Fat table = bye bye

[Death Engineer]

My computer apprently has had enough for this season. It welcomed me this morning with a message saying that it had an error that windows could not correct. Then it showed a message about VFAT. I can only assume this means my file allocation table is corrupt/gone.

Anyone have any tools they suggest using? I read up online and people seem to like spinrite.

DE

[SALvation]

That doesn't sound like something you can just fix. Maybe time to reformat?

[Death Engineer]

Well, I let windows finish doing a scandisk and it repaired what it could. It said it truncated the table though...fortunately, I think the only folder I lost was my windows folder (win98 OS). So I just reloaded Win98, backed up my stuff, and am now in the process of reformatting and loading WinXP.

Computers... :wacko: :rolleyes:

[OUTLAWS Spike]

Sorry to hear and I hope u get it fixed. :thumbs:

[JIMINATOR]

umm, i think spinrite is for finding disk sector errors and moving data, etc.
I don't know that it corrects fat problems.
if you value your data, you will want to get a second drive, install winders
on it and copy your data over.
or get a second drive and attempt to use the utility disk that comes with it
to copy the files over.

with a vfat problem, the copy may or may not work, depends on how it
is screwed up.

if you have xp, then you will want to switch to ntfs, avoids issues like this

[Death Engineer]

My data isn't THAT important. I backup about once a month on the things I'd rather not lose. But I'm installing XP Pro now. Hopefully this NTFS is all it's cracked up to be. I can't say much about XP right now except: DANG!! Soooo many updates!

I'll have a good number of XP related questions I'm sure in the next few days. Here's a few to start with:

(1) How do I get rid of the logon screen? I want my desktop to be eventually after I hit my power button.

(2) Do I need the builtin firewall if I have a router?

(3) Besides running the windows updates and disabling the messenger service, is there anything else I should do right off the bat?

(4) Should I worry about getting a cable modem patch to increase bandwidth settings? This helped me a great deal in Win98...not sure if it's still an issue (mainly TCP settings).

[JIMINATOR]

Originally posted by Death Engineer@Dec 19 2003, 12:46 PM
My data isn't THAT important.  I backup about once a month on the things I'd rather not lose.  But I'm installing XP Pro now.  Hopefully this NTFS is all it's cracked up to be.  I can't say much about XP right now except:  DANG!!  Soooo many updates!

I'll have a good number of XP related questions I'm sure in the next few days.  Here's a few to start with:

(1) How do I get rid of the logon screen?  I want my desktop to be eventually after I hit my power button.

(2) Do I need the builtin firewall if I have a router? 

(3) Besides running the windows updates and disabling the messenger service, is there anything else I should do right off the bat?

(4) Should I worry about getting a cable modem patch to increase bandwidth settings?  This helped me a great deal in Win98...not sure if it's still an issue (mainly TCP settings).
1) try tweakui for xp
2) skip the builtin firewall, it is very limited anyway
3) i would enable cleartype, go to www.microsoft.com/cleartype, it will give you
a url to the actual site where you can get a plugin to enable and configure it.
makes text much easier to read. you also may want to get the media player and
movie maker updates. latest video drivers and dx9 are a must...
4) xp doesn't really have the issues that 98 did with maxmtu, receive frames
and so forth. you can look for software/reg patches to update, but i woudn't
worry about it.

[Death Engineer]

Thanks Jim. Knew I could count on you. :P

[Death Engineer]

Originally posted by JIMINATOR@Dec 19 2003, 01:07 PM
3) i would enable cleartype, go to www.microsoft.com/cleartype, it will give you
a url to the actual site where you can get a plugin to enable and configure it.
makes text much easier to read. you also may want to get the media player and
movie maker updates. latest video drivers and dx9 are a must...

I get this:

We’re sorry, but there is no Microsoft.com Web page matching your entry. It is possible that you typed the address incorrectly, or that the page no longer exists. You may wish to try another entry or to use the links below, which we hope will help provide you with the information you need.

EDIT: Found it in the search. Link (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/howto/customize/cleartype/tuner/default.asp)

[JIMINATOR]

jup, that's what i meant, better than remembering the actual url...

[OUTLAWS DirtGod]

If your the only one loging on you should be able to get rid of the login screen i the under control panel in the users accounts

[Dissectional]

Originally posted by OUTLAWS DirtGod@Dec 19 2003, 07:49 PM
If your the only one loging on you should be able to get rid of the login screen i the under control panel in the users accounts
Yah...you should be set up as the admin, and you should have answered a question that said something to the effect of 'assume this user is longing on' or something crazy. If that doesn't work, you can always change the policy in the Local Security Policy under Administrative Tools. Don't worry, all the policy is in plain language, and it even explains a policy if you are afraid to pull the trigger.

[Slice]

Only enter your name in as the primary user when installing XP and leave the password box blank. It will never ask you for a password again.

[Death-Dude]

http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/

Here's where I got re-pointed to. I'll look into that, it sounds good.

One thing you might want to do with a fresh install, especially if you have a nice fat HD is Drive Image or other imaging program to make a pure restore of the system; it'll let you put things back in less time.

[SALvation]

Here is a good link for XP tweaking from TweakTown:

Link (http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=guide&dId=434&dPage=1)