Start menu anomalies and drive size

[bill]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Ok, first of all I have a Dell Optiplex GX100 with 320 MB Ram, 700 MHz
Celeron, Geforce 2 MX400 w/ 64 MB VRAM, SBLive soundcard, XP PRO SP2 fully
updated.
I have 2 seperate issues I was hoping someone could help me with. The first
issue is that seemingly at random, if I click the start button, the FUP list
is completely black and I cannot navigate the start menu at all. If, for
example, I click start and then run, I am asked about creating a shortcut on
my desktop. If I open task manager and end explorer's process and restart it
everything is fine for a while. Any ideas on this one?
The second issue is with my hard drive. I have a 160 GB WD drive. I know
about the 48-bit LBA and followed some steps to enable this. Right now this
drive is in 2 parts. According to the Disk Management console the main
partition which is my system partition, is 127.99 GB and the rest is 21.06
GB currently unallocated. I want to make this drive one partition. I have a
utility to do this for me, because I know Windows cannot do this. My
question about this is, how do I know for sure that the 48-bit LBA is
enabled so I don't run into problems when I merge these 2 partitions and how
can I make it so that if and when I reinstall Windows, 48-bit LBA is enabled
from the get-go so I don't have to jump through these hoops to have this
drive as only one partition? TIA

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

"Bill" <acadeckiatinsightbbdotcom> wrote in message
news:%23q%23dMNwiFHA.708@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> Ok, first of all I have a Dell Optiplex GX100 with 320 MB Ram, 700 MHz
> Celeron, Geforce 2 MX400 w/ 64 MB VRAM, SBLive soundcard, XP PRO SP2 fully
> updated.
> I have 2 seperate issues I was hoping someone could help me with. The
first
> issue is that seemingly at random, if I click the start button, the FUP
list
> is completely black and I cannot navigate the start menu at all. If, for
> example, I click start and then run, I am asked about creating a shortcut
on
> my desktop. If I open task manager and end explorer's process and restart
it
> everything is fine for a while. Any ideas on this one?
> The second issue is with my hard drive. I have a 160 GB WD drive. I know
> about the 48-bit LBA and followed some steps to enable this. Right now
this
> drive is in 2 parts. According to the Disk Management console the main
> partition which is my system partition, is 127.99 GB and the rest is 21.06
> GB currently unallocated. I want to make this drive one partition. I have
a
> utility to do this for me, because I know Windows cannot do this. My
> question about this is, how do I know for sure that the 48-bit LBA is
> enabled so I don't run into problems when I merge these 2 partitions and
how
> can I make it so that if and when I reinstall Windows, 48-bit LBA is
enabled
> from the get-go so I don't have to jump through these hoops to have this
> drive as only one partition? TIA
>

Actually, with the disk manager console, you can very easily increase
the partition size to use the remainder. It just will not let you shrink a
partition (I assume this is NTFS ?). In the diskmanager console, see
the help for "extend basic volumes" -- there is a command line version and
a windows version. You can't do it to a system volume or boot volume
(I had forgotten that part), but you can do it to any other volume that
has unformatted space immediately following the partition. So, I guess,
I sort of answered your question -- sounds like you are working with
the system volume.

 

[bill]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

"Mike Fields" <spam_me_not_mr.gadget2@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:%236k%23MrwiFHA.3316@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
>
> "Bill" <acadeckiatinsightbbdotcom> wrote in message
> news:%23q%23dMNwiFHA.708@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
>> Ok, first of all I have a Dell Optiplex GX100 with 320 MB Ram, 700 MHz
>> Celeron, Geforce 2 MX400 w/ 64 MB VRAM, SBLive soundcard, XP PRO SP2
>> fully
>> updated.
>> I have 2 seperate issues I was hoping someone could help me with. The
> first
>> issue is that seemingly at random, if I click the start button, the FUP
> list
>> is completely black and I cannot navigate the start menu at all. If, for
>> example, I click start and then run, I am asked about creating a shortcut
> on
>> my desktop. If I open task manager and end explorer's process and restart
> it
>> everything is fine for a while. Any ideas on this one?
>> The second issue is with my hard drive. I have a 160 GB WD drive. I know
>> about the 48-bit LBA and followed some steps to enable this. Right now
> this
>> drive is in 2 parts. According to the Disk Management console the main
>> partition which is my system partition, is 127.99 GB and the rest is
>> 21.06
>> GB currently unallocated. I want to make this drive one partition. I have
> a
>> utility to do this for me, because I know Windows cannot do this. My
>> question about this is, how do I know for sure that the 48-bit LBA is
>> enabled so I don't run into problems when I merge these 2 partitions and
> how
>> can I make it so that if and when I reinstall Windows, 48-bit LBA is
> enabled
>> from the get-go so I don't have to jump through these hoops to have this
>> drive as only one partition? TIA
>>
>
> Actually, with the disk manager console, you can very easily increase
> the partition size to use the remainder. It just will not let you shrink
> a
> partition (I assume this is NTFS ?). In the diskmanager console, see
> the help for "extend basic volumes" -- there is a command line version and
> a windows version. You can't do it to a system volume or boot volume
> (I had forgotten that part), but you can do it to any other volume that
> has unformatted space immediately following the partition. So, I guess,
> I sort of answered your question -- sounds like you are working with
> the system volume.
>
>
>
Yes it is the system volume I am working with. I have partition magic and
intend to use it to make this all one partition, on this issue I mainly need
to know how I can find out for sure that 48-bit LBA is enabled and how I can
enable it from the get-go if and when I reinstall XP, so that this will be
one partition to begin with. Any ideas on the start menu problem?