Swapping Data Drives from SCSI System to IDE System with Different OS

Windows 2000 supports FAT-16 and FAT-32 file system...so no unless the data disc is formatted using FAT-32

Physically disconnect the data drives in the XP machine to eliminate the possibility of data loss and let's attend to the boot issue.

Give background...

Thanks for the prompt reply.

Tried what you suggested. Problem persists.

System boots, gets onto the desktop and is almost done when screen goes blank and it suddenly reboots.

I did not remove the graphics card. I will reinstall that device.

Then I'll get an old ATA drive, connect it to the MB, load the OS and boot off that.

Then offload the data and wait for a rainy day

I didn't expect disconnecting the drives would fix but only eliminate damage to the drives if the mobo toasted.

Remedies:

The simplest cure is insert XP CD then reboot.

If will boot successfully in safe mode is probable hardware issue either firm ware or driver etc..

boot into safe mode an reset all graphics to minimal settings then reboot, if no joy:

reboot to safe mode with networking and update the video card.

How's it going?

I'm pulling out the SCSI DVD and CD read-write units. They are old, slow and I don't trust them.

I'll pull the SCSI Controller card too

Installing a new IDE DVD Read Write directly to the MB.

Installing a brand new IDE Hard drive.

I'll boot off the CD ROM with the MS installation CD and Install XP Pro on the new hard drive.

When system works as it should, I'll put the SCSI controller card back in.

It should come on line after the system boots and the 3 SCSI drives should work.

I'll then do a machine to machine wire transfer of data using the USB ports, or simply burn a few DVDs so I can get some work done

At least that's the plan!

If I'm lucky, all the executables on the original SCSI program disk will still work.

Thanks

L.J.

While you're at it create a backup

Not sure how far you have got with your ideas, but I would not be keen on buying any further ATA drives. The standard now is SATA. It is possible to buy SATA cards for motherboards which do not support them and to boot from them, but it sounds as if you could do with a new motherboard for your first workstation anyway.<br><br> Peter

SCSI is actually superior to SATA and IDE is fine for data too.

Peter wrote: it sounds as if you could do with a new motherboard for your first workstation anyway.

That's perceptive Peter and I have been configuring on paper, the foundations of a new workstation.

I've been a SCSI fan for many years due mostly to the ease with which they configured. Never used the RAID features, It was due mostly to may ability to generate large total storage easily with redundancy.

That however, was when disk capacity was limited and the OS placed restrictions on how big a hard drive you could access. Now drives are huge!

I was stunned when I saw the size and low costs for the SATA drives. However when I checked closer, I found that the seek times were painfully slow for the low cost, big volume drives. When I dug deeper to the faster drives. . . . YIPES!

I'll build a new system next summer when the next contracts start pumping cash flow. Might be SATA, might also be SCSI. We'll see

Thanks

I'm pretty sure Win2K supports NTFS, same file system as XP, so I would think the 2K machine "might" be able to read the XP data disk, provided it was formatted for NTFS. YMMV.

Tom

I am not an expert but I have played around with this stuff and can confidently predict that if everything is anywhere near normal that you will not loose data if all you are asking a computer to do is look at a newly attached hard drive - albeit in this case a SCSI drive via some sort of card or other driver.

There are only two issues I can think of. First is that the computer can recognise that there is a new drive - that is a card/driver issue, and I don't see a problem with what you've outlined. Second is that the file system on the newly attached drive is able to be read by the OS on the existing computer - that doesn't seem to be a problem either.

Seems like you need to save the data on the two data drives very badly. Go to www.cablemax.com and lookup: USB 2.0 and esata adapter for SATA I and SATA II hard drives. I've used this to save data on a laptop and pc hard drive. Remove drives from computer and turn them into usb drives that you can plug into any computer with with a usb port and enough storage space. Save the data first then worry about the problem, also if the boot drive is failing or os is infected, you may be able to retrieve saved files from it.

