Don't do this (aka learning the hard way)

[U-96]

I was doing some benchmarking with Sandra out of boredom and I did my hard drive.
At the bottom of the results, it says "Enable DMA for better results"

So I go to CD properties and duly change the setting. I have a Seagate 8.4UDMA33 drive so I figured this was ok.

Then I reboot and all hell breaks loose.
I need that emergency startup disk. I now have the files hime .sys and system.i i

The reason DMA was disabled was because I (doofus) had disabled it to aid o/c on 83mhz.
And then forgot why I had done this. /forum/frown.gif

Neither scandisk or scanreg could recover, nor did copying sys files.

Unless you like using fdisk, don't do this (at least I'm assuming this f***ed up my HDD)

Because my whole PC was out of action, I didn't have the benefit of being able to post/browse here for fixes.
Luckily I didn't have anything critical to lose, or I may have tried harder to recover stuff. As a bonus, I get a nice clean Win98se again, and am sure my devices are running only on their proper (ie not previously-installed detritus) drivers /forum/smile.gif

Ho-hum, was nothing on TV anyway.
"Insert Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition CD-ROM in dirve F: to continue"
Copying files 10%----20%----30%---- etc.

U-96

[Bonehead]

Luckily at that time you did not had something to do. That's a great way to fill the time - installing Windows again-. I have to give you credits for that /forum/smile.gif.

[socalgal]

Ack! /forum/frown.gif

Well, luckily you didn't lose anything of real importance. Stuff like this usually happens, of course, when we least expect it.

I wonder how many fdisks/formats/reinstalls the average tweaker actually goes through in his/her lifetime!

Btw, did you ever get that cursor question solved? Just wondering...

[This message has been edited by socalgal (edited 11-17-1999).]

[scotter]

lol oops /forum/smile.gif thats a good post I end up reinstalling about once every 3 to 4 months
just becouse I install so much **** to try out and then uninstall the realy crapy junk that doing a clean install is the only way to got ALL the reg stuff cleaned out and the system back to a 15sec boot time /forum/smile.gif infact just dumped my system last night my mouse was working realy slow and could not get it to run right made playing Q3 very hard lol /forum/smile.gif

5 hrs of install's over a mouse moving slow and being choppy

not sure what did it overclocking my video, my mouse, or something else, need to watch whats happening a little better when i do things lol /forum/smile.gif

[U-96]

Well I'm glad it happens more frequently than I thought /forum/smile.gif
I built my system and installed 98se back in August, and this was my first major screw up, so I should condsider myself lucky, especially as I'm the impressionable sort and try about every tweak posted on Sysopt! /forum/smile.gif

Funny thing is, I'm quite grateful - everything is much faster and neater now. Sure I lost a few passwords and downloaded patches, but the benefits of cleaning the registry, old drivers, and other junk out far outweigh anything I lost.

Next hardware purchase? A CDR, so I can make a habit of it /forum/smile.gif

U-96

PS socalgal, no luck on the cursor. I gave up, if only because registry hacks were impolite on a system that wasn't my own or my client's /forum/smile.gif

[Target]

Ok....first, I realize that you didn't ask for any advise, so I will apologize up front for providing it anyway. But if like me you are constantly trying out new things, and you get tired of doing re-installs everytime something gets hosed up, this might be something you want to consider.

Something that I do often, and that you might want to try, is making an image of your hard-disk(s)...... I usually do this once after the initial base install, and then periodically as I make changes (after verifying them for a few days to make sure I want to keep them).

To do this, I have used a couple different programs.... Ghost, and HDCP (Hard Disk Copy Program). Both of them have been very good, with Ghost having a few more features and options. What I do is use these utilities to create disk images of my partitian(s) and then store them on another seperate drive or partitian. Its quite a bit faster than backing up to tape or CDR (I can do a 3gig drive in say under 15min), and the image is compressed as well. I then make whatever tests/changes I feel like goofing with...and if it dorks the whole deal up, its no biggie and I simply restore from the disk image. Its fast, easy, and a real time/hassle saver.

Something to consider..........

[Mntsnow]

DOH! I hate it when I forgot that I did something for a reason and then go back and think...I can change this setting and get better performace and *poof*....There I am braking out the backup CD recovery set I made /forum/smile.gif

Dont worry about it to much....If it makes you feel any better I can let you know IT WONT BE THE LAST TIME...LOL /forum/biggrin.gif (and I know this personally!) But it does give you a chance to try out different setup configurations and software configurations!

Mntsnow

[welsh wizard]

well its worth remebering it pays to back up important stuff reg. and then about every 6 month unistall everything,format and then reinstall windows, defrag, and so on to keep it sweet, it's amasing what C**p you acquire on your hard disk. /forum/smile.gif
WW

[This message has been edited by welsh wizard (edited 11-18-1999).]

[U-96]

Many thanks for your commiserations and advice - taken in the goodwill in which it is offered. All this is gratefully received, please all wave goodbye to drive c: (BIG MAMA) and welcome the new guys, Win98, Apps, Games, Backup, and (eventually) Linux native and swap /forum/smile.gif

If just one person reads the thread and avoids what I did, then it was worth my while posting it /forum/wink.gif

U-96