SP 3 Reassigned my External's Drive Letter

(cross-post added to XP Perf & Maint)
"Lori" wrote in message ...
Yesterday I finally upgraded from Windows XP Service Pack 2 to SP3 and now my
external drive is renamed an H drive, no longer F. This wouldn't be that
much of a problem except certain functions, such as my screen saver (no
biggie) and iTunes (biggie) are associated with the files as being in F, not
in H. How did that happen and do you know if there would be a way to rename
it back to F?


Did you install any other hardware or repartition a drive?
Otherwise you may have a corrupt partition table.

Try using Disk Manager. E.g. Run... (press Win-R and enter

diskmgmt.msc

for more clues (and possible help.)



I know this should be the largest problem anyone ever has with their
computer, but I'm really not thrilled about reinstalling all my files (over
10 GBs) back into iTunes when they're in the order I like them in now (I can
hear you laughing), and I am not too sure I like the way my computer is
reacting to SP3.

Thanks for any help you can offer!


BTW although you may see WU as the cause of your problem symptoms
it would be more appropriate to look for help resolving them in a newsgroup
which specializes in your OS. Cross-posting to an XP NG for convenience.

Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle
---

Thanks to you both for the replies. Here is the newest thing. This message
keeps popping up telling me that Windows had a failure to write to H:\$Mft.
My data is now lost. The H is the renamed external drive. It pops up
constantly. Did the update possibly corrupt the external FAT system since I
forgot to shut it down during the install of SP3? I don't know what to do to
fix this one.

Thanks.

"Robert Aldwinckle" wrote:

(cross-post added to XP Perf & Maint)
"Lori" wrote in message ...
Yesterday I finally upgraded from Windows XP Service Pack 2 to SP3 and now my
external drive is renamed an H drive, no longer F. This wouldn't be that
much of a problem except certain functions, such as my screen saver (no
biggie) and iTunes (biggie) are associated with the files as being in F, not
in H. How did that happen and do you know if there would be a way to rename
it back to F?


Did you install any other hardware or repartition a drive?
Otherwise you may have a corrupt partition table.

Try using Disk Manager. E.g. Run... (press Win-R and enter

diskmgmt.msc

for more clues (and possible help.)



I know this should be the largest problem anyone ever has with their
computer, but I'm really not thrilled about reinstalling all my files (over
10 GBs) back into iTunes when they're in the order I like them in now (I can
hear you laughing), and I am not too sure I like the way my computer is
reacting to SP3.

Thanks for any help you can offer!


BTW although you may see WU as the cause of your problem symptoms
it would be more appropriate to look for help resolving them in a newsgroup
which specializes in your OS. Cross-posting to an XP NG for convenience.

Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle
---

One more important thing I just found out:

I tried to run my Diskeeper program on the external H drive. It told me it
can't "get a handle on the volume" and could not run it. Before the upgrade,
it always did.

PLUS - I cannot rename the drive. I right click on it under disk management
and it just gives me a help option and shows NO drive name at all.

Something is very wrong. I tried to "safely remove hardware" to shut it
down and it kept telling me it couldn't be shut down now. Did my drive get
corrupted in the upgrade?


"Lori" wrote:

Thanks to you both for the replies. Here is the newest thing. This message
keeps popping up telling me that Windows had a failure to write to H:\$Mft.
My data is now lost. The H is the renamed external drive. It pops up
constantly. Did the update possibly corrupt the external FAT system since I
forgot to shut it down during the install of SP3? I don't know what to do to
fix this one.

Thanks.

"Robert Aldwinckle" wrote:

(cross-post added to XP Perf & Maint)
"Lori" wrote in message ...
Yesterday I finally upgraded from Windows XP Service Pack 2 to SP3 and now my
external drive is renamed an H drive, no longer F. This wouldn't be that
much of a problem except certain functions, such as my screen saver (no
biggie) and iTunes (biggie) are associated with the files as being in F, not
in H. How did that happen and do you know if there would be a way to rename
it back to F?


Did you install any other hardware or repartition a drive?
Otherwise you may have a corrupt partition table.

Try using Disk Manager. E.g. Run... (press Win-R and enter

diskmgmt.msc

for more clues (and possible help.)



I know this should be the largest problem anyone ever has with their
computer, but I'm really not thrilled about reinstalling all my files (over
10 GBs) back into iTunes when they're in the order I like them in now (I can
hear you laughing), and I am not too sure I like the way my computer is
reacting to SP3.

Thanks for any help you can offer!


BTW although you may see WU as the cause of your problem symptoms
it would be more appropriate to look for help resolving them in a newsgroup
which specializes in your OS. Cross-posting to an XP NG for convenience.

Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle
---

Lori

Can you please list all drives and partitions and put a description
against each. Distinguish between hard, DVD and removable drives. Do not
forget flash drives. Also say whether the system is dual or multiple
booting.

Say which drives are recognised in the BIOS and which in Disk
Management. Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer
Management, Disk Management.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Lori wrote:
One more important thing I just found out:

I tried to run my Diskeeper program on the external H drive. It told
me it can't "get a handle on the volume" and could not run it.
Before the upgrade, it always did.

