HD Problems again.

[Robert]

Well a huge annoyance is the following:

If I extract any files above 4gb in size from say G to C my computer dies and won't respond until the file transfer has finished. If I do the same but G to F everything is fine. Now, one of my hard drives makes a shutting down noise but everything still seems fine - the other issue is (which maybe linked) that when I check for errors using O&O defrag software it finds one (doesn't say what it is). Anyway I scheduled a chkdsk on bootup, which completed (had to rush off for breakfast so didn't get to see if there were any errors). I've just ran O&O again and it STILL finds an error. Could these problems be related?

System in "My System". I have a 160gb partitioned for C&D (c - vista, d - XP pro) and the other two G&F are 320gb drives for storage.

[Mad-Max]

If I remember right the hard drive/drives have got to be in NTFS and not FAT 32, you can convert a fat 32 HD to ntfs in windows if you like

There are HD tools that tell you if the HD is faulty or not, have you tried running them

[djphatic]

I would most likely say its a problem with NTFS and FAT32 drives. FAT32 formatted drives have a file limit size of 4GB i think which maybe the reason it is causing your system to not respond.

Best thing is to check whether any of your drives are FAT32 and consider changing them to NTFS. Its very easily done in a cmd prompt and you wont lose any data or anything.

To convert a volume to NTFS from the command prompt

1.


Open Command Prompt. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Command Prompt.

2.


In the command prompt window, type: convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs

For example, typing convert D: /fs:ntfs would format drive D: with the ntfs format. You can convert FAT or FAT32 volumes to NTFS with this command.

[Robert]

They are all NTFS.

[djphatic]

I you having the slow transfer in both XP and Vista? or just the one OS.

[Nigelz]

Have you looked at the disk performance under Vista's new system monitor, it shows you the read/write performance in Mb/s, that may give you an indication if the drive is thrashing or the system is just hanging. When you say extract data, are you using a compression app like winzip or windows own inbuilt zip capabilities? What OS was the compressed file created on?

[Robert]

I would do but I can't because my system's so unresponsive.

[speardane]

What tool are you using for the extract?

[Robert]

Winrar. I've just booted into XP and the whole O/S feels a tad unsresponsive. Also when I do an error check in O&O Defrag - it finds errors on the 160gb drive, on both partitions. When I run chkdsk it doesn't seem to fix them.

New drive time? :/