"I'll then do a machine to machine wire transfer of data using the USB ports"

If you're hooking up the two computers via a USB cable make sure to use an isolating cable. They make them for your purpose. Just using a straight through cable will probable cause smoke to come from one or both computers.

Zamaron wrote: ". . . . make sure to use an isolating cable."

Thank you Zamaron. I have just such a cable.

Getting the system to function has become a frustrating battle with solutions that work one minute and fail the next.

The problem appears to focused around the graphics slot. I have a collection of graphics boards and when the system would not respond, even to the bios setup, I elected to pull the ATI card and pop in another brand. The system worked!

However, after installing a few of the peripheral cards (network, fire-wire, sound) the system would not boot again. Pulled the extra cards. Still would not boot. Pulled the graphics card; inserted another. The system booted! Went to eat, returned and turned on the system. . . wouldn't boot!

At this point the bios is so screwed up by previous desperate efforts I don't know what to do.

I'm tempted to move the SCSI controller and the three hard drives to the operational Pentium running Windows 2000 Pro.

I'm also tempted to rummage the attic for an older PCI card. It needn't run high end graphics just function in a one of the other slots so I can get this machine running and off load data.

I'm running out of patience.

L.J.

A few things to keep in mind...

Until the system is stable don't add anything, pull out or disconnect all but the system drive, the optical drive, 1 stick of RAM...

Check PM subject: System Stability

I've not hooked up the brand new DVD RW/CD RW deck. It's not a SCSI. When I return from a weekend trip, I'll install that and configure the BIOS to boot off the MS XP Pro Install disk.

The last few passes, it went through the boot sequence without a hitch but failed when it could not find the boot disk. I don't know why but suspect that it's a flawed config, either in the SCSI controller or in the BIOS setup.

If I can successfully bypass that by booting from the CD-ROM, perhaps I can gain access to the data that way.

Life has become too complicated!

I need to rid myself of stuff and simplify, simplify, simplify.

I understand about the machine reaching stability. I'd enjoy some of that myself!

Thanks

L.J.

LJ, Booting to CD will not bypass the BIOS settings on the computer, or the SCSI card, if one is installed. It will bypass any Windows startup files on your hard drive, and there definitely could be issues with those.

Just to be clear, I think you need to differentiate between the SYSTEM booting up, and the OS booting up, those are completely different things. Sorry if that's already clear, but I thought it worth mentioning. The boot sequence in your case would be: First, system BIOS comes up (resides in a FLASH memory device on the system motherboard), then the Video and SCSI devices would initialize, each having their OWN BIOS, and only after all that has happened, the system will start down through the "Boot Device Order" sequence (or whatever it's called in your system), where it will attempt to load an OS. Again, my apologies if this was already obvious :)

Tom

Good points to clarify

Tom I value your input as I do others who have generously responded. No need to apologize for stating the obvious as I have been known to sometimes overlook the obvious. (I'm told it's part of being human!) So Thanks for your concern!

The battery was removed from the MB to erase old bios settings. The default settings on the SCSI controller were all set to defaults. Data drives were disconnected and just the system disk left.

The power supply is new, over-sized and was tested. No obvious problems there.

I will see if restoring the OS from XP install disk resolves this. If that gets me in, then I'll Install Norton and copy a list of the latest viruses. There has been no way to verify that the system is bug free, It should be but one never knows.

When using the rebuild option the system seemed to hesitate when it got to the graphic file. This was been where the system would sometimes fail. Booting in safe mode works, except when it doesn't.

It's the %*^$#! intermittent nature of this problem that is frustrating. It's like trying to wrestle with a cloud. If it wants to break, I wish it would, permanently.

As things stand now it feels like a scene from "Ghost Busters" but without the beauty of Sigourney Weaver

L.J.

