Hoping you wise folks can help, I've had P4/P5 on my E:drive (slave drive) for over a year with no problems. I installed P6 in it's own folder and added the P5 runtime to the P6 runtime library. Everything was working fine for a week then yesterday after shutting down P6 and trying to open P5, my PC can't open P5...it keeps trying but gets into some kind of cycle. I opened 'task manager' to stop it and find the PC's trying to open 2 'curious labs' processes. Shutting down mt PC and booting back up didn't unlock it - still unable to open either version of Poser. So, I tried to 'restore system' to an earlier date and after XP goes through the motions it finally says "cannot restore to earlier date'. So, I then try to 'undo' last restore operation and it gives me the same thing. I uninstall P6...it uninstalls okay but leaves its runtime folder behind. I try to delete it and some files are locked and I get this 'cyclic redundancy' error message. I can run 'non-Poser' applications and files no problem, but whenever trying to open any files related to Poser the computer goes into a stuttering lock up and I have to get task manager to stop the process. Before I spend the next three days unzipping 10,000 files into my other computer...is there a way to fix this problem without erasing the entire E:drive? I could reformat the E:drive but it would wipe out everything. As Bugs Bunny would yell "HELP!!" Thanks in advance for any advice ram

try going into > runtime/prefs/library pref and either move or delete that file. Do that on P5 and P6. Poser will automatically rebuild those prefs but you will have to readd the ext runtimes again. That may help

Thanks Joffry! I'll try that

Nope...didn't work. Thanks though.

ram,

Sounds like you have some errors on your hard drive. Before doing anything else I strongly recommend you back up your important files on your e: drive. After your important files are safe, you can start working on the drive.

Go to windows explorer, right click on your e: drive, and select properties (make sure you don't have any files open on the e: drive). In the properties window, select the tools tab, then select the "check now" button under error checking. This will bring up the "Check Disk" window, check both check boxes, the click on "run". Depending on the size of the disk (and it's condition), this process could take quite a while.

This should clear up all errors on the disk without reformatting. If you have any damaged files they may not be properly recovered, but the process is typically very good at restoring damaged files.

The bad news is it has been my experience that the problems you are having are usually an indication of pending hard drive failure (about 9 times out of 10), unless you have had some recent power failures, or have some loose/dirty cables from your controller to the hard drive (it would be a good idea to re-seat your drive cables just in case this is the cause of the problem). If you continue to see slow response times, and just general flakey behavior from the drive after running Check Disk (or while running Chack Disk), then it's time for a new drive.

Cyclic redundancy errors usually occur due to unreadable clusters on the disk, which are usually due to head crashes, problems with the movement of the drive head(s), bad or weak clusters that were missed during low level format, or a corrupt file allocation table. The first two causes are an indication of impending drive failure, the second two can be from system/power issues, or from drive failure.

Good Luck! Hope it's just some sort of system error.

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you said you reinstalled P6? You could try renaming the P5 exe , temporarily. If you had a problem uninstalling everything, go to that folder, right click and remove the read only attribute. Also, clean the registry. What OS are you using? I did run P5 after I installed 6 and didn't have a problem. Ok forgot to ask something, did you turn your firewall off before trying to run either 5 or 6? that would cause a hang.

Message edited on: 04/05/2005 12:33

Tried to copy my libraries to DVD and a window pops up saying "Your E drive's not formatted. Want to format it now?" It used to be formatted - now it thinks its not. Acht!! Thankfully, I have my favorite characters saved in pz3's which I hope aren't screwed up too. Sheesh

I Cross posted you guys.... Thanks Dustrider. I'll try that. The E drive is a Maxtor and came with a software help application which also told me to format the hard drive. I'll try your suggestion first. Joffry, I reinstalled P6 onto my C drive and it works fine. I added the P5 runtime (from the E drive) to P6 again and it locks up trying to open it. Unfortunately, my C drive is only 40 gigs which wouldn't hold my P5 battleship - lotza luv. I'm using a Hewlett Packard PC with Home XP I'll give your guys advice a try. Thanks a lot for the help!

The E drive scan couldn't complete the 1st phase pass...I think Dustrider's right...the hard drive is on the fritz. Thanks again for the advice. Off to copy as much as I can onto DVDs

get busy packing up those files then. Those ext drives have dropped a lot in price lately. I have 2 120meg maxtors loaded with poser.. Good luck to you.

Ironically, I had just finished the last render for a job due this weekend before I couldn't get Poser 5 to open again...so I guess I should be thankful :P ...looking around I see they sell 300 gig hard drives now - ha ha I'm grateful for the help, ram

Sorry to here your problems continue! After backing up, go ahead and try to reformat. If that doesn't fix it, I'm afraid your drive is 10-7, time to replace it.

Good luck!

PS: you might consider getting a couple of drives, one to replace your current drive, and an external drive to keep backups on.

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My Rendo Gallery ........ My DAZ3D Gallery ........... My DA Gallery ......

It could have totally died and I'd have lost it all...so guess I'm lucky in a way. Thanks, Dustrider