PLUS - I cannot rename the drive. I right click on it under disk
management and it just gives me a help option and shows NO drive name
at all.

Something is very wrong. I tried to "safely remove hardware" to shut
it down and it kept telling me it couldn't be shut down now. Did my
drive get corrupted in the upgrade?


"Lori" wrote:

Thanks to you both for the replies. Here is the newest thing. This
message keeps popping up telling me that Windows had a failure to
write to H:\$Mft. My data is now lost. The H is the renamed
external drive. It pops up constantly. Did the update possibly
corrupt the external FAT system since I forgot to shut it down
during the install of SP3? I don't know what to do to fix this one.

Thanks.

"Robert Aldwinckle" wrote:

(cross-post added to XP Perf & Maint)
"Lori" wrote in message
...
Yesterday I finally upgraded from Windows XP Service Pack 2 to SP3
and now my external drive is renamed an H drive, no longer F.
This wouldn't be that much of a problem except certain functions,
such as my screen saver (no biggie) and iTunes (biggie) are
associated with the files as being in F, not in H. How did that
happen and do you know if there would be a way to rename it back
to F?


Did you install any other hardware or repartition a drive?
Otherwise you may have a corrupt partition table.

Try using Disk Manager. E.g. Run... (press Win-R and enter

diskmgmt.msc

for more clues (and possible help.)



I know this should be the largest problem anyone ever has with
their computer, but I'm really not thrilled about reinstalling all
my files (over 10 GBs) back into iTunes when they're in the order
I like them in now (I can hear you laughing), and I am not too
sure I like the way my computer is reacting to SP3.

Thanks for any help you can offer!


BTW although you may see WU as the cause of your problem symptoms
it would be more appropriate to look for help resolving them in a
newsgroup
which specializes in your OS. Cross-posting to an XP NG for
convenience.

Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle
---

Gerry,
Thanks for your interest. Bottom line? I rebooted the computer and was
able to rename the drive finally. But then it seemed the drive new error
message was associated with the new drive name. Well, long story short,
after hours of working on it, doing scans, etc. (and a system restore
somewhere along the way), even increasing the MFT, everything seems to be
working "well." I am not entirely thrilled with the computer's performance
since SP3, seems to have caused it to be a bit sluggish. I am usually on top
of the maintenance constantly and although I may have sounded a bit...well,
let's just say light in the first message, I know how to do a lot on
computers and am usually the go-to person for my friends and family. So when
I say it's been acting sluggish since the upgrade, I'm really very on top of
its performance and am not just blaming it on the new SP. There is a notable
difference in the computer's responsiveness.

In any event, so far, for the rest of the day, it's been error-free. Things
are hanging up a bit, but that's better than what was last night and this
morning.

Thank you for your desire to help. It is greatly appreciated.

"Gerry" wrote:

Lori

Can you please list all drives and partitions and put a description
against each. Distinguish between hard, DVD and removable drives. Do not
forget flash drives. Also say whether the system is dual or multiple
booting.

Say which drives are recognised in the BIOS and which in Disk
Management. Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer
Management, Disk Management.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Lori wrote:
One more important thing I just found out:

I tried to run my Diskeeper program on the external H drive. It told
me it can't "get a handle on the volume" and could not run it.
Before the upgrade, it always did.

PLUS - I cannot rename the drive. I right click on it under disk
management and it just gives me a help option and shows NO drive name
at all.

Something is very wrong. I tried to "safely remove hardware" to shut
it down and it kept telling me it couldn't be shut down now. Did my
drive get corrupted in the upgrade?


"Lori" wrote:

Thanks to you both for the replies. Here is the newest thing. This
message keeps popping up telling me that Windows had a failure to
write to H:\$Mft. My data is now lost. The H is the renamed
external drive. It pops up constantly. Did the update possibly
corrupt the external FAT system since I forgot to shut it down
during the install of SP3? I don't know what to do to fix this one.

Thanks.

"Robert Aldwinckle" wrote:

(cross-post added to XP Perf & Maint)
"Lori" wrote in message
...
Yesterday I finally upgraded from Windows XP Service Pack 2 to SP3
and now my external drive is renamed an H drive, no longer F.
This wouldn't be that much of a problem except certain functions,
such as my screen saver (no biggie) and iTunes (biggie) are
associated with the files as being in F, not in H. How did that
happen and do you know if there would be a way to rename it back
to F?


Did you install any other hardware or repartition a drive?
Otherwise you may have a corrupt partition table.

Try using Disk Manager. E.g. Run... (press Win-R and enter

diskmgmt.msc

for more clues (and possible help.)



I know this should be the largest problem anyone ever has with
their computer, but I'm really not thrilled about reinstalling all
my files (over 10 GBs) back into iTunes when they're in the order
I like them in now (I can hear you laughing), and I am not too
sure I like the way my computer is reacting to SP3.

Thanks for any help you can offer!


BTW although you may see WU as the cause of your problem symptoms
it would be more appropriate to look for help resolving them in a
newsgroup
which specializes in your OS. Cross-posting to an XP NG for
convenience.

Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle
---

Was the installed antivirus/security suite actively monitoring the
system when SP3 was applied ?
Have you run a defrag since the application of SP3 ?
Did you use restore from a restore point on the external HD or from the
host ?

Won't even get into the consequences of having an external HD hooked up
when SP was applied ... as you are painfully aware of what issues that
can cause w


MowGreen [MVP 2003-2009]
===============
*-343-* FDNY
Never Forgotten
===============


Lori wrote:

Gerry,
Thanks for your interest. Bottom line? I rebooted the computer and was
able to rename the drive finally. But then it seemed the drive new error
message was associated with the new drive name. Well, long story short,
after hours of working on it, doing scans, etc. (and a system restore
somewhere along the way), even increasing the MFT, everything seems to be
working "well." I am not entirely thrilled with the computer's performance
since SP3, seems to have caused it to be a bit sluggish. I am usually on top
of the maintenance constantly and although I may have sounded a bit...well,
let's just say light in the first message, I know how to do a lot on
computers and am usually the go-to person for my friends and family. So when
I say it's been acting sluggish since the upgrade, I'm really very on top of
its performance and am not just blaming it on the new SP. There is a notable
difference in the computer's responsiveness.

In any event, so far, for the rest of the day, it's been error-free. Things
are hanging up a bit, but that's better than what was last night and this
morning.

Thank you for your desire to help. It is greatly appreciated.

"Gerry" wrote:


Lori

Can you please list all drives and partitions and put a description
against each. Distinguish between hard, DVD and removable drives. Do not
forget flash drives. Also say whether the system is dual or multiple
booting.

Say which drives are recognised in the BIOS and which in Disk
Management. Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer
Management, Disk Management.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Lori wrote:

One more important thing I just found out:

I tried to run my Diskeeper program on the external H drive. It told
me it can't "get a handle on the volume" and could not run it.
Before the upgrade, it always did.

PLUS - I cannot rename the drive. I right click on it under disk
management and it just gives me a help option and shows NO drive name
at all.

Something is very wrong. I tried to "safely remove hardware" to shut
it down and it kept telling me it couldn't be shut down now. Did my
drive get corrupted in the upgrade?


"Lori" wrote:


Thanks to you both for the replies. Here is the newest thing. This
message keeps popping up telling me that Windows had a failure to
write to H:\$Mft. My data is now lost. The H is the renamed
external drive. It pops up constantly. Did the update possibly
corrupt the external FAT system since I forgot to shut it down
during the install of SP3? I don't know what to do to fix this one.

Thanks.

"Robert Aldwinckle" wrote:


(cross-post added to XP Perf & Maint)
"Lori" wrote in message
...

Yesterday I finally upgraded from Windows XP Service Pack 2 to SP3
and now my external drive is renamed an H drive, no longer F.
This wouldn't be that much of a problem except certain functions,
such as my screen saver (no biggie) and iTunes (biggie) are
associated with the files as being in F, not in H. How did that
happen and do you know if there would be a way to rename it back
to F?


Did you install any other hardware or repartition a drive?
Otherwise you may have a corrupt partition table.

Try using Disk Manager. E.g. Run... (press Win-R and enter

diskmgmt.msc

for more clues (and possible help.)



I know this should be the largest problem anyone ever has with
their computer, but I'm really not thrilled about reinstalling all
my files (over 10 GBs) back into iTunes when they're in the order
I like them in now (I can hear you laughing), and I am not too
sure I like the way my computer is reacting to SP3.

Thanks for any help you can offer!


BTW although you may see WU as the cause of your problem symptoms
it would be more appropriate to look for help resolving them in a
newsgroup
which specializes in your OS. Cross-posting to an XP NG for
convenience.

Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle
---

Mow

You need to clean up before defragmenting!

--



Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


MowGreen [MVP] wrote:
Was the installed antivirus/security suite actively monitoring the
system when SP3 was applied ?
Have you run a defrag since the application of SP3 ?
Did you use restore from a restore point on the external HD or from
the host ?

Won't even get into the consequences of having an external HD hooked
up when SP was applied ... as you are painfully aware of what issues
that can cause w


MowGreen [MVP 2003-2009]
===============
*-343-* FDNY
Never Forgotten
===============


Lori wrote:

Gerry,
Thanks for your interest. Bottom line? I rebooted the computer and
was able to rename the drive finally. But then it seemed the drive
new error message was associated with the new drive name. Well,
long story short, after hours of working on it, doing scans, etc.
(and a system restore somewhere along the way), even increasing the
MFT, everything seems to be working "well." I am not entirely
thrilled with the computer's performance since SP3, seems to have
caused it to be a bit sluggish. I am usually on top of the
maintenance constantly and although I may have sounded a bit...well,
let's just say light in the first message, I know how to do a lot on
computers and am usually the go-to person for my friends and family.
So when I say it's been acting sluggish since the upgrade, I'm
really very on top of its performance and am not just blaming it on
the new SP. There is a notable difference in the computer's
responsiveness. In any event, so far, for the rest of the day, it's
been error-free.
Things are hanging up a bit, but that's better than what was last
night and this morning.

Thank you for your desire to help. It is greatly appreciated.

"Gerry" wrote:


Lori

Can you please list all drives and partitions and put a description
against each. Distinguish between hard, DVD and removable drives.
Do not forget flash drives. Also say whether the system is dual or
multiple booting.

Say which drives are recognised in the BIOS and which in Disk
Management. Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer
Management, Disk Management.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Lori wrote:

One more important thing I just found out:

I tried to run my Diskeeper program on the external H drive. It
told me it can't "get a handle on the volume" and could not run it.
Before the upgrade, it always did.

PLUS - I cannot rename the drive. I right click on it under disk
management and it just gives me a help option and shows NO drive
name at all.

Something is very wrong. I tried to "safely remove hardware" to
shut it down and it kept telling me it couldn't be shut down now.
Did my drive get corrupted in the upgrade?


"Lori" wrote:


Thanks to you both for the replies. Here is the newest thing.
This message keeps popping up telling me that Windows had a
failure to write to H:\$Mft. My data is now lost. The H is the
renamed external drive. It pops up constantly. Did the update
possibly corrupt the external FAT system since I forgot to shut
it down during the install of SP3? I don't know what to do to
fix this one. Thanks.

"Robert Aldwinckle" wrote:


(cross-post added to XP Perf & Maint)
"Lori" wrote in message
...

Yesterday I finally upgraded from Windows XP Service Pack 2 to
SP3 and now my external drive is renamed an H drive, no longer
F. This wouldn't be that much of a problem except certain
functions, such as my screen saver (no biggie) and iTunes
(biggie) are associated with the files as being in F, not in H.
How did that happen and do you know if there would be a way to
rename it back to F?


Did you install any other hardware or repartition a drive?
Otherwise you may have a corrupt partition table.

Try using Disk Manager. E.g. Run... (press Win-R and enter

diskmgmt.msc

for more clues (and possible help.)



I know this should be the largest problem anyone ever has with
their computer, but I'm really not thrilled about reinstalling
all my files (over 10 GBs) back into iTunes when they're in the
order I like them in now (I can hear you laughing), and I am
not too sure I like the way my computer is reacting to SP3.

Thanks for any help you can offer!


BTW although you may see WU as the cause of your problem
symptoms it would be more appropriate to look for help resolving
them in a newsgroup
which specializes in your OS. Cross-posting to an XP NG for
convenience.

Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle
---

[Shouldn't you be on holiday in Malta now?]

Gerry wrote:
Mow

You need to clean up before defragmenting!
snip

I took a shower this mowning w

Gerry wrote:

Mow

You need to clean up before defragmenting!

No the Azores Saturday week!


--



Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PA Bear [MS MVP] wrote:
[Shouldn't you be on holiday in Malta now?]

Gerry wrote:
Mow

You need to clean up before defragmenting! snip

Lori

An alternative to Disk CleanUp is cCleaner (freeware) which does a more
thorough job than Disk CleanUp. Disk CleanUp has to be run for each user
profile, whereas cCleaner only needs to be run once.
http://www.ccleaner.com/ccdownload.asp
http://www.ccleaner.com/

With any cleaner you need to proceed with caution. To be safe you
should create a restore point before using cCleaner. cCleaner also
offers backup before removal.

When using cCleaner think twice before checking Autocomplete Form
History under Internet Explorer. You do get a warning but this one has
irritating consequences. You may need to restore your system's
recollection of passwords after use so keep a record off computer so
that they can easily be re-entered.

Leave the Scan for Issues option alone.

cCleaner does not remove restore points. You need to use Disk CleanUp
for this. Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk
CleanUp, More Options, System Restore and remove all but the latest
System Restore point. Run Disk Defragmenter.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




Lori wrote:
Gerry,
Thanks for your interest. Bottom line? I rebooted the computer and
was able to rename the drive finally. But then it seemed the drive
new error message was associated with the new drive name. Well, long
story short, after hours of working on it, doing scans, etc. (and a
system restore somewhere along the way), even increasing the MFT,
everything seems to be working "well." I am not entirely thrilled
with the computer's performance since SP3, seems to have caused it to
be a bit sluggish. I am usually on top of the maintenance constantly
and although I may have sounded a bit...well, let's just say light in
the first message, I know how to do a lot on computers and am usually
the go-to person for my friends and family. So when I say it's been
acting sluggish since the upgrade, I'm really very on top of its
performance and am not just blaming it on the new SP. There is a
notable difference in the computer's responsiveness.

In any event, so far, for the rest of the day, it's been error-free.
Things are hanging up a bit, but that's better than what was last
night and this morning.

Thank you for your desire to help. It is greatly appreciated.

"Gerry" wrote:

Lori

Can you please list all drives and partitions and put a description
against each. Distinguish between hard, DVD and removable drives. Do
not forget flash drives. Also say whether the system is dual or
multiple booting.

Say which drives are recognised in the BIOS and which in Disk
Management. Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer
Management, Disk Management.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Lori wrote:
One more important thing I just found out:

I tried to run my Diskeeper program on the external H drive. It
told me it can't "get a handle on the volume" and could not run it.
Before the upgrade, it always did.

PLUS - I cannot rename the drive. I right click on it under disk
management and it just gives me a help option and shows NO drive
name at all.

Something is very wrong. I tried to "safely remove hardware" to
shut it down and it kept telling me it couldn't be shut down now.
Did my drive get corrupted in the upgrade?


"Lori" wrote:

Thanks to you both for the replies. Here is the newest thing.
This message keeps popping up telling me that Windows had a
failure to write to H:\$Mft. My data is now lost. The H is the
renamed external drive. It pops up constantly. Did the update
possibly corrupt the external FAT system since I forgot to shut it
down during the install of SP3? I don't know what to do to fix
this one.

Thanks.

"Robert Aldwinckle" wrote:

(cross-post added to XP Perf & Maint)
"Lori" wrote in message
...
Yesterday I finally upgraded from Windows XP Service Pack 2 to
SP3 and now my external drive is renamed an H drive, no longer F.
This wouldn't be that much of a problem except certain functions,
such as my screen saver (no biggie) and iTunes (biggie) are
associated with the files as being in F, not in H. How did that
happen and do you know if there would be a way to rename it back
to F?


Did you install any other hardware or repartition a drive?
Otherwise you may have a corrupt partition table.

Try using Disk Manager. E.g. Run... (press Win-R and enter

diskmgmt.msc

for more clues (and possible help.)



I know this should be the largest problem anyone ever has with
their computer, but I'm really not thrilled about reinstalling
all my files (over 10 GBs) back into iTunes when they're in the
order I like them in now (I can hear you laughing), and I am not
too sure I like the way my computer is reacting to SP3.

Thanks for any help you can offer!


BTW although you may see WU as the cause of your problem
symptoms it would be more appropriate to look for help resolving
them in a newsgroup
which specializes in your OS. Cross-posting to an XP NG for
convenience.

Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle
---

No, I disabled the AV/Security program before doing the upgrade like MS site
said to do.

I have run a defrag with Diskeeper since and all is fine.

I did a restore from the host, not the external, because it told me that no
changes could be made to the external since the upgrade. However, I DID have
the external running, which is maybe the problem. Nowhere did I read to
disconnect it, and I probably would have anyway had I thought of it.
Anything I need to do at this point? All the files both on the external and
my C drive are working and readable, as are the programs. Just acting
sluggish.

"MowGreen [MVP]" wrote:

Was the installed antivirus/security suite actively monitoring the
system when SP3 was applied ?
Have you run a defrag since the application of SP3 ?
Did you use restore from a restore point on the external HD or from the
host ?

Won't even get into the consequences of having an external HD hooked up
when SP was applied ... as you are painfully aware of what issues that
can cause w


MowGreen [MVP 2003-2009]
===============
*-343-* FDNY
Never Forgotten
===============


Lori wrote:

Gerry,
Thanks for your interest. Bottom line? I rebooted the computer and was
able to rename the drive finally. But then it seemed the drive new error
message was associated with the new drive name. Well, long story short,
after hours of working on it, doing scans, etc. (and a system restore
somewhere along the way), even increasing the MFT, everything seems to be
working "well." I am not entirely thrilled with the computer's performance
since SP3, seems to have caused it to be a bit sluggish. I am usually on top
of the maintenance constantly and although I may have sounded a bit...well,
let's just say light in the first message, I know how to do a lot on
computers and am usually the go-to person for my friends and family. So when
I say it's been acting sluggish since the upgrade, I'm really very on top of
its performance and am not just blaming it on the new SP. There is a notable
difference in the computer's responsiveness.

In any event, so far, for the rest of the day, it's been error-free. Things
are hanging up a bit, but that's better than what was last night and this
morning.

Thank you for your desire to help. It is greatly appreciated.

"Gerry" wrote:


Lori

Can you please list all drives and partitions and put a description
against each. Distinguish between hard, DVD and removable drives. Do not
forget flash drives. Also say whether the system is dual or multiple
booting.

Say which drives are recognised in the BIOS and which in Disk
Management. Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer
Management, Disk Management.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Lori wrote:

One more important thing I just found out:

I tried to run my Diskeeper program on the external H drive. It told
me it can't "get a handle on the volume" and could not run it.
Before the upgrade, it always did.

PLUS - I cannot rename the drive. I right click on it under disk
management and it just gives me a help option and shows NO drive name
at all.

Something is very wrong. I tried to "safely remove hardware" to shut
it down and it kept telling me it couldn't be shut down now. Did my
drive get corrupted in the upgrade?


"Lori" wrote:


Thanks to you both for the replies. Here is the newest thing. This
message keeps popping up telling me that Windows had a failure to
write to H:\$Mft. My data is now lost. The H is the renamed
external drive. It pops up constantly. Did the update possibly
corrupt the external FAT system since I forgot to shut it down
during the install of SP3? I don't know what to do to fix this one.

Thanks.

"Robert Aldwinckle" wrote:


(cross-post added to XP Perf & Maint)
"Lori" wrote in message
...

Yesterday I finally upgraded from Windows XP Service Pack 2 to SP3
and now my external drive is renamed an H drive, no longer F.
This wouldn't be that much of a problem except certain functions,
such as my screen saver (no biggie) and iTunes (biggie) are
associated with the files as being in F, not in H. How did that
happen and do you know if there would be a way to rename it back
to F?


Did you install any other hardware or repartition a drive?
Otherwise you may have a corrupt partition table.

Try using Disk Manager. E.g. Run... (press Win-R and enter

diskmgmt.msc

for more clues (and possible help.)



I know this should be the largest problem anyone ever has with
their computer, but I'm really not thrilled about reinstalling all
my files (over 10 GBs) back into iTunes when they're in the order
I like them in now (I can hear you laughing), and I am not too
sure I like the way my computer is reacting to SP3.

Thanks for any help you can offer!


BTW although you may see WU as the cause of your problem symptoms
it would be more appropriate to look for help resolving them in a
newsgroup
which specializes in your OS. Cross-posting to an XP NG for
convenience.

Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle
---

Gerry,
Why do you think I should run that at this point? Isn't it a bit late to do
that?

Thanks again for writing.

"Gerry" wrote:

Lori

An alternative to Disk CleanUp is cCleaner (freeware) which does a more
thorough job than Disk CleanUp. Disk CleanUp has to be run for each user
profile, whereas cCleaner only needs to be run once.
http://www.ccleaner.com/ccdownload.asp
http://www.ccleaner.com/

With any cleaner you need to proceed with caution. To be safe you
should create a restore point before using cCleaner. cCleaner also
offers backup before removal.

When using cCleaner think twice before checking Autocomplete Form
History under Internet Explorer. You do get a warning but this one has
irritating consequences. You may need to restore your system's
recollection of passwords after use so keep a record off computer so
that they can easily be re-entered.

Leave the Scan for Issues option alone.

cCleaner does not remove restore points. You need to use Disk CleanUp
for this. Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk
CleanUp, More Options, System Restore and remove all but the latest
System Restore point. Run Disk Defragmenter.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




Lori wrote:
Gerry,
Thanks for your interest. Bottom line? I rebooted the computer and
was able to rename the drive finally. But then it seemed the drive
new error message was associated with the new drive name. Well, long
story short, after hours of working on it, doing scans, etc. (and a
system restore somewhere along the way), even increasing the MFT,
everything seems to be working "well." I am not entirely thrilled
with the computer's performance since SP3, seems to have caused it to
be a bit sluggish. I am usually on top of the maintenance constantly
and although I may have sounded a bit...well, let's just say light in
the first message, I know how to do a lot on computers and am usually
the go-to person for my friends and family. So when I say it's been
acting sluggish since the upgrade, I'm really very on top of its
performance and am not just blaming it on the new SP. There is a
notable difference in the computer's responsiveness.

In any event, so far, for the rest of the day, it's been error-free.
Things are hanging up a bit, but that's better than what was last
night and this morning.

Thank you for your desire to help. It is greatly appreciated.

"Gerry" wrote:

Lori

Can you please list all drives and partitions and put a description
against each. Distinguish between hard, DVD and removable drives. Do
not forget flash drives. Also say whether the system is dual or
multiple booting.

Say which drives are recognised in the BIOS and which in Disk
Management. Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer
Management, Disk Management.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Lori wrote:
One more important thing I just found out:

I tried to run my Diskeeper program on the external H drive. It
told me it can't "get a handle on the volume" and could not run it.
Before the upgrade, it always did.

PLUS - I cannot rename the drive. I right click on it under disk
management and it just gives me a help option and shows NO drive
name at all.

Something is very wrong. I tried to "safely remove hardware" to
shut it down and it kept telling me it couldn't be shut down now.
Did my drive get corrupted in the upgrade?


"Lori" wrote:

Thanks to you both for the replies. Here is the newest thing.
This message keeps popping up telling me that Windows had a
failure to write to H:\$Mft. My data is now lost. The H is the
renamed external drive. It pops up constantly. Did the update
possibly corrupt the external FAT system since I forgot to shut it
down during the install of SP3? I don't know what to do to fix
this one.

Thanks.

"Robert Aldwinckle" wrote:

(cross-post added to XP Perf & Maint)
"Lori" wrote in message
...
Yesterday I finally upgraded from Windows XP Service Pack 2 to
SP3 and now my external drive is renamed an H drive, no longer F.
This wouldn't be that much of a problem except certain functions,
such as my screen saver (no biggie) and iTunes (biggie) are
associated with the files as being in F, not in H. How did that
happen and do you know if there would be a way to rename it back
to F?


Did you install any other hardware or repartition a drive?
Otherwise you may have a corrupt partition table.

Try using Disk Manager. E.g. Run... (press Win-R and enter

diskmgmt.msc

for more clues (and possible help.)



I know this should be the largest problem anyone ever has with
their computer, but I'm really not thrilled about reinstalling
all my files (over 10 GBs) back into iTunes when they're in the
order I like them in now (I can hear you laughing), and I am not
too sure I like the way my computer is reacting to SP3.

Thanks for any help you can offer!


BTW although you may see WU as the cause of your problem
symptoms it would be more appropriate to look for help resolving
them in a newsgroup
which specializes in your OS. Cross-posting to an XP NG for
convenience.

Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle
---

Lori

You should alway clean up after major changes. Running a Defragmenter
without cleaning up is a waste of time as it is only a second ( or
later ) housekeeping stage!

You are complaining that your system is sluggish. Have you checked Event
Viewer for errors?

What is the Current Transfer Mode for your hard drives?
http://www.helpwithwindows.com/WindowsXP/howto-05.html


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lori wrote:
Gerry,
Why do you think I should run that at this point? Isn't it a bit
late to do that?

Thanks again for writing.

"Gerry" wrote:

Lori

An alternative to Disk CleanUp is cCleaner (freeware) which does a
more thorough job than Disk CleanUp. Disk CleanUp has to be run for
each user profile, whereas cCleaner only needs to be run once.
http://www.ccleaner.com/ccdownload.asp
http://www.ccleaner.com/

With any cleaner you need to proceed with caution. To be safe you
should create a restore point before using cCleaner. cCleaner also
offers backup before removal.

When using cCleaner think twice before checking Autocomplete Form
History under Internet Explorer. You do get a warning but this one
has irritating consequences. You may need to restore your system's
recollection of passwords after use so keep a record off computer so
that they can easily be re-entered.

Leave the Scan for Issues option alone.

cCleaner does not remove restore points. You need to use Disk CleanUp
for this. Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk
CleanUp, More Options, System Restore and remove all but the latest
System Restore point. Run Disk Defragmenter.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




Lori wrote:
Gerry,
Thanks for your interest. Bottom line? I rebooted the computer and
was able to rename the drive finally. But then it seemed the drive
new error message was associated with the new drive name. Well,
long story short, after hours of working on it, doing scans, etc.
(and a system restore somewhere along the way), even increasing the
MFT, everything seems to be working "well." I am not entirely
thrilled with the computer's performance since SP3, seems to have
caused it to be a bit sluggish. I am usually on top of the
maintenance constantly and although I may have sounded a
bit...well, let's just say light in the first message, I know how
to do a lot on computers and am usually the go-to person for my
friends and family. So when I say it's been acting sluggish since
the upgrade, I'm really very on top of its performance and am not
just blaming it on the new SP. There is a notable difference in
the computer's responsiveness.

In any event, so far, for the rest of the day, it's been error-free.
Things are hanging up a bit, but that's better than what was last
night and this morning.

Thank you for your desire to help. It is greatly appreciated.

"Gerry" wrote:

Lori

Can you please list all drives and partitions and put a description
against each. Distinguish between hard, DVD and removable drives.
Do not forget flash drives. Also say whether the system is dual or
multiple booting.

Say which drives are recognised in the BIOS and which in Disk
Management. Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer
Management, Disk Management.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Lori wrote:
One more important thing I just found out:

I tried to run my Diskeeper program on the external H drive. It
told me it can't "get a handle on the volume" and could not run
it. Before the upgrade, it always did.

PLUS - I cannot rename the drive. I right click on it under disk
management and it just gives me a help option and shows NO drive
name at all.

Something is very wrong. I tried to "safely remove hardware" to
shut it down and it kept telling me it couldn't be shut down now.
Did my drive get corrupted in the upgrade?


"Lori" wrote:

Thanks to you both for the replies. Here is the newest thing.
This message keeps popping up telling me that Windows had a
failure to write to H:\$Mft. My data is now lost. The H is the
renamed external drive. It pops up constantly. Did the update
possibly corrupt the external FAT system since I forgot to shut
it down during the install of SP3? I don't know what to do to
fix this one.

Thanks.

"Robert Aldwinckle" wrote:

(cross-post added to XP Perf & Maint)
"Lori" wrote in message
...
Yesterday I finally upgraded from Windows XP Service Pack 2 to
SP3 and now my external drive is renamed an H drive, no longer
F. This wouldn't be that much of a problem except certain
functions, such as my screen saver (no biggie) and iTunes
(biggie) are associated with the files as being in F, not in
H. How did that happen and do you know if there would be a
way to rename it back to F?


Did you install any other hardware or repartition a drive?
Otherwise you may have a corrupt partition table.

Try using Disk Manager. E.g. Run... (press Win-R and enter

diskmgmt.msc

for more clues (and possible help.)



I know this should be the largest problem anyone ever has with
their computer, but I'm really not thrilled about reinstalling
all my files (over 10 GBs) back into iTunes when they're in the
order I like them in now (I can hear you laughing), and I am
not too sure I like the way my computer is reacting to SP3.

Thanks for any help you can offer!


BTW although you may see WU as the cause of your problem
symptoms it would be more appropriate to look for help resolving
them in a newsgroup
which specializes in your OS. Cross-posting to an XP NG for
convenience.

Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle
---

Gerry,
Just ran the cCleaner and now I'm doing a defrag, even though Diskeeper told
me it was fine. Figured, why not?

I woke up this morning, after everything was running great, and my screen
saver where the files for it (picture show) are coming from the F drive (my
external that was having the problems-renamed but named back to F from H
yesterday) had frozen. When I had to alt/ctrl/del to stop the screensaver,
once again I started getting those error messages constantly about Windows
not being able to write the data to the F drive and the data being lost.

I shut the F drive down for now. Maybe it's damaged. Since then,
everything is working well. I may have to start using another external (I
have two) and reformat this one all over.

Thank you for your suggestions and caring. Have a great day.


"Gerry" wrote:

Lori

You should alway clean up after major changes. Running a Defragmenter
without cleaning up is a waste of time as it is only a second ( or
later ) housekeeping stage!

You are complaining that your system is sluggish. Have you checked Event
Viewer for errors?

What is the Current Transfer Mode for your hard drives?
http://www.helpwithwindows.com/WindowsXP/howto-05.html


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lori wrote:
Gerry,
Why do you think I should run that at this point? Isn't it a bit
late to do that?

Thanks again for writing.

"Gerry" wrote:

Lori

An alternative to Disk CleanUp is cCleaner (freeware) which does a
more thorough job than Disk CleanUp. Disk CleanUp has to be run for
each user profile, whereas cCleaner only needs to be run once.
http://www.ccleaner.com/ccdownload.asp
http://www.ccleaner.com/

With any cleaner you need to proceed with caution. To be safe you
should create a restore point before using cCleaner. cCleaner also
offers backup before removal.

When using cCleaner think twice before checking Autocomplete Form
History under Internet Explorer. You do get a warning but this one
has irritating consequences. You may need to restore your system's
recollection of passwords after use so keep a record off computer so
that they can easily be re-entered.

Leave the Scan for Issues option alone.

cCleaner does not remove restore points. You need to use Disk CleanUp
for this. Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk
CleanUp, More Options, System Restore and remove all but the latest
System Restore point. Run Disk Defragmenter.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




Lori wrote:
Gerry,
Thanks for your interest. Bottom line? I rebooted the computer and
was able to rename the drive finally. But then it seemed the drive
new error message was associated with the new drive name. Well,
long story short, after hours of working on it, doing scans, etc.
(and a system restore somewhere along the way), even increasing the
MFT, everything seems to be working "well." I am not entirely
thrilled with the computer's performance since SP3, seems to have
caused it to be a bit sluggish. I am usually on top of the
maintenance constantly and although I may have sounded a
bit...well, let's just say light in the first message, I know how
to do a lot on computers and am usually the go-to person for my
friends and family. So when I say it's been acting sluggish since
the upgrade, I'm really very on top of its performance and am not
just blaming it on the new SP. There is a notable difference in
the computer's responsiveness.

In any event, so far, for the rest of the day, it's been error-free.
Things are hanging up a bit, but that's better than what was last
night and this morning.

Thank you for your desire to help. It is greatly appreciated.

"Gerry" wrote:

Lori

Can you please list all drives and partitions and put a description
against each. Distinguish between hard, DVD and removable drives.
Do not forget flash drives. Also say whether the system is dual or
multiple booting.

Say which drives are recognised in the BIOS and which in Disk
Management. Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer
Management, Disk Management.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Lori wrote:
One more important thing I just found out:

I tried to run my Diskeeper program on the external H drive. It
told me it can't "get a handle on the volume" and could not run
it. Before the upgrade, it always did.

PLUS - I cannot rename the drive. I right click on it under disk
management and it just gives me a help option and shows NO drive
name at all.

Something is very wrong. I tried to "safely remove hardware" to
shut it down and it kept telling me it couldn't be shut down now.
Did my drive get corrupted in the upgrade?


"Lori" wrote:

Thanks to you both for the replies. Here is the newest thing.
This message keeps popping up telling me that Windows had a
failure to write to H:\$Mft. My data is now lost. The H is the
renamed external drive. It pops up constantly. Did the update
possibly corrupt the external FAT system since I forgot to shut
it down during the install of SP3? I don't know what to do to
fix this one.

Thanks.

"Robert Aldwinckle" wrote:

(cross-post added to XP Perf & Maint)
"Lori" wrote in message
...
Yesterday I finally upgraded from Windows XP Service Pack 2 to
SP3 and now my external drive is renamed an H drive, no longer
F. This wouldn't be that much of a problem except certain
functions, such as my screen saver (no biggie) and iTunes
(biggie) are associated with the files as being in F, not in
H. How did that happen and do you know if there would be a
way to rename it back to F?


Did you install any other hardware or repartition a drive?
Otherwise you may have a corrupt partition table.

Try using Disk Manager. E.g. Run... (press Win-R and enter

diskmgmt.msc

for more clues (and possible help.)



I know this should be the largest problem anyone ever has with
their computer, but I'm really not thrilled about reinstalling
all my files (over 10 GBs) back into iTunes when they're in the
order I like them in now (I can hear you laughing), and I am
not too sure I like the way my computer is reacting to SP3.

Thanks for any help you can offer!


BTW although you may see WU as the cause of your problem
symptoms it would be more appropriate to look for help resolving
them in a newsgroup
which specializes in your OS. Cross-posting to an XP NG for
convenience.

Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle
---