Low MEM XP and big HDD's

[protokatie]

Well, I was wondering if anyone could give me some insight as to this problem I have been having.

First off:
1 Ghz Celeron
256 MB ram (shared with video, not a big deal as it is headless)
TinyXP as OS

This is the system I have set up as my fileserver and it has worked well with my external 1 TB HDDs. This is until my first HD got near full. Now it can barely read off of it, explorer hangs whenever I try to do anything with it. I took it off of the fileserver and hooked it up to my more modern vista machine and it works and was tested as fine. The new HDD (1TB) I hooked up is fine, I worry that when it comes near full that it will to have these troubles...


Bear in mind that when I say "full" I mean 80GB free... Is this something odd, or do my above specs make it so 1TB Hds arent really reliable with this system?

Regardless, I ordered a new machine tonight. A POS 2.3Ghz Vista box for 300 bucks..

Any ideas?

[ark_ader]

Whenever you source an operating system, that is not legit, you will have to think twice before trusting it as your main OS or as a file server (as you mentioned).  Pirated software can have trojan "backdoors" and can cause more harm than good.

I would go this route but look at getting puppy linux "PC Puppy Rev6, and check to see if the same fault is occurring.  generally you should leave 8-10% free on each TB drive in case windows might inadvertently run a scandisk or defrag.

I'm sorry to sound preachy, but your data is worth something to you.  I would also look at your power supply.

Purchase a legit copy of XP, or get a linux alternative as you cannot trust that TinyXP a 100%.

The puppy linux distro is packed with utils for your hard drive, can be burnt onto a CD and it is extremely quick and loads into that 256Mb. 

I use PC Puppy in the same spec laptop and I have no problems.  Heck I never need a reboot and plays Mame perfectly. 

[saint]

Gah. TinyXP does not have to mean pirated XP.

[ark_ader]

Tell that to Microsoft 

[saint]

Microsoft may try to make a case that it's illegal to modify the product they sell you, but if you buy a copy of XP, modify it using TinyXP, and then install that single copy on your computer, you haven't pirated a thing.

[protokatie]

The computer I have Tinxp on used to have a full version of XP, so I do not consider it piracy to install a shrunken version of the same OS on the same machine.

@ Saint: You may be thinking of NLite, which tiny XP was made with.

@ Ark, I doubt the problem is with the power supply. The HD's have their own power (they are external) and the problem only occures with the drive  that is near full. I am wondering if the bitmap for the near full drive is either too large for XP or that the 256 Megs of ram isn't enough to properly hold the HD's saturated bitmap... The disk itself checks out as allright on my other machines.

Regardless, I will have a brand spanking new machine in a few days to set up as the file server. The old machine will be repurposed at work to show the daily lunch specials and other info. (Using Open Office Impress, unless anyone knows of a better proggy to do this with, I am all ears).

[ChadTower]

The major part of the point he was trying to make is that you're still using a third party source to either get or heavily mod your OS and there is still potential for an OS full of malware. 

It's a valid point.

[Ed_McCarron]

Is this just for a server?  Check into FreeNAS.

[crashwg]

+1 on FreeNAS

I've been using it for a few weeks now and it's great.  I still have to work out file permissions and passwords and such but other than that it's pretty awesome for a free OS.

[tep0583]

Microsoft may try to make a case that it's illegal to modify the product they sell you, but if you buy a copy of XP, modify it using TinyXP, and then install that single copy on your computer, you haven't pirated a thing.

Very true, but he did have a point.

If this is just to store/share files, Linux would probably be a better alternative and more stable than XP (in any form)

I'd personally look at Cent OS 5 or Ubuntu's server offering, but there's literally dozens of alternatives that are free, well supported, and very stable.

[knave]

Check the settings for virtual memory and page file.

Sounds like the system is trying to use virtual memory but there isn't enough space on the HD. Regardless whenever a hard drive nears capacity windows can freak out. Try a defrag, check the settings and free up a bit more space. (you need a new drive in there anyway.)

Enjoy the new rig.

[protokatie]

Check the settings for virtual memory and page file.

Sounds like the system is trying to use virtual memory but there isn't enough space on the HD. Regardless whenever a hard drive nears capacity windows can freak out. Try a defrag, check the settings and free up a bit more space. (you need a new drive in there anyway.)

Enjoy the new rig.

The VM was set to the 15 GB HD I had the OS on, and had plenty of space. From what I (as well as a coworker) could tell was that the computer didn't have enough RAM to store the external drives bitmap, so when one (plus its backup) got near full and then I added two new drives, the computer had to start using the VM on the 15GB drive just to hold the bitmap of the 4 external drives. This caused major thrashing as it would have to use the system HDD just to look up entries in the bitmap for even the simplest of tasks for the external drive.

256 MB on a machine running XP pro (TinyXP) with a bunch of support software... It just needed more...

BTW The new rig works great, not a single problem even with the full drives. What one can get for 300 bucks these days is insane!