Seems you now have all in order only you've not yet rung the bell

I'd replace the graphics card just because; a cheapy nvidia the one I use quite successfully or ATi offering also quite adequate. Though what you've described could well be a mobo short one of the fore mentioned graphic cards would be good for a new board too.

I like to make an ISO image of the XP install disc and add all current windows updates plus an anti-virus and anti malware program to it, then burn to a CD so all can be installed before the O/S activates. It's a more streamlined way and far safer because these days a clean computer will likely become compromised within eight minutes on line.

A free programme nLite lets you create a bootable CD with the Windows install, updates, hot-fixes & drivers for a slipstream install. You can also pre-set all the answers to the prompts during installation so the install can be left to run. It's fairly intuitive to use & works well.

Tom, in another response I told you that there was no need for you to apologize for stating what was obvious. In that response I said that there have been times when I failed to see what was obvious.

Well. this was one of those times.

I pulled the SCSI card out of the system and left the SCSI drives in place but not powered. I'd already pulled the two SCSI CD-DVD decks and installed a brand new ATA CD-DVD R/W deck.

When I turned on the system, I heard two beeps I'd not heard before. Apparently the SCSI card had masked that sound. Or, I wasn't listening.

When I checked with Intel's web site it advised that two beeps was a parity error. I had a problem with a memory stick!

I changed the setup to do a memory check and it blew out of the bios test during the test sequence!

I shut down, pulled two of the four simms, and installed the factory slot bridges required. Turned it on and the system went through the parity check without a hitch.

I reset the boot priority for the CD-reader, and it went straight to to the MS Window's XP install disk. It's now doing a raw (low level) format of the 250 Gigabyte IDE drive. (I am suspicious of the quickie format)

In an earlier post Bwire wrote: "pull out or disconnect all but the system drive. . . . and 1 stick of RAM..."

Had I done as he suggested, a lot of frustration would have been prevented!

I'm waiting for the low level format to finish. When that is done, I'll reinstall the SCSI controller, connect the hard drives and see how my data faired. I suspect it will be OK.

Then I'll decide if I wish to go back to the old SCSI setup. I suspect not. I'll simply continue to boot off the IDE drive and work the existing programs on what once the SCSI system disk. Hopefully they will still work. I'd hate to have to reinstall all those programs. Last time I did that it took days.

I'll soon be taking on some new design projects that will provide the cash flow needed to build or buy a new workstation. 64 Bit OS, super fast SATA drives and a new monitor and better graphics card. These will support all three of my CAD software packages: Catia, Pro E and Solidworks.

I just proved them right: "There is no fool like an old fool"

To all of you who were so generous with your time and expertise, thanks for the support.

L.J. Rides again!!

Great news!

When you're ready for a change give a holler and we can give a step by step procedural build an save some ducats

Thanks Bwire!

The system runs long enough to offload critical data and then, when making a move requiring a graphics move in 3D CADD, the screen goes blank and the system reboots. It even rebooted while copying the entire data directory. It took several attempts before I was able to successfully copy from the original SCSI data drive to the new IDE boot drive.

There are four SIMM slots on the Intel MB with 256K in each. Mine are not error checking so there's no point in telling the BIOS to initiate a check-sum during the boot.

When the parity error showed up, I pulled two of the SIMMS and installed jumpers, dropping the on-board RAM to 540K. Not sure which of the SIMMS I pulled is the guilty party but that seemed to solve things. Until it didn't.

With the system now booting up but shutting down during CADD I tried systematically swapping memory sticks but this did not make a difference. I also swapped the ATI graphics board for a less powerful Nvidia card but that didn't seem to help.

The system runs I have to save my file after every change in the CADD program in anticipation of the system crashing. It was taking too long to get things done.

With all the data files successfully backed up to the new ATA drive and the immediate project files on a memory stick, I switched over to the second system, the one with Windows 2K Pro and continued working there even though the system is slower.

While I did that, the other XP system was used simply to play MP3 files. I figured it would not be taxed to crashing just playing music.

Wrong! After less than an hour of hearing music, the machine suddenly stopped and rebooted itself, even though I was not doing anything with it but play MP3's. Lord, after all this, could it be the power supply?

I've two Pentium P4 motherboards in the attic that have been pulled out of their systems because of minor issues. Not a bad track record for boards that have thousands of hours over a dozen years on them.

Simple stuff like loss of power at fan terminals which also affected a supply to the graphics slot. Those boards are cheap enough now, perhaps $50, which suggests that I should simply toss the current one, swap the CPU and get on with it.

I don't think the SIMMS are the culprit but to be sure, I'd sooner pull the one gig worth of SIMMS (four 256K) and bump the on-board RAM to two gigs as the system still has plenty of performance and will move even better with two gigs.

A new workstation is what's really needed; something with muscles built from the ground up, not something that has evolved like the current one. It will not likely be a SCSI system.

When interrupts were few and drives were small, it paid to have a SCSI controller with 15 devices chained to it. With today's dramatically bigger drives and OS's that can read them, that's no longer the case.

However, even with large caches and plenty of on board memory, CADD files are enormous and frequently cache to the drives, and write backup files too so fast drives are more important than big drives.

The big Tetra SATA drives I see being peddled are cheap as Hell but slow. Long seek times make them totally unsuited to this CADD environment. At least that was my impression after some quick studies. The big, fast SATA drives are not cheap!

Alas, design projects are few and far between and money is tight. I'll have to wait a while before I can upgrade to a more modern 64 bit platform.

When it comes time to spec out a new system it will be an Intel board for sure as their technical support is still fantastic, the products perform reliably and they are still the benchmark as far as I am concerned. If you have any thoughts for building a rocket sled workstation, I'd enjoy hearing them.

Thanks for the offer of more support.

The Laughing Jaguar

Have you looked at the CPU temperature? I've had a fault in the past which was simply that the CPU heatsink had moved & was no longer cooling properly, that system kept re-booting.

"Have you looked at the CPU temperature?"

Not exactly Nigh. I did make a mental note to stop by Radio Shack today and purchase a tube of thermal conductivity grease to insure that the heat-sink/cooling fins are doing a good job.

The system has multiple fans however, the side cover has been off much of time because of the repeated need to access the components.

L.J.

The system has multiple fans however, the side cover has been off much of time because of the repeated need to access the components.

None of the fans will help if the CPU is not conducting the heat to the heatsink. You can look at the CPU temp in BIOS or in any of the free temp monitor programmes that are readily available.

I'll put the cover on but without the screws. I'm not optimistic that this will cure the problems but I would sure like to be wrong and for you to be right.

Thanks

Art

Replacing the cover won't help if the problem is between the CPU & heatsink.

Have a look at the temp. in BIOS next time you boot (or when it boots itself).

None of the fans will help if the CPU is not conducting the heat to the heatsink.

If the case open there's no restriction for the CPU fan to struggle with; no worries.

I've built a few computers by screwing the mobo to a wall or under a desk with no case at all only strips for grounding of course.

If the case open there's no restriction for the CPU fan to struggle with; no worries.

The point I was trying to make, based on a CPU failure in the past, was that the hotspot will be in the centre of the CPU. If the CPU is not well connected thermally to the heatsink no amount of moving air will cool it. The fans remove heat from the heatsink, not directly from the CPU, if the thermal bond between the heatsink & CPU is broken, maybe by the heatsink being knocked, the CPU will overheat. Periodic shutting down could be a symptom of this.

I'm getting that and the type hold down that series has a yoke on the underside of the mobo which the fan and heatsink assy are screwed to. I'm thinking a knock hard enough to dislodge it would likely break the mobo

In that case, as you say, it's unlikely that the bond has been disturbed. I'm fairly sure that the failure I had used those crappy plastic twist lock posts.

Still worth looking at the CPU temperature in BIOS though.

When it comes time to spec out a new system it will be an Intel board for sure as their technical support is still fantastic, the products perform reliably and they are still the benchmark as far as I am concerned. If you have any thoughts for building a rocket sled workstation, I'd enjoy hearing them.

Thanks for the offer of more support.

Sure I understand your thought's of Intel though you'll find this one is exemplary by contrast.

computer case:.Mid Tower.....................................Thermaltake's V9 Model #:VJ400G1N2Z

PSU:..700W................................................COOLER MASTER Model #:RS700-AAAAA3

mobo:...........................................................Gigabyte Model #:GA-P55A-UDP4

Graphics:...............................................................XFX Model #:GS250XZDFU

Processor:....................................................Intel Core i7 Model #:BX80601920

RAM:..6GB ..........................................Mushkin Enhanced Blackline Model #:998659B

HDD:..64MB cache...6.0GB's................................Western Digital Caviar Black Model #:WD6402AAEX

HDD:...32MB cache...3.0GB's...............................Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 Model #:ST3750528AS

Optical Drive:................................................LG DVD Burner Model #:GH24NS50

Card R/W:....................................................Nippon Labs Model #:NL-ICR-BB-3

This will handle the CAD and then some...enjoy

Wow!

That should be a screamer!

I like both drives. Why two different ones?

Don't recognize the graphics board. I'll check out the CADD software web sites to see if it's on their lists of partners. That's most important.

I'll start pricing out the system.

Thanks for the effort.

L.J.

• XFX GeForce GTX 250 GPU Features

• NVIDIA CUDA™ Technology
  NVIDIA CUDA™ Technology is the world's only C language environment that provides access to processing power of NVIDIA GPUs. It enables developers to utilize NVIDIA GPUs to solve the most complex computation-intensive challenges such as oil and gas exploration, financial risk management, product design, medical imaging, and scientific research.
• see full detail here
• *******************************************************
• I like both drives. Why two different ones?
• HDD:..64MB cache...6.0GB's................................Western Digital Caviar Black Model #:WD6402AAEX
• This WD has great potential and remarkable reviews...
• HDD:...32MB cache...3.0GB's...............................Seagate Barracuda 7200.12
• The 6.0GB for a working drive and the 3.0GB for on board storage and then add an external 2TB brick as backup. I knew it would cause a question because we used to size drives to match then add RAID but RAID is a redundancy with the newer drive capabilities.
• No trouble I just down sized my last screamer to save a few ducats

LJ,

Thanks for following up, and for the kudos to those who've given an assist. Too many forget this part when someone on a forum has given them a nugget of wisdom that has saved them time and/or funds.

Tom

TDESMIT Wrote: "Thanks for following up, and for the kudos to those who've given an assist."

A wise man told us that we will only have the things in life that we appreciate.

To fail to acknowledge the contributions others make is to destroy the main resource for all growth, both as individuals and as a community.

Thanks for the acknowledgement.

L.J.

If you write: "Getting the system to function has become a frustrating battle with solutions that work one minute and fail the next. The problem appears to focused around the graphics slot. I have a collection of graphics boards and when the system would not respond, even to the bios setup, I elected to pull the ATI card and pop in another brand. The system worked!" I begin to suspect that your power supply is no longer up to the job. Try a bigger one. Peter

I've just been through this process myself although with a back-up SATA drive. I used the connection lead suggested in post #8 to retrieve the important data. After rebuilding the PC with new OS (XP SP3) & motherboard I connected the 2nd drive & used system management to 'import foreign drive'. I can now read all the data OK.

If the problem is with Windows, whether drivers or viruses, another way to circumvent Windows is to download & burn a Linux live CD. You can then boot from the CD without installing anything, the OS will run from the CD, & should then be able access all the drives.

Your machine behavior is consistent with normal O/S's actions when it detects major hardware changes since last boot. E.g processor s/n, HD s/n, mobo etc. It's Bill's way to tell you: "Hey who told you the O/S I sold you is yours to use the way you want?" What to do: burn a modern Linux ISO like Ubuntu Live CD. Boot from it. Boot options include a memory test utility. Run it. This stresses CPU and mems enough for faults to appear. If test comes clean (will take a while) load Linux from Live CD. If Linux loads OK definately you have no hardware issue, reboot to BIOS, load defaults including CPU full ID code, set right boot device and reboot to XP safe mode (keep F4 pressed while booting and select safe mode) If still not able will propubly need to reinstall (too much mess). If safe mode loads OK check device manager for obvious errors and reboot normally. May have to reboot again so XP fixes itself from minor issues . Putting your data disks on a running 2000 system is generaly possible if they 're not encoded although there are differences in the NTFS systems just don't let system check them. It will propubly ruin them due to inconcistences between NTFSs. Funny as it may seem it's better to check and copy them from a Linux system. 53 2E 4D 2E

The system is running but still shuts down without warning, usually when I execute a command in a CADD program that taxes the graphics board.

When it's running, it's great; actually faster than before even though the on-board memory was cut in half from the original one gigabyte.

The pattern of failures leads me to suspect that the power supply (500 watts) is to blame. a 650 watt unit is cheap enough so, as a precaution, I'm going to replace it with a new ATX 650 watt unit.

The problem is power supply style. For many years I've avoided Switching Type power supplies as I was told long ago they are not as good as the alternative, whatever that is. (I forget; it's been a long time. Transformer based perhaps?)

Can one of you please enlighten me on this issue please? What are the options when it comes to power supplies for an ATX style motherboard?

This will be an interim fix to keep the system running reliably for at least six months so I can build a new computer.

Thanks

L.J.

LJ,

As far as I know, even back in the AT days, computer supplies have been of the switching variety. A linear, line-transformer based design would weigh as much as the whole rest of the system.

That being said, there are vast differences in quality between the different brands out there, and some of the low-end stuff could only be described as being rated based on someone's vivid imagination, and not on any real-world load testing (meaning a supply rated at 500W would be lucky to deliver 250W continuous for any period of time). I read a pretty good article/review of PC power supplies a while back, but can't seem to locate it right now. If your in the market, it would probably be good to try to find some real-world reviews.

Tom

Thanks Tom. I suspected as much but was unsure.

What puzzles me is why the manufacturers go to the trouble of making the distinction in the first place. If all power supplies are of the switching type, whats the point?

I'm not going to spend a lot on the replacement. So long as it works, it will verify or refute my current suspicions regarding the current PS. One with a one year warranty delivered free of charge for $25 is nothing to loose any sleep over.

What I find annoying is that I am dealing with an intermittent problem and while I have a good Power Supply tester, it's simply diode based. An indicator is either lit or its not and unlikely to spot causes of intermittent failure or variations in voltage.

Thanks

L.J.

Here is a very comprehesive answer... scroll down

My brands of choice are "SeaSonic" or "CoolerMaster"

The Computer from Hell is back!

The brand new P4 Intel motherboard arrived. A model D850MV/D850EMV2, it's an exact duplicate of the one that reboots whenever graphic demands exceed a certain level.

Swapping out the old MoBo for the new was SOP. Prior to doing so, however, I put a good tester on the power supply. I also tested the former power supply. That one was replaced when it was suspected to be the cause of the sudden reboots. Obviously that was not the case and both PS's check out fine.

When everything was in place and the computer switched on, the CPU fan powered up. I got a green LED on the MoBo. I could hear the heads on the drives cycling but the monitor was jet black; no signal. I also got no beep tone whatsoever, not even one beep, which suggests that the BIOS is not being interrogated either. Why?

I've spent many hours swapping out parts but now even the CPU fan does not go on even though the green LED does. I pulled the CMOS battery, grounded the battery terminals, unplugged the power cable and let it sit overnight to purge whatever configuration there might be. No Joy!

