Third Harddrive Causing System Halting

[letterman@invalid.com]

On Sunday I plugged in a 3rd harddrive. I unplugged my CD drive and
put this 3rd drive on the second IDE channel. The first one has my
normal two drives. The drives are #1 = 40gig with 2 partitions. #2 =
30gig with 4 smaller partitions.

When I plugged in this 3rd drive, a 40gig drive, I partitioned it as
the entire drive, no partitions. I only plugged this drive in
temporarily to backup my entire system, but left it plugged in for the
last couple days to rearrange some files.

The problem is that ever since I hooked up that 3rd harddrive, my
computer was constantly falling asleep. If I copied or deleted a
bunch of files, the computer would hang for as much as several minutes
after the operation was completed. Webpages would stop working, but
after many seconds or several minutes they would come back to life.
Even my email and newsreader software went to "frozen mode". It's
like the whole computer would just stop for awhile.

After trying all kinds of things with Win98se, and restoring an older
backup, nothing fixed the problem. Then I recalled that this all
began when I plugged in that 3rd drive. I unplugged that 3rd drive,
and now everything works fine again.....

Why the heck does that happen?
I could read and write to that drive without problems, except the
temporary freezes afterwards. Yes, I did change the bios to this
drive, and not the CD drive. Partition Magic shows this drive is
working fine and has a FAT32 partition.
I dont believe a 40gig partition is even close to the size limit for
Win98se.

I cant understand this problem.

Thanks for all friendly advice

 

[glee]

Is the drive jumpered correctly? If it is on the secondary IDE channel as master, it
should be jumpered as Master unless it is a Western Digital, in which case it should
be jumpered as Single. Also, are you using an 80-wire, 40-pin IDE cable or just a
40-wire, 40-pin cable? If the drive is ATA/66 or greater, it needs an 80-conductor
cable to enable ATA/66 or greater transfers.....and the drive should also be on the
correct connector on the cable, color-coded for Master.

The IDE cable may just be faulty.

Is UDMA enabled for that IDE channel in the BIOS?
Is UDMA enabled for that IDE channel in Windows?

Have you run a diagnostic on that hard drive to see if there are any problems with
the drive?
Testing a Suspect Hard Drive:
http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=30382

--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP Windows, A+
http://dts-l.net/
http://dts-l.net/goodpost.htm


<letterman@invalid.com> wrote in message
news07ab4h7gt6ga1n9d81fuur681iq80bai4@4ax.com...
> On Sunday I plugged in a 3rd harddrive. I unplugged my CD drive and
> put this 3rd drive on the second IDE channel. The first one has my
> normal two drives. The drives are #1 = 40gig with 2 partitions. #2 =
> 30gig with 4 smaller partitions.
>
> When I plugged in this 3rd drive, a 40gig drive, I partitioned it as
> the entire drive, no partitions. I only plugged this drive in
> temporarily to backup my entire system, but left it plugged in for the
> last couple days to rearrange some files.
>
> The problem is that ever since I hooked up that 3rd harddrive, my
> computer was constantly falling asleep. If I copied or deleted a
> bunch of files, the computer would hang for as much as several minutes
> after the operation was completed. Webpages would stop working, but
> after many seconds or several minutes they would come back to life.
> Even my email and newsreader software went to "frozen mode". It's
> like the whole computer would just stop for awhile.
>
> After trying all kinds of things with Win98se, and restoring an older
> backup, nothing fixed the problem. Then I recalled that this all
> began when I plugged in that 3rd drive. I unplugged that 3rd drive,
> and now everything works fine again.....
>
> Why the heck does that happen?
> I could read and write to that drive without problems, except the
> temporary freezes afterwards. Yes, I did change the bios to this
> drive, and not the CD drive. Partition Magic shows this drive is
> working fine and has a FAT32 partition.
> I dont believe a 40gig partition is even close to the size limit for
> Win98se.
>
> I cant understand this problem.
>
> Thanks for all friendly advice

 

[MEB]

In addition to Glen's response:

Win98 has difficulties manipulating large numbers of files and/or folders.
It has been discussed repeatedly in this group and elsewhere and relates to
the IE6 browser files and the shell/explorer..

Win98 has difficulties, at times, manipulating files which exceed 2 gig.

Win98 has several updates which address larger drives and aspects they
have, and unless they are installed, large drives may not work as expected.

Unless the BIOS was set at AUTO detect for that channel, it may have
residual settings from the CDROM drive. The BIOS must also have the proper
settings for Block Mode, DMA, and other.

And, depending upon the hard drive size and other settings, files, and
other, the drive MAY be at or over the BIOS limitations or system
limitations..

