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cme2
@optonline.net

cme2 to cme2

Anon

to cme2

Re: [WIN7] hd did not retain data....

i formatted an old laptop, installed win 7. installed 60 updates. indicator said updates were installled...yet the yellow box saying successfully installed restart pc did not appear.

i restarted, windows said it was configuring. once i restart and go to update center i notice nothing was installed whatsoever.

so during that whole time the updates were downloaded.....installed

and nothing happened....hmmm 37gb hd from 10 years ago. no errors was barely used

Krisnatharok
PC Builder, Gamer
Premium Member
join:2009-02-11
Earth Orbit

Krisnatharok

Premium Member

You're complaining about a 10 year old HDD? Can the computer even run Windows 7?

cme2
@optonline.net

cme2

Anon

yes it can run it with the themes turned off.

all i am asking is how it showed updates installed...i restart and nothing was applied beside the windows agent updater ...

it boggles my mind to know things were downloaded and a progress bar showing installing updates...and for me to restart seeing nothing.

besides the windows updater being installed.

electromagnetic hdd issue? eh who knows the hd was barely used.

Nevermind

norwegian
Premium Member
join:2005-02-15
Outback

norwegian to cme2

Premium Member

to cme2
Click for full size
said by cme2 :

i restarted, windows said it was configuring. once i restart and go to update center i notice nothing was installed whatsoever.

Are you sure you looked in the "view installed updates" link?
The Add/Remove panel is only for non-operating system programs.

cme2
@optonline.net

cme2

Anon

yes indeedy i did...it only installed 1 update.

Hank
Searching for a new Frontier
Premium Member
join:2002-05-21
Burlington, WV

Hank to cme2

Premium Member

to cme2
In reality the 37GB drive may not be big enough for Windows7 and the updates to install.

norwegian
Premium Member
join:2005-02-15
Outback

norwegian to cme2

Premium Member

to cme2
My next guess is along Hank's reply, the cache of updates was too big for the HDD, try hooking up an external HDD to allow a cache of the updates for installing from.
Note: Although it is already completed.
Otherwise run HDD Tune pro and check smart details on the drive.

AlphaOne
I see
Premium Member
join:2004-02-21

AlphaOne to cme2

Premium Member

to cme2
It only installed the updater. That has to go in first.
Run the windows update again.
Thordrune
Premium Member
join:2005-08-03
Lakeport, CA

Thordrune to Hank

Premium Member

to Hank
If it's a fresh Windows 7 install with little else installed, 40 GB is plenty for the OS+updates.

norwegian
Premium Member
join:2005-02-15
Outback

norwegian

Premium Member

You would think so, and I understand there are quite a few reboots in between, but to download the full kit from scratch and install as Microsoft required, and create all temp files and all else, the "clean install" may balk at such a small size. Personally, I've love to see this question started from scratch with an external drive to see if all the temp/cache nonsense was offloaded to see if it was duplicated or not, or just user misunderstanding.

Just curious.
Thordrune
Premium Member
join:2005-08-03
Lakeport, CA

Thordrune

Premium Member

I've done fresh installs with partition sizes of that or slightly less, it uses maybe half of that at the most. If you have a lot of RAM (8+ GB) and have the pagefile and hibernation file on it, then you may start running into problems. Nuke hibernation, and it's easy to get a Windows install in the teens.

Windows downloads updates to be installed at C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download. Take a peek in there, especially during a big patch cycle. There should be a lot of stuff in there.

norwegian
Premium Member
join:2005-02-15
Outback

1 edit

norwegian

Premium Member

Yes, but this was an old system with a small HDD, doubt there is 8GB ram, I bet it is lucky if it makes 4 GB limit and I'm also guessing x86 platform.
There wasn't a real lot of info.

But for cleaning up the system, yes I agree, you can strip a lot of wasted temp storage back to quite a small figure, I think 7GB from memory on XP was normal for me with 1 or 2GB ram in the old days. Win 7 I haven't stripped as much, as you suggest, more ram etc.

Back to the OP's question, still not results from a HD Tune pro trial to see what shape the HDD is in and still very limited info for even guessing what is happening with that system.

Once, trouble shooting meant listing hardware specs as a basic for help.
Thordrune
Premium Member
join:2005-08-03
Lakeport, CA

Thordrune

Premium Member

said by norwegian:

Yes, but this was an old system with a small HDD, doubt there is 8GB ram, I bet it is lucky if it makes 4 GB limit and I'm also guessing x86 platform.
There wasn't a real lot of info.

That just proves my point even further. Less RAM=less space used out of the box.

I did a fresh Windows 7 install on an Optiplex 380 (2 GB RAM) a couple of hours ago. With hibernation disabled and video card drivers installed (Radeon HD 2400), it's using a hair over 10 GB. I'll install updates on it tomorrow and see how much it goes up by.

norwegian
Premium Member
join:2005-02-15
Outback

norwegian

Premium Member


How about a figure of a fully loaded O/S, and think of a small amount of ram requiring a good sized page file etc to, don't turn off hibernation for the test, that is cheating.
Although on that note if the HDD was exceeding it's limits and the installer/s were out of space you would likely see an "out of virtual memory" error before the HDD was full, at least I believe you would see it at some point.

As for the HDD smart report, it still would be great for the topic....otherwise we are all hot air in the balloon of this topic. So far the discussion for the OP just raises eye brows like a balloon....a little bit of corny description too I know.
Thordrune
Premium Member
join:2005-08-03
Lakeport, CA

Thordrune

Premium Member

said by norwegian:

How about a figure of a fully loaded O/S, and think of a small amount of ram requiring a good sized page file etc to...

I was hoping to work on that PC more today, but not as much as I had intended, nor will that be the case tomorrow (out of town work). Hopefully next week I'll be doing that.
said by norwegian:

don't turn off hibernation for the test, that is cheating.

Eh, I'd hardly consider that cheating. It's very easy to enable/disable it, and it's easy to calculate how much space it uses (system RAM=hibernation file size). If the current space used+system RAM>total space, you're good. If you're not needing it, it's a perfectly valid thing to shut off (it's off on all of my PCs, they're either folding, gaming, or off).
said by norwegian:

Although on that note if the HDD was exceeding it's limits and the installer/s were out of space you would likely see an "out of virtual memory" error before the HDD was full, at least I believe you would see it at some point.

You'd see that message if something was using a ton of memory, spilling over from RAM to the pagefile, and filling that up too. You'd notice it running like ass before that popped up. In general storage, the space usage bar in My Computer would turn red first (somewhere between 10-15% left), with popup messages starting at 200 MB left.