Tech-related problems

[winner]

Had to fall back to my backup HP PC.
The main PC I used kept screen-freezing last night on startup (more like pixel screen fuzzing). Couldn't detect any of the HDDs on startup today, and got continued clicking sounds (I've heard that sound before, it normally means something bad).

Good news is I could still read the C: HDD on a USB hard-disk reader/slot. So at least I got the bookmarks over in time (No.1 priority). And it had the internet connection settings already.
Bad news is I'll have to continuously swap between 4 HDDs till I get to know this HP PC more intimately. The inside is sooo un-userfriendly.

[cool_kickin_dude]

i d/l'ed a torrent yesterday and it finished, now today someone knocked my HD out and it said file not ready..

only thing i'm asking is this: since the file is completed and all, do i need to re d/l it again since i rechecked it or will my previous file i d/'ed yesterday will be okay?

[Maikeru86]

Was running disk check earlier on my external hard drive and it started thundering. The power flashed off and I was unable to complete the disk check. I heard your never supposed to interrupt a disk check cause it can cause big problems with you HD. Outside of disk check, is there any other way to check the integrity of your HD? The HD is a 2TB External Western Digital My Book Essential and although the the lightning doesn't seem to have caused any problems with it, I'm worried that I may discover some problems later and would like to check it. Disk check is the only option i know about checking HD but it will literally take 1-2 days to fully complete it if i go that route again. I don't have the patience to do it twice. Any ideas?

[frblckstr1]

^ As long as there was no repair stage going on, the check-disk should not give any problem, just retry it.

Next time when the thundering starts: cancel the checkdisk.

[Maikeru86]

^ As long as there was no repair stage going on, the check-disk should not give any problem, just retry it.

Next time when the thundering starts: cancel the checkdisk.

Thanks for the reply. I would have canceled of course but window's checkdisk utility doesn't allow it. Once you start, you gotta wait until it finishes. IT SUCKS! Not to mention it's extremely slow. At any rate, I use this drive like a big FLASH drive. I don't have any programs or anything on it, I just store all my music, movies, etc... What symptoms would my hard drive exhibit if there was a problem with it. Would files just start disappearing?

[frblckstr1]

I would have canceled of course but window's checkdisk utility doesn't allow it. Once you start, you gotta wait until it finishes. IT SUCKS! Not to mention it's extremely slow. At any rate, I use this drive like a big FLASH drive. I don't have any programs or anything on it, I just store all my music, movies, etc... What symptoms would my hard drive exhibit if there was a problem with it. Would files just start disappearing?

I normally use the commandline version (if ever) and then if you do not use the /r (recover) option you just break it off when needed. Even then I do have my computers on a UPS so a short blackout will not be a problem.
Checking a 2TB drive on USB 2.0 (max transferrate 25-30MB/s) takes a few hours

De pending on the problem: yes unreadable files or disappearing files, checkdisk might re-find disappearing files if the rest of the file information is still available. /r might even be able to recover bad blocks but might need a lot of retries (=time) to do it.
Always copy files to a second disk also.

[pikapikapika]

Hey~~
I can't really find an explanation for this anywhere, but what are the differences between DDR2 RAM and DDR2 SDRAM?

I know old SDRAM is better than normal old RAM but is it the same for DDR2?

I just don't want to buy something more expensive that won't work with my MB lol

[Slack]

All RAM with DDR on it is a type of SDRAM.

Therefore DDR2 RAM = DDR2 SDRAM.

Just about all the RAM you can buy in a store now is some type of SDRAM.
Also note that DDR is incompatible with DDR2 is incompatible with DDR3 because of hardware differences:

[frblckstr1]

^ To add to that:

I just don't want to buy something more expensive that won't work with my MB lol

The manual should specify what DDR2 can be used, look for the one that at least matches the maximum memory bus-speed from the manual.

[Maikeru86]

I would have canceled of course but window's checkdisk utility doesn't allow it. Once you start, you gotta wait until it finishes. IT SUCKS! Not to mention it's extremely slow. At any rate, I use this drive like a big FLASH drive. I don't have any programs or anything on it, I just store all my music, movies, etc... What symptoms would my hard drive exhibit if there was a problem with it. Would files just start disappearing?

I normally use the commandline version (if ever) and then if you do not use the /r (recover) option you just break it off when needed. Even then I do have my computers on a UPS so a short blackout will not be a problem.
Checking a 2TB drive on USB 2.0 (max transferrate 25-30MB/s) takes a few hours

De pending on the problem: yes unreadable files or disappearing files, checkdisk might re-find disappearing files if the rest of the file information is still available. /r might even be able to recover bad blocks but might need a lot of retries (=time) to do it.
Always copy files to a second disk also.

I go to [My Computer - Right Click HD - Properties - Tools - Check Now, and it gives me 2 options to tick, (Option 1. Automatically Fix System Errors, or Option 2. Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors.) Is there a difference between the command line version and doing it this way?

Speaking of which, I have a question. I was able to complete the disk check overnight, but what I did was check 1 option at a time (As in doing the disk check twice but ticking only 1 box each time). It cut the time down considerably but is it because it wasn't a complete disk check? So my question is, if I only tick 1 box of the 2 options and do 2 differents disk checks, would that give me a different result from disk checking once with both options ticked? I did it the 1 option at a time way and was able to complete it much quicker but it didn't go to Phase 5 (By quicker, I mean 15 hours, so you can imagine how long it would take if I had both options ticked). It said that it was complete at the end of phase 4 and didn't even go into phase 5. Is that because I didn't tick both options?

Also, what causes the hard drives to start having problems or failing. Is it just the hard drive getting old, improper shut down, what?

[frblckstr1]

I go to [My Computer - Right Click HD - Properties - Tools - Check Now, and it gives me 2 options to tick, (Option 1. Automatically Fix System Errors, or Option 2. Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors.) Is there a difference between the command line version and doing it this way?

The second option is equal to the /r (read, fix and repair) option of the commandline.

Option 1 is just a 'logical' check, not read of the data directly which makes it a lot faster. It depends on what you need: just a check if you did something wrong, or an 'archival check' where you want to know if everything is ok.
The commandline gives more options, and somewhat more progress info (good for large disks).
That it takes long is normal, just calculate: reading  1TB with 25MB/s takes about 11 hours.

Also, what causes the hard drives to start having problems or failing. Is it just the hard drive getting old, improper shut down, what?

Both, although improper shutdown these days gives mostly logical errors when you where writing to the disk at that time.
Disks are rated for a certain number of power cycles and errors overtime, cheaper (and hence most 'desktop/consumer' disks) are 3 to 5 year 'normal use' still.
It all depends on the design and intended purpose of the disk, no one answer to this then to look at the technical specs.

[BigDnm01]

What kind of software is good for creating/editing subtitles, for movies or even with special effects for OPVs?

[winner]

^I've been using Aegisub. It's pretty easy to pick up the basics. And has a lot of extra stuff to play around with the subs.
But I haven't learned any special effects at all yet.

[Maikeru86]

I have a small issue hopefully someone can help me with. Not really a big prob just more annoying than anything else. I'm using windows XP. I tend to sort all my music, videos, pictures, etc. arrange and categorize them. I use the "Videos Template" usually because it automatically lists the "dimension" and the "duration" when you view the files in "detail". But for some reason, after all that arranging, I always seem to have one folder, than when I adjust the "view" or "template" it changes another folder. I also have the folder view size limit set to 8000 and i'm pretty sure i didn't exceed the limit 8000 folder view limit. Any ideas why that random folder keeps changing? Also, if i delete that folder, the change occurs somewhere else to another folder.

[frblckstr1]

I have a small issue hopefully someone can help me with. Not really a big prob just more annoying than anything else. I'm using windows XP....  Any ideas why that random folder keeps changing? Also, if i delete that folder, the change occurs somewhere else to another folder.

Ah the age old limit XP has for remembering folders settings.
No idea for how many individual folders it can do it, but you have reached the limit, so it 'forgets' the setting for some other folder.

About the only thing to do against this is to do a 'apply this setting to all folders' that seems to reset it and then you can do your custom settings again for x number of folders.

[Maikeru86]

^ I didn't quite understand the last instruction to reset. Where do I (apply this setting to all folders) to reset it ?

[frblckstr1]

^ I didn't quite understand the last instruction to reset. Where do I (apply this setting to all folders) to reset it ?

I do not have a XP system handy here, but its in the 'windows explorer' menu/folder/view settings: in that dialog there is a button in the top part that reads 'Apply these settings to all folders'.

You first set the curret folder to what you want for everything else (I like the list view) then activate that setting.

This might help also: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=813711

[Maikeru86]

^ Do you know if XPs 8000 folder limit applies to external hard drives. I forget to mention that although i'm using Windows XP, I store all my files on my western digital external hdds and nothing I do seems to work as folder views keep changing.  Can't figure it out. Is there a popular alternative to windows explorer that everyone is using that i'm unaware of?

[frblckstr1]

^ Do you know if XPs 8000 folder limit applies to external hard drives.

Its an overall limit a.f.a.i.k.

Why not make the default a details view with the columns you want? Its why I use a list/details view 99% of the time.

[Maikeru86]

^ I use those a lot also. It's just that folder views keep changing on the their own. For example if i set all the folders in detail and or list view. If I go back threw my folders to check them, I will find multiple folders in a different view. And if I adjust that folder back to the correct view that i wanted originally, it changes another random folder to the wrong view setting. It's weird. Thanks for tips though.