Thought I had it right....BUT...

[Ed Caffrey]

Well, I thought I had the computer thing licked........(see previous post) everything was working great, but last night I tried to start loading software.........every time I tried to load a program it would get to the "preparing your computer for install" and then it freezes up. Only way out is to shut down the power. I tried to load MS Office, then MS Picture-it, but never got further than the above mentioned screen. On the first freeze up there was a window with "exception fault...then a bunch of letters/numbers, but after that just the freeze ups. Guess I'll let it go until after the Eugene Show, and then try to get some help. Appearantly I didn't do something right........but darned if I know what it is. I guess I'm just cursed where computers are concerned.

[Jamey Saunders]

Ed, we're delving into an area I'm not real experienced with, but are you trying to install the software on the slave HD? I seem to remember that Windows does not like to install software to a different HD than the OS resides on. It wants the software on the same HD because the registry can't handle a different drive. (Martyn, correct me if I'm wrong.) I tried to install some software on a partition on my laptop that the OS wasn't installed on and Windoze didn't like it.

Also, if you haven't formatted that old HD, you may want to do that. It might really confuse the computer to have an OS installed on both the master and slave HD's without a boot loader program. I'm not too sure about that, but you should format that HD anyway. I don't remember what OS you were running on your old system (ME I think?) but you should format it with the NTFS file system. It gives you a larger maximum file size and faster access time over FAT32.

Martyn will be here shortly...

[Chuck Burrows]

There should be no problem loading software to another drive other than C with Windows 98SE or newer.

I have two physical hard drives and the master is split into two partitions so I effectively have 3 drives. I load my operating system on C and some software such as my browser and email client there along with ####### and hardware specific software also. (Then I make a backup of the clean OS on drive C - this way when things get too cluttered I can reformat drive C ONLY and reinstall the clean OS). But things such as Office and Adobe are all on drive D (logical drive on the main drive) and I have had no trouble at all. My second physical hard drive I use for backup purposes only (after I moved all data from it to the newest drive). After I moved the data I formatted it clean for space saving purposes, but up until that time I had no problems with both drives having the same operating system on them (Win98SE).

So Ed I'm stuck too. It might be worthwhile to get something like Partition Magic which is a big help when you have more than one drive, logical or physical. Which drive is showing as you master drive C the old or new? That may have a bearing? Also do you still have the programs on the old drive. You might want to uninstall the programs from that drive (use their uninstall feature or the Windows Add/Remove in the Control Panel - DO NOT just delete them from inside Windows Explorer!). The data will still remain on your drive after uninstall. As always with Windows try reinstalling the OS - often times that is all it takes to "fix" the inevitable Mr. Gates problemos.

[Michael Sanchez]

Hey Ed, are both Drives on the same ribbon?

If they are both on the Primary ribbon that could be causing the problem, I always seperate the hard Drives and the CD drives.

Mike

[Martyn]

I'd go with Chucks suggestion of re-installing the OS first, just to be sure.

If after that, the faults continue, then possibly a faulty memory module could be the culprit. If the computer boots into the OS, then you installed everything correctly. If it's all brand spanking new and you're getting exception faults, my bet is faulty hardware somewhere, rather than an OS problem. Try swapping out the memory for some that you know works well and see if the exception faults continue.

If not the memory, I'd bet it is hardware related - maybe your video card, maybe bios settings. But it's likely to be hardware (faults/settings/#######) related with a clean install on brand new eqipment, rather than OS.

Just guessing really.

[Jlott]

YOU DO NOT REINSTALL IT.. IF IT HAS CRITICAL PROBLEMS..
YOU GO TO SYSTEM RESTORE..AND CLIK IT TO RESTORE WINDOWS TO ITS WORKING CONDITION AGIAN..PREVIOUS TO THE PROBLEM... YOU CAN ALSO REPAIR A VERY BADLY DEGRADED XP BY REPAIRING IT FROM THE CD , THAT REQURIES CONFIGURING YOU BIOS TO BOOT TO THE CD ROM.. WITH THE XP DISK IN THE CD DRIVE... THEN IGNORING THE STATMENT TO REPAIR WINDOWS..( ITS A DEAD END) AND CHOOSING TO REINSTALL..
THEN AT THE REINSTALL WINDOW.. YOU WILLL GET THE REAL OPTION TO REPAIR IT... IF THE REPAIR GOES WELL YOU WILL GET A TOTALLY REPAIRED VERSION OF YOUR WINDOWS WITH ALL YOUR FILES BACK... THIS IS THE SOMEWHAT SIMPLIFIED VERSION OF HOW ITS DONE..THERE ARE A COUPLE OF CRITICAL STEPS
I LEFT OUT TO SAVE TYPING.. NOW..TO RUN SYSTEM RESTORE
ON A PROBLEM XP...YOU CLICK START..ACCESSORIES...SYSTEM TOOLS...SYSTEM RESTORE...THEN CLIK RESTORE MY PC... THEN CHOOSE A RESTORE POINT ON THE CALENDER PREVIOUS TO THE DATE IT STARTED MESSING UP... THE AVILABLE RESTORE POINTS ARE DARKER COLORED (JUST SLIGHTLY) ... THEN TELL IT TO RESTORE.. THIS COULD TAKE A FEW MINS..OR AN HOUR... BUT
MOST OF THE TIME IT WORKS PRETTY WELL....

[Jlott]

WHEN YOU GET EXCECPTION FAULTS.. THAT MEANS THE
KERNEL (WINDOWS CORE BRAIN ) HAS EITHER RECIEVED AN
INSTRUCTION IT CONSIDERS ILLEGAL ( AS IN IT DOESNT UNDERSTAND IT) OR YOU HAVE A CORRUPTED KERNEL...

OFFICE SHOULD INSTALL FLAWLESSLY...UNLESS ITS OFFICE 98.
YOU PROBABLY SHOULDNT RUN OFFICE 98 ON A XP MACHINE,
O98 HAS ALOT OF DOS BASED PLATFORMS IN IT..XP DOESNT..
THEY SORTA DONT LIKE EACH OTHER..

SOUNDS LIKE ITS TIME TO RUN THE SYSTEM RESTORE...

[KNAdmin]

Ed, check the Windows update site for a patch regarding the program install manager for your operating system.

Also, if you can post the error code here, we may be able to track down the current KB on that issue for you to help you debug it.

PS ... when you guys get blue screen faults, post the exact error codes here and we can help you nail down the fix through online resources.

Alex