Repair Registry Pro, legit?

[chewie8008]

Ok, so i've been putting my computer together for a little while now and I think I got everything running good. I sign onto the internet and get this popup box...

Message from FROM to TO on 9/28/2005
STOP! Windows Requires Immediate Attention.
Windows has found 48 critical errors. blah blah.

Said to download Repair Registry Pro and run it to fix 'em. I know what a popup is, and am hoping this is all this is. So I go to run it and of course it says you must register first to run it, which coincidently costs $39.99.

Is there really errors w/ the PC, or is just the usual popup? Usually I would just write it off as bs, but I just put this thing together and hadn't even viewed a single internet page when this popped up.

[guns1inger]

I suspect you got screwed, buddy. Run any registry cleanup program and it's going to find something. Old DLLs, missing links etc. Most of thiem this is clutter, but doesn't really do any harm, and certainly isn't an error in the 'oh god, the PC is f*@ked' sense of the word.

As a general rule, anything that pops up unprovoked trying to be helpful is most likely just try to screw you out of your cash (or worse).

Is you suspect that the registry does need a clean up, there are planty of very good, completely free, tools to do this. RegClean or CCleaner are both very good, and won't cost you a cent.

[redwudz]

I would go with guns1inger. To me this sounds like a total scam. Never had Windows report anything similar. I would get your antivirus/anti-trojan programs up and running first thing.

I use the freeware AVG antivirus, SpyBot S&D and SpywareBlaster. They work together well and are all freeware. AVAST antivirus is good also. As soon as you install them, download the updates.

Also to add. If you are running SP2, it blocks a lot of the nasties. At least MS seems to be taking a little responsibility for the holes in their software.

[chewie8008]

Nah, I wasn't about to pay for anything. Just was wondering if this was real.

The reason is, my PC keeps partially freezing. It won't let me use control/alt/delete and when it does that I can't go to add/remove progs either.

I haven't downloaded the drivers from the Asus website yet because it locked up last time I visited the site.

[budz]

The reason is, my PC keeps partially freezing. It won't let me use control/alt/delete and when it does that I can't go to add/remove progs either.

I haven't downloaded the drivers from the Asus website yet because it locked up last time I visited the site.

I hate to say this but your problem probably stems from having 2 OS installed on the 80gb hard drive you have. I would suggest you reformat and delete that partition then create a new partition on the 80gb hard drive and then reinstall XP again. I wouldn't even attempt to install any drivers from ASUS at this point. Your OS is probably corrupted because you had 2 OS installed.

[chewie8008]

I guess that's what i'll do. I deleted the partition on the 80GB whenever the two OS where on there. Cause whenever I followed the directions you gave me from that link a while back, it actually deleted the wrong XP entry and wouldn't let me boot windows at all. To make a long story short, I just recently deleted the partition on the 80GB and made a new one and reformatted. I left the 200GB partition and it was already formatted. I'm hoping that is what caused the problem.

Is it normal that it's only showing 127GB total on the supposed '200GB' drive? I know they all fall a little short, like I only get 75 from my 80GB drive, but 200-127=73. 73GB i'm getting ripped out of...that's no small portion.

This will probably be my 5-6th times to install the video card drivers and other little things.

It's all worth it if it will run flawlessly, but i'm beginning to wonder.

[budz]

Is it normal that it's only showing 127GB total on the supposed '200GB' drive? I know they all fall a little short, like I only get 75 from my 80GB drive, but 200-127=73. 73GB i'm getting ripped out of...that's no small portion.

You should be getting more from that 200 gb hard drive. Try reformatting that 200 gb hard drive. What brand is that 200 gb hard drive? You can always make a utility disc with a CDR. Download the hard drive utility tool from the manufacturers website then burn it on a CDR. MAXTOR, WESTERN DIGITAL & SEAGATE have a utility tool to format their hard drives. Or as redwudz suggested use the XP disk manager to format the 200 gb hard drive.

[chewie8008]

I just deleted the partition on the 200GB, made a new partition and reformatted the 200GB. Still only get 127.99. It's showing completely blank though. I used disk management to do it btw.

[thevoelk]

You need to have SP1 slipstreamed to recognize drives larger than 137GB at the setup/install process.

*Sorry, had multiple tabs open and I replied to the wrong post**

[liquid217]

Sounds like you have the 'messenger' service still running on your computer. This is not to be confused with "Windows Messenger' or 'MSN Messenger'. The Messenger service is a tool for administrators to send a message to their clients, on a closed network. Unfortunantly, spammers have learned to exploit that service, by sending spam. Worse yet, it could also be used to xmit a virus, since it relys on the RPC service. I hope, for your sake, you are running SP2, otherwise, goto 'start'...'run'... type 'services.msc' and look for messenger, and disable it.

[chewie8008]

Ok, I disabled messenger.

I don't have SP2, I *think* I downloaded SP2. Not to sound stupid but, lol it wasn't real clear on what I was dl'ing. I went to Microsoft.com typed in SP2. Brought up an update page, it downloaded an 'update' but never said SP2. It wasn't a real big download. Where can I check to see if SP2 is on the PC? I thought it would show up in add/remove programs or under system properties(right click My Computer). But I don't see it anywhere.

I think this is what I need, right? ...

MaxBlast 4

Creates a bootable MaxBlast 4 installation diskette.

Compatible with Windows 98SE, Me, Windows 2000, and Windows XP.
Breaks the 528 MB, 2.1 GB, 4.2 GB, 8.4 GB, 32 GB, 64 GB and 137 GB capacity barriers.
Supports both FAT32 and NTFS drive partitions.
Easy to use, Graphical Interface (GUI) with mouse and printer support.
Supports up to four ATA devices in the same system*.
The copy feature lets you make an exact duplicate of your existing hard drive.
Fast ATA and Serial ATA compatible.
The installation tutorial option allows you to view the installation process before physically installing your Maxtor ATA hard drive.
Note: There must be at least one Maxtor ATA Disk Drive installed in the system for MaxBlast 4 to run.

This will work with my Maxtor SATA drive, right? Breaking the "137 barrier". I'm assuming i'll have to reformat the drive...

[SLK001]

Your "registry needs fixin'" is just adware. I had to use MS AntiSpyware Beta software to remove it from my machine.

Windows 2K Pro and XP natively break the 137GB barrier (but you need to update the registry first). I had the proper registry fix, but it didn't get to my new machine. Search the MS home page, that's where I got it. You will probably have to reformat the entire drive, because you'll have to run FDISK (or whatever it's called now) to have access to the extra space on your HD.

[SLK001]

Here's how to enable the "extra" drive space (from MSs "Help and Support" Web page:

The following conditions are necessary for the correct functioning of 48-bit LBA ATAPI support:
• A computer with a 48-bit LBA-compatible Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) installed.
• A computer with a hard disk that has a capacity of greater than 137 gigabytes (GB).
• You must enable the support in the Windows registry by adding or changing the EnableBigLba registry value to 1 in the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\atapi\Parameters
To enable 48-bit LBA large-disk support in the registry: 1. Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).
2. Locate and then click the following key in the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Atapi\Parameters

3. On the Edit menu, click Add Value, and then add the following registry value:
Value name: EnableBigLba
Data type: REG_DWORD
Value data: 0x1
4. Quit Registry Editor.

[budz]

Just download the BIG ENABLER patch from Maxtor. The problems chewie8808 has stems from accidently installing XP twice on the same 80gb hard drive. He has another thread where he mentions this. https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=280219

[chewie8008]

Nothing ever works as it's supposed to. I DL'd the big drive enabler and double click it to run it and it says "The registry update is not applicable for the operating system installed on this computer. Click 'OK' to exit.". Now, I have Windows XP SP1 which it clearly says on the website...

"Compatible Operating Systems: Windows 2000,Windows XP Home Edition,Windows XP Professional" as well as...

"Maxtor's Big Drive Enabler is a one step executable that enables support for drives larger than 137 Gigabytes in Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 and XP Service Pack 1"

I have SP1, I know this because SP2 is a 75MB download, and I have not downloaded anything near that large on this PC. I have an older version of XP, so it just had SP1 on it. The only thing I have under add/remove progarms is "Windows XP Hotfix(SP2) [See Q329115 for more information]". Which isn't SP 2 in itself...

