Hard Disk Drive Help!

[Paul2]

I called and ask my cousin, he said SP1 required a product key.  Why it\'s invalid, I think you are right.  I am running a copy version of Window XP.

Anyway, I am going to bring ithe computer over on the weekend and let him install the SP1 for me.

Partition Magic works well with this problem also.  Had the same problem even after I uprgraded to SP1, but Partition Magic took care of it.

[Paul2]

Two nights ago (Sunday night),

took the computer to my cousin\'s house and had him boot up the Service Pack 1 for my computer.  After the installation of SP1, the computer still say 127 Gbytes instead of 180 Gbytes.

So, I guess my next move is partition magic....any help here?

[Paul2]

Okay,

just like to add that my Hard disk drive finally read as 180 Gbytes (is actually 172 Gbytes) instead of 127 Gbytes, thanks to Service Pack 2 after I reformatted my HDD and reinstalled a fresh copy of Window XP SP2.

Also, my computer has never been any faster.

[Paul2]

Anyway, would like to say i am back to just window XP Pro with no service packs.

But I just repair my window xp pro, but instead of repair it with sp2, i just uses the regular xp pro and i got the best of both world.

I guess like the some posters here said,  although sp2 does have some improvements, it also have some glitches and incompatibilities.  And from what I experienced, I go with SP1 which from what you guys said, fixes the "storage problems" but also doesn\'t have the glitches that SP2 have for dvd burning compatibilities with dvd players.  Because of this, i be prompt to ask my cousin to make me a copy of Service Pack 1 this time instead of SP2 and make sure he really make me a copy of sp1 because last time he probably secretly burnt me a copy of sp2 instead of sp1 that i told him too...

ADD:  called me worry too much, but after I clean the lasers of my brother\'s dvd player and on my ps2 using disc cleaner.  Every dvd disc that I burnt previously are now readable.  So, in parts, its not totally sp2\'s fault.:nut:

[§ôµÏG®ïñD]

sp2 works fine for me and any dvds i burn.. Even on crappy medium.




user error.

[Paul2]

I don\'t know.  I finds SP1 more reliable.  I am very careful when it comes to burning DVD and picking media that gives out great result from my burner.

SP2, I burnt disc without problems either, and even the Disc test shows great result with sp2 or without it.  Its just that, for some strange reasons my ps2 can\'t read it at times.  I have to eject and insert the disc several times before it recognize a disc there.  Now, its seem more compatible after i clean the lens.

As if part of the problems are cause by sp2.  Either way, someone or something put a password on the bootup screen that i can\'t log in without an account.  So I go ahead and make a fresh copy of window xp without sp2.

I guess to reduce the ps2 disc read error, I have to open up the ps2 and adjust that spinning thingy like the sticky thread in this forum.

After I clean my 4 1/2 years old dvd player in my brother\'s room.  All the disc I burnt using window xp sp2 seem to work fine now.  So part of it has to do with dirty len...

But again, sp2 is not for everyone.  I, myself prefer sp1...

[§ôµÏG®ïñD]

ps2 reads my crappy princo media fine, so does my dvd player. Only reason why i\'ve moved over to ritek -r 8x is because i can get them cheaper and my title printer can print onto them better.

[Paul2]

how can you tell if your princo discs are crappy?  Even if your dvd player maybe crappy, its maybe more tolerable of reading errors and failures.

quality of disc varies from burner to burner.  You have a lite-on burner, so I guess they burn good results for some media, and newer firmware updates usually improved on burned quality on crappier quality media discs and even makes it possible to burn at a faster speed than the burner listed...i didn\'t realized by just "flashing" to latest firmwares can make such a difference on some discs that have some bad PIE and PIF but with the newest firmware, it fixes those problems.

Also, what version is your ps2?  newer ps2 are less picky than older ps2 with the imfamous "disc read errors" problems.  I bought my ps2 back in July 2001, so mine is pretty old.

[§ôµÏG®ïñD]

i have a V7 ps2, Princo are KNOWN to be a crap DVD media brand.   If you\'re getting disc read errors, try burning your dvds at a lower speed.

[Paul2]

Originally posted by §ôµÏG®ïñD
i have a V7 ps2, Princo are KNOWN to be a crap DVD media brand.   If you\'re getting disc read errors, try burning your dvds at a lower speed.

First, even if Princo is a crappy brand, i shouldn\'t worry too much about "brand" as most of them are "rebadged" of another "manufacturer".

I assumed the Princo disc you bought were manufacture by say some company that your dvd burner burn with great quality.

That means, Princo didn\'t make the discs.  They paid and bought off some manufacturer and the manufacturer stamped the "Brand" name that they sell to on the disc.  And your dvd burner burn great quality out of this specific model and manufacture disc.

Even if this "Princo" did make their own disc or bought off some lesser known and possibly crappier quality, chances are newer firmware update to your burner may support this type of disc and improve on burning quality on this specific model.  Even I was surprise how just a simple firmware update can make this much improvements.

The problem is whether your dvd burner\'s manufacturer bothers to update their firmware and whether if the newer firmware improve on burning quality on lesser known and possibly crappier quality media.

My brother bought Teon 8x +R media, they are cheap.  When I put it on my dvd burner and by using program software such as KProbe or Nero CD/DVD Speed, its give out disc information such as disc type, manufacturer, code/model...

and Teon bought it of one of the popular media manufacturer which is CMC Magnetic with an added branding faceplate on the front of the disc.  There are other known manufacturers such as Ricoh, Ritec, TDK, Verbatim, Misubishi....and most "3rd party" brand just bought it off those manufacturers with the added brand name on top.

[Paul2]

Here is a pic of the burned quality of CMC 8x +R with the older firmware VSOE released back in late 2004.

As you can see, the burn quality is really good with the firmware version VSOE.  Except near the end of the disc, it starts have a few spikes of PIE that reach as high as 400 near the end of the disc and PIF reaching over 4 at the end.

[§ôµÏG®ïñD]

Hope your not using +R media for dvd/ps2 dvds.
Also, not everyone updates their firmware.  I didn\'t update mine till a few weeks ago when i found out i could change the firmware to a different model to get DL support. My burner was running on the release firmware.
Princo dvds are crap, whether they\'re made by another manufacture or not still doesn\'t change the fact that they\'re crap. I got good burns simply because i did them at low speeds, otherwise the outta tracks would be completely screwed.

[Paul2]

And here is the same disc burned from the lastest firmware VSOG released back in early Feb. 2005.

Scanning across the disc, The PI errors are no higher than 12 with an average of .69.

The PI Failures are no higher than 2 across the disc with an average of .11.  This is comparable commerical pressed dvd quality there.

Again, for quality of a dvd disc to be consider "good", PIE should not reach over 280, and the PIF should not reach over 4.  And mine is consider great quality there.

[Paul2]

Originally posted by §ôµÏG®ïñD Hope your not using +R media for dvd/ps2 dvds.

Why not?  All my dvd players even the playstation 2 supports both the + and the - media.  Also, I can change the booktype setting of my DVD+R/RW/DL to DVD-ROM so any dvd player that doesn\'t like the + media will be able to read it as the booktype now is ROM instead of +R.

Also, not everyone updates their firmware.  I didn\'t update mine till a few weeks ago when i found out i could change the firmware to a different model to get DL support. My burner was running on the release firmware.

That is true because most consumers didn\'t know about it.  Like me, I heard of firmware updates of dvd burners improves quality and stuff, but I didn\'t realized how much of an impact it can actually get.  Until a member from a different forum told me to update my firmware for my burner, that was back in last December where I updated it to VSOE.  I didn\'t notice much of a different after the firmware update.  But their latest VSOG firmware really took me by surprise and around this February and March, I learned a good amount of information about disc test quality.
Also, usually "Brand" name dvd burners frequently updated firmwares on their burners.  So, that\'s a very good reason to buy "Brand" name burners.  Most cheaper and lesser known Brand burners don\'t bother mostly because they sell their burners cheap. why bother spending time and money releases new firmware every few months when they are not making much money out of the burners they sell.  Not to mention crappy dvd burner with no firmware update = the horror.

Princo dvds are crap, whether they\'re made by another manufacture or not still doesn\'t change the fact that they\'re crap. I got good burns simply because i did them at low speeds, otherwise the outta tracks would be completely screwed. [/B]

burn at low speed is another good method to ensure better quality and reduce the chances of errors.  Like my burner, when I have the VSOE firmware, i usually burn my discs at 4x.  After updating to VSOG, I can burn at 6x and even at 8x with less to worry about errors since this latest firmware actually make quite some big mprovements on burn quality and supporting more media.

But yet again, like you said, i still recommend burning at slower speed is still better.  Burning dvd at half of the burner\'s maximum speed is the ideal way.