Looking for Help ?

[Michaelangelo]

Have been looking for a disk utillity to zero fill the hard drives before reinstalling the OS. A friend of mine uses a DOS program on a floppy to zero fill just the boot sector or it can be used to ZAP the whole hard drive. It just takes two & a half hours to do one 20gig HD. I'm wondering if there is a better one out there that actually works & is fast. He uses a program from a company called Quantum. It's an old HD maker that is I think out of business. Looking for something similar or identical to this. I cannot reach my friend to get a copy of this program. So any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanx.:)

[JPP]

Writing zeros to the drive is also called "low level format". The programes therefore are specificly made by each drive manufacturer. Hence you have to use the program offered by the manufacturer to be able to low level format the drive. It always takes a very long time for low level format because of the way it has to be processed. Btw what make of drive do you use ?
JPP

[Michaelangelo]

I'm using 2 Maxtor 2Meg Buffer 7200rpm 20g HD's. I'm looking to upgrade to a couple of 8Meg Buffers. Just looking for the right deal.:thumbsup:

[JPP]

Michelangelo,
here you will get what you need for low level format your maxtor drives. ;)http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/powermax.htm

JPP

[Michaelangelo]

That was exactly what I was looking for. Thanx soo much. :banana:
Now the only other question I have is, it auto formats (MaxBlast3 Util.) & auto partitions. So once I complete both drives, I can then switch boot devices to CD-ROM (in BIOS) to then re-install XP Pro from my disk? I'll need to then install my HPT 370/372 Driver Disc in floppy & install the raid controller (hitting F6) & ZOOM, done if I'm correct. Right?:help:
If I'm wrong, I'm sorry, please walk me through it. Tired of having to ask my cousin to re-install everytime I overclock too high & corrupt everything.:comp10:

[JPP]

I dont know what the maxtor utility can do. I am using IBM drives. The way installing the HPT drivers sounds ok to me.
Corruption of your harddrive because of overclocking indicates that your memory cant handle the FSB or The PCI bus is driven to high. Unfortunately there is not enough info from your side regarding the components you use in your system. For instance type of mobo, cpu, video card etc. This typ of info woul be realy helpfull to give some more assistance to you.
JPP

[Michaelangelo]

Sorry here are stats:

KX7-333R
(2) Maxtor 20g HD's
XP 2000+ (not-unlocked) (New XP2100+ AIUHB:0302 coming)
256mb Geil PC 3500 (another 256 coming)
Gainward GeForce 4 Ti4200
300W PSU (Antec)
Plextor CDRW 12/10/32A
SK-7 Heatsink w/80mm 55cfm fan (Full load 44deg. cel.)
SoundBlaster Live
Linksys 10/100 NIC w/Linksys Cable Modem & Router Switch
XP Pro w/SP1 & DX9 w/all latest updates from Microsoft & SP1a

I believe the problem lies in two places. First & foremost the CPU is not unlocked so I can't lower my multiplier to really crank up my FSB. Also the Palimino XP2000's are poor overclockers. I had all kinds of problems w/this same chip in an older 761 chipset. Thus the new T-Bred B 2100 coming. The other problem might be my power supply. I just might need more juice. In the BIOS I do have the memory timings quite aggresive, & am using the one fifth divider, but I can only get the FSB up to 145 as is. My friend had an older version of this very same board & he said he was only able to get the FSB as high as 188 w/ an older Palimino 2100 unlocked of course. So I'm expecting to get near that # w/this T-Bred B on this board. Any other ideas would be really appreciated. But I'm assuming that I have the order for re-installation correct. I've been w/him everytime he's re-installed my system. Slowly learning to do it myself. I was going to zap my drives today so I could re-install. Hopefully you can give me a hand.:)

[JPP]

Thx for the info,
the best is to wait for the unlocked CPU to continue overclocking and see what happens.
I used the KX7 333 before I changed to the KD7 last weekend. With my GEIL mem stick the best compromise for stable operation was FSB 205 x 11.5. Therefore the CPU requiered a Vcore of 1.85 Volt.
JPP

[Michaelangelo]

I'm not so sure now I corrupted the drives so much as forgot to not use the one fifth divisor. It was acting a little screwy 'till I went thru the BIOS & saw that. But thanks again for all the advise & the new disk utilities. A friend of mine that has the 8meg buffer 80g Maxtors said, "He had been waiting for Maxtor to release a new utility for their larger drives". Had some problems when he first got them. I've also heard nothing but NIGHTMARES about the Western Digital 8meg buffers. I've had a few friends return them already. I couldn't tell you what the problems were exactly, just that they'd had enough of'em & returned'em. Anyways, I'm hoping to install w/my new XP2100 T-Bred B gets here today. Just curious, when installing the OS, is it better to install SP1 then my board, video, sound drivers, then DX9. I'm assuming that SP1 needs to be installed first before you start to go any further. So the OS has all the things needed for stability. What about all the windows-updates, & the new Media player that I will need to install? Should that all be done before anything not-OS is to be installed? Like I said this will be the first time I'm re/installing, so I'd like to get it right. Thanx, Michaelangelo:cool: