Windows 7 Catch-All

I suppose that's a good point. I had made the assumption that a home user wouldn't have any explicit file permissions but that's possibly a big assumption. If that's a concern you could use Robocopy or Xcopy to make sure permissions are maintained.

At this point does it matter? It should be done in what four hours? Just make sure it's now in the maintenance schedule and you should be fine anyway.

It appears I may have a different problem, and it might be a hardware one.

I can be browsing the internet, or just doing pretty much anything and Windows will hang. I can still click the start button, move windows around, the desktop in general stays responsive, but clicking on a folder in explorer just brings up a blank window. Basically everything other than basic desktop functions stops. Can't change pages in firefox, can't close tabs, can't browse files, can't close anything. Then all the sudden... it comes back. Usually after about thirty seconds or so. Everything you did in while it was sitting happens all at once.

I opened task manager to see if it was pegging all the cores on the CPU or if I was getting any other craziness. Nothing. So I opened the resource monitor. Nothing odd happening with the CPU, Memory, or Network tabs during the hang. So I checked the disk tab.

Whenever the system hangs the Queue Length pegs all the way to the top of the graph on my C:\ drive. My SSD.

Wonderful.

Yikes, doesn't sound good. Have you checked the event log yet?

Thin_J wrote:

Well, I have a 1TB drive that's got about 700gb free on it. So you're saying copy to another drive, delete, and then move back to the original? Does that actually work?

That should work fine, but after you move the files, either format the source drive or run a defrag on the filesystem with as few files in it as possible. Then move the files back. If you then run another defrag, it should go pretty fast, and will give you an excellent baseline.

Also note that fragmentation on NTFS is generally not that big a deal, compared to FAT. Your sluggish loads may be completely unrelated.

Oh, and: in case anyone reading this doesn't know, don't defrag SSDs.

I thought Win7 was smart about SSD drives and disabling the defrag was one of the things it automatically did.

Editing this, because I don't want to post again.

Despite the event log only reporting that the error reporting service was starting and stopping every few minutes, keeping an eye on the disk activity monitor in the resource monitor it looks more like disk access across the board stops every few minutes, and then starts up again.

Right now all my HD's are in hot swap bays, including the SSD. I'm going to move the SSD to the internal bays and take the extra connection out of the loop, see if that fixes it.

LiquidMantis wrote:

I thought Win7 was smart about SSD drives and disabling the defrag was one of the things it automatically did.

You know, I remember opening the defragmenter, but I think you're right. When I open it now my C:\ drive isn't even listed.

***

Hangs are lasting longer now, and the responsive periods in between are getting shorter.

Hopefully the folder move between my game and storage drives finishes soon. Really wanting to take the system down and check some stuff out.

Maybe try switching SATA cables. I've heard tales of them just suddenly going bad, and crazy things happening afterward.

***

Ok, I moved the SSD out of the hot swap bay, checked the drive adapter it was in, used a brand new SATA cable, and it appears all my issues, including ridiculously long defrag times, have been solved. I don't know for sure if it's a bad cable or a bad bay in the hot swap setup, or what, but for the moment everything seems fine.

Scratched wrote:

I use drive activity and it's working fine for me.

Dammit. I don't want to reimage Win7 just to get one gadget working. At the same time, I found being able to see logical disk activity very helpful.

Anyone here who can point to me how to go about debugging Gadgets?

LiquidMantis wrote:

I thought Win7 was smart about SSD drives and disabling the defrag was one of the things it automatically did.

I did not know that, cool beans.

Eezy_Bordone wrote:
LiquidMantis wrote:

I thought Win7 was smart about SSD drives and disabling the defrag was one of the things it automatically did.

I did not know that, cool beans.

It's not. I checked my task scheduler yesterday after reading this thread and found a defrag task.

Malor wrote:

Oh, and: in case anyone reading this doesn't know, don't defrag SSDs.

Keep in mind if your C drive is an SSD, WinVista/7 automatically makes a weekly defrag job on your system drive so you'll need to go in to tasks, find it and delete, disable or edit it.

NSMike wrote:
Eezy_Bordone wrote:
LiquidMantis wrote:

I thought Win7 was smart about SSD drives and disabling the defrag was one of the things it automatically did.

I did not know that, cool beans.

It's not. I checked my task scheduler yesterday after reading this thread and found a defrag task.

What SSD do you have?

I used another Intel X-25m in a build for someone else and Win7 detected it just like it did mine.

I used another Intel X-25m in a build for someone else and Win7 detected it just like it did mine.

So did I. It's fine detecting it as an SSD, but the defrag task still existed.

It's supposed to:

When a solid state drive is present, Windows 7 will disable disk defragmentation, Superfetch, ReadyBoost, as well as boot and application launch prefetching.

It auto-disabled it for my SSD, Intel X-25 as well.

If you install the Intel Matrix Storage drivers for the motherboard chipset, that prevents Win7 from realizing that it's an SSD, and you have to manually fix it. If you're running on Windows standard drivers, it will see it as an SSD and make adjustments. It's not exactly a bug in Intel's driver... more of a missing feature.

Finally installed Windows 7 last night. Took a few hours to gain access to my old files (as clearly I'm not the same guy who was just using XP, though the computer will give me access if I ask it nicely and wait for it to set each file as mine).

So I've got a few questions now.

Where do I put the old save games and application data from my My Documents folder?

Should I reinstall Steam? I moved the files over and it had to repair itself but now it works. It just shows all my old games as still installed even though I didn't move that particular folder. Note that Steam used to reside on the D drive, which is now the E drive, with the new copy of Steam now on the new D drive.

Is there a way to reinstall my old games without having to download them again?

LobsterMobster wrote:

Where do I put the old save games and application data from my My Documents folder?

Same place in Win 7.

Should I reinstall Steam? I moved the files over and it had to repair itself but now it works. It just shows all my old games as still installed even though I didn't move that particular folder. Note that Steam used to reside on the D drive, which is now the E drive, with the new copy of Steam now on the new D drive.

Is there a way to reinstall my old games without having to download them again?

I think what happens is that when you move the folder over it just reauthorizes them from steam without downloading the whole game. I just moved my steam apps folder and I think clicked install or something similar for all the items, and it tooks a brief time per game to fix them. I know there's a step by step on Steam about how to move your folder that will tell you exactly what you need to do.

Thin_J wrote:

It appears I may have a different problem, and it might be a hardware one.

I can be browsing the internet, or just doing pretty much anything and Windows will hang. I can still click the start button, move windows around, the desktop in general stays responsive, but clicking on a folder in explorer just brings up a blank window. Basically everything other than basic desktop functions stops. Can't change pages in firefox, can't close tabs, can't browse files, can't close anything. Then all the sudden... it comes back. Usually after about thirty seconds or so. Everything you did in while it was sitting happens all at once.

I opened task manager to see if it was pegging all the cores on the CPU or if I was getting any other craziness. Nothing. So I opened the resource monitor. Nothing odd happening with the CPU, Memory, or Network tabs during the hang. So I checked the disk tab.

Whenever the system hangs the Queue Length pegs all the way to the top of the graph on my C: drive. My SSD.

Wonderful.

I had that same issue on sunday even though all I had did was installed some windows updates on thursday last week but once I did a system restore, it hasn't been an issue.

So is it possible that there was a bad windows update released recently?

LobsterMobster wrote:

Finally installed Windows 7 last night. Took a few hours to gain access to my old files (as clearly I'm not the same guy who was just using XP, though the computer will give me access if I ask it nicely and wait for it to set each file as mine).

So I've got a few questions now.

Where do I put the old save games and application data from my My Documents folder?

Should I reinstall Steam? I moved the files over and it had to repair itself but now it works. It just shows all my old games as still installed even though I didn't move that particular folder. Note that Steam used to reside on the D drive, which is now the E drive, with the new copy of Steam now on the new D drive.

Is there a way to reinstall my old games without having to download them again?

Install Steam on D. Start Steam and for each game you have the files for and want to reinstall, tell them to reinstall via Steam but then pause the downloads. Exit Steam and copy all the game files to the correct folders in D. Restart Steam. The games should now be ready. This worked for me going from Win XP with Steam on C to Win 7 with Steam on E.

mrwynd wrote:
LobsterMobster wrote:

So I've got a few questions now.

Where do I put the old save games and application data from my My Documents folder?

Is there a way to reinstall my old games without having to download them again?

Install Steam on D. Start Steam and for each game you have the files for and want to reinstall, tell them to reinstall via Steam but then pause the downloads. Exit Steam and copy all the game files to the correct folders in D. Restart Steam. The games should now be ready. This worked for me going from Win XP with Steam on C to Win 7 with Steam on E.

I didn't even have to do that. I just put Steam where I wanted it, the whole Steam folder and clicked Steam.exe and it installed, I then clicked on the games via my steam games list and they would proceed to do their first time launch rigamorale and then I was off playing my games. Save games of course had to be relocated if they were not within the Steam folder / had changed position from XP to Win7 (Plants vs Zombies, grrr!).

Also, My documents is a bit hidden in Win7. Easiest way to get to it is through "libraries" ->"documents" -> "My Documents" on the side bar in the file browser.

mrtomaytohead wrote:

Also, My documents is a bit hidden in Win7. Easiest way to get to it is through "libraries" ->"documents" -> "My Documents" on the side bar in the file browser.

That may bring in other PC's content if you use "HomeGroup" on your local network with other PCs. There are several ways to get there, though. If you go to Windows Explorer, it will be under the folder for your user, or it will be off the start button as Documents. Or the start button search does amazing work in Win 7.

mrtomaytohead wrote:

Also, My documents is a bit hidden in Win7. Easiest way to get to it is through "libraries" ->"documents" -> "My Documents" on the side bar in the file browser.

In a dialog box, you can drag & drop a folder into the favourites section for quick access, which will allow you to skip the Libraries->Documents step.

Note that the favourites persist across all explorer windows, so even in the "My Computer" view you can hit organize>layout>navigation pane to quickly get to your favourites.

Arise thread!

So I have been considering updating from Vista 64 to Windows 7 for a while for a number of reasons. (HL2.exe constantly crashing on me, the computer will no longer sleep and tanking for ever to boot up)

So I have a few questions

1. What is the best version to use? I plan on keeping the 64 bit version but is there any significant advantages between the 3 different flavors?
2. When installing will my hard drive be reformatted?
3. Where would be the best place to buy it. Are there any deals anywhere I should know about?

Thanks

Norfair wrote:

1. What is the best version to use? I plan on keeping the 64 bit version but is there any significant advantages between the 3 different flavors?

Depends on your needs. Most are fine with Home Premium, but I bought Pro mainly for the Remote Desktop stuff.

2. When installing will my hard drive be reformatted?

Depends on how you do it. You can install from your existing installation of Vista and all that stuff will just be moved into a "windows.old" folder. You can do an upgrade install if you are going from like version to live version...Vista to 7. Didn't want to risk it myself.

You can also do a fresh install on a wiped/formatted drive, although you're likely to need to use some tricks to get it to work if you buy an upgrade license. You can install fresh with OEM with no hassle.

Norfair wrote:

is there any significant advantages between the 3 different flavors?

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...

For most people, home premium is fine.

Scratched wrote:
Norfair wrote:

is there any significant advantages between the 3 different flavors?

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...

For most people, home premium is fine.

Wikipedia has a more detailed chart.

I'm still waiting on them to get the 64-bit Win7 disc for me at work. They've given me a volume license key, but the 32-bit disc. I've got my own upgrade DVD of Win7 Pro x64 I bought with the student special back in October. I'd like to bring that in and upgrade if possible.

Will that media work with the VLK, or is it tied to the key I was given?

Microsoft did away with discs being tied to OEM/Retail/Edu/Volume keys. I don't know anything about upgrade discs but I'd assume it to be the case with them as well.

LiquidMantis wrote:

Microsoft did away with discs being tied to OEM/Retail/Edu/Volume keys. I don't know anything about upgrade discs but I'd assume it to be the case with them as well.

Thanks. I'll give it a shot on Monday.