--
MEB

--
_________



"glee" <glee29@spamindspring.com> wrote in message
news:%23FcLeqCCJHA.1632@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
| Is the drive jumpered correctly? If it is on the secondary IDE channel as
master, it
| should be jumpered as Master unless it is a Western Digital, in which case
it should
| be jumpered as Single. Also, are you using an 80-wire, 40-pin IDE cable
or just a
| 40-wire, 40-pin cable? If the drive is ATA/66 or greater, it needs an
80-conductor
| cable to enable ATA/66 or greater transfers.....and the drive should also
be on the
| correct connector on the cable, color-coded for Master.
|
| The IDE cable may just be faulty.
|
| Is UDMA enabled for that IDE channel in the BIOS?
| Is UDMA enabled for that IDE channel in Windows?
|
| Have you run a diagnostic on that hard drive to see if there are any
problems with
| the drive?
| Testing a Suspect Hard Drive:
| http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=30382
|
| --
| Glen Ventura, MS MVP Windows, A+
| http://dts-l.net/
| http://dts-l.net/goodpost.htm
|
|
| <letterman@invalid.com> wrote in message
| news07ab4h7gt6ga1n9d81fuur681iq80bai4@4ax.com...
| > On Sunday I plugged in a 3rd harddrive. I unplugged my CD drive and
| > put this 3rd drive on the second IDE channel. The first one has my
| > normal two drives. The drives are #1 = 40gig with 2 partitions. #2 =
| > 30gig with 4 smaller partitions.
| >
| > When I plugged in this 3rd drive, a 40gig drive, I partitioned it as
| > the entire drive, no partitions. I only plugged this drive in
| > temporarily to backup my entire system, but left it plugged in for the
| > last couple days to rearrange some files.
| >
| > The problem is that ever since I hooked up that 3rd harddrive, my
| > computer was constantly falling asleep. If I copied or deleted a
| > bunch of files, the computer would hang for as much as several minutes
| > after the operation was completed. Webpages would stop working, but
| > after many seconds or several minutes they would come back to life.
| > Even my email and newsreader software went to "frozen mode". It's
| > like the whole computer would just stop for awhile.
| >
| > After trying all kinds of things with Win98se, and restoring an older
| > backup, nothing fixed the problem. Then I recalled that this all
| > began when I plugged in that 3rd drive. I unplugged that 3rd drive,
| > and now everything works fine again.....
| >
| > Why the heck does that happen?
| > I could read and write to that drive without problems, except the
| > temporary freezes afterwards. Yes, I did change the bios to this
| > drive, and not the CD drive. Partition Magic shows this drive is
| > working fine and has a FAT32 partition.
| > I dont believe a 40gig partition is even close to the size limit for
| > Win98se.
| >
| > I cant understand this problem.
| >
| > Thanks for all friendly advice
|

 

[MEB]

Before someone points out the 40gig aspect:

Obviously several of the suggestions are for general advise, not related to
this issue directly.

--
MEB
--
_________

 

[Lil' Dave]

<letterman@invalid.com> wrote in message
news07ab4h7gt6ga1n9d81fuur681iq80bai4@4ax.com...
> On Sunday I plugged in a 3rd harddrive. I unplugged my CD drive and
> put this 3rd drive on the second IDE channel. The first one has my
> normal two drives. The drives are #1 = 40gig with 2 partitions. #2 =
> 30gig with 4 smaller partitions.
>
> When I plugged in this 3rd drive, a 40gig drive, I partitioned it as
> the entire drive, no partitions. I only plugged this drive in
> temporarily to backup my entire system, but left it plugged in for the
> last couple days to rearrange some files.
>
> The problem is that ever since I hooked up that 3rd harddrive, my
> computer was constantly falling asleep. If I copied or deleted a
> bunch of files, the computer would hang for as much as several minutes
> after the operation was completed. Webpages would stop working, but
> after many seconds or several minutes they would come back to life.
> Even my email and newsreader software went to "frozen mode". It's
> like the whole computer would just stop for awhile.
>
> After trying all kinds of things with Win98se, and restoring an older
> backup, nothing fixed the problem. Then I recalled that this all
> began when I plugged in that 3rd drive. I unplugged that 3rd drive,
> and now everything works fine again.....
>
> Why the heck does that happen?
> I could read and write to that drive without problems, except the
> temporary freezes afterwards. Yes, I did change the bios to this
> drive, and not the CD drive. Partition Magic shows this drive is
> working fine and has a FAT32 partition.
> I dont believe a 40gig partition is even close to the size limit for
> Win98se.
>
> I cant understand this problem.
>
> Thanks for all friendly advice

Been a problem in the past for me when putting a Maxtor and Western Digital
drive in the same PC on ide. Doesn't matter if on same ide cable or not.
Symptoms range from what you're experiencing to not booting at all. Not a
jumper problem either. Drives function quite well when their "nemesis" is
not onboard. Experienced same with an IBM drive and Western Digital as well
on same ribbon cable. In all cases, the only solution was removing one of
the drives from the PC for normal usage.
--
Dave

 

[letterman@invalid.com]

On Fri, 29 Aug 2008 03:49:10 -0500, "Lil' Dave"
<spamyourself@virus.net> wrote:

