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Win XP, Radeon and Automatic System Recovery

490 Views 7 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Hugh Magoo, Oct 26, 2001

ugg

Discussion Starter · Oct 23, 2001

I think that the Automated System Recovery feature of XP was made for people using a Radeon. I finally got my system working with the Radeon AIW. The DVD player works, even the SPDIF pass through for Dolby Digital. The video capture is working and the TV tuner. I done a backup using ASR and now when I install new drivers and my system crashes or the player or something else does not work I just reboot and hit F2 and select Automatic System Recovery make a cup of coffee and have a few smokes. Half hour later system is back and working. It sure beats reformating and reinstalling everything. I tried playing around with Ghost and keeping a second hard disk with a copy of my good setup but that did not always work, Plus the hassle of connecting the 2nd hard disk and jumpering and making sure you did not copy the wrong way (which I have done) I also played around with dual boot, but both systems are not completly seperate. What I came up with and I have never heard of it being done before, is install an old power switch from an old at case in the front of my case. Then I ran the power plug to my first hard disk through the switch. I set the CMOS to boot from hard disk 0 and then hard disk 1. With the switch being on hard disk 0, if I turn the switch on it will boot from hard disk 0 and I can see both hard disks. If I turn the switch off the PC will boot from hard disk1 and I can do all my tampering on that disk and nothing can be written to my main disk as it is not connected. It is easier than going into the CMOS and changing the boot sequence. So now I can install as many drivers and programs as I like and not even worry about crashes and Radeon problems.

Phill

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ugg

Discussion Starter · #2 · Oct 23, 2001

Just a note about XP and ASR. BE CAREFULL! The first time I tried it both my partitions were formated and I lost everything. I have two harddisks, My main harddisk has two partitions.

C: drive with my OS on it and a partition wit all my mp3's and digital photos and all my downloads.I stored my ASR backup file on my second harddisk and when I ran ASR I was watching and without any warning it formated both partitions on my main harddisk.. Lucky I made lots of backups. Now I put the ASR backup file in my partition with all my data not the second harddisk. Now it just formats c: drive, installs XP and then restores the backup file.

Phill

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xcel

· #3 · Oct 25, 2001

Hi Ugg:

___Might I suggest that you try System Restore under Windows first? I actually disable SR under Millennium HTPC builds but for general use PCâ€™s under XP in particular, it can bring you back from trouble without many problems afterwards (if you can get to your std. Desktop) vs. ASR by F2 under whatever you call the initialization screen upon OS installation/repair. My sister has to use it about once a week w/ the kids messing around with the 4 XP builds in her home currently

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes

___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.

___ [email protected]

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luvmytivo

· #4 · Oct 25, 2001

I'm glad you've got a solution, but for those who may be looking for another method... There's no need to ghost to a second HD, a second partition on your main drive will do fine. Get your base install in place (OS, Drivers, DVD software etc, no apps - you can re-install those from their own CDs) then ghost the partition to a second partition. Next step is to make a bootable CD with your ghost image (and a copy of ghost.exe) and you can automagically restore from any disaster. I saved myself hundreds of hours doing that a few jobs ago, back when I spent tooooo much time troubleshooting PCs.

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xcel

· #5 · Oct 25, 2001

Hi Darren:

___I keep a PowerQuest Drive Image Pro based image on the E: partition just in case as well

System Restore under XP is not only simple to use but is extremely quick in its restoration. In fact, for the average user, I do believe it is finally worth keeping alive under XP alone â€¦

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes

___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.

___ [email protected]

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Paul_Seng

· #6 · Oct 26, 2001

Ugg, you may want to revert back to 2K, ME, or 98Se for now. I just found out that there are bugs in XP. And that some drivers for hardware are flaky at best. My cousin is a programmer for MS and he just wanted to warn me.

Paul Seng

Seng Home Theater LLC

MCSE + I

CNE

A+

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ugg

Discussion Starter · #7 · Oct 26, 2001

Go back to W2K or 98? You gotta be kidding.I have had XP running for about 5 weeks and not a crash now that I have it setup. The only time I have problems is when I play around with the latest drivers for anything. I think I am like every one else, When ever I see an update to some software I download it and try it. I like to try the latest drivers to everything. I installed the 3276 drivers for my Radeon, they are supposed to be for XP, I got error messages and I could not capture or play DVDs. I reckon it is a real hassle trying to get rid of drivers properly and reinstalling others. I installed MMC 7.2 and DVD player 5.0 and everything worked except AC3 spdif so back to my old drivers.

All I have to do is reboot and hit F2 twice and have a cup of coffee, 35 minutes latter it has reinstalled everything. My system is not exactly basic.

AGP Radeon AIW card for my primary monitor and Dreamvision Projector. They both run at the same time via a splitter cable.

Two mice, 1 is a USB at the PC and a serial mouse at my armchair and they both work at the same time.

PCI TNT 2 video card for my second monitor.

Three printers.

SCSI scanner.

PCI Flyvideo capture card for Dscaler.

SB Live card.

CD Burner

DVD drive

2 hard diaks.

Two card readers

When I installed XP it was the first time I did not have any conflicts in device manager, Everything was installed. The only thing that did not work was the ATI dvd player but I just installed the 3226 drivers and every thing was fine.

So I don't understand what you mean by flaky.

Phill

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Hugh Magoo

· #8 · Oct 26, 2001

while we are on this subject:

It is advantageous not to use Via IDE Busmasters with many Via chipset boards. Check a forum specific to your board, mine says only to use the AMD miniport driver, and maybe the VIA INF driver, but let Windows do the rest. You will be happier.

The 'new driver' addiction is something I have caught in the past as well. But sometimes it is better to use restraint. I know that you like the part where you get to hit that save button, and then you see all the different icons in your download directory, but know when to say when.

I do however like to use some unreleased drivers only because when they come in standard .zip files they are more accuratley installable. IMO

My main question is if I buy Home XP Upgrade does this new piracy crap mean that I will have to connect with MS everytime I do a clean install? And will I be able to wipe ME and then do a clean install of XP with this version?

I suppose the best way is to use GHOST as described above.

ps, never did like that movie.

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