I just recently installed Windows XP Professional and I am having a problem. I have two hard drives installed: the first, a 40 gb drive (w/ Windows on it) and a 200gb hard drive. At first, when I clicked on 'My Computer', clicked on the 200 gb hard drive, and clicked on any files, there would be an error and it would reset (it was a typical 'Windows Has Encountered a Problem and Needs to Reset.) After awhile, it quit doing that right away and would then reset if i clicked (once) on any mpg2 files. Is there any way to remedy this problem? It is very frustrating....

I'd like to help but I'm not sure exactly what it is you are describing. It sounds as though Windows Explorer is crashing but I've not seen a reset error message before. A very good source of info for these types of problems(other than the BBS ) is a search against Google Groups. Here's one hit that comes back with suggestions for a problem similar to yours.

What your describing sounds physical. Is the 200gb new? Could it be the drive is bad? If not, I'd try doing a format, a low level format if possible. See if that does the trick... Before you try that though swap the IDE cable, I've had luck with it. Also, try playing with the jumpers, sounds strange I know, but I've had drives act funky, then I change the jumper from "master/slave" to "cable select" or a different "master/slave" jumper config and issues disapear.

I would try running a chkdsk /r on the drive. And a defrag. If that doesn't help, I would try updating the IDE drivers (I would do that anyway). I would also try switching them to secondary IDE if that doesn't work.

Do you have 0,1 or 2 CD/DVD drives on the secondary IDE? I would try disconnecting those to see if they alleviate the problem and work from there.

I don't think it is a problem of that type. I think it might be a driver problem. After researching it, it seems there might be an error with a driver that is installed when updating the Moviemaker 2 software. However, I can't seem to get rid of the Moviemaker 2 update (if that is even what the problem is.) I tried uinstalling all of the WinXP updates, but that did not help at all.

should I try to reinstall Windows XP again? I'm thinking about it as long as it doesn't delete my hard drive(s).

Did you install SP1 for XP? I think it's required for drives larger than 137Gb... At least that's what the box says on the WD 250Gb I got this AM at Fry's...

yes...everything shows up fine....it is just that whenever I try to click on a video file, it comes up with that error....I think that codec is screwed up....any idea on where to get it again? I tried Google, but to no avail...

The list of installed codecs is in:

Control Panel / Sounds and Audio Devices / Hardware.

Select "Audio Codecs" or "Video Codecs" from the list, and go to the Properties tab.

If you're lucky, you'll be able to select the offending codec and hit "Remove". It ought to be reinstalled the next time you use WMP to open a file that needs it.

I've not tried this, so I don't know if it'll actually work, and I'm offering no guarantees.

I tried that...it isn't listed, however.....

Did XP install the correct motherboard chipset drivers? Incorrect IDE drivers could account for some of the disk problems, and I've had what appeared to be CODEC problem (hang on video playback) due to poorly installed motherboard chipset drivers. This was on an ASUS system with a VIA chipset. Of course it might be something else altogether...

-Zeke

OK, so it's not necessarily the codec that's broken -- you say it goes bang when you right click on the file? Sounds like something in the context menu is busted.

Not sure how to diagnose this, though.

another part of the reason why I think it is a codec is because I originally had the file "view" as thumbnail, which would cause videos to be "active" and playable. This caused that folder to get the error immediately. However, when I managed to change the folder's view to "Tiles", then the error didn't occur until I clicked one of the videos.

Hmm...you say this happens with MPEG2 files? Are you using the default "web" view in your folders? Maybe the problem is that the preview program (WMP, I assume) doesn't like MPEG2 files. Try turning the web view off and then clicking on the files.

Also, I may have missed it, but have you tried clicking on MPEG2 fifiles on the 40GB drive yet?

Did you install SP1 for XP? I think it's required for drives larger than 137Gb... At least that's what the box says on the WD 250Gb I got this AM at Fry's...

XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) adds support for 48-bit Logical Block Addressing (LBA) for ATAPI drives, which lets the OS access hard disks larger than 137GB (the current limit). For this change to work, you must also have a 48-bit LBA-compatible BIOS

To enable 48-bit support, do this:

- Start regedit.exe
- Navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi\Parameters registry subkey.
- Edit, New, DWORD Value.
- Enter a name of EnableBigLba.
- Double-click the new value, set it to 1.
- Reboot.

I hope this helps, but Iìm not usre this actually is your problem.

Also, are you sure your ram modules are ok?

To enable 48-bit support, do this:

Didn't have to do the faffing the registry when I installed XP (with SP1a) on my 250Gb hard disk. Mind you, that was a clean install, rather than an upgrade.

In fact, I myself am puzzled by that official info from MS.

1) Windows does not rely on bios to manage hard disks. On my 5 year old Mobo I installed a 180 Gb hdd without any upgrade or problem. On other machines bios does NOT detect hard disks which then windows 2K/XP actually sees and manages regularly.

2) On Windows 2000, I needed the registry change to let windows 2000 Server see the entire disk size, but that was before W2K SP3, and did not require anything more than that specific registry entry. Also, without that entry you would simply see a smaller disk. No crash involved, no other issues.
You would expect that Windows XP behaves similarly. I have not installed a fresh copy of Windows XP w/o SP1 on any machine with >137Gb, but the worst case scenatio is that you only see 137Gb at the beginning.

Maybe a research on MS website will provide more details about this...

You'll need BIOS support if NTLDR ends up in the portion of the disk past 137Gb, IIRC, but this rarely happens.

My BIOS has LBA48 support anyway, so this wasn't a problem for me, once I'd got SP1a installed.

Oh, that makes sense, in fact! Good point, in case you need to keep more OSs in one drive, I guess.