><letterman@invalid.com> wrote in message
>news07ab4h7gt6ga1n9d81fuur681iq80bai4@4ax.com...
>> On Sunday I plugged in a 3rd harddrive. I unplugged my CD drive and
>> put this 3rd drive on the second IDE channel. The first one has my
>> normal two drives. The drives are #1 = 40gig with 2 partitions. #2 =
>> 30gig with 4 smaller partitions.
>>
>> When I plugged in this 3rd drive, a 40gig drive, I partitioned it as
>> the entire drive, no partitions. I only plugged this drive in
>> temporarily to backup my entire system, but left it plugged in for the
>> last couple days to rearrange some files.
>>
>> The problem is that ever since I hooked up that 3rd harddrive, my
>> computer was constantly falling asleep. If I copied or deleted a
>> bunch of files, the computer would hang for as much as several minutes
>> after the operation was completed. Webpages would stop working, but
>> after many seconds or several minutes they would come back to life.
>> Even my email and newsreader software went to "frozen mode". It's
>> like the whole computer would just stop for awhile.
>>
>> After trying all kinds of things with Win98se, and restoring an older
>> backup, nothing fixed the problem. Then I recalled that this all
>> began when I plugged in that 3rd drive. I unplugged that 3rd drive,
>> and now everything works fine again.....
>>
>> Why the heck does that happen?
>> I could read and write to that drive without problems, except the
>> temporary freezes afterwards. Yes, I did change the bios to this
>> drive, and not the CD drive. Partition Magic shows this drive is
>> working fine and has a FAT32 partition.
>> I dont believe a 40gig partition is even close to the size limit for
>> Win98se.
>>
>> I cant understand this problem.
>>
>> Thanks for all friendly advice
>
>Been a problem in the past for me when putting a Maxtor and Western Digital
>drive in the same PC on ide. Doesn't matter if on same ide cable or not.
>Symptoms range from what you're experiencing to not booting at all. Not a
>jumper problem either. Drives function quite well when their "nemesis" is
>not onboard. Experienced same with an IBM drive and Western Digital as well
>on same ribbon cable. In all cases, the only solution was removing one of
>the drives from the PC for normal usage.

That's interesting. My "normal" (permanent) drives are both Western
Digital. This backup drive is a Maxtor.
Everything else checks out normally, including cables, jumpers, drive
condition, etc.

Unplugging that drive fixed everything except for IE6 still freezing,
but that is most likely an IE6 issue. To solve that I plan to run
Ieradicate and go back to IE5.x, to fix the built in Windows Explorer
issues. Then I'll just use Firefox and Opera for my browsers.
I did notice that when I copy or delete a large number of files, my
computer works fine as long as IE is not loaded, but if IE is loaded,
the whole (or part of) the system freezes for several minutes. (this
is after removing that Maxtor drive).

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[easymike29 via WindowsKB.com]

Did you "clone" or did you "back up"?
If you "cloned" and left the cloned HD connected you can have problems.
Gene

letterman@invalid.com wrote:
........
>When I plugged in this 3rd drive, a 40gig drive, I partitioned it as
>the entire drive, no partitions. I only plugged this drive in
>temporarily to backup my entire system, but left it plugged in for the
>last couple days to rearrange some files.......
>Thanks for all friendly advice

--
Message posted via WindowsKB.com
http://www.windowskb.com/Uwe/Forums.aspx/windows-98-general/200808/1

 

[easymike29 via WindowsKB.com]

I guess I should have said that the HD which is the cloned copy of the
original should not be left connected.
Gene

easymike29 wrote:
>Did you "clone" or did you "back up"?
>If you "cloned" and left the cloned HD connected you can have problems.
>Gene
>
>........
>>When I plugged in this 3rd drive, a 40gig drive, I partitioned it as
>>the entire drive, no partitions. I only plugged this drive in
>>temporarily to backup my entire system, but left it plugged in for the
>>last couple days to rearrange some files.......
>>Thanks for all friendly advice

--
Message posted via WindowsKB.com
http://www.windowskb.com/Uwe/Forums.aspx/windows-98-general/200808/1

 

[letterman@invalid.com]

On Fri, 29 Aug 2008 17:53:46 GMT, "easymike29 via WindowsKB.com"
<u23695@uwe> wrote:

>Did you "clone" or did you "back up"?
>If you "cloned" and left the cloned HD connected you can have problems.
>Gene
>

I just backed up, using the COPY command in Windows.
On my backup drive, I created a directory called CCC DDD EEE
etc. My C: dir got copied to CCC My D: dir got copied to DDD, etc.
for all 6 of my partitions.

Just for the heck of it, I went to the windows backup on the backup
drive, and renamed all the .EXE files to .EX_ in both the Windows and
Windows/system directories. I also renamed win.com to win.co_. That
did not change anything.


>letterman@invalid.com wrote:
>.......
>>When I plugged in this 3rd drive, a 40gig drive, I partitioned it as
>>the entire drive, no partitions. I only plugged this drive in
>>temporarily to backup my entire system, but left it plugged in for the
>>last couple days to rearrange some files.......
>>Thanks for all friendly advice