I pulled the CPU off the new board, installed it back on the old board, just with memory and a graphics card, nothing else. I didn't even install the old board in the chassis. Turned it on. . . . . . nothing! I get a green light. That's all. Pulled the CMAS battery on that old board too. Let it sit for an hour. Turned it on. . . . . . nothing! I've compared jumper placement on both MoBo's.

What the $$#@! is going on here?

u have tri remove and replac reseting jumper on mobo??

The jumper has 3 positions: right, left and off. Tried all three. No Joy.

I ordered a new CPU. What else could it be?

THE SYSTEM IS UP AND RUNNING, BETTER THAN EVER!

During my many efforts to diagnose the intermittent failures I removed the fan and clip that hold the heat sink onto the CPU. When I lifted the heat sink out, the CPU came right out with it. The thermal grease had caked and the CPU itself was firmly attached to the heat sink. I thought nothing of it.

In all my efforts to find the problem, I simply put the CPU back into the socket and installed the heat sink and fan as before. WRONG!!

It wasn't until after the new CPU, new power supply and new motherboard had failed to correct the problem, that I spotted the lever on the CPU socket. The moment I lifted it and saw the scissor action of the CPU socket I understood what had happened: the CPU was not installed properly!

I immediately corrected the insert procedure, turned on the power supply and the system immediately sprang to life. One beep only. From the BIOS and after the configuration settings were made, not even that.

There never was any hardware issue. Apparently, the pins on the CPU had worked their way loose enough that there was enough connectivity to start the system but not enough to support the loads imposed during CADD ops.

How did this happen in the first place? I haven't a clue. I've never had a CPU fail on any desk top system I've built in the last 22 years. I allowed this to cloud my diagnostics. Lack of recent experience with my hands into the guts of things caused me to overlook what should have been apparent.

It all worked out in the end and in fact the system has capabilities it did not have. There is an extra 250 Gbyte ATA hard drive that gets a ghost image of the critical data drive. Should the system crap out, I need only bring that drive elsewhere and be up and running faster.

I now have a duplicate system's worth of hardware. All I need do is buy a hard drive and it will be put to use in a spare tower with a hi Resolution TV card. That system will go into the living room with a wireless network card and will hopefully allow me to save High Definition TV programs and then burn a DVD.

To all who supported me so patiently, a tip-of-the-hat and a humble "Thank You!"

The Laughing Jaguar (laughs again!)

Thanks for the update LJ, glad it all worked out.

One comment (if I may), on the Media PC you are considering setting up; if you can do it without tearing out a wall, I would recommend using a wired network connection vs the wireless, especially if you are trying to do HD. As much as "they" claim wireless is capable of, I've never been fully satisfied with lack of down time, lost connectivity, degraded through-put, and interference from outside sources. I do use wireless when I have to, like surfing the web on a laptop while sitting in the living room, but internet surfing uses a lot less bandwidth than HD streaming. Just my $.02.

Tom

Hi Tom!

The system will be equipped with a DVD burner so there I doubt there will be a need for sending images anywhere, wireless or cable. It's just a convenience and with wireless Net Cards so cheap, why not. You raise a valid point however and I appreciate it.

While I have your attention: another mistake I made was to install the Intel software that comes on their disk with new motherboards: program accelerators, audio program, et al.

While the board is new, it's still an old design. The CD was not at all appropriate to the current upgrades provided my Microsoft. Immediately after installation, the system slowed down to a crawl and nothing I could do could correct that. Efforts to remove the 3rd party software from Intel only made things worse and in the final analysis it got so bad that I was forced to do a low level format and reinstall the OS.

It's OK now but of course I am now faced with having to install a lot of design and utilities executables necessary for my work.

Oh well!

I learned a long time ago not to let my circumstances dictate my happiness.

That's a good thing too!

Clear skies!

L.J.