[SOLVED ... kind of] How do you format C drive?

[MrChad]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry

Originally posted by: MrChad
Also, any reason you turned off NCQ support?

Could it be due to this ?

That's a good enough reason for me.

I honestly haven't used SATA drives, so I was just curious.

 

[MrChad]

Ok, I'm looking at your motherboard manual. Let's go over some settings so that I can understand exactly how your system is set up.

1. You are NOT running these drives in any RAID configuration, right?
2. On the main screen of the BIOS, you should see the following:

Primary IDE Master
Primary IDE Slave
Secondary IDE Master
Secondary IDE Slave
First SATA Master
Second SATA Slave
Third SATA Master
Fourth SATA Slave

Please give me the values for each

3. Under Advanced / Onboard Device Configuration, there should be an option for Silicon SATA controller. What is it set to?

4. Under Advanced / Onboard Device Configuration / NVRAID Configuration, what is RAID Enabled set to?

5. Under Advanced / Onboard Device Configuration / IDE Function setup, what are the values for:

Serial Port 1, 2
SATA DMA Transfer
Serial Port 3, 4
SATA DMA Transfer

 

[TheNiceGuy]

Hi Mr.Chad-
Sorry, I am at work, so I will have to check the remainder later, but I know from memery that:
1) No RAID.
3) Was set to on, but I turned it off a few days before my original NTFDR errors started apearing. This (turning 'off') eliminated the startup requests to enable a RAID configuration.
4) Set to 'off', and has always been such.

I have a sneeky suspicion this is driver related.

and navid-
I am following all suggestions to the letter. Any contrary actions were done BEFORE getting advice, often just before. At this point I am offering feedback of potential pitfalls I can see (ie the NCQ autoenable issue in the newest drivers), before jumping in. This is especialy important given the natural lag in post/response time on a forum of this nature. This way we can hopefuly solve this issue in a few days as opposed to a few weeks. Please read my posts more carefuly before posting 'screams'. Anyway, I'm a bit tired from work/wife right now, so take this all with a grain of salt.

 

[TheNiceGuy]

OK, lunch and a few moments. Your answers:
1) No RAID.
2) Primary IDE Master = none
Primary IDE Slave =none
Secondary IDE Master =_NEC DVD_RW ND-3
Secondary IDE Slave =none
First SATA Master =ST3120827AS
Second SATA Master =none
Third SATA Master =none
Fourth SATA Master =none
HDD SMART Monitoring =disabled

(note: all the above SATAa are labeled as Master)

3) Was set to on, but I turned it off a few days before my original NTFDR errors started apearing. This (turning 'off') eliminated the startup requests to enable a RAID configuration.
4) Set to 'off', and has always been such.
5) Everything under this menu (what you mentioned, and more) is set to "enabled".

 

[MrChad]

So you disconnected the second drive? Only one drive is listed.

 

[TheNiceGuy]

Sorry... ya I disconnected that last night.
I was going to do a reformat/reinstall. But I have been preparing for it. I'm going to download/save XP upadates to CD, as well as get all my AV, FW stuff together - so I don't have to install drivers to get the internet recognized (as per your proper install ordering above).
I am still a bit confused as to which drivers to install, and am trying to figure it out. I heard that Leadtek drivers are better than Nvidia (66.93) because they tweek more for their own specific card. Now the Nvidia 6.93 driver bundle is said to have some dangerous stuff for my system also: as you mentioned, the IDE drivers; and I've also heard I should not install the firewall (as it's Apache drivers conflict with lots of stuff). But I remember the FW loads together with something else, so I am wondering about that. Also, I have heard issues about the 6.39 auto-enabling NCQ, which causes complete disk corruption. Given the fact i am a total newb, I am less than confident in installing with these questions. I just don't want to spend days/weeks getting everything updated, preferences set, programs installed - to have a crash again because I didn't know to turn off 'flingyflange Z' or something. And so i really apreciate your help.

 

[MrChad]

Well, when it comes to chipset and video card drivers, you really have two options. Go with the card/board manufacturers' drivers (in this case Asus/Leadtek), or go with the chip manufacturers' ("reference") drivers (in this case nVidia). Since most manufacturers follow the chipset makers' "reference design" (i.e. the recommended design for a board/card based on that chipset), it's safe to use drivers from either source. The Asus/Leadtek drivers are generally the same as the nVidia drivers, but may be a few revisions old (card/board manufacturers' will periodically grab the reference drivers and test them on their specific boards, then repackage them as their own).

If your video card contains specific functions not in nVidia's reference 6600GT design, you'll want to use the Leadtek drivers to take advantage of those features. Otherwise, I would go with the latest from nVidia, as they will normally contain the most up-to-date performance enhancements available (important if you're planning on gaming with this rig). The same holds true for your motherboard drivers, although if you want to play it safe (maximum compatibility with your particular nForce4 motherboard), use the this (part 1) and this (part 2).

 

[TheNiceGuy]

Thanks for your time/effort Chad!

 

[TheNiceGuy]

SOLVED (kind of!):

First of, thank you everyone for your bountious help. I have run my system for a few days to make sure the results are accurate.

I did this:
1a) Unpluged second HD. Imediately no more NTFS errors at boot.
1b) Complete format of main HD.
1c) Installed Windows (MCE 2005, basicaly XP with service pack 2).
2) Then installed Nvidia 6.39 (minus IDE drivers and firewall/Active Armour - just said 'no' during install).
3) Then installed nvidia 66.93 official (sorry FastEddie, still a newb).
4) Then Marvell Yukon driver (enables 2nd internet plug).
5) ZA 5 firewall.
6) Kaspersky AV (I was still getting KLIF errors, so I upgraded my KAV, and install was clean - original problem could have been KAV version).
7) Windows updates from web.
8) Connected second HD. Recognized.

All went well and smooth. I heard ZA 5 has a lot of issues, especialy with bittorrent, but I have't noticed any. I was unsure about sound drivers though - do we install both Nvidia and Realtek? Sound was working after step 3, but it sounded a bit flat though (could have been my imagination), so I installed Realtek a few days later. Now there is a conflict and the Nvidia mixer won't open due to "driver conflict". Also (may be my imagination again) but the disk read/write seems a bit slower than before.

What cha think?

Any more word on the stability of the IDE drivers, NCQ, or nvidia FW/controlers? Can I try to upgrade, or must I reformat again to do that?