Advantages of two operating systems.

[soup]

I just thought I would relay an advantage this non tech rookie in training found tonight. I tried to boot into my XP64 side tonight and received the following error: blah, blah, the following file is either missing or corrupt: Windows Root\sytem32/ntoskrnl.exe. So I of course booted into my XP32 side & googled the error, quite a few links came up, mostly about using the disc & accessing the recovery console. I didn't want to get into anything complicated before going to bed, because you know what happens, you start & it ends up being about 3 or 4 AM before you are done. Thought about it for a while because this sh1t bugs me & I can't let it go. As I could still access my XP64 Drive from XP32, I right clicked on the drive, Properties, Tools, Error Checking & clicked Check Now. With the Check Disc options, I probably could have got away with just checking the box (Automatically Fix File System Errors), but I also checked the box (Scan For And Attempt Recovery Of Bad Sectors). Pack a lunch because it takes a while, but after completion I restarted & booted into my XP64 side with no problem at all, in fact that is where I am posting this thread from. Old news to some, but new to me.

[Chewy]

did you slow format the 64 bit partition when you set it up?

[soup]

The XP64 is on it's own (D) Drive, but I am thinking it would have been quick format when XP64 was installed, but as it was a few months ago, I am not 100% certain.

[Chewy]

One of the reasons I always partition a hard drive that's going to contain a OS is so I can slow format the system partition, a slow format could take forever on a larger modern drive. When you slow format, windows scans the drive and automatically marks bad sectors and will not write anything to them

A quick format leaves them

I had one data partition on my old raptor, accident waiting to happen at 10K with my fast memory and overclocked cpu and I got some crc errors on it when it bcame badly fragmented, I moved all my data, deleted the partition and slow formatted, then reloaded the data, it's been fine for over a year, knock on wood

[soup]

I have seen first hand how long a slow format can take on a bigger drive, you better pack breakfast, lunch & supper. Your info on the partitioning side of things is appreciated though & I will keep it in mind if things go south again & what I did this time does not work or I do a clean install.

[Chewy]

a good tool to have is a bart boot cd with the disk diagnositc program for all your hard drives soup

or use a floppy disk

[soup]

bart boot cd with the disk diagnositc program

? It's okay, I will google it, thanks.

Didn't put a floppy drive in this build although if I had to I could take the side of & hook one up I guess.

[Chewy]

if I had to I could take the side of & hook one up I guess.

I keep one handy, the cable is either in the computer or hooked to the drive sitting at my bench

[soup]

One of the three PCs on our little home network here has one in it, but I think I might get one to keep handy, thanks.