I dunno...i'm stuck on what to do. The best thing I can think of is that the HDD is already partitioned and formatted. I can delete the partition but am afraid to because the only way I know of to create a new partition is by using the XP disc, which will partitally install XP on there, I think. I cannot create a new partition via diskmanagement>storage etc.

And I did a stupid thing in changing the Maxtor drive to 'active' under the diskmanagement menu, not sure what that means, but I can't change it back...

[budz]

Did you burn the MAXTOR UTILITY to a CD? I would suggest doing it then booting up your pc so the MAXTOR UTILITY can be used to format and partition that 80 GB hard drive and you could format that 200 gb hard drive as well. Are both hard drives MAXTOR? Last resort would be to buy a floppy drive or a usb floppy drive if you haven't burned the MAXTOR UTILITY to a CDR.

[chewie8008]

I put the 'big drive enabler' on a cdr, no dice, it won't boot w/ that. So then I downloaded the utility 'Maxblast 4' which only creates a bootable 3.5 floppy. I have no floppy drive. It will not put it on a removable flash drive(like I have, 128MB flash disk) The 80GB drive is a Seagate. The 200GB is Maxtor. I *don't think* I need to repartition/reformat the 80GB Seagate, everything is working fine with it now. I just need to retreive the other 70ish GB from my Maxtor.

I even tried the above posted info about registry editing. Followed it exactly, reformatted the Maxtor drive, and still nothing. The utility 'Maxtor 4 bootable CD .ISO Image File' seems like it is what I need, but it's 65MB and i'm on dialup. So until i'm 100% sure it's what I need, i'd rather not DL it.

[budz]

So your Seagate 80gb hard drive is running XP correctly? No more freezing up? I strongly suggest you download SP2.....or buy a floppy drive which is under $14.00 to format that MAXTOR 200 GB hard drive....it's a cheap investment worth getting in my opinion because when and if you ever need to run the diagnostic test on your MAXTOR hard drive.....the utility for that function is done by using a floppy disc.....MAXTOR support will ask that you test the drive before you can get a RMA for it....I had a MAXTOR 200gb Hard drive fail after only 3 months.....I had to use the max blaster utility in order to get the code that shows up when the testing of the drive is done.....the code will indicate if the drive is failing or not....that's just my 2 cents for yah!!

[chewie8008]

Yes, XP is of now running smoothly on the 80GB Seagate. I guess i'll order a 3.5 drive then. I just didn't know if maybe there were easy ways around it. Not a big deal, thanks man!

SP2 is on it's way to me.

[chewie8008]

Ok, I pulled my 3.5 floppy drive from my old PC and put it in the new one. I downloaded "Maxblast 4". Which is what I assumed I needed, I made the bootable 3.5 diskette. Restarted, it booted via disk, went through some process, got the big Maxtor logo popup. I kept noticing it mentioning drive C. Then I got the following message:

"
Command or filename not recognized
Command or filename not recognized
Command or filename not recognized

Batch files nested to deeply

C:\> "

Then it did nothing from there. It didn't mention any kind of command prompt on the maxtor website. Is something done wrong? The only thing I can figure is it's doing this because my HDD letters are different than usual.

The 80GB Seagate is drive D and the 200GB Maxtor is drive K. For some reason whenever I repartitioned and reformatted both HDDs, it set the Maxtor as drive C. I didn't want it to be the main drive, so I changed it to K. Would it work if I changed the drive letter of the Maxtor to drive C?

[EDIT]Ok, so I deleted the Maxtor 200GB partition and tried to run the diskette then, still no dice. Got the same error message as I posted above. I also had changed the drive back to letter C, didn't work.

Somewhere in the process it also says "Your RAM disk is C", whatever that means..

Also, i'm still wondering what it meant when I changed the Maxtor drive over to 'active' in the comp management>Storage>etc menu...?

[redwudz]

AFAIK; An 'active' partition is a partition that Windows can boot from. If you have the time, click on 'Help' when you select a drive. There is a very through explanation of Disk Management there. You have to read quite a bit, there's a lot of info there. Even though it is 'active' nothing will happen if it has no boot info. I don't know how to change it back. May take a reformat or may not really matter.

It may be time to start over from the beginning. Sorry for all the problems with Windows, it happens at times.

I would repartition and reformat the boot drive again. Then install XP. You can install SP2 next, or the drivers, doesn't much matter the order. Then repartition and reformat the second drive with Disk Management after XP is up and running. If it shows full size, then OK. If not, look for why.

A few programs look to the C: drive as boot, best to leave it as that. If you want to format a secondary drive, a lot easier to do that in Windows. If you do it with a DOS startup disk, you may accidently wipe out the boot drive. DOS is unforgiving of mistakes.

You may be able to salvage the install, but it may be faster or easier to start over.

[chewie8008]

I cannot create a new partition from disk management. You can only format in disk management, unless i'm just missing it somehow.

Really at this point, my one and only problem is that the 200GB HDD is only giving me 127GB. Now, if I don't know 100% how to get the rest of the HDD usable, then there would be no point in repartitioning and reformatting.

I don't get how this Maxtor utility is supposed to work.

[budz]

by using the floppy disc you created you should be able to use the maxtor utility....you have to set your mobo bios to boot to the floppy drive first....are you sure you have the jumper set correctly on that 200gb hard drive?

[chewie8008]

Haha, jumper? What jumper? The only mention of jumpers in the MOBO manual was was to clear the RTC RAM, whatever that is. Which doesn't seem to have anything to do w/ the HDD. I got no manuals w/ the HDDs, so i'm not sure where to find info on this.

I did put the A drive to boot first, it started the process but gave me that error:

"Command or filename not recognized" x 3
Batch files nested to deeply
C:\>

Please explain this jumper thing...

One thing I thought about...I have a SATA HDD and an IDE HDD. The IDE is IDE Master and the SATA is SATA Master. Is one supposed to be on slave maybe? I know if I had like, two IDE HDDs or two SATA HDDs, it would need to be set up like this. But since I have two different ones, they are both master, right?

[budz]

I thought your 200gb hard drive was a IDE. Since it's a SATA drive then there isn't any JUMPERS. In your mobo bios do you have it set to ENHANCED MODE SUPPORT on SATA? You hava ASUS mobo right?

You may want to create a new maxblaster utility on a brand new floppy. I've had problems before when not using a brand new floppy disc.

[chewie8008]

The 200GB is a SATA. I do have an Asus MOBO(A8N-E). I don't have it in ENHANCED MODE SUPPORT unless that is a default setting. The original utility disk I made didn't work, so I made a new one, and then it gave me these new errors. I'll look and see if I have an unused one and try that.

[chewie8008]

Ok, I think I might have found the problem, maybe *hope hope*. This computer doesn't have SP1 or SP2. I thought SP1 came on the disc, but I was wrong, this is just plain Windows XP, no SP.

I did go ahead and make a new boot disk and came up w/ the same error. Some hopefully when I get SP2, I can use the big drive enabler and take care of that problem.

Now the only thing I need is something to create the partition for the 200GB HDD. I deleted it earlier trying some things and can't make a new parition via disk management. The only way I know how to make a parititon is via the XP disc, which I believe paritially installs XP before I get to where it asks me to create a new partition.

Maybe the utility boot disk will work once I have SP2 and I can create a new parition w/ that.

Is there any other way to make a partition then? I never found "ENHANCED MODE SUPPORT" in BIOS. I checked every menu.

[redwudz]

In Disk Management, did you right click on the drive? It should show a 'Delete Partition' selection. The XP OS disc will just want to partition and format your boot drive, not extra drives.

[budz]

I have been trying to download the A8N-E mobo manual but can't seem to find one that is in ENGLISH and the stupid ASUS website ends up freezing all of my pc's. I'd suggest you read the manual regarding SATA hard drives.

UPDATE: I found the manual finally from some other website other than ASUS.

ftp://ftp.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8N-E/e1911_a8n-e.pdf

[budz]

While searching for your mobo manual I read at some forum that the A8N-E mobo has had issues with recognizing 1st generation of SATA hard drives. Some have had to update the BIOS in order for the SATA hard drives to work correctly. Your mobo must have come with the latest BIOS.