drive under NTSF causes freezing, but if you use FAT no more freezing. I'm really not understanding this myself, but thanks for the help anyways.
How are the jumpers set on the drive. List the info for both drives and the motherboard. The problem has to be hardware related.
Good grief. I have never heard of an 11GB drive, unless it is a partition. If it isn't a partition, rip that sucker out of your computer, and throw it out the window. Then, jumper your 160GB as a master, and load your OS on that drive. I haven't a clue why the folks trying to help you would dance around the issue of your 11GB drive. It isn't an NTSF issue. That drive more than likely doesn't have enough room on it for the necessary swap files.
Hi. Could it be, that the cause for the freezing is due to a bad power supply? I have had some problems using a new faster 7200rpm drive instead of my old 5400rpm drive. When the harddisk speeds up to full speed, this may suck so much current, that the supply voltage drops. If you should have another power supply from an old PC, try powering the HD with that and see how things work out. Regards